QB1

by Pete Bowen

  “And what happened then?,” I said.

  “I don’t know, we only have a feed for his apartment.”

  “Did they leave?”

  “He came back alone about an hour later. He came in naked, took a shower and then he left again. He came back 30 minutes later.”

  I picked up my cell and called Darwin. I got voicemail and told him to call me as soon as he got the message. I called Torley and got voicemail and told him to call me. We were now downtown in the Tenderloin. At night this is a pretty shitty area. During the day, it’s bums, runaway kids and the occasional prostitute. A block up, I saw Hinton pull over next to a woman. Or at least I thought it was a woman. Tough to tell even next to some of them. She leaned into the truck. I pulled to the curb and watched. “I wouldn’t do that sweetie,” I said. “Roger, call Mission Kaiser and try to get Torley’s wife’s room. Tell them it’s an emergency and I need to speak to the husband.”

  Roger opened his laptop and went looking for the hospital’s number. I opened my cell and called Ed Tonelli. I figured he was asleep but I left him a message to call ASAP. As I watched the woman get into Hinton’s truck, I called Tonelli’s phone at the Department. I got a machine there too but I punched for the operator. I had to talk to someone. I got an operator who asked what the call was regarding and I said I wanted to speak to Inspector Tonelli or anyone else working on the Butcher case. The woman got into Hinton’s truck and he started to move. I finally got a live body on the line.

  “This is Officer Chavez, can I help you?”

  “Manny, this is Tom Mullins.” I knew Chavez well, a good guy.

  “Tommy Mullins, dude, how’s it hanging?”

  “Loose Manny, you know me.” I could hear Roger talking to the hospital next to me. He was pleading to be put through to the wife’s room. “Manny, I got a question. I was talking to Tonelli earlier and he says you got a new Butcher stiff?”

  “Yup, the fun never ends around here, Tommy. Hey, how you doing? I hear you’re working as a PI?”

  “You got it right. Up to eyeballs in alligators all over again.” Roger looked over at me and indicated he was on hold. “Manny, I got a call into Tonelli but I want to find out, did you have a time of death on the newest body.”

  Chavez hesitated. I knew he shouldn’t be talking about an investigation but I knew he would. “That hasn’t been released yet, Tom. If you want a guess I‘d say 48 to 60 hours. Probably closer to 48. He’s usually dumping them in the early morning hours. He’s murdered them a couple of hours prior to that. Why? What do you got? We could use anything here.”

  “You got prior photos of this victim?”

  “We got a couple of mug shots. She’d been busted for prostitution a half a dozen times.”

  “Would you email me them to me, Manny?”

  “If you tell me what’s going on, I’ll think about it.”

  “Just a couple of coincidences from another case. It’s probably nothing. I’ll get back to you whether this turns out to be anything or not. Word, Manny.” All I had was some circumstantial shit we’d found with illegal bugs and I didn’t want to get SFPD into Hinton, yet. If this was Tonelli, it might be a different story. “Can you send them over to me Manny, please?”

  “I guess so.” I gave him my email address. When can you send them, Manny?”

  “Fuck you, Tommy! I’ll send them in a few minutes.”

  Roger was still on hold as we headed south on 101. “Is Hinton the Butcher, Mr. Mullins?”

  “I don’t know, Roger. How well do you see the face of the girl on the video?”

  Roger sat up. “Thank you,” he said. They’re connecting me to Torley’s room, Mr. Mullins.” Roger handed the phone to me. The phone line was ringing the room.

  “Hello?”

  “Torley, it’s Mullins.”

  “Mr. Mullins, it’s a boy!”

  “That’s great, Torley. Congratulations.” I followed Hinton on the screen and got off at the Army exit. He was headed home. “Torley, got a question for you.”

  “Sure, Mr. Mullins.”

  “Did you know anything about the girl Hinton had in Tuesday night or no, early Wednesday morning?”

  “Ummm. No. I was off. That was Darwin’s shift.”

  “Darwin didn’t mention anything about a woman?”

  “No, he didn’t say anything.” That motherfucker Darwin, thought Mullins. He had to be asleep, off getting shitfaced or laid.

