The Case of the Murdered MacKenzie: A Masao Masuto Mystery (Book Seven) Read Free Page A

Wainwright?”
    â€œChief of Detectives—also the head of the force. Well, he told me that there was a situation at the Mackenzie home on Lexington Road that might or might not be a homicide. It had been reported as an accident, but the ambulance from All Saints Hospital—I mean the men on the ambulance—they certified Mr. Mackenzie as dead and were unwilling to remove the body until our medical examiner, Dr. Sam Baxter, had seen it.”
    â€œYes, just what were these suspicious circumstances, Detective Beckman.”
    â€œIf you would let me tell it my way,” Beckman said, consulting his notebook now.
    â€œYes, of course.”
    â€œI left for the Mackenzie house immediately. It’s on Lexington, just past Benedict Canyon Drive. I knew the house. It’s part of my work to know most of the houses that important people live in. When I got there, Officer Keller was sitting in his car in the driveway, waiting for me. It’s general practice to have a car standing by in a situation like this, even if there’s no hard evidence yet of a crime. The ambulance had left, but I saw Dr. Baxter’s car in the driveway.”
    â€œIs Dr. Baxter the same man who did the subsequent autopsy?”
    â€œYes. We don’t have a regular pathology department in Beverly Hills. We use All Saints’ pathology room and morgue. When we need him, Dr. Baxter acts as our medical examiner.”
    â€œYes. Go on, please.”
    â€œI spoke to Officer Keller, and he informed me that only the housekeeper and Dr. Baxter were in the house.”
    â€œWould you identify the housekeeper, please.”
    â€œFeona Scott, widow, thirty-nine years old, been with the Mackenzies four years.”
    â€œYou went into the house then?”
    â€œYes, sir,” Beckman said. “I went into the house. That is, Mrs. Scott opened the door for me and told me that Mr. Mackenzie’s body was upstairs in the main bedroom. She directed me to the bathroom off the master bedroom and separated from it by a dressing room. As I entered the master bedroom, Dr. Baxter yelled at me to tell Mrs. Scott to phone All Saints and get the ambulance back here. I asked him whether that meant that Mackenzie was alive. I’m afraid it meant that Mackenzie was dead and he wanted the ambulance to take the body to the pathology room.”
    Masuto smiled, thinking of what Baxter had probably said, something to the effect of, Alive as you are from the neck up. Baxter was hardly a pleasant person, and he regarded every homicide as a personal affront to his time and dignity.
    â€œI then asked Dr. Baxter what was the cause of death, and he said that until he did an autopsy he was guessing. Possibly Mr. Mackenzie had been electrocuted while taking a bath. However, he indicated an ugly bruise at the deceased’s temple. Dr. Baxter suggested that a small radio in the bathroom might have been the cause of electrocution if he had been electrocuted—that it might have either been thrust into the tub or fallen into the tub. He also said that the blow to the head might have killed Mackenzie.”
    Cassell rose to object to this as provocative guesswork and hearsay, and the judge asked Beckman whether he could substantiate his statements. Before he could answer, Geffner announced that he intended to call Dr. Baxter and both ambulance attendants as witnesses. “Detective Beckman,” Geffner said, “just tell us what happened without any inferences or suggestions.”
    â€œI was only telling you what Dr. Baxter said.”
    â€œI understand. Please go on.”
    â€œWell, I know a little something about electricity, and when you’ve been a cop as long as I have, you seen practically everything, and we had incidents where an electric appliance had fallen into a tub or a pool. The radio in the bathroom was wet, and when I shook it I could hear water sloshing around inside. At the same time, the light in the