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

by Peche, Alec

  "What did you know of him personally? Did you have children that were his age and who might have socialized with him? How had he done at school? Can you think of any comments you heard or observations you made about the son?"

  "Thomas was a very smart kid. He did well in school, played no athletic sports that I can remember and no my children did not associate with him. He was different. In some cases his ideas were a hundred and eighty degrees different than anyone else. If you asked him about something, and I once made a mistake of asking him if he had taken his driver's test, he gave me a response that was maybe ten or fifteen minutes long about why driver's licenses were unconstitutional. I remember this conversation twenty years later and I'll have to say that I still don't understand his reasoning. I think because of these ideas of his he seemed to have few friends. I know that Nancy worried deeply about what he was going to do with his life with his vision of the world. Somehow they put tremendous pressure on him to enlist in the military and that was the last I saw of him for twenty years."

  "What do you think he would have done if he had not enlisted in the military? Had he ever expressed a desire for a particular career?"

  "He was so difficult to talk to that I avoided any deep conversations with him as I would usually end up mad or frustrated. Once Al and Nancy focused on directing him toward the military, I never heard them talk about any different career for Thomas."

  "What were Al and Nancy's occupations?"

  "Al ran for a different political office every four to six years depending on the election cycle. At the time of his death, he was the mayor of Crump Falls, Oregon, but running for state Senator in the upcoming election. Al had set his ambitions on being the next governor of Oregon. Nancy was a schoolteacher at a local elementary school and the perfect political spouse for Al's ambitions."

  "How about the daughter? What was her relationship like with her brother?"

  "She was four years younger, a high school senior at the time of her death. Ellen worshipped her older brother as younger sisters do and I remember her being the best at video games - she beat every kid in the neighborhood. She would be as puzzled as the rest of us in trying to understand some of his views."

  "Can you think of any close friends that Thomas had in high school?"

  "No I can't picture him socializing with anyone before he left for the military."

  "Can you give me any names of other people from your neighborhood or the social circle of the Hulls that I can talk to about Thomas?" Jill asked in her final question for the woman.

  "I was Nancy's best friend, Al as a politician had many friends but I would say his closest confident was Tim Stevens. I would give you his number if I had it, but I don't."

  "That's okay Mrs. Austin; I have a number here for him as he was on my list to call. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today," and they ended the call.

  Jill looked over at Marie and said, "Thomas Allen Hull is an interesting character. It sounds like he followed the theories of a sovereign citizen movement beginning in his teenage years. Following an organization like that is a pretty deep commitment for such a young age. Interesting conversation but essentially there is no new information as to where he lives. In theory he should still be in Oregon but we've seen him near the Capitol of California on two different video feeds."

  "Until you had this case, I had never heard of the sovereign citizen movement," Marie mused. "Now I can read all about them on Facebook and Twitter and Homeland Security is calling them one of the largest and most dangerous domestic terrorists groups. Their only saving grace is that most members are very independent so they're not organized and they don't act as a group. They often have pairs of citizens that cause problems, but not a large group. Do you know that there is one sovereign citizen who filed court papers stating that the Queen of England at the time the Constitution was created agreed that America would only be taxed on paper and tea and that was his defense for not paying the IRS? The judge that heard the case responded to the citizen that at the time the Constitution was written, England was led by a King not a Queen."

  "Seriously, that really happened?" Jill laughed.

  Marie just nodded her head as they had a laugh about the court case. Jill moved on to call Tim Stevens to see what information he had regarding Thomas Hull.

  Jill tried the same approach as she had with Mrs. Austin repeating the introduction and explanation for the call, "I understand from Mrs. Austin that you were a good friend of Al Hull. I'm interested in learning more about their son Thomas. Can you give me your assessment of Mr. Hull's son?"

  "I know that Al and Nancy struggled with Thomas. He began following some strange group around the age of fourteen or fifteen. The more time he spent by himself, the more energy he would put into explaining the beliefs of the group. Over time he grew to hate his father's job and indeed all politicians. I can remember him saying that all local and state government employees were being paid by stealing money from hard-working residents of the territory of Oregon. It was a really strange speech and Al never brought him to any political fund raising event for fear that he would share his odd beliefs. As time went on they were so distressed by Thomas's behavior that they took him to a psychiatrist. In the end, they hoped a stint in the military would fix his belief system."

  "From what I read about groups like the one that Thomas followed, they generally do not support the military or military service. Do you know how they got Thomas to agree to enlist?"

  "This is a confidential conversation? Who are you sharing the answers to your questions with?" Tim asked with a concerned tone to his voice.

  "Mr. Stevens, as I stated at the beginning of the call I'm working as a consultant with the California Highway Patrol regarding a criminal investigation which I can't elaborate on at this time. Thomas Hull's name has come up during the investigation. Understanding his motives, his past behaviors, and really just about anything you remember about him may help us predict where we can locate him to have a conversation with him. There is a task force set up between the California Highway Patrol and the Sacramento Police Department and a variety of other interested law enforcement partners trying to solve a crime. Information that you are sharing with me will be shared within that group. We have no intention of having any of that information leave the conference room where the task force meets and certainly we would not be releasing it to the press," Jill said crossing her fingers on the last statement as she was not in a position to speak for the task force.

  There was a long pause on the other end of the phone and Jill waited it out while Tim Stevens sorted through some kind of family secret that he debated releasing.

  "Al and Nancy threatened Thomas that if he didn't sign up for the military voluntarily, they would instead have him committed to some kind of mental health hospital. I don't think they could have done that as Thomas wasn't sick rather he just had a different value system but the boy didn't know that the threat was hollow. I think he was resigned to doing the minimal service he could and never speaking to his family for the remainder of his life and with the sad fate of the automobile accident he got his wish. Al told me that their letters to Thomas were returned by him unopened and unwanted."

  Those few words gave Jill a sense of the possible regret of the family for their actions toward their son, and how strange that he had picked those beliefs up at such an early age. Most followers of the sovereign citizen movement joined after a frustrating experience and negative outcome with a government agency. Thomas's negative experience was a relationship he had with his father the politician, a figurehead for government agency.

  "That's a sad story, Mr. Stevens. Were you aware of any friends that Thomas had growing up or in high school? Were you aware of any career plans that he had before the military was his designated career?"

  "Thomas was a hard teenager to bond with and I can't recall ever seeing him hang out with a bunch of kids his age. He never shared his thoughts or feelings on anything other th
an the mantra from his group so I don't even know if he had a career in mind before the military became his career."

  "Can you think of anything else to tell me about Thomas that explains his life or his skills? You know what division or trade he was directed towards in the military?"

  "He was a very smart kid, but as Al and Nancy were unable to communicate with Thomas in the military, I have no idea what he did while he was in the Army."

  The conversation had grown to a close, and so they ended the call. She wished she had Angela here to handle these calls as she was so good at interviewing people. She paused to look at the clock and decided it was time for them to leave for the conference room. Upon her arrival, she saw the reason for the meeting as there were new members that had been added to the task force.

  "Special Agent Leticia Ortiz, are you joining this case? Was that the reason for this special meeting? Why is the FBI involved?" The agent just laughed at Jill's questions spewing forth one after another.

  "Hello to you too Jill Quint! I should've figured you would be up to your elbows in this little problem here in Sacramento. Normally, Sacramento would have its own Special Agent, but the FBI is recruiting for the position and so I'm covering this office. Lieutenant Moss already briefed me, but I'd appreciate you taking a few minutes before the meeting starts to bring me up to speed."

  Jill took a moment and introduced Marie to Special Agent Leticia Ortiz from the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation regional office. Out of the corner of her eye she noted that the room was starting to fill up, so she gave Special Agent Ortiz a high-speed summary of the case. Just as she was finishing, the Lieutenant called the meeting to order.

  Introductions were made and Jill and Marie noted new government agencies involved in the task force. Besides the FBI, the Army had sent a liaison with a paper copy of Thomas Hull's record of service in the military. There were also criminal profilers from Sacramento PD and the FBI. The Lieutenant discussed the findings at the storage facility and the identification of one of the killers. Jill followed with her description of the conversation with the two family friends while Marie spoke about the social media activities of their suspect as well as other sovereign citizen movement members. Then the Army representative dropped the bombshell.

  Starting with the facts of start and end of service and locations he journeyed to with the military, Jill tuned back in when she heard him move on to the skills area.

  "Mr. Hull completed basic training and was then assigned first computer science skills and then ammunitions as bomb timers were connected to those with computer skills."

  Lieutenant Moss instantly was on high alert as well and so he started with the questions, "Can you be more specific about computer science training," deciding it was better to understand the first skill.

  Army Representative Hanson said, "Twenty years ago, the Army used computers in a variety of settings, but predominantly for the operation of machinery - tanks, planes, ships, and bombs. We also used them for email communication at the highest levels. His skills list includes mainframes, data extraction, and general office computer set up. He was so talented at this that he was transferred to our ammunitions area. We have some of our best computer science recruits designing and activating timers for weapons for our military."

  Ortiz asked, "Does he know how to build a timer for a bomb, or the bomb itself or both?"

  "He knows how to do all of that and he was one of the most talented students ever to serve the Army."

  "If he was so successful I am puzzled as to why he left so soon," Jill observed. "Are there any notes in his record to indicate whether the military tried to convince him to stay or thoughts about why he wanted to get away from something he was so successful at?"

  "The military is generally not open to speculation about the motivations of our soldiers. I can tell you at the time that his enlistment was coming to an end there was a discussion about how to hold onto him, but it was felt that the military was not the best place for someone of his ideology."

