In the Clearing (Tracy Crosswhite #3)(14)

“So definitely within five,” he said, certain Berkshire would jump in and object, and again surprised when he didn’t.

“Definitely,” she said.

“And other than dropping the gun on the bed and getting your cell phone, you don’t recall doing anything else.”

“No.”

“Did you touch Tim’s body?”

“No.”

“Did Connor?”

“I don’t believe so. No. No, he wouldn’t have.”

“The sculpture remained on the floor where your husband dropped it—is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you or Connor touch it?”

“No. We left it there.”

Kins went back over some of the details of Collins’s story to be certain he’d pinned her down. After forty-five minutes, Atticus Berkshire said Angela was still emotionally distraught and tired, and put an end to the proceedings. Kins thanked them for coming in and walked them back to the elevators.

After Collins and Berkshire had departed, Kins found Faz in the bull pen. “What do you think?” Kins asked.

“I think Tracy was right,” Faz said rocking in his chair. “I think Berkshire coached her on what to say and how to say it.”

“But he didn’t know about the neighbor and the bus.”

“What time did she call her father?” Faz asked.

“At 5:39.”

“And we know she called 911 after she called her father. So what was she doing for twenty-one minutes after she shot him?”

“According to her, not a damn thing.” Kins smiled.

“She’s locked in now. You pinned her good,” Faz said.

“Yeah, but it still doesn’t answer the bigger question,” Kins said.

“Why the hell would Berkshire allow her to give a statement in the first place?”

“Exactly.”




After Berkshire and Collins had departed, Kins and Faz turned their attention to the restraining order, specifically to Angela Collins’s signed affidavit that the restraining order was necessary because Tim had come to the house one evening and become violent. In her statement she said Tim shoved her into the door frame, then pushed her over a table, necessitating a trip to the emergency room. The ER doctor’s report confirmed bruised ribs, and bruising along Collins’s upper arms. Nothing else in the file showed that Tim had a violent temper or a propensity for violence, though they were admittedly just getting started.

“According to court documents, the matter was resolved when he agreed not to set foot in the house on days he was to pick up Connor,” Kins said. “He was supposed to wait in the car.”

“She didn’t press charges?” Faz asked. “If she really was an abused spouse, why wouldn’t she press charges?”

“Maybe she figured the restraining order was enough.”

“Not if you believe what’s in the divorce papers,” Faz said. “Read that, and she was married to Attila the Hun.”

Kins flipped to CSI’s preliminary report, which had been sent over while they’d been interviewing Angela Collins. The report included dozens of photographs, as well as the latent print examiner’s findings. The examiner identified positive fingerprint hits for Angela, Connor, and Tim Collins throughout the house, which was to be expected. They’d found additional prints as well, but so far none of those generated hits when run through AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which kept a record of the prints of people who had been convicted of crimes, served in the military, or entered specific professions.

Kins sat forward when he read the next sentence. “Did you see this?” he said to Faz. “The examiner found both Angela’s and Connor’s fingerprints on the Colt Defender.”

“So the kid did touch the gun,” Faz said.

“Apparently.” Kins continued reading, stopped, and reread the same sentence a second and then a third time. “They didn’t find any prints on the sculpture.”

“What?” Faz got up from his desk and walked across the bull pen to Kins’s cubicle.

Kins pointed to his computer screen and read the sentence aloud. “Negative for any prints.”

“How can that be?” Faz said. “That don’t make no sense.”

Kins continued reading. “But they did find Connor’s fingerprints on his father’s shoe. Why would the kid’s prints be on one of the shoes?”

“Maybe he tried to move him?”

Kins shook his head. “ME’s report says there was no indication the body was moved. Lividity is consistent with a body that had been lying in one spot.” Kins rocked in his chair. “The only way that sculpture could be clean is if someone wiped it clean, right?”

“Or no one touched it in the first place,” Faz said.

“Then how’d it get on the floor?”

“Got knocked over during the argument.”

“Why would she say he used it to hit her?”

“She needed to explain the cut on her head.”

“How else would she have gotten it?”

“Don’t know.”

“Well, at least we know somebody was doing something during those twenty-one minutes,” Kins said.