by C. M. Sutter
“Yeah, sure.”
I entered the autopsy room and got instant goose bumps. It always seemed chilly in there to me. I saw Lena sitting at her desk in the office beyond the glass wall. She looked up when the door closed at my back.
“In here, Jade,” she called out. “Morning, what can I help you with?” She motioned for me to take a seat.
Two olive-green guest chairs faced her desk, and two faced Jason’s. She stopped writing and set the pen on the folder she had just closed. She removed her reading glasses and smiled as she set them down too.
“Morning, Lena. We’re going to be conducting face-to-face interviews today with podiatrists and dentists in the area. Actually Kyle suggested the dentists, which makes sense. Anyway, do you think we can get a decent face shot of our John Doe?”
She seemed to be mulling it over. “He was exposed to the heat and bugs for a while, Jade.”
“Is it doable, though? I mean could somebody still identify him if they knew the guy?”
“Possibly, but sometimes people are more focused on the injuries than they are on facial recognition. I’ll see what I can do to get a usable shot. Maybe I can diminish the injuries a little with Photoshop. I’ll take a few and bring them up in a bit. If not, we can have Marie do a sketch.”
“Thanks, Lena.” I pushed back the chair to leave.
“Sure, don’t mention it.”
A familiar sound caught my ear when I entered the bull pen. Jack was at the coffee station, stirring cream into two cups. He looked up when I entered.
“Good timing. Here, carry your own coffee.”
“Thanks, partner.” I noticed that Clayton and Billings had arrived. “Okay, guys, let’s get the day planned.” I sat at my desk and addressed the three men.
“Jack and I will take the dentists and possibly oral surgeons if we need to. Clayton, you and Billings take the podiatrists and the churches. It’s all we have to go on. Between the four of us, we could get this done today if we’re lucky.”
Clayton woke up his computer as I talked.
“Lena is going to try to get a few usable photos of our vic’s face. As soon as she brings them up, we can head out.”
With a few keystrokes, Clayton pulled up all the churches in Washburn County, and the addresses. He had already printed out the podiatrist information yesterday before we left for the night. With only four podiatrists in the county, that part wouldn’t take long.
“Holy cow.” Clayton leaned back in his chair and groaned.
“What?” Billings said.
“There are fifty-two religious organizations in Washburn County across nine towns.”
“Okay, you guys start in North Bend and go from there. Might as well start close to home. Let’s meet up at Toucan for lunch and go over our results. Jack and I will pitch in after we finish with the dentists and oral surgeons.”
Jack added, “Yeah, but I bet there are as many of them as there are churches.”
“Could be. Give me a second, guys.” I picked up my ringing phone. Lena was on the other end.
“Hey, Jade, I took four different facial shots. I’m going to bring them up for you guys to take a look, and then we can print the one you decide to use.”
“Thanks, Lena.” I hung up. “Okay, Lena is on her way up. We have to choose which photo will be the most representative of our victim. We don’t want to show people anything that’s too graphic.”
Lena entered through the bull pen door and sat in one of my guest chairs. She pulled the photos up on her tablet, and we crowded around her.
“Okay, you guys decide. I did the best I could with what I had to work with.”
I patted Lena’s shoulder in gratitude. We looked closely, and the consensus was the second picture. It showed the man’s features well enough without emphasizing his injuries.
“Do you all agree on number two?” I asked.
They nodded, and I gave Lena the go-ahead.
“We’ll need a half dozen copies for good measure.”
“Sure, coming right up. Anything else?”
“That should do it. Thanks, Lena.”
With the photos in hand, I told the lieutenant our intentions, and we left. I gave Billings and Clayton two photos, we took two, and I left the last two on my desk.
Chapter 12
“Stop that noise and give me five more minutes.” Alice turned the volume up on the television while Mariah nervously drummed her fingers on the kitchen table as she waited.
“Mama, please come and read this. A man named David wants to meet me tonight in the mall parking lot.”
