Teaser 5--Ghostwolf/Raven Manor

 

Chapter 1

Detective John Hanlan drove through the wrought iron gate and pulled up behind the CSU and coroner’s vans in the circular drive before the stone goliath. The house looked like an English manor from the sixteenth century. He got out of his gray sedan and walked up to the uniform standing by the open front door.

The detective was a scarecrow of a man and his cheap ill fitting suits didn’t help, but the uniform at the door made him feel fat and old by comparison. The uniform was barely old enough to shave and Hanlan had hit the forty mark two years ago while the man was rail thin to Hanlan’s lean build.

“Detective,” the uniform said. “It’s a bad one. CSU is still in there , the coroner’s just waiting for you. Before they move the bodies”

Hanlan nodded and entered, pausing just inside. The front room was normal, just an entry area and sitting room to the one side. Another uniform stood at an open door just off the sitting area and two ME assistants stood with him, a stretcher beside them. He headed for the uniform who he recognized and had been told was the first on the scene.

“Jackson.”

The uniform looked up. “Hanlan.”

“So what happened?”

“Dan and I got the call about two hours ago. When we arrived the gate was already open as was the front door. We cleared the place. This door to the study and the bedroom door upstairs was locked. I thought I heard something inside this room so we kicked in the door.” Jackson paused as he swallowed hard. “We called for back-up immediately.”

“No forced entry?”

“Neither front nor back. There's a side door but it shows no sign of use for a while.”

A young woman dressed in a pant suit leaned out the door. “I thought I heard your voice.”

“Dr. Brennon.” Hanlan gave her a nod. “What’s the deal?”

“A male approximately sixty years old with multiple sharp force trauma.”

“As in stabbing?”

She shook her head. “As in bite and claw marks. His throat was ripped out as well as chucks of flesh. Preliminary cause of death is exsanguination.”

Hanlan stepped into the room and stood stunned. The room was almost spotless. A body lay crumbled before the desk but none of the books that covered the walls had any blood splatter and there was only a small pool of blood by the body. “Where’s the blood?”

Brennon gave him a grim smile. “My thoughts exactly. But I don’t know.”

“This is the only blood I found.” The CSU tech looked up from his position near the body. “I did the perimeter but I’m waiting for the body to be removed before I do the desk area.”

“Anything interesting besides no blood?” Hanlan asked.

“Nothing seems out of place on the bookshelves.” He held up an evidence bag. “I did find this stuck in the window sill. It had to have snagged when the perp went out the window.”

Hanlan took the bag and studied the short clump of course brown hair for a minute before handing it back to the tech. He moved over to the half-open window behind the desk and glanced outside at the bushes half covering the window. “You think he went out here?”

“The door was locked.”

After another look at the bushes, Hanlan walked around the room. As the tech said nothing was disturb on the shelves and there was no blood splatter anywhere. “Thanks for letting me look before you took the body, Dr. Brennon.”

She nodded, then said,”You want me to escort you to the bedroom?”

“Sure.”

They both left the room and Brennon motioned for her assistants to enter before leading Hanlan to the staircase behind the back half wall. It was steep and made of the same stone as the outside of the house.

“You should read up on the history of this house,” Brennon said as they went up the stairs. “It’s pretty interesting.”

“Does it have any bearing on this case?”

“This ain’t the only strange murder that happened here.”

Before he could say anything, they reached the landing and saw another uniform standing in front of an open door. Hanlan moved to the room and entered, staying just inside to look around. It was a surprisingly modern bedroom with a queen bed, a sitting area, and an on-suite. The woman’s body lay flung across the bed and like the man downstairs the only blood visible was a small pool near the body.

“Same cause of death?” he asked Brennon.

“Yep.”

A CSU tech came out of the on-suite. “You gonna take the body now?” she asked Brennon.

“As soon as they’re done with the one downstairs.”

The tech nodded.

“Anything interesting?” Hanlan asked the tech.

