Death On A Green (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Book 4)

by Alec Peche

  Jill motioned to Marie to give her address, and the detective said “I’ll be there in about ten minutes,” as he abruptly ended the call.

  Jill looked at the others that had been listening to the call and said, “ok, not sure what to make of that. I guess we’ll find out when he arrives.”

  “Marie, do you want to add your assumptions to the murder board? We still don’t know if it was a man or woman who was the killer. I wonder if there was any DNA on the candy wrapper. Trouble is that someone made, packed, stocked, and then sold that candy bar. Any of them could have left DNA and fingerprints on the wrapper that might be confused with the killer’s DNA. I wonder if the detective will share that information.”

  As Marie was adding her findings to the murder board, Jill heard a ping to her email which she hoped represented another email from the satellite company. She was in luck when she viewed her in-box. She quickly forwarded the email to Jack.

  They were all standing around Jack’s screen viewing the footage, when Marie’s doorbell rang. She went to the door and opened it.

  “Ah, Detective Van Bruggin, please come in,” Marie invited. “Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, tea, water, soda, wine?”

  “I’m fine; I don’t need anything," being a detective, he noted everyone gathered around a gentleman and his laptop. He stepped over to see what was on the screen. As he approached, Jill spoke up.

  “Hello Detective. I’ll perform introductions later. This is Jack,” she gestured at him. “He is a graphics expert and he is playing with the video feed to see if we can sharpen the picture of the suspect or of his weapon. We just got this additional feed as it appears that he steps into the clearing near the house toward the south, but then re-enters the woods to go somewhere else. We’ll go back and show you the beginning after we see where he walks on this footage.”

  There was silence in the room as they watched the figure on the screen walk around the clearing and re-enter the woods. They continued to watch the video, but even after another twenty minutes of footage, they never saw the figure leave the woods.

  “That was weird,” expressed Angela. “I wonder if he was in the woods while we were searching. He would have been deeper in there - at a point that we were unable to reach. Why not just walk out and go home? Could he still be there now?”

  Looking outside, Jill offered, “I would have thought that the killer would leave immediately. To hang about in the woods in an area in which you would be unable to hear any conversation going on from the police or anyone else, just doesn’t make sense. Now that we are heading toward dusk, it would be pretty dark inside the woods.” Peering over at Detective Van Bruggin she added, “If you can spare the manpower, it wouldn’t hurt to send some officers just to check out the area.”

  The detective had barely said a word since he arrived. At first he was afraid of unhelpful interference from all these women - bored housewives or some group like that. However after viewing the murder board and the satellite video clips, he had to come to terms that this team could be of real use to his team. They were ahead of him on the satellite video. He had never used anything like that but had quickly seen its value. Coming to that conclusion, he decided to use this group of people as best he could.

  “I’ll deploy a group of officers to that scene now,” and stepped away from the group to make his call.

  Stepping back he requested, “Would you forward the video clips to me? I’d like my team to have some science behind what they are doing as they search those woods.”

  Jill forwarded the emails to the detective and then returned to the conversation.

  “I suppose I could call the satellite company and ask them to send us more footage but it could be several hours to review. The killer could have waited until it was dark and we would not see that. Also since it is an overhead shot, unless the killer looks up at the sky we won’t get any better of a picture than we have so far. What we may see, is how the shooter left the area.”

  “Dr. Quint, if you don’t ask for the footage, I will,” cut-in the detective. “Is your contact at the company on your email? I do want to see how the suspect left the area. It will tell us something about him. If it is not in the video feed, even that tells us something. I’m also bringing my partner over here. I think with Jack’s help we can obtain the most information in the shortest period of time.”

  “Please call me, Jill. How about sharing some information with us?”

  Chapter Six

  “Depends on what you want.”

  “I have my own requests, but everyone should feel free to ask the detective for information to help us fill in our murder board,” Jill said to everyone standing in Marie’s kitchen.

  The detective looked pained at her response, and frowning took out his notebook.

  “I’d like to see the autopsy results,” said Jill starting off the list. “I’d also like a copy of any crime scene evidence that you have collected. Lastly, I would like to drop into your division and view your murder board."

  The detective was still frowning as he took notes, but he did not provide any commentary.

  “I’d like a copy of your suspect list,” Marie requested. “I will be doing background searches on anyone connected to this case.

  The others in the room passed on asking the detective for any information. They doubted he had any information on the subjects they were interested in and in some cases they thought it was too early in the case for him to have the information they needed.

  “I can’t think of anything to ask the detective for at this time, but I might in a few days,” noted Jo.

  “I hope we have the case solved in a few days as Jill has to leave in four days to return to California.”

  The detective looked over at Jill optimistically, “You have to leave in four days!”

  “Yes, in my experience we have about eighty percent of our cases are completed in that time. If not, someone will manage the case from Green Bay and I’ll stay in contact and do my work from there. It doesn’t mean we’ll drop the case.” Jill’s words deflated the detective.

