Lang countered. “Yes, but he was probably already at her house by then preparing to break in.”
“It could have been a coincidence…that day.” Moffat said. “Here’s my question. How many of these places would have had their own facilities for laundry on site?”
“Oh. The laundromat could be the connection. You can tell a lot about people by seeing their laundry,” Tashara observed.
The group fell silent for several seconds. Tashara stood and walked to the map. She gazed at the array of multi-colored pins and said, “Captain, if you live alone, it shows. Smaller loads. Bras and panties but no gym socks and jock straps. Someone could see you don’t have men’s or children’s clothes when you’re waiting for a machine or folding clothes. Then he could follow you home just to be sure. He could see if you had visitors or maybe were alone most of the time. He could follow you to work. Office workers have regular hours so he could pick up her routine easily, I think.”
“Wouldn’t he be noticed, following someone around like that?” Duncan asked.
De la Peña answered. “If the stalker case is one of this group, he did get noticed once. Maybe he got better at it. It sounds like Tashara is on to something, Captain.”
“Why don’t you all sort through these cases again for victims who would have taken their laundry to the Pioneer Laundromat. Then we can decide if we want to narrow down our subset to these we have now plus women who might have used the laundromat who also live on the first floor, and who…” he nodded to Fat “are of the right age. And, yes, let’s consider restricting the subset to blondes or at least light haired women.”
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER 28
The mid-day sun was bright but the air still cool when Moffat and Mrs. Grubb walked the three blocks to the County Hospital. Joyce Bithell, Director of Nursing and longtime friend of Mrs. Grubb, had rescheduled two other meetings and was waiting for them when they arrived. Her office was spacious, slightly larger even than Chief Halvorsen’s, and included a lounge to the left of her desk with a new, dark brown leather couch and a slate blue fabric covered chair in an el configuration around a coffee table. A ceramic pot and three cups were on a tray on the table.
Moffat sat at the end of the couch. He declined the offer of tea. “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Mrs. Bithell. I’m hoping you can permit us a short visit with Aaron Jamison. He may be able to help in a murder investigation.”
Mrs. Bithell set her cup on the table. “I was afraid you were going to ask me that, Captain. Ordinarily, I would be able to let you in. Evelyn can tell you, I always cooperate with the police. This time I can’t help. The boy’s grandmother brought in a lawyer from Sacramento. He made it very clear that no one outside of the family or hospital staff would be allowed to speak to Aaron without the attorney being present.”
“I understand. I would do the same in his position.”
“That’s not all. Our staff psychiatrist has given strict orders that Aaron not have any visitors. Evelyn, you’ve never met him, I don’t think. He’s about forty, has a ponytail and dresses in blue jeans. What you and I would call a “hippy.” He’s usually very casual about his work, even lackadaisical, in my opinion. For this patient, though, he seems to have cleared his schedule to permit hours of counseling therapy. Usually, even a juvenile would be scheduled for not much more than forty minutes a week. This is just the second full day and already he has spent four hours with the boy. He gave him one 20mg dose of fluoxetine - that’s Prozac - when he first came in, then suddenly told us to stop any medication. “I’ve never seen Dr. Zielinski move so aggressively with a single patient. I suspect he may have been contacted by someone higher up.”
“Thanks, Joyce,” Mrs. Grubb said. “How does the boy seem to be responding?”
“He slept most of the first 24 hours…probably from stress and the medication. None of the nurses got more than one or two words out of him yesterday. All I’ve heard today is that he ate well at breakfast.”
Mrs. Grubb smiled. “We like to hear that, don’t we Joyce?”
“We do indeed. Any mother will tell you a healthy appetite is a good sign.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Bithell. If you don’t mind, Mrs. Grubb will check with you regularly for updates.”
“It’s no problem at all, Captain. I’m happy to help.”
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER 29
At one, De la Peña summoned the team to the bulletin board once again. On two three by five index cards he had printed a single word. The first read “IN” the second “OUT.” He pinned the first card to the top left and the second to the top right of the twenty-five photographs.
