Red Rock Island (Damian Green Book 1)

by Alec Peche

  “Can you show me some of the things you’re doing in your lab?” Hermione asked.

  “Sure, over there I’m working on creating electricity through the power of wave action. Over there I monitor the various systems I have on this island - solar and wind generation and security. I should tell you, Ariana, that when you washed up on my shoreline, your phone didn’t work because I have a jammer that blocked its action.”

  “What do you mean washed up on your island?” Hermione asked.

  Ariana went on to explain her first encounter with Damian and her subsequent purchase of the tea and a drone. Hermione had her first real smile from the description of that entire adventure.

  “Wow, you swam under the bay with scuba gear all the way to Damian’s island? That’s cool. Will you teach me to scuba?”

  “Do you know how to swim?” Damian asked

  “Of course I know how to swim. I competed on my school team.”

  “Did you win any races?” Damian asked with a small smile. He realized then that he’d seen medals and trophies in her room last night.

  “I actually had hopes of swimming for Berkeley’s team. They’re really good. Missy Franklin swims for them although she quit, I think, so she could turn pro, whatever that means.”

  “So you want to swim for your new school,” Ariana said.

  “It’s unlikely that I can mid-season. I was the holder of the season record in the 100 meter freestyle for my division.”

  “I bet you could at your new school. I’ll find a way to get you a try-out with the coach at your new school, then you have to punch the speed button in the pool,” Damian said.

  Hermione looked doubtful that he could work such magic, so Damian moved the conversation on.

  “I should have parts of your cell phone working by tomorrow morning. I think it will be dry by then. Do you want me to text or email the pictures to you?” Damian asked, then he had second thoughts and said “Forget that question. I don’t want you walking around with pictures of your parents on your cell phone. That could cause a lot of questions. I’ll set up an email address for you and send copies there.”

  Hannah nodded and then said with a catch in her throat, “How are my parents ever going to find me?”

  “If we’ve done our job right, with the changes we’ve made to your identity and by putting you in my and Ariana’s care, they won’t find you. Right now, if your parents can find you then so can the bad guys. Hermione, I’ll be searching for them every day and we might find them tomorrow or five years from now.”

  “Or never if they’re dead.” The teenager was definitely running low on inner strength at the moment and who could blame her.

  “What if you don’t want to take care of me anymore,” she asked with the tears flowing.

  “That’s the great thing about having two of us; if one of us falters then the other can pick up the slack. Hermione, we will always be there for you,” Damian said with quiet conviction, while Ariana hugged the girl.

  “Let’s go upstairs and eat dinner. We can discuss how I’m going to convince the coach at your new school to give you a mid-season try-out to the girl’s swim team. I’ve got an idea.”

  With that, they headed upstairs and managed to catch the sunset in all of its purple and orange glory closing down the day and daylight on the west coast.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Sunday proved to be a busy day.

  The phone components dried out in the rice and he was able to extract pictures for Hannah, whoops, Hermione. He was having a hard time with the name change. Hannah just seemed to suit her better.

  He had a Harry Potter audiobook playing in the background in hopes of refreshing his memory for common ground with Hermione and he also hoped that it would cement the new name in his head.

  He searched for her swimming results at her old school, but couldn’t find them published anywhere. He moved on to qualifying times so he’d sound intelligent when he spoke with the swimming coach. Both he and Ariana were escorting Hermione to school on Monday, ready to advocate on her behalf. He decided that he would indicate that Hermione lived with her parents on Norfolk Island, a tiny island that was a territory of Australia, and was home schooled. Her father was assisting in a nascent industry devoted to engines running on coconut oil. Her home school records would be hard to trace and she could fit in after a little testing in both academics and swimming. It would be a tough day of acting for her after the toughest week of her young life.

  Hours later he had a plausible home school transcript, birth certificate, and vaccination record thanks to the photo on her cell phone. He sent it all over to Hermione and Ariana, with a plan to meet them at Ariana’s house the next day at seven so they could arrive at the high school by eight. The poor kid was entering a new high school in the middle of the semester. Oh well, at least she was smart and athletic; hopefully that would make the transition easier.

  He put his new ward aside for the moment and spent some time in the lab working on his latest innovations. Then he checked the release dates of prisoners convicted of felonies and felt as though it had been a previous life when he last checked to make sure no-one was released early.

  Finally back to the two cold cases and the attack on Natalie. The wheels of justice moved slowly. The man that took a shot at Natalie had been arraigned on attempted murder charges. He refused to say anything during questioning according to her. The detectives studied the exterior tapes trying to decide if she was a random hit or if he’d purposely targeted her but they couldn’t tell. No one else was around Natalie at the time of the attack, so she could have been the first one to enter the parking lot; just plain bad luck. The cameras didn’t show much of the direction he’d come from so the police had no recording of him sitting in a car waiting for someone in particular to arrive or if he had just decided to go after the first person he saw. Damian was sure Natalie was the target given the fact that he was the son of the only person she had to kill in the line of duty.

