A Circumstantial Case

By Wm. J. Martin

An abandoned car, a lot of blood, 2 bullet holes and a missing man should add up to murder. Could the missing man's wife be involved? What about his best friend?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wm. J. Martin
• Release date: Jul 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9780987743701

Wm. J. Martin

When I was younger I always had an interest in trying to do some writing, but it never came to much at all. About five years after I was forced to give up working due to disability I was finally able to take the step that had eluded me for years. My first experiment with writing was to try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, using the parameters of the website National Novel Writing Month. It was a challenge I was fortunately able to complete, and I guess that got me over my initial hesitation. It's a website I would recommend to anyone who would like to try their hand at writing. I don't spend all of my time with this hobby as I still have my primary hobby of pursuing my family genealogy. The limitations placed on me with my MS also keeps me from spending as much time writing as I would like to sometimes. Add to that my normal bad habit of procrastination, and sometimes I wonder how I ever managed to get anything done.

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A Circumstantial Case

By William. J. Martin

Published by William. J. Martin at Smashwords.

Copyright 2011 William J. Martin

ISBN 978-0-9877437-0-1

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and some places are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

Other Smashwords Titles by William J. Martin

Lip and Annie

Lost Found Remembered

Secrets

PROLOGUE

It was a warm Saturday night, and the sun had just gone down, creating that twilight that leaves you wondering whether you should have your headlights turned on yet or not. Mark Evans didn't have to make that choice, as he was in the process of pulling into his garage, located on a quiet residential street in Sharpsburg. In a moment the slim, dark-haired man emerged from the side door carrying his garment bag, briefcase and laptop case, long experience allowing him to manage the three bulky items with ease. One didn't travel as much as he was forced to, without developing this type of skill.

He unlocked and entered the side door of his home, but didn't bother to call out to his wife, Lisa, to let her know he was there; he already knew she wasn't home. Instead, Mark walked through to the living room with his briefcase and laptop, having deposited his garment bag at the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor of their modest, but comfortable, home. He set the two items on the sofa before removing his topcoat, which he then carried to the closet near the front door, where he hung it on its accustomed hanger.

Only now, with both hands free and in the comfort of his own home, did he remove his jacket and tie, and unbutton the top two buttons on his white shirt. Mark didn't normally wear such formal business attire, but today he'd returned from a regional meeting of managers working for his employer, ABC Industries. Technically he wasn't in management, but his role as the most knowledgeable systems analyst on staff mandated that he had to attend the meetings in Pittsburgh. His immediate supervisor was a good man at organizing the personnel, but he knew virtually nothing about the computer systems that let their business operate smoothly.

Mark could have been home the night before, but that wouldn't have fit with his plans. Instead he had told Lisa that the meeting was followed by a series of workshops that would last the weekend, and that he would be returning on Monday. He had his reasons for telling her that, and had been forced to patiently waste time for the majority of the day so that he wouldn't return home too early. He also wished he had been able to pack more comfortable clothing for this trip, but if he had done so Lisa might have wondered why he needed to do that; he never took anything but his dress clothes to these regularly scheduled business meetings.

Now that he was at home, his first step would be to go have a shower and then change into something a little more comfortable. 20 minutes after disappearing upstairs with his garment bag, Mark returned to the main floor fully dressed, wearing his more usual jeans and t-shirt, and looking very refreshed from his quick shower.

The next half-hour was spent choosing, reheating, and then eating a meal comprised of leftovers from the refrigerator. Lisa was a good cook, and even the leftovers made a good meal, although he scarcely noticed. His meal was washed down with a bottle of light premium beer, one of his few vices. By the time he had finished the bottle of beer he had moved to the living room, where he was now stretched back in a La-Z-Boy chair, going through the motions of reading the front page of the local newspaper. To any casual observer Mark was a typical husband, relaxing after a long and arduous trip out of town.

In truth, Mark was simply killing more time, following his script to the letter, patiently waiting for the selected time to finally bring his major personal crisis to a head. He'd had a month to work alone on the five stages of grief, and really, the only one to have been successfully dealt with was denial. Anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance were all still in play at the moment.

Anger still dominated his emotions, and if an observer knew that, it would help explain why he hadn't smiled at all since his return home. In fact a real, honest-to-goodness smile had rarely crossed his face for weeks. Most of those that did were used to mask his anger, especially to hide it from Lisa.

He hoped that over the course of this night he could make some progress on several of those remaining four stages, especially the overwhelming anger.

It was just after midnight, and Sunday was freshly minted, when Mark finally seemed satisfied with what his watch was telling him, and got up to return the empty beer bottle to the kitchen counter. While there he moved his dirty dishes to the dishwasher, before carefully using a damp cloth to return the tabletop to a pristine condition. He knew as he did these minor chores that it was simply a form of delay, a way to give his second thoughts and apprehensions a chance to make him reconsider his chosen path. When no new solution to his problem magically presented itself he went to the hall closet for a light jacket, and then began making his way to the side door, and the beginning of his nights' mission.

As his fingertips brushed the doorknob Mark suddenly yanked his hand back like the knob was hot, snapped his fingers, and said, Damn! I almost forgot.

He hurried back into the living room, placed his briefcase on the coffee table, and then set his laptop on the briefcase. In less than a minute Mark had turned on the laptop, logged himself in and had secured a connection to the Internet through the wireless router situated in the computer room he and Lisa maintained. Several minutes of typing and then sending an e-mail completed the tasks that he had forgotten, and once Mark had logged off and shut down the laptop, he returned to the side door, confidently and unhurriedly leaving the house.

After spending about five minutes in his garage, he raised the garage door, backed out onto the street, turned on his headlights and slowly drove away as the garage door closed silently behind him.

CHAPTER ONE

It was 7:17 a.m. when the Sharpsburg 911 operator answered a new incoming call. This is your 911 Emergency Operator. What is the nature of your emergency?

A female voice, seemingly young, replied on an apparently poor telephone connection, I... I think I need the police. I think a crime has been committed.

The 911 operator coolly continued, What is your location, ma'am? We need your location to send the police on the call.

I'm... I'm on Park Drive, at the payphone on Park Drive beside George Washington Park. The word payphone immediately explained the poor connection to the operator.

What kind of crime has been committed, ma'am? Have you been attacked or robbed?

There was a slight delay before the young woman replied, "No, it's not me. I'm OK. It's just... I