by Alec Peche
Jennifer Galloway looked up, seemingly relieved that Jill arrived to share some of the strain of the situation, and then she began dictating to the overhead microphone.
“Dr. Jennifer Galloway, Medical Examiner, Dr. Jill Quint, forensic pathologist, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Leticia Ortiz, and Forensic Pathology Assistant Robert Keller are in attendance.”
Jennifer proceeded with the autopsy, a process Jill had done herself over a thousand times. They accessed the x-rays and lab work taken as soon as the agent’s remains had arrived at the office. His blood showed an unusually high content of carbon monoxide. That was a common lab finding for victims of fires. Still, the pathologists noted that for follow-up when they evaluated the heart and lungs. His skin had the pinkness of someone with carbon monoxide poisoning. When they got to the lungs, Jill and Jennifer looked at each other as Jill said, “He wasn’t breathing when the fire started. My guess is she pumped carbon monoxide into the bedroom. That would be why he didn’t escape the fire. He was already dead.”
“Agent Sanderson was murdered?” asked SAC Ortiz.
“Probably, we can rule out suicide as there was no evidence of a source of carbon monoxide near his remains. What we can’t rule out is the source of the carbon monoxide. It might be a broken gas stove, gas heater, or gas water heater. We’ll have to talk to the fire department about that.”
“Could the Burnt Widow send gas into an open window in a house? Would she gain enough concentration to kill someone?”
“Probably. The evidence would be gone as soon as the fire started. The agent could have inhaled it in his sleep without ever waking up again,” Jill replied, then asked a question. “Why start the fire? He was already dead. Was she burning up some evidence? Was it her signature event—always start a fire?”
“I don’t know. That’s a question for the behaviorists, which I’ll get them to think about today once I’m done here.”
Jennifer was quietly finishing the autopsy while the two women watched and spoke.
“Special Agent in Charge Ortiz, we’re done here, and I’ll issue a report that says the agent died from carbon monoxide poisoning, either by accident or by homicide, pending the fire department’s findings. Is there a family I should talk to?” Dr. Galloway asked.
“I checked our records, and the surprising answer is no. Agent Sanderson was all alone in this world. He grew up in foster care, did a stint in the military, and then joined the FBI. I’ll ask the Sacramento office if they know if he was dating anyone so we can include him or her in the funeral planning.”
“Okay, then our forensic pathology assistant will close everything up, and you’re free to move his remains. We can certainly store the remains here pending any funeral preparations you now have to plan.”
“Thank you, Drs. Quint and Galloway, for handling this autopsy. It was important to me that he had the best forensic experts to take care of him.”
Jill nodded, wondering briefly where she should go next. She had no work to do in this building, but she also wanted to comfort Leticia in private. She thought she knew her well enough to at least give her a hug. In the end, she waved goodbye to Jennifer and headed to the locker room to change.
Leticia followed her inside and asked, “Would you come with me to the fire scene? I’m meeting the fire inspector there.”
“Sure, but let me give you a hug first. You never want to lose an agent, and Brandon Sanderson was a good agent and a kind man.”
After the awkward hug, Leticia stepped back and said, “Thank you. I’m holding it together, but barely. When I get home tonight, I’m going to hug my husband and teenagers and spend time telling them that I’m so happy they are in my life.”
“If you don’t find any significant others, I’d be happy to help you plan the funeral since I spent some time working with Agent Sanderson. I have a story to tell about his kindness that would resonate well at his funeral.”
“Thank you, Jill. I may take you up on that.”
“You may want to have additional security around your house. The Burnt Widow could be going after anyone who spoke at the press conference yesterday. I’m staying with Nathan until she’s apprehended. My vineyard has a ton of security, but I’m not going to make it easy for her.”
“Good point. I have good security on my house, but I may move the family into the FBI building until she’s captured. Here’s the address of Agent Sanderson's house in Roseville. I’ll meet you there,” Leticia said, handing Jill a piece of paper with an address on it.