  The medical examiner had finally gotten back to Detective Shimoda and the knife could have created Barbara Watson’s fatal wounds, but without her body he was reluctant to say that it was the knife used in the crime. According to Natalie’s explanation, that left all kinds of holes for the defense to shoot through, no pun intended. So they were back to square one as far as solving the cold case. He went back and read the Barbara Watson case. The crime scene unit at the time collected fingerprints from around the area where the bones were found as well as on the clothing. It wouldn’t do them any good to just find Mr. Watson’s DNA on her clothing. All he had to say was he did the laundry. But if his DNA matched anything they pulled off the ground or foliage then they would have something that the DA would take notice of.

  Then he thought of another roadblock. He wasn’t aware that they had Mr. Watson’s DNA; all they had was his fingerprints. So how could they get his DNA? How about the knife? Damian pulled the report and saw that they swabbed the knife as well as took fingerprints off of it.

  Okay, then they never ran the knife as DNA wasn’t a technology widely in use at the time the body was found. So the police could match the knife to the victim on a DNA match and then with the husband’s fingerprints matching perhaps that would be sufficient suspicion to get a court order for a DNA sample. He discussed his thoughts with Natalie who agreed with his reasoning. They had reached their wit’s end and were thinking of bringing Greg Watson in for questioning and hoping that they would be lucky and he would confess. A weak strategy at best, but the only one open to them as they couldn’t get Mr. Watson’s DNA without his knowledge or permission unless he was charged with a crime. He was living a quiet life in Arizona without a hint of criminal activity. He wouldn’t give his DNA voluntarily unless he was completely innocent and knew that. The defense could also say there was good reason for his prints to be on the knife as he used it for cooking.

  All right, time to put aside this case and return to Debbie Altman. Did he have any brilliant
thoughts about that case other than the belief that John Avery committed the murder? Maybe he should study the Aryan Brotherhood a little more or maybe the truck they picked up from the salvage yard might have some evidence in it. Maybe it would help to call Natalie about the case. He looked at the time and briefly wondered what she would be doing on a Sunday afternoon.

  “Hey Natalie, how’s the protection system going?”

  “Really good. We have everything sorted out and we’re not getting annoying false alarms, yet we feel protected.”

  “Good. That’s how the system should work. Have you met with the Brotherhood yet?”

  “No. My approach has been a voluntary request for a meeting rather than a law enforcement meeting since I don’t want law enforcement to know about the email cache. It’s taking longer, but I think the leadership will meet out of boredom if nothing else. I think it could take as long as two weeks to arrange this meeting, so hopefully your safeguards work until the meeting gets set-up.”

  “They should work for another year or so unless your neighborhood boys spring all the traps and I make no guarantees about curious eight year old boys. I was thinking about Debbie Altman and the lack of evidence since her body was never recovered. Did the crime scene folks collect fingerprints from her apartment? I mean you don’t have her DNA or her fingerprints, but do the CSIs collect evidence from a missing person’s apartment thinking they might have her DNA or fingerprints for a later match?”

  “They likely sampled her toothbrush or hairbrush if there was one. If there was a dirty clothes hamper then underwear would have been taken.”

  “Is that evidence still available? Has a DNA analysis been done on it? Could we use it to match what they find in the truck?”

  “Let me check on the answers to your questions. The evidence should still be here and I doubt that DNA testing has been done since the DNA backlog is so large and we don’t tend to randomly submit cold cases for analysis.”

  “Could we send a sample from the old evidence and new evidence retrieved from the truck to a private lab for testing, and then if it comes back as matching, send it through the official channels for testing? I would think that if the state lab knew another lab confirmed a relationship that they might be quicker with the results.”

  “I don’t know how they operate as far as priorities, but keep in mind that several investigative journalists have reviewed the DNA backlog and they all agree that waits are too long or they haven’t been tested at all. There’s a backlog of something like a hundred thousand cases across the state and some of that is due to the fact that if you get arrested, the police take a DNA sample. So there’s a huge backlog related to just incoming prisoners. They’re also behind processing rape kits by shocking numbers. It blows my mind that we don’t commit the financial resources to process lab results. Can you imagine going to your doctor, having blood drawn, and then the blood sits there for several years because your doctor’s office doesn’t have enough staff or machines? That’s the current state of DNA testing.”

  “So why don’t you use private labs?” Damian asked.

  “Because in the budget it’s one more officer on the street versus spending on DNA analysis. The average taxpayer will never feel the impact of DNA analysis, but they do like to see their men and women in blue.”

  “So it’s not like a private lab analysis can’t be used for court?”

