The End of Summer: Book One in The Detective Bill Ross Crime Series

by Irving Munro

  “All I remember is that Summer got up from the recliner to use the restroom and as she turned, the hem of her dress caught on a dock hook and in she went.”

  “So she was wearing a long dress. What type of dress was it, Mary?” asked Marie.

  “It was a white cotton dress. She wore it a lot. She loved the coolness of it!”

  “What else was she wearing, Mary?” asked Marie with growing excitement.

  “She had on her favorite floppy hat to keep the sun off, a pair of sunglasses, and flip flops!”

  Marie was elated; as this was the way that the dead woman’s body had been staged. She pressed on with her questioning of Mary.

  “You then jumped in to try to save her?”

  “Yes, I knew she couldn’t swim. The dress had wrapped around her head and shoulders and she was panicking. I tried to get to her but she went under fast. I yelled to a couple of men tying up their boat some ways down the dock but they couldn’t hear me! I dove under to get her to the surface but she was flailing around. Her weight and the wet dress made it impossible for me to grab hold. She was trying to pull the dress over her head but before she could, the flailing subsided,” sobbed Mary. She paused, took a Kleenex from the pocket of her cardigan and wiped her tears.

  “I got out of the water and ran for help. The two men I saw earlier heard my screams and came running along the dock. They dove in and after several attempts, eventually found her and pulled her to the dock. They tried mouth to mouth but she was dead!” Mary paused again to use the Kleenex but she seemed to be gaining some strength from cleansing her soul, letting it all out.

  Another sip of tea and she continued on.

  “When Jim and Luther came back on the boat and were within a few yards of the dock, they yelled at me to tell them what was going on. All I could say was, ‘It’s Summer!’ Luther jumped off the boat and swam to the dock. After one of the men pulled him up, Luther ran to her. I was rambling, trying to tell him what had happened. He pushed me out of the way so hard that I almost went in.”

  “Summer was laid out on the dock. Her white dress and blond hair had a strange aura as the sun set. Luther sat there on the dock with Summer cradled in his arms and he stroked her hair. The police arrived some time later. They interviewed all of us about what had happened and that was it. Summer was gone!”

  Marie, trying to sound convincing, said, “Mary, you have been incredibly helpful. Not sure that Summer’s drowning has any connection to the murdered woman in your yard but we need to tie up all loose ends.”

  Jim McCord got up from his chair in the corner of the room and sat by his wife. He held her in his arms as her shoulders went limp and she sobbed uncontrollably. As he did so, he shot a glance at Jack Johnson.

  “You’re doing this for effect, you son of a bitch,” thought Jack as he watched McCord stroke his wife’s hair.

  Marie closed her notebook and said, “I think we are done for the day. No need to take more of your time, Mary. This was obviously incredibly stressful for you going back over all the details. Thank you so much for doing that.”

  Jim McCord looked relieved until Jack asked him to walk out with them to the car and at that moment, his mood changed. McCord kissed his wife and said, “I’ll be right back honey.”

  McCord walked down the steps from his front door and over to the car where Marie and Jack stood waiting. Marie opened the back door of the Ford and asked McCord to get in, which he did somewhat unwillingly. Marie closed the door and got into the drivers seat. Jack was already in the front passenger seat and he turned around to face a very nervous Jim McCord.

  “When did you first meet Luther Fisher, Jim?”

  Jim’s eyes grew wide. “When they built their home in Pagosa Springs!”

  “Don’t screw with us, McCord, or I will get out of this car, go back in and have a quiet word with Mary! The truth, please!”

  “OK, I went to college with him at Vanderbilt University in Nashville!”

  “Jim, you only have one shot at giving a truthful answer to this question. Did you have an affair with Summer?”

  With what looked like tears in his eyes, Jim McCord finally gave a truthful response. “Yes, I did! But can I explain?”

  “Go right ahead,” said Jack.

  Jim McCord told his story.

