The Cult of the White Owl

by Barbara Lefka

  “How did he know? Murphy asked. “After all it wasn’t his camera club, how did he get involved? I am sure his wife kept mum. So how did he know to turn a camera club into a murder/blackmail cult amassing beau coupe bucks besides?”

  “Where is the bird, where would he keep the owl? That is a big bird.” Jake asked, lighting a cigarette.

  Murphy shrugged his shoulders in answer to Jake’s questions, leaning over to get a light for his Camel cigarette.

  “Besides that Chief, Joe Carter is Mr. Clean, nose to the grindstone type of guy. How could someone like that with a sober, hard working, personality organize a murder cult? I don’t buy it. We have to check other men closer to a serial killer mentality.” Murphy took a drag and inhaled deeply. “The mayor would make a better suspect. His Army career, the kind of macho man he is, he has killed in the service and is familiar with death and his wife was in that camera club up to her eyebrows and she knew both Alain and Natalie.” Murphy had yet to tell Jake about his conversation with Priscilla at length, he was wondering if he should write it up, acting on experience he elected to tell what he learned.

  “Chief one more thing, Priscilla told me that Alain had a winter retreat in the Pocono’s because it made him less home sick for Russia being surrounded by mountains and snow. It would be to our advantage to head up there and scope out the area. He might be hiding out in that locale. What do you think? He could be a great witness for the prosecution. He would know the identity of the White Owl more than anyone.”

  “You know Murphy it just might be to our advantage to send a detail to the mountains and ask around if anyone recognizes the picture of Alain. He would be hard to miss in that mountain community, tall, dark and very good looking. I bet we can nab him. I will go along with your suggestion, but it has to be just you. The precinct seems to be on the White Owl’s payroll. I can’t get away at this time, because of Annie and my new circumstances, so I am leaving it up to you. Do not tell anyone, not even your wife.

  “Whoa up Chief, I can’t afford to worry her, she is pregnant and me disappearing into the unknown would drive her crazy. I have to tell her Chief, if not that particular story something else. Maybe I can take her with me, a sort of long over due vacation?” He looked at Jake for a reaction.

  “No way buddy, no wives, you can tell her you are going to Harrisburg to alert the assistant governor and his wife. The danger they both are in is still real, maybe you might make a stop there, no I need you back here as soon as possible. I am not even going to alert the state troopers as to our plans this is strictly sotto voce.” Jake reluctantly shook Murphy’s hand and told him to get going and wished him luck. “Call me at home every night you are gone, do not forget to check in.” They shook hands again and Murphy left the office his head spinning.

  Is this an opportunity or what? To be with Crystal for a weekend. To sleep with her, have breakfast with her, and have her waiting when I get back to the motel at night, do I dare? If Jake finds out my job is history, my pension, everything, gone. What about Gerda and the baby, gone too? Wow, this is too much for me. The flesh is weak, my flesh is weak, I want her so bad,

  Murphy went to the nearest pay phone and dialed her number, “Babe can you pack a bag and join me in Harrisburg for the week-end? I know you work; can’t you call in sick? This is an impossible opportunity, maybe never to be repeated.? Then forget it, of course I’m not mad just disappointed. I could get home earlier than planned and be with you overnight, you said you wanted that.” Murphy shifted gears. trying to glean something from her refusal to spend the week-end. “Yeah sure I understand. No I won’t spring anything on you again. I realize I’m not the only one with commitments. See you when I get back. Yeah you too.” He hung up despondent and out of sorts.

  “God what a fool I am. I have no business going near her.” He pulled his hat down over his eyes and got behind the wheel of his car. He put the car in gear and burned rubber out of there, heading for the interstate, the Poconos, and Kosonov.

  Crystal thoughtfully hung up the phone a little sick to her stomach that she had to let him go. But orders from headquarters, ‘He who has the gold makes the rules. Her forever man was now history he would never get over her refusal to be with him. She would never get over not being with him.

