De la Peña nodded.
“Another fact is the involvement of Lewis Franke in both cases. In the Gillis case, he is close to Catherine and the Panes who were all involved with the victim. Regarding the Panes, he told them a secret from his past. In the Smith case, he is definitely involved in that he created a false motive that served to mislead the investigators. It could be a coincidence that Lewis’ name came up in the Gillis case, for example, because the killer happened to get the opportunity to commit the crime at that one location of the church. Otherwise, we would never have gone to Lewis’ house that night. A person planning to kill Mrs. Gillis might have done it while she was alone in her office or in a dark parking lot. I can’t be sure it’s not a coincidence that he or she attacked Gillis in the line of sight of Franke’s bedroom window.’
“Next we have Cheryl Haugen. Though we don’t have the evidence to charge her, she is a prime suspect in Veronica Gillis murder due to their lifelong rivalry, the angry confrontation at the café and her lie about phoning Gillis’ office. It seems significant that Haugen is the sister of the 1970 victim but she could have committed the Gillis murder and have had no involvement in 1970 other than that she was the sister. It could be a coincidence or it could be a clue.”
Moffat paused and looked at De la Peña to elicit his thoughts. “So your intuition seems like it’s based on conditional probabilities from statistics. You may believe A or B or C are coincidences if they occur by themselves but when A, B, and C happen together, you think they are clues.”
It didn’t show but Moffat was delighted to find a fellow detective who could speak of statistical concepts. It was a first. “Well, I think you’re right about that. I’m still not sure these things are significant but the fact that they occurred together makes me think they probably are.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“We are going to try to construct a scenario that fits the facts of both cases.”
“You mean something like a teenage Ronnie Gillis shot Sandra Smith in 1970 using her father’s gun so that she could steal her boyfriend and thirty six years later the boyfriend figures it out and kills her for revenge?”
“Yes, that’s the kind of thing we need to do. Of course it will be harder than it sounds. We’ll have to gather more evidence, probably, to test the assumptions in our joint scenario, but, yes, that’s what I’m saying we need to do.”
“What if we can’t come up with one that explains both crimes?”
Moffat shrugged. “Then I admit my intuition is probably wrong. We drop the Smith case and continue working the Gillis case until we find a lead.”
De la Peña drummed with both hands on the table. “Ok, let’s get started,” he said.
“Here’s an assumption for our joint scenario. Both victims were killed by someone they knew. Why do I say that?”
De la Peña shook his head.
“Gillis’ killer knew she had a loaded gun in her purse. Smith’s killer wasn’t a thief, we know that. Franke was involved and may have done it himself. The file shows that the pattern of the small amount of blood splatter on the wall and the bloodstain on the carpet led the investigators to conclude that Smith was shot while facing and moving toward the door leading out of the office. The killer was behind her and inside the office. This suggests to me that there was some interaction between them before Sandra Smith attempted to leave.”
“Great,” De la Peña said. “The victims knew their killers. So if we can come up with a motive in each case, it will point the way to a suspect, won’t it? What motive do we have for the 1970 murder?”
“Motive…” Moffat said thoughtfully. “That’s the place to start. What possible motives are there for killing this young woman? Let’s start with no motive at all, that is, a random killing. We’ve already ruled that out by saying she wasn’t killed by a stranger. Then we have robbery, the motive the investigators settled on. Once again, we almost certainly eliminated that from consideration when we discovered the office equipment had been falsely reported as missing. I’m assuming Franke lied about the cash box as well.”
“I agree. It doesn’t seem likely there was a real robbery and murder and that Franke just took advantage of the situation to steal the typewriter and recorder. That would be too cold.”
“So another typical motive for murder is something romantic or sexual…a love triangle, maybe or the victim could have rejected the killer’s advances.”
“Yeah, something like ‘if I can’t have her, no one else can!’ Why don’t we think that’s likely?”
