by Anna Burke
“A rental could answer both questions. Dad’s guys can find that out when they put a timeline together for what Libby’s been doing since Shannon disappeared. If she thought she was being followed, she might have felt safer driving a rental. Let's hope the lab learns something helpful about that rosary,” Frank said.
“Too bad we can’t get a report from whoever has had Libby under surveillance, huh? I’ll make sure the guys looking into the trouble at Mt. San Jacinto link up with Hernandez’ investigation into Donnelly’s disappearance. There’s not much time between the two incidents. It makes sense to coordinate their investigations.”
“That’s a great idea, Don. Okay, so back to your search of Carr’s house and office. What did you find?” The members of team two all looked at each other.
“You will love this, Jessica,” Don said, downing a little Peking duck spring roll, after dipping it in plum sauce. “There wasn’t much left to find. Someone got there before us.”
“Oh my God,” Laura gasped. “Does it look as though a tornado hit it, like my house did after Bedrossian’s guys finished with it?”
“No, Laura, if anything it’s likely to be cleaner and more orderly than when Carr was last there, except a lot of stuff is missing.”
“What does that mean, missing, as in a burglary?” Jessica asked.
“In all my years as an investigator, Jessica, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jerry said, with what might have been a note of awe in his voice. “There’s no food in the fridge or the cupboards, no garbage, no mail, bills, files—drawers in his house and office emptied of their contents. Glassware, silverware, dishes, all gone, his clothes closet cleaned out. The linen closet and cupboards, too, even the beds stripped down to the mattress. Nothing's slashed or broken, like at your house, Laura. This looks more like a crime scene cleanup crew went through there. Except that instead of taking out the stuff trashed by intruders, they took everything.” Jerry stopped talking and Don picked up the story.
“They left the furniture, but had moved it around to clean the area beneath the furniture. We found the office in the same condition. Desks in the reception area and Carr’s office are empty, the file cabinets too. All the book shelves cleared out and wiped clean. The cushions on the couches and chairs, like at Carr’s house, must have been vacuumed. There’s not a crumb, a coin, or a stray hair under those cushions.” Don took a sip, shaking his head.
“Furniture is still there, but the electronics in the office and home are gone—no computers, phone, DVR, tape recorders or answering machines. Carr's big flat screen television is still in his house, and his stereo equipment, but no communication devices of any kind. It’s as though Carr had packed up all of his personal possessions to move out and cleaned it, top to bottom. There’s a faint odor of cleaning products,” Don added. “Even the drains were cleaned and closed up to contain the smell of strong disinfectants used in them.”
“I wish they had left a business card, it sounds like they do a better job than the crew I use in Rancho Mirage,” Bernadette said, her eyes glittering with interest. “So what’s the big idea?”
“The big idea is to sanitize the place, Bernadette,” Peter said. “That’s a ‘fixer’ job, not the stuff we do at our shop. Not that we haven’t been asked to do it, a time or two.” Both Frank and Don were scrutinizing the man. “Hey, I said we don’t do that kind of work. It could have been a crime scene cleanup crew, but I’m guessing this was the work of a more private enterprise.”
“Okay, so what are you saying?” Frank asked.
“Someone has attempted to remove any evidence Carr, wittingly or unwittingly, left behind. Small moveable items that might have stray finger prints on them are gone. So are his clothes and anything else that might have had traces from Shannon Donnelly or Libby Van Der Woert—supposing the hookups with both women took place at his house,” Peter replied.
“Well, at least some of those trysts occurred at the doctor’s house and office—if Libby’s archive of precious moments is to be believed. So what? Isn’t that overkill to go to so much trouble to cover for a dead guy? Even if Shannon Donnelly is dead, and Carr's responsible, why not let the cops get all the evidence they need to peg him for it?” Jessica asked.
“Let’s not forget you have his car. The police must have his clothes and other items he had with him at the hotel. Any laptop, cell phone or tablet with him is more likely to have more personal communications on it than anything at his office,” Laura added.
