Plea of Insanity Read Free

a dozen uniforms stood guard outside the bedroom doors while Crime Scene techs with Miami-Dade PD snapped their photos. Bright flashes of light exploded in the hallway above him.
    ‘Looks like they’re bringing the County in,’ said Carlos Sanchez, a road sergeant with Coral Gables, as he watched another crime-scene tech in a MDPD windbreaker walk past and head upstairs. ‘I saw Steve Brill head into the kitchen before. He’s with Persons,’ Sanchez said, looking past the hallway that led to the kitchen where detectives were now interviewing Pete Colonna. ‘But I bet Miami-Dade’s gonna send Homicide.’ The Persons Crime Squad was the Coral Gables detective unit that handled crimes against persons, like robbery or sexual assault. The Gables didn’t have a Homicide Squad. ‘I heard Brill can be a prick, but only if you’re sleeping with him,’ the sergeant said lightly.
    ‘Don’t know him,’ murmured Demos, unable to take his eyes off the stairs. Every time the flashbulb would flash, the camera would make a loud, high-pitched hum that softly faded off. Fingerprint techs had begun their handiwork in the front hall, and fine black soot covered everything. To Ralph Demos, the air tasted heavy and bitter on his tongue; a taste he feared might never go away. In the kitchen he could hear the detectives talking with Pete Colonna, who was still crying.
    ‘You okay there, Ralph?’ Sanchez asked with a frown. ‘You want me to get one of them EMTs down here to take a look at you?’
    ‘Poor kid,’ said Ralph, running a trembling hand over his sweaty head and looking back toward the kitchen. ‘He saw it first. I mean, I knew it was gonna be bad when I saw all that blood, but he’s only been on the force, what? A year?’
    ‘His wife’s due with their first,’ said Sanchez, shaking his head. ‘I think that’s why it hit him hard.’
    ‘Twins. I know. I just heard.’
    ‘Pete’ll be okay. Psych will take care of him if he needs it.’
    ‘He will. Christ, he will. He wanted to take the door when he first got on scene. I told him to stand down and wait. Maybe it would’ve made a difference …’ Demos’s voice tapered off and Sanchez said nothing.
    Two men wearing blue windbreakers that read MIAMI-DADE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE in bright white letters walked through the front door. With a somber nod they headed backup the stairs. The ME himself was already on scene. Ralph watched them go up.
    ‘Who found the father?’ asked Sanchez, forcing his friend back to the living room.
    ‘Me,’ Ralph said softly. ‘Is he gonna make it?’
    ‘Don’t know. He looked pretty fucked up. They’re taking him to Ryder.’ Ryder Trauma Center was a part of the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital in downtown Miami.
    ‘Goddamn,’ Ralph mumbled and shook his head. ‘Anybody else?’
    Sanchez said nothing again, just looked at the floor.
    Ralph fought back the tears. ‘A whole family,’ he said. ‘What kind of animal would do this shit? What kind of world are we living in?’
    Sanchez waited a moment, watching big Ralph Demos wipe buckets of sweat off his pale head. He looked like he was gonna drop. ‘You gonna be okay, Ralph?’
    ‘Me? I’m outta here in a few weeks. Hell, maybe now I’ll go tomorrow. But Colonna, see, he’s just started, Carlos. He’s got to deal with this shit for another twenty-four if he wants to go out on eighty percent.’ Ralph paused and wiped his head again. A white flash exploded from the hall upstairs and the familiar hum softly faded off. The shuffle of footsteps sounded again on the stone steps above him.
    ‘God, this job sucks,’ was all Carlos Sanchez could think of to say as big Ralph began to cry. Then he watched in silence as the two men in the ME windbreakers carried the first of the small blackbody bags downstairs and out the front door.

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
    ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat.