A Taxing Death (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 5)

by Peche, Alec

  "Have the police kept you informed of this investigation?"

  "No. I would guess that at the end when they find their suspect that they'll inform me but they are not updating me with their progress in capturing whoever killed Manuel."

  "Has anyone asked you about threats in Manuel's department? I'm speaking to threats from customers or threats between co-workers."

  "It's our policy that all threats be referred to the police, so I would expect that they had all the information they needed in their files and saw no reason to question me about threats. By the way we receive about seventy concerning threats each year which are referred for action through our police department in the building. Some customers have been assessed fines or serve jail time for making threats against this department, although that's a small number each year."

  "How about his role as a supervisor; were there issues among the employees? Did Manuel ever receive threats for disciplining or terminating an employee? Was there an employee in his division that worried other people due to a temper or erratic behavior?"

  "I don't remember hearing of any complaints, but I will ask HR to see if they have record of anything."

  "Can you describe what Manuel did for the Department of Revenue? I know his title, but what was his interaction with the public?"

  "His division was responsible for the accuracy of tax returns - both individual and corporate. His people review tax returns in which a computer simulator has indicated there is a problem. It could be something as simple as an addition error, or something more complex like a corporation with an extremely high charitable giving percentage. He supervised a staff of thirty and also worked with a data firm to design the algorithms that we use to evaluate tax returns. He personally reviewed some audits; in fact that was what he was doing when he was killed. He also handled some correspondence from customers."

  "How long had he been in this role? Did he aspire to another job in your division?"

  "He had been in this role for at least fifteen years. He was really well thought of in the department and had been offered promotions, but his passion was catching tax cheaters and the audits and algorithms were the tools of his trade. He felt he could be most effective by staying where he was."

  "It sounds like he would have made enemies out of the cheaters."

  "Yes indeed, this division did generate a lot of angry correspondence, probably eighty percent of unprofessional correspondence from the public was directed to this division out of the whole of the Department of Revenue. Some of the audits ended up as court cases."

  "I did a quick internet search yesterday on the Department of Revenue haters, for lack of a better term. I noted you have been embroiled with one court case for more than twenty years trying to prove that the guy who invented the microchip was a California resident. I didn't read all of the information on the case, but it sounded like you sued Mr. Hyatt for forty-four million dollars in taxes related to income from licensing the patent he held for the microchip; but the most recent court case in Nevada had your department owing Mr. Hyatt over hundred million dollars. Was Mr. Valencia involved in that case?"

  "No he was not involved in that case. His algorithms and audits were not focused on who was or wasn't a California resident rather it was about the tax code, tax rates, and the distribution of expenses and write-offs in corporations. I believe that case originated more than two decades ago as a plan created by the then head of the Department of Revenue and the State Attorney General. While both have since retired, their old departments continue the fight over this one tax case. Manuel did whatever he could to distance himself from that case after he had looked into the suit; his only comment was that it was not a tax code violation and therefore of no interest to him."

  "Do you have a file of threatening letters? Who investigates these letters to determine if there is a threat to the department?"

  "Like I mentioned, the letters go to our security force here - the California Highway Patrol which oversees the Capitol police who have responsibility for the safety and security of this building and others across the city as well as for the governor and other elected officers of the State of California. I can't say that I've ever heard back from security about a particular threatening letter so I really can't tell you what they do with the letters upon receipt."

  "How about phone calls? Surely you get calls from angry customers from time to time. Who follows up on those phone calls?"

  "I'm not sure. Let me ask my assistant because I would guess that those phone calls get dispersed all over this building as anger may come up in any conversation."

  Mr. Steward left Jill sitting in his office while he left briefly to ask his assistant a question. He returned to his office and resumed his seat behind the desk. "My assistant indicated that as part of their emergency procedures for recording any bad conversations, they have a form which they complete and forward to security. If someone is escalating on the phone, they have instructions on how to get security on the phone. So it sounds like all roads lead to Detective Banks as the source of information.”

  “Who has taken over Manuel’s job? It sounds like he had some unique qualities that aren’t easily replaced.”

  “This has been a bad month for employees in his Division. I didn’t mention that two other employees also died this month and while he was searching for replacement employees, he passed away. So I need to handle the hiring and find a way to carry on the workload of those folks,” with a small grimace he added, “It’s been a month full of tragedy. What are the odds of that happening?”

  "That is unusual," Jill agreed. "What happened to the other two employees? Were they in an accident together?"

  "No they weren't in an accident - they died from an underlying medical condition; I just don't remember what their underlying condition was."

  “Mr. Steward, I’ve taken enough of your time and you answered all of my questions for the moment. I may need to ask you a few others in time. Would you mind if I corresponded with you by email if I do have new questions?”

