Final Exam: A Legal Thriller Read Free

replied.   “By the state of the body, I would say he’s been there a few days already.   Depending upon whether they had the heat on over the holiday or not, I would place the time of death at probably Saturday, maybe even Friday.   Friday would be what, the 28th?   Say the 28th or the 29th.   I’ll know more after I look into it a little.”  
    “So, he’s been just laying there in his office dead for four or five days, that’s what you’re telling me?” Nelson asked.  
    “Sure looks that way.   See, it’s not really that surprising.   What with the holiday, this being a school, no students around, he might have been the only one here when he got it.”  
    Nelson nodded.   “Not quite the only one.   When can we come in and look around a bit?”  
    “Well,” Akhter said stroking his chin with the top of his wrist, “I’d give these guys a while yet, but you can probably peek your head in the door and get the general gist of things.”  
    Nelson and Cole followed Akhter to the office, staying in the doorway as the medical examiner went inside.   Nelson took one look at the far wall and let out a long, low whistle.   “I guess someone was pretty serious about this, weren’t they?” he said after a long pause.   “He’s back there behind the desk?”  
    “Yeah,” Akhter said pointing.  
    Nelson stuck his head as far into the left side of the doorway as he could, craning to try and see the body behind the desk.   He could see the victim’s left arm and part of what was left of his head.   Nelson stood straight up and looked at the wall again for a moment.   Then he briefly scanned the rest of the room and stepped back out into the corridor.   Cole followed him.   Nelson looked down at his feet.   Water from the melting snow on his boots stained the carpet.   He took another step away from the office and looked up to catch Cole’s eye.   “Well, this looks like it’s going to be a while,” Nelson said.   “Anyone been notified yet?   Wife?   Family?   Anything like that?”  
    “No, not yet.   The guy who found him, Professor Gordon Hyatt, said he was divorced a couple of years or so ago, and that his wife lived up in Evanston.”  
    “You mean ex-wife.”  
    “Yeah, that’s right.   Anyway, she lives up in Evanston.   Somebody was trying to find an address or a phone number for her up in Evanston.   The Dean was working on it.   I think his office is down on the 2nd floor if you want to take a stroll.”  
    “Yeah, sure,” Nelson replied, taking one last look inside the office before following Cole down the hallway.   “We’ve got to keep a lid on this thing,” Nelson said to Cole as they reached the elevators.   “This guy’s got a wife, or an ex-wife, and probably has some kids too.   For all we know, he’s got a girlfriend or something.   We don’t want these people flipping on the TV this afternoon and finding out that the old professor here got his brains beat out and nobody told them about it.”  
    “It looks like it’s going to be a heater,” Cole said just as Nelson was thinking the same thing.   Partners were like that.   They could read each other’s minds.
    “A heater,” Nelson repeated in a pained voice.   Inside the department, a “heater” was a case that drew a lot of heat, either from the press, the public or the brass at headquarters, sometimes even City Hall.   No one wanted to catch a heater.   “I can feel the tan already.”
    Cole slapped Nelson on the back.   “Thank God you’re in charge,” he said with a humorless laugh.   “Do you want to send somebody to the wife’s house?” Cole asked after a long moment when the weight of the immediate future began to settle in on both of them.
    Nelson made a face, like he just smelled something bad and it wasn’t the dead guy in the office.   “Nah, I’ll do it myself.   We’re not going to be able to get in there and look around for awhile yet anyway.