Moffat and Mrs. Grubb joined them and De la Peña began.
“OK, everyone. Let’s go through this again. We have agreed on criteria and we’ve checked each case against them.
First, we move Nicole into the “IN” group followed by Amy Price based on the letters, age and appearance, and the fact they lived in single story buildings without laundry facilities in proximity to the Pioneer Laundromat.”
He knew Moffat had already thought this through so De la Peña sped to his summary. “We add the 1989 missing person Christine Shaw because of the dog hair and general agreement with the other criteria. The 1998 m.p. with the drops of blood moves into the “IN” group. Now, here, we had to rely only on the criteria but it was a good match with Price, Davies and Shaw. That brings with it the 1975 rape case, based on the DNA match. Now we know our man is around through the eighties and nineties. We bring six more missing persons into the group plus the stalking case because they really fit well. Based on the victim’s appearance and assailant’s description we added the indecent exposure case. The notes in the case file on the rape show the police thought at the time it was the same man.”
“That leaves us with fourteen cases still to go. It’s easy to move the two rape cases into the “OUT” group based on DNA and rapist’s description. We also dropped the 1970 murder case. There was no sexual assault involved and the victim was brunette.”
Moffat felt some discontent watching De la Peña move the three photographs to the right. He promised himself he would re-open their cases as soon as the immediate threat was resolved. However many years had passed, these people deserved his best effort to resolve the questions related to their disappearance, murder or assault, punish the guilty and give closure to their loved ones.
“The rest were harder to evaluate,” De la Peña went on. “Three didn’t match on any criteria, either hair color, age or living situation. An example was Leslie Barnes from 1979. She was thirty-four then, the same age as Nicole is now, but we think that would have been too old for him then. By itself, that’s kind of shaky but we also have the fact that she lived with a boyfriend at the time in a second floor apartment. The remaining eight match on one or two criteria, but lacking any physical evidence or other clue we couldn’t rule them in or out.”
“So, here we have it: thirteen women, including nine missing persons who we think may have been attacked by the same man. Separate the first two non-lethal attacks, and we have eleven women of similar appearance who lived alone and would probably have taken their laundry to Pioneer Laundromat.
“Captain,” Officer Duncan said in a soft voice, “It really makes sense - now that we’ve looked at all these case files. But I’m worried that it doesn’t bring us any closer to identifying a suspect. I’m afraid all we’ve accomplished so far is just a very good way to determine if the next missing woman reported is another one of his victims.”
“You are right. We’ve made progress but we still have no idea who he is and when or where he will strike again. Let’s have some ideas, everybody.”
No one spoke. Moffat continued, “We still have the schnauzer lead.”
De la Peña agreed but acknowledged it was almost up to the “needle in a hay stack” standard. “I think it’s worth pursuing though.”
Moffat looked at the team. “We have the laundromat…”
he began.
Lang said, “Yes. We could talk to more customers, going back for years. Look for somebody who saw something suspicious.”
Fat said “We could keep quiet about the whole thing, set up a stakeout and hope he still goes there.”
Tashara said “We could put a decoy in there, see if he takes the bait.”
“I like that idea,” De la Peña said. “We could send a policewoman in there who fits his profile and see if someone follows her.”
“I’d volunteer, but I think a short, pregnant black girl is not what he goes for.”
Moffat said. “Thanks but even if one of our team fit the profile, I wouldn’t want to risk her being ID’d as a cop. If we decide to do this, I’ll talk to the Chief about a temporary loan from another police force. I’ve been worrying that he might be motivated to strike again soon, but on the other hand, it seems like a long shot that could burn up a lot of police resources without a high likelihood of success.”
De la Peña countered. “I see it that way too but what other options do we have. If the DNA is a match in the Federal or state databanks, maybe we’ll have a lead. But otherwise, we’ve got the dog search and not much else.”