  “No, I believe that some California cities have already contracted with private labs and certainly the defense often sends evidence to them. I’ll ask Kevin to ask his Lieutenant about sending these samples to a private lab as this is not a fishing expedition but rather we have some strong connections. I’m guessing the testing might run five grand which will be quite a hit to his budget.”

  “Natalie, that sounds like it isn’t going to happen. You know, I lack the patience to be a cop. You’re expected to solve cases but you don’t have 100% of everything you need to do the job. It’s like we tell you to solve a crime without a camera to take pictures of a crime scene.”

  “Damian, it’s really not that bad. It’s rare that DNA is the only indicator to solve a crime and we’re hampered in this case because it’s a cold case and no citizen is in immediate peril, but look this entire case might never have been solved if they hadn’t hired me and if I hadn’t invited you into the case.”

  “Well I don’t like that we can’t solve this case with all the modern tools available immediately. The victims’ families deserve answers. I have some acquaintances in the DNA industry. I’m going to talk to them to see if there’s a cheap and time saving alternative to what you’re suggesting.”

  “That’s fine, Damian, just remember you and I can’t commit the resources of the SJPD to solve this crime. Any solution you come up with has to be blessed by the hierarchy.”

  “Can I send you my dental bill for the teeth grinding that you’re causing me?”

  Natalie laughed, “I hear your frustration loud and clear. Just remember that most cases are not solved by DNA alone. Usually it takes good detective work to lead us to a suspect and DNA confirms what we think.”

  “True. Okay, I’ll quit whining and let you go about getting the evidence and then get it tested.”

  “Thanks Damian, I really do appreciate your help. As detectives, we don’t have the experience that you do in analyzing huge databases or even mixing and matching databases whereas you can do it in your sleep. I’ll get back to you when I have some news.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Damian’s worries about Hermione had him sleeping restlessly all night. He wondered if Ariana and Hermione had also been restless. He worried about the background he’d created for the kid and the potential for things to go wrong if the three of them didn’t have their stories straight or all the answers required.

  If they got her settled in school for the time being, then Damian’s focus would shift into figuring out her parent’s situation. Were they dead or alive? Why were they looking for the kid? Who were the bad guys? Why were they after the Sherwoods? Given the safe rooms, her parents knew about some threat to the family, but where was it coming from? Were they in witness protection, or something?

  He dressed carefully wanting to appear to be a respectable guardian in appearance at least. Then he thought of the emergency measures that he and Ariana had taken in the last seventy-two hours and decided that they were off to a great start. The kid was fed, provided with the appropriate tools, disguised, and not at all traumatized since coming into their care. With that thought, Damian’s confidence returned and he was excited to outsmart the school and the swim coach; however he could sense Hermione had a few worries. He used the little dinghy to head over to Ariana’s, his paperwork in hand.

  As he was pulling into her dock, she met him with a thermal cup of ginger tea. A good choice as they had a stressful day ahead.

  “Thanks, Ariana. Before the day takes off, I want to say that you and I are going to make great parents and thanks for being my partner in crime.”

  “You’re welcome and I hope her real parents, if they’re alive, agree with our decision not to contact the police. If they’re dead, we’ll be seeing this thing through for many years to come. Mostly I’m looking at this situation in one of two ways - either I’m excited to shape a young person’s mind or life, or I’m thinking the bottom line is she is safe with us until we can figure out what is going on, and those are both good motives.”

  “Yeah I was tossing and turning last night thinking of any loopholes in the paperwork or in our story and I think we have all the bases covered, although we should do another walk-through with Hermione. Is she nervous to go to school?”

  “My guess is she loves school, but navigating this new world of hers takes quite a bit of mental energy on her part. I’m going to have to figure out some activity that allows her to be her and thus relaxes her.”

  “We’ll talk about that with her or maybe something at school will pull her in, let’s see what the day brings
.”

  They had reached the door to the house and entered it to find Hermione sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for some signal from the two of them perhaps that they’d changed their minds as guardians or about school or something.

  “Hey, Hermione, we thought we would practice asking questions of each other to make sure we had our stories straight. We don’t want to blow our cover on the first day,” Damian said.

  Thirty minutes later the three of them felt solid with the story and ready to face school officials. They got in Ariana’s SUV and headed toward the high school. There was a fair amount of activity around the school, so they found a visitor parking spot and the three of them followed directions to the principal’s office which seemed like a good place to start. It was very rare for a kid to enter in the middle of the semester, but fortunately there had been enough students that they weren’t thrown into complete chaos.

  By mid-day Hermione was completely enrolled and accepted into all of the appropriate classes. Her empty backpack was now straining with books and she with assignments. Hermione could have been worried, but instead she appeared to be excited to compete against a new group of students. Their final hurdle was expected at two, when she had a private try-out with the swim coach. Damian was most worried about this as there was nothing he could do to pave the way for her and since he had never seen her swim, he could only hope she would do well in this arena as well. He remembered the trophies back in her parent’s house and tried to be confident.