by Alec Peche
The three law enforcement people had been taking notes while Jennifer talked about the case, and she’d given so much information that they were still writing even though her explanation had ended. Jennifer placed a copy of John Mullin’s business card in a clear plastic bag on the conference table. They all took a look at the card.
“First question, what agency should handle this case?” Jennifer asked.
“I think the law enforcement impersonation took place within the city and county of Sacramento, so that would be under our jurisdiction. It appears we also have evidence tampering. Do you have any theories as to why the man showed up when he did? I don’t recall hearing about these three deaths due to arson or even some other cause on the news. How did he know about that, and how did he know this office was performing the autopsy on one of the victims? As none of the fires occurred in this county, you wouldn’t automatically think to head to the Sacramento Medical Examiner’s Office,” said Detective Aaron Rodriguez.
“Can we back up and talk about these three cases?” asked Agent Sanderson. “Tell me more about why all four cases are connected. These deaths occurred perhaps one-hundred miles apart and two weeks apart?”
Jill spoke for the first time, “Yes, that’s correct. Let me tell you about the four victims as they have one thing in common. They are all on a dating site called Matefinder. None of the men are smokers. This is based on both their social media profiles and testing for nicotine in their blood, and yet cigarette butts were found next to their remains. The first three fires have occurred on documented hiking trails. The trails are reviewed by hikers who say they are deserted, and there was something special on the hike. In the case of the first wildfire, there was a beautiful view before everything was torched. There was a beautiful creek with the second wildfire, and the third wildfire had an interesting rock formation. I think a pond might be the point of interest for the fourth hiking trail. All of the men were either Caucasian or Hispanic and between thirty-five and forty-five years of age. Each of their social media profiles suggested they were couch potatoes, unlikely to take random hikes in the woods.
“At this time, we don’t know what killed them. We just know the victims expired before the fire started.”
“How do you know that?” asked one of the detectives.
“While they had the remnants of smoke inside their nose and mouth, there is no evidence in their lungs of inhaling smoke. That means they were dead before the fire started. A piece of evidence that we found yesterday was a part of a balloon. Our female arsonist could have had victims inhale nitrogen or helium, killing them and leaving very little evidence. At this point, we no longer have the balloon fragment, and so the theory of an inert gas killing them is just speculation at this point.”
“I think you have enough evidence for us to open an investigation,” said Agent Sanderson. “I’d like to work with my colleagues here, Detectives Rodriguez and Maguire.”
“Based on what you’ve said, the arsonist is going to strike again in eleven days. Is that correct?” asked Detective Maguire.
“That seems to be the schedule she’s on. She should kill her next victim in Shasta County in four days in a wildfire.”
“Wow,” remarked Rodriguez.
“Why do you say Shasta County, Dr. Quint?” asked Agent Sanderson.
“If you see the pattern of the crime scenes, you will note that each county is two over from the previous county. So, she killed in Butte, she’ll skip Tehama or Plumas and kill someone in Shasta or Lassen County. My money’s on Shasta County as she likes foothills to kill in, and she needs a population to select her victim from. The city of Redding is just under 100,000 residents. Still, Lassen County is small. Its largest city, Susanville, has about 17,000 residents, and two-thirds of them work at one of the three prisons. Maybe your FBI profile people could figure out where she’s going to strike next?”
“We might be going down the wrong path. Maybe these cases aren’t connected. Maybe they’re all victims of random bad luck if you can’t determine what killed them,” said Detective Maguire. “Don’t we have a fair number of homeless living and campfire cooking in our wildfire areas? They start fires every year.”
“That’s entirely possible. However, you have a fake cop who has inserted himself into this case, and that should bother you as he’s walked away with some prime evidence,” Jill said, mad that for what felt like the one-hundredth time, she was not being taken seriously because she wasn’t a cop.
“You’re right, Dr. Quint, and I was briefed by the Special Agent in Charge of Northern California that no matter how wild your story is to believe you and help you,” said Agent Sanderson. “I think your story qualifies as wild, and I believe you.”
“Thank you,” Jill said, turning her body away from Detective Maguire because she was done with the detective.
“Do you have any security tapes of the fake detective John Mullin entering or walking around the facility?” asked Detective Rodriguez.
“We have him on security tape, but he keeps his head down, and he’s wearing a ballcap, so it’s not much help.”
“I have facial recognition software that can identify someone, but I need a full face, and we don’t seem to have that here. I also took pictures of John Mullin yesterday at the wildfire site, and in all of my pictures, he has his head turned away from the camera lens. I don’t believe we have a solid photograph we can use to identify him,” Jill said.
Jennifer nodded, “Agent Sanderson, I’ll turn the tapes over to you.”
“I’d like a copy as well,” said Rodriguez. He apparently believed Jill’s explanation from what she could tell, or at least he wanted to find the fake cop.
