Shroud of Fog: (A Cape Trouble Romantic Suspense Novel) by Janice Kay Johnson Page B

started reading.  The
responding officer’s name wasn’t familiar to him.  Officer Justin Stroh had
called for his chief right away.  Daniel had heard Randy Marsh’s name before,
even though he’d resigned or retired ten years or so ago.  The further notes
were his.  No, he’d never requested assistance from the county because he’d
convinced himself he didn’t need any. 
    The second folder held photos.  As many bodies as Daniel had
seen, as many crime scene photos, this one shook him because he knew
ten-year-old Sophie had come upon exactly this scene.  Her mother had been
blonde like her daughter, slim.  Pretty, he guessed, but you couldn’t see that,
not with her head having been blown apart.  The single shot had entered her
temple and done one hell of a lot of damage.  She’d fallen awkwardly, as people
tended to do who were dead long before they hit the ground.  The handgun looked
as if it had fallen about a foot away from her right hand, which lay flopped
palm up.
    He recognized a Colt .38 revolver.  The chief’s notes
confirmed his impression.  It was a model with a two inch barrel and a six-shot
cylinder, a standard detective special for many years.  A good backup weapon
that could be easily concealed.  Not too big for a woman to use.
    But nowhere in the too scanty notes did he see any evidence
that the weapon had been traced or even fingerprinted.  There was mention of
the child who had found her mother.  Had to be sedated , said a note. 
And, Claims to have heard voices, possibly a man’s as well as a woman’s. 
Could have been other people on beach, or even someone speaking back at the
cabins.  Hard to tell with fog.
    The father had been called immediately and had left work and
driven straight over to Cape Trouble.  The chief had had to go through several
people in Mike Thomsen’s office to reach him.  No question but that he had been
in Portland, which was something.
    Just as Sophie’s belief that she’d heard Mommy talking was
disregarded, so was Mike Thomsen’s insistence that his wife never removed the
white gold chain with a heart pendant that had been his first gift to her.  He
wanted to know where it was.
    Admitted they had had some marital discord in recent past
but denies wife was depressed , Chief Marsh wrote.  Necklace not found at
cabin.  Husband sure she was wearing it previous weekend.  Claims she wore it
even in shower.   In a different ink, a note had been added: Search of
scene didn’t turn it up.  Rescue personnel could have trampled it into the
sand.  Don’t like to think of sticky fingers, but you never know.
    Final conclusion:  No reason to doubt that Michelle
Thomsen did take her own life.
    Daniel found nothing to indicate what had happened to the
handgun.  It could have ended up melted down, as sometimes happened, or
returned to Sophie’s father if in fact it had belonged to him or his wife.  God ,
Daniel thought, do I ask her?
    He went back through every scrap of paper, hoping he’d
missed something.  No such luck.  Chief Randy Marsh had wanted to accept
Michelle Thomsen’s death as suicide.  There was no suggestion he’d given even
passing thought to the possibility that it could have been murder.  That would
have shaken up townsfolk.  Marsh would have had to bring in outsiders to
conduct an investigation he was incompetent to handle.  Nope, call it a
tragedy.  Explain away any anomalies.  Lucky these were summer people.  Father
and daughter would pack up and leave, and Cape Trouble could go back to being a
peaceful small town.
    Daniel read again that last note.  No reason to doubt
that Michelle Thomsen did take her own life.
    “Bullshit,” he said aloud, his anger rising to a boil even
as he knew he wouldn’t be able to reopen the investigation.  Without DNA,
without the weapon, with no witness but a ten-year-old child, there wasn’t a
damn thing he could do now, twenty years too late.
    Sophie had mostly accepted Chief