  The White Owl was furious when she told him about Murphy and their affair. “No, no absolutely not. Not in the plan. You have to stick to Guiliani like glue. How are you going to do that when you are having an affair with his subordinate? I am not paying you for a stand in.” He had grabbed her arm and twisted hard. “Do you get It? Stick with the plan.”

  The plan to her mind was ridiculous. Jake was a newly wed. What little she knew of him would be out of character for Jake to cheat on his bride for a cheap thrill with her. If anyone was history it was Jake. It still made sense to keep Murphy as a back-up. He had just imparted secret info that he was going to Harrisburg. Why?

  She said nothing to the White Owl about Murphy’s plans, after all as he said that’s not what he is paying for, so screw him.

  CHAPTER 22

  “Chief I think I solved the mystery of how the women were transported and killed.” Dr. Smith exclaimed excitedly over the phone to Jake.

  “Don’t hold back, let’s have it.”

  “I need you here in my lab to show and explain everything to you. Can you come by?”

  “Give me about an hour, I’ll see you then.” Jake hung up and left his office to look for Burnsey. Now where is that guy? Jake mused to himself,” I just saw him at the morning squad meeting. There he is, I might have known in the hall by the snack machine, Burnsey get the car.”

  The car pulled up in front of the coroner’s office and Jake got out.

  “Meet me inside after you park the car. I want you to hear what the Doc has to say as a witness and to take notes.”

  “Right Chief, be right with ya.”

  The coroner had everything laid out on the table, a white powder substance, some plastic tubing, two stainless steel containers, a hypodermic needle, a bottle of clear water, but no drinking glass.

  “That’s quite an array you have Doc, tell me about it.” Jake asked moving closer to the table. Burnsey came in and stood by Jake notebook in hand.

  “First off the ladies had a small amount of Scopolamine (the Devil’s Breath) blown in their face.” Doctor Smith said picking up the white powder.

  “This powder would render them tipsy and vulnerable to suggestion, but they would be happy, no matter what was asked of them. The drug actually makes you gleeful.

  Second while they were easy to control, they were brought to the stage set for their murder. All of this would be determined before hand.

  Third they would have to be more than just malleable, their limbs and demeanor would have to be stoic, as though they were motionless dummies. This was achieved by diluting the Scopolamine with clear water and injecting it into their bloodstream.

  Remember Stuart discovered the greenish tinge under Caterina’s armpit.” He stopped, to take a breath and watched the men nod their heads, though not taking their eyes off the table.

  “You remember also that at every murder scene Tony McCane was there setting up a shoot or trying clothes on mannequins. The mannequins are the key. The victims became one of the mannequins and were manipulated as such. At every venue that Tony McCane shot a commercial, mannequins were used. The real models and the crew never suspected that some of the mannequins were alive. They never handled them. Tony, Alain, or one of the cult took care of that job. They were dressed, arranged and staged, then the coupe de gras, they were killed. How were they finally killed? By carbon monoxide poisoning. Why not more Devil’s Breathe, because it was not stable enough and the dosage had to be precise or they might survive. No, the carbon monoxide was a sure killer.

  Which brings us to the fourth items on the table, the stainless steel containers and the tubing
. I figured that the carbon monoxide gas could be contained in stainless steel bottles and the tubing could be attached and implanted into the bottles and then easily inserted down the victim’s throat and the gas pumped into the lungs manually by compressing an attachment on the tube. DEATH WITHIN MINUTES.

  Jake backed away from the table astounded at the neatness of the solution. Burnsey followed, mouth open.

  “Bravo Doc, impressive. That ties it up with Tony McCane, this evidence will hang him.” Jake looked at Burnsey who was asking whether or not they should notify the husbands as to cause of death.

  “That is an emphatic no. I don’t want anyone to know how close we are coming to solving the case.”

  “But Chief, how does this help solve the case. McCane is in a coma and Caterina and Daphne, are dead. The killing of the D.A. is solved. the murderer’s body is still here in the morgue, so that case is solved. So how are we going to put all this evidence together and find who, why and how.” Detective Burns stood there scratching his head, brow furrowed, looking at his notes.

