by Alec Peche
“Well I did get some tasty olive oil we can enjoy later,” added Marie.
Chapter 14
Lombardo, Rosso, and Cavallaro were seated in a small conference room table in the Questora in Catania looking over the results they had obtained from an Italian lab from Mr. Chen’s blood removed from his body in the United States. For a future court case, they had an excellent chain of custody documentation for this blood specimen unlike the good doctor.
“With our lab showing the presence of chloroform and the other physical findings, we have the evidence we need to prove this was a homicide,” Lombardo said. “Now we need a suspect. What do you have?”
“We started with trying to track down how the body was moved to the crater. As we know at the time there was a brief snowstorm. I checked with our weather service and this was predicted in the forecast that day so we think it was likely part of the plan as at any other time, hikers would have seen the body dumped in the crater,” Cavallaro said.
“We checked with all of the licensed carriers for the mountain and none report driving in that snowstorm let alone taking a passenger and a dead body,” Rosso said.
“We then checked with an expert to find out if a pick-up truck with special tires could have made the journey. The answer is yes. Also a snowmobile or an all-terrain vehicle could make the journey. We checked with our weather service and the snowstorm on Mount Etna had been predicted for several days and our park authorities had informed the outfitters that they would be unlikely to lead tour groups that entire morning. It turned out to be a narrower window than the park staff predicted, still it would have been deadly for hikers alone as the visibility was poor and the ground slippery. Vehicle sounds were heard at times by our park staff, but they couldn't narrow the sound to a type of vehicle nor did they see anything,” Lombardo said.
“Did they see any unexpected vehicles in the parking areas?” Lombardo asked.
“As tour groups arrive all day from around the island, the park staff pay little attention to the vehicles parked there,” Rosso said. “The storm decreased visibility to the degree that it was hard to see more than about fifty meters in front of you.”
“So you're saying that running down the vehicle that carried Mr. Chen to the crater is a wasted effort?” Lombardo said.
“Not at all sir. We just need more time. We have a report coming that lists of all the snow-mobiles and all-terrain vehicles registered in Sicily. I'm hoping the list is small as there's not a lot of use for such vehicles here.,” Cavallaro said.
“How about Chloroform? Is it hard to obtain in Sicily or even in Italy?” Lombardo asked.
“It's a lab substance so in theory you need a lab license to buy it. It's also used as a refrigerant for older refrigerators,” Rosso said. “Before you ask, we have no refrigerator manufacturers on Sicily, however, it's used by appliance repair people to recharge older refrigerators and car air conditioning. There are fifteen or so refrigerator makers on the mainland. The refrigerant comes in a canister as a liquid because it's compressed and I haven't heard back from my contact on how difficult it is to get the chloroform out of refrigerant. It can also be a product formed when you mix household bleach with acetone. I think this is a hard lead to run down if anyone with a little science can make it in their home.”
“This is a complex case. Mr. Chen's murder was premeditated. It may have taken special effort to get chloroform and the vehicle to drop him in the crater in conjunction with a snowstorm. Brilliant. If the family hadn't hired Dr. Quint, we would have never known this was a murder,” Lombardo said chagrin and disappointment in his voice.
“Agreed sir,” Cavallaro said. “At least we had the sense to join the good doctor at the autopsy and built some rapport with her or we would be farther behind. I must say she's been helpful and cooperative, not trying to prove that we are idiots, though perhaps we are.... for failing to notice the suspicious circumstances of this crime.”
There was quiet in the room as they thought about this statement.
“I have a press conference this afternoon to discuss this murder. I'll spend the rest of the afternoon preparing for the conference. We haven't discussed Mr. Chen's phone. What have you learned from that?" asked Lombardo.
"It's curious that the cell phone was left with him on the crater. While this murder was clearly planned in advance, this appears to be a stupid moment,” Rosso said.
“Perhaps," replied Cavallaro. "It wouldn't have looked like an accident if his wallet and cell phone were missing from his person. Perhaps our murderer thought we would be unable to unlock the phone.”
“True. Our lab experts are reviewing the phone and as you know we've provided the American phone company with a search warrant to track the pinging of the phone. We expect data within the next twenty-four hours. We're checking phone calls and texts to Italian numbers as we have immediate access to that data. There aren't very many phone calls as Mr. Chen did not speak Italian and so much can be arranged through the Internet even here in Sicily. We have one number that's suspicious as it appears to be an unregistered phone. Our crime scene techs in Rome are running that number down,” Rosso said.
“Do you know what Dr. Quint is doing today?” Lombardo asked.
“We've had a tail on her. One of her team members, Angela Weber, has been speaking with merchants. We have word that she speaks Italian, so we will want to be careful around her if we think she can't understand what we're saying amongst ourselves. They also spent some time at a winery that does not seem to be connected to this case. We think they might be following a record of financial transactions they obtained from the family. I think I will call on them once they return to Catania and see if that is the case. If the doctor won't share the information with me, I'll reach out to the family. I plan to interview the doctor and her team to see what they've learned and evaluate whether we could do better getting information out of these merchants,” Rosso said.