“Besides the small blood pool?” the tech paused as she moved over to the bed and lifted a pillow. The stuffing came out of it through three large tears. “Just this so far.”

“Knife, you think?” Hanlan asked.

“I don’t know.” the tech shrugged. “I’ll know more once we get it back to the lab.”

Hanlan nodded, then he and Brennon left the room. They headed back down the stairs. “You have any pearls of wisdom?”

“You know I don’t speculate until after the autopsy.” she paused her words. “But first blush the wounds look like an animal attack.”

“What about the lack of spatter?”

Brennon shook her head as they stopped at the foot of the stair. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense that there’s no blood except those little pools. The blood had to go somewhere.”

“Send me your report as soon as you’re done.”

“Of course.” She nodded to him, then headed toward the front door. Before she had taken too many steps, she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. “You really do need to read the history of this place. Strange things have happened here before.”

He waved his hand to her and as she continued walking, he turned and went back into the study. The crime scene tech was putting the items on top of the desk into evidence bags and Hanlan joined him. “Did you find a calendar or PDA?”

The tech handed him an evidence bag with a small desk calendar in it. “No PDA or any electronics. Not even a cell phone. Just the desk phone. You want me to bag up all this paperwork for you?” He gestured to the papers on the desk and in the half-open drawers. “I can drop it off at your desk when we get back.”

“That would be great.” He handed the calendar back to the tech and after one more glance around, he stepped back out of the room to find Jackson waiting for him. “Jackson. Was there something else?”

“This wasn’t the first time we got a call to come here recently.”

“Oh?”

“They had a visitor last week. When Dan and I arrived he was threatening them.”

“I’d appreciate a copy of the report.”

“You’ll have it by tomorrow.” Jackson nodded.

“Good.”

Jackson said goodbye and headed for the front door while Hanlan went back upstairs, meeting the body on its way down. He waited for it to pass, then continued on up to the bedroom.

The tech was bagging the bedding when he entered. She nodded to him but didn’t speak as she finished the bagging and tagging. “Was there something you needed, Detective?”

“No.” He shook his head as he glanced around the room again. There was nothing out of place here either, like the study. Nothing disturbed but the area on the bed where the body had lain. He stepped out of the room and glanced down. His eyes focused on the fresh scars on the wooden floor.

The bedroom and study were carpeted but the entry and landing were wood. What looked like fresh claw marks marred the landing in front of bedroom and led to the wood stairs.

Hanlan went down the stairs with his eyes on the treads. He found a few marks on some of the steps but when he checked the entry he didn’t find any. That was strange. If they had a dog there would be marks old and new in the entry. Jackson hadn’t mentioned anything about a dog and he would have if there had been one.

The tech from upstairs was coming down when Hanlan hailed her. “Wait a minute, would you?”

She stopped half-way down.

“Did you snap a picture of the marks on the landing in front of the bedroom door?”

“Yes.”

“Good. May I have an extra copy of them?”

“Not a problem.”

“Thank you.” As she continued down he slipped into the study. “You’ll be taking pictures of the ground outside the window, right?” he asked the tech there.

“CiCi did that before she went upstairs.”

Hanlan ran his hand over the wooden sill but didn’t feel any gouges nor did he see any when he studied the window. He definitely wanted to see those pictures. With a nod to the tech he walked out of the study into the entry.

The tech CiCi was headed up the stairs for another load of evidence but Hanlan barely registered her. His mind was cycling through what he little he knew so far.

Both victims died of blood loss but only a small pool of blood was found near each. Their bodies showed marks from an animal attack. Nothing seemed to be taken or disturbed. There were fresh marks on the wood landing outside the one murder room but they supposedly didn’t have a dog. And they had a visitor last week that threatened them.

He glanced at his watch. His shift had officially ended an hour ago and he knew most of the results wouldn’t be in until morning. However he knew Dr. Brennon would have the autopsies done tonight. He could get dinner, then swing by and get the reports. She would probably even give him a verbal report and he could ask her about her comments regarding the house.

That decided he headed out of the manor into the evening light.