“Well, this all goes back to Jessica’s notion about a conspiracy. Carr’s silent partner is trying to make it hard to find a connection to him. No rolodex, no record of referrals or client records, like you wanted us to look for, Jessica. There may have been other clients mixed up in the scam he had working with Libby and Shannon. Otherwise, why take all the files, rather than just Libby and Shannon’s? That cleanup made sure whatever information Carr had squirreled away in his file cabinets, or on the hard drive in his office computer, went away before the police could subpoena his files and go through them. He had wall safes in both places and those were opened and emptied, too,” Don said.
“I suppose if that partner of his had ever met with Carr at his home or office, the super cleaning would make sure, too, that there were no stray prints or trace linking that ‘red devil’ to Carr,” Jessica added.
“I said conspiracy, Jessica, nothing about a red devil,” Don retorted.
“Don’t be silly, Don, Jessica’s knows it’s not a red devil. They don’t leave fingerprints,” Bernadette said.
“Wouldn’t someone have seen something like that happening?” Tommy asked. “I’ve helped a lot of friends move. Packing and hauling all Carr’s stuff away like that would have required a van or a truck, even though they left most of the furniture behind. It would have taken hours to do that. If they were making sure Carr didn’t have secrets hidden away, why not slash the furniture and the mattresses like those guys did at Laura’s house?”
“In response to your question about being observed, the local police are looking into it. If businesses in the area around the office have security cameras, they might have gotten a look at the vehicle parked at the curb or in the alleyway behind the doc’s office. I’ve passed that info along to the guys investigating the incident, in our jurisdiction, at the tramway. There are cameras in the hallways outside the doctor’s office, so we might get pictures of them entering and exiting Carr’s office,” Don said.
“That’s not likely to get you much. These are pros—my guess is you won’t get a good look at them or their vehicle. If you do, it won’t have much in the way of identifying information anyway. Most likely an unmarked truck or van, stolen license tags...” Frank and Don were eyeing Peter with cop-like suspicion, again.
“Sounds like you’re familiar with the M.O.”
“I’m familiar with such an operation, yes.” Peter paused, reflective; perhaps his roots in black ops were calling him back in time. “In answer to your question, Tommy, they could have had a portable x-ray machine. That can be used to check for items hidden in furniture and other places, so no need to slash and smash everything. It's a much easier way to search for hiding places.”
“Speaking of hiding places, that is a perfect lead-in to what we found in that otherwise squeaky clean office. Kim found it,” Don announced, after another penetrating look at Peter.
“What can I say? I worked for a sleaze bag with about a million hiding places, and I like to think I found them all while enslaved by the man. Think of me as that x-ray machine on two legs, Peter.” Kim had made the rounds at Carr’s home and office, looking for hidden panels and loose bits of carpet and baseboards, in cupboards and drawers, even the closets. “The guys were thorough. You could tell they had checked the vents and light fixtures, toilet tanks, the attic—hiding places like that. It was pretty frustrating. Nothing taped to the underside of tables, desk, bed, file cabinets, or the backs of moveable shelves. I was about to give up, but when I pulled
out the desk drawers, I found it—a packet of black and white photos. Not in the drawers, but way in the back of one of the drawers. Maybe hidden on purpose or accidentally shoved back and kind of stuck there. Like when you have a drawer that’s crammed full and stuff sort of spills over and falls down in behind the drawers.” Kim let everyone know she had finished talking by shrugging her shoulders, dropping her eyes, and resuming her lunch.
“The originals are bagged, tagged and stowed in the evidence chest, but I shot photos for us,” Jerry passed his camera to Jessica. Jessica held it with the fingers from both hands, even with the arm in its sling, held to her chest.
“Can you tell me what I’m looking at?” she asked, staring at the picture of a man in profile. There was something familiar about him. Maybe it was just that his type was a recognizable one. A well-coiffured man, in an expensive tailored suit, sporting a high end watch on the arm outstretched to open the door he was about to enter.