“Well, we have to consider it. An argument against it is that Franke would have to be involved in some way. He doesn’t seem to be a candidate for extramarital activity himself. There were no rumors or even a hint of something between them. I guess Franke might have misdirected the investigation to protect a killer who was involved with Sandra. If he had a son who did it you could imagine him willing to lie to protect him. No son, but could there have been someone else close enough to Franke that he would be willing to cover up for? We can’t eliminate the possibility completely, but what we have from Donna and the notes in the file, don’t support that scenario.”
“We could interview people who knew Sandra and Franke. We might turn up something the investigators didn’t know then about her love life. Oh, but man, thirty-six years is so long. Who would remember? If they did, could we trust their memories? It’s too bad she didn’t keep a diary. She didn’t, did she?”
“Not as far as we know,” Moffat said. It’s a good point though. Historians prefer contemporary sources to fallible human memory. So do we. Maybe someone else kept a diary at the time. If we have to go down that route next week, we can ask. Also, we can check correspondence from the time. She must have written her ex-boyfriend in Vietnam. We might find something there.”
De la Peña jotted several lines of notes. He highlighted two in yellow. Moffat had noticed this was De la Peña’s way of identifying topics for future action.
“Ok,” Moffat said, “Let’s move on. Revenge is always a possible motive for murder. Can you imagine someone killing Sandra for revenge?”
“She was pretty young. What could she have done to someone to make them want to kill her?”
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“Oh, here’s one,” De la Peña said with a half-smile. “It’s pretty off-the-wall. Remember the mob godfather who had his neighbor killed because the neighbor accidentally ran over the mobster’s kid? Maybe Sandra did something like that. I can check her driving record for accidents.”
Moffat smiled. “I agree with you. It is ‘off-the-wall.’ Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check her DMV file. See if you can get her school records as well.”
De la Peña made a note, then dropped his pen and picked up the yellow highlighter.
“The last motive or maybe group of motives I can think of would be work-related. Unless we turn up anything else, this is where I think our best prospects are. You can imagine a variety of motives here. She did work for the Selective Service - the Draft Board - at the height of the Vietnam War. Let’s think. Bribery…conspiracy…embezzlement…or cover up of crimes like those.”
“Speaking of cover up, maybe she found out about her boss’s phony war record.” De la Peña stopped then added, “I don’t know how she would find out. And it’s hard to believe he would kill her to hide it.”
“I agree with all three of your statements,” Moffat said, laughing at the quick progression of De la Peña’s thoughts. “Maybe his war record plays a role.”
“I wonder how we could investigate all of this.”
“Well, here we do have some contemporary sources. Mrs. Grubb should be back soon from the Ledger Dispatch. I asked her to collect any articles written around the time about the draft board, the anti-war demonstrations in Segovia, Lewis Franke and Sandra Smith’s murder and funeral. Maybe we’ll find a lead there. For one thing, I want to know about the broken window that occurred in the office during th
e demonstration not long before the murder.”
De la Peña’s desk phone rang. It was an inside call, from the main building. “It’s Fat calling.”
Moffat listened to De la Peña’s half of the conversation, clearly the less informative half.
“I thought you calculated it would take another hour and a half…Oh…Wow…Big news, Brandon. I’ll tell him.”
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER 65
De la Peña displayed a wide smile. “They found human remains at Buck’s place. When they drained the pond some bones were exposed. Forensics have been digging for 15 minutes now. Duncan told Fat they’ve already discovered a partial skeleton of a second person.”
Moffat did not seem surprised. “How were they able to drain it so quickly?”
“The Chief thought it was taking too long so he had them knock out a big section of the bank. Duncan said it caused a big wave and the highway was flooded. She said the place is a mess - mud and dying catfish everywhere but they saw a pelvis and a femur as soon as the pond emptied. They laid out sheets of plywood to create a path over the mud. Fat is rounding up dental records for our missing persons. Maybe we’ll get some identifications this weekend.”
