Sam Kincaid 01 - The Commission

her on the cheek and walked away.
    ***
    The aroma of Aunt June’s fresh banana bread met me as I entered the house. It was the best, and she’d baked it for as long as I could remember.
    Aunt June was immersed in one of her romance novels when I found her tucked comfortably under a quilt in the family room. She read romance novels by the bushel. I thought this might be a good time to mention my recent encounter with Baxter Shaw. I wondered if she might have an interest in meeting him. She warmed to the idea rather quickly, so I decided to arrange an introduction as soon as I could find the time.
    “I wasn’t sure what time you were going to be home, but I made a fresh pot of decaf about an hour ago. You might need to pop it in the microwave for a few seconds. There’s also some warm banana bread in the oven.”
    “You’re going to turn me into a fat guy if you keep baking all these goodies.”
    “What are old aunts good for if not to keep the house smelling yummy with homemade treats? And if you want some, you’d better get a move on it. Sara’s waiting upstairs in her bedroom, and you promised to read her a full chapter of Harry Potter before bedtime. I think she finished her homework. You might want to go over her spelling words with her.”
    Sara had become a voracious reader. Her weekly allowance was tied to how much she read and how little TV she watched. Soon I was going to need a second job just to keep up with her growing allowance. The kid had a savings account I was starting to envy.
    We went over her homework assignments and got her ready for bed. We settled in the family room for an evening with Harry Potter . Some nights she read to me, and other times I read to her. This time it was my turn. She didn’t make it through a whole chapter before falling asleep. I carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed, but not before I promised to take her and a friend on a Saturday adventure to Hogle Zoo.

Chapter Twenty-two
    Early the next morning, I was in my office at the state penitentiary, knee-deep in neglected paperwork that had been accumulating in my absence. I also had Burnham at my door with two new cases involving employee misconduct. In one of them, a supervisor discovered a female corrections officer in a social worker’s office engaged in oral sex with a male inmate. The other case involved a civilian employee who worked in the prison culinary and was caught smuggling marijuana into the institution. To his credit, Burnham had not only managed to provide valuable assistance on the Vogue investigation, but had also kept the SIB functioning properly in my absence.
    In recent months, Terry had become a workaholic and I was beginning to worry about him. Laura, his wife of thirty-three years, had died a year ago from complications resulting from a lifelong battle with diabetes. Instead of slowing down or taking a leave of absence, Burnham was trying to cope by working sixty-hour weeks, and then self-medicating during his off-duty time with too much Johnny Walker Black.
    ***
    By late morning, I had begun to feel that I might get caught up by day’s end if I could avoid serious interruptions. However, my good fortune didn’t last. The office phone rang. It was Kate.
    “Good morning, Lt. McConnell. I’d like to believe you’re calling to tell me what a marvelous time you had last night and that we should do it again soon, but somehow, I doubt that.”
    “I did have a great time last night, thank you very much. And yes, I think we should get together again. But you’re right, that’s not why I called.”
    “Okay. You’ve got my undivided attention. What’s up?”
    “I just got off the phone with the State Medical Examiner’s Office. They’ve completed the autopsy on Watts. They’ve concluded that his death was a homicide, not a suicide. And apparently, they’ve got the forensic evidence to back it up.”
    “Whoa! That does change things a bit, doesn’t it?” I said. “Have you said anything about this to His Eminence, Hyrum Locke?”
    “Not yet. I’d rather sit down with the ME and go over the forensic evidence first. Chief Corey was notified, and he’s on his way in right now. The ME has set a meeting for this afternoon at one-thirty. Can you make it?”
    “Sure, I’ll be there. I’ll bet Corey damn near had a stroke when he heard the news. That makes this a whole lot more complicated.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “The jurisdiction actually belongs to the Wendover Police