“It’s some guy about to go into Dr. Carr’s office,” Tommy explained. “That corridor could use some updating... chez nineties, don’t you think? For what he’s paying, he deserves better... was paying... deserved... okay, he’s dead, I’m done.”
“There’s more—if you advance to the next picture in the file. That one was taken first, since you can see him head on.” Jessica did as instructed. The man in the hallway, approaching the door to Dr. Carr’s office looked almost straight into the camera. That odd sense of familiarity was stronger. A third picture showed him from the back, leaving with Carr and a young woman. “The time stamp on the photo says that third one was taken about twenty minutes later, Jessica.”
“Wow, he seems so familiar to me. Do you think he is a celebrity?” Jessica asked.
“Let me see, Jessica. If he’s a celebrity, I bet I can tell you who it is.” Bernadette flipped between the photos, peering at them. “No, I don’t think he’s a celebrity. He’s not anyone I’ve seen in my magazines or on my shows.”
“Bernadette’s always up on things like that, Uncle Don,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, Tommy’s right. If she doesn’t recognize him, we can rule out the Hollywood crowd,” Laura added, with great conviction, as she took a turn examining the photos. “The man leaving with him has to be Carr, but who’s the woman?”
“It’s hard to say who she is, from the back. Expensive suit, stylish—those little asymmetric twisty shoes she’s wearing are Prada. Her wardrobe is too office chic, and she’s a blond, so, it's not Libby or Shannon.”
“Another woman, imagine that," Kim muttered, looking at those photos. “With guys like Carr, there are always more women.”
“So what do we make of it?” Jessica asked, that sense of recognition nagging at her—like one of those moments when an elusive word is right on the tip of your tongue.
“Carr must have had some reason to keep them. It’s clear they’re from the security camera footage, not just because they’re black and white, but because of the angle from which they’re shot, and that grainy look. It could be a client about to enter the doctor’s office, but twenty minutes is a short session. A little odd for the doctor to be leaving with two clients, but what do I know—maybe couples therapy? Then why would Carr have gone to the trouble to get the photos in the first place, and why stash them away like that?” Don asked.
“The high-end clothing is too steep for the visitors to be pharmaceutical reps, but they could be business associates, rather than clients. I suppose if their business was the underhanded kind, Carr might have had blackmail in mind with those photos, you think?”
“Could be, Jessica, but by themselves those photos are useless to us at this point. We can speculate all we want, but that’s not evidence. We’ll get them on the record though,” Frank said.
“Hard to believe the crew that went through there missed them. Good work, Kim.” Kim popped her head up and looked at Jessica, as a smile flitted across her face.
“Can you send me a copy, Jerry? I can’t help thinking I’ve seen the guy somewhere before. Maybe if I stare at the photos long enough, I'll remember.”
“No problem Jessica. I’ll do it right now.” Seconds later, a pinging signaled their arrival on her cell phone.
“Don, it’s been almost a week since Carr took that fall off the mountain. Did the police get a look at his home and office already?”
“Yes, Jessica, they went through both places in a cursory way. They did a quick sweep looking for a suicide note, just in case that’s what he was planning. They checked recording machines at his home and office to see if Libby left any message suggesting they meet, but there was nothing from her. They checked his calendars and appointment books, called his answering service, too. It’s not like they had a reason to check things out as they might have done if either place was a crime scene. Preliminary checks at the house and office were part of their efforts to produce a timeline, clarifying Dr. Carr’s whereabouts prior to his appearance at the top of the tram.”
“Okay, so what did you find out?”
“Well, as far as we can tell, Carr was already out in the desert for the weekend before he made that trip up on the tramway. He visits on a regular basis and even has a favorite suite he books at one of the casino hotels. That’s where he was staying the day he was killed. The homicide unit went over that room carefully. I don’t know what all got checked into evidence, but I can find out. From interviews with hotel staff, Carr was a well-known womanizer and often had one with him. Investigators showed pictures of Shannon Donnelly and Libby Van Der Woert to hotel staff. They recognized both of them, though nobody could say when they were last seen with Carr.”