Jill planned to stop at a coffee shop she knew to be in the ME’s neighborhood. She needed a hit of caffeine, given the lack of sleep and the stressful autopsy. She was about to leave when she asked Leticia, “Hey, I’m going to hit a coffee shop on the way. Do you want me to bring anything for you?”
“Actually, I’ll follow you out of the parking lot to your coffee shop. I need some caffeine and some food.”
Twenty minutes later, they each had their coffee made-to-order and some food to keep them going, and they headed for the freeway. Jill followed Leticia’s car for a while and then decided she needed to speed. Leticia was a far more conservative driver than Jill, and it was taking the fun out of driving for her.
Jill arrived at the address, and the street was still cluttered with fire and police vehicles. Jill parked outside of their zone and leaned against her car, sipping her coffee, waiting for Leticia to appear. She figured she could hop into her car for the ride through all the official people. A short time later, the agent’s car came to a halt next to Jill, and she opened the door to get in.
“You drive like a bat out of hell.”
“It’s a habit. I consider the posted speed limits to be suggestions.”
“Do you have a lot of speeding tickets? I don’t remember seeing that when I first researched your background.”
“I don’t. I have an eyeball in the back of my head scanning for cops, and so far, it’s saved me from getting ticketed.”
The car had moved forward to where a cop was standing, and Leticia flashed her badge. She was waved closer and told where she could park. Jill looked at a house that had sustained serious fire damage. The houses in this neighborhood were separated by green lawns, so the fire hadn’t spread to the houses on either side of Agent Sanderson’s.
Leticia approached the fire inspector and the cop waiting for her on the front lawn with Jill on her heels.
She held out her credentials and said, “Leticia Ortiz, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Northern California, and this is Dr. Jill Quint, a forensic pathologist and private investigator. What can you tell us about this house fire that killed my agent? We’ve just come from his autopsy. We know that he didn’t die from smoke inhalation or burns from this fire. Rather, he died from carbon monoxide poisoning. So did this house fire start from a bad gas appliance, or was the fire intentional?”
This wasn’t Leticia’s usual way of speaking to law enforcement representatives. Jill thought it must be the weight of the agent’s death and perhaps the lack of sleep.
Chapter 26
“We just concluded before you arrived that this fire was intentionally set. There are accelerants that were used for the fire. However, more importantly, we have footage on a neighbor’s doorbell security camera of a female arsonist spreading accelerant. Perhaps this is the same female that is starting fires across the state,” said the fire inspector.
“Can you tell which accelerant was used?” Jill asked.
“We got lucky there, and she is one smart arsonist. She’s lighting fires with isopropyl alcohol.”
“How did you determine that? If I recall from my chemistry class, isopropyl alcohol burns fast and leaves no residue.”
“The arsonist spilled some into the grass away from the house, and it didn’t burn. Our lab just identified it.”
“Could she use that for brushfires? I don’t believe we’ve identified how she is lighting fires.”
“It very well could be. The arsonist’s
latest fire has been burning for several days. The alcohol may have dissipated by now.”
“I have a sniffer dog. Would she be able to detect such a chemical?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a dog expert. Cal-Fire does have an accelerant dog that you might request for your other scenes.”
“What else did you find here?” asked SAC Ortiz.
“We received a 911 call from one of the neighbors and responded within three minutes. Upon arrival, the house was engulfed, and the neighbor indicated a single male lived there. Fire personnel were able to enter and found an unresponsive male in his bed. He was carried outside, and resuscitation was attempted. Paramedics continued CPR, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. Fire personnel continued to work on extinguishing the fire, and approximately two hours after the arrival of the fire squadron, we considered the fire extinguished. Due to a report of the suspicious behavior, we’ve spent more time at this scene collecting evidence and involving our colleagues in the Roseville Police.”
“I’d like to walk through the house if it is safe, and I’d like to interview a few of the neighbors. He appears to have no next of kin, so I’ll be searching for the presence of another person in his life.”
