“Did you happen to see her last night?” Elgie asked.
“No, I don’t believe she came in last night. Sorry I can’t help you.” Sam began to walk away, then stopped and turned around. “Why are you looking for her? Did she do something wrong?”
“She was murdered, sir,” Elgie said.
“Oh man, what happened?”
“We’re not at liberty to discuss that at this time. Thank you for your cooperation.” Elgie addressed his teammates. “Let’s look through the parking lot to see if we see her car.”
The three checked the parking lot and the street but didn’t find Mrs. McMullen’s car.
“Let’s go check the other two clubs.”
Their next stop was Jimmie’s in Hollywood. Just as they pulled up, Kim noticed something.
“Hey, isn’t that Mrs. McMullen’s car in the parking lot?”
“It looks like it,” Elgie said, “let’s check the plate. That’s hers alright, 2HOTTT, let’s go in.”
The three walked up to the bar, and Elgie introduced them and showed the man behind the bar the photo of Mrs. McMullen.
“Yeah, I know her. She comes in here occasionally during the day. Usually, it’s to pick up her car, and she’ll come in and have a drink before she goes.”
“Did you see her last night?” Kim asked.
“No, but I get off at eight, I can ask the night man if he saw her. Can I keep this picture?”
“No, that’s the only one we have,” Elgie replied.
“Can I make a photocopy of it then?”
“Sure, that’ll be fine.”
The bartender made the copy and returned.
“Here’s your photo—what is it you want to know? I mean her car’s in the parking lot, so I would expect her any minute, so why do you want to know about last night?”
“We need to know who she left with,” Elgie said.
“Why, did something happen to her?”
“She was murdered.”
“Jesus Christ! Do you think someone picked her up here and killed her?”
“That is a possibility, sir,” Elgie replied.
“Okay, I’ll let the next guy know and have him call you. You got a card?”
“Yes,” Elgie handed him his card.
As they walked out of the nightclub, Kim asked a question.
“Are we still gonna check out the last club on the list, Boss?”
“Yes, she may have left this club and gone to the other club afterward with someone. Maybe, they’ll know who that someone is.”
There was no luck at the next nightclub. The night person wasn’t there and was out of town for the day; otherwise, they would have called him. They would have to come back after ten to speak with the night man. Elgie received a call.
“This is Lieutenant Reynolds, may I help you?”
“Lieutenant, this is Doctor Montgomery from the coroner’s office. I’m about to do the autopsy on Barbara McMullen, and I thought you might like to sit in.”
“I definitely would. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Very good, I’ll take care of another body while I wait.”
“That was Doctor Montgomery,” Elgie said, “he’s about to do the autopsy on Barbara McMullen, and we’re on our way there, but first I need to make a phone call back to the Butcher Tip Line.” Elgie dialed the number. “Hello, this is Lieutenant Reynolds, let me speak to Sergeant Pool…Sergeant Pool, this is Lieutenant Reynolds. I want you, Officer Neil, and Sergeant Johnson to take charge of the front desks in our absence. I also want you to personally run down any lead relating to our current suspects, their names are Norman Bennaderick, Paul Rodson, Alan Reader, and Alexander Deorader. Do you need me to repeat those names?”
“No, I’ve got them written down.”
“Great, also, when you go out on these calls, make sure to wear your civilian clothes. And bring a suit with you to work from now on. That goes for Officer Neil and Sergeant Johnson as well.”
“Yes, sir I’ll pass that information on.”
“Also, I want you to check on three things for me: one is whether there has been a hit on the ViCAP entry Detective Kim and Doctor Connors put in. Second, check with the crime lab. Find out if they were able to lift any usable prints or possible DNA from the Butcher’s letter and envelope. And third, call SID’s Evidence Collection Coordinator Sergeant Georgia Prescott and ask her how the search is going in the alley were Mrs. McMullen was dumped. Any questions?”
“No, sir, but if I have a question may I call you on your cell phone?”
