by Irving Munro
Bill made the call and within fifteen minutes, Stephanie Lake entered the room like a defense attorney about to rescue her client. She carried a laptop in one hand, a designer handbag in the other and wore a dark two-piece business suit over a pink blouse. Tommy couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
“How can I be of assistance to you, boys?” she said in a sultry southern drawl. Tommy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“This is Detective Ross,” said Bill Larkin. “The Travis County police are reopening the case of the dead woman found in Jim McCord’s back yard back in 2005.”
Tommy wanted to stand up and shake her hand but thought the better of it.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Lake,” said Tommy. He hoped his face didn’t reveal his acute embarrassment.
“It’s Mrs., but you can call me Steph,” said Stephanie Lake, basking in the knowledge that she had succeeded in making the young officer feel uncomfortable. “Yes, I remember that awful event! How can we help, Detective Ross? What is it you would like to know?”
Her southern drawl was intoxicating. Regaining his composure, Tommy outlined what he needed to know.
“One of your homeowners reported seeing a dark colored Ford Explorer with Alabama plates in the neighborhood the night before the dead woman’s body was discovered. We wondered if Riverside had rules regarding overnight parking of vehicles in driveways without a parking sticker. In particular, a vehicle with out of state plates. Do you have such a rule?”
“Yes, we do!” said Bill and Steph simultaneously and almost in harmony.
“And we enforce it diligently,” said Steph. “Our management company has people drive around the neighborhood between midnight and 4:00 AM a couple of times a month to note any violators.”
Tommy fought back the stirring in his groin and said, “I know it’s a long shot but do you keep records on violators going back to 2005 and could there have been an inspection carried out the night in question?”
“The answer to your first question is yes; we have records that go back to when the neighborhood was first formed,” said Steph proudly. “The answer to your second question is I don’t know but let’s see.”
Stephanie Lake opened up her laptop and smiled invitingly at Tommy while she waited for it to boot.
“Here we are,” said Stephanie, opening an Excel spreadsheet. “What date in 2005?”
“The body was discovered Thursday, September 15, so it would have been the previous night, September 14” said Tommy.
“Well, you are in luck, Detective Ross, there was indeed a patrol that night. And let me see, there were 107 violations. We record vehicle make, color, registration, address and name of the property owner. We issue a warning if it’s a first offence, but we fine the habitual offenders. That night, there were six fines imposed and posted on the door of the owner, so let’s look at those first, shall we?” said Steph, deliberately taking her time to reinforce her administrative efficiency.
“Wow, here it is!” Steph was shocked and surprised that she had actually found this needle in a haystack.
Tommy’s jaw almost hit the floor. This was potentially the major breakthrough they had been hoping for. His voice was actually quivering when he asked “What house?”
For maximum effect, Stephanie Lake read the entire record.
“Grey Ford Explorer, Alabama License plate KAA 20C, driveway of 2014 Braker Lane, home of Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Cohen!”
“Bingo!” exclaimed Tommy.
“She paid the fine the following morning” said Steph with surprise.
“I’ll bet she did!” said Tommy.
Tommy thanked Bill Larkin and Stephanie Lake and asked that they keep the conversation confidential. They agreed. Tommy was walking on air as he entered the cruiser and grabbed the radio to call Marie. He hoped that she had not yet tracked down Dawn Cohen.
“Marie, have you tracked down Dawn Cohen yet?”
“No, not yet Tommy, why?”
“I just finished up with The HOA and they confirmed that the Explorer was in the Cohen driveway that night!”
“Outstanding Tommy!” exclaimed Marie. “We can go right at her now on her relationship with McCord. That’s great news Tommy.”
After he the call with Marie, Tommy called Jack Johnson.
“Great news Tommy. I just hung up with Jim McCord and arranged to meet him tonight. I’ll call him back and postpone that meeting until we have more information on his Dawn Cohen relationship. Good work Tommy,” said Jack.
