Sausage and The Law Ch. 01

I said "Let's quietly and unobtrusively find a way to get the door to the hallway closed, so our peeping friend can't see what's going on anymore. And that's a good catch on seeing the light shift."

Some minutes later, our K-9 Corps drug dog, Sergeant Tango, came in with his handler. He came right up to me and sat down, and I leaned over and give him some good skritchins. Rewarded in advance, Tango and his handler began searching for drugs. Tango whimpered a lot around the middle of the coffee table in front of the sofa, but did not alert when he sniffed the food. He also found 'personal amounts' of marijuana and pills in the bedroom.

"Something was here on the table, and quite recently." said the handler. "Tango can still smell it."

"Good dog, Tango!" I said enthusiastically. His handler dropped Tango's favorite tennis ball on the floor, and Tango quickly grabbed it in his jaws.

"Looks like we have a motive, sir." said Rudistan.

"I'm gonna promote you to 'Captain Obvious', Rudistan." I said, making him grin and others chuckle. "But yeah, it looks like we have motive and opportunity. Drugs on the table that likely were taken---"

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

I peeked through the nearly closed door and saw Joanne Warner at the door across the hallway. "I know someone's in there!" she called out. "Please, if you saw anything at all, just tell me so we can catch a killer."

"I don't want to get involved." said a female voice through the door.

"You don't have to, ma'am." said Joanne. "We can keep your name out of it, completely."

The door cracked open, held by the chain lock. A relatively tall, willowy-thin woman in her mid- to late-20s looked out at Joanne from behind the door. She said "I'm afraid he'll come back and kill me if I say anything."

"He'll never know a thing." Joanne said. "Not until he's on trial, and by then he'll be behind bars and can't hurt you. Can you give me a description, just someone we can look for?"

"Okay." the woman said. "He was black, well-built, muscular. He was wearing a really crisp white t-shirt, it had creases on the shoulders. His hair... it was in a lot of little braids, and looked like it was cut into squares."

"Thanks." Joanne said. "Here's my card. Call me if you see him anywhere in the area, or if you feel like you're in danger." The woman took the card.

"You didn't get her name?" Roark Coleman asked sardonically as she came back into the crime scene room."

"We can get that with good old fashioned data research." Joanne said haughtily. "You know, Coleman, the stuff you never like to do?"

I quickly said "Okay, boys and girls, no bickering in front of the CSIs. Warner, call in for an arrest warrant for Marquis Swift as a person of interest. And I'll call Commander Croyle and have her set up surveillance of this building, just in case the bastard does return..."

To be continued.