by Peter Fang
“Oh, yes. That 1980’s movie,” said Koda.
Decker continued, “If your suspect has this mutation, he would have been deformed physically as an adult, so it would be easier for you to find this person. But most of the patients with this disease will be too physically deformed to do household chores, let alone carry out a murder in a forest.”
“The finger we found looked normal to me. Could this Elephant Man disease trigger much later in life?”
“Well, according to the literatures, it typically starts around eighteen months after birth, and it gets progressively worse with age. Maybe it is a recessive gene in this guy, so it has not shown signs as an adult. You may have to talk to a genetic specialist to learn more about this disease.”
“That’s great info. I will keep that in mind.” Koda couldn’t imagine an Elephant Man running around loose, kidnapping runways, and then burying them in a national forest.
“What about the gun? What did you find out about the weapon we found?”
“Ah, the gun. No surprise, the gun’s not traceable; however, the finger is a different matter. For reasons we still can’t quite figure out, the finger is still in pretty good shape, even after all these years out in the wild. The fingertip were partially deteriorated, but we were able to extract a partial print. We were lucky that the gun was located before the fingerprint deteriorated. The gun must have been buried somewhere out of the elements, and then the recent storm washed it into the creek. That explained why there was more scent on the ground for Beti to pick up. The bullet in the chamber was isolated enough from the outside for us to harvest a print off of the bullet.”
“You wouldn’t be telling me all this if you didn’t get a match on the fingerprint, right?”
“Well, yes and no.” Decker walked over to his table where another printout was tucked away neatly in a separate folder. “The fingerprint was incomplete, but we first ran it through the FBI’s databases and came up with several possible matches. Two guys were already deceased. One of the guys was a drug addict that died in an emergency room, and the other one was an ID’d criminal. Neither one would have been old enough to commit crime back in the 60’s, which is when we estimate the crime took place. I then ran the print with the older archived data and got a positive ID. An Asian dude named Manfred Liu. He was a contractor for an urban development company. Wife’s name was Meredith, a nurse at the county hospital. They also had a son, but he died of leukemia around six. The record showed the wife also suffered from cancer later in life, but one day, both simply disappeared. Last record of them was the phone bill paid on December first, 1971. No one knew where the couple went afterwards.”
“They disappeared?” Koda shook his head. “No, it doesn’t make sense to me yet. Why would Manfred vanish with his sick wife, then we find his chopped-off finger on a gun in Olympic National Park? How is this related to the shallow grave nearby? We need more information.”
“This looks like some type of satanic cult, like the Charles Manson story.”
“Maybe, but this one feels different.”
Decker scratched his eyebrows. “What are you going to do now?”
“Occam’s Razor—go with the most obvious answer.”
“Which is what in this case?”
“Look for living relatives. They will know more about Manfred than anyone else.”
That afternoon, Koda went to the office and looked into several search databases and found a nephew of Manfred named Blake. Blake was alive in Ellensburg, Washington. He thought about calling Blake up, but that would ruin the element of surprise. Koda invited his good friend Decker along again; no one on the force could profile a person better.
18
Hunting for Manfred
It was before dawn when Koda geared up for the trip. He hadn’t felt this alert since the early days of hunting for the hit-and-run killer. Koda drove to Ellensburg the next day. Before he visited the site, he made a fake call pretending to be a ground survey crew—just to make sure Blake was home. He then hopped into a car with Decker along with Beti and drove to Ellensburg.
The address resided in a valley with about ten acres of land. Unlike most ranches with wide open space, this land was nestled inside an oval of large trees. He was glad that his car had four-wheel drive, because the road became very muddy and treacherous. He kept going until he came up to a pig farm. Koda felt a twinge of sadness as he walked up toward the pig farm’s main entrance. Having to work with Beti, Koda knew how intelligent the pigs were, and he wondered if Beti knew the place was essentially a camp for pigs on borrowed time. Koda had called earlier in the week to test the phone number but got an answering machine. Prudent or not, they decided to pay this place a visit.
Following the map, the trio exited the main road until they hit a dead end. Koda stopped the car and walked up to the main gate; a sign declared the place was private property and trespassers would be prosecuted. He rolled down the window and surveyed the entrance. There was a wooden post, and next to it was a keypad with intercom. He got out of his car and walked up to intercom. There was a faint burning wood smell hanging in the air. It reminded him of the childhood place where he grew up. He pressed zero and waited for a tone; shortly, a distant dog bark could be heard from a one-story house about one hundred yards away. The low grunts from the nearby pigpen raised to a chorus. There was a buzz, like a pager going off behind the pigpen, and then he heard someone yell with a haggard voice.
“Hello?” a voice squawked. “Are you the ground survey crew I spoke to?”
“No, I’m Detective Koda Xi with the FBI. I'm with the Seattle police department. I was hoping I could speak to you for a minute?”
“Police?” A sly man appeared behind the pigpen, holding an orange plastic bucket. He was wearing brown plastic overalls with integrated boots, like those worn by fishermen.
“Name is Koda? I left you a voicemail. Are you Blake Wu?”