  "Can you translate that for me?" Moss asked. "We know that he's a long-term member of the sovereign citizen movement and in fact he was likely a member at the time of his enlistment. Did he discuss his ideas with his fellow soldiers? In the end was the military happy to see him go? He is presently our number one suspect in the commission of four murders and we don't know that he's finished. Furthermore he has a partner perhaps for the first time in his lonely life. He's also had information about each of his victims that suggests he was able to hack into either life insurance companies or doctor's offices to gain personal medical information that was used against each of the victims. Does anything in your report speak to that skill?"

  "No, sir but there is evidence of his computer ability in the Army. When we got the call this afternoon for information on this former soldier, we searched all of our systems to gather information. His name and very existence had been wiped out of all Army computer systems. Fortunately, at the time of his enlistment, there were substantial paper records on microfiche, which is where this information came from. We have not had a forensic computer expert look at our systems to understand how and when he was removed from all Army records."

  "Does your paper file contain a copy of his fingerprints?" Detective Chang asked.

  "Yes and here is a copy for you," Hanson replied passing over a sheet with fingerprints on it.

  "Let's move on to a discussion about our suspect's ammunitions training. According to the records you have, what skills does our suspect have in regards to building and detonating bombs? What kind of explosives did he work within the military? Can you describe his experience?" Moss inquired.

  "Upon entry to the military, every civilian takes the armed forces vocational aptitude battery test. We use this test to help us place new recruits in a job that most matches their innate skills and thinking ability. Mr. Hull had an achievement score better than ninety percent of his classmates. The Army offered him the choice of five skill areas and he chose studies in ordnance. Basically, he knows how to build bombs that are used in training for the military or for deadly force. There is not much that he cannot figure out how to destroy with the ordnance."

  There was silence in the room for a while as people mulled over what that could mean for the Department of Revenue and/or the region of Sacramento.

  Special Agent Ortiz urged, "Let's get those fingerprints analyzed to see if he is connected to any crimes since he exited the military. We have potentially a very talented criminal mind at work here. He may have done nothing criminal in the intervening years or he may be connected to several unsolved crimes. As we don't know what aliases he is functioning under, if we can get some connection to DNA or fingerprints related to crime scenes we'll then know a little more about him."

  Several law enforcement agencies were scanning the prints to be sent to their crime labs. Jill took a moment to go through the various options of Henrik's software system. Since you could match objects like ambulances, she wondered how a set of fingerprints would do from a matching perspective. She just shrugged and thought she’d try it and see what happened. She got a copy of the prints from Hanson, used her iPhone to scan the picture in an e-mail to herself, then using the laptop she opened her e-mail and then the attachment and ran it through the object recognition software on her laptop. She figured it would take a while and so she glanced away from the screen and tuned back into the meeting. Several law enforcement agencies thought they would have results from the crime labs within about thirty minutes to determine if the prints were connected to any other crime scenes. Jill gave her laptop screen the merest of glances and was startled that there were matches awaiting her review.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jill opened the first of eight fingerprint matches. It was the fingerprints taken from the storage unit that very morning. She had to stop for a moment and marvel at the brilliance of the technology in her laptop. The fingerprints had been uploaded in Sacramento to some law enforcement serv
er and yet within two hours they were swept into a software server in Stuttgart Germany and were now available for her use. Wow! She didn't understand the technology behind Henrik's software program, but she was blown away by its speed and efficiency. She quickly looked through some of the other matches and then spoke up to the group at large who had begun speculating about the role of their suspect's ammunitions expertise.

  "Hey folks, I have eight fingerprint matches to the Army's fingerprints for Mr. Hull. Give me a moment to connect my laptop to your projector and we can all go through them," Jill said as she moved around the conference room looking for the cord that would connect her laptop to the projector.

  She looked around the room and saw a variety of expressions on peoples' faces. There were looks of disbelief, there were looks of disbelief coupled with disapproval, there were several blank looks, and then she noted the smirks on both Marie's and agent Ortiz's face. She knew who her supporters were in the room.

  "As some of you know, I have a facial and object recognition software program on my laptop on loan from a friend in Germany. Before you ask, the software is sold in the United States and is legal for use here. I provided the computer with the fingerprints that the Army has of Mr. Hull and it gave me eight matches including some of the fingerprints from the storage shed collected this morning, so that gives me a sense of accuracy."

  Jill continued through the other seven matches most of which were related to the present crime spree. There were two additional crimes they could connect to Mr. Hull. "Three years ago he had sent a letter to the IRS covered in a white powder. The letter had come back negative for hazardous materials, but it had been dusted for fingerprints and those fingerprints had been retained in the system and matched to the Army's copy of Mr. Hull's fingerprints. These prints were also on a document given to police during a routine traffic stop five years ago. The document proclaimed him a sovereign citizen thereby releasing him from the burden of having a driver's license."