Jill was thinking about how she could move on without the evidence that John Mullin walked away with the previous day.
“I have a trained scent dog, and she discovered the cigarette butts and the balloon fragment at the fire location for the fourth victim. At the wildfire locations for victims two and three, I didn’t have her search for anything from the victims. Jennifer, if you can get me a personal effect of victims two and three, I’ll take Trixie out to the fire scenes again and have her search. Maybe we’ll luck out.”
“I’d like to go with you,” said Sanderson.
“The two fire sites and my home are south of Sacramento. So, you’ll need to drive south to meet me.”
“I’ll get you a personal effect of the third victim before you leave today, and I’ll contact the other medical examiner’s office to see if they have any personal effects in storage. I would presume the family would have picked up the belongings, but then they would have cut the clothes off that didn’t burn up in the fire and may still have them,” Dr. Galloway said.
Jill caught Maguire flinching at the thought of the victim’s clothes being burned off and had a thought.
“Would you like to see victim number four, Detective Maguire? He’s still in the cooler.”
“No, thanks. Like I said, I’m not sure you have a homicide here. As Detective Rodriguez is handling the impersonation, I’ll just leave and get back to the other cases I am working on.”
There was silence in the room as the detective left.
“Oh well. That’s the detective’s loss. This is going to prove to be an interesting case,” remarked Agent Sanderson.
Rodriguez gave a slightly puzzled look at the agent and said, “You seem so sure that this case is, in fact, homicide. Yet the evidence seems sparse and circumstantial.”
“It’s the reputation of Dr. Quint with the FBI, Detective. She also saved the lives of two FBI agents a couple years ago, so we’re going to run with her suspicions as she hasn’t failed us yet.”
Jill hadn’t liked the disrespect that she had felt from Maguire, but she also found she didn’t like this FBI agent's breezy confidence. Okay, Jill thought, admit it, you’re never happy. Either you’re being disrespected or sucked up to, and neither approach is making you happy. Sigh.
Jennifer arranged f
or the security tapes to be sent to Detective Rodriguez. She got the clothing for Jill from victim number three. Jill gave Agent Sanderson directions where they could meet the next day to view the fire scenes again, and the meeting broke up.
Chapter 13
Jill was about thirty minutes from her home when she got a call. She hit the button on her car’s dashboard and said, “This is Jill Quint,” as she didn’t recognize the number.
“Hi Dr. Quint, this is Detective Mullin.”
Jill was so surprised that she found herself pulling off the highway on the upcoming off-ramp. She put the car in park, spending microseconds wondering how she should respond. She decided to play it cool.
“Yes. Did you get the results back on the balloon fragment?”
“I did, and there was evidence of He-4 in abundance.”
“That’s a helium isotope, and if you inhale enough of it, you will die.”
While Jill had the fake cop on the phone, she took Agent Sanderson’s card out of her purse and texted him about John Mullin calling her.
His only response was to say he was calling the cellular networks to trace the call. Jill tuned back into the phone call, wondering if she should tell him she knew he wasn’t with the CBI.
“Did you get any DNA results on the cigarette butt?”
She then texted the agent, Should I tell him we know he’s a fake cop?
He replied, No. See if you can get him to meet us tomorrow at our scheduled time and location.
“They came back with female DNA.”
“Was it a match to the other three victims?” Jill asked the fake cop.
“Don’t know yet. What are your next steps on the case?”
I’d like to find out who you are and why you’re impersonating an officer, Jill wanted to say. Instead, she said, “That’s good information. I’m going back to the other scene tomorrow with Trixie to see if I can find another balloon fragment. You’re welcome to join me.”
Fake Detective Mullin said, “I’m tied up tomorrow, but let me know if you find any new evidence.”
Not until I know who you really are, Jill wanted to yell into the phone.
“Okay, then. Thanks for your help, goodbye.”
“Wait! I just wanted to say that you should be sure to keep me informed of any new information.”
“So, you think these cases are connected, and they’re homicide?”
Jill thought it was bad when she could convince a fake cop of the merits of the four deaths being connected, but couldn’t convince the Sacramento Police Detective that it deserved her time. Life wasn’t fair.
“I think they are connected, and I think they’re homicide. I like your theory about helium.”
“Okay then, I’ll let you know if I collect any additional information from my searches tomorrow,” and Jill punched the disconnect key to end the call. She changed her phone configuration so that the phone detected she was in motion in a car and therefore couldn’t answer the phone. She wanted to complete the drive home and think about the fake detective, then she would call Agent Sanderson the moment she reached her home.
The more she thought about the fake detective, the more concerned she became about her personal safety. He had her business card, and with little effort, he could discover where she lived. Her dog liked him, so she offered no defense. Until she had more information on the man, she would stay with Nathan.