The fire inspector looked at the shoes that both women were wearing and said, “It’s not safe for you to enter in those shoes. There is debris everywhere, and you might step on nails, glass, or other objects that will puncture your shoes. There’s a shoe store a few blocks away that sells safety shoes if you want to go there and buy something to wear.”
“I have combat boots in my trunk. I’ll change into them and come back to you,” Leticia said.
“I don’t have proper shoes, and I’m not sure I can be of use here, so I’ll walk back to my car unless you need me for something, Leticia,” Jill said.
“Actually, I would appreciate your investigative skills when I speak with the neighbors and look at the door video. Would you mind waiting while I search for evidence of someone else in Agent Sanderson’s life?”
“I’d be happy to help. I’ll just grab a seat at the curb and read my email while you’re searching.”
“Thanks, Jill.”
Jill did exactly as she said and found a shady part of the street curb to sit on while the fire inspector and the detective accompanied Leticia inside the house.
She sent Nathan a text with what she was up to. Then she called Melissa Profino to get her analysis of the arsonist’s latest actions.
“Hi, Jill.”
“Hi Melissa, do you have time to talk at the moment?” Jill was trying to remember her tasting room schedule.
“I do for the next hour. What’s up?”
Jill explained about the press conference and the agent’s death.
“So you want to know if she’s coming after you and the other FBI agent?”
“Yes. Did the Burnt Widow choose Agent Sanderson because he was the only male at the press conference, or is she taking us on one at a time?”
“I think she has a plan in her head that she is following. I think her ego was getting a boost with each fire and kill that she made. She felt very assured that her killing spree hadn’t come to the notice of law enforcement. When she found out through a press conference that you were aware of her activities, that became quite a blow to her ego, and so she’s striking out. I think she’ll come after you and your FBI friend. She may also switch dating sights and change states or head to Southern California, figuring that the news of her killing her dates hasn’t followed her there. However, I would think she would come after you ladies first before she sets up shop in the south.”
“Okay, both the agent and I are moving out of our homes. I’m staying with Nathan, and the agent is moving her family into the FBI building until we capture her. Do you think she’ll get a little more reckless now that she’s been discovered?”
“I do. She was reckless in killing the agent. She left evidence of her accelerant and her presence. If she had thought this through, she would have been a little more careful.”
“Okay. Thanks for your telephone evaluation. I know the FBI has experts, but you know the full story, and you’re an expert too. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Stay safe and invite me into your cases. So far, this one is really interesting. Are they all like this?”
“I’ve had my share of weird cases and international cases. Imagine trying to figure out what a Russian or an Italian is going to do. Got to run. I’m needed for something here,” Jill said as she saw Leticia exit the house carrying something.
She stood up and waited for the agent to approach. She was carrying something in her hand.
“I found a girlfriend. I’m going to give her a call, then we’ll visit the neighbors, okay?”
Jill nodded. She was glad she wasn’t making that call. She resumed reading her email and looked up when she saw Leticia approaching again.
“That was awful. They were engaged. I’m glad he had someone in his life. We’ll include her in planning the funeral. Let’s grab Roseville Detective Paul Long and go talk with these neighbors.”
Jill accompanied them on the interviews but didn’t learn anything that Leticia and Detective Long hadn’t also learned. She watched the doorbell camera in fascination. It reminded her of one of her early cases when she watched her property’s cameras as a sniper entered her vineyard. There was nothing like seeing the murderer for the first time.
The Burnt Widow appeared to be of average height and weight. She was dressed all in black, but a few glimpses of her face revealed her to be light-skinned. Her hair was covered, and she carried a backpack. There was no camera angle on the side of the agent’s house, so they couldn’t always see what she was doing. Jill guessed that she carried a carbon monoxide tank and blew the air into the bedroom where the agent was sleeping. Then she reappeared on camera and appeared to be spreading the accelerant. She had a couple of what appeared to be two-liter soda bottles that she used to spread the accelerant. Then she tossed a match and took off down the street and then off-camera.
