Dragnet

by Richard Deming

  Frank said, “They tell you how bad Mr. Green is hurt?”

  “They said a probable fractured skull. He won’t die, though, I’m sure. He has a marvelous constitution. Then, too, youth is on his side.”

  “Huh?” I said.

  She dimpled prettily. “He’s somewhat younger than me, you know. I don’t know why younger men find me so attractive, but they do. Perhaps it’s because they so often mistake me for much younger than I am. How old do you think I am, Sergeant?”

  I grunted.

  “You may not believe it, but I’m nearly thirty.”

  “Oh?” I said. “How much younger is Mr. Green?”

  “Several years. He’s just eighteen.”

  CHAPTER II

  1:38 a.m. We continued to question Wilma Stenson. She told us that the holdup had occurred at approximately eleven o’clock, and that she and her fellow victim had been in her car, a 1957 Thunderbird. She had arrived at the hospital about midnight. She said the bandit had taken about a hundred and fifty dollars in bills from her purse.

  She also told us that in the confusion of the moment she had neglected to pick up Harold Green’s wallet, which the bandit had dropped to the ground after he emptied it. She offered to show us the spot where she and the injured man had been parked.

  Frank phoned Robbery Division to acquaint them with the facts in the case, as this was a robbery case as well as one for Homicide, and we would work together on it. Robbery said they would send over a team to meet us at the hospital.

  Frank also phoned the description of the suspect and MO to R & I and arranged for a local and an APB broadcast giving the suspect’s description. As Wilma Stenson was quite certain the bandit had not touched the car at any time during the robbery, we didn’t call Latent Prints. If we managed to locate the wallet the robber had handled, we could take it in for examination instead of requiring a man to go to the scene.

  We didn’t call the Crime Lab at this point, either. If we found any evidence at the scene of the crime for S.I.D. to work on, we could call for a man from the lab by radio. Frank did request Robbery to bring along a camera man, however, in case we required photographs of the scene.

  The doctor who had treated Harold Green told us the victim was now conscious, and that while X-rays showed a definite skull fracture, there didn’t seem to be any brain damage. We would not be able to question him for at least twenty-four hours, though. The doctor said Green would be transferred to County Hospital in the morning, and that we would probably be permitted to talk to him there the following night.

  The team from Robbery consisted of Sergeant Marty Wynn and Vance Brasher. They brought along a civilian photographer from the Photo Lab.

  After introducing the Robbery team to Mrs. Stenson and briefly going over the situation with them again, we all drove out to Laurel Canyon Road. Mrs. Stenson rode with us in the back seat of Unit 7K10, while the Robbery unit followed.

  A couple of hundred yards from where Laurel Canyon Road crossed Mulholland Drive, Wilma Stenson told us to slow down. I plugged the cord of the hand spotlight into its dashboard socket and directed the beam at the shoulder. Frank let the car creep along at five miles an hour while Mrs. Stenson and I examined the ground alongside the road. Behind us the other car also switched on its spot.

  At intervals along the road, cars were parked with dimmed lights—couples taking advantage of the romantic moon. As soon as our spots went on, engines came to life and the cars hurriedly pulled away. Within seconds we had the road to ourselves as far as we could see.

  We had moved at this snail’s pace about a hundred yards when Wilma Stenson said dubiously, “I don’t think it was this close to Mulholland Drive.”

  Frank halted the car, and behind us Vance Brasher halted the one he was driving. Ahead we could see the lights of an occasional car moving along Mulholland Drive.

  Swinging in a U-turn, Frank started back the way we had come, driving on the left side of the road and turning on his red blinker to warn any oncoming traffic, even though there wasn’t any at the moment. The other car swung around also and continued to follow.

  Only a few yards beyond where Mrs. Stenson had first told us to slow down, I suddenly spotted the leather wallet lying next to the road. Simultaneously Wilma Stenson said, “There it is!”

  Frank pulled over to the right and parked on the shoulder. The Robbery unit parked behind us.