“Hold your horses, young lady. There’s three minutes left before the show is over.”
Mandy scooted her chair in next to Mariah and read the email. “Are you nervous?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been around any man except Daddy.”
Alice shut off the TV and lifted herself from the rocker. With her reading glasses in place, she leaned over Mariah at the table and read the email. She twisted the ends of her hair as she read it again. “Move over. I’ll answer his question.” With her index fingers, Alice pressed one key at a time and sent off a response. “That should do it. Baby steps first. I told him to come and pick you up tonight.” She chuckled with pleasure. “Of course, he’s never leaving here once he arrives.” A glint of crazy sparkled in Alice’s eyes as she rubbed her hands together at a frenzied pace. She began scratching the scar on her left arm. “Let’s go straighten up the workshop. Mandy, fill up two buckets with hot soapy water. Mariah, get the rubber gloves and the broom and dustpan. I’ll get the garbage can and a bottle of bleach.”
They crossed the driveway, their arms loaded with cleaning supplies. Alice turned the key in the dead bolt lock. The smell of death overwhelmed them when they walked in. Mandy gagged.
Alice inhaled deeply. “Whew… smell that? That’s the smell of a cheater. Smells like rotting flesh and rust. Let’s get these windows open. Mandy, turn that fan on as high as it goes and make sure it’s oscillating.” Alice noticed a swarm of flies buzzing over the blue bucket next to the workbench. “Well, no wonder it stinks in here. Didn’t I tell you to toss this bucket of body parts back by the burning pile, Mariah?”
“Sorry, I forgot.”
Alice grabbed the handle and shoved the bucket into Mariah’s midsection. “Well, do it now, except you can take it back into the woods. Enjoy that smell and the flies on your way. Mandy, start scrubbing and make it look real pretty in here. We’re having a guest over tonight.”
Alice stood in the doorway and watched as Mandy ran out, threw up in the driveway, and then kicked gravel over the vomit. With the back of her hand, she wiped her mouth then went back inside.
“Give it some time, you’ll toughen up.” Alice grinned at her daughter and began sweeping the floor.
Chapter 13
We would begin the office-to-office interviews in town too. It made more sense to start from the center of the city where our John Doe was found and work our way out. After we printed the names and addresses, it turned out we had twice as many dentists in Washburn County as churches. It looked as though it might take several days to contact everyone, and Clayton and Billings were on their own, as Jack and I were.
We sat in the cruiser and looked over our listings and the red pinpoints on the city map.
“How do you want to tackle this?” I asked. I handed Jack the map.
“Let’s go from the closest office and work our way out. If we actually finish North Bend today, I’d be surprised.”
“Okay, City Dentistry is on Seventh and Walnut. That’s as good a starting place as any.”
The thermometer at the corner of Main and Washington Streets showed it was ninety-seven degrees, and the heat vapors that rose from the asphalt street proved it. Jack parked in the diagonal spot two buildings down from the dentist office. The office was in an older part of town, and trees shaded both sides of Seventh Avenue. At least the shade would prevent the car from becoming a
stifling hotbox a little longer. We entered the building that looked to be a converted house. As the retail and commercial parts of town had expanded over the years, the zoning changed too. Many of the older homes closer to Main Street were now zoned for both residential and commercial use.
“Oh, good, it looks like there are three dentists that use this building. That would be great if they were all this way,” I said.
Jack and I approached the reception desk. The waiting area was small, and there was no way to be discreet. We noticed a woman sitting alone and another with what looked to be a daughter in her early teens.
The woman behind the glass divider slid it to the right. “Hello. How can I help you?”
Apparently she was keen enough to realize that a professionally dressed man and woman walking up to the counter together weren’t likely patients checking in.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Sergeant Jade Monroe with the Washburn County Sheriff’s Department, and this is my partner, Detective Jack Steele. We need a minute of your time, privately.”