  “Burnsey I am so glad you are questioning, but I can not be sure who is the manipulator, the prime suspect, the person pulling the strings, the White Owl.

  Until I am on his trail I want to play our cards close to the chest, so to speak. There are paid spies in the department and who knows how high up we are infiltrated. So as of now all this stays between us, got that?”

  They both nodded agreement and Smith started clearing the table putting everything in a clear plastic box and stashing it in the locker marked The White Owl. The white dresses and accessories were there, the police uniform of Davis was stored there, along with the pearl medallions and the scrap of fabric off of Carl’s shirt. All locked up tight for the Grand Jury and the Assistant D.A..

  Carl was being arraigned in court today and so far spilled nothing about his accomplice or the White Owl organization. So far, Jake thought. His mind racing as to his next step.

  Murphy was so agitated and upset he could not let it go. He did not know why he felt so foolish, but he did. All she said was she had to work, perfectly acceptable. Murphy felt it was a kiss off. So what if it was. It was inappropriate for him to have an affaire with her. He was married and she was no bowl of whipping cream by a long shot. So their love making was explosive, so what. That wasn’t love that was lust.

  “You know what I say, screw her.”

  “Gerda is home alone, pregnant, with the porch light on no doubt. I will never be unfaithful to her again,” Murphy swore to himself.

  “When I reach the motel in the Poconos I will ask Jake to have Annie check on her,” Murphy thought to himself. “Stop thinking, I am sure her parents are hovering. Here is my turn off, now the fun begins. Manhunt!”

  Murphy left Philadelphia without a reservation to the many resorts in and around the Pocono mountains. He wanted to get the lay of land first. He had to figure out the nearest to his quarry. Where would he go? Murphy tried to get into the mind set of the suspected killer, far from home, perhaps homesick, maybe really feeling sick. Anemic, run down, his sins catching up with him, alone, (that word again) Hmmm, where? Just then he spotted a billboard advertising Camelback Mountain Resort, the tallest mountain in the Poconos, 2707 and some feet. That geographical area should remind a Russian of his homeland. Skiing, rafting, hiking etc. that sounds like it’s a match,

  The Delaware River runs from Canada southward to the Hudson River in New York state area and the Lenape Indians whose land once were the size of present day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania could not defend themselves or the land, no weapons. So the Lenape Indians were pushed out by the expanding English colonials, the Iroquois and the Susquehannocks. Their name was changed to the Delaware Indians. The tribe eventually left the area and moved to the barren lands of southern Ohio. But a lot of old Indian names remained to add to the picturesque flavor of the Poconos which is Indian for, “A Stream Between Mountains.”

  He checked his road map and found a motel on the edge of a small town at the base of Camelback and by the river. There were fish in the river, it was relatively clean this far north away from big city pollution, if he got lucky he could perhaps cast a line. The desk advertised fishing gear for rent. Murphy checked in, got his key and prepared for his search.

  Murphy was impressed by the beauty of the area and could see Alain’s associating the mountain, terrain and river with Russia.

  Something powerful must have made him come to the states and get mixed up in serial killings, blackmail, and seduction, Murphy thought as he looked for an out of the way cabin near the mountain and close to the stream. His first day on the job was a waste. The houses or cabins were secluded and had no road access. There were no plumes of smoke visible in the dark moonlit sky, drifting in the wind from active fireplaces. In fact, no signs of life at all. Wrong season??

  Was he wrong in his assessment of the situation? God knows it was a needle in a haystack any way. He had no choice, if he went back to Philadelphia without Alain many more deaths could follow. The mayhem and murder would continue. Greed was a powerful force.

  A gas station, bar-restaurant, general store and one simple church comprised the extant of the town clumped on the edge of the highway by the motel where Murphy was staying. His stomach rumbling, he decided to try Rosie’s bar and grill to assuage the hunger pains and maybe get lucky and someone would recognize the picture he had in his shirt pocket.

  As he ambled into the bar the restaurant conversation stopped, most of the patrons checking out the stranger in the room. Murphy raised his hand and walked over to an empty seat at the bar.