Chapter 19 - Sindhur Wadawadagi
2014 - The Cold Case Investigation
That evening, they all sat together in the conference room.
“Major breakthrough and good work, Tommy. McCord came up from San Antonio that night, I’m sure of it. That said, we need to find the evidence to prove that he did,” said Jack.
Bill picked up where Jack left off and said, “I also believe that he was the one driving the Explorer but we need to get more evidence to squeeze him.”
Bill thought for a moment and said, “Rental car companies, especially the big national chains, churn cars. When you rent a car from them, it is often a vehicle registered in an adjoining state. Let me get a hold of the big name rental guys at the San Antonio airport and see if they still have the rental records from 2005. I can have them look for the Explorer using the Alabama license plate,” said Bill.
“Good idea, Bill. Go do it and get back ASAP if you find out anything interesting,” said Jack.
Marie looked up from her notes and said, “And what about Dawn Cohen? I bet she paid that fine fast so that hubby wouldn’t find out who had come calling.”
“Are we speculating that Jim McCord and Dawn Cohen had a thing, Marie?” asked Bill.
“Had ‘a thing’? Look what she did to the pool boy. She rode him hard and put him away wet! I’ll bet she was fucking him senseless and he loved every minute of it! Why else would he drive all the way up from San Antonio?”
After the meeting broke up, Jack walked up to Marie and said, “You need to get off the Dawn Cohen thing, Marie. I know you don’t particularly like her. I get that, but we need to focus on the main issues and I don’t want you to be off on a Dawn tangent every time we turn around!”
Marie’s face flushed as she said with embarrassment, “Got it boss. It won’t happen again. Sorry.”
~
Bill had found the San Antonio Airport website and had written down the names of all the car rental companies both on and off airport and called each of them. After striking out with the first four, Bill Ross finally nailed it on his fifth try. A pleasant young lady at Hertz recommended he call Sindhur Wadawadigi at the main office. It took Bill several attempts to get the spelling right and twenty minutes of transfers before he was eventually connected to Sindhur.
“Miss Wadigi, this is Officer Bill Ross of the Travis County Police Department,” began Bill, completely butchering the poor woman’s name. “I’m told that you are the right person to talk to regarding historical rental records.”
“I will do my best to help, Officer Ross. Tell me what it is you need,” responded Sindhur.
Bill Ross explained the details to Sindhur. She had been with Hertz for four years and was in charge of their Big Data project.
“Let’s see if we can help, Officer Ross. We have spent the last two years getting all of our historical data on to SAP powered by HANA,” explained Sindhur.
Bill Ross had no idea what Sindhur was talking about but let her continue in the hope that it might produce the information he so urgently needed.
“The Big Data infrastructure allows us to search on multiple elements and link them together using very powerful analytics,” explained Sindhur. “So let’s start with the vehicle. It’s a Ford Explorer Alabama license KAA 20C.”
There was a very brief delay as Sindhur ran the analytics. “Good news, Bill. Hertz owned that vehicle from November 2004 to January 2006. We then sold it at auction.”
“Fabulous!” s
aid Bill, now confident that he was at last on the right track. All of this was fascinating to him. The speed that information could be gleaned from millions of records on file could revolutionize law enforcement.
Sindhur continued, “Now we can link this information to the rental records. You said September 14, 2005?”
A few moments passed before Sindur proudly said, “Yes, we have a rental record. A Mr. Jim McCord, giving an address in Austin, Texas, rented it from our San Antonio Airport location. His original reservation was for a mid-range sedan but as he is a corporate executive gold card member, he was given a two-car upgrade and accepted the Ford Explorer. He had it for twenty-seven hours, returning back to the airport at 15:37 on Thursday September 15.”
“It is quite incredible that you can retrieve this information so fast,” said Bill with appropriate admiration.
“That is the power of Big Data, Deputy Ross. The Hertz Corporation has invested millions in this technology which integrates to our mobile applications and CRM system, greatly enhancing the service we can provide to our customers.”
