Silent Witness by Lindsay McKenna

was so foreign to her. Murder wasn’t something she would ever comprehend.
    Shrugging, Cochrane muttered, “Could be she knew something? Maybe someone bought the services of a professional to shut her up? Or maybe it was someone in her personal life? All good questions, but no answers.”
    â€œBut, there’s no sign of violence,” Ellen protested. “Didn’t you say in order for it to be a homicide, there had to be signs of a struggle?”
    â€œUsually there is.” Jim pointed toward Kane’s head. “Professional hit men have a lot of ways of killing that don’t seem obvious. That’s why I was looking real close around her mouth to see if I could detect any signs of bruising.”
    â€œI was wondering why you were studying at her so closely.” Ellen shivered and avoided looking at Susan Kane’s body. She simply couldn’t handle all the emotions that were surging up within her. It took every ounce of strength she had right now just to look and sound professional.
    â€œI was searching for even the slightest marks on her neck, jaw or mouth. Professionals know just where to put pressure on nerve points to make a person open their mouth out of pain. Once they got their mouth open, it’s real easy to dump a bottle of tranks down them.”
    â€œWhat a horrible way to die.”
    â€œThe coroner will tell us more. They’re trained to look for such things.” Cochrane studied Kane’s mouth. “They also have a means of detecting fingerprints on the victim’s flesh.”
    Ellen shook her head. “I never realized that.”
    â€œIt’s not exactly public knowledge. Gardella was telling me that the tech people will look in case it’s a professional hit.” He rubbed his chin as he stared down at Susan Kane. “What a crying shame. Did you see her certificate out in the passageway?”
    â€œWhich one? There are so many.”
    He laughed a little. “Yeah, she was hell on wheels when it came to her career, wasn’t she? Kane’s a ring knocker from the Naval Academy, and she graduated at the top of her flight class from Pensacola, which is no small feat, believe me. She was an F-18 Super Hornet Top Gun flight instructor. Those are pretty darn impressive credentials for a woman or a man. Talk about having smarts. And somewhere, in her spare time, she was able to get a Ph.D. in aeronautics from MIT. Lieutenant Kane was obviously a go-getter, a real Type A personality. No grass grew under her feet, as my ma would say. Pride of the Navy, for sure.”
    Ellen kept her hand pressed to her stomach. “She’s so beautiful. I have this crazy desire to go over and touch her shoulder, lean over and tell her, ‘Wake up.’”
    â€œYeah, I know what you mean.” Cochrane shook his head. “Nothing fits. I mean, why was she clutching a teddy bear, of all things? And look at this bedroom. Itreminds me of something Walt Disney would decorate for Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella. Yet every other part of her condo is filled with antique furniture. There are some pictures on the television set and her accomplishments are displayed on the bulkhead. Normal things. You come in here, and it’s like Hollywood la-la-land.”
    â€œMaybe there were two very different sides to her,” Ellen said. Then she grimaced. “I’m sorry, but I have to leave this room. My stomach—”
    â€œThat’s fine. Meet me out in the living room,” Cochrane said, feeling for her. Seeing the relief on Ellen’s face, he added, “I’ll be out in a few minutes. There’s just a couple of details I want to check out. I can talk to you about them later.”
    Ellen closed her eyes and clutched her stomach. “Okay. This is so upsetting to me. I just, well, I’ve had a couple of rough years with death.”
    Jim sized her up and saw devastation clearly marked on her pale features.