“What was gone that you thought should be there?”
“He was in fatigues, but his dog tags were gone. He looked military, and his tattoos suggested military. We searched his truck, but there were no other signs of military gear.”
“Did you contact Fort Benning?”
“Not until the next day when we ran fingerprints and got a positive ID.”
Gabe reached for a worn manila folder with crumpled edges. He opened the folder and passed several pictures over to Wade. They were gruesome photos taken at the scene, some with Lockhart’s brains spread all over his face. There was another photo taken in the morgue after he had been cleaned up.
“Is this the person whom you knew as Lockhart?”
“Yeah. That’s Lockhart.”
“We took our time with forensics at the site. I had the team take blood samples. We took power burn residue samples. I wanted Lockhart’s exact position documented, particularly the angle of his arm. I had his clothes in the room wrapped so they could be later tested at the lab. I had detailed photos taken of the blood splatter patterns. I even had a close-up shot taken of his pupils.”
After a brief pause Gabe continued his explanation. “Lockhart had a strange look on his face. I’ve never seen that look in a suicide case before. It may not prove to be anything important, but it was certainly noteworthy.”
“What look do you mean?”
“It was an expression like he was trying to say something, or scream, but couldn’t. I can’t describe it any better than that.”
“When we got the body back to the lab, the blood tests started showing small traces of a narcotic type substance that we couldn’t identify. We’re still working on that angle. The traces were so small they couldn’t be used in court.”
“More extensive autopsy tests might allow us to better understand the substance. We started getting push-back from Fort Benning as soon as we recommended further testing. I felt their position claiming jurisdiction of the body was weak from the beginning.”
Gabe paused and took out another file with some notes that he reviewed before continuing his explanation.
“We’ve had our differences before with the base on other matters. Once I heard this matter was going to go to a court hearing, I knew something was amiss. I made the decision at that time to bend the rules a little and take a chance.”
Wade frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“In the first preliminary motion, the court ruled that the body had to remain in its current condition until the matter was heard. I became suspicious of Benning’s desire not to want any testing done, so I made a quick decision that I might live to regret. Fort Benning had gotten the jump on me with that restraining order on an autopsy until the hearing. Actually, it’s fairly common to have a stay when a dispute like this arises. But my instincts told me I couldn’t lose more time, so I ordered my coroner to take a liver biopsy.”
“Wouldn’t that have been a violation of the stay order?”
“Technically, it might have been. We were dancing between raindrops on that decision because a biopsy for reasonable cause does not technically constitute an autopsy.”
As Wade was trying to comprehend the difference between an autopsy and biopsy, Gabe continued.
“The liver biopsy is what found the traces of the narcotic substance. In fact, the biopsy actually found traces of two different drugs. Those results gave me enough data to confirm my own suspicions and support the motion for a more extensive autopsy.”
“When you refer to these traces of drugs, what do you mean?”
“These drugs were not run-of-the-mill prescription drugs or street narcotics. According to my toxicologist, they fall in the category of ‘exotics.’ They’re made up of a weird combination of natural and man-made compounds. The other thing the toxicologist found strange about the drugs is that the concentration of the drugs in the body seemed to be naturally dissipating. He describes it as a drug that quickly breaks down so that, in time, there’s no evidence it was ever present. If we’d waited another few days, there would have been nothing to find.”
Wade looked straight ahead and shook his head in disbelief.
“After we won at the hearing, we ran an extensive toxicology panel at the autopsy the same day. Once my people knew some of the chemical compounds they were looking for, they searched for traces in other places in the body like fatty tissues and organs not usually covered in a normal autopsy. That’s where we are now — waiting for the results of these more advanced toxicology studies.”
“That’s unbelievable. What do you see as the next step?”
“While we wait for the toxicology results, we’re doing extensive testing of the clothing and weapon. We found small fragments of rope fibers on his sleeve. There was a small sofa pillow used between the end of the gun barrel and his jaw to muffle the sound. It’s strange that someone would care about the noise their gun would make if they were committing suicide. The location of that pillow on the floor after the shot also didn’t look right to me. We’re doing trajectory tests to see where that pillow should have landed in the room in relation to his body and the gun discharge position in a true suicide.”
“Did you determine whether or not he pulled the trigger?”
“As we’d expect, we found his fingerprints on the trigger of the gun, but not in other places you normally find them. The rest of the gun was clean — too clean, as in wiped clean.”
Wade could now see the evidence mounting. More questions were coming to mind, but he didn’t want to interrupt Gabe’s train of thought.
“There was only one bullet in the chamber of his gun when it fired. There was no other ammo around, and the magazine was cleaned of ammo and fingerprints.”
“That’s strange.”
“Funny thing is that we didn’t find any ammunition anywhere. There was none on his person, in his belongings, in the room, or in his truck. Strange you would only bring one bullet, even if you were going to commit suicide. We also have his camouflage fatigues and boots that were behind the seat in the cab of his truck.”
Gabe paused for a moment, recalling Wade’s story.
“You mentioned that you found footprints in the area of the sniper position the night of your incident?”
“Yes, I marked several footprints with flags I tore from my t-shirt. Some of the prints were in soft dirt and should make good impressions. The Fort Benning forensics team was pouring impressions when I left.”
“Interesting… they haven’t mentioned that to me. You can bet I’m going to pursue that angle. I have his boots to compare against those impressions.”
After a short restroom break and a refill of their water glasses, Wade asked the question uppermost in his mind.
“What do you think happened, if it wasn’t a suicide?”
Gabe thought for a long moment and replied, “If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on a professional hit. Lockhart was a big strong Special Forces guy the size of an NFL linebacker. No one was going to sneak up on him or attack him by surprise.
“I think he knew the person who killed him. I think this motel was probably a meeting place of some kind — perhaps to exchange something or to pay Lockhart off. My hunch is that someone got close enough to him to administer the first drug, which probably knocked him out. I think at least one other drug was used in some way to keep him alive long enough to stage his suicide.
“We found a small puncture wound the size of a hypodermic needle on the side of Lockhart’s neck. The angle of penetration was three inches below his left ear, into the muscle in the back of his neck, while he was sitting in an upright position.” Gabe demonstrated the angle of the wound with his finger extended over his own shoulder.
“I believe the second drug immobilized him. My hunch is he was alive and might even have been awake watching them stage his body for the kill shot. He just couldn’t do anything about it. Even immobilized, Lockhart was too big to be handled by one man. I believe two or more people were involved in this execution and clean-up.”