“Is she withholding information from you?" Lombardo asked.
“No, I don't think so, it's more like she received the information this morning and ran with it, before telling us. That's one of the reasons I want to visit her and her team in person to emphasize the fact that it's a crime to withhold evidence in Italy.”
“I'm going to reach out to the Chen family as soon as this meeting is over to try and establish the same connection with the daughter that Dr. Quint seems to have. As the Americans say, we're late to this party and we need to make up for lost time,” Cavallaro said.
“At this point, we don't have a motive for this murder and no suspects. Is that correct? I'll just discuss the circumstances of the murder during the press conference as we have little more to tell the public. Do either of you think the public is at risk?”
Both shook their heads and said “no.”
“In my experience, sophisticated planned crimes are targeted at a single individual,” Cavallaro said while Rosso nodded in agreement.
Chapter 15
Jill and the gang settled into their apartment living room. Jill had fetched the electronics detector she had packed into her autopsy case and they’d watched while Nathan scanned the car and found two bugs that appeared similar but different. The bugs were now sitting on the coffee table while the group searched for identifying information. Nathan identified them first while Angela leaned over his shoulder to read the Italian words.
“This says they are simple GPS trackers.”
“Can you go to the website to see if there’s a way to locate who is tracking the signal?” Marie asked.
Everyone looked over at her and Nathan quipped, “You sound like you’ve been reading spy novels!”
“Sorry gang, once you get into technical language on GPS, my Italian vocabulary doesn’t go that far.”
They were startled out of their thoughts when they heard a knock on the apartment door.
“Are you expecting anyone?” asked Nathan of the group.
After getting negative shakes of everyone�
��s head, he approached the closed door and asked, “Who is it?”
Rosso standing on the other side of the door was startled to hear a male voice, but relaxed when he thought about the American accent he heard.
“This is Tenete Rosso and I would like to speak to Doctor Jill Quint.”
Jill rose from her chair the moment she heard their guest say his name and nodded to Nathan to unlock the door.
When it opened to find the detective there, Jill asked, “Hello, detective, what can I do for you?”
“I would like to come in and speak with you and your team.”
Jill nodded and opened the door wider. Rosso entered finding more people than he expected to find. He was about to ask for introductions, when his attention was caught by the numerous pieces of butcher paper taped to the wall.
“One moment,” he said and he walked around the room reading the information on each paper. He pulled his cell phone out and began taking pictures.
“Lieutenant Rosso, do you not have something similar at your headquarters?” Jill asked.
“Yes in a different form, but I wanted to make sure we have all of the information that you do on these papers. In fact, that is what I'm here to talk to you about, but perhaps we could have introductions first. I’m Tenete Rosso of the Polizia and who are all of you? Your team is bigger than I expected.”
“Yes, I have experts just as you do to help solve the mystery of Randy Chen’s death,” Jill said as she performed introductions. “Our final team member, Jo will arrive later tonight. She’s the next best thing to a forensic accountant.”
“I’m impressed with the variation in your team,” he said and then looking at Angela, he said several sentences in Italian to which she nodded. She then said, “He asked if I spoke Italian considering that I interviewed merchants in Italian earlier today.”
Jill reached over to grasp something on the coffee table and then held it out to Rosso and asked, “Did you or someone from the police place these GPS trackers on our car? We saw a woman in a red sedan in several towns and it couldn’t have been a coincidence that she followed us, so we scanned the car for trackers when we returned to the apartment.”
Rosso sighed and reached for the trackers in Jill’s hand. After looking at both of them he said, “This one is ours, I wonder who placed the other tracker on your car?”
Jill didn’t know whether to feel alarmed that two different groups were tracking their direction or mad that the police had been one of two trackers. Instead she repeated her question, “Was the woman in the sedan one of your officers?”
“No we don’t use unmarked cars. We simply stopped at one of the shops you did to question the clerk on your conversation with them. That’s how we learned that one of your team members speaks Italian. I stopped by here today to warn you that withholding information from the police is a criminal offense in Italy, perhaps that’s different from the United States.”
For some reason, Tenete Rosso’s comment exploded the anger inside Jill. While she respected Rosso and Cavallaro, she was angry at the Italian law enforcement system’s incompetence at detecting murders and she was especially affronted that her fellow pathologists were so poorly trained in Italy. So she spoke without censoring herself.
“Lieutenant Rosso, I notified your country of my intent to perform an autopsy before I arrived here inviting you to observe. I reasoned through a discussion with your pathology expert and with you on Mount Etna about the nature of Mr. Chen’s injuries. It was the positive chloroform test that I shared with you that brought Lombardo into the case. I had an expert unlock Mr. Chen’s phone and shared the contents of that with you. You have the nerve to suggest I’m withholding evidence from the police when you couldn’t even recognize that a murder had been committed?” and then since Jill was in Italy she ended her critical analysis of the case by throwing her arms in the air and saying, “Mamma Mia.”
