Pleasant Harbor

by Thomas Bloom

  “The only way he’ll go free is if he makes bail and that will not be your call,” Cassidy said.

  The next day they followed the plan. Another interview with Jiminez produced nothing new. They told him he was under arrest and being charged with two counts of murder. They read him his rights and had him in court before noon for an arraignment. The judge set his bail at $100,000 which Cassidy protested was far too low for a multiple murder. The judge said they had nothing but an uncorroborated confession. Further, the judge ruled that Jiminez must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before the case could proceed any further.

  To everyone’s surprise his mother made bail before the end of the afternoon by putting her house up as collateral.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Helen Wilshire did several things after the incident with the delivery man. First, she had a central station fire and burglary alarm installed in her home which covered all doors and windows. Second, she went out to shop or run errands as seldom as possible and only during the day. She tried to frequent locations that had plenty of people around. Third, she went back to class to take some refreshed courses on her black belt. True to his word, Sheriff Lutz had a police car drive by the house several times a day.

  Helen had one bad habit, however. She did not always lock her car every time she left it in a parking lot. Two weeks after the confrontation she returned to her car with a bag full of groceries. As was her habit she put the groceries in the trunk and then got in to drive home. As soon as she closed her door and put her key into the ignition her face was covered with a cloth reeking of anesthetic. A hand griped her neck from behind. She struggled for a few moments but soon passed out. A man emerged from the back seat. Checking his surroundings for anyone who might be watching them he then pushed her body across the center console and let it slump into the well in front of the passenger seat. He then quickly drove off.

  Chapter Thirty

  I got you good mama. I followed you for several days until I knew your habits, particularly your bad ones. You were a tough nut and you forced me to take a risk but it paid off. Your body is now in the water. I had a special treatment for you mama. I took your head and your hands. You deserved it. I’m done now. But I’ll keep the three of you in the shed and enjoy looking at you occasionally.

  Chapter Thirty One

  Dusty was driving Amanda’s sons back from a golf lesson and hoping for another dinner invitation which had become somewhat of a pattern. His phone rang and the caller ID said it was Amanda.

  “We’re on our way back. Be there in a couple of minutes.”

  “Drop the boys off and meet me at the south pier. Mrs. Johnson will feed them. We’ve got another floater. Some walkers spotted it. I’ve got it tied to the pier with a tarp over it. It’s even worse this time. Not only did he take her head he took her hands. I’ve already called Roger. He’s on his way with an EMS unit.”

  “Oh jeez. What next?”

  It took two hours to recover the body and get it loaded to deliver to the coroner’s office. Dusty and Amanda stopped at Porky’s for a late dinner. Neither of them had viewed the corpse. Dusty said he’d seen enough already. Amanda had asked one of her female officers to secure the body and cover it.

  “What are we going to do Dusty? We’ve got a madman on our hands and not a clue where to go next. This is going to become national news and everyone’s going to say the same thing. The local hick cops are out of their depth and a killer runs free.”

  “Two things,” Dusty said. “First, what makes it worse is Roberto is out on bail. We need to talk to him immediately. Second, maybe it’s time to swallow our pride and ask for help. There’s an FBI office in Detroit. Let me call them in the morning and see if they’re willing to get involved. Unless one of the abducted women were taken across a state line it’s not a federal crime but given the high profile and the publicity this is going to get maybe they’ll bend a rule. Even if nothing develops from their involvement it will take some of the heat off us.”

  “Another thing,” Amanda said. “Remember we were going to try to track every male in Potawatomie County who might conceivably be a suspect. I think we need to follow up on that but we’ll need a lot more manpower than we’ve got.”

  The next morning Dusty and Amanda knocked on Roberto Jiminez’s door at 8:00 AM.

  Roberto opened the door and stared at them. “I have lawyer now. He say not to talk to you unless he there.”

  “We just need to know where you’ve been since you left jail,” Amanda said.

  “Call lawyer,” Roberto said and closed the door.

  Next they walked around to the front of the house and rang Roberto’s mother’s doorbell.

  She opened the door and just stared at them. Finally she said “my Roberto never hurt anyone. We have lawyer now. No talk anymore.”

  “Well that did a hell of a lot of good,” Dusty said. “Look, let’s work on what we can do. You start calling every department within fifty miles and see if they can loan us one officer for one day a week. “I’ll start working on the FBI angle. I’ll call you later this morning and we’ll start to make up that list.”

  They met for lunch and Dusty said “I’ll go first. I spent an hour on the phone with the FBI office in Detroit. I ended up talking to the senior agent, a guy named Tom Callahan. He put me on hold for twenty minutes while he called his Washington office. He finally came back on and said he had clearance to loan us one agent. He’ll be here tomorrow morning. I don’t know who it is yet. How did you do with rounding up some manpower?”

  “Better than I thought. Everyone I called already knew about the case. I’ve got fifteen commitments for an officer one day a week and two of the departments said they’d give us an officer full time for a week or two. I told them I’d get back to them in a day or so when we had a list made up of possible suspects. I also told them they had to come in unmarked cars and wear civvies so we can follow someone without their immediately making us. You know this is going to get out and people are going to be very upset when they hear we are profiling and following residents based on just a suspicion.”

