by Roger Bray
“He would get angry?”
“Yes, he would.”
“Was he ever violent?”
She considered his question. “He would sometimes shout a bit, maybe kick something across the room and storm out of my house. But violent, toward me, no never. He never actually raised a hand to me or threatened me.”
“And after a time, you broke if off?”
She nodded.
“When exactly was that?”
“2000 I think. It was mid-year. A couple of weeks before the 4th of July.”
“Are you sure of the date?”
She nodded again, “Two weeks before the holiday.”
“How did he react to that?”
Cheryl remembered the sad look of defeat in Todd’s eye when she told him that they were over.
“Pretty well actually. I got the idea that he was expecting it. We’d argued enough about want I wanted so it couldn’t have come as a complete surprise to him. He was still a bit upset, but accepted.”
“He accepted it and walked away?” Steve asked, not convinced by that.
“At first he did. After a few weeks he started to text me as if nothing had happened. Almost like one of us had been away, and we were catching up. It was almost as if he had erased the conversation that we’d had when I told him it was over.”
“What did you do?”
“I ignored him. I deleted his texts as they came in. I didn’t reply to him at all.”
“And that was it?”
She shook her head.
“No, around the end of August, maybe the beginning of September, I rang him and suggested that we meet up. I wanted to let him know for sure that it was over. I wanted to tell him that I had moved on and that he should too. And I wanted him to stop goddamn texting me. It was ridiculous, sometime seven or eight times a day, every day. We didn’t text that much when we were in a relationship. I was sick of it and wanted him to stop.”
“And did he stop?”
She nodded, “It was the worst conversation of my life. I think he thought we’d had a break, and that we were getting back together. When I told him it was definitely over, he seemed even more upset than when I originally told him.”
“And he accepted it. He stopped texting?”
“Yes. He looked defeated, as though everything had collapsed around him.”
“What did he do? Did he beg or shout?”
“Neither. He heard me out, and I thought he was going to cry. Then he stood, wished me a happy life and walked out of the shop. I haven’t seen him since.”
“He never contacted you again?”
“Nope. Within a couple of weeks, I heard he had moved to Bend and had started a business, computer cabling or something—he was always good at that. A bit later on I saw his mom in Eugene and she told me that he was doing OK and had bought a house near Bend.”
“How was she? His mom.”
“Good. She was a little sad that we had split up. She seemed to blame Todd although she wouldn’t say that. She said she wished that he had stuck with me.”
“Going back to what you were saying about why you broke up … Why didn’t he want to marry you? Was there someone else?”
Cheryl shook her head, “No. That was the one thing with Todd. I could trust him that way. He never looked at other girls, and I never suspected him of cheating.”
“So why do you think he was like that?”
She sat and Alice knew she was reliving the times and arguments that she’d had with Todd during the years they were together. Good or bad, maybe they all contributed to the reason he was like he was.
“Todd was always a nice guy,” she started slowly, “Like I say, he was never violent. Even at school playing football he was never violent. He always came across as brash and loud when we were with friends, but when we were alone, after we had been together for a while, he was different. Gentle to the point that some might think of it as being a little weird.”
“Like?”
She laughed softly, “My hair, he would brush my hair. Not in some half-hearted way a guy might if they’re only doing it to pretend they’re romantic. Todd would have done it for hours if I’d let him. He kept telling me how lovely my hair was as he ran his fingers through it.”
“There were two sides to him. A brash one when he was out with friends and a more caring version when you were alone?”
“I think there were more than two sides to him, and in the end, that’s why he couldn’t commit.”
“He was holding something back?”
“Yes, he was. There was something about him he didn’t want to share.”
“Something he was doing, or something that he wanted to do.”
“No idea. He never went missing for a few days with no explanation or gave the impression he was hiding something from me. But he was. He had that thing and he wouldn’t let me in to that corner of his life.”
“Did his mom know?”
“If she did, she never let on. The closest she came to saying anything was after we broke up and I made a comment that at times, he had appeared a bit distant and all she said was that it was Todd’s funny little hobby. She never told me what it meant, and she wouldn’t be drawn on it.”
“What about his parents, what were they like?”
“Nice. They were good people. His pop died a few months after we left high school, but I liked him. He was a nice old guy. Happy and friendly. He was always welcoming to me.”
“They must have had Todd later in life.”
“They did. Todd came along when they had given up trying. I think his mom was forty or maybe a couple of years older. His pop was about ten years older than her.”
“How were they toward Todd?”
Cheryl smiled, “Loving, to an embarrassing level sometimes. I think Todd would get a bit embarrassed by what they said.”
“They weren’t overbearing or bitchy to him?”
“Not that I heard, and Todd never complained of that.”
“You broke up mid-year, around June, but he tried to ignore that for a few weeks until you finally set him straight? And then he left, moved to Bend, and that was the last that you heard of him?”
