The Cult of the White Owl

by Barbara Lefka

  “Cut him down,” Murphy said starting to move toward the hanged man.

  “No wait, get Doctor Smith over here and bring forensics with him. Better get a photographer to document the scene as well. Where did that leather belt come from? Wasn’t he on suicide watch? Does anybody know?” Nobody answered Jake’s questions. A few policemen scurried away to get the doc and the rest of his team, but Jake’s questions went unanswered.

  Murphy stood still as a post watching Davis swinging back and forth from that ceiling light. Burnsey stood next to him not saying a word just gaping open mouthed.

  Another avenue closed, Jake thought exasperated, not even thinking about the dead man, just his case blown too bits. Dead before he even had time to question him about his insane behavior, destroying a promising career and his own life. Was I slow to the mark or are they just two steps ahead of me. From where I stand right now I would say both. Did he really kill himself in his cell or was it murder within the police department?

  “Damn it to hell and back!” Jake cursed and felt like throwing things.

  “I can’t stay with this now, this murder or suicide, Murphy you have to carry the ball. I have an obligation that I can’t get out of, do your best. Burnsey listen to Murphy as though it was me talking. I will call in and I should be back after the week-end. Don’t get yourselves killed in the meantime and look after Priscilla after this, she is our only living witness conscious.” Jake was alluding to Tony McCane.

  “Are we sure she is the only one?” Murphy thought. “There are others.”

  Jake turned on his heel and left the jail, there would be hell to pay, but he had his priorities, and his baby trumped murder.

  Everyone was so intent on the photo’s, plus the death of Davis, that the detectives did not notice the absence of Annie Carr. So Jake got away without explanation as to her whereabouts.

  He considered himself lucky for his situation, as he pulled up to the front door of her parent’s modest home. As he stepped on the porch the dog started barking. He rang the door bell and Annie opened the door and her eye’s were swollen and red from crying.

  “Oh Jake, they are so disappointed in me. They are upset because we are going to have a baby and we have to get married. Everything they planned for me, dreamed for me, is up in smoke. I feel so ashamed.” She started to cry again. He put his arms around her holding her close. He looked over her head and saw her parents standing staunchly together in the living room, their arms across their chests.

  Jake set Annie aside and walked into the living room and confronted Mr. and Mrs. Carr. “What is the matter with you, I love your daughter and she love’s me and we are going to have a wonderful baby. So stop this nonsense and support your daughter’s decision that we marry and raise our child together. I am giving you fair warning I will not tolerate Annie being unhappy, so if you ever want to see us again in this lifetime and I can make that happen, you better change your attitude.” Jake was seething as he read them the riot act. They had no idea whom they were dealing with and they backed away from his anger.

  “Hrumphh,” Mr. Carr coughed to clear his throat and regain his composure. “You are right Jake, if I may call you Jake?” He continued in a hesitant way, never having confronted an angry chief detective of a major city police force before. He knew he was beaten and really what was he complaining about anyway. His daughter got herself quite a catch, and obviously a strong man. A man that would protect her and care for her and the new arrival. So they were going to Maryland to get married, so what. She would live in his house and be his wife what was wrong with that? But was she enough for him? Could she hold him after the honeymoon was over and reality set in? Maybe that was troubling him. Did she know what she was signing up for? Her mother told him how much she loved Jake, be careful what you wish for,

  “Oh Darling,” her mother ran to Annie and hugged her, “I am so happy for you.” She turned to Jake, “for you both. Now run along you have a long drive ahead of you. I will get some of your things together while you are gone, so you can have a head start moving into your new home”

  Mr. Carr came over and hugged his daughter and slipped her a few hundred dollars. “Mad money.” He said as he saw Jake notice.

  “I am glad we are all on the same page and as soon as we get settled you will be the first to come for dinner and we will celebrate this joyful event together” He shook hands all around. Annie’s mother gave him a hug.

  Jake took Annie’s hand and headed for the Packard, which he kept running.

  “Prepared for a quick getaway?” Mr. Carr quipped, his sense of humor restored as he put his daughter’s suitcase in the trunk next to Jake’s. He stepped away from the car as the Packard backed away from the curb and headed for the Interstate. Annie waved good-bye till her parents were a dot in the rear view mirror.

  “Come here you and give me a kiss right here.” Jake pointed to a spot on his cheek. Annie obliged and cuddled close to him as he drove the powerful car toward Maryland.

  The body of John Davis lay on a slab in the morgue between Doctor Smith and Murphy, both men were looking down at the victim.

  The autopsy and the blood analysis proved he did not die by his own hand, he was murdered, he was out cold when he was hanged.

  “God,” Murphy said. “You mean someone slipped him a Mickey Fin?”

  “That is what I do mean. He had a large quantity of chloral hydrate in his system, the medical name for a Mickey, enough to render him unconscious and if he wasn’t hanged he would have been one sick puppy “

  “If he had a choice he probably would have preferred to be sick. Anything else significant that you found?”

  “Yes detective I found this.” He held up a South Sea Pearl in the shape of a white owl hanging from a thin gold chain.