  “Yes that is fine. I tend to stay on top of email so it’s likely the fastest way to get information. Do you know your way to Detective Banks’ office?”

  “No I don’t.”

  “It’s in the basement to the right of the stairway where you come in by security. Just take the stairs down.”

  Jill exited Mr. Steward’s office intending to head out to the restaurant she had spied earlier and grab a bite to eat. She stopped on a bench perhaps a hundred feet down the hallway to make sure she had captured all that he said. She was especially curious about the other two employee deaths. It had indeed been a bad month for employees of the Department of Revenue. Sure she had captured all of his comments; she was soon striding down the stairs and out of the building into the intense heat of Sacramento in the summertime. It was a dry heat, but still she was glad to pop into the air-conditioned coolness of the café she had eyed earlier. With a quick thought for her grape clusters back home, she imagined them plumbing up with sweetness in the heat of the mid-day sun.

  While at the café she did a search to see if she could find the names of the two employees who had died. She searched for obituaries that listed the Department of Revenue or the State as the employer in the past month. Of course, not everyone had an obituary published in the paper, but sometimes she lucked out. She found the names of two women ages forty-five and forty-eight with the same date of death and a note that they were State employees. She picked up her phone and called John Garcia at the Coroner’s office.

  “John, it’s Jill Quint.”

  “Hey Jill, didn’t think I would hear from you so soon after our joint autopsy last week. What’s up?”

  “The Valencia family hired me to follow up on the murder of Manuel Valencia, so I have begun investigating this case and a strange fact came to light and I wondered if you could help me with it.”

  “Depends on what you need, you’re well aware of some of our privacy laws.”

&nbs
p; “Okay. So I just learned that Manuel Valencia was the third death in the Department of Revenue, Audit Division this month. That equates to about a ten percent mortality rate. I wondered if you could see if your office performed autopsies on the two women and let me know if there are any similarities to Manuel Valencia’s death?”

  “Normally I wouldn’t share that kind of information with a private detective, but let me look into the situation and I’ll let you know.”

  “Thanks, John that is all I can ask.”

  They ended their call after she gave him the name of the two employees. She always had the mantra that coincidence was often a precursor to a substantial clue. The world was a small place. She wrapped up her notes, finished her lunch and got ready to go back through the security routine at the Capitol before following John Steward’s directions to security, Capitol Police, or California Highway Patrol as she looked for the various names she had heard this department called.

  She located Detective Banks’ office and walked in. A uniformed officer watching a bank of cameras looked up and then quickly returned to the monitors saying, “May I help you?”

  “Yes, I’m Jill Quint, and I have an appointment with Detective Banks.”

  “Yes, he mentioned that on his way to his current meeting. He thought he might be a few minutes late returning to his office and asked that you wait in a visitor chair over there,” said the officer vaguely pointing to a corner of the office.

  Jill sat down, impressed with the officer’s diligence to monitoring the camera screens. Then she thought of a question, “Do you have the entrances and hallways in that bank of cameras?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Would you mind if I look over your shoulder at the cameras? It’s one of several topics I am speaking to Detective Banks about.”

  “Sure, you can look. There are no private areas on these cameras.”

  Jill stood and asked the officer to point out the front entrance and the third floor cameras to her. She studied them a few moments, and then resumed her seat. The video had produced a very clear picture which suggested that she would be able to get a clear view of the ambulance drivers and that was presumably the file on the flash drive that Detective Chang gave her.

  She was scanning email that had arrived in her in-box. She wished she could get off of the list of whatever spam server was sending her Viagra emails. She was perfectly happy with her man and didn't need all these advertisements filling her in-box up. She would have to ask Nathan if he got those same ads or maybe the spam servers were only targeting female email addresses. Just as she finished pondering the Viagra spam mail question, Detective Banks walked into the office and strode over to her.

  "Dr. Quint, I presume. I am pleased to meet you and apologize for making you wait."

  "It’s a pleasure meeting you, Detective Banks. I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me on such short notice. Everyone I have spoken to about this case so far seems to believe that you're the source of all information."

  "I don't know about that, but let's get right to your questions."

  "First, can you tell me about your involvement with the case - when you were notified and what conclusions or theories you're pursuing?"

  "On the day of Mr. Valencia's murder, I was away at a conference and so it was given to me to pursue the next day."

  "What did you think of the murder? I mean as far as organization and execution," Jill asked, trying and failing so far to have a feel for the detective.

  "I thought the murderer was highly organized and executed a great plan. If Mr. Valencia's daughter had not been a physician and asked questions of Amanda, I'm not sure this would have been labeled a homicide."

