by Alec Peche
“It’s a good way to put it. I like your term vampires. What motivation can you think of that would have gotten these four men to go for a hike? Nothing in their profile says they like hiking, or physical exercise, or the great outdoors.”
“I can think of only one thing. Do you have a detailed list of what was found with the men? A list of their personal possessions?”
“I do. What am I looking for?”
“Let me see.”
Jill spent a moment bringing up the autopsy reports of the four victims. Included with each victim was a list of whatever they came in with—clothing, phone, car keys. It was whatever they had in their pockets and on their person at the time of their death.
Nathan looked through the four lists and just shook his head.
“What?” Jill asked with an aggrieved voice. What was he shaking his head over?
“I can think of only one thing that could get these men to voluntarily walk on a hike in a remote area, and that is the promise of sex. I was looking for a condom in the list of possessions but didn’t see that any of your victims have protection with them. Maybe my judgment was wrong, and that’s not what they were up to, but it’s the only motivation I can think of with these four men in particular. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised as they come across as irresponsible men, and planning to go into the woods for sex with a strange woman further proves their profile. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“That was actually my theory also as I couldn’t think of any other motivation to get them into the woods. I suppose she could have bribed them with money and then taken it back once they were unconscious. I know we didn’t find cash with any of the victims. That could be a sign of the times with everyone purchasing with debit cards, or it could be because she cleaned them out before she set the fire. After all, why needlessly burn up cash?”
They talked a little bit more about motivation and her victims but couldn’t think of another reason other than the one they had. They spent some time working on their individual martial arts in Nathan’s dojo before heading to bed. Jill felt better for having kicked and punched the detective’s imaginary face. Still, she had no solution to improving her relationship with the detective. Again, Nathan had to wake Jill up in the middle of the night as she was clearly having a nightmare trying to escape a fire in her dreams.
Chapter 11
Jill debated driving into Sacramento, but she couldn’t think of anything she could do there that she couldn’t do at home. She was determined to get a run in early before the heat climbed too much. She put her running clothes on and stepped outside with Trixie to stretch, and she sniffed the air. Was it her imagination, or was there a fire close by? She called the general number for her local law enforcement and asked if there was an active wildfire in the county.
“Yes, ma’am. We had a brushfire break out in the middle of the night after some dry lightning strikes. It’s burned about one-thousand acres, and it’s not under control. What’s your address?”
Jill gave the dispatcher her home address.
“Ma’am, you’re about ten miles as the crow flies from the active fire. The good news is the aqueduct is between your land and the fire, and the aqueduct will serve as a barrier to the fire spreading your way. I need to go now unless you have further questions.”
Jill ended the call after giving her thanks for the information. She wasn’t as sure as the dispatcher that the aqueduct would serve as a good barrier. The California aqueduct was 444 miles of concrete river that moved water from Northern California through the rich agricultural growing area of central California and continued south to Southern California. In her area, the aqueduct was forty feet wide. Brushfire sparks with a little wind could easily transverse from one side of the aqueduct to the other.
Trixie was getting impatient to run, but Jill wanted to look at a map to refresh her memory of where the fire was burning. She certainly didn’t want to run in that direction as the air would get progressively worse. She studied where things were burning and thought it unlikely that her vineyard was at risk. According to the weather forecast, the wind was blowing away from her land. In addition to the aqueduct, a wide four-lane highway offered some barrier to the fire. Also, where it likely was burning at the moment was a low foothill heading into Yosemite National Park. That would also keep the fire burning away from Jill’s land. Her biggest worry would be smoke damage to her grape crop. Some vineyards had found their grapes to be smoke damaged and unusable after nearby fires. Certainly, wine drinkers did not want a smoky flavor to their Moscato wine.
The worry about the smoke and fire made Jill cut her run short as she worried about the fire’s direction and the smoky air. Instead of running four to five miles, she was done after two miles. She returned home and showered, then she checked on the fire through various sources. Her vineyard was still safe and would likely stay safe as the land scorched at the beginning of the fire was now a barrier to the fire coming back her way. Still, she was tempted to get in her car and drive to the location of the fire just to make sure it couldn’t switch directions and come her way. She texted Nathan her knowledge about the fire. She knew she could evacuate to his property, and he replied to her message with that same invitation.
He asked the question she had been vaguely thinking about:
Was this wildfire the work of your arsonist?
She hoped not because that meant they would soon find a dead body among the debris of the scorched earth from the fire. She spent a good hour writing out a fire evacuation plan. She made one a couple of years ago, but now she had more equipment and land to worry about. If she had to leave her land, what would she do? Beyond keeping herself and the dog safe, what else did she need? So, she made a checklist with the basics like records, computer technology, and clothes. The more she thought about her fire evacuation plan, the more she made a note to herself to buy a trailer. Her barn that she used for forensic testing was filled with expensive equipment. If she had a trailer, she could load it with her analyzers and probably most of her barrels of wine. It wouldn’t be good for the wine to move it from her cool wine cellar to the hot Central Valley air knowing that the barrels would be shaken at the very time they were supposed to be left alone to age to perfection. The heat and motion might destroy the entire vintage, but then the fire could also do that. She had a forklift that could lift the analyzers for her into a trailer bed. Yes, she would watch the fire, and when it was out, she would go shopping for that trailer.