Cheryl nodded.
“He didn’t say too much. I was relieved because I didn’t want to start the whole thing again.”
“As far as you were concerned, you had moved on.” Alice said.
“Exactly, I had moved on, although I hadn’t to be honest. In my mind, Todd was the past, and I wanted to move forward without having to keep revisiting that.”
“And did you? Did you move on in time?”
She looked directly at Steve and sighed before she answered,
“No, not at all. I’m still here in Eugene. I still work at FedEx where I worked when Todd and I were together. So, no, I haven’t moved on, no. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy. I enjoy my job and it’s let me buy this little house.”
“You didn’t marry?”
She shook her head again.
“No. I had boyfriends, a couple anyway, but they didn’t last. Before you know it, I’m an unmarried forty-something living on her own in the same house, in the same town.”
“Why is that, Cheryl? If you don’t mind me saying you’re a good-looking woman. You should have had no problem finding a new guy.” Alice gave him a look that suggested that she thought the question was stupid then she realized that he needed Cheryl to answer it for herself.
Cheryl looked at them both and drew her knees up tighter into her chest before she answered quietly, “Because I still love him.”
“Todd?”
“Yes, of course Todd.”
“Why didn’t you tell him that? You could have resolved this whole thing if you’d told him.”
She had tears in her eyes now and was starting to look forlorn.
“I would have given him everything. My whole life would have been an open book to him.”
“But not his to you?”
Blinking back te
ars she shook her head, “No.”
Steve closed the notebook in which he had been writing and put it into his folio bag.
“Thank you for seeing us,” Alice said, sad at the effect the interview had had on Cheryl, who was now looking quite distraught.
They all stood, and Cheryl wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she led them to the front door. As they stepped outside she asked, “You do think Todd has something to do with Hazel’s disappearance, don’t you?”
Steve looked at Alice before looking back. He was about to repeat the lie but changed his mind. He looked at the woman and said simply, “Maybe,” before turning and walking down the path to where Alice’s car was parked.
Alice tried to smile and thank Cheryl again. Instead she stepped forward and hugged the other woman and for a moment she felt she was hugging Hazel.
Chapter Ten
Steve was away for three days. He had managed to get hold of Phil between jobs which was lucky because he was heading to Florida at the end of the week and expected to be away for a month at least.
He checked the phone. Dusted it for fingerprints and removed any particles he could find along the edges and cracks of the case. When he was satisfied that there was nothing left to find, he dismantled the phone and did the same on the inside, in the battery compartment and the SIM card and memory card slots. Only when he was happy did he try to charge the phone.
Steve was thankful that he had not allowed Alex to charge the cell phone straight away as he had wanted. Phil had been meticulous not only in forensically examining the phone but also ensuring that there was not corrosion or damage which could have shorted the phone out and destroyed any evidence that might remain on it. He had also photographed each step he had taken and written notes for each procedure. All the swabs he had used to pick out anything from the cell phone he tagged and bagged to be sent to a laboratory for further examination. The fingerprints he had run through his own equipment, digitized and checked against a national database he had access to.
There were some clear prints on the screen, the back cover of the phone, on the battery, and the SIM and memory cards. All of them belonged to Hazel. Phil had her prints on file and they were in the database as well as she was listed as the victim of a serious crime. Finding her prints all over the phone was not a surprise but confirmed the phone to be Hazel’s before they had even turned it on. There had been a number of smears as well that were not clear enough to be tested but Phil was not surprised to find them.
What he had found was a clear print, most likely a thumb he decided, on the back cover of the phone. As best he could guess the size and shape indicated to him that it was probably from a male and it didn’t match Alex, whose prints were also available to investigators. It was the first piece of clear evidence that a third person was involved.
The other thing he found was a negative. He found no damage or corrosion on the phone. The lack of damage indicated that it had not been thrown away, or even dropped too far as the digitized glass on the early cell phones was not as robust as the later models and had a tendency to crack if dropped.
The lack of corrosion on the inside of the phone showed Phil that it hadn’t been left outside for a long time, if at all. The phone was not waterproof or even resistant to moisture and although it hadn’t rained on the night Hazel went missing, given the time of year there was a frost which would have melted away fairly quickly. If the phone had been outside, it would have been damp and that would have shown as corrosion in the electronics. Phil had checked the phone under a microscope and had found nothing more. It looked as good as it probably had been on that night.
Phil plugged the charger into the cell phone and turned it on. He began to empty the other bags Steve had brought. He started with the cup, making notes and taking photographs before he started. He worked methodically around the mug until the fingerprints on the surface could be seen. He lifted and cataloged the prints until he was happy and put the mug bag into the bag and sealed it.
He continued for the next couple of hours unpacking, photographing, and testing each step of the way until he was happy that there was no more evidence to get from the articles.
