Chapter 26
The team had all been alerted that a message from The Sandman had come in over Bartolucci's phone. It was barely past six-thirty Monday morning when they gathered around the murder board, Wallace holding the phone in his hand.
"Okay, Rupe, read it one more time," Inspector Caruso said.
"Sting, my good friend, you are about to get stung, just like I stung her."
"What time did the message come in?"
"Four fifty-one a.m."
"Obviously he's talking about Pepper when he says Sting is about to get stung," Chin said, "but who do you think he means by 'her' when he says 'like I stung her'? Yvonne Redmond?"
"He could mean the Redmond girl," McTavish said. "He definitely stung her, with both the arrow and the bleach."
"It does seem like a direct threat to Pepper though," Johannson offered.
"All right," Caruso said, pulling at his goatee pensively. "Until further notice, I want two teams monitoring Pepper at all times. This guy is too much of a nutbar for us to have any idea what he's going to do next." He paused and turned to the team. "Who was watching Drummond last night?"
"We were," Wilson said, nodding towards his partner Johannson. "Everything was quiet as a tomb at his house and he shut the lights off at about eleven. We waited another hour and packed it in after that."
Caruso nodded. "Okay, I want you two to check out Drummond's whereabouts asap."
"Yes sir," the two detectives said.
As Wilson and Johannson turned to go, a uniformed officer burst into the squad room.
"Inspector," he said, his voice very controlled.
"Yes?"
"Dispatch called in. Report of a body on Adelaide Street North. Young female, found in a dumpster."
"Shit," the Inspector said, heaving a big sigh. "Okay, everybody except Wilson and Johannson, let's go. Sean, let me know when you nail down Drummond's whereabouts."
"Yes sir."
They got the address from the officer and headed out in their cars. The sun was peeking over the horizon, the sky tinged deep pink as they spotted two cruisers parked outside a convenience store on Adelaide Street just north of Huron. The old concrete block building was a mom and pop operation, the cheap sign over the entrance reading 'Len's Variety'.
Their three cars pulled into the asphalt parking lot at the front of the building at the same time, Caruso riding with Chin and McTavish. They got out of their cars as one of the uniformed officers pointed to the laneway leading to the back of the building. As they came around the back corner, two other officers were standing next to a dumpster beside the rear door.
"What have we got, officer?" Caruso said as he walked up to the two men, ignoring the pain in his hip.
The officer looked down at his notepad. "A call came in at six twenty-four a.m. from the owner of the convenience store, Mr. Kim. He came in early to open the store for seven. He said he brought in today's newspapers and came out here to throw out the leftover ones from yesterday, along with a bag of garbage. When he came out, he noticed the light over the back door had been broken. You can see the pieces of glass on the ground." They looked over at the back door, shards of white glass littered on the ground. "He said he figured it was just some kids who'd broken the light, but when he lifted the lid of his dumpster, he found the body inside."
"With a store like this, I don't suppose he has any security cameras out here?"
"No sir. I asked and he said he just has one on the cash register, which he only turns on when he's here."
The Inspector nodded. "The dumpster. You've looked inside?"
"Yes sir. We looked inside and then put the lid back down, wanting to keep the crime scene as uncompromised as possible."
"Good." He turned to DiCicco and Harris. "Forensics?"
"They're on their way," DiCicco said. "We already called it in."
"Okay. What can you tell me about the body, officer?.?" Caruso said, turning back to the young man who'd been giving him the information so far.
"Conway, sir. Officer Conway." The young man looked back down at his notes. "The victim is a female Caucasian, approximately 20 years of age. Blonde hair. Appears to be of average height and weight. Fully clothed with no jacket." He paused and looked up from his notebook. "And there's one other thing."
"What's that?"
"She's holding a whip."
"What?" Caruso barked out. The detectives all looked at each other.
"A whip, sir. A big whip. Like Indiana Jones used."
