Lady Justice and the Company

Prologue
Dag Nguyen, a homicide detective with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police, glanced at and then read from his scribbled notes.
“The front door was open, which he thought was strange. He walked in and heard music playing in the den. The house smelled of garlic from last night’s supper of Cuban food. He heard something upstairs and started up to take a look. That’s all he remembers.”
The captain from the Homicide Unit looked up from pouring a cup of coffee to make eye contact with Nguyen.
“That’s his statement?”
“So far.”
“Is he a suspect?”
“You tell me! His nine-year old daughter comes home and finds him sitting on the stairs. He asks her where her mom is. Then the girl goes upstairs and finds her mom dead in her parents’ bedroom. She starts screaming and somehow manages to call 911 on her cell. Then she runs right past her dad and goes to a neighbor’s house.”
“What is the ME saying?”
“Preliminary cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head. She said she’ll give us more later this evening.”
“Do we have a weapon?”
“A hammer in the sink of the master bathroom looks good for it.”
“Any blood on him?”
“Not that we can see.”
“Crap. Well, advise him and get his clothes off. I have never seen a hammer job where there was not blood somewhere on the killer. Where is the daughter?”
“She is downstairs with the neighbor.”
“Any other kids?”
“Nope. Only child.”
“Okay. Get her statement as soon as you can. Has the neighbor been cleared?”
“Yeah. She is a teacher and we put her at the school all day.”
“Alright. Let her sit in. In fact, see if we can talk to the girl at the neighbor’s house. A homicide office is no place for a nine-year-old.”
The captain, scratching his balding head, thought for a moment.
“Something strange here, nine-year-old girl finds her mom dead and runs to a neighbor instead of her dad. We’ll need to explore their relationship and see what that’s all about.”