  All six of us crossed the road and stood looking at the wallet without stepping off the concrete. Marty Wynn and I both illuminated the scene with flashlights. Tire marks showing where the car had been parked were faintly visible in the dirt of the shoulder. Six gold-tipped cigarette butts lay on the edge of the concrete, where they had been tossed from the driver’s side of the car. Six untipped butts lay near the wallet, where they had been dropped from the other side.

  Wilma Stenson flushed when she saw me looking at the butts. In a faint voice she said, “Maybe we were here a little longer than I thought.”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Marty Wynn and I stopped at the edge of the road and carefully examined the ground. While the tire marks, though faint, were clear enough, the ground was too hard and dry to show footprints. There wasn’t an indentation in it other than the tire marks.

  Rising, I instructed the photographer in what pictures I wanted, and he shot several of the scene from different angles. Wilma Stenson looked on puzzledly while this was going on.

  When he had taken the last picture, she asked, “Why are photographs necessary?”

  I didn’t tell her that policemen are naturally suspicious, that tentatively we accepted her story at face value, but that on the off-chance that the holdup man was pure fabrication on her part and she had actually fractured Harold Green’s skull herself, we wanted pictorial evidence of the scene. I just said, “Routine, ma’am.”

  Marty Wynn said, “Guess there isn’t any evidence to disturb,” stepped off the concrete, and lifted the wallet by thrusting, a pencil inside it.

  “Why is he doing that?” Mrs. Stenson asked.

  “Fingerprints,” I said succinctly.

  When we had collected the butts and dropped them into a plastic bag, we were finished.

  We requested Wilma Stenson to meet us at the Police Building at 1 p.m. the following afternoon in order to look at mug shots. She said she would. We then drove her back to the Central Receiving Hospital, where her car was parked, and let her go home.

  * * * *

  The next day, Thursday, June 20th, I arrived at the Police Building at a quarter of one. Before going up to 314, I stopped on the second floor to see what R & I had come up with. I learned that on the basis of our description and MO, the Stat’s Office had pulled a hundred and forty-three possibles. By weeding out those known to be in jail, out of town, or impossible for other reasons, R & I had reduced this to twenty-two. I took the mug shots of these twenty-two up to Homicide with me.

  Frank was on the phone when I walked into the squad room. I raised my hand in a general salute to the day-watch men present, then sat on the edge of the table and waited for Frank to finish his phone conversation.

  When he hung up, Frank said, “Hi, Joe. Just talking to Latent Prints. They brought out a couple of sets of prints they think must belong to the owner of the wallet. Plus one partial print that doesn’t match any of the others. Think maybe it was left by the suspect, since it’s superimposed over one of the others.”

  I grunted. This was as much as we could have hoped for, but it wasn’t very helpful. It would be helpful if we ever got a suspect whose prints we could compare with the partial, but it was useless for comparison with the thousands of sets of prints in the fingerprint file. It takes the prints of at least three fingers to make a search of records feasible. Theoretically it’s possible to match a single print against a similar one in the fingerprint file, but it would take the entire staff a year to do it.

  I tossed Frank the R & I report. “Twenty-two possibles,” I said. “Maybe we’ll
be lucky enough to have Mrs. Stenson identify one of the mugs.”

  “Bet a Coke?” Frank asked.

  I looked at him. “Against a case, maybe. I was just doing wishful thinking.”

  Vance Brasher came in then, bringing Mrs. Wilma Stenson with him. She was chatting animatedly into his ear as they entered the room, and Vance was replying with polite monosyllables. Last night Mrs. Stenson had been too upset to pay much attention to Vance, but today she seemed to have become aware of his charm.

  He wasn’t reciprocating very well. He was polite, but his expression indicated their relationship was going to stay strictly one of witness-police officer.

  When Vance led her over to us, Wilma Stenson reluctantly tore her attention from him long enough to say, “Oh, hello, Sergeant Friday. And Officer Smith.”

  Frank said, “Afternoon, ma’am,” and I said, “How are you, Mrs. Stenson?”