"Jesus Christ," the Inspector said, walking over to the dumpster, the other detectives following. The sun was continuing to rise, making visibility better. Before they had a chance to lift the lid, the van with the Forensics sign on the side pulled up the laneway. Janssen and Singleton hopped out. Singleton had the camera ready and started taking pictures, even while the dumpster lid was still closed.
"What have we got, Inspector?" Janssen said as she walked over in her navy Forensics windbreaker, deftly whipping her hair up into a ponytail, securing it with an elastic band to keep it out the way for the examination ahead.
Caruso filled her in on the details Officer Conway had given him, the young man clarifying a couple of points. When the Inspector was done, Janssen turned to the young officer.
"Just to clarify, Officer, no one has touched the body, correct?" she said, snapping on a pair of blue latex gloves.
"No ma'am. We just lifted the lid, looked inside, and then put the lid back down. We just touched it at the corners."
"Good." She paused as she stepped over to the dumpster. "Okay, let's see what we've got." As the surrounding detectives donned their own surgical gloves, Janssen nodded to Singleton who went to one end of the dumpster, and to Pepper, who went to the other. They carefully raised the lid and leaned it against the block wall behind it. Janssen stepped forward to look over the edge.
"Identical methodology as the Redmond girl," she said under her breath as the others gathered around and waited for her to talk.
Like the others, Pepper and Wallace moved closer, looking down at the young girl atop a mound of black garbage bags. Just like Yvonne Redmond, she appeared to be sleeping peacefully, her body laid out straight, her clothing fully intact. And just like Yvonne Redmond, her makeup and lipstick had been done after her death, making her face look like a mannequin, serene and perfect. She had on a grey turtleneck sweater and jeans, her feet clad in short black boots. Like Officer Conway had said, she wore no jacket. Also like Yvonne Redmond, her hands were clasped over her midsection, but resting in her circled right hand was the handle of a long bullwhip, the rest of the lengthy whip wound in a circle that rested on her stomach.
"What the hell is that whip all about?" McTavish said, shaking his head as if making sure he was seeing things clearly. His question went unanswered as the others just stood and stared.
"Can you smell the bleach?" Janssen asked.
Pepper breathed deep, catching a hint of the sharp toxic scent. The others did the same thing, nodding in agreement as Singleton appeared with Janssen's step stool from the back of their vehicle. Janssen climbed onto the stool and leaned over the supine form of the dead girl, looking closely at her face. As Singleton started snapping one picture after another, Janssen reached forward with her gloved hand and touched the girl's lips.
"It's the same thing-one side of her mouth is glued shut." Her fingertips moved to the other side of the girl's mouth, pushing the girl's lips apart slightly as she leaned closer. "There's something in her mouth, too." She drew a pair of forceps from the pocket of her jacket and reached carefully into the girl's mouth, and then drew it out slowly. They could see it was a folded piece of paper, just like with the Redmond girl. Janssen took the paper in her hand and unfolded it, carefully holding it by the corners. As she held it down in front of her, they could see it was a number of lines of typed text, with another row of paired numbers at the bottom of the sheet, just like the previous notes.
"What does it say, Tanya?"
Inspector Caruso said.
"It says,
SHAPE IT UP
GET STRAIGHT
GO FORWARD
MOVE AHEAD
TRY TO DETECT IT
IT'S NOT TOO LATE,
And then a number of paired digits below."
She stopped and looked up, this time turning automatically to Wallace.
"That's from 'Whip It', by 'Devo'," Wallace said, his eyes meeting Pepper's.
"That's another one of those '80s songs, right?" Caruso said.
"Yeah," Wallace replied, unsure of whether to continue. "It was the top single from the Freedom of Choice album, released in 1980."
"Can you read it again please, Tanya?" the Inspector asked.
Janssen re-read the note, and they all listened closely.
"It sounds like he's taunting us again," Chin said. "Look at those last two lines: "Try to detect it, it's not too late." Or maybe he wants us to catch him."
"Then why doesn't the asshole just turn himself in?" Wallace said, running his hands angrily through his stubby hair.