  “You’re right. Let’s wait until our FBI agent gets here. Unless he is against this for some reason then we need to address it head on. I’ll call another press conference as soon as we have our ducks in a row. I’ll call you as soon as the agent shows up.”

  Dusty walked into his office at 8:30 the next morning. The officer on duty pointed to a woman sitting in the corner of the reception area. “This is agent Tamourini—FBI. She’s been here a half hour already.” The lady was about thirty, petite, with her hair back in a bun. She could have been attractive except that she wore no makeup and had a very severe look on her face. She wore a pant suit with a jacket. There was a noticeable bulge under her left armpit. Probably a Walther 38 Dusty guessed. She’s too small for a nine millimeter.

  “Agent Tamourini I’m Dusty Donovan. I apologize sincerely for keeping you waiting. I didn’t expect you until late morning. I assumed you would be coming from Detroit.”

  “Southfield, actually. Agent Callahan said this was important and we were to start this morning. So here I am. Let’s get started.” She rose and extended a hand. When she stood up Dusty decided she couldn’t be more than five-five and maybe one-hundred ten pounds, tops.

  “Call me Carolyn by the way.”

  “Sergeant, please contact Chief Stevens and tell her the FBI agent is here. Let’s go into my office and I’ll give you a cup of coffee and the background while we wait for Chief Stevens. She’s the Chief of the Pleasant Harbor force and we are working this case together.”

  Amanda was there shortly after the coffee was served. They spent the next two hours going through the case in detail.

  “Okay,” Tamourini said. “I’m getting a feel for this. Before we go any further I want to review the autopsies. With no fingerprints to work with we’ve obviously got an ID problem on the third victim. We can get DNA but we don’t have anything to match it with.”<
br />
  “Also,” Dusty said, we’re planning another press conference as soon as possible. You should be part of it. I’ll drive you over to the coroner’s office and you can go over all three reports. Call me when you’re done and we’ll grab some lunch.”

  “Okay, I’ll need a whiteboard and black, red and green pens to work with.”

  Later Dusty introduced Agent Tamourini to Porky’s. “So tell me about yourself—married, kids, how long have you been with the Bureau?”

  “No, no and eight years—straight out of college. I head a field unit but I specialize in forensic analysis.”

  “Meaning what, exactly—forensic analysis?”

  “Take whatever evidence is available and try to work it into a plan of action to identify a suspect.”

  “Well that’s precisely what we need.”

  At two that afternoon Dusty and Amanda sat in his office while the desk sergeant wheeled in a large whiteboard with a package of felt markers. They had Skyped Ed Zitweiller into the meeting from his home.

  “Okay,” Carolyn said with several pens in her hand. “I think we know more than you think we do. First, I’m going to start with two lines of inquiry. We have the Jiminez line which I agree is probably a dead end but we have to follow it until we can absolutely eliminate him.” She drew one red arrow on the board labeled Jiminez.

  “Second, we have the Mr. X line which is probably the right one. Let’s start with Mr. X.” She drew a green line labeled X. “First, appearance: From the description of the bartender in Lansing he’s in his early to mid-thirties, white, average looking and average height. Nothing Mrs. Wilshire said contradicted that. Here’s the thing. That’s not enough to identify him but it’s enough to eliminate about 80 to 90% of all males. Second, we know X is a planner. He came to the first and second scenes with anesthetic on his person. He tried to use anesthetic on Mrs. Wilshire. The Coroner said his preliminary report on the third body shows signs of anesthetic also. He didn’t just take off the heads of these women with a hacksaw. They were guillotined. That took planning. You don’t buy guillotines in your local hardware store.”

  “Actually,” Dusty interrupted, “I followed that lead. I can’t find anyone who sells these things.”

  “Well there you go. So he had to build one from scratch. I suppose he could have used a machete but that’s very awkward for someone who has not actually practiced with it. I’ll stick with the guillotine. That took planning and skill and patience. He undoubtedly had it ready before he abducted any of these women. There’s another clue here. He must have someplace to work that’s private and secluded. Either he lives in such an area or he has access to one. He couldn’t just leave this thing in his garage on a residential street. Also, he had to have some way to get rid of the blood. The Coroner said all three bodies were completely drained.

  “Next, he must have some connection to Potawatomie County. He abducts three different women in at least two different cities, both many miles from here, and all three women end up in the Kenesaw River. We don’t know where the third one lived yet but my bet is she was not from Pleasant Harbor. The chance of him picking this place to dispose of the bodies if he did not live here is infinitesimal.

  “Now, why the river? Why not just bury them someplace? Obviously, he wanted the bodies found. He wanted to make a statement that he had succeeded in something. Now take Mr. Zitweiller’s theory that he was deeply resentful of some women or all women.