“Well, I must say it is impressive,” said Bill. “On behalf of the Travis County Police Department, I must thank you for this vital information.”
“I just did my job, Officer Ross and we can thank SAP for developing the incredible technology to help me do my job more effectively.”
She sounded like a commercial for SAP, whoever they were. He hoped that they were appreciative of such a glowing reference for their products.
~
“Change of plan!” announced Jack Johnson, coffee in hand, as he sat at the end of the conference room table for the evening briefing with the team.
He had just come from the break room and Bill had already updated him on his success with Hertz. It was almost 8:30 and they had been at it all day. Everyone looked tired and they weren’t looking forward to their drive home. Six inches of rain had fallen in a little under 4 hours and there were abandoned vehicles all over the county as drivers misread road conditions and had been caught in the heavy flooding.
“The information on the rental car will allow us to squeeze McCord. He has lied to us and there may be more to this than a fuck fest with Dawn Cohen. So let’s back off Dawn for the moment and if we don’t get McCord to come clean, we can always track her down and put the squeeze on her later.”
The team agreed, but Marie Mason was obviously disappointed and didn’t try to hide it.
“We should still interview Harvey Cohen and make sure that he was in Vegas,” said Marie.
Jack nodded his head and said, “Agreed. You and Tommy take that and I want it done in the next couple of days, if possible. Bill and I will get McCord in and try to get to the truth. I am beginning to have a really bad feeling about him. He may hold the key to unraveling this mess.”
Chapter 20 - Spiders
2014 - The Cold Case Investigation
It was almost lunchtime when Marie and Tommy drove up the driveway to the home of Harvey Cohen. Harvey had agreed to meet them at his house as he was leaving for Las Vegas later in the day.
“He seems to like Vegas,” said Marie in a derogatory tone as they approached the front door. They rang the doorbell and within a minute, Harvey opened the door.
“Hello, officers, please come in,” said Harvey Cohen. Tommy stifled a snigger. Harvey Cohen could have been mistaken for the actor Danny DeVito and framed in 12-foot high, double-hung entry doors he looked even smaller. He guided them through the marble foyer and into the huge living room.
As she thought back to the last time that she had been in the room, Marie noted that the white sectional was gone, the house didn’t have the smell of expensive perfume and the annoying little dog was nowhere to be found.
“Can I offer you some refreshment?” said Harvey.
“No, thank you, Mr. Cohen, this will shouldn’t take too long,” said Tommy.
“Oh, please call me Harvey,” said Cohen, the words dripping like honey from his tongue.
Marie felt the hackles rise up on the back of her neck. She was sure that she wasn’t going to like Harvey Cohen any better than she did his ex wife.
“We would just like to confirm some facts relating to your travel back in 2005 when a woman’s body was discovered in your neighbor’s backyard,” said Tommy as Marie glowered at Cohen.
Marie swallowed hard and said, “Your wife said you were attending an orthodontist’s convention in Vegas. Is that correct, Mr. Cohen? Were you in Las Vegas?”
“I’m surprised that bitch knew what time of day it was let alone that I was at a convention!” snapped Cohen.
A hint of a smile came across Marie’s face.
Harvey continued, “Yes, it was our annual convention. That’s where I met Dawn back in 2000. A bunch of us went to a club off the strip and she was there looking radiant.”
Harvey ran his fingers through his thin black hair and paused before continuing.
“Dawn Sunshine,” sneered Harvey. “I mean, who calls themselves Dawn Sunshine for God’s sake? She was born Dawn Sunshine Daniels, the only daughter of a Baptist minister from Fresno, California. I should have known asking her to come out to Austin was a bad idea. Marrying the bitch was the dumbest thing I ever did. The divorce cost me a fortune!”
Marie and Tommy glanced at each other. Their look said, “Not a smart guy that Harvey Cohen. Not smart at all.”
“Can you prove that you were in Vegas at that time, Harvey?” said Tommy.
