The air inside the barn was warm and wet and smelled of char. Two Forensics technicians were setting up mobile lighting; parts of the barn’s interior were already brightly lit, while other areas remained in semi-darkness. When disturbed by people moving about, the dense smoke inside the barn drifted in gentle swirls. Although seven or eight technicians were working the scene there was little conversation among them. A uniformed police officer examined Sam’s detective badge and then motioned her towards a stall near the rear of the barn. Preoccupied with taking photographs, the technician inside the stall did not acknowledge her when she approached.
Sam looked into the stall. The body of Alejandro Rios lay sideways on the floor. His arms were flung open, palms up. She had prepared herself for seeing Rios dead, but the emotion came anyway. He looked so helpless, she thought, no longer the virile man that she had admired in spite of herself. She berated herself for putting him off, for ignoring his repeated calls. Now he was dead, and she was left to find out why.
She drew the technician’s attention with a slight cough. When he looked up at her, she raised her badge to indicate that she wanted to come closer. The technician cautioned her not to touch anything. Entering the stall, Sam moved her head slowly from side to side to take in the environment in its totality. Deep cuts in the planked walls bore testimony to the activity of a metal-shod horse. Patches of concrete were visible beneath her feet, but most of the floor was hidden under wet straw. Water pooled in puddles where the concrete was exposed. The stall had not been mucked out, and the air smelled strongly of manure.
She stood over the body. The straw around Rios was undisturbed, she noticed, evidence that he had not been moved. She looked back towards the stall entrance, trying to gauge the ability of anyone in the corridor to witness what had happened. Where Rios lay, in a front-facing corner, was virtually out of sight. As she drew closer to the body she saw that Rios’ head was supported by a clump of blood-spattered straw. She bent down to get a better look. Since Rios lay sideways, she could observe only one outer corner of the wound on the back of his head. Disconcertingly, she saw that Rios’ eyes were open. She wondered what he had seen in his last moment.
Sam left the barn and went looking for Agostino. She found him with a group of people who had newly arrived from the Medical Examiner’s office. She pulled him aside. “It’s Alejandro Rios,” she said. “He was one of my sources. He called me a few days ago, but I didn’t have a chance to get back to him.”
“Was he involved in anything recently?” Agostino asked.
“Not that I know of,” Sam said. “As far as tips go, he hadn’t given me much lately.”
“Did he think he was in any danger?”
“He didn’t mention any threats the last time I saw him,” Sam said. “But he had enemies. Lots of enemies.”
“What do you know about relatives, for the notification?”
“There’s a daughter,” Sam said. “Her name is Adela Rios. She lives here in the Ranch. She must have evacuated nearby.”
“Any idea how I can track her down?”
“Rios used Lindstrom and Spencer for his legal work. You should be able to locate her through them.”
Agostino told Sam that, because she knew Rios, he would appreciate her help with the case. They agreed that he would remain on site, to secure and search the property, while she would go to the Fairgrounds to interview everyone who had been at the barn that morning.