She was about to dial him when she remembered that this was Nathan’s first day teaching, and he was up north and staying in a hotel tonight. She would text him about staying in his house tonight as it seemed rude to just take over his house in his absence.
Nathan must have not been in class, for he soon responded, Do I need to be there tonight? Do you want additional protection?
It was sweet that he would drive all that way to keep her safe. She replied, No, stay where you are. It’s either your house or a hotel. I think we’ll have more information on the fake detective tomorrow.
She reached her home and packed her laptop, overnight clothes, and a few dog items, and she was driving away from her house a short time later. She reached Nathan’s house, used her key to get in, and settled in in his kitchen to get some work done. She also had alarms and cameras on her property to know if she was over-reacting or if John Mullin arrived at her house.
Trixie retreated to a soft rug and looked on with disgust when Jill picked Arthur up and set him on her lap to be petted. The cat preened and purred loudly, knowing that it aggravated the dog. She smiled over the thought that some things never changed. She then called Agent Sanderson to see what new information he had.
“Hello, Dr. Quint.”
“Call me Jill. Were you able to trace the phone call?”
“Yes, though it wasn’t much help. Your caller was in a car on Highway 99 traveling south. We have no road cameras in that area, so short of sending up a helicopter which wouldn’t get there before you ended the call, we didn’t gain much by tracing the call.”
“I hit the record button on my cell phone, so I’ll send a copy of our conversation to both you and Detective Rodriguez. It’s probably of little value, but I’ll close the loop on it. I was a little unnerved by the call, so I’m staying at a friend’s house tonight. I have a sophisticated security system watching my house, and I’ll know if he tries to find me at home.”
“You told him what we were doing tomorrow?”
“I did, but I didn’t tell them about the ‘we’ part. If he shows up, he’ll be surprised by your presence. Do you carry a gun?”
“Standard issue for all FBI agents. Are you expecting I’ll need it?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t sense danger, nor did my dog when we first met him. She’s a pretty good judge of character.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m just completely puzzled. How did he know about this case? How did he figure out the best law enforcement agency to impersonate because it’s relatively obscure? You will hear in the recording that the balloon fragment contained helium in the form of He-4, which is the most common type of helium on our planet. He also said he had the cigarette butt analyzed, and it came back with female DNA. Still, he couldn’t match it to the previous three cigarette butts’ DNA. I wonder if that’s all a lie or if he actually had the balloon and the butt analyzed but couldn’t match it to the other butts as he didn’t have possession of them?”
“Either answer is possible, right?”
“Yes, with a private lab, you could get those results within twenty-four hours. What should I do or say if he calls again?”
“The only thing he doesn’t know about this case is that we know he’s not representing the California Bureau of Investigation. You’re not going to have new information unless you find more evidence at the wildfire scenes tomorrow. So between now and when we’re done investigating those wildfire sites, you can pretty much say to him whatever you want. We don’t think he’s a suspect in these homicides as both the dating site and the cigarette butts suggest a female arsonist murderer. He has some relationship to this case that we haven’t figured out yet.”
“Okay. I feel a little safer after talking it over with you.”
“Did you check with the other counties to see if they have any other male deaths in wildfires that fit the scenario with these four fires?” Agent Sanderson asked.
“I sent an email out to the other counties, and perhaps two-thirds of them responded with a negative. They had no deaths that fit our profile. I’ll send out another email to those remaining counties just to close the loop. I looked at the state fire reports for this fire season, and I don’t see other fires with the death of just one male.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you at our designated location tomorrow. I may have a second agent join us from the Fresno office as some of the deaths have been in her territory. Is there anything else I can do for you? Do you feel unsafe?”
“I feel very secure, and my dog and I will see you tomorrow.”
After they en
ded the call, Jill forwarded the recording of the phone call to both the agent and the detective. She provided a longer explanation for the detective. Still, she didn’t expect to hear back from him as she gave him all the information that she had.
She had a quiet night at Nathan’s house, and no alarms went off at her house. She continued to research the dating app, deciding to focus on men she wouldn’t consider dating even if Nathan wasn’t in her life. Maybe she could narrow it down to a few targets, and then they could put some resources on the targets. Jill tried to make a long list of the similarities among the four victims. Beyond the ethnicity, age range, and poor spelling, what other qualities could she use to describe the four victims? She printed out their profiles, whom they liked, and who liked them in case their profiles were taken down. After hours spent combing the small details, she didn’t have much more than the obvious characteristics. Maybe that was a quality all its own—the men were so shallow that there was nothing there. Jill drank two glasses of wine while first producing the victim profiles and then moving on to potential victims in Shasta County who were on the app. Her final conclusion was that she was glad she was off the market in looking for a mate. Jill didn’t need to look any farther than Nathan. She already had her perfect man, and she was grateful because if she stared at that website for much longer, she was sure she would be blind.