Moffat nodded thoughtfully.
With that, the team broke up to pursue individual assignments. Officers Fat and Duncan left to start interviews of the dog owners. Lang and Schoenberg completed contacting the missing persons next of kin. Officer Peake followed up on the credit and social security earnings inquiries sent out Monday afternoon. With little further discussion, De la Peña and Moffat decided to pursue the decoy idea. They began the planning and other arrangements. Later, De la Peña printed an updated version of the 25 case data base, sending it to a printer on the first floor which would print the document on 11x17 inch paper. He ran down and back and was soon pouring over the entire three-page table made up of twenty-five rows, one for each woman, and fifteen columns of characteristics of the victims and the crimes.
At three thirty, a tone signaled the arrival of an e-mail message. Peake interrupted her fellow team members, calling out that she had found something. She had received e-mail responses on credit checks run on each of the women’s social security numbers. She opened the messages one by one and when she finished she had turned up three hits, including one from the “IN” group. She passed two names to Lang and Schoenberg and kept one for herself. These three leads kept them occupied much of the afternoon with follow up calls around the country.
About four o’clock, De la Peña approached Moffat’s corner with his large version database in one hand and carrying a plastic chair with the other. He sat next to Moffat and pointed to the line for the earliest of the case files, now sorted by the “IN, OUT and Unassigned” categories.
“Sandra Smith, killed January 27, 1970.”
“Yes, Sergeant, one of the cases you ruled out of our investigation. Have you changed your mind?”
“No. It’s still out but we did manage to turn up an interesting coincidence when we filled in the information.” De la Peña seemed slightly elated. “Look at one of the witnesses interviewed by the investigators.” He pointed to a column in the middle of the right half of the page.
“Lewis Franke.” Moffat read the name with surprise. “What does it say about him?”
“The victim worked for him in the Segovia office of the Selective Service. For some reason, she worked late or came back to the office that night. Apparently, a thief entered while she was there alone. He may have been surprised. He shot her in the back as she ran for the door. Franke found the body the following morning. He reported some missing cash and office machines. It’s really strange, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Bizarre…the way his name keeps coming up.”
“By the way, what did his niece come in for?”
“A question about beneficiaries on life insurance. I’ll go over it with you tomorrow after we launch the decoy operation.” Moffat wanted De la Peña focused on the task force issues for now.
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER 30
Thursday, May 18
A series of phone calls stretched into the night. Chief Halvorsen arranged for the temporary loan of a blonde, athletic policewoman in her mid-thirties from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department. Other members of his staff evaluated possible residences for the decoy and quickly settled a 1960’s era bungalow two blocks from business route 49 and a mile from the Pioneer Laundromat. The bungalow was at the center of a u-shaped street with nine identical homes typically rented on a week-to-week basis. She was to be the new bookkeeper for a small winery south of town. (Use of the winery next to Moffat was considered and quickly discarded as the perpetrator was believed to be familiar with Moffat and his family and may have learned where they lived.) In a final piece of attention to detail, Mrs. Grubb phoned the task force members at home during the evening with instructions on what to wear the next day.
* * *
De la Peña received the most attention. Thursday morning, he walked into the station through the back entrance dressed in dark blue sweatpants, a sea green tee shirt with the sites and dates of Cold Play’s 2003 concert tour and black running shoes. He carried a yellow plastic laundry basket with five pairs of jeans. He moved quickly through the hall, entered the task force room and placed his laundry basket on a side table before greeting his coworkers. Mrs. Grubb and Moffat shared the same thought. In casual clothes De la Peña looked very young. He could easily have passed as a college student.
Officer Peake’s attire was a rose long sleeve tee shirt with white overalls and white Reebok walking shoes. Lang and Schoenberg wore jeans and tee shirts. Mrs. Grubb had taken their disguises a step further by asking them not to shave. Duncan and Fat, looking like two young professionals on casual day at the office were dressed in slacks, knit shirts and loafers.
