Frank and I stood to each side of the covered man, making sure our feet weren’t near the blood that had dripped between the slats and pooled beneath him. I tipped my head at Jefferson.
“Go ahead and remove the blanket.”
With the blanket taken away, Frank and I moved in closer to inspect the deceased man. His skin was a sickly gray color, and he had stiffened in place, as if he were sitting there on his own accord. Leaning forward, I looked at his mouth, which was halfway open. Blood, now dried, had covered his lips and followed a path down to his chin. I pulled my pen light from my pocket and shined it into his mouth. Ragged remnants of what once were teeth—deliberately bashed to make checking dental records impossible—were all that remained.
“Damn.” I slipped on some gloves and handed Frank a pair to put on. I was about to look closer at what remained of the man’s hands when Don, Mike, and Danny approached us.
“Better to leave this to them.” I backed away as we briefly explained to Don Lawry, our medical examiner, what Mrs. Davis had discovered an hour earlier.
Don tipped his head toward Mike. “Go ahead and get some shots before I start my examination. I’ll be moving in my rolling stool and don’t want it to be in your way.”
“Yep, got it.”
Mike snapped a dozen photographs of the deceased. On his hands and knees, he took more pictures of the underside of the bench and also the blood pool. He zoomed in on the man’s mouth and clicked off three more shots. Careful not to disturb the way the man’s hands were folded, he caught images of them—minus the tips after the last knuckle of each finger. “Go ahead, Don. We’ll take the bench back to the lab with us after everything else is complete.”
Danny added that they would scour the bushes for anything that could be considered evidence. Frank and I took spots against a large oak tree as Don moved in to do his field exam. I called out to Henry and Shawn. “See all those older apartments?” I pointed at every street that had buildings facing the park. “Have Patrol start the knock and talks at those apartments. Somebody may have seen something suspicious out their window. We’ll pitch in when we’re done here and make sure the officers keep track of everyone they talk to. I don’t want to re-interview people they’ve already spoken with.”
“Got it.” Henry and Shawn gathered every available officer except the ones at the entrances. They continued their foot patrol while keeping people away.
I looked at Don. “Whatcha think?”
“He’s definitely in rigor. Can’t straighten out his legs, and I’m not going to try forcing them. No visible signs of what caused his death, though. Snipped fingertips and broken teeth, although extremely painful, wouldn’t kill him. There’s more here than meets the eye, meaning a tox screen is in order.”
“How long do you think he’s been out here?” Frank asked.
“Two to three hours, I’d say. Probably before daybreak and before the rigor began stiffening his joints. He was definitely killed somewhere else and then positioned this way just before rigor kicked in. A deliberate act so his body would stiffen in that upright position as if he was an ordinary man sitting on a park bench.”
“Until somebody took a closer look at him,” I said.
“That’s right, until then.” Don looked over his shoulder at his assistant, Mark Nells. “Go ahead and bring the gurney in.”
“Right away.”
Don stood and folded the stool. “If there’s nothing more you need from me, I’d just as soon get the body back to my office and take care of that tox screen.”
I nodded and looked at how the bench was mounted to the sidewalk. We would probably need somebody from the maintenance department of the county park system to come out and remove the bolts since we didn’t carry maintenance tools with us to crime scenes. I made the call and was told that someone should arrive within a few hours.
“That gives us time to scour the park and look around for security cameras,” Henry said.
“Sure, go ahead and get started on that. Frank and I will catch up as soon as Don leaves with the body, and I still have to update Lutz.” I stepped away and found a different bench to sit on while I called our commander.
“What have you got, McCord?”
“A dead man on a park bench just like it was called in, Bob. He looked to be somewhere in his early sixties, dressed in business casual attire, and until Don tells us what the tox screen shows, there was no identifiable cause of death noticed. Because the man was fully dressed, we didn’t see any tattoos, scars, or birthmarks. We’ll know more after Don gets the deceased on the table.”
“So his teeth were damaged and his fingertips were cut off. Is that correct?”
I rubbed my forehead as the image popped into my head. “Yeah, his teeth looked like somebody took a hammer to them, and his fingers? Each one was cut off at the last knuckle.”
“Jesus.” Silence filled the line for a few seconds. That was Lutz’s way of telling me his wheels were turning. “I’m wondering why someone would go to the lengths of essentially removing somebody’s fingerprints and dental records if it was a random killing. Why would they care if the person was identified unless there was something that could lead back to the killer?”
“And that’s another avenue to investigate, Boss. Henry and Potter have started looking for surveillance cameras, and we have a handful of officers canvassing the neighborhood, primarily at the apartment buildings whose windows face the park. You never know.”
“Right. Anything else?”
“Yeah, Danny and Mike are bringing the park bench back to the lab with them as soon as a county worker shows up to detach it from the sidewalk.”
“Okay, and you and Frank are pitching in with the interviews?”
“Yep, that’s the plan.” I was about to hang up when Lutz began talking again.
“One last thing.”
“Shoot.”
“Was there anything in his pockets? Anything at all?”
“Nope. Not even a stick of gum.”