  Jill liked to think that the county Medical Examiner would have noted the burn marks, but she wasn't sure and it was not important that she figure out the answer to that question.

  "Since you came onboard as the lead detective for the Highway Patrol, what have you learned? Do you have any suspects? Do you have a murder board set up somewhere?"

  "We don't use murder boards in the Highway Patrol, rather we have a software package which we are trained on in the academy and periodically as changes are made to criminal investigation science. So I have reconstructed the crime scene that resulted in Mr. Valencia's murder."

  Jill thought she would hope for the best out of Detective Banks. She had never heard of a homicide being investigated without some type of a murder board. She gave some thought to how to avoid having the detective turn defensive on her with his answers. He seemed genuinely interested in solving Manuel's murder, but his inexperience with a murder investigation could be the biggest problem. At least he was talking with her.

  "I have not had experience with the process you are talking about. Can you take me through it - how you created it and what you learned?"

  "We have a 3D printer that creates models of a crime scene."

  "May I see that model?"

  "I don't have it here at the moment. It is stored in our evidence room for use as we need it while the case is active, for use by our attorneys that may prosecute a case, and it becomes a part of our permanent archive if the case goes cold. We destroy all models if a case is closed with a defendant being found innocent or sent to prison."

  "Why don't you keep it here in your office? The case is not cold yet."

  The detective looked chagrined as he said, "I didn't find it useful after the initial reconstruct of the crime scene and it takes up a lot of room on my desk. The 3D model seems to be a lot more useful to solving the series of events relating to car crashes than to murders."

  "The 3D model sounds like it would show you how the murder went down which is likely useful information for a defense attorney, but it would rarely help with identifying murderers," Jill noted.

  “I’ll have to agree with that,” Detective Banks added, "I’ve investigated numerous car crashes and these models are critical to understanding accident causation. Perhaps if this murder had been a multi-person fight and I needed to understand who threw which punch, knife, or bullet, the model would be useful. In this case, having perfect recall of the murder doesn’t help much to determine who actually committed the murder."

  Jill decided she needed to take a different tack. Banks was smart and knowledgeable, a cop you would want at an accident scene or perhaps running the security of your building, but he seemed to be a fish out of water trying to search for a murderer.

  "Were you able to track down the ambulance?"

  "The plates on the ambulance were stolen. The paint job was not similar to any paint job used by any ambulance company within a hundred miles of here."

  "Did you search for the ambulance in any salvage or auto auction lots?"

  "We entered the license plate into our system which notifies those kinds of businesses that we're interested in a vehicle," Banks explained.

  "Did you include a picture of the ambulance from the exterior cameras here at the Capitol?"

  "No our system doesn't allow attachments such as pictures to go along with our notification."

  Jill could see flaws in the system used by the Highway Patrol, but she let it go and instead asked, "How good is the resolution on the exterior cameras here? Would you be able to focus on the ambulance and perhaps see the vehicle identification number?"

  "That's a good question. You can see the ambulance approach the building and that gives you a view of the driver side windshield where the VIN is located. I enlarged it but couldn't read the number."

  "I'd like a copy of all of the original videos clips regarding this incident," Jill requested thinking about asking her friend Jack, a graphic artist, who might be able to enhance the film to read the number.

  "I'm not sure I can release the video or any other materials to you, let me check with my command."

  "I'll check back with you tomorrow morning," Jill said, wanting to say more, wanting to remind the detective that she was working on the family's behalf, wanting to remind him of the freedom of
information act which would compel him to release the information to her, but knowing if she used that card it would likely permanently damage their relationship so she stayed silent for now.

  "I need to go in a few minutes; do you have any further questions I can answer?"

  "Just one, what do you think is the motive for this murder?"

  "Honestly, I don't have enough evidence or clues to understand the motive. We are lucky to have their faces on video, but we have been unable to identify the two men masquerading as emergency services personnel. They are not in any of the databases available to law enforcement, but we are still looking for them."

  "Thank you for your time Detective Banks and I'll be in touch with you tomorrow regarding obtaining copies of any reports and the video feed that you currently have in your possession."

  Jill stood up and shook hands with the detective and soon departed the Capitol. She found a bench in the shade and sat down to jot a few thoughts down about the interview. She had debated telling the detective about the other two deaths in the Department of Revenue but decided that she would figure out if this was pertinent data first before bringing it to the detective's attention.

  Chapter Six

  Jill completed her notes and headed for her car as she was essentially done in Sacramento unless the medical examiner had come across something with the other two deaths in the Department of Revenue. She had not received an e-mail or voicemail from John Garcia and so she dialed his number.

  "John, before I leave the beautiful city of Sacramento, I thought I would check with you to see if you found anything on those two deaths. Have you had the time to research them?"