She went outside to her barn and sat there looking at the analyzers. Might she take this opportunity to do something different with her consulting business? Should she think about getting a trailer to hold her wine barrels? Maybe. She wondered if she could get one of those large vans that she sometimes saw plumbers or electricians use to cart around their supplies. What if she found one big enough that it could carry the analyzers she needed to run specimens for her cases? About half of her work was inside the state of California, and she could drive the van to the crime scene. Really, she could probably cover the West Coast with the van. This brilliant idea, as far as she was concerned, deserved more research. She would want a used van as she would end up taking it to a crime scene a little less than once a month. She didn’t need a new vehicle to do that.
She wrote herself a note to follow up on the idea and headed into her kitchen to get a drink, coughing a little as she went. The air was bad outside, though not as bad as the previous day when she visited the crime scene for victim number four.
After she ended the coughing fit, she returned to her computer to see if there was an email from Jennifer Galloway. The lab should have had time to analyze the balloon fragments and determine what gas had been inside the balloon. The cigarette butt would take another day or two to see if it matched the other three butts.
She checked in with Jennifer to see if she had a report yet. Once Jennifer gave her the analysis of the balloon fragment, she planned to tell her about the Matefinder website as a possible source
of victims. Jill was operating somewhat in a gray zone as she had been hired to help oversee the three fire victim cases. Instead, she was stepping into the area of Detective Mullin.
Jill got a quick response from Jennifer and, after reading it, looked at her computer screen with dismay. Detective Mullin had not delivered the evidence to Dr. Galloway’s lab. She wondered what he had done with the forensic evidence. There was nothing she could do other than call and ask. Maybe he had a faster source for analysis, though she doubted it. It was a simple analysis of the balloon; it was one that she could’ve done with the equipment in her barn. It would’ve taken Jennifer’s staff less than thirty minutes to come up with an answer.
She pulled out his card and dialed the number. Her call went to voicemail, so she left a message. She hadn’t heard that his division had its own crime lab to process forensic evidence. Maybe he was cooperating with the FBI or some other agency. She took a moment to explore the directory, and she didn’t find his name anywhere. She dropped the card into an envelope so she wouldn’t leave any fingerprints on it. Her sixth sense was buzzing. She called the State Bureau of Investigation and began talking to people. Thirty minutes later, she was deeply puzzled. Who was Detective John Mullin? Was he even working in law enforcement? Was he a private detective like herself? Surely he’d shown some form of ID to the Sacramento Coroner’s Office in order to get inside.
She called Jennifer Galloway to ask her about the conversation with the detective.
“Have you met him in prior cases?”
“No. Why?”
“I was puzzled as to why he didn’t bring the forensic evidence to you from our tour of the crime scene for victim number four yesterday. Your lab is the biggest and most sophisticated lab around. I used his card and called him, but I just got a voicemail. So, I started asking the staff at the CBI, and there is no Detective Mullin in their office.”
“That’s really strange. How would he know enough about the case to stop by our office?”
“Would anyone have checked his identification other than the business card? Anyone can create a business card. Did he have a shield? Though come to think of it, I think he held out a business card at the fire checkpoint.”
“Okay, this case is suddenly getting strange, Jill. We didn’t hire you to make it strange.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault. The detective is the one who didn’t give you the evidence we collected yesterday.”
“I’m going to call you back after I talk to the staff here. I want to know if someone did check his badge. I should be able to call you back in about ten minutes. Will you be there?”
“Sitting by the phone, waiting for your call.”
The phone call ended, and Jill leaned back in her chair, trying to think of her prior cases. Had she ever encountered someone impersonating a peace officer in order to get more information about the case? What was his relationship to the female arsonist, or was there one? All she could do was wait for Jennifer to call her back.
Jill stood up and paced, waving her arms like a windmill. The strange news about the detective had caused her shoulders to seize up. She was doing what she could to relax, but this was an unusual circumstance.
As soon as her phone rang, she hit the connect button.
“This is Jill.”
“Our receptionist allowed him inside two days ago based on his business card. She did not ask to see his shield, and we’ve corrected that. I’ve asked our security personnel to pull footage from that day. We hope to come up with his identity and find out what he is doing in the middle of a murder case stealing and tampering with forensic evidence.”
“Did you call his office to request law enforcement?”
“No. He showed up, and I was like, ‘Duh, I should have thought of that.’”
“That’s what I thought when you mentioned his involvement. I’m going to look through my phone. I took a lot of pictures yesterday, and I’m fairly sure I got one of him.”
Jill put her phone on speaker and started searching through her phone. She found several pictures, but the “detective” had turned his face away in each photo.
“Jennifer, I have a couple pictures with him in it, but he turned his head either down or away from the camera, so they are no good. Can you check your camera outside the front door to see if you have anything?”