  “Where did you get this? He was stripped naked and bathed within an inch of his life.” Murphy asked puzzled.

  “It was dangling from the belt around his neck and whoever killed him could not retrieve it. It is impossible to know whether he did not see it hanging down Davis’s back or he was rushed and just left it. They probably had to work fast so they sacrificed the amulet. None the less this bauble ties the White Owl to the murder of Davis plus police officers on the take.”

  CHAPTER 18

  “Where in the purple hell is Jake?” The commissioner was blowing a gasket. “We are making headway on these horrendous murders are we not?” He looked around at all the detectives and personnel standing near him.

  “Yes sir, we are gathering lots of facts and clues, but like a cardboard puzzle, we have the pieces, all we have to do is put them together in a cohesive fashion.” Murphy was explaining. “The thing is sir, every time we have a solid suspect they wind up in a coma or dead and that puts us back a few paces. So we start over, if not over at least disadvantaged. “

  “Where is my chief detective, where is Jake?” This time he looked directly at Murphy.

  “Sir, he is taking some vacation time to put things into a clearer perspective, but he gave us very strict orders which we are carrying out, or were.” He stated boldly.

  “I see, I will be going but I want to be kept informed about everything good or bad, clear?” On that note the commissioner stamped out.

  “Detectives we have work to do. Scott and Greaves you continue sifting through the quagmire of photo’s, concentrating on the dude with the embroidery sleeves and pearl necklace. If you find any more pictures of the girl put it aside for me. I will be joining in your search later.

  Burnsey you heard the chief, set up surveillance teams round the clock, to record who goes in and out of the old restaurant. Get license plate numbers whenever possible. Bring camera’s to take photo’s of everyone and everything that moves.”

  Burnsey left the squad room with his hand-picked team and Murphy walked into Jake’s office and saw the package still unopened on his desk. He picked i
t up in his hands to look for a forwarding address, there was none. It was fairly light and did not rattle. It did not tick either, so no bomb. He laughed to himself at that one and put the package down and left the office. He glanced at Annie’s vacant desk, she did not show up for work, coincidence? Murphy was to good a detective not to believe there was a correlation. Besides he did not believe in coincidence’s, both absent at the same time, suspicious.

  He placed a call to the coroner’s office to let them know he was on his way to check out the corpse that plunged off the bridge into the Delaware River. He wasn’t sure how long they could keep him on ice if the family was located. He dodged breakfast in order to get to headquarters with the pictures and see what Jake would assign him to do today. He never expected that Jake would take off, and Davis would be hanged. The case was breaking open, what happened to Jake’s priorities? Disgusted, Murphy entered pathology where Dr. Smith was waiting for him.

  “Hi Murphy where’s the boss?”

  “I’m doing double duty today and thought I would take a look at the corpse they pulled out of the river.”

  “It’s about time someone took a look at him. He’s over there under the sheet. We still have not been able to identify him, which is just as well, no one is clamoring for the body.

  With the sheet pulled back it was easy to see he was a massive man and it was probably not an easy task hoisting him over the guard rail and into the river. It is possible that two men had to do the job and maybe were now the worse for wear, But there was no doubt in Murphy’s mind that this man killed Richard Smith. The picture matched closely with the body and how many six foot three men, are walking around in robes.

  “Here Doc, Jake wanted you to have a copy of the picture we discovered at Tony McCane’s house. You can check the measurements, but my money tells me he killed the D.A.”

  “Yeah we pretty much agree that he is the killer. This picture also proves he is a follower of the White Owl. The picture of the bird landing on his shoulder shows he had been chosen for a deed of some sort. His dead body proves he messed up and was eliminated as a warning to the rest of the flock. But his death also proves that Richard Smith was killed by mistake, Priscilla was, like Caterina and Daphne, to be killed in a dramatic fashion, but Tony McCane was behind bars and was being questioned by the police, so that man,” Doc Smith pointed to the body, “destroyed an innocent man, and in turn destroyed himself, a high price to pay.”

  “Doc let me take another look at the fabric he was clutching in his hand.”

  “Yeah sure, it’s right here in my locker where I have Davis’s uniform and shoes. I wanted to keep everything together, along with the white bride dresses that Jake wanted to go through. Everything is here that are connected with the White Owl murders.”

  Murphy sifted through the various items of clothing, running his hands along the jacket and slacks belonging to Officer Davis. He patted the pockets and wrung out the shirt looking for anything that might divulge motive or intent. He picked up the heavy Oxford shoes standard issue for beat cops and thought he heard a sound inside one of the shoes. He turned it upside down and a pearl owl fell into his hand. He turned to show doc the bauble he held in his outstretched hand, “Doc did you know the pearl was in Davis’s shoe?”

  “I never did. I just stored the stuff, I had no time to search in depth.”

  “Or at all.” Murphy sneered.

  “Look I have not had time to breathe let alone search through pockets,

  what the hell am I explaining to you for, I was keeping the stuff intact for Jake whenever he could come around, and I am still keeping it for him. So get the hell out of my morgue. I was doing you a courtesy to look at the evidence, now you can wait till the chief returns. And give me that pearl.” The doctor held out his hand Murphy ignored it and put the pearl down on top of the autopsy table and left the room.