Moffat explained the plan for the decoy operation. Lang and Schoenberg would drive to Sonora in an unmarked department cargo van. They would meet Deputy Sheriff Kim McLean of the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department at her home where they would load a suitcase and several boxes of clothing along with a small bookcase, box of books and magazines, a television, and some toiletries. Then they would escort McLean, driving her own car, to Segovia, where she would split off to go to the winery. They would continue to the bungalow where they would unload her belongings and set up the place to look lived in. They would install several nearly invisible silent alarms and hidden surveillance cameras and microphones in the front and back of the house.
De la Peña would visit the laundromat, evaluate vantage points for observation and, as appropriate, arrange with a business across the street to use a room on the second floor with a view of the laundromat. He would also decide locations for the police vehicles.
Duncan and Fat would perform their schnauzer checks until four thirty, when they would proceed to positions to be determined to participate in the decoy operation.
Lang waived toward Moffat “What if our man is not at the laundromat or he doesn’t take the bait?”
“The plan is now for McLean to proceed to Denny’s where she will eat alone, then return to the bungalow. The next morning she will leave for the winery at seven thirty, parking her car in the employee lot. If necessary - and I expect it will be - we have plans for her to visit the laundry again on Friday and Saturday.
“Why would anyone do that much wash?” This came from Schoenberg.
Mrs. Grubb responded. “I thought of that. This evening she’ll have a load of whites, Friday dark clothes and on Saturday it will be the drapes and kitchen and bedroom curtains of her new home.”
Moffat continued. “We’re hoping he will have noticed McLean by then and we will have identified him. Beyond that, we keep up the trips back and forth to work and to Denny’s for dinner for one or takeout. If it goes that far, one more visit to the laundromat on Wednesday. If he doesn’t take the bait by Friday next week, we shut down the operation.”
“Damn, this is a tough one,” L
ang observed, shaking his head.
“I know. It may be a long shot. He could easily decide to keep cool for months. But if he doesn’t, if the failure with Nicole increases the urge he has to kill again, I don’t want to be doing nothing. I hate thinking the only place we will find a good lead is at the next crime scene.”
Seeing Moffat was done for now, De la Peña took over. “We’ve got plenty to do in addition to getting ready for the decoy operation. Let’s get up to date on yesterday’s progress. Who did the social security follow up?”
“Lang, Schoenberg and I handled those,” Peake answered.
“We found two of the missing women through activity on credit reports tied to their social security numbers. We found Virginia Long, missing person 1974…”
Lang said “I spoke with her in Florida. She left town with a man she had been seeing. They both drank a lot. She said she spent 15 years without a sober day but is now a recovering alcoholic. She went back to work, but no one here followed up until now.”
“Good work. That was one, not a blonde, that you chose to leave out of your IN group, Sergeant. Too old, among other things. And the other one?” Moffat asked.
“Rosalie Hunt, 1993,” Schoenberg responded. “She was a blonde and the right age but she is very much alive…in Mississippi. She never knew she had been reported missing. She wouldn’t say why she left town. It was personal. But she gave me enough background information to establish she is the person we had as missing.”
“Mine didn’t turn out as well,” Peake began again. “I traced the social security number to a woman working in a meat packing plant in Iowa. The personnel manager provided me with a description that in no way matches our missing person. It seems the number was appropriated by someone supplying, false documents to illegal aliens. I forwarded the information to Homeland Security.”
“So she stays in our IN group. Still, we took two more out of the whole pool. It’s now down to twenty-three. That’s progress since Monday,” De la Peña observed.
“Make that twenty-one,” Tashara said. “Results are back from the state DNA data bank. The two rape cases with the DNA match…the state database shows the perpetrator is a man serving life without parole in Folsom. We’re lucky about the life sentence. The statute of limitations would have prevented prosecution. But we’ll be able to tell his victims that we know who did it and he can’t hurt anyone else. That should help a lot.”
Nothing Done in Secret Page 17