  “Summer was locked in a nightmare of a marriage and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She came to me looking for a shoulder to cry on. I tried to help her, listen to her and be supportive and it developed in to a physical relationship,” said Jim McCord his eyes pleading for Jack to believe him.

  “You are a real knight in shining armor,” sneered Jack. “What about the rape of the female student at Vanderbilt?”

  From McCord’s reaction, you would have thought that Jack had stabbed him through the heart with a Bowie knife. He was clearly terrified!

  “It wasn’t me!” yelled McCord.

  “Why should I believe you? You’ve lied to me about everything else up until this point, so tell me why I should believe you now?” pressed Jack.

  “I didn’t do it. I swear!” said McCord with tears running down his face. He drew his right arm across his face to wipe the snot dripping from his nose.

  “But you do know who did, don’t you?” Jack had him by the balls and was not going to let go.

  “Luther Fisher did it!” said Jim McCord, trying to wriggle his way out of Jack’s iron grip.

  “So tell me about it then!” said Jack.

  “Luther was majoring in pharmacology and was experimenting with various drugs. He told us that he wanted to get a girl drugged up and screw her, so he asked Billy Pell and me if we wanted in. We agreed. We went to a bar, he found a target and we took her with us back on campus. After we had a few more drinks, Luther slipped a drug in the girl’s glass. When she was passed out, Luther stripped her and told us to watch. He told us that he had to be first and that after he was done we could have a turn. It was like he was possessed. When he got violent with her, Billy and I got scared and ran off. I don’t know what happened after that.”

  Jack was about to ask another question but Jim McCord wasn’t finished.

  “It was the same with Summer. Luther knew that I was building a place in Pagosa Springs and asked if he could come visit with us with his new fiancée. I agreed and they came and stayed for a week. They loved the area and he decided to buy the land adjoining our property and build a place. They stayed with us while their house was being built and Summer became good friends with Mary. It was after their home was completed and they had moved in, that Summer started to confide in Mary about Luther’s perversions.”

  “What kind of perversions?” asked Jack.

  “He wanted her to dress up in weird leather outfits that he had bought. He would tie her up and the sex would be very rough. A few times, she had to have medical treatment.”

  Jim’s mouth was a rushing faucet that wouldn’t stop flowing. “Summer would come visit with us when Luther was out of town and sit and drink wine. When Mary went off to bed, Summer and I would continue to talk and drink. And that’s when the relationship between us became physical.”

  With his “confession” over, McCord stared at Jack Johnson with the look of a little boy; his eyes pleading that Jack believe him.

  Jack stared at Jim and said, “If what you say is true, we need to take a long, hard look at Luther Fisher. I want your complete cooperation. You discuss this with no one. We’ll have to contact the authorities in Tennessee about what you have told us. If what you say is true and they can prove that Fisher did this, your cooperation may be taken into consideration. You are in deep shit Jim and we are your only hope. We need your total cooperation and your total silence—clear?”

  Jim McCord stumbled out of the car and plodded back up the driveway to his home, hunched over like every ounce of life force had been drained from him. He knew that this was just the beginning and that they would keep digging. His world was collapsing around him.

  Cha
pter 33 - Chubby Checker

  2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  The following day, Jack updated the team on the Jim and Mary McCord interviews.

  “Sounds like it is beginning to point to Luther Fisher,” said Tommy.

  “Yes, but there are still a lot of loose ends and I don’t want us going back up to Pagosa Springs without more information. Bill, have you uncovered anything else?” asked Jack.

  Bill cleared his throat, looked down at his notes and began.

  “The first thing I want to say is that none of what I am about to share could have been uncovered without the help of the folks at the sheriff’s office in Archuleta County and in particular Detective Raul Ortiz. Firstly, I have the full report from the drowning of Summer Fisher that Raul found in the archives and everything jives with what Mary McCord told you in the interview.”

