Mind Over Murder

They made good time crossing the city to the building where they met the witness protection people. They were briefed on what had happened to the juror number eleven. The spokesman was a veteran secret service agent. He said the agency had placed security cameras that covered every inch of the man's apartment. "This guy was a tough exmarine, wasn't afraid of the devil himself; fussed with us about the cameras. Went to bed about eleven and at two o'clock he got out of bed and walked toward the bathroom, when he got to the window he turned and opened the window sash, kicked the screen off and just dived out like he had been programmed to do so. Let me show you the film."

Pat watched the video with fascination. The juror seemed to be in a trance as he walked across the bedroom.His eyes were wide and unblinking. It was a very short film; the man dived headfirst through the window he had opened, obviously he was not in control of his faculties.

The agent turned up the lights and said, :There you have the whole picture. You now know as much as we do."

"Has the autopsy been completed?" Paul asked.

"Just finished, not an hour ago. The coroner ruled  that it was suicide by jumping from a fourteenth floor window."

"The body is where?" Paul wanted to know.

"It's still in the morgue, we had been instructed to wait until you arrived for a decision on the next step," the agent replied.

We want a lid clamped on this event.Use whatever you must to keep it as quiet as possible. The victim's name won't be associated with our case,but the less noise about it the better. I'll make arrangements to have the body transferred to our lab in Baltimore this afternoon.." Paul Bledsoe was quick to make that decision. He made a call on his secure phone and used a few code words and the wheels were in motion to use a government plane for the transfer and to provide transportation for the two men on the same plane. The local agent drove them to the naval air station, the body was loaded on the jet plane and in a short time they were airbone. Pat was amazed at how rapidly Paul had gotten so much accomplished.