What happened to Jim?

"Jim was shot and killed two nights ago. We're trying to get as much information as we can from everyone that might know anything. Don't take it personally, sir, we're just making sure we question everyone."

The couple sat in stunned silence for a minute, holding each other's hands, as they sat on their couch.

"Was he ever mean to anyone at his parties, or ever get into any fights with anyone, that you know of?" asked Smith.

"Not really. I mean he would get really drunk sometimes, I think, and you could hear him coming in really late. I don't think I ever heard him yelling or fighting with anyone though," Beth answered.

"I always did feel kind of bad for his parents, such nice people. They would come by and visit him, but you could tell that they expected more from him," Tom said.

After another minute, Tom asked if there were any other questions for them. They said no, and left, thanking them for their cooperation.

"Something about those two seems off, but the wife doesn't really fit the woman from the video. She was too large in the chest," observed Smith, as they got into the squad car.

"Yeah, she was a bit busty. Ok, we ready to split up and visit the last two?"

"Yup. Let's head to lunch first though, I am already starving," Smith replied.

His partner just rolled her eyes, and said, "Men. You guys are always thinking with your stomach."

"Guilty as charged. Now can we go get some grub?"

She agreed, and they went to eat at a nearby Applebee's. It wasn't a favorite for either of them, but it was close, and the food wasn't all THAT bad. They ate, and chatted about their spouses mostly. At the end of lunch, they both decided they should go on a double-date sometime soon, assuming that Carly could get a sitter.

They stopped back at the station, to drop off some paperwork, before splitting up and taking separate cruisers. They couldn't decide who would visit whom.

"Shit Dan, let's just flip for it, like we always do. I can call it in the air, and the loser takes the parents." Both officers knew that any parents of a murder victim would likely be a tough interview. Why wouldn't they be emotional? They had just lost their son.

Smith got out a quarter, flicked it up in the air with his thumb, and said, "Call it."

"Heads," she said quickly.

It spun around for a few seconds on the ground until it came to rest on Heads.

"Dang it all! OK Carly, you go take the woman, Selena, and I will talk to the parents," Smith said, resignation heavy in his voice.

Dunleavey smirked a little, and said, "Good luck. Call me if you need backup."

He gave her a glare, "Ha ha, very funny. When we are both done, let's meet back up here at the station to compare notes."

With that they both left in separate cruisers, heading in opposite directions. Smith drove towards the parent's house, not looking forward to it. Regardless of what kind of man Jim had been, he didn't deserve to die. More than that, his parents now had to deal with the loss of their son.

He got to the house, and pulled up to the curb. It was a larger house, very distinguished and had a look of a different age to it. It reminded him of the houses he used to watch on This Old House with his dad as a kid. That Bob Vila was always fun to watch.

He walked up the high porch steps, and got to a larger door with a glass oval window in the middle. He knocked, and waited. He started seeing movement inside, and an older woman answered the door. She looked tired, was about all the officer could think at the moment.

"Ma'am, I am very sorry for your loss. Could I come in?" Smith asked.

"Certainly. Anything I can do to help you catch my son's killer, I will." Sad looking or not, the old woman obviously had a fire in her. She led the officer in to sit on a chair.

"Ma'am, is your husband home? I have just a couple of questions for the both of you, and also will answer any of your questions that I can."

"Yes, he is out in the garage, monkeying with the lawn mower." She got up, went to a side window and yelled, "Barry, get in here!"

A muffled, "OK, OK, Thelma, I'm coming!"

A minute later, an older, grey haired gentleman came in from the back door. He shook the officer's hand, and said, "Barry Harding. What can we do for you, officer?"

"Sir, I was just telling your wife that I have some questions about Jim that I have to ask. If there are any questions you both have, I will answer what I can."

"That's fair. So what do you want to know about our Jimmy?" he asked.

"When was the last time you saw your son?"

"He came over to the house pretty much every weekend. We have a Saturday afternoon barbeque, and he usually always comes, well...used to." The pain in the proud man's voice was clear. "Anyhow, he came two weeks ago, with some really nice woman, too. We had high hopes that he might finally settle down with this one. He never made it out this last Saturday."