They finished the evening outside with a couple of whiskeys and Phil smoked two of his cigarillos, a sure sign that he was happy with his efforts.
“And?” Steve wanted to know.
“OK,” Phil didn’t need to read notes, there would be time enough for that if the matter ever got to court.
“Starting from the known, the mug. You know it was touched by two people.”
“Alice and Todd Bailey.”
“Makes sense,” Phil said, blowing a small stream of smoke. “There are two distinct sets of prints on the mug. One is smaller than the other and I consider those to be Alice’s. The other prints are larger and consist of a thumb print on one side and three fingerprints on the other as if someone held the mug like this.” He mimicked the action with his glass.
“If,” he continued, “you know that Todd Bailey held the mug then it’s also his thumb print on the phone.”
Steve nodded.
“And the other things?”
“The plastic bottles are good, and I got some prints off those. A few matched the ones from the mug and the thumb print. Some were the same size and shape and seemed to come from the same person but without a control I cannot say who. The cardboard boxes for the dyes are dusty and not great for prints but some of the instruction sheets inside are clean and would probably yield results. I would prefer to do those with cyanoacrylate fuming. If you want me to, I can set up a fume cabinet and have results in an hour or so.”
“No, I think we enough to prove that Todd touched all those things.”
Phil nodded and blew out a smoke ring. “I’d say so. Good, work’s done we can concentrate on drinking.”
“Oh God,” Steve thought as Phil topped up his glass with a good three fingers of Wild Turkey, “Another big night.”
They left the charger on overnight and in the morning Phil pulled on a pair of thin latex gloves. He disconnected the phone from the wall socket and pressed the power on button on the top. The phone began its power up sequence confirming that it was still working, and nothing had been done to it that had caused any problems.
Finally, the main screen loaded, and Steve looked at it with a sigh.
“Messages?” Phil asked.
“May as well, it’s as good a place to start as any.”
Phil opened the message app and the list of conversations came up. The latest came up at the top of the screen and was from Alex. He picked that one and the conversation came onto the screen. It was exactly the same as the records from Alex’s phone had shown. The time and date stamp matched Alex’s to the second and there was no doubt that this was her last text. Her phone records had shown there were no more texts or phone calls after that.
Connecting the cell phone to his laptop, Phil checked the log files. The final lines showed a low power warning and that the device had gone into energy saving mode. Finally, the shutdown command was issued when the phone reach less than 1% charge. The time and date stamp showed that this had happened after leaving Alex on the journey to Rowe’s house. The log also showed that no attempt had been made to charge the phone until Phil had plugged it in the previous evening.
“A flat battery then?”
“It certainly looks that way. If the timing is correct, the battery went flat, and she didn’t get the chance to recharge it.”
Steve laughed, “Alex said that she was always forgetting to charge her cell and it would often bleep in the middle of the night before it went flat. At which point, she would rush around to plug it in.”
“If that’s the case then it probably means nothing. The phone went flat, and she couldn’t use it. Maybe she tried, we’ll never know. It might have made a difference, but I sort of doubt it.”
Having checked the phone and downloaded all the relevant information from it, Phil shut it down, removed
the battery and packed it all away in a new evidence bag which he sealed and signed.
“I guess you want this report quickly.”
“You’ve confirmed what I thought and now I have enough to put it to the guy, but I’ll probably need the report fairly soon.”
Phil nodded and opened the word processor on his laptop.
“How long?” Steve asked.
Phil didn’t look up, “Give me two hours. We need a beer.”
Steve smiled, “Hint taken, sir.”
He walked outside to drive to the nearest town to replenish their alcohol supplies and decided to buy Phil a nice Cuban stogie as an extra thanks for his work.
*****
“So that’s it,” Alice recapped. “The cell phone is definitely Hazel’s, the last texts she made were to Alex like he said and; the phone probably died because she forgot to charge it.”
Steve nodded.
“And someone probably took it from her on that night because it wasn’t left outside.”
“That pretty much covers it.”
“And that person is Todd Bailey?” Alex said.
“It looks likely. We got it from his bin and it’s obvious that he had hidden it right down at the bottom.”
“The fingerprint that Phil couldn’t identify. Can we prove it came from Todd?”
“Pretty much. He got a good match from the mug. If he is arrested and has his prints taken, they will definitely match. He wasn’t on the database, but the evidence is pretty conclusive, so he would find it difficult to deny it.”
“Now what?” Alex wanted to know. “Apart from me suppressing my urge to beat the crap out of him.”
Steve laughed.
“While that might be cathartic for you, it wouldn’t help the investigation much at all.”
“So, what is next?” Alice asked again.
“We go and talk to him, “Steve said, “put the evidence to him and see what he says. At this end of an investigation, he will either try to lie his way out of it and make a mistake we can use or, he will admit to everything. Let’s go and see him.”