“Yes, please do. Also, call me if you have any good leads especially with the four I just mentioned.”
“I’ll do that, sir.”
At the autopsy of Barbara McMullen Elgie, Kim, and Connors were invited as witnesses. As the autopsy proceeds Elgie queries.
“Are you sure this is the work of the Butcher? These stab wounds appear bigger than the other victims; wider. There was also more blood than on either of the previous victims. Where ever she was killed must be a bloody mess.”
“He could be using a different knife, or he’s trying to cause more pain by moving the knife back and forth in the wounds. We’ll be able to tell when I open the chest cavity. Would you hand me that scalpel?”
“Of course, Doctor.”
“Before you start, did you check her for a possible sexual assault?”
“Yes, she had sex before she died but it appears to be consensual, and they did use a condom. Now, back to the autopsy. I’m going to make a Y-incision. Have Detective Kim and Doctor Connors been in an autopsy before?”
“I don’t know.” Elgie turned to his partners. “Have either of you been to an autopsy before?” They both said no. “Then you might want to stay back while the doctor does the Y-incision. It can look awfully nasty. It’s a large and deep Y-shaped incision starting at the top of each shoulder, running down the front of the chest, and meeting at the lower point of the sternum. Then there is a straight line from the sternum, or breastbone, to below the navel. It has to be deep enough to penetrate all the layers of skin so the skin can be pulled back to open up the chest cavity. The blood’s already been drained, so there won’t be any bloodiness to contend with.”
“The Y-incision is done. Now hand me those rib spreaders.” Elgie complied. “Lieutenant, take a look at this.” Elgie came closer to the autopsy table and looked closely where the medical examiner was pointing with his scalpel. “I thought there was an additional stab wound in the back, which I thought was odd because that’s not where he stabbed the other victims. This knife was wide as you can see by the width of the cut on the inside of the skin. Here’s the kicker—the stab wound goes through the layers of the skin here. Straight through the heart, and out of the back. I hate to say it, but your man is now using a butcher’s knife. I guess this shows he’s taken the name to heart.
“I haven’t autopsied any of your other victims, but I did look at the findings from the first autopsy and the medical records of the second victim. Both indicated that the likely weapon was a large pocket knife. This is a different knife altogether. So, either he’s changed knives, or it’s another killer. Of course, the other things are consistent. Twenty shallow stab wounds and two deep ones in the same places as the first victim.”
“The beating of the left side of the face is still the same,” Elgie said.
“That’s true. However, something else is different; the stab wounds are straight as if she were lying on her back on something solid, like the ground or a table. Also, she has marks from handcuffs on her wrists and ligature marks on her ankles. According to Investigator Long’s notes, he believes there’s a gag underneath the duct tape. We’ll soon find out. Let me get a photograph, and we’ll remove the tape. Okay, the tape’s off, and there’s the gag—one more photo then I’ll remove the cloth.”
Doctor Montgomery cautiously removed the cloth from the victim’s mouth with tweezers and spread the cloth out on the autopsy table.
/> “It looks like a dishcloth,” Elgie said. “It has a jagged edge. We can probably match that to the other end if we find it.”
“Yes, that should work,” Doctor Montgomery said. “I’ll send it over to the SID lab. There’s something else worth noting, although Mrs. McMullen’s face was viciously beaten, the beating of the face is different. This one looks like she was hit with a blunt object, probably a hammer judging by the size and shape of the bruises. After that, she was hit with a fist.”
“Is there any sign she was drugged or knocked out somehow?” Elgie asked. “I mean she was handcuffed and then gagged. What kept her from screaming before the Butcher put the gag in her mouth? She must have been unconscious.”
“I’ll have toxicology check for a sedative in her blood,” Doctor Montgomery said.
“I’m also wondering about the rope marks on her ankles. I can’t figure out why she was tied. It’s not a compulsion; otherwise, we would have seen it before. If he had her sedated and handcuffed he had all the restraint he’d need. So why the rope? What do you think, Connors?”