"What was the woman's name?" Smith asked.

"I think it was Selena, Selena Marsh. He was very proud of her. She was gorgeous, and a very sweet girl. He seemed very smitten with her," replied Mrs. Harding.

"Did Jim ever mention anyone that might want to hurt him, or that he got into fights with?"

"Not that I can think of, unless he talked to you about anything Barry," Mrs. Harding replied.

"Nope. I mean, he never really talked to us much about his life anyhow. You might want to check with my brother, Chris. Jim used to go to his place all the time, worked for him too. Maybe he knows something more. He has a penthouse condo, downtown."

"Ok, one more question, and I am sorry if it offends you. I mean no disrespect, but have to ask. Did either of you know about your son sleeping with married women?"

The older couple just looked down, and both nodded their heads. "We kept telling him to leave them alone. We really had hoped that he was turning things around for himself, but now we will never know," replied a very broken hearted Thelma Harding. She started lightly sobbing as her husband put his hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you both for your time. Again, let me tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I will give you my card, so that you can call me. If you have any further information you think might be helpful, or any questions, let me know."

He left his card on their coffee table, and let himself out. Smith truly did feel sorry for them, but was glad to have that over with.

********

Carly got to the law office of Miss Selena Marsh, and asked the receptionist to page her. About ten minutes of waiting, and a slender woman in a dark blue dress came sauntering out into the lobby. She was a stunner, and knew it. She also looked a lot like the woman that was seen in the video footage. There seemed to be a lot of women that were similar in appearance to their video suspect.

"Miss Marsh, I am Officer Dunleavey. May I come into your office to ask you some questions about Mr. Jim Harding?"

The woman immediately got a sad look about her, and just nodded. "Follow me, please." The officer followed the woman through the door, into a long hallway that was decorated with a dark looking wood paneling. There were certificates hanging along the wall, interspersed with pictures of some of Chicago's most important people.

These lawyers must be pretty good at what they do, or just really know how to fake it.

Selena led her into a corner office, and closed the door behind the officer. She offered her a seat at her desk and sat behind it, fiddling with a pen on the desk before looking up.

"What would you like to know about Jim?" she asked. The woman looked on the verge of tears, and if Dunleavey hadn't been a veteran, she might have joined her. As it were, she did feel sorry for the woman.

"Miss Marsh, I am investigating his murder, and was told you came to see him at his agency in the last week. Could you tell me when you last saw him?" Dunleavey asked.

"Yes, I saw him a week ago, on Saturday. After that, I saw him at his office a few days ago. Tuesday or Wednesday, I think it was." She had a very sad look on her face as she said it.

"Ma'am, could you tell me more about your relationship with Mr. Harding?"

She looked up, and smiled. "I loved him, and I had hoped that he loved me in return. He and I had met at his agency. I was there to switch our insurance provider from another agency to his, to save some money. He was so charming, and we hit it off right away."

"How long were you two...involved?"

"For about a month. After the insurance switch, I had dinner with him that night. I ended up going to his place that night, and we saw each other pretty often after that."

"Miss, when you saw him at his office last week, was there anything unusual about him? Did he mention anyone threaten him, or any trouble he might have been in?"

"No, he never really told me much about his past. He used to tell me that it was the past, and he preferred to look forward. I will say he was a bit quieter than usual last Saturday, but he didn't say anything about it. When I saw him at his office, he seemed back to normal. I was supposed to see him this past Saturday too, but he called me on Friday and said he had something come up. He promised me that we would get together this coming Saturday. We were going to go over to his parents' house again, for a barbeque. They are such nice people."

"Ma'am, where were you on Sunday night? When did you know about Jim's murder?"

"I was at home on Sunday night. Jim normally came to my place after the barbeque, and spent the night. Since he didn't stay over, I just stayed in for the weekend, and rented a movie on-demand. I didn't hear about his..." she choked up a little before clearing her throat and going on. "I didn't hear about his death until Sunday night, on the eleven o'clock news."