  They all heard the doorbell ring and Marie walked over to answer it.

  Detective Van Bruggin’s partner entered. He looked familiar from the murder scene that afternoon, but Marie couldn’t remember his name.

  “Hello ma’am, I am Detective Haro, I believe my partner is at this residence.”

  “Yes, he is. Come inside and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

  They realized at that point that they had not provided introductions for Detective Van Bruggin earlier. So Marie went around the circle and introduced each person and their role in solving the mystery.

  Detective Haro looked a little puzzled as to how his partner had got involved with this group of amateur sleuths. Then his partner motioned him over to Jack’s computer.

  “Jack, would you show Detective Haro our suspect on the tape?”

  Detective Haro was always quick to take in a situation and change his behavior accordingly. He was reserving comments while dealing with Jill, her team, and their friends. He never liked having civilians involved in an investigation, but it was undeniable that they had information that the police did not and he wasn’t sure, if he was honest with himself, that they would have thought to ask for it. Like his partner, he viewed the video footage and agreed that this was likely the killer.

  Detective Van Bruggin had been checking his email regularly and noted the arrival of an email from Jill’s satellite company. He hoped this was the final footage.

  This time the detective forwarded the email to Jack, who worked his usual magic with the video feed.

  “I don’t see any exit from the woods through the end of the video,” noted Jack.

  “Are you sure?” asked Detective Haro. “You went through that video feed at a pretty fast pace.”

  “Yes I’m sure. I’ll slow it down to half speed and you can sit here and watch it.” Jack dismissed the detective’s concerns stating his intenti
on of not being bothered to watch it a second time.

  “Angela, Jill, and everyone else, we’re going to take off home,” said Ann. “We understand this terrible murder of Doug and what we need to do to collect information on him and the hospital. We’ll keep you posted as we hear stuff.”

  “We really appreciate you coming over and let me know whatever you hear,” noted Angela. “The smallest off-hand remark can lead to something big, so don’t hold back anything; just pass it on.”

  “Will do and goodnight and good luck to everyone,” answered Ann and her mom with a wave.

  Jill looked over at the two detectives, “Detective Van Bruggin, we gave you a list of information we wanted on the case. Can you provide any of that now?”

  The two detectives looked up from the computer monitor at her. One with a pained expression, the other with eyes widened with alarm.

  When she got no immediate answer, she added to her request with “look, you two have very telling faces. I hope you don’t play poker. Why don’t you both step outside and have a brief discussion on what your level of interaction is going to be with us. Then we can all move on.”

  They decided to do just that.

  Marie took a break from her research to refill everyone’s drink glass and pull out snickerdoodle cookies for everyone to munch on.

  The detectives stepped back in the room. Detective Van Bruggin, demonstrating a new air of cooperation, said, “Jill, I emailed you the preliminary autopsy report and our own report. We are going to return to the station now, so if you would like to see our murder board, you can do so immediately.”

  “Thanks for your help and I see the emails from you. I am ready to follow you to the station to view your murder board,” thanked Jill and she added, “Does anyone else want to come?”

  She got affirmatives from Marie and Angela. Jo and Samantha decided to stay behind, both engaged in searching for information. So the room emptied as the detectives left in their respective cars and the woman all piled into Angela’s car to drive to the police station.

  “So what do you think they chatted about outside?” asked Angela.

  “I would say the overall topic was our usefulness to them on the case,” Jill observed.“ Certainly we provided them with a feather in their cap that they have a suspect caught on video. From a public relations point-of-view for the community, they can feel safer if the police can announce that they have a suspect in mind. I’m sure they are giving us this information as they think it will amicably end our relationship with them and with the reports we had a legal right to them thanks to the documentation that Michelle signed. They are doing us a favor with the murder board, but they think we won’t bother them after this. If we have the same information as they do at this moment in time, I will bet that we will solve the case faster than they will due to the skills of this team. While I think they are highly trained, they don’t have our specific skills.”

  “Jill, I have to agree with your assessment,” Marie concurred. “You have made me suspicious about these murders after these past couple of cases. I’m trying to see what could be the entire iceberg of this case? It seems pretty open and shut. Like there is a single shooter that was mad enough about Doug that he needed to kill him. I mean this is Green Bay! There aren't any Albania terrorists here, female serial killers, or drug psychos.”

  “Yes, it is Green Bay!” added Angela, jumping on her friend’s bandwagon. “We have only one murder a year in this town and this was it. And those murders are due to robbery gone bad, dumb criminals with drugs, or domestic violence - none of which seem appropriate for this murder.”

  “Well, let’s walk into the police station and see what suspects they have on their murder board. We can see what the ‘experts’ think of the case,” advised Jill.

  After presenting themselves to front desk at police headquarters, they were escorted back to the Investigations Division where they found Detectives Haro and Van Bruggin. Marie looked around wide eyed as she had never been inside a U.S. police station. Angela had a tour of the station with one of her numerous social clubs. Jill had spent nearly fifteen years around law enforcement offices. This looked like many other spaces she had been in.