“I have no suppositions to rely on concerning the ligature marks, Lieutenant. It seems unnecessary and may reflect a new compulsion that he didn’t have the opportunity to engage in when he attacked the other women in alleys.”
“Yes, that makes sense,” Elgie said, “except he didn’t tie her hands. If he had a compulsion to tie the victim why didn’t he tie her hands too? He could have tied her hands and tied the feet and hands together. You know, like hog-tied her. That would have been more satisfying.”
“You’ve got a point, Boss,” Kim said.
“I think what I said in the alley must be the only reasonable explanation,” Elgie said. “He must have had her secured to something. I’m thinking he had her in a bathtub, tied the rope to her ankles and the other end to the faucet to keep her still.”
“Why the bathtub?” Quinn asked.
“I figure he would want to cut her up and beat her somewhere that would be easy to clean up in an apartment or house. That’s the bathtub.”
“Very astute observation, Lieutenant,” Connors said.
“Thanks. Right now, we need to go back to the Butcher Tip Line Office, or at least you two do. I’m going to put together nine sets of six packs with one of our suspects in right, left, and front profiles in each array. Michelle says she got a glimpse of the man that attacked her and I’m hoping she can ID one of our suspects. I’m leaving Norman Bennaderick out because she knows Norman and would have recognized him.
“Anyway, while you are at headquarters update your ViCAP entry with the information about our latest victim and about Ms. Chambers regaining her memory. Check my notes on what she said about the attack and add that to the entry and update your profile.”
“There’s one more thing, sir,” Connors said. “He was successful at luring Mrs. McMullen from the establishment she frequents as per his threats in his prior communications. That tells me that he is comfortable with his appearance. We should look for someone attractive, or at least thinks he’s attractive.”
“That, unfortunately, describes all of our current suspects,” Elgie said. “All of them seem like they could conceivably be comfortable with women except Norman. Connors, what do you think about the Butcher attacking a new victim a day after Ms. Chambers?”
“Sir, I believe the Butcher perpetrated this crime as a substitution for the one that derailed his need to see women dead by his hand. As far as a dormant period is concerned, I hypothesize that such a period may not exist. For this perpetrator, his killing has been an impulse not resisted. But now that he’s attacked another woman and taken her presumably to a location where he could indulge in his perverse fantasies without interruption—I sincerely believe he has developed an irresistible impulse to kill. Which means he could go on a killing spree.”
Elgie went to the hospital to show Michelle the photos of the suspects, but she was unable to identify any of them. She didn’t get that good of a look. Elgie told Michelle he would visit her as soon as he had time, then returned to the tip line office.
Elgie called Jimmie’s in Hollywood and spoke to the barmaid. She said she saw Barbara Mc Mullen leave with someone, but she didn’t get a good look at him. Elgie thought this man was probably the killer and he took her home with him. Or maybe they went somewhere else. The man she left with might not be the killer at all. She may have met the Butcher in the morning, and then he killed her. Either way, they had three likely suspects: Alexander Deorader, Paul Rodson, and Alan Reader.
Unfortunately, the leads generated by the Butcher Tip Line had been dead ends. More of the usual, women who are just mad at their boyfriends or a nosey neighbor thinking the worst of the guy next door. Elgie waited for Sergeant Pool to get off the phone then he asked him about the things he requested that he take care of.
“Yes, sir, I made the necessary phone calls, and there were no hits regarding the Butcher on ViCAP. The crime lab was unable to raise any fingerprints from the Butcher’s letter or the envelope. The materials were sent for DNA testing, which should take around two weeks because of the many DNA profiles they have to exclude. As to the alley where Mrs. McMullen was dumped, the SID team found an inside out pair of surgical gloves with what appears to be blood on them. They also want to check the clothes Mrs. McMullen was wearing in case the killer cut himself while stabbing the victim.”
“Thank you for being so thorough, Sergeant,” Elgie said.
At nine-thirty Elgie and Kim headed for the Catch Up to meet with the night bartender and find out if he had seen Barbara McMullen last night.