“So what about phone calls? Libby acted surprised to see him, but did she invite him to meet her at the top of the tram?”
“His cell phone records show several calls that day—the last one at about 12:30, but it wasn’t Libby,” Don said.
“Who did call him?" Jerry asked.
“This will add to the conspiracy theory—the number tracked to an unregistered phone. He had received several calls from the same number in the previous month,” Don replied.
“Cool, a burner phone,” Brien said. “Someone could have been following her, so she wasn't totally paranoid. I mean, what if that's who called and snitched to Carr about where she was?”
“Brien, very good. You may have a future in security,” Peter commented.
“Yes, that would explain how Carr ended up there a while later. I met Libby around noon and we started down that trail not long after that. If someone spotted the two of us together, that could have prompted a call to Carr. If someone told Carr that Libby and I were up at the tramway together it could have set him off, thinking it was a secret meeting. That could have confirmed his suspicions about me, since he was already convinced I had inordinate influence over her. I guess it takes Libby off the hook for premeditated murder if she didn't lure Carr up there.”
“Maybe, but this whole thing with Libby, Shannon and Carr still has the markings of a classic love triangle, doesn’t it? It might explain why the two women fought that night after a movie and dinner, and why they both called Carr that night. Could be they were fighting over him. So Libby's not out of the picture yet, when it comes to Shannon's disappearance. If she went off the deep end and eliminated her rival, that would have been a reason for Carr to keep her on a short leash. If he went to the police about Libby, his own extortion racket might have been exposed. He didn't want any of that to get to you, Jessica, so he might have decided the way out was to get rid of both of you up there last week.”
“I hear you Frank. This feels like we're on a merry-go-round. All of that implicates Libby and Carr in a twisted way that I can understand, but it doesn't explain why someone wants Libby dead or would go to the trouble to clean up after a dead man. Why not let the police find whatever there is to find and let Carr take the fall for an extortion racket and the death of one of his women friends?”
“Unless Carr's partner is as paranoid as
he and Libby both were. This is such a strange combination of the stupidly impulsive and the maniacally conniving, maybe Dr. Dick and Libby were both loose cannons and the missing link is the guy with deep pockets calling the shots,” Frank said.
“Yes, I agree with you that the person responsible for the stupidly impulsive part of that equation is lying in the ICU, or maybe in the morgue,” Jessica said. “Carr made it sound like he was the one who decided it was time to toss me and Libby off the cliff, like he was taking out the garbage. That had to be opportunistic, given that Libby’s impulse instigated our meeting.”
“If he was trying to clean up after himself, he sure ended up creating a bigger mess,” Peter offered.
“That’s what stupidly impulsive gets you,” Don said.
“So far, the maniacally conniving efforts have been little better. The thug sent after Libby screwed up, too, and a sniper had to clean that mess up, but got caught on film doing it. The sanitizing strategy will slow the police investigation down, but it won’t end it. In fact, the cleanup efforts scream conspiracy, don’t they? More mess!” Jessica shook her head.
“Yeah, just like the Cat in the Hat,” Brien observed. There was a moment of puzzled silence as all turned to him. “You know how the cat sends Thing One out to clean up, and ends up making a bigger mess, so he sends out Thing Two, and cleaning up makes that mess bigger too?”
“Okay, great. Forget Libby’s red devil idea. What we’re looking for is the Cat in the Hat,” Frank noted with sarcasm
“Actually, Brien makes a good point. I’m sure the guy who’s ordering hits and sanitizing things thinks he’s smart. Maybe he is. We don’t know how far he’s gotten with whatever scheme he had going with Carr. Still, anybody who sees whacking somebody as a cleanup strategy has got to be ‘out there’, if you know what I mean? I’m guessing he's improvising too, under pressure. Whoever made those calls to the pros put them in a tough spot—demanding quick intervention without advance notice, or time to plan. That’s what led to mistakes at the ICU and at Carr’s office,” Peter offered.