  The detectives were standing on each side of their murder board awaiting their arrival.

  “Hello ladies, glad you found your way back here. Why don’t you have a seat and we’ll go through it with you?”

  The women quickly took their seats. They were all looking for differences between Jill's board and this board. Other than a side column labeled ‘suspects’, there was nothing on their board that wasn’t on Jill’s board. Jill stayed quiet about that for two reasons. The detectives had seen her murder board so they knew the ladies wouldn't find any new information on their board, and she was interested in seeing if verbally they mentioned a facet of the case that wasn’t on the board.

  “In this department, this is how we organize our investigation. While we are the only two detectives that will work this case, sometimes it is helpful for our crime technicians to know where we are or what we are looking for in case it triggers something in their investigation. During the active phase of the case, each time we update our files, an email gets pushed out to the entire division and the Chief so that everyone is up to speed.”

  “How many homicides have you closed?” asked Marie.

  “Twelve cases,” replied Detective Van Bruggin. "I have been in this detective role for over a decade, but as you know there aren’t many murders in Green Bay, so we average one murder case a year. We have agreements with surrounding cities to do their detective work as well, so we have picked up the odd homicide case there.

  “We have had a couple of cases that were pretty open and shut. We got the killer at the murder scene with the gun or knife in hand. Those didn’t require much work by the division to arrest and provide enough evidence to convict our suspect.

  “We also have the responsibility for major crimes. In those cases, we have a major crime board that looks similar to this board except there is no dead body on it.”

  “Do you have any unsolved murders?” questioned Angela.

  “None from the past two decades. There are unsolved murders from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. However, police forensics made a huge leap forward in the 1970s and that use of scientific evidence has greatly increased our solve rate.”

  “Did either of you work on the Monfils case?” asked Angela, referring to a notorious murder wherein a paper industry employee was tossed into a vat of acid.

  “No, we didn’t work on that case. I had just graduated from the academy and Haro was still in high school at the time,” replied Van Bruggin, looking at Haro for confirmation.

  “Yes, I was in high school at the time of that case,” noted Haro. “In fact, it was that case that made me want to join the force. I can remember being horrified at being thrown into a vat of acid, and I was so grateful and impressed with the job the police did to find the killer.”

  Jill was anxious to move on to the facts of the case. Enough chit chat, and so she asked, “Detectives, what can you tell me about your suspect list?”

  Her question was like a record being scratched. It ended the jovial exchange between the two detectives and Angela and Marie.

  “Ah yes, the suspect list,” mused Detective Van Bruggin. “We start with the usual suspects as we don’t have real suspects yet. So that includes the victim’s wife and daughters as they are all capable of being or hiring the markswoman. Sadly, we look to the family first for suspects. We have also added additional close family members - parents, siblings. We also added some co-workers. There really are a lot of potential suspects. Once we figure out the motive we’ll be able to reduce and focus our suspect list.”

  “What are your thoughts on a motive?" asked Angela, now in her interview mode. She would have any secrets out of the two detectives in minutes; Marie and Jill just sat back and let her do what she did best.

  “It’s too early in the investigation
to identify a motive. We would start with the usual - money or a personal relationship. Maybe he isn’t liked at work; maybe he has a gambling or drug habit; maybe he was having an affair. Like I said nothing has surfaced at the crime scene or during our initial interview of his wife; so really at this point it could be any motive.”

  “What are you investigating next?” Angela continued.

  “Well, thanks to your satellite feed, we’ll be examining it for all the possible evidence. We’ll be searching the woods at daylight tomorrow. We didn’t want to trample on any potential evidence tonight.”

  “Did your officers see or hear anything when they visited perhaps thirty minutes ago?”

  “Again it was a very dark area. They listened for any movement and shone their flashlights into the woods, but they were under orders to stay out of the actual woods.”

  “Aren’t you afraid the suspect will get away?”

  “Frankly, I don’t know why the suspect would stay in the woods for much time after dark. My theory is that he wanted to hide out until dark when he could move without being seen by cameras. I doubt he was aware of the satellite capabilities as that is a new technology. Maybe he was just trying to stay out of view of any golf course or neighborhood security cameras.”

  “Did you canvas any of the houses in the area of the woods to see who owns them?”

  “That is on our list for tomorrow in addition to searching the woods.”

  “How about his work? Have you visited his office at Our Lady, or spoken with any co-workers?”

  “Not yet,” replied Detective Haro. “We spent most of the day collecting witness statements and making sure our crime scene technicians could collect all necessary information. Besides his three foursome mates and you four, there was a foursome behind him. We also spoke with the beverage cart drivers and other golf course employees. No sooner had we finished those interviews and began to construct our murder board then we got the call from you ladies. It’s been a busy afternoon and evening.”

  “Do you have any early insights or hunches regarding this case?”