  “Initially, there was strong suspicion that Mary may have deliberately drowned Summer but that could not be proven. The official ruling of the medical examiner was accidental death from drowning.”

  Bill paused, took a sip of water and then continued on.

  “After Tommy and Marie mentioned Luther’s explosion at the use of his telescope, I asked Raul to pull the county property records. Survivalists often have multiple ‘fall back’ zones and I wondered if there was any connection. Why else would he have eyes on another property? Raul said that Cemetery Road accessed that part of the valley and that there were only three large properties over there. When we searched the property records, we hit pay dirt. “

  Bill had the team’s full attention at this point. Celia opened the conference room door and stuck her head in. “Not now!” yelled Jack and her head disappeared as she closed the door.

  Bill continued with his report. “One of the properties is owned by Crystal Light Promotions of Nashville, Tennessee. Crystal Light Promotions is headquartered in the Cayman Islands and the President and CEO is listed as Britney Fisher, Luther Fisher’s dead mother. All communication with Crystal Light in the USA is via a PO box in Nashville and the property taxes for this property are paid using a Crystal Light corporate credit card drawn on a bank in Grand Cayman. Raul also accessed the county vehicle registration database and Crystal Light owns an RV, a boat, a boat trailer, a Jeep and a Toyota Land Cruiser.”

  “I would say from my viewpoint that many pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fit,” concluded Bill as he leaned back in his chair allowing himself a little smile of satisfaction.

  “Well, you’ve been busy!” said Jack. “Anything else?”

  “Raul and I are working on something but it is premature to comment on the results. We are turning up nothing on women killed and left staged wearing white dresses. I called Nora McConnell and asked her if she could tell me how many women she had ‘seen’. She wasn’t certain but she thought that it might have been more than six. Again, that gave me pause to think that we might be off on a wrong tangent. Since rape seems to be up Jim McCord and Luther Fisher’s alley, Raul and I are now looking at all sexual offences in Archuleta County. I will update everyone when I have more information.”

  “Oh and one final request, boss,” said Bill. “Don’t you think we have enough evidence that points to a Pagosa Springs connection that might justify requesting the Archuleta Sheriff to circulate the artist’s impression of the dead woman in their county and see if we get any hits?”

  Jack couldn’t hide his smile. “Great idea, Bill. I will call Sheriff Gordon and get back to you rather than go through Detective Ortiz. Great work, Bill!”

  Jack stood up and addressed the team. His eyes were alight with a fire they hadn’t seen up until this point. They all felt they were closer to the truth than ever before.

  “Keep at this, team. We are getting closer, but no jumping to conclusions. This case has taken more twists than Chubby Checker! Let’s meet again here on Friday.”

  Chapter 34 - In the clutches of a killer

  2005 - The Killing

  It was September 9, 2005 and the crowds that descended on Pagosa Springs for Labor Day weekend had returned home to get their kids ready for the new school term. Galina finished her shift at the bar and made her way to the Airstream. As she opened the door of the trailer, she sensed that something was wrong. An arm shot out from nowhere and wrapped around her neck. As she struggled for air, a hand with a pad soaked in chloroform was pressed hard against her mouth.

  He had her in his grasp unconscious. He expertly balanced her weight and lifted her off her feet. Looking around to make sure that no one had seen the struggle, he quickly moved from the trailer to his Jeep that he had parked at the rear of the bar and bundled her into the back.

  He drove from the San Juan Sports Bar to his cabin off Cemetery Road. As he drove, his eyes constantly flashed to the rear view mirror to make sure that no opportunistic police officer looking for drunks was on his tail. He drove cautiously, always at the speed limit, never too slow or too fast to attract attention. He was skilled at this and he wasn’t going to allow a momentary lack in concentration result in his demise. This was always the most risky part when he abducted girls: driving them in the Jeep to the cabin. If he were to be pulled over, that would be it. No risks to be taken at this stage.

