Ozarks Double Homicide
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Maggie Wells
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Chapter One
“Hey, Chief?”
Lieutenant Ethan Scott looked up to find one of his agents, Jim Thompson, hovering in the threshold of Ethan’s office. It wasn’t the greeting that made Ethan tear his gaze from the crime scene photos he was enlarging on his computer, but the hesitancy in the words. A big man, Thompson was usually full of bluff and bluster. But now, the blank expression on his face told Ethan his detective was shocked.
The guy had twenty years with the Arkansas State Police under his belt, and more than a dozen of them here with the Criminal Investigation Division. Shocking Agent Thompson wasn’t an easy thing to do.
“What is it, Jim?”
“Powers.” Thompson spoke the name softly. He stepped into the office, darting a glance over his shoulder as if checking to see if anyone in the office had heard him utter it.
Ethan nodded. He was too familiar with the name. The Powers family was all anyone around here had talked about for a month. Tyrone Powers Junior ran Powers, Powers & Walton, one of the most prestigious law firms in Northwest Arkansas. His brother, William, was a sitting US senator. And the son, Tyrone III—also known as Trey—was one of Company D’s highest profile arrests in years.
“Grace is in Little Rock doing a depo on another case. Let Mr. Powers know she’ll get back to them,” Ethan responded tersely, then turned his attention back to the photo he’d been studying.
Special Agent Grace Reed had uncovered enough evidence to tie the Powers kid to the disappearance and subsequent death of a young woman named Mallory Murray, and since then, Grace, one of his best in the field, had been caught in the crossfire between prosecutors and the Powers family’s formidable defense.
“No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you, about Trey, uh...” Jim started again.
Ethan jerked his attention back to Thompson. “What about him? Please say he violated the terms of his bail.”
Ethan was only half joking. He’d love to go snatch the smug jerk up and lock him away. With Powers behind bars, his legal team wouldn’t be quite so keen on throwing every roadblock they could find in front of a trial date.
“He’s dead,” Thompson replied.
The bluntness of the answer left Ethan feeling as shell-shocked as Thompson appeared. “Crap.” Swallowing hard, he raised a hand to rub his forehead. “Suicide?” he asked, eyes still downcast.
It was a logical assumption, considering the ever-growing list of charges pending against him, but Ethan had a hard time buying it. Guys like Trey Powers tended to be too egotistical to self-harm. They had all been operating under the assumption the arrogant young attorney had been raised to believe he was untouchable. Above the law. But you never knew what went on beneath the surface in any person’s life.
“No, sir. He was shot,” Thompson corrected, jolting Ethan from his musing. “Both he and his father, um, Tyrone, were found dead this morning. I just got off the phone with the Benton County Sheriff’s office. They’re requesting our help.”
Ethan shot to his feet. “Did you say both Trey and Tyrone Powers are dead?”
“Yes.” Thompson nodded. “Sheriff Stenton said the wife came home and found them. Right there in the house.”
Ethan gave his head a sharp shake, hoping to jostle the information Jim was giving him into some semblance of sense. “Are they thinking murder-suicide?”
Agent Thompson’s indication of the negative came slow and deliberate. “No, sir. They say it looks to be a double homicide. Both were a single GSW.”
The pronouncement made him drop back into his seat. Hard. Double homicide. The murder of a suspected murderer. And his father. A wealthy, prominent, politically well-connected man. The brother and nephew of a US senator.
This case would be beyond big.
There’d be a megawatt spotlight on this case until the killer was caught and brought to justice. It was the sort of investigation that transformed careers—for better or worse.
He was startled from his thoughts by the bleat of his desk phone. A glance at the display showed the caller to be Captain Will Hopkins, Ethan’s boss.
Picking up the receiver, he said only, “Scott,” by way of greeting.
The man on the other end didn’t bother identifying himself. “Have you heard?”
Ethan blinked, wondering how his boss had gotten the news. But he didn’t ask. Arkansas was not a heavily populated state, but the connections between its residents were as intricate as a spiderweb. Now that he’d had a minute, he wouldn’t be surprised to learn the news had already made it to the governor’s office in Little Rock.
“About the Powerses? Yes, sir.”
“I want you on this personally,” Captain Hopkins said in his usual brusque manner. “It’s going to be a jurisdictional circus with the Bentonville police, the Benton County Sheriff’s department and Lord knows who else besides us involved. I want you to run point.”
“Yes, sir,” Ethan responded, his gaze meeting Jim Thompson’s for the first time since he picked up the phone. “I’m on it.”
“Now,” his boss stated.
Ethan rose from his chair, and Thompson’s jaw dropped as Ethan started gathering his things. “Packing up now, sir. I’ll need to run home and grab a bag—”
“Make it quick. I’ve dispatched forensics already. I don’t want the locals getting too deep in the questioning though.” He exhaled loudly, and Ethan could almost picture the man removing his glasses and rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “You know from the case with Trey Powers this is going to be a tricky one. The wife found the bodies. If I understand correctly, she’s a lawyer herself, and by now she probably has half the lawyers at PP&W sitting on top of her.”
“No doubt.”
“You’re my ace in the hole on this one,” the captain asserted.
Ethan nodded. “I’m on my way. Check in with you once I get the lay of the land.”
“Ten-four,” Hopkins responded, then promptly hung up.
Ethan replaced the receiver, his mouth pulled into a grim line. Not many people in the Criminal Investigation Division were aware Ethan had a law degree as well. He didn’t talk much about the six months he’d spent as a public defender, and how it drove him to pursue a career in criminal investigation, rather than defense. Watching people he knew to be guilty as sin get off on technicalities because the police were overworked and undertrained had been too frustrating to witness.