  “Is there a problem, Mr. Mullins?”

  “No. Torley, what’s downstairs. You’ve been in there. What’s underneath the apartment?”

  “Well, that’s where he keeps his truck.”

  “I know. Is there anything else down there?”

  “Yea, I think it’s a paint room.”

  “A paint room?”

  “You know where you paint vehicles, big stuff?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, it’s a big area enclosed in plastic sheeting.”

  I drove up Hinton’s street and stopped in our same parking spot and watched Hinton’s truck drive in to his building. “Torley, you see any painting equipment?”

  “I don’t remember,” said Torley.

  “Torley, how did you get into his apartment to set the bugs?” I leaned over and said to Roger, “Fire up the camera.” Roger scrambled between the seats back to the equipment.

  “I picked the entrance on the front of the building when he wasn’t home. Why, you want to get in?”

  “Yea, I might.”

  “I made a key from a copy I found inside. Should be in the glove compartment. I always do that when I can because I’m not the best lock pick and saves time retrieving equipment.”

  Fucking, Torley. I made a note to give him a bonus. “Dad, enjoy your new baby. Do me a favor and leave your cell on. Kiss Mama for me.”

  I grabbed Roger’s computer and went to my email. There were 42 new emails waiting for me. One of them was from Manny Chavez with attachments. I opened it and saw a mug shot of a skanky tired looking woman. I showed it to Roger. “Is this the woman in the video?” He studied it and slowly shook his head.

  “I don’t know, Mr. Mullins. It looks kind of like her.” The video screen lit up and we could see the inside of the apartment. The woman sat on the couch while Hinton was firing up a crack pipe. I opened the other email attachment and showed Roger. It was different and she looked much more attractive than the first. Roger shook his head again.

  “I can’t tell Mr. Mullins,” he whined. “It looks like her but I can’t say for sure.” Hinton took another pull on the pipe and offered a hit to the girl. “Do you want me to show you? I can find it again.” After the woman blew the smoke out, Hinton stood over her.

  “You like that bitch?” he said. “Of course you do, you little fucking whore.” He then twisted her arm back and hit her on the side of the head with a punch that dropped her to the floor.”

  “Oh no,” said Roger.

  “Fuck me,” I said. I picked up my cell and called Tonelli. I heard the phone start to ring as I went looking for the key to the apartment in the glove compartment. I found five separate keys. I got Tonelli’s voicemail again. I hung up and called his house. As the phone rang, I said to Roger, “I want you to call Manny Chavez at the Department. Tell him to get his ass out here, now. Before I could finish, Jennifer Tonelli picked up. “Jen, its Tommy, is Eddie there? It’s an emergency.”

  “Oh everything is an emergency with you, Tommy. What’s going on we never see you anymore.”

  “Jennifer!!! I screamed. Get fucking Eddie on the phone!”

  “Gees Tommy, he’s asleep. I don’t want to wake him.”

  “Jennifer, I swear to God. I’ll come over there and strangle you myself if you don’t put him on the phone right now.” I could hear Roger working his way through the SFPD phone system on his cell. We both were looking at the video screen as Hinton lit up another pipe with the girl lay moaning at his feet. When he finished with the pipe, he stood
up and kicked her in the ribs as she tried to crawl away. I handed the phone to Roger. “Tell them I’m going in. I think it’s the Butcher.”

  I went out the rear door of the van, keys in hand. I ran up the steps to the building. It was 11 AM and there still wasn’t a person on the street. The door was industrial strength with no windows on the lower level. I tried the first key, the second key, the third key turned the lock and I was in. I pulled my Glock and went in to the lower level. I stopped and let my eyes get used to the darkness of the garage. I could see what Torley said was a paint room but no paint equipment. There was just an enclosure covered in plastic. I moved slowly up the wooden stairs. Take him down and let the cops figure this out was the plan. As I got to the door to the apartment, I heard a noise, wheeled around in a shooters stance, then pulled it up. Roger poked his head in the door. I put my finger to my lips and pointed for him to get out.

  I turned and couldn’t hear anything behind the apartment door. I twisted the door knob and felt it turn. It wasn’t locked. I looked back and saw Roger standing by the door. I gently opened the door knob and then eased it open.