"No, he's having too much fun with this," McTavish said. "He keeps making those kind of suggestions, but he's just toying with us, pushing our buttons."
Caruso looked pensive, deep in thought. "Yeah, this business of using music from the '80s is bugging me," he said absently. "I mean, this stuff isn't mainstream. I've never heard of most of it before. The only people who know any of these lyrics are you two." He looked at Pepper and then Wallace. "And why the notes, the codes? Are they just distractions?"
"What about you, Wallace?" McTavish said tersely. "All this shit is right up your alley. Where were you last night?"
Wallace's face turned red. "I was at home, with a woman whose eight months pregnant sleeping next to me all night," he replied angrily.
"And you," McTavish said, turning to Pepper. "Anything about your past we should know?"
"Fuck you, Ian," Pepper spat out, feeling the hackles on the back of his neck going up.
"Detective McTavish, that's enough!" Caruso said firmly, stepping between his detectives. "Walk away, Ian. Now!"
McTavish stormed off, rounding the corner of the building.
Caruso turned to Pepper and Wallace. "What the hell is that all about?"
They both shook their heads. "I think you'd better ask him that," Pepper replied. "I have no idea what his problem is, but one minute, he's Mr. Nice Guy, joking around with us, and the next minute, we get this shit."
Caruso waited for a few moments for everybody to cool down, looking at each of his detectives in turn before directing his attention to the Forensics team. "All right. Tanya, can you check to see if there's any ID on her?" As Janssen nodded and started carefully checking the girl's pockets, Caruso turned to DiCicco and Harris. "You guys check in and see if there've been any missing person reports in the last few days that match this girl's description. I have the feeling Janssen's not gonna find anything on her." The two detectives hustled off to their car just as the Inspector's phone rang.
"Caruso," he said, holding the phone to his ear as the other person started to speak. "Sean, hang on, I'll put you on speaker phone." He touched the appropriate button and turned the volume up as he held the phone out for the others to hear. "It's Wilson and Johannson. Go ahead, Sean."
"We're at the university and Professor Drummond is already here. We swung by here first on the way to his place just to check, and we were surprised to see his car already in the parking lot."
"This early?" Caruso asked what all of them were thinking.
"Yeah. That was our thought too-what the heck is a tenured professor doing here so early in the morning. So we thought that something might have happened and he'd left his car here overnight. So I looked through the faculty website and found the phone number of his office. I gave that a try and was surprised when he actually answered the phone himself."
"How did you know it was him? Did you say anything, or just hang up?"
"I identified myself as a member of campus security, and told him I'd noticed his car in the parking lot and wanted to make sure everything was all right. He kind of laughed and said he hadn't been able to sleep and had come in early to try and get some papers marked before the end of term. I left it at that."
"Good work, Sean, thanks. I'm going to ask you guys to hang around the university for a while, just in case. But hang back, don't let him know we're watching."
"Got it."
As the Inspector slipped his phone back into his pocket, DiCicco and Harris came around the corner, Harris holding his phone in his hand.
"We've got what looks like a positive ID for the girl," he said. "A missing person's report was filed yesterday evening by a couple from Windsor. They'd been trying to reach their daughter for over 24 hours with no luck. They'd even driven into town and checked her apartment on Regent Street, but she wasn't there, and neither was her car. We've put out a BOLO on her red Toyota Matrix. The girl's name is Alicia Francis Skinner, aged 21, a second year student at Western. I was able to access the picture her parents provided." Harris turned his phone towards the rest of them as he nodded towards the girl in the dumpster. "It's her."
They stepped closer and looked at the picture on his phone. Pepper exhaled slowly, noting how the girl looked remarkably similar to Yvonne Redmond-blonde, blue eyes, pretty smile-the quintessential girl next door. The type of girl he'd once wanted to take to the prom. He looked back at the girl, her face now as placid and cold as a slab of marble.
Every Breath You Take Page 41
