Robert Ellis: CITY OF STONES and the Great Complication

 

CITY OF STONES, An Excerpt . . .

But even more disturbing, how could Agents Fresno and Cook, even Matt’s supervisor, Lieutenant McKensie, ignore the possibility that there might be a reason for the killings? Charles Manson, Dr. Baylor, helter-skelter—how could they be so sure of themselves? After all, their take on the murders had been based on little more than a glimpse. A mere walk through a bloody crime scene and what had become an all-too-real house of horrors.

And what about Brooks’s computer? Why was it missing? Why didn’t that seem to matter to them? Why couldn’t they see what appeared to be so obvious?

Matt realized once again that he was wrestling with “the complication.” Though he still may have only been a rookie, and though his experience working as a homicide detective amounted to three cases that began just this past October, his mentor at the Police Academy had spoken about the problem many times.

Every murder case had a complication, his mentor used to say. A fork in the road of its basic logic. This was the moment when a detective either lost or found his or her way. Would the detective follow only the most obvious leads? Or would he or she use their imagination to see past the way things appeared and dig up what was really underneath? Would the detective have the patience to hold off making any conclusions until the layers were peeled back one by one and what was hidden below finally became self-evident?

Matt dug his cell phone out of his pocket, found Art Madina’s number at the coroner’s office, and hit “Enter.” When the medical examiner picked up after a single ring, Matt checked the room before speaking, noted a man looking at him two tables away, and lowered his voice.

“When are the Brooks autopsies scheduled, Art?”

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