“You’re speaking to him. You say you left a voicemail?” Blake seemed stiff and nervous.
“You don't have any cell phones listed on record, so I can't contact you any other way.”
“What do you want?”
"I am investigating the death of your uncle.”
The guy looked confused at first, then suspicious, but he walked up to the fence like being led by obligation.
"My uncle Manfred? That was like, what, decades ago.”
"I'm trying to follow up with a new lead discovered recently that might be connected to your uncle. Can I speak to you for a minute?”
"I'm rather busy at the moment...”
"This won't take long.”
The guy hesitated, then nodded as he wiped his hands around his waist. “Can I see some ID first?”
Koda showed him his badge. The guy stared at the badge for a while and then asked, “You mind if I look at your car from the outside first?”
"Sure thing, but just mind you that my partner’s in the car as well.”
Blake took out a walkie-talkie from his overalls pocket and chatted something into the talker. “Hey, Mary, we have visitors at the gate, so the pipe fix may be a bit delayed.” He walked outside the fence and walked over to the unmarked car and looked inside from the window. From there, he could see the police equipment and the police light behind the back windshield. He saw Decker and nodded at him; Decker nodded back but didn’t say a word. Appearing to be satisfied, he turned and flashed a halfhearted smile at Koda.
“Sorry, officer; we had a string of break-ins lately, so want to make sure you are legit and not someone scoping the place out.”
“Not a problem. I’m sorry to intrude like this. Do you remember Manfred?”
“Manfred…Of course I remember that crazy Manfred. How can I forget that son-of-a-bitch?”
“What do you mean?” Koda took out a piece of pen and paper and started to scribble.
“He’s the bad apple of the Wu’s family. He used to bully everyone in the family.”
“Do you remembe
r if he liked to hike?”
“Hiking? I don't remember too much about that. We never really hung out that much.”
“So you guys weren’t very close?”
“No, he was a troublemaker. I haven't seen him since the eighties. I was like eighteen at the time.”
“Do you know where he is now?”
“One thing I remember is that he said he was going to join the army, but ended up working with that construction company. Really sad to say, but our family was rather dysfunctional. Relatives didn't get along with each other. If they were not calling each other names, then they were fighting over the land from the grandparents. I'm glad that was all over.”
“Sounds like you are still very upset about that part of your childhood.”
“Yeah, I am. That's one chapter in my life I try not to go visit often. It is pretty depressing.”
“Okay, well. I'll let you go now; thanks for the information. If you have any information that can help me locate him, please give me a call or send me an email. Here's my card with all my contact info.”
Koda walked casually back into his car, turned on the engine, and backed away from the gate. He turned and then drove the car back down the road. “What do you think?” Koda took out a cigarette, rolled down the window, and lit it up. He took a drag and let a small plume escape from the cabin.
“He is hiding something. He was touching his mouth and acting rather nervous when you told him you were with the police department. He didn't expect someone from the police would be asking him about his uncle. He didn't even ask about what the whole thing was about. He acted like he knew about this. I'm not really buying his story.”
“No probable cause, so I can't get a warrant. Nothing I can do about this, but I'm sure there's something in that house there that can give us some clues to Manfred's whereabouts.” Koda took the car out to the end of the road, made a right, and got back onto the gravel road. He drove the car down for about hundred feet and stopped.
“This old body is tired of cold cases. If we need to find out if the man knows something, I am not going to wait around for volunteer work from him.”
“So what are you going to do?” Decker peered at him with a quizzical smile.
“You ever played peek-a-boo?” Koda arched his eyebrow and winked his eyes. “I'm going to take a peek.” He let the car slowly roll to the side next to a row of evergreen bushes.
“Keep the car running. I’m going to take a peek.” Koda got out of the car and pulled open the trunk. He took out a large duffel bag and lugged it across a meadow next to the car and towards a narrow opening in the bush.
Decker rolled down the window and asked with a hushed voice, “What the hell are you doing?”
Koda only waved his hand at Decker to tell him to stay in the car. He adjusted the bag on his shoulder and pushed through the prickly evergreen branches.
Space was tighter than he had thought, and he had to force himself against the branches to push through. Once through the green tree wall, there was a pond stream. He hopped across the creek and walked up a steep pile of dirt. Once on the top, he hunched down against the wooden fence. He peeked over one of the fences and saw there was a good angle from which he could directly see the pig farmer's house. He looked around to make sure there was no one nearby and unzipped the bag. He took out a large Nikon camera and a telescopic lens. The thing weighed a ton, but it could take crystal clear pictures from a hundred yards away. He mounted the lens onto the Nikon camera with a satisfying click, then posted his setup on the wooden fence and looked out into the field. He saw Blake still walking back to the house, but now with his hand on a phone, talking to someone.