“Oh, certainly”—she pushed her roller chair back and stood—“right through the door to your left.”
Jack and I walked through the door where she waited on the other side.
“So, officers, how can I help?”
“Ma’am, are you the receptionist for all of the dentists here?”
“Yes, I am.” Her eyes darted back and forth between Jack and me.
“Okay, we’re going to show you a picture of a deceased person. Now, it’s only because this man wore dentures, and so far he hasn’t been identified. Nobody has reported him missing, either. Since we can’t go by dental records, we’re hoping somebody will recognize his face.”
She gave both of us a dubious look.
“If you aren’t comfortable with this, just say so. We’ll ask the dentists instead,” Jack said.
“No.” She paused for a moment and looked back toward the exam rooms. “I’d hate to interrupt them. Okay, go ahead and show me.”
Jack pulled the large, colored photo of our John Doe out of the folder he carried.
The receptionist took in a big gulp of air and let it out slowly. “May I?”
Jack handed her the picture.
She took a long minute staring at it in that back hallway. She carried it into her cubicle where the lighting was better, and we followed.
“I’m sorry, I can’t say that I recognize him. We do have over a hundred patients here, and if he wears dentures, who knows how long he’s had them. Once they’re fitted properly—”
Jack patted her shoulder. “That’s okay. We understand. Thanks for your time.”
We walked out and leaned against the stair railing to talk.
“I have a feeling this might take forever. We need to get John Doe’s face on the news. I’ll call the lieutenant and see what he wants to do.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Jack said.
I pulled out my cell as we walked toward the cruiser. “We can still pound the pavement, since there aren’t any leads anyway, but the news could speed up the process substantially.”
Jack clicked the key fob, and the door locks popped up. We climbed in, and I called the lieutenant as Jack drove to the next dentist office.
“Hey, boss, I’m thinking we need to get John Doe’s face on the news and we’ve had good luck with Marie’s sketches in the past. It’s your call if you think he looks too bad in the pictures. Jason has Marie’s contact information in his office. She’s usually pretty quick to get back to us.”
“Understood, and I’ll go talk to Jason. Meanwhile, keep at it. I’ll call you back as soon as I know something.”
By noon, and after speaking to four dentists, we still had nothing solid to go on. Nobody recognized our guy. I called Clayton and told him we were pulling into the parking lot of Toucan Grill. He said they were a few blocks away. Jack parked the cruiser, and we entered the building under the flamboyant yellow and pink awning. As much as I love the summer heat, the last week had been uncomfortably warm. So far, the hot, muggy day was zapping our energy reserves, and we still had plenty of interviews to go. Jack pulled the door open, and I instantly felt chilled when we stepped inside. The drastic change from the nearly one-hundred-degree outdoor temperature to the seventy-degree air-conditioned restaurant took some getting used to. I was thankful for my blazer after all.
We found an empty booth facing the street where we could watch for Billings and Clayton. The waitress brought us each a tall glass of ice water while we waited.
“We’ve got nothing. How about you?” Billings said as he and Clayton walked in and plunked down on the opposite side of the booth.
Clayton pulled a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and wiped his brow. “When is this heat wave going to let up?”
“Good question.” Jack waved the waitress over and told her we needed two more waters and two more menus.
“So far nobody recognizes our guy,” I said. “I spoke to the lieutenant and suggested getting John Doe’s picture or a drawing of him on the news. He’s going to let us know what he can do.”
“Thanks a lot,” Clayton said when the waitress brought each of them a glass of ice water. “Are you guys ready to order?”
“I am.” I looked at each face, and they nodded.
The waitress took our lunch orders, primarily burgers and fries, and left.
I pulled the vibrating phone out of my blazer pocket and looked at the screen. “It’s Clark.”
I motioned for Jack to give me his notepad and a pen in case I needed it. It was faster than digging in my purse. I swiped the screen and answered. “Hey, boss, what have you got?”