“I will, but I doubt I have anything as I remember him wearing a ball cap with the embroidered letters CBI.”
“I can’t remember working with the CBI when I worked there as a medical examiner. Have you worked with them on a case before?”
“No. I’ll admit I actually never heard of the CBI, and so I looked up the agency after the detective was here, but I didn’t specifically look for him.”
“Can you take a look at him on tape and also ask your staff if he touched anything while in your building? Probably any surface he touched one-hundred other people have touched since then, which will prevent you from collecting fingerprint impressions.”
“Are all of your cases this weird, Jill? In my twenty years as a medical examiner, I’ve yet to meet a fake law enforcement officer. Of course, I’ve never identified a female arsonist either. Still, I do love a good mystery. Let me know how I can help as I’m not sure where to go with this information.”
“For a start, you should call your local law enforcement—either the Sacramento County Sheriff or the Sacramento Police Department—as at the very least you have law enforcement officer impersonation. Besides, we should have a real detective involved with these cases. You could leave it up to the city or county police to determine who has jurisdiction since none of these deaths occurred within their county.”
“Good idea. Are you available to come to Sacramento today? You should be involved with the conversation as we try to enumerate the multiple issues with this case.”
Jill thought about her plans for the day and couldn’t think of anything that couldn’t be rescheduled.
“I can be there. Text me when you have time. It will take me ninety minutes to get there.”
“I think I’ll insist on a meeting with law enforcement in exactly two hours. That should be plenty of time for them to assign officers to this case. See you soon.”
Jill affirmed she would be there, and they ended their call. She agreed with Jennifer that this case kept getting weirder. Why would this man have knowledge of their case? It had not been announced to the media that an arsonist was on the loose, killing men and starting wildfires. Now he knew as much information as anyone about the case. No wonder he had such a sarcastic reply to her request to get a search warrant. As a fake lawman, he had no access to search warrants.
Chapter 12
Jill pulled into the parking lot at the medical examiner’s building, and there were a few more cars in the parking lot. She figured that Jennifer had rallied the troops for the upcoming meeting. She was buzzed into the building and then buzzed through the second door that would allow her to reach the conference room. When she entered, Jennifer was already there with files in front of her. There were also a male and another female, and she figured those were the detectives.
Jennifer said, “This is our former forensic pathologist and now consultant, Dr. Jill Quint. Jill, this is Detective Kelly Maguire from SPD and Detective Aaron Rodriguez from the Sheriff’s Department. We’re expecting a representative of the FBI momentarily.”
Jill reached across the table to shake their hands and pass out her business card. She didn’t know either of the detectives. They were both on the young side and perhaps had made detective after she worked for this office.
Someone else entered the room directed there by one of Jennifer’s staff. He said, “Hi, I’m Special Agent Brandon Sanderson from the Sacramento office of the FBI.”
Further introductions were made, and they got down to business.
Jennifer started, “About two or three weeks ago, I received a call from a fire insurance investigator pointing out the similarity of three lone males who
have died in brushfires in different counties. We had the third victim in our morgue. When I received that phone call, we were dealing with the mass casualty of the bus crash out on the highway. Dr. Quint and I used to work together, and I know she provides opinions on the cause of death and is a licensed private investigator. I asked her to review the three cases to see if any of them needed to be reclassified as a homicide. Up to that point, they were considered accidental deaths. She visited the three wildfire sites, reviewed the remains of the victim in our morgue, and reviewed the reports of the first two victims, which were not handled by this office. None of the deaths have occurred in Sacramento County; however, we back up smaller counties when they lack the resources. Dr. Quint collected forensic evidence of cigarette butts close to the victims in the first two scenes. With the third scene, the victim arrived here with that piece of forensic evidence.
“We sent the butts out for DNA analysis. All the fire victims were male, but the DNA taken from the cigarette was female, and it was the same at all three sites. We do not have a cause of death for the second two victims. The first victim was determined to have alcohol and barbiturates in his stomach contents. So his death was ruled a suicide initially. The second two victims did not have alcohol or barbiturates, nor did they die by smoke inhalation. They were dead before the fire started. The fire marshal was unable to determine what started the fire. So other than coincidence, we don’t have much linking these cases. Dr. Quint predicted that if we had a serial arsonist at work, the fourth victim would die about three days ago. This office got a call from Butte County asking for assistance with a male found within a wildfire zone.”
Jennifer took a sip of water as the explanation was drying out her throat.
“Dr. Quint visited the site of the fourth victim yesterday. And here’s where the case gets weird. The day before, this office was visited by Detective John Mullin from the California Bureau of Investigation. The forensic evidence collected at the scene was supposed to be brought to this office yesterday by the detective as the CBI doesn’t have a crime lab. When Dr. Quint inquired this morning as to the test results of that forensic evidence, that was when we noted that the detective hadn’t stopped by here yesterday. This morning Dr. Quint called him to find out where the evidence was and got his voicemail. She then worked her way through the CBI and learned that there isn’t a detective named John Mullin working there. He has all the details of this case as Dr. Quint discussed it with him, but at this time, he appears to be impersonating law enforcement.”