Sam Kincaid 01 - The Commission

meant it, or if she was patronizing me. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now.
    We had accomplished about all we could at the crime scene, so we agreed to meet at police headquarters for an early-morning strategy session.

Chapter Four
    It took only a few minutes to drive from Vogue’s home in the Avenues to police department headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City. It was just after four. I made a quick stop at an all-night convenience store where I purchased several cups of burned coffee and a bag of doughnuts. What’s a meeting among cops without coffee and doughnuts?
    Kate McConnell was meticulous and well organized. I saw that at the Vogue residence. This meeting was going to be about reviewing the case and assigning each of us specific leads to pursue. We met in a small conference room adjacent to a much larger open area that housed a number of detectives. At this time of the morning, the place was as quiet as a morgue on Christmas.
    As I entered the conference room, McConnell and the nattily dressed young detective I’d seen at the Vogue residence were busy clarifying the rules of an office betting pool on the NBA playoffs. She introduced him to me. His name was Vince Turner.
    “This is how it works,” said Turner. “Everybody puts two bucks in the pot. Then each person guesses the game’s final score—say I pick a score of 102 to 98. That means the winning number for me is 200 points. Whoever hits the number or comes closest wins.”
    Kate seemed to be thinking. “Sounds good, but how do we settle ties?”
    “Besides total points, you also have to pick the winner.”
    “What if there’s still a tie?”
    “Then nobody wins and the entire pot moves to the next game.”
    Turner looked up at me and smiled. “There’s still time, Sam. Care to join our office pool?”
    “Sure. Here’s my two bucks.”
    Turner had just transferred to Homicide from the robbery unit. He was built like one of those guys who doesn’t have a job, but instead spends most of his waking hours at a Gold’s Gym pumping iron and admiring himself in the mirrors. His handshake sent a jolt of pain up my arm. I’m sure I heard bones cracking in my right hand. I wasn’t sure whether this was a greeting or the beginning of an arm-wrestling contest I would surely lose.
    I downed a lukewarm cup of coffee and a semi-stale doughnut while McConnell quickly got us on track.
    “Let’s take a minute and talk about what we know and what we don’t know. We know the vic was killed execution style in the driveway of his home with some type of shotgun. So far, we have no witnesses, no murder weapon, no suspect, and no physical evidence. We know the killing had a professional look about it, yet the burglary of the home appeared very amateurish.
    Turner interrupted. “So, you’re questioning whether the burglary was real, or simply a cover for a well-planned act of premeditated murder?”
    “That’s right. And we don’t know whether the perp was working solo, or whether others were involved. We don’t know how the perp got to and from the crime scene. And, perhaps most important, we don’t whether the victim and the perp knew each other. If we’re going to clear this one, we need to focus on who might have wanted to see Levi Vogue dead and who stood to gain from his death.”
    “Wouldn’t it be wise to eliminate family members and friends before we look elsewhere?”asked Turner.
    “Absolutely,” replied Kate. “Things like life insurance policies, trusts, and inheritances, as well as the stability of the marriage in general. And what about his relationship with his sons? We can’t overlook the possibility of a Menendez brothers scenario.”
    As much as I wanted to lay this whole ugly episode on the back of a disgruntled family member or friend, or perhaps a burglary gone awry, all of my cop instincts told me we wouldn’t find an answer to this puzzle by following either of those trails. I listened quietly as McConnell and Turner discussed the relative merits of how to pursue the issue of possible involvement by family or friends. Kate then asked for my input.
    “My recommendation is that you pursue three directions simultaneously. The first would be family member involvement. I’d run in-depth background investigations on all immediate family members as well as any friends or acquaintances.
    “I’d also suggest that somebody go to work with your burglary detectives, as well as those at the Salt Lake