  He was pulling the girl by her hair. He stopped when he saw me, ten feet away. He held a large hunting knife. He picked the girl up and raised the knife to the girl’s throat and screamed, “What the fuck are you doing in my house, dickhead?”

  I held the gun in a low stance and calmly said, “drop the knife, it’s over Hinton.”

  “I’ll fucking cut her head off,” he said. He held her by her hair with the knife at her throat. It has a huge blade. What an asshole.

  I sighed, “Yea, I know.”

  Chapter 4

  I shot him. The woman and Hinton dropped to the ground. He had a bullet through his head. I picked her up and brought her over to the couch. She was hyperventilating and bruised. Roger peered around the corner of the door. “It’s over,” I said. He stared down at Hinton’s corpse. “Roger,” he didn’t look up. “Roger,” I said louder. He looked at me. “Tell the cops, it’s over. Get an ambulance for the girl.” He looked back down at the body. The blood from the head spreading out underneath the body. “Roger,” I yelled at him. He took off out the door.

  He went down the stairs and out the door into the bright sunlight. As he stood on the landing, he saw a full SWAT team with weapons pointed up at him. He threw up his hands in a panic and yelled, “He’s dead,” and burst into tears. It was that picture of Roger with his hands in the air, terror on his face that was on the front of newspapers all over the world the next day.

  Chapter 5

  Two SWAT team members and Tonelli came into the room after Roger. He looked at the body and said, “Is that him?”

  I said, “I think so.”

  “You think so?”

  “I think so. He was about to kill this one. I looked down at the whimpering girl I was still bent over.”

  “Is she hurt?”

  “He was beating on her, maybe internal injuries.”

  Tonelli radioed the site was secure. Called for EMT’s, crime scene techs and the coroner. I spent the next four hours going over what happened in police debriefings downtown. I lost track of Roger. Tonelli said they drove him home. They asked me to make a statement to the press, but I passed.

  Late in the afternoon, cops figured they had enough. Tonelli drove me home. We left from underneath police central, bypassing the throngs of press. “You got him, Tommy,” he said, when we were alone. We got blood stains all over that plastic enclosure downstairs. That’s where he was carving them up.”

  “I never killed a guy before, Eddie.”

  Tonelli thought about it. “Yea, well that was a good place to start. He had a light on the roof and cars were pulling over in front of us. “Holy shit. This is big, man. This is a game changer for you.” He thought about it some more and said, “and Roger too.”

  I fished out my cell and called Velma, my partner at the agency. The line was busy to the office. I tried her cell and got her. She answered the phone with, “It’s about time. I’ve been calling you since 7:30 this morning.” Velma has a bit of a ‘tude.

  “Hey Aunt Velma, what’s new?”

  “What’s new, Aunt Velma?” she asked in a thick New York Jewish accent, husky from years of Pall Malls. “What’s new, Tommy?” There was just a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Not much, feet up on the desk, watching Oprah. Oh, wait, they’re interrupting the broadcast with a bulletin. Thomas Mullins and 12 year old Roger Goody have just killed the Butcher and saved a woman from death. You mean that news…Tommy? Why do I have to learn about this from the news?” Velma was hot.

  “Sorry Velma, they’ve had me really nailed down at police headquarters. I’m with Ed Tonelli, just ask him.” Tonelli put up his hand in a stop motion and shook his head.

  “I don’t want to ask him. I want to ask you. Is Roger okay?”

  “Yea, he’s okay, I guess. I haven’t seen him in a few hours.”

  “He’s probably traumatized the poor little thing.” I understand the obsession with the little piece of shit. He’s cute and polite. Woman love him. They don’t have to put up with his shit.

  “I’m fine, Aunt Velma. Thank you for asking.”

  “We’re out of business, did you know that Tommy? We can’t conduct business. These people are relentless. The phone hasn’t stop ringing. You don’t need a Private Detective license, you need an agent! Are you sure the little angel is okay? He’ll need years of counseling. Did you see the picture of him out front of where it happened?”

  “No Velma, I’ve been kind of tied up.”