“Jade, here’s what’s going on. I’ve got Marie working on a sketch. She’ll be done in an hour or so. I’ve already spoken with the local news stations and had Lena write up a brief description of our vic. The stations can squeeze in a short segment on the ten o’clock news.”
“Not at six o’clock?”
“I guess not. They already have more pressing news to air on prime time with the wildfires up north. Go ahead and finish up your interviews. We’ll decide how to go forward tomorrow after the segment airs.”
“Got it. We’ll head back in at five o’clock. All of the businesses will be shutting down by then, anyway.”
“Good enough. Stay cool.”
I hung up and slid Jack’s notepad back to him. “Thanks, didn’t need it after all. Marie is working on a sketch, but the news can’t air the segment until ten o’clock. For now, Clark wants us to continue the interviews.”
Chapter 14
Alice wiped her hands on her jeans and gave the workshop an approving nod. “It’s nice and clean. Your daddy would be proud.”
“It’s just going to get messy again later.” Mandy crossed her arms in what appeared to be defiant disgust.
“Don’t give me attitude, young lady. Yes, the workshop will get messy, but it’s the price we have to pay for doing God’s work, and hard work never killed anybody.” Alice chuckled at the thought.
“But we will,” Mariah said as she joined in with the laughter.
Mandy huffed. “There’s something wrong with you two.”
Alice grabbed Mandy by the hair and pulled her close. Mandy squealed in pain as her mother snarled in her ear. “You’ll do as you’re told, understand?”
Mandy nodded.
“Say it out loud.”
“Yes, Mama, I understand.”
“Good. Now let’s get these buckets and cleaning supplies put away.” Alice looked at the watch on her left arm. “It’s time for you to pretty up, Mariah. You have a date in two hours. We’ll go over everything again before David gets here.”
Later, as the sun fell lower in the sky and the shadow of the large ash tree near the window darkened the living room, Alice turned on the lights. She knew the time was getting near as she glanced at the clock on the paneled wall. Breaking news about the out-of-control wildfires fifty miles to their north interrupted her f
avorite game show. She turned off the TV.
“Mariah, get down here. It’s time to go over the plan.”
Alice heard the dress shoes tap as Mariah descended each wooden step. She and Mandy waited at the table for the grand entrance.
“Well, my, my, my—aren’t you the pretty one? Don’t you think your sister looks pretty, Mandy?”
Mariah grinned and swirled in the kitchen. “I feel beautiful, Mama. Thank you for the new dress.”
“Don’t get it dirty. You’re going to be sharing that dress with your sister, you know. What do you think, Mandy? You can look this pretty too when it’s your turn.”
Mandy hung her head and stared at the floor. “Maybe.”
“There’s no maybes in this house. You’re taking your turn. This is a family, and we’re all going to work together. Okay, now listen up, Mariah. When David pulls in the driveway, you’ll go outside and introduce yourself. You’ll say you live here with your twin sister. Men are intrigued by twins, especially pretty ones like you two.”
“Then what?” Mariah chewed on her cuticles. She was excited and nervous at the same time.
“Then, you tell him you have to say good night to your sister. You invite him to come with you so you can introduce him. You’ll say Mandy is designing wall art in the workshop. Lead him inside, and I’ll take care of the rest. Easy as pie.”
“He’s going to be here soon, Mama. Shouldn’t we get in place?” Mariah asked.
Alice stood and kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Do exactly as I said. Don’t deviate from the plan and don’t disappoint me. Come on, Mandy. Let’s go take our places.”
Mandy followed her mother out of the house. Alice turned and looked back from the driveway. Mariah was watching them from the living room window. They entered the workshop, turned on the light, and closed the door.
“Listen, I hear a car coming.” Alice turned the wand on the blinds slightly. She caught a glimpse of headlights bouncing up the driveway. “It’s him. Mandy, grab a piece of your daddy’s art and sit at the workbench with it.”