“We need to see who else has house cameras on the outside that might have captured her or her vehicle,” Jill said.
Jill said the words they were all thinking as they turned to walk down the street. An hour later, they had collected additional footage. Best of all, the arsonist stumbled in the dark, raising her face briefly as she caught her balance.
“I have my laptop with me in the car. It has special facial recognition software on it. If you’ll email that video footage, we may have an identity for our arsonist,” Jill said before heading back to her car with the others trailing her. She powered up the laptop and looked for the email from the detective. She sent the video through the software. There were a few identities for her picture. The reliability of the facial match to the various names varied from seventy to ninety-eight percent. They read the information about each identity. The one with the lowest match was with a woman named Amanda Moore. The picture was taken some twelve years ago upon her entry to Navy boot camp. The lower match was typical with an older photo.
“Does it say what she did for the military?” asked Detective Long.
Jill did a different search and replied, “Amanda Moore trained as a munitions expert. However, she was dishonorably discharged. That’s rare, and I would guess even rarer in a female member of the military.”
“It is. I served. It was less than one percent. I would guess she served time in a military prison. I wonder what she did?”
“She was an arsonist in the military and appears to be an arsonist now. She was trained in an area of the military that might be the worst possible choice for someone with arsonist tendencies. I bet she was first in her class at blowing things up. It would have given her satisfaction like nothing else.”
“How about any of the other identities? Let’s go over those,” SAC Ortiz said. “I see she has a California driver’s license under the name Allison Montgomery that is current. I think that is likely th
e name she is using today since she’s keeping it current. Jill, can you find that name in the Matefinder app?”
“I’ll go one better and see if I can find a match on the Matefinder website to her driver’s license photo.”
She had the software search all the United States for matches, but there was none.
“Perhaps Amanda removed her profile after the press conference yesterday. I’ll search for any of her names just to be sure.”
Again, there was no match.
“Where to next?” Jill asked.
There was silence as everyone thought about the next steps. Leticia had never planned a funeral and was worried about her first effort being a consequential law enforcement funeral. The Roseville detective seemed to be having a hard time finding footing with the women. They went off in their own direction, and he was left trailing. Jill had a thought cross her mind.
“Detective Long, I gave you an overview of the arsonist’s actions, but I left one thing out. There was a fake detective involved in this case. Like Amanda Moore, he has several identities. Detective Aaron Rodriguez of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department was supposed to be following up on his impersonation of an officer from the CBI. Maybe he has a connection to the military.”
Detective Long just stood there looking at her, blinking. He clearly didn’t follow how she’d drawn her conclusion with so little explanation.
“Let me back up,” she said.
“Yes, please do. I’m not sure I heard this part of the story about this weird case,” SAC Ortiz said.
“A man presented a business card to the Sacramento ME’s office that said he was Detective John Mullin, and he arranged to meet me at the third wildfire crime scene. I was going there with my dog Trixie, a trained scent dog, to look for evidence. The dog found a cigarette butt and a piece of a latex balloon, which Detective Mullin allegedly took with him to the state. I called the lab with a question only to discover that they had no detective by his name. When Agent Sanderson and Agent Chan accompanied me to the first two wildfire sites to look for more evidence, John Mullin appeared at one of them as I had let him know that I was going there. When he saw the two agents upon arrival, he took off at a run, away from the site. I have his cell phone number, and I’ve talked with him a couple of times. I managed to take a picture of him and ran it through my software, and he came back with multiple identities. He did tell me that the evidence he collected from the site did indeed go to a crime lab for analysis. The cigarette butt contained female DNA and the latex balloon contained remnants of He-4, which is the most common form of helium. He acts like a member of law enforcement. He has investigative skills. Given her dishonorable discharge from the military, perhaps he is a member of the military police looking for her?”