  We drove down my street. In front of our houses there was standing room only with a crowd of people and press. At least half a dozen satellite feed trucks were parked in the road. There were two helicopters overhead. How did I not see this coming? “Keep going Eddie, take me around back.”

  Tonelli used his cell to call in support. He listened and said, “Neighbors already called. This just started a few minutes ago. You’re hot stuff, Bucko.”

  I used my cell and called Roger. “Are you in your house?”

  “Yes, with Mom and Dad.”

  “You did good today, boy.”

  “Mr. Mullins, I was scared you were going to be killed.”

  “You were brave, Dude.”

  “Oh, Mr. Mullins, you’re the brave one,” he sobbed. “My Mom wants to speak to you Mr. Mullins.”

  “Thomas?” Roger’s Mom, Ilene Goody had lived next door to me since I was 10 years old. She is the nicest woman in the world, a literature professor at San Francisco State.

  “I’m sorry about all this, Ilene. I want to come in and talk to you about it,” I said. “I’ll come in the back door now.” Tonelli drove me up to the rear of the house. I thanked him and told him I’d call him later. As I got out of the car, a crowd of reporters came running and surrounded me.

  “Tom, can you tell us what happened today?” Men and woman were pushing microphones in my face and shouting questions. I just shook my head.

  “No comment,” as I pushed the crowd towards Roger’s house. Two uniforms showed up and pushed the reporters away allowing me to move to the door. I waved back at them and walked into the house as Ilene, held the door. “That’s no fun,” I said as I saw Roger and his Dad standing on the other side of the kitchen. Bolo, their big Chesapeake Retriever jumped up on me and started licking. Roger and I spent a lot of time with Bolo across the Great Highway at the beach. “Hey Boy,” I said to him, putting him back on all fours. He wanted more but I held him down. I kissed Ilene and shook hands with Professor Bob. I bumped fists with Roger. “How you doing? Look, I really want to apologize to you folks. I had no idea this little surveillance thing was going to turn out like this. I’m sorry Roger was in the middle of it.”

  “I’m not. It was so cool,” Roger beamed.

  “Let’s all go sit down in the living room,” Ilene said.

  The dog was licking my hand and tried to get up on me when I sat down. I pushed him
off and told him to sit. “He wants a beach run,” I said to the others. “So what are you going to do now that you’re famous, Roger?”

  “I don’t know, Mr. Mullins.”

  “I don’t know either, Roge. I looked at the little family sitting across from me on the couch. Ilene ran her fingers through Roger’s hair. Bob stared at me. “I’ll tell you one thing. I don’t feel like a damn hero. I killed a guy this morning and I feel like shit. Maybe I’m just exhausted after last night. But, I just feel like shit, sorry Ilene.” She was sensitive to profanity.

  Bob crossed his legs and smiled. “We’re all exhausted after last night. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. You’re trained to do what you did. But just like a soldier in combat, you never know till you actually experience it. I suggest you give yourself a break. Admit to yourself that this is painful and give yourself some time to heal.”

  I put my hands on my face and couldn’t stop it. I started crying. Ilene came to one side of me and Roger the other and they hugged me. Goddamn it, like a little girl. I looked up at Bob still seated with his legs crossed. He hadn’t moved. “Alright, I admit it. Now, what do we do?” wiping the tears from my face.

  “Now you know you’re not prepared to…deal with this. Maybe tomorrow you will be or next week or next year.” Goddamn Bob always has the answers for personal issues. I take him with a grain a salt though. He’s completely baffled by his son. Roger pays no attention to him at all. I swear the guy has no parental skills and teaches people how to deal with each other.

  I could hear the helicopters above us. I could hear the noise from the street. There were hundreds of people around our homes. “Thomas, I had to disconnect the phone. It’s been ringing constantly. We don’t know what to do. If we go out and talk to them, will they go away?”

  “I doubt it,” I said. “I’ve just been saying, no comment. We could continue to do that. We’re not hiding anything at this point. Although Roger, don’t talk about the video surveillance on Hinton. That’s illegal and we could lose our license. Just say we were watching him, when it comes up. The Police know, I told them. I had to justify shooting the son of a bitch. Sorry Ilene.”