  Jake told me ‘don’t go to the morgue,’ so that’s what I get. Davis was dirty, the pearl proves it. Who else? Who came to see Davis or any one else in that cell block? Someone under orders to eliminate a threat to the consortium. Or a higher up who passed the word to a willing guard. All possibilities. Back to the precinct to investigate further.

  While Murphy was rushing back to the station, the doctor was carefully folding the garments to be put back in the locker. His hand lingered on a gaudy bit of shirt fabric in blue, red, and orange. He seemed to recall one of the cell block guards sporting a new shirt in such a pattern. His first name was ‘Carl’ and he received Smith’s undivided attention every time they crossed paths because he was so brutish. Not that anyone knew or suspected he had a penchant for mindless, bullish males that could inflict pain onto him sexually.

  “God forbid,” Smith shuttered at the thought. “Still I think I will wander over to the guard’s locker room and see what I can find. Jake would be so impressed.” Humming Kay Starr’s big hit, ‘Wheel of Fortune’ he made his way to police headquarters.

  Murphy diligently pursued his impulse to discover if anyone significant entered the cell block on the day Davis was eliminated. The police officer guarding the cell block had just come on duty and gave Murphy access to the sign-in sheet’s content. Murphy glanced at his watch, it was after three o’clock. He tried not to think about his empty stomach and picked up the clip board and checked the names that entered this morning.

  “Who, what are their names doing on this list?” he asked to the blank face of the guard.

  Councilman Carter’s name was there and further down Mayor Wood, the rest of the names were without significance, lawyers seeing clients and family members. He would have his officers check them out, but the mayor and the councilman he would have to wait for Jake to pursue.

  Another person that could not wait for Jake to return was Dr. Smith who had just returned from the police lockers where he investigated officer Carl’s locker. He first checked the shower just to be sure he was alone. Then he went to the locker after he carefully looked around the room, it was deserted he then inserted the master key. The locker door opened and he saw the shirt; red, blue, and orange on the back hook. He quickly checked for the rip and there it was, crudely mended. Doc took out his camera and snapped a few pictures of the shirt, the hook, and the number on the locker door.

  He was thrilled with himself and he could not wait to tell Jake his discovery.

  “Hi Phil, Scott, how is the photo search going? “Murphy asked walking in on the busy men.

  “Nothing to write home about. Quite a lot of duplicates, triplicates, etc. I have them all in order, in piles.” Scott pointed to the mound of pictures in neat orderly rows.

  “What happened to the pictures we had of the ladies in indelicate poses with Alain Kowanov.”

  “I believe they are in the chief’s desk drawer do you want them?” Scott started to get up.

  “Naah, if they’re there he has them locked up. You have been working non-stop did you get lunch?”

  “Yeah, we ordered Chinese.”

  “Good, then I will get some lunch and check on Burnsey at the stakeout.

  When you’re finished making piles you can leave and I’ll see you tomorrow.

  If you find something exciting use the red marker to call my attention to it.

  I may be back later.” Waving good-bye Murphy left the building. His two detectives went back to work sorting the photographs.

  The jack hammers were making a raucous noise and cement dust was thick and heavy blurring the street lights where the White Owl headquarters was soon to be located. From Murphy’s vantage point there was no activity except for his men digging up the street. No cars in the parking lot and none on the street. Was this a false trail? or what?

  Burnsey walked over to the nondescript car and opened the door and slid into the front seat. “Murphy I think we are spinning our wheels here for nothing. This may be a smoke screen to get us off the scent.”
/>   “Has there been any action in the restaurant at all?”

  “Not since we’ve been here. Do you think they’ve been tipped off?”

  “That’s a possibility. Or they are just lying low for now, that is also a possibility. But regardless of what we think, we stay put till the chief comes back.”

  “Where did he go, do you know?”

  “Naah, he just said something about priorities. But he said he would be back on Monday. Can’t be to soon for me.”

  Hand in hand Jake escorted Annie down the steps of the Elkton, Maryland City Hall. He put his arm around her going down the last step.

  “Mrs. Guiliani, I can’t believe that is my name. Mrs. Annie Guiliani it does have a ring.” As though reminded she looked at her left hand and admired the large diamond Jake managed to purchase through contacts in the diamond center of Philadelphia. “I love my ring Jake, and I love you more.”

  Amused Jake squeezed her waist and pulled her closer to him. He helped her into the front seat of the Packard and headed for their wedding lunch by the seashore.

  He made reservations in the plush resort before leaving the precinct. He insisted on a table by the pool and cabana area. He topped it off with a bedroom by the sea. Lunch was waiting for them on the patio and the weather could not be more perfect.

  After checking in to their hotel and stashing their luggage they headed for their table by the pool. “Jake this is so beautiful, thank you.”

  “Would you like the soft shell crabs, that’s their specialty?” Jake asked perusing the menu.

  “Do you come here often, you seem very familiar with their specials.” Annie queried.