These Sorrows We See
Page 41
“As to what,” she continued, “I’d say something thick and hard.”
“Like a baseball bat?” David offered.
She shook her head. “Not round, something flat. Like a two-by-four or the like.”
“Like something that would have burned up in the fire.” The sheriff’s voice wasn’t thrilled and David could sympathize.
“You think a third person might have been involved? Someone who whacked the dad?” David asked.
“That’s not my territory,” she answered.
“It is her territory, Hathaway. Maybe not officially, but by experience. And don’t let her fool you into thinking otherwise,” Ian interjected, clarifying for David. For a moment the sheriff’s eyes narrowed on his wife, as if trying to figure her out, then he shrugged.
“For some reason, she’s trying to stay out of it, though. Not sure why, since she never has before, but I’ll figure that out later. Officially, an assault like this would be my case,” he said, studying the image. “Unless of course the state or the feds take over, depending on what you find, Hathaway,” he added, taking a step away from the computer screen.
“But if someone were to ask me,” Dr. DeMarco continued, ignoring her previous statement with a sly smile directed at her husband who shot David a look as if to say “I told you so.” “I’d say you should look into the possibility of a third person, but my guess is you’ll find that Aaron did it,” she pronounced as she placed her hands on the small of her back and stretched, displaying her growing belly.
“You need to sit down, Vivienne,” Ian said, noticing his wife’s movements with concern.
“I’m fine,” she waved him off.
“Why?” David asked, cutting off the protest that was no doubt forming on Ian’s lips.
“Maybe to stop his father,” she offered, her head tilted as she studied the images.
“Stop his father from setting off the bomb or stop his father from stopping him from setting off the bomb?” he pressed.
She took a moment to answer. “You’ll have to figure that out,” she finally said. But it was clear from the way her gaze slid to the side that the good doctor definitely had her opinions.
David frowned and mentally went through what Dr. Martinez had told him about Aaron’s condition. “Aaron’s injuries might be consistent with an attempt to diffuse a bomb,” he posited, thinking out loud more than anything. He hadn’t really formed any opinions yet, didn’t have enough information. But he wanted to throw it out there and see what this couple did with that option.
“Or they might be consistent with someone who was attempting to build one and accidentally set it off,” Ian suggested, though his tone was more pragmatic than persuasive or argumentative.
“Would this injury have killed him, Dr. DeMarco, if the smoke hadn’t?” David asked, pointing to the x-ray images.
“Call me Vivi, please, and yes, it probably would have if he didn’t seek treatment for it. The force of the blow was strong enough that the impact of the fractures would have caused damage and bleeding of the brain. Left untreated, his brain would have likely swollen, eventually killing him.”
“So if it was Aaron that hit his father and then set off the bomb, he’s probably responsible for his father’s death either way,” David said.
“But if he hit his father and tried to diffuse the bomb, he was likely acting in some form of self-defense,” Ian countered.
David had to admit that, even though he would track the evidence where it took him, the idea of Aaron Greene being involved in this debacle as a hero rather than a killer appealed to him. He knew it was possible for a kid to be cold blooded, to build bombs and set fires that killed people. But he preferred to give the young man the benefit of the doubt. And though everyone he’d met so far at Riverside had maintained professional detachment and no one had raved about Aaron being innocent, it was clear from how they talked about him, how they talked about the situation, that everyone was having a hard time buying he was the bad guy in all this.
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