  After this exchange of greetings, she was all set to return her attention to Vance, but I distracted her by saying, “Like you to look at some pictures, ma’am.”

  “Of course, Sergeant,” she said, without much enthusiasm.

  I showed her the mug shots of the twenty-two possibles R & I had come up with first. She stated positively that none was the man who had held up her and Harold Green. Then we brought out the mug books, and she spent a full hour going through them.

  When she closed the last book, she shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Some of the faces bear a faint resemblance, but I’m sure the man who held us up isn’t here. I’m quite certain I’d recognize his picture.”

  That was that. We thanked her for her time and told her we’d call her if there were any developments in the case.

  “Any time at all,” she said enthusiastically. “Phone me any time you wish.” She was looking at Vance when she said it.

  After she left, I phoned County Hospital and inquired about the condition of Harold Green. The doctor I talked to said he was resting nicely, and while it was still a little early to say, it was believed he was probably out of danger. He was not yet allowed visitors, but the doctor felt that if we dropped by about eight p.m., it would be all right to talk to him for a few minutes.

  I told him we’d be there.

  * * * *

  8:11 p.m. Frank and I drove over to County Hospital and talked to the victim. He was a well-built young man with a handsome, narrow-jawed face and long sideburns, which showed beneath the bandage covering his head. The nurse said we could have five minutes with him.

  After identifying ourselves as police officers, I said, “How do you feel, son?”

  “Headache,” he said in a weak voice, gingerly touching the bandage.

  “Won’t bother you long,” I said. “Just want verification of what happened last night.”

  He looked up at me inquiringly. “Didn’t Wilma tell you?”

  “Like to hear it from you,” I said.

  “Oh? Well, it was just a stickup. We was parked out on Laurel Canyon Road, and this joker come along and poked a gun at us. Told us to get out of the car. He looked easy, so I tried to take him. That was a mistake.”

  “Yeah?” I said.

  “He wasn’t. Easy, I mean. Never saw a guy move so fast. Batted my brains out before I knew what happened.”

  Frank said, “Get a good look at him?”

  “Yeah. There was a pretty bright moon. Somewhere between forty and fifty. Not too tall—five seven to nine, maybe—but well built. Round, friendly face and rimless glasses. Looked the kind of guy would be afraid to talk back to his wife. Surprised the devil out of me when he batted me.”

  I said, “How much money did he get from your wallet?”

  He grinned a little mockingly. “Three singles. Some deal, huh? Take a busted head trying to defend three bucks.”

  I asked, “Where do you work, son?”

  “Me?” he asked, surprised. “Who works?”

  “In school?”

  He snorted. “Naw. Quit at sixteen.”

  “Live with your parents, huh?”

  He gave me a sardonic smile. “My parents are a couple of drunks. I got an apartment over in Crescent Heights.”

  I looked at him for a minute. “Independent income?”

  He grinned again, a weak grin, but a man-to-man one. “Might call it that. Wilma picks up the tab.”

  The nurse stuck her head in the door and said our time was up.

  CHAPTER III

  Two nights later the lovers’ lane bandit struck again. He held up a couple in a parked car on Benedict Canyon Drive and robbed them of seventy-four dollars. There was no violence in this case, but the suspect’s description and MO were the same. The victims particularly stressed the bandit’s politeness and unassuming manner. The male victim stated that he had seriously considered attempting to grab the suspect’s gun, and felt that he could have succeeded in disarming him, but had decided not to take the risk.

  The following week the suspect struck three more times, in each case using the same MO. He would approach a parked car on foot, rob the victims at gunpoint, warn them not to make any outcry, then walk away. In each case he picked couples parked out of sight of any other parked car, and a short distance from a curve. He would disappear after each, robbery by walking around the curve. None of the victims saw him enter a car.

  Robbery Division kept us informed of these incidents, but as there was no further violence, the case was gradually being taken over entirely by Robbery. As Harold Green was now reported out of danger, the case became of less and less concern to Homicide Division. With Marty Wynn and Vance Brasher working on it, there was no point in tying up a Homicide team also. Frank and I became involved in a couple of murder cases and virtually forgot the bandit.

