A Taxing Death (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 5)

by Peche, Alec

  Jill concluded with, "These two killers have a list of people that they are targeting. So far as we know, all of the victims have worked in Manuel's department. The problem is that we may not know about other deaths out there. These two fake emergency medical technicians know medical information about each victim which is an angle I'll explore, but they are good at getting people to submit to their care before electrocuting them with defibrillator paddles. Employees that work in Sacramento may live in any of the surrounding counties, and therefore would be autopsied by different coroners. It was just a chance question that alerted me to the two additional deaths which were before Manuel's. John Garcia of the Sacramento Coroner's Office is taking the lead to notify the other counties and we'll see if anyone else was a potential victim of the killers. Since I'm not in the head of the killers, I don't know if they were planning to move on to family members. I'm inclined to think not as these murders are focused on the Audit Division of the Department of Revenue. However, I wanted to alert you of that distant risk tonight. We can talk at length tomorrow about all the details going on with this case and next steps. My only advice is if you have a medical emergency tonight, drive whichever family member to the hospital, and don't call an ambulance."

  Anna was holding a hand of each of her children, tearing with a combination of fear and anger for these killers, fear that she couldn't lose either child after losing her husband, supreme anger of the terrible damage these two killers had inflicted on her family and others. As bad as her situation was, the tears began running down her cheeks thinking of the child that never got to see her mother alive after swim practice, or the husband facing his own health problems losing his wife while he was receiving his dialysis treatment. She would make plans to contact these other families; Manuel would have wanted her to do that as he cared for his employees while alive. Michael saw Jill to the door and as she was driving away, the Valencia family was making plans to protect themselves from an unknown pair of killers.

  Jill arrived home late, hungry, and itching to do some research before heading to bed. Normally she liked to be in bed and asleep at this time, but she was so wired with the discoveries of the day. She had been taking notes all day to look up this or that, but really she knew she needed a plan going forward as she could waste time chasing those things top of mind rather than having a planned approach. She knew it was also time to send her team a detailed email and with a good plan she could parcel out the work among her friends. She thought she would need the most hours from Marie as there were going to be a fair amount of internet searching for the killers.

  She sat down and started to do her plan, then changed her mind thinking that it would benefit from input from her team. She worked on crafting an email to them with the facts they knew so far and where she thought they might search and asked for both input and volunteers to do the work. Sometimes they could all do some of the internet searches and it was a matter of parceling out the work. Other times searching required knowledge of some rare databases that Jo or Marie knew about, and sometimes in was simply not a convenient time in their lives to give her hours of investigative work.

  She also wanted to see if Jo's boyfriend, Jack, could do anything with the video surveillance that she had on her flash drive, and if he could not, then maybe her friend Henrik, might be interested in running it through his facial recognition software which was generally more powerful than anything available in the United States. Henrik Klein, who they had met on a previous case when they solved his wife's murder, was a brilliant software and security guru based in Germany. Living in a country with an excellent reputation for engineering had allowed him to design more sophisticated software than might be available in a law enforcement agency. As he was always looking for new clients and the United States was a large target audience and he was grateful for Jill's help on his wife's case, he was usually eager to help.

  Wrapping up her email, as she munched on a leftover piece of pizza washed down with a bottle of Sierra Nevada Ale, she leaned back contemplating the next day. She had her meeting with the Valencias in the morning, and really no other reason to be in Sacramento. She planned to check in with Detectives Banks and Chang to see what new developments they had as she didn't trust their commitment to including her in the conversation loop for this case. She'd take her laptop and put together the plan that she had delayed doing tonight. Hopefully her team would have provided her with feedback and she could sit in a coffee house with Wi-Fi getting some work done. If there was no reason for her to remain in town she'd leave right after lunch. After changing into her night clothes, she fell asleep minutes after her head hit the pillow.

  Chapter Seven

  The next morning, Jill took off for her 8a.m. meeting with the Valencias. She was looking forward to eating whatever Anna was cooking for breakfast that morning. She loved breakfast, and she especially loved breakfast cooked by an expert chef. While Nathan fit in that category he was not a morning person and she couldn't remember if he had ever cooked her a gourmet breakfast. He had on occasion made a wonderful omelet for dinner, but she couldn't remember him cooking pancakes, waffles, or crepes for her. After ringing the doorbell, she was again sitting in Anna's kitchen with great aromas all around her. All three Valencias were attired in what she would call business casual and clearly they were all morning people.

  Jill looked over at Michael reading the Sacramento Bee, hoping that the story of the three deaths had not been reported on yet. She asked him, "Michael, did you spot any stories on our ambulance killers?"

  "No I didn't and I hope I don't. Our family has no desire to comment to any journalist. I also worry about what it would do to the community here if people became afraid of all emergency personnel. Heck, if I worked in dad's old department and I knew the circumstances of the three deaths, I would hop on a plane to the East Coast until the police