“Who are you talking to, huh?” Koda zoomed in on Blake’s face and started clicking shots. He saw Blake ended the call, and for a brief moment, his cell phone showed the number of the address book, which he was calling. The screen flashed only briefly, but Koda had already taken a series of ten shots. He then moved the camera towards the house and through the front window. He could see another person’s face. It was a woman, presumed to be Mary. He saw her walking over to the front door and looked out to the field with a worried expression. Blake put his hands up and asked her to get back into the house. Koda took more shots of Mary, and then Blake followed Mary into the house. Blake turned and looked back at the entrance, looking for any sign of Koda’s car, then closed the door. “What are you guys hiding? Really?” Koda murmured. He scanned the house with his camera and looked for any clues. There were some pictures on the wall. He zoomed in on one of the smaller picture frames and saw that it was a family picture. He clicked several shots. But then he saw Blake started to take the photos off the wall, while Mary was still talking to him with her hands balled into fists. Blake continued to ignore Mary and took all the pictures from the wall and piled them in a stack and moved out of view. Mary stopped talking and pressed her hands against her head, looking frustrated. Koda moved his camera again to take some shots of the property in case they needed to come back here. He briefly saw a dark blur in the camera’s viewfinder, so he panned it back to focus on the image. To his surprise, a large German Shepherd was looking in his direction and baring its teeth as it approached. It looked like the dog was about seventy-five yards away.
“Oh, shit!” Koda whispered. He slowly pulled the camera down, and with no time to unhook the heavy lens, he lugged the whole thing on his shoulder and backed away from the fence. The fence was not going to hold the dog in if it decided to chase him. Koda kept his eyes on the dog as he backed away. He then saw the dog run towards him. He reached for his gun and pulled it out to prepare for the attack, but he didn’t want to shoot an animal and screw up the operation.
Koda decided to run. He sprinted across the stream and leaped across a rotten log. The camera smashed against his waist like a hammer, almost knocking him off balance. He swung the camera over, so he could carry it with his left arm and push through a wall of evergreen bush coming up against his path. He could hear the dog’s growl closing in, probably no more than thirty yards out. He continued to push through the evergreen, but the camera bag got tangled in the branches. Koda dropped his right arm to slip the camera bag off his shoulder as he pushed through the trees. The dog’s menacing growl was now no more than twenty yards away. He reached the edge of the tree and could see his car––twenty, maybe twenty-five yards away. He heard the dog’s snarl just behind him.
The German Shepherd leaped forward, but its head got tangled through the shoulder strap. It snapped its jaws but missed Koda by inches.
Koda backed away and continued to run back towards the car. He didn’t want to shoot the dog, but he might have to now. He pulled one round, grazed the dog’s shoulder.
The dog whimpered but didn’t back down. It tried to get free, but both of its legs were tangled inside the bag’s strap.
Decker was already in the driver’s seat, so he opened the passenger’s door and jumped into the car and shut the door behind him—just in time.
The dog leaped against the window and bared its fangs. Its large front paws clacked against the window, leaving trails of muddy prints.
Decker hit the gas and the car peeled away.
“Fuck! That was close.” Koda panted. “Now you know why I quit my old mailman job!”
“You think?” Decker exhaled. “For a moment, I thought you were really going to kill the dog. I would have been very upset with you if you did.”
“I should have.” Koda shook his head.
Koda worked his body into a snug spot in the seat and swung the camera up from behind. He unhooked the large lens and fished for the lens cap but realized he had lost it in inside the bag he left back with the dog. He carefully clicked the lens back onto the camera body and reviewed the shots. He viewed them on the camera's display, and when he reached a certain shot, he froze. He pushed the zoom button several times and then looked at the shot carefully.
“I think we’ve got something here.” He zoomed into the shot a
nd in the frame there was a picture of a family photo on the wall. The picture showed a teenager standing next to an adult, each holding a bass fish and a fishing rod. The image was a bit faded, but the kid resembled Blake with those eyes and the long forehead. If he was lucky, the other kid in the picture could be Manfred. He then played back the video he recorded with his camera and saw that Blake was arguing with a woman in the house before the curtains were drawn.
“Blake said he hated his guts. Does this picture look like a family that doesn’t get along?”
“You can’t be sure who the other kid is, but the one on the left certainly looks like Blake,” said Decker.
“I bet if we are in that house, we’ll find more of these happy family pictures, and I’ll bet one of them will include Manfred. It won’t be too hard to find out the truth. Either way, Blake and Mary were acting all nervous after we left, and are hiding something.”
Decker put up one hand and said, “If you are thinking about going through some backdoor channel to get evidence or probable cause, I don’t want to know—”
“Hold on, this is not just gut feeling. You know that.” Koda noticed his escalating voice, so he sighed and looked away. “I’m sorry to take this out on you. This case has been nagging me for a while. You know as well as I that our training gives us a sixth sense if someone is lying. That whole thing back there at the gate was definitely disingenuous. I saw Blake was arguing with his wife through my lens, and he was pulling pictures off the wall.”
Decker nodded. “You don’t have to convince me, but if Mason finds out we were snooping around in Blake’s back yard, that’s invasion of privacy. You need to get a search warrant. If the judge finds out, it—”
“Yeah, I get it. I know!” Koda balled his fists and looked out the window.
“You are getting close to your man, but don’t let impatience bite you again.”
Koda turned and smiled. “But I always get my man.”