Elgie started reviewing the events of the weekend in his head as he drove to the Catch-Up nightclub. Early Friday morning, Michelle Chambers was attacked and left for dead. Friday the letter from the Butcher and the phone call occur. Saturday ten-twenty Barbara McMullen’s body is found in a dumpster. Now it was Saturday night, a busy night for fun seekers and maybe for a killer.
“Kim, how do you feel about checking all three of the clubs on our list and see if any of the men on our suspect list is at one of them?”
“That sounds like a good idea, Boss—but what if one of them is. We can’t just arrest him because he’s in a bar whose name’s on a list.”
“No, but if we see one of the suspects, perhaps we can keep him from killing again tonight, and we would also know which of our suspects is the likely killer.”
“How’d we use that info?” Kim asked.
“We’ll put him under surveillance; maybe send a decoy his way.”
“Sounds like a winner, Boss. Maybe it’ll all come together, and we can prevent another murder.”
When they arrived at the Catch-Up, the club was already crowded. Elgie introduced himself and Kim to the bartender as he showed him the photo of Barbara McMullen.
“Do you know this woman?”
“Sure, that’s Barbara.”
“Was she here last night?”
“Yeah, she came in late with a guy I’d never seen before. Usually, Barbara hangs with the regulars here.”
“Would you be able to identify him?”
“No, it was too dark. Besides, I didn’t take a good look anyway. What for?”
“Because Barbara is dead and that man may have been the one that killed her,” Kim said.
“Wait a minute, ask the bouncer. He always pays attention to who’s who. Jerry, can you come over here for a minute…Jerry, Barbara got killed last night and these detectives want to know what the man looked like that was with her.”
“I got a look at him, but I’m not sure if I’d recognize him if I saw him again.”
“Would you mind looking at a few pictures?” Elgie pulled out the photos of the three suspects and handed them to the bouncer.
“Is he one of these four?”
The bouncer looked at each photo carefully.
“I’m not sure. One of them looks familiar, but he wasn’t the one Barbara left with though.”
�
�Which one looks familiar?”
“This one here.” The bouncer pointed to a photo.
“That’s Alexander Deorader,” Kim said, “the suspect who pulled a knife on me saying it was a game.”
“Where do you know him from?” Elgie asked.
“I think I saw him in here, but I could be wrong. I’m not sure, but he looks familiar. If he came in here, it wasn’t last night—maybe the night before.”
“Okay, thank you for your help.” As they left the nightclub Detective Kim and Elgie began to talk.
“What do you think, Boss, do you think Deorader could be the Butcher?”
“I don’t know, I mean the bouncer wasn’t sure it was Deorader he saw at all. And even if it was Deorader, he wasn’t the one Mrs. McMullen left with.”
Elgie was deep in thought after his exchange with Kim. What if they were wrong? What if the Butcher was someone other than their suspects? So far, they didn’t have anything on either of them. He stopped the thought process and got on to the matter at hand—had any of their suspects been in any of these bars on their list?
“What’s our next stop, Boss?”
“I think we should try Jimmie’s in Hollywood since that’s where she left her car.”
At Jimmie’s in Hollywood Elgie and Kim walked up to the bar and spoke with the bartender.
“Hello, I’m Lieutenant Reynolds of the LAPD, we spoke over the phone earlier.”
“Oh yeah, that was about Barbara wasn’t it. I was so sorry to hear she got killed.”
“I didn’t tell you she was dead.”
“No, but I called the day bartender, and he told me.”
“I see. I would like you to look at some pictures and tell me if any of them looks familiar to you.” Elgie handed him the three suspect photos.
“No, I don’t think so, but you should ask Jamey if she knows any of these guys. Hey Jamey, would you come over here for a minute?”
“Hold on, just give me a minute to take their order.” Jamey took the order and headed for the bar. “What’s up?”
“These cops want you to look at some mugshots.”
“Okay, let’s see them.”
Tracking the Butcher Page 9