"What type of law do you practice here, if you don't mind me asking?" Dunleavey asked, mostly to change the subject for a minute.

"I don't mind. Here we mostly work corporate law, things like property disputes, and copyright or patent infringement lawsuits. We represent companies mostly, not individuals. Now, I have a question for you. Officer, would you be honest with me? Was he sleeping with someone else too?"

Carly saw the look in her eyes, and it was a painful look. She had been there before, so she understood. "Ma'am, I don't know for certain, but this is still an active investigation. All I can say is that I am sorry for your loss." She paused to hand Selena her card. "Here is my card. If you think of anything else, please call me."

The officer got up, and left the office. She made a mental note that they would need to validate the on-demand purchase with her cable company. About the time she got on the road, Smith called to tell her he had finished with the parents and was heading back to the station as well.

They met about a half-hour later, and sat in the squad room. It was a somber moment. They compared notes from the questioning of Selena Marsh and the parents. This investigation was still not getting any clearer. They called the Medical Examiner's office to see if the Autopsy report was ready yet, and were promised that it would be ready first thing in the morning.

At that, they both packed up and went home for the day.

******

The next morning, Smith and Dunleavey met for coffee, before heading in. They were grumbling that this case was like a bad episode of some reality TV show about crime. Hopefully today would have better luck, with the M.E.'s report coming in. Dunleavey called up the lab as well, and asked if the results were in from all the crime scene testing that was done. The lab instructed them to come up for their findings after lunch.

The first thing to go over was the Autopsy report. They both held a copy and read it. The details on it were pretty concrete, but not very helpful.

---------------------------------------

From: Medical Examiner

Subject: Jim Harding - Autopsy Report

-First shot to groin, not severe. Some blood from this wound prior to second shot.

-Subject died from a gun-shot to the chest, which had hit him in the heart. It would have stopped beating very quickly after being hit. Most blood loss from this wound.

-Third shot to subjects head was post-mortem.

-No signs of sex or rape on subject.

-Subjects nose was broken, as if punched in the face, hard. Bruises on jaw and cheeks were several days old.

-Bullets retrieved from the subject were all highly fragmented, but forensics suggests it was likely a Ruger SR22 pistol.

-Toxicology screen showed alcohol in the subjects system, but no other drugs found. Alcohol amount found to be about 0.09%, barely over the legal driving limit.

---------------------------------------

They continued reviewing their notes for most of the morning, and updated the suspect list with all the details they had.

"Wow, well this is a stumper. Let's get lunch, and then head up to the lab," Smith suggested.

Dunleavey agreed with a nod, so they left the office and went to the nearby taco truck. After eating their lunch, they went back to the lab to go over the results from the crime scene forensics.

What they were told, didn't really surprise them any, but was definitely not expected news. Not much shocked these veterans anymore.

"So Doc, what do you got for us?" Smith asked.

The lab technician looked at him, smiled and said, "So we have the DNA results from all the surfaces that were tested. We found that the glass with lipstick on it only had Jim's DNA in it. There was no other DNA found on either glass. The hair that was found in the drain was tested, and found to be synthetic, likely from a cheap wig. Most good wigs use actual human or horse hair, so this was likely a costume wig. The tape that had him bound also had no DNA on it other than his own. What we did find on the tape, was leather fibers, likely from gloves. If I had to guess, it would be the gloves worn by that person in the video."

"That's it? No actual DNA that can help us link this case to someone?" asked an incredulous Dunleavey.

"Sorry, but that's what we got. Whoever killed this man was either very careful, or just very lucky," the Tech said.

They thanked the lab guys and went back to their office. They compared all the notes for the case, even had their Captain come check their notes and talk it out with them. They had no real leads at this point and no solid evidence at all that could link this murder to anyone, only speculation.

Several of the women they had questioned, and even a few of the men, matched the person they saw in the video. Based on everyone's stories, they all had established alibi's for the time of the murder. There were a few that had a motive, but no evidence to back up they had anything to do with it.