“Of course I can. I was the keynote speaker on Monday and taught workshops during the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. I’m sure if you contacted the American Association of Orthodontists, they will be able to provide you with the prospectus for the 2005 annual session. I can also provide you with names of colleagues who attended my workshops and were present for my keynote presentation. I got back to Austin that Thursday night.”
Harvey stood and walked to the minibar at the far end of the room. “Sure you don’t want anything to drink? I think I’ll have a scotch. I’d be happy to make you both one to take the edge off,” said Harvey, trying to lighten the topic of the discussion.
“No, thank you, Harvey, we are both on duty but thanks for the offer,” said Tommy, having a brief thought about the Patron Silver shots he planned to have when he got off work later that day.
“Can I use your restroom, Harvey?” said Marie.
“Of course you can,” said Cohen with a sultry inflection in his voice.
Marie thought about the first line of the poem, The Spider and the Fly, by Mary Howitt. “Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly.” There was something about Harvey Cohen that made her skin crawl.
She walked down the hallway in the direction Cohen had indicated and saw the guest bathroom on the right. A little further down the hallway, she saw a door that she guessed was Harvey’s bedroom.
“I wonder,” she thought.
Marie passed by the guest bathroom and opened the door to Cohen’s bedroom. She walked in, opened the door to his bathroom and sat on the commode. The bathroom was spotless. Marie guessed that Harvey had a regular cleaning person.
She continued to look around for anything suspicious and saw an airing cupboard. Marie flushed the toilet and opened the cupboard door. From the floor to the ceiling, there were towels of every size, neatly organized on four shelves. She looked at the floor and on the bottom right hand corner saw what looked like a location for a wall safe with a little door. It was locked with a simple latch.
Marie looked over her shoulder, lifted the latch and stared inside. There were piles of magazines. Grabbing one called Bondage Babes, she let it fall open at a random page. The face of an Eastern European woman stared back at her. Her face was contorted in pain and terror as a muscle bound freak wearing a leather mask was mounted behind her.
Marie felt puke rise from her throat as she quickly stuffed the magazine back into the hole.
“Holy crap!” exclaimed Marie. “This Cohen guy is a
sick motherfucker!”
Harvey Cohen saw the strange look on Marie’s face as she walked back into the room.
“Everything OK?” said Harvey.
“Not really,” responded Marie. “I feel really sick. Tommy, can we go please? I think I might throw up at any time.”
“Sure we can,” said Tommy, “and thank you for your time, Harvey. You have been most helpful.”
“Not at all, Detective Ross,” said Harvey with his spider’s voice. Marie thought she might have an episode of projectile vomiting right there and in some ways wanted to do it.
“Let’s go, Tommy, please,” said Marie and with that, they left.
As she was about to get back into the car, Marie grabbed the open door for support. Her nausea was intensifying and her head was spinning. She got herself back in control and flopped down in the passenger seat. Tommy could see that she was sweating heavily.
“What was that all about, Marie? Are you really sick?” asked Tommy.
“Really sick, yes, but not for the reason you think, Tommy. I hate pornography and in particular sadomasochism. Harvey Cohen had a stash of magazines in his bathroom. I picked one up at random and it featured Eastern European women being abused by men in leather masks. According to Sven Stevenson, the medical examiner, the dead woman was Eastern European and had been sexually abused including anal penetration. This can’t be a coincidence!” said Marie.
Tommy called Jack Johnson from the car.
“We’re just leaving the Cohen place. Marie found a stash of sadomasochistic magazines in his bathroom featuring Eastern European women. The ME’s report suggested that Reese might have been Eastern European. May be a link, boss.”
Jack sighed and said, “As we all know, there are lots of things done behind closed doors in the most perfect of neighborhoods that would make your hair curl. So, he confirmed he was in Vegas. We can sure as heck prove if he was or not. If he was in Vegas, how did he get back to Austin and plant the body in his neighbor’s backyard? As of right now, he’s not our killer. We may not like the creep, but I don’t think he’s the one.”