being liable for Delaney's suicide but another possibility jumped off these pages even though it wasn't there in writing. Delaney may not have committed suicide. He may have been murdered.
Someone wearing latex gloves could have shot Delaney, then put the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger a second time, firing the gun into something to muffle the sound and then recovering the second bullet to make it appear that Delaney killed himself. The Beretta and the jacketed ammunition would do the job. That would account for the gun being on the floor, the absence of a suicide note, the downward angle of the entry wound, the wound being on Delaney's left temple rather than the right, the distance of the muzzle from Delaney's temple, the questionable partial fingerprints, and the missing round from the magazine. The combination was enough to raise questions.
The file on Regina Blair was thin, devoid of anything that raised a homicide red flag. A homeless man found her body early on a Sunday morning in an alley between an unfinished parking garage and adjoining office building under construction on the northeast corner of downtown. Cause of death was massive head wounds from the fall. She was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and a down parka. A leather folio embossed with her name and containing architectural drawings was found on the partially enclosed top level of the garage three stories above where her body was discovered.
The coroner ruled that her death was an accident caused when she came too close to the edge of the uncovered portion of the garage's third level that was not protected by a guardrail and somehow lost her balance. He noted that it had sleeted during the night and that the exposed concrete surface was wet and slick with traces of ice.
No other witnesses were identified in the report signed by Detective Matt Culpepper. McNair's supplemental report after his meeting with Harper was also brief, noting that Blair admitted in her dream video that she was afraid of heights and that she feared she would one day fall to her death, adding that nothing in the video suggested her death was not an accident.
The photographs showed her body where it was found, views from the ground to the upper deck and from the upper deck to the ground and the area from which Blair fell.
I finished copying both files and made my way back to McNair's desk.
"I don't see any witness statements in Delaney's file besides the neighbor's and the building manager's," I said to McNair.
McNair wiped sauce off his chin. "That's cause there weren't any other witnesses."
"No one heard a gunshot?"
"Uniforms knocked on some doors. Nobody heard nothing."
"What about Delaney's family? Had he threatened suicide before? Was he depressed?"
"His parents said he'd been treated for depression since he got back from his tours of duty in Iraq. I watched that goofy video he made for Harper's people. All the guy talked about was killing himself. Finally got around to doing it."
"Any chance it wasn't suicide?"
"What you mean? You think someone killed him?"
I gave him my take. "Any reason someone would have wanted to kill him?"
McNair shrugged. "Delaney was a newspaper distributor for the Kansas City Star which meant he worked middle of the night until mid-morning. Only people mad at him are the ones who didn't get their paper on time. Who's gonna want to kill him? Look," he said, hunching over his desk, "the guy offed himself. That's what the coroner's report says. That's what he dreamed of doing. End of story."
"What about Regina Blair?"
"Dizzy bitch. She's the goddamn architect on this building, which includes the parking garage, and she's scared of heights. So what's she doing standing on the edge three stories up, especially when the concrete was slippery as goose shit. You tell me that? OSHA fined her firm a thousand bucks for not putting up barriers, like it was their fault she was an idiot. Load of crap, you ask me."
"Any chance hers wasn't an
Someone wearing latex gloves could have shot Delaney, then put the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger a second time, firing the gun into something to muffle the sound and then recovering the second bullet to make it appear that Delaney killed himself. The Beretta and the jacketed ammunition would do the job. That would account for the gun being on the floor, the absence of a suicide note, the downward angle of the entry wound, the wound being on Delaney's left temple rather than the right, the distance of the muzzle from Delaney's temple, the questionable partial fingerprints, and the missing round from the magazine. The combination was enough to raise questions.
The file on Regina Blair was thin, devoid of anything that raised a homicide red flag. A homeless man found her body early on a Sunday morning in an alley between an unfinished parking garage and adjoining office building under construction on the northeast corner of downtown. Cause of death was massive head wounds from the fall. She was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and a down parka. A leather folio embossed with her name and containing architectural drawings was found on the partially enclosed top level of the garage three stories above where her body was discovered.
The coroner ruled that her death was an accident caused when she came too close to the edge of the uncovered portion of the garage's third level that was not protected by a guardrail and somehow lost her balance. He noted that it had sleeted during the night and that the exposed concrete surface was wet and slick with traces of ice.
No other witnesses were identified in the report signed by Detective Matt Culpepper. McNair's supplemental report after his meeting with Harper was also brief, noting that Blair admitted in her dream video that she was afraid of heights and that she feared she would one day fall to her death, adding that nothing in the video suggested her death was not an accident.
The photographs showed her body where it was found, views from the ground to the upper deck and from the upper deck to the ground and the area from which Blair fell.
I finished copying both files and made my way back to McNair's desk.
"I don't see any witness statements in Delaney's file besides the neighbor's and the building manager's," I said to McNair.
McNair wiped sauce off his chin. "That's cause there weren't any other witnesses."
"No one heard a gunshot?"
"Uniforms knocked on some doors. Nobody heard nothing."
"What about Delaney's family? Had he threatened suicide before? Was he depressed?"
"His parents said he'd been treated for depression since he got back from his tours of duty in Iraq. I watched that goofy video he made for Harper's people. All the guy talked about was killing himself. Finally got around to doing it."
"Any chance it wasn't suicide?"
"What you mean? You think someone killed him?"
I gave him my take. "Any reason someone would have wanted to kill him?"
McNair shrugged. "Delaney was a newspaper distributor for the Kansas City Star which meant he worked middle of the night until mid-morning. Only people mad at him are the ones who didn't get their paper on time. Who's gonna want to kill him? Look," he said, hunching over his desk, "the guy offed himself. That's what the coroner's report says. That's what he dreamed of doing. End of story."
"What about Regina Blair?"
"Dizzy bitch. She's the goddamn architect on this building, which includes the parking garage, and she's scared of heights. So what's she doing standing on the edge three stories up, especially when the concrete was slippery as goose shit. You tell me that? OSHA fined her firm a thousand bucks for not putting up barriers, like it was their fault she was an idiot. Load of crap, you ask me."
"Any chance hers wasn't an
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