The suspect list and possible motives were too long. They looked at the white board:

Matt Jordan

-Jim's best friend

-Motive: Suspicious, could be an affair/revenge here?

-Alibi -- wife, not rock solid

-Similar build to video suspect

Jennifer Jordan

-Matt's wife

-Motive: Suspicious, could be an affair here too?

-Alibi -- husband, not rock solid

-Similar build to video suspect

Marie Williams

-Jim's customer/Sex Partner -- married

-Motive: revenge for blackmail?

-Alibi -- husband/dinner, verified by restaurant

-Similar build to video suspect

Tom and Beth Wilson

-Jim's neighbors -- married

-Motive: Suspicious, could be an affair here?

-Alibi -- each other, Tom verified to have gone to his work by security footage

-Beth not similar to video suspect, Tom similar build to video suspect

Selena Marsh

-Jim's girlfriend

-Motive: Jealousy?

-Alibi -- Verified by cable company but did she actually watch it?

-Similar build to video suspect

They finally talked it over with the D.A., Mr. Ronald Sinclair. They looked at the board, and the reports, and frustrations were running high. On about their fourth cup of really strong coffee, he started a tirade on the officers.

"You two have gathered a lot of information. What I fail to see is ANYTHING that can help us put someone away!"

"Ron, we don't really have anyone solid that we can pin this on, do we?" asked Smith.

"Look at your list, damn it. One of these people had a REAL reason to want this man dead. You need to go back out, and FUCKING FIND IT!" he yelled his retort. "When you get me some more dirt, I can file the actual charges and prosecute the fucker. No matter what this asshole did in life, he did not deserve the death penalty for it. We can't just have vigilante justice being dispensed all over the city. Can you imagine the chaos we would have to deal with then?"

The officers were reeling a bit from his barrage, but understood what he was saying. This was far from over. They resolved to get to the bottom of this case.

"Ron, you have our word. We will get you something," Dunleavey stated.

"Good. In the meantime, you two might want to also check things like financial records, or more phone records to see if anyone had made calls to or from that throw-away phone."

"OK, thanks Ron," Smith added.

After the D.A. left the room, they both slumped down in their chairs. It had been a long time since either had felt like they were back in school, getting berated for not doing good enough jobs on their homework.

"Carly, tomorrow we go over all the financials and phone records. I also think we need to re-question a few of our suspects on this list," Smith stated. "I still can't believe we forgot to check out the calls on that burner phone."

"True, a little 'good cop, bad cop' might just make one of them flinch. Also, with that Wig they found hairs from, our suspect could have been one of the men. We might have been narrowing our search artificially," Dunleavey added. "It wouldn't hurt to have them brought here, on our home turf, for the questioning either."

"Sounds good. Ok let's call it for today and pick up first thing in the morning. Coffee at eight again?" Smith asked.

"Yup, meet you there."

They both left for the day, heading for home.

*******

Dan decided to get his wife some flowers on the way home, just to show her that he was thinking about her. He got to the store, picked up a few long stem roses, and went home. He thought about the people he had questioned, that had kids. He really wanted to get their family started, and felt it had been long enough since they both got their careers going that it was time. He resolved to talk it over with his wife tonight.

He got home, and again noticed that his wife's car wasn't in the drive. Before he got out of the car, he called her cell phone.

"Hey honey, what's up?" she asked.

"Just leaving work now babe. Are you home yet?" he asked back.

"Yup, just got in. When do you think you will get here?" she asked quickly.

Odd, the house lights were still off. He never really suspected her of anything, but he was also a firm believer in the simple truth. The truth tended to be the simplest explanation for most things.

"I'll probably get there in about twenty minutes or so. What's for dinner tonight?"

"I want to take you out tonight, if that's ok. My treat!" she exclaimed.

"Ok, that sounds great. See you in a bit honey, love you!"

Now he was really puzzled. He got back on the road, drove to a nearby dive bar and sat for fifteen minutes or so. He nursed a pint of a really good lager, while mulling over the significance of his wife's lie. Why would she lie to me? Is SHE seeing someone else, behind my back?