  Friday, June 28th, Frank and I checked in at 4:30 p.m. Frank checked the message book while I looked in my mail box. There was nothing there but a couple of bills. “Anything?” I asked Frank.

  “Captain wants to see us.”

  I stuck the bills in my pocket, and we crossed the anteroom to Captain Hertel’s office. He looked up from the report he was reading and said, “Friday, Smith. Come in.”

  Frank said, “Hi, Captain,” and I said, “What’s up, Skipper?” He pointed at chairs, and we seated ourselves. Captain Hertel is a solidly built man with a square, calm face and stubby gray hair cut close to his head. He waited until we had cigarettes going, then said, “About this lovers’ lane bandit. Not doing much on it, are you?”

  I said, “Well, Robbery’s got a team doing all it can. The guy hasn’t killed anybody, and the boy he pistol-whipped is well on the way to recovery. Doesn’t seem much point in duplicating Robbery’s effort.”

  “Yeah, I know,” the captain said. “But I had a talk with Chief Brown today. He’s concerned about this joker, and wants an all-out effort to get him.”

  I hiked my eyebrows. “What’s so important about a minor stickup man?”

  “You’ve questioned some of the victims,” Captain Hertel said. “And have seen Wynn’s reports on the others. What’s the one characteristic that stands out in all of them?”

  I thought this over, finally said, “Well, they all describe him as polite and unassuming. He doesn’t scare anybody much.”

  “That’s exactly the point,” Captain Hertel said. “Every male victim so far has stated that the guy impressed him so little, he was seriously tempted to try taking him. Remember what happened to the only one who did try it?”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly. “He got a cracked skull for his trouble.”

  The captain nodded. “Somebody’s going to get brave again one of these nights. The guy’s appearance and manner seem to invite resistance. I think Chief Brown’s right in his prophecy of what’s going to happen if we don’t net him fast.”

  “What prophecy’s that?”

  “That he’s going to kill somebody.”

  * * * *

  5:02 p.m. We got together with Sergeant Marty Wynn and Vance Brasher of Robbery in order
to outline the strategy of an all-out effort to take the lovers’ lane bandit. Chief Brown had passed down the word that we could call for whatever extra help we needed.

  We were going to need a lot of it. The suspect had struck over a wide area of the Santa Monica Mountain district. Twice he had hit couples parked on Mulholland Drive, which starts west of Cahuenga Pass in the Hollywood district and follows the rim of the mountains past Beverly Hills clear to Ventura Boulevard, and the two robberies had been nearly ten miles apart. The other three robberies had each been along a different canyon road crossing Mulholland Drive.

  The area of operation was too large to attempt the decoy system. The only stakeout system that had a chance of success was to cover the area with cruising undercover cars and hope one would spot him in the act. We requested and got six undercover teams from Chief Brown. The teams of Wynn and Brasher and of Frank and me brought the total to eight. We arranged to have all eight cars cruise the bandit’s area of operations from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. nightly, the hours during which all previous robberies had taken place.

  Despite these precautions, the bandit hit twice more over the weekend.

  * * * *

  Monday, July 1st, at 11:26 p.m., Frank and I were cruising along Nichols Canyon Road in a 1955 Chevrolet undercover car. There had been a hard summer rain earlier, unusual for this time of year, but now the night was clear and warm.

  Dozens of couples were parked alongside the road, taking advantage of the nice weather.

  Frank said, “This would be a good night for him to hit. For us, I mean.”

  “How’s that?” I asked.

  “Rain softened up the ground. Might leave some footprints.”

  I grunted. “Way things are going, we better bring in more than footprints soon. Captain’s getting a little short of patience.”

  “Well, we’re doing the best we can,” Frank said. “It’s a pretty big area.”

  Up ahead our lights picked out a new Ford sedan parked alongside the road. As we neared it, I noticed that the door on the right-hand side hung wide open, and that no one seemed to be sitting in the car.