Moffat could see De la Peña was excited by the news. It would be satisfying to close at least some of these cases.
The Sergeant continued. “I’d liked to have seen the Chief’s face when the flood let loose. Duncan said the guys on the bank dropped their shovels and had to run when it started to give way. I hope there weren’t any TV cameras around when that happened.”
“I’m sure Channel 34 won’t be allowed back in until they’ve cleaned up. The Chief prefers a controlled picture before the public.”
They returned to their task but hadn’t accomplished much when Mrs. Grubb arrived just before 2:00. She carried a large folder with several dozen 8 ?” by 11” photocopied sheets. She was exited.
“I’ve got quite a few news stories for you, Captain. This should keep you busy until teatime. Maybe a wee bit longer.”
Moffat took the folder and sat back, opening it on the desk. He saw that each page was labeled with the publication date written large at the top right of each story. Moffat instantly noticed familiar handwriting on some of the pages.
“Mrs. Grubb, did you get some help on this assignment?”
“Why, yes. I did.”
De la Peña watched as Moffat inhaled slowly and tapped his head, pretending to be in deep contemplation.
“My guess is that your assistant is a forty five year old woman, slim, with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
“You may be an excellent detective, Captain Moffat, but it would have been wiser to say the lady is 39 years old.”
De la Peña laughed. Moffat nodded.
“Just for future reference,” Mrs. Grubb added “if you ever put out an APB on me, I’m 57. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Mrs. Grubb joined in De le Peña’s laughter. “Jean and I had our regular lunch date anyway and you did mention she was feeling a bit unoccupied, so I phoned her to come into town early to help me. I hope you don’t mind. She did an excellent job.”
“No, I’m glad. Anything to keep her from looking at real estate. I’d like to stay right where I am.”
“I agree, Captain.”
Moffat turned to the pages before him. “Ok, Mrs. Grubb. Let’s see what you brought us. Anything arouse your suspicions?” His head was down, his eyes scanning the first article. Hearing no reply, he looked up to see a smiling, wide-eyed Mrs. Grubb.
“Oh, yes. I believe you both will be surprised, more than once. There’s this for starters.” Mrs. Grubb pulled a 5” by 7” manila envelope from the back of the folder and removed a photograph of seven people at a gravesite. It was dated February 3, 1970 and Moffat recognized Lewis Franke and Catherine Martius, both much younger, and a teenage girl who almost certainly was Cheryl Haugen. Mrs. Grubb held the picture for De la Peña to see. “Did you know…”
“Yes.” Moffat and De la Peña said simultaneously with a trace of irritation. Moffat added sheepishly “We just learned that this morning.”
“Oh.” Mrs. Grubb drew out the syllable. “Well, at least they had the good taste not to print this. Can you imagine photographing a family at a moment like that? It was tucked just behind the edition with her obituary in the files. All right then. There are these two articles as well.”
She leaned over Moffat’s desk from the side and took the second and third clipped sets of papers. She opened one set, flipped several pages over and handed it to De la Peña, then did the same with the other set for Moffat. After reading silently for about a minute both men looked up at Mrs. Grubb who wore a triumphant smile.
“Let’s hear yours first, Sergeant,” Moffat said.
“OK. Here goes:
* * *
Dishonorably Discharged Vet Arrested at Draft Board Demonstration
Police arrested a recently discharged U.S. Army private for blocking the entrance to California Draft Board No. 37 in Segovia yesterday. The arrest occurred when James Rees, 27, of Merced, linked arms with other protesters and sat before the front door of the office on 2nd street. They met police with chants calling the Vietnam War ‘racist’ and accusing the United States of atrocities. The protestors ignored warnings and ignored police orders to disburse.
Speaking to reporters outside the office soon after the arrest, Draft Board Head Lewis Franke commended the performance of the police and described the protestors as “un-American hippies.”
“They do not value our freedoms,” Franke said.