“He’s sending you?”
Thompson hung back in the doorway, watching Ethan gather his computer, phone and cables, a look of surprise mixed with indignation heightening the older man’s color.
“He is.”
“You haven’t been out on a case since you’ve been here.”
Ethan’s lips quirked, but he kept his head down, running through a mental list of all he’d need.
“True.”
“Have you ever, uh—”
Thompson had the diplomacy of a battering ram, but at least had the good sense not to finish his question. And since he wasn’t wrong about Ethan’s lack of field time after joining Company D, Ethan let it slide.
“Don’t worry, I caught some nasty cases down in Little Rock. I know what to do,” he reassured the other man.
In truth, he couldn’t wait to get at it. He’d been desk jockeying ever since Captain Hopkins recruited him for the job. Hopkins didn’t care that he’d promoted Ethan over every agent already working as an investigator out of the Fort Smith offices. And, frankly, Ethan hadn’t either. At the time.
He hadn’t imagined how lonely it could be commanding a somewhat resentful crew in a town where he knew absolutely no one. He liked to think that in the past few months he’d cultivated some respect from the agents under him, but Thompson’s incredulity was mildly insulting.
“It was bound to happen sometime,” he said as he shoved everything into his computer bag. “I am an investigator, after all.”
He gave Thompson a solid clap on the arm when he squeezed past the older man’s bulk. As the senior agent in the company, Thompson would be in charge with Ethan out of the office. That should appease him somewhat. “I know you’ll keep things running smoothly. I’ll check in with you later once I talk to the captain.”
Thompson gaped after him, his eyes darting to the desks where two other agents sat working, then to the empty desk Grace Reed usually occupied. “Do you want me to call Grace and tell her?”
Ethan didn’t look back, nor did he slow his stride toward the door. He couldn’t help feeling Thompson would take a little pleasure in telling the only female agent in the company that her biggest collar to date would not be facing justice after all. Not in a courtroom anyway. No, he’d make the call himself.
“I’ll call her on my way,” he said over his shoulder.
At the door, he stopped to look back at the open-plan office. All eyes were on him. And for the first time since he took over as their section chief, he felt no waves of hostility emanating from them.
Since he had their undivided attention, he gave one last direct order. “We’re going to start getting media inquiries. I don’t want there to be any comments coming out of this office at all. Refer all questions to the media liaison.” He looked from one agent to the next. “Got it? No comments.”
“Got it, Chief,” Thompson replied, then gave him a sharp salute.
Ethan waited until he turned away to roll his eyes at the older man. He felt a sharp pang of remorse for what the other agents would likely have to endure under Thompson’s command, but the man had seniority.
Sliding into the state-owned SUV that came as one of the perks of the promotion, he headed to his apartment to pack. Since he’d never fully settled into his place in Fort Smith, he figured it would take him less than thirty minutes to gather what he needed and hit the road. Still, given how quickly the news had traveled through the various law enforcement agencies, he figured he’d better get his call in to Grace Reed before taking the time.
He knew he was already too late when she picked up right away with a resigned greeting of, “Morning, Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant. The use of his rank did not bode well for the conversation. Usually, she called him Chief. And until now, he and Grace got along well enough. They shared the uneasy camaraderie of being the two outsiders in the section.
“I take it you’ve already heard.”
“About Trey Powers? Yes, sir.”
“And his father, too,” he added.
“Tyrone is...was,” she corrected herself, “an interesting man.”
Ethan didn’t need to see her face to know the compliment was loaded with subtext. “I have no doubt.” He drew a deep breath, then hurried on. “Obviously, we’ll have to go through the formalities of dropping the charges against the younger Powers.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath and winced. If he’d been in her shoes, he’d have felt the sting of it, too. “Yes, sir.”
When she added nothing more, he figured he ought to let her have all the bad news in one fell swoop.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Captain Hopkins has assigned me to the double homicide.”
There was a pause that lasted a breath too long. “I had not heard. Congratulations. This will be a big case.”
“It will.” For better or worse, he thought grimly. As he turned into the parking lot of his apartment complex, he felt the full weight of what he was about to tackle settle on his shoulders.
“Listen, I know you’re feeling conflicted right now. We all are. You’ve put in a lot of legwork on the case against Trey, and I want to assure you that your efforts were not wasted.”
“No, sir.”
Her brief responses made it clear she understood those same efforts were unlikely to be rewarded in any way she deemed satisfactory. He’d been there before. There was nothing worse for a cop than to have a suspected murderer slip the charges, no matter how it happened. There would be no closure for either Agent Reed or the victim’s family. Worst of all, no justice for the victim, Mallory Murray.
Pulling into his usual parking space, he killed the engine. “Listen, I have to pack and get up to Bentonville, but I want you to know I’d appreciate any help you can give me as far as background on the family,” he continued.
“Of course,” she answered succinctly.
He sighed again. “I know this whole situation is a bitter pill to swallow, but I have a feeling I’m going to need every resource I have at my disposal for this case.”
“I’ll do everything I can to help.”
Her tone was still brusque, but a couple degrees warmer than it had been. He’d take it. “I’ll be in touch. Probably a lot. You and the knowledge you’ve amassed in bringing those charges against Trey Powers are the greatest assets we have at the moment.”
There was another prolonged pause, then, to his relief, Grace said, “I’ll send my notes before I leave Little Rock. You’ll have everything I know about the Powers family and the players at Powers, Powers & Walton before you hit Bentonville, Chief.”