  “Here’s my theory. By making the bodies public he was refuting a contention that he was inadequate--that he could not meet someone’s expectations. He planned and committed three perfect murders leaving no trace. Now that’s success. At the same time in his mind he gets revenge on each of the women who slighted him in the past

  “So at first pass it appears that there is no connection between these three victims. But here’s a connection: given their ages they could be wife or girlfriend, mother and grandmother. In other words three generations. How did he find them? We have to work on that. Ms. Patterson may have been random because he found her in a bar but he had to have identified the lady in St. Joseph before he knocked on her door. The same with Mrs. Wilshire. The third body we will not know until we ID her.

  “So the population of Michigan is a little less than ten million. If we eliminate females and all white males who are not in their early to mid-thirties and average height and who have not had some kind of problem with a wife or a girlfriend or a mother or a grandmother and who don’t live in a secluded area or have access to one and who are not intelligent and organized and who are not residents of this county we are probably down to a couple hundred suspects at the most. The key now is to find the two hundred and to start eliminating the false positives.

  “One more thing. Where is he getting the anesthetic? You can probably buy the stuff by mail order but he may work in a place where he has access to it. It could be a hospital or even a dentist’s office where they do sedation dentistry.”

  While she was talking Carolyn was making notes on the board. She ended up with a number of entries circled in green: age early to mid-thirties, white, average size and looks, intelligent, long range planner, resident of area, previous issues with female(s), lives in secluded area or has access to one, possible access to anesthesia.

  “We’ve been discussing that idea of making a list or local residents but we were afraid of the negative reaction we might get if people think we are investigating them based on just a profile,” Dusty said.

  “You don’t have a choice,” Carolyn said. “You said you’re going to have a press conference soon. Use it as a chance to explain what you’re doing and why. Blame some of it on the FBI if you want to. We can take the heat.

  “Okay, two more things. We need to eliminate Jiminez. Now that he’s lawyered up it is going to be more difficult. All we need to do is establish that he was someplace else at a critical time. We’re not going to be able to talk to him until after the psych exam and only then with his attorney. But let’s meet with his attorney first. If the exam shows he’s not in full possession of his faculties and we can get the attorney to have him withdraw the confession then he drops way down the list. Best, if he’s willing to tell us where he was during a critical time and if it checks out, then we’re done with him.

  “Last thing, let’s figure out how we’re going to narrow down the list of suspects. We can work off several lists. Start with a phone book. It’s not complete or up to date and will not include people with only cell phones but it’s a start. Second, let’s ask for a court order to give us access to the last census information for the county. That’s going to be several years out of date but it’s another reference. Also, let’s see what we can get from the post office. They deliver to virtually every resident every day. If their people understand what we’re looking for one of them might come up with the critical lead. Next, get a list of residents from the local utilities—water, electric, whatever. Finally, we need to have officers drive every back road in the county. We need a list of every isolated residence and utility building.

  “Here’s what we can eliminate on the first pass: guys still living with a wife or girlfriend, all females, guys over 40 and guys under 25, all nonwhites, guys in jail at a critical time, anyone we can establish a whereabouts for on the night Angel Patterson was abducted. I Googled your census and there are about 12,000 permanent residents of Potawatomie County. I’ll bet with a couple of weeks work we can narrow it down to well under a hundred. That’s when we start having your officers and the volunteer start following people. Where do they go? What do they do? Any suspicious activity?

  “So here’s our priority list: First a review of the county’s full time residents with a goal of eliminating all but a hundred or so as potential suspects. Second, a sweep of the entire county to identify any remote property. Then cross check the ownership against the list from priority number one. Anybody on both lists becomes a prime suspect. Finally, we know he drives a white pickup. Any suspect s
hould be checked for ownership of such a vehicle. The Secretary of State records will tell you if they own a pickup. A drive by the home will tell you if it’s white.”

  Later that afternoon Dusty got a call from Chief Lutz in Muskegon. “I’ve got news, probably bad news. We’ve found Helen Wilshire’s car abandoned in a local shopping center. The security guy makes a list of all cars parked overnight. If they’re not gone by six the next afternoon he calls us. One of the cars we checked on was registered to Mrs. Wilshire. We immediately checked her home and no one there. I’m going to get a warrant to go in just in case. Once were in I assume we can get a DNA sample off a hairbrush or a toothbrush or something. I’ll have our coroner express the sample to the State Lab. If your guy hasn’t done it already have him do the same with a DNA sample from the third body. I’ve got a bad feeling that we’ll get a match.”

  “I’ll call Roger Whitney right now,” Dusty said.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Dusty knew they were in for a tough morning when he walked into the high school auditorium the next morning and saw that it was overflowing. Every seat was filled and there was a line of reporters standing in the back of the room. Christ, he thought to himself, every paper and news agency in the country has to be here. The standees violated the fire code but he was not about to make an issue of that at this point.

  “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Let me introduce the people on the podium. For those who have not seen me before, I’m Dusty Donovan, Sheriff of Potawatomie County. Also here is Amanda Stevens who is the Chief of the Pleasant Harbor Police Force, also Agent Tamourini with the FBI, also Chief Gerald Lutz of the Muskegon Police Department.