  He arrived at the cabin gates and keyed in the passcode for the security system. As the gates opened, he threw doggy treats out of the window of the Jeep to Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the two Dobermans that patrolled the yard. He parked the Jeep beside the RV and opened the rear door to the cabin. He wheeled out a gurney that was parked behind the door and transferred the still unconscious Galina onto it.

  He wheeled the gurney down the central hallway of the cabin, past the small kitchen on the left and the viewing room on the right. There were two bedrooms at the end of the hallway, one named Summer and the other named Winter, an evil and twisted play on words. He wheeled the gurney into the Summer room and placed her on the bed.

  He fastened one ankle to a manacle connected to a long chain that was connected to a tether on the central wall of the room. He had other manacles on either side of the headboard that would be used later so that when he abused her, she couldn’t fight him off.

  There were photographs of a young woman everywhere on the walls and on the side tables of the bed. In the majority of these pictures, the woman wore a white cotton dress, floppy sun hat and shades. In the closet, more than a dozen white dresses were hung, just like the ones in the photos. On the shelf, he had exact copies of the hat and sunglasses shown in the pictures. The dressing table had every conceivable high-quality cosmetic product and, in a prominent position, bright red lipstick tubes placed on end like tin soldiers on a mock battlefield.

  In the corner of the room was a sink and alongside it, a refrigerator containing bottles of water. The refrigerator also contained transparent plastic containers with green salad and others with fresh strawberries. There were no utensils or any other sharp objects anywhere in the room. When he had Galina restrained and he felt everything was in order, he left the Summer room closed the door and opened the door to the Winter room.

  This was where the bad girls went. He always liked to stand at the door and look inside, reminding himself that everything was there and in order if needed. The metal operating table complete with leg stirrups. There were syringes and adequate supplies of morphine and others drugs plus every device imaginable to be used on the girls to inflict pain and fuel his sexual depravity. There were also huge speakers in all four corners of the room for him to be able to play his music as he performed his art. The room was totally soundproof.

  He closed the door of the winter room, smiled and walked across the hallway to the “viewing room”. This is where he stored all of the records of his life’s work. He chose one of the videos from his collection, a beer from the fridge and settled himself into his recliner and hit the play button.

  Chapter 35 - The seeds of evil

  2005 - The Killing

  Luther Fisher was the only son of Britn
ey and Alvin Fisher. He was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee where his father was a music producer. In the 60’s and 70’s, drug and alcohol abuse was commonplace in the Nashville music scene. Britney and Alvin were substance abusers and Luther, an only child, had very little love or nurturing from either parent.

  In addition to the drug and alcohol abuse, Britney and Alvin had an “open” marriage. They each enjoyed sex games that frequently involved bondage. Britney was always the submissive where Alvin would play the dominant male. The open marriage allowed them the flexibility of sex with multiple partners.

  In his early childhood, Luther witnessed his mother and father perform these sexual acts. He was frequently left alone in the house and ignored. However, he was a clever little boy and he would try to play with his toys or watch TV while the sex sessions were going on in another part of the house. Over the years, he found himself drawn to the sounds from the bedroom and he would deliberately hide in the bedroom closet so he could watch through the louvers in the door. He witnessed his mother in submissive sexual positions restrained by cuffs and ropes with her husband or another male partner of her choosing performing the dominant male role.

  This environment created a child with a desperate need for love and attention that never was received from either parent. As he entered puberty, his sexual development was distorted by what he had experienced first hand growing up. Bondage and the subjugation of women for sex were primary elements of his sexual personality. His abandonment as a child distorted this even further, resulting in the creation of a true hatred of women: misogyny.

  An event in school was a harbinger of things to come. When Luther was thirteen, he was in morning classes and left the classroom to use the toilet. He saw that a young girl from another class had done the same and as she left the toilet, Luther grabbed her from behind and forced her back in to the restroom.

  Luther always carried a knife with him and he forced the terrified girl back into one of the cubicles. He told her to keep her eyes shut and that if she didn’t he would slit her throat.