When she looked over at her team, she saw Angela with her head down trying not to smile, while Marie coughed to disguise a chuckle. Brenda was just wide-eyed watching the proceedings, while Nathan was uncorking wine in the kitchen portraying confidence in Jill.
“Yes that is true, but why were you interviewing various businesses today? You were following up on information that we didn’t have,” Rosso asked not willing to give ground up to Jill just yet.
“We were following up on Randy Chen’s credit card receipts that we received from his daughter this morning. You told us that you were getting the receipts through legal channels. Are you saying you didn’t do that? Are you saying that you didn’t even ask the daughter for that information? What information do you have that you haven’t shared with us?”
Rosso could see that this conversation wasn’t going as planned. He’d bungled it at the start with the suggestion that they were criminally withholding information.
“All right, let’s start over. You’re correct that you have been cooperative. Perhaps all of you could meet with us at the Questura tomorrow morning? As you Americans say, “We’ll show you ours if you’ll bring your paper with you,” Rosso said pointing vaguely to the butcher paper-covered walls.
Jill debated his request in her head. She didn’t like working with these Italians. Culturally, she was having a hard time understanding whether they were placating her, or genuinely seeking her expertise. At the same time they could be chasing their tails trying to find Randy’s movements on the island. Then something else crossed her conscious.
“What about the woman in the sedan? Any thoughts to who she is and why she’s following us? Could your colleagues have placed two bugs on our car and not have told each other what they were doing?”
“No that would not happen. Besides we have only one model of tracker and that second tracker is not one that we purchase.”
“Who else uses trackers? Would this be from the rental car company?” Jill asked.
“I doubt it. This is a small island and there’s no need to do that, but I’ll ask just to cross them off the list. May I see your rental car paperwork?”
Nathan opened his briefcase sitting on the kitchen counter and handed the agreement over to the Lieutenant. He dialed a number and after identifying himself as a police officer conducted a short but rapid conversation in Italian. Before he had even ended the call they could tell the answer was no.
“Do you have public cameras near the two businesses we stopped at yesterday? Traffic cameras or do stores have cameras on their entrances?” Jill asked.
“A few do, I will check,” Rosso said looking at his watch and writing a note in a small notebook. “They aren't open at this hour so I will call in the morning. I'll hopefully have an answer for you by the time you arrive at the Questura tomorrow, shall we say at half-past nine?”
Rosso looked at Dr. Quint and her team trying to assess whether he had agreement from the group. Clearly, Dr. Quint was the leader and would make the decision as to whether they would show up at the Questura in the morning. At the moment, he didn't have a legal means to compel them and his threats in the beginning had been met with an attack, so he could only wish for cooperation. Still he spent a few seconds fantasizing about seeing Dr. Quint and her team driven away in a Carabinieri van.
Jill returned to weighing his request in her head. Jo would arrive later that evening, and while she wanted to spend time on the other side of the island of Sicily, she wouldn't be doing that tomorrow. Would Russo have the cell phone movements of Randy's phone and share with her? It was worth finding out.
“We'll be there at half past nine. What's the address?” Jill asked.
Rosso offered a car to pick them up, but they declined as the last thing they wanted was to be kicked out of their apartment because of suspicious police activity reported by other tenants of the building. After the lieutenant left, there was silence in the room then Nathan said, “I'm glad we won't be seeking legal counsel to get you out of an Italian jail.”
Marie added, "You go girl!”
Angela said
, “All you needed was a 200-year-old costume and a high soprano voice and we would've had a true Italian opera performed in our apartment. 'Jill' would not work for the title, so perhaps we would call this police tragedy, 'Polizia'.”
Jill just grinned at their reactions, while leaning against the door. Then she jumped five feet forward, when there was a knock on the door, then she grinned when she heard a voice ring out, “hello!” and knew that Jo Pringle had arrived in Sicily.
Chapter 16
Sara dialed the long-distance number to the United States.
A female voice answered, “Hello.”
“This is Vice Questore Sara Cavallaro calling from Italy. May I speak with Melissa Chen.”
Melissa recognized the voice and the name and replied, “Hello, detective, this is Melissa what may I do for you?”
Sarah was taken aback by the title detective, but then she supposed that was the influence of American television and the titles of police officers. She gave a few milliseconds of thought to correcting her title in English as superintendent, but it was not important.
“I wanted to provide you with an update on our investigation into your father's death and see if it's possible to obtain some information from you that will help us with our investigation.”
Melissa was grieving, his death was so fresh. On top of that, her hands were full with managing the funeral arrangements, his company, and the realization that she was the executor of his trust. Furthermore, she'd been underwhelmed by the Italians. It was quite clear from the work of Dr. Quint that her father's death was not natural and yet if she hadn't hired her and her team, the Italian police would have missed an obvious death. From her conversation with Jill, it wasn't just the head x-rays and the finding of chloroform, but even her father's position in the crater of Mount Etna should have raised concerns for the police. She would share whatever information the detective wanted, but she had little faith that the Italian police would solve her father's murder.