  “Whisky, water on the side and can I get something to eat as well?”

  The young girl bartender poured a shot of Seagram’s in a shot glass for him before she answered.

  “Meatloaf and mash potatoes are on the menu tonight. We also have corn chowder soup but I wouldn’t recommend it.” she said conspiratorially.

  “The meatloaf sounds great, any gravy?”

  “Of course.” she flounced away to get his order from the kitchen.

  He wolfed down the food forgetting how long it had been since last he ate, he drank the whiskey and it burned down his throat and landed in a comforting spot in the pit of his stomach. He asked for coffee, black no sugar and lit a Lucky Strike cigarette with a satisfying inhale.

  The waitress was hovering over the detective and recommended the apple pie, “world famous” she said with a flirty smile.

  “No thanks hon, just a check and by the way, have you seen this man hereabouts?”

  She glanced at the photo Murphy was holding out for her and as she looked at it for a second, ready to say no, she stopped in mid-sentence took the picture from Murphy for a closer look.

  “Yeah, I think he is staying here. Well, he has been here a few weeks that I know of. If he isn’t staying exactly here at the Motel, he must live around here. He is too attractive to miss. Though he has a beard and looks kind of rough, not exactly like that picture but yes that’s him.” She handed Murphy back his picture with a big smile happy to help.

  “Has he been in tonight?” Murphy asked putting the picture away in his pocket.

  “No he usually comes in just as we are closing, but he is a good tipper so we stay open. He says he doesn’t like crowds.” She laughed, “Crowds. Hah.”

  “Say what is your name? I ‘m going to be here for awhile, my name is Murphy.” And he held out his hand.

  “Sara.” Geez, she thought the scenery is picking up, and held onto his hand.

  “Nice to know you, I think I’ll have a slice of that pie after all. But I will move to the booth by the door, okay? Another cup of coffee, please. Thanks.”

  “Would you like me to join you?” Not waiting for an answer she slid into the booth across from him, bringing a cup of coffee for herself as well as his pie.

  “Is this not cozy
for a slow night in spring.” She smiled.

  “It sure is Sara, I will have to bring my wife here to enjoy it with me. Say this pie is tasty.”

  “Excuse me I have to clean up, it is nearly closing time.” Sara scuttled toward the kitchen. “Married, figures.” She waved good-bye to the few stragglers that were leaving. They all gave Murphy a curious glance.

  The chimes on the front door pealed melodiously, interrupting her retreat and in walked a tall man, well over six feet, around hundred and eighty pounds, a dark complicated man with a full beard that did not hide the surly twist to his amazing face. A face that could portray Jesus Christ or the Devil, prince of darkness, depending on the circumstance.

  He nodded to the waitress, who hurried forward to take his order, and then he glanced over at Murphy sitting in the booth eating his apple pie and taking a sip from his coffee cup his eyes hidden.

  Alain swept the room with his slate grey eyes taking in the fact that Murphy ignored him and did not even look up. He felt safe enough to make his way to the counter and sit down comfortably on a bar stool. Tossing the menu aside he asked for the special and coffee

  Murphy called for his check and left the restaurant without so much as a glance at Alain sitting at the counter his back to the door.

  Do I wait and follow him or do I grab him when he leaves the restaurant? Murphy was in a quandary as what to do. He could not believe his luck. He deduced correctly that Alain would gravitate to the tallest mountain to purchase a hide-a-way, being homesick for his mother Russia, and it paid off in spades. Murphy had a good view of the inside of the restaurant and his suspect, he could see the waitress speaking with him. Would she tell him he inquired about him and had a picture?

  “I should have nabbed him right then and there, what if he goes out the back door?” Murphy said out loud in distress afraid of blowing the whole operation. “Should I go back in? It might become a hostage situation if I go back in, it ‘s safer if I wait out here and pray she hasn’t mentioned me, another possibility, he might think I didn’t recognize him because of his beard.” Satisfied with his reasoning Murphy lit a cigarette and waited behind the wheel of his car.