Reporters were shown a copy of Rees’ confidential discharge record Form DD-214. In addition to the dishonorable discharge, a Separation Program Number Designator of 361 appeared on the form. This indicates that Rees was removed from the military for moral reasons.
Late yesterday, Rees was treated at Mark Twain Community Hospital for what police described as “minor injuries sustained while resisting arrest.” He was returned to police custody early this morning.
* * *
“There’s a picture of Rees being handcuffed.” De la Peña passed the article across the desk. Moffat examined it carefully. The young man in the photograph had shoulder length black hair and a large moustache.
“Those minor injuries Rees got…they beat him up, I’ll bet,” De la Peña said. “What do you think the morals reasons were?”
“Homosexuality, I would think. We can look up the code.”
“Oh,” De la Peña said quietly.
Mrs. Grubb asked “Didn’t the Ledger Dispatch story seem a bit one-sided?”
“I thought so, too,” Moffat said. “Raymond Sato has set higher journalistic standards for the paper since he took over.”
“You know, as I think back, it has improved during the years I’ve lived here. There’s a follow up story, Jason, read it.”
“Ok. One week later. Oh, there’s a new picture. Look.” De la Peña held up the page for Moffat to see. It showed a more boyish looking James Rees. His hair was cut short, to about a quarter inch of his scalp, and the moustache was gone.
“Looks like Rees got a free haircut while in police custody. Read on, Sergeant.”
De la Peña began to read. “The head line is ‘Draft Board Protestor Released, Charges Dropped.’”
* * *
The Ledger Dispatch has learned that Segovia Police released James Rees, 27, only a day after he was arrested at the November 22 demonstration in front of the Draft Board office on 2nd Street. Rees, a dishonorably discharged U.S. Army Private, was the subject of inquiries by this reporter following disclosure last week that he had been treated for injuries sustained during his arrest. Police refused to give any additional information on three occasions. This morning, a source within the district attorney’s office said that officials had declined to charge Rees due to legal technicalities related to police evidence against him. The District Attorney had ordered his release. No explanation was given for the
delay in responding to the Ledger Dispatch request for information.
* * *
“Thus ends James Rees brush with notoriety,” Mrs. Grubb said. “There was no other mention of him for the rest of the year.”
De la Peña said “Wow. You’d never guess he had a past like that. He seems so cool and easy going.”
“It is very interesting, Mrs. Grubb. You were right. That was a surprise.”
“Good. Now read yours, Captain,” she said.
“It’s a surprise as well, Sergeant. It’s your old friend the future Reverend Pane. It seems he was also arrested during the year in question. Here’s the title: Vietnam Veteran with Handgun Apprehended at City Hall.”
* * *
Decorated Vietnam veteran Arthur Pane was arrested yesterday during an incident on the grass between 1st Street and the steps to the main entrance of City Hall. At 2:55 in the afternoon, police received reports of a shirtless young man waving a weapon and shouting that the building was full of communists. By the time they arrived at the scene, Pane had placed the gun inside the front waistband of military-style camouflage pants. He held a small black Bible. He continued shouting and was subdued by police after running up the steps with the book in his outstretched arms. Pane made no effort to reach for the handgun before or during his apprehension. Police reported that Pane’s 357 Magnum revolver was loaded.
Pane was released this morning without charges. In a written statement, Police Chief Thomas Armey said that Pane had apologized for his actions and based on his commendable war record, Armey had chosen not to press charges.
* * *
Moffat and De la Peña looked at each other. De la Peña said “Revolver…357…hmm.”
Moffat nodded.
“Captain, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll check the records for a model number and description of that revolver.”
“You’re hoping it turns out to be a Smith and Wesson Lady Smith.”
“It would be quite a development in both cases.”
“See what you can find, Sergeant.”
* * *
De la Peña went first to his desktop computer to check the Police records database. Soon, Moffat heard him phone the Records Department, followed by additional calls. After a few minutes, Moffat lost track of the number.