The Hughs' Case

By D. E. Harrison

An unsolved 13 year old homicide case is being given its yearly look by Inspector Strong. He inherited it when he took the job. It had been collecting dust for years and then showed up several years after Inspector Strong came to homicide. Detective Smith has seen it only several time in the last eight years. The case file is old, dirty, and beat up. He has a brief look and passes it on to Detective Rage. There have been only two open homicide cases that happened since Inspector Strong took the job.
Rage in her youthful way says, “Let’s solve this 13 year old cold case.”
Smith is happy to let her try, “Go for it. Tell the Inspector what you want to do. There may even be a box in Evidence in addition to this folder.”
Rage goes downstairs, grabs the dirty box, and dumps it on a table back in the homicide area. She reads it and finds several items not explained.
“What is E/H and golden mean?”
Smooth replies, “They never figured that out. They were on a cabinet in the murder scene.”
Rage says, “That is a lead that was never chased down.”
She goes into the Inspector office and he approves her reopening of the case.

The same day the Inspector attends Chief Anderson’s staff meeting. At the end, the Inspector tells everyone, “The Hughs’ case is being reopened. Extra money will be need beyond what I have.”
Chief Anderson smiles, “We will be looking for some of your hidden funds you all have,” the meeting ends.

Meanwhile Rage opens the war room and requests in writing all the material on the Hughs’ case. What is delivered is 10 boxes, which are rather dusty. Inspector Strong adds Detective Williams and Sergeant Jones to the team on the case. Rage now has a problem on how to review all the paper in the boxes and where to start a new investigation.”
The Inspector also provides a phone number of the police long term storage, it appears that there is other material from the case no one ever knew about or at least looked at. The entire murder scene has been in storage for eleven years. Whatever that might mean.
Rage is breathless, “We can rebuild the scene onsite. No one has ever done that before.”
Just who was the victim? Rage will find that it was a daughter of a wealthy businessman living in a 25 room mansion with two sisters and one brother, a live in servant staff of seven. An uncle and aunt live close by. Just what has been in storage for all that time? Where can they reassemble the murder scene and what might that mean? What other deaths, if any, in the family my be tied to the 13 years old one?

Just where did the 20 boxes of evidence come from that are now in the war room? How can four people investigate a 13 year old homicide even with the murder scene intact? Where do you start and where have many of the people involved gone or worse they have died.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. E. Harrison
• Release date: Nov 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215795378

D. E. Harrison

I am trained as a theoretical mathematician. I am an emeritus member of the American Mathematical Society for fifty odd years. I have lived in Seattle since 1967. I starting writing fiction after writing a family history.

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The Hughs’ Case #94

By D. E. Harrison

Copyright 2023 by D. E. Harrison

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Slow Times

Chapter 2 Compile the Files

Chapter 3 Build The Room

Chapter 4 Search the Rebuilt Room.

Chapter 5 Search the House

Chapter 6 The Closure

About D. E. Harrison

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Chapter 1 Slow Times

Business is slow in homicide, which is a welcome relief for everyone. Detective Rage is refiling and cleaning with a vacuum the files. Detective Smith has a small folder of unsolved homicide cases in his hands. He looks through it and then places them on her desk. Inspector Strong reviews these open cases every year then gives them to Smith. The Inspector also passes an old beat up file folder to him. Smith looks quickly at the file and places it on Rage’s desk with the other file folder.

Detective Harry Smith’s introduction.

The senior homicide Detective Harry Smith is the ‘go by the book’ type. He grinds out cases with hard, solid police work, and has been on the force for nineteen years. He is from the old school and the suit coat never comes off. Nothing seems to bother him on the outside. He is famous for his Sears’s Suckers suits. Occasionally when things are not going to well, Detective Smith starts to rub his full head of hair. Every hair has been trained for thirty years. No matter what happens they do return to their chosen place, after he has a good rub.

Detective Janette Wanda Rage’s introduction. Her badge number is 7304.

She had been a patrolman for several years. She was the first officer to carry a Colt 45s in the entire police force. The police began reviewing their entire small arms procedure after this. It all came about when patrolman Rage riding as a rookie patrolman became involved with a street gang. The situation got out of control and Internal Affairs stuck their nose in after it was all over. You can understand better what and why she carries a Colt 45 as her standard sidearm after reading the ‘13th Street Gang.’

The now rookie homicide Detective Janette Rage has been on the Police force for almost eight years. She is bright, aggressive, and dedicated to the job. She takes a fair amount of ribbing about her last name and the color of her hair. It usually goes on until they see her empty a clip of sixteen rounds at twenty yards into a 4-inch circle. She shoots a competition matched pair of Colt 45s. If that is not enough, she will crack a few ribs, and she will do it again in the gym.

She is a very powerful and attractive young woman with a real bang. She picked the spot she wanted to finish in the final ranking as a patrolman. She is always looking down the road before she jumps. In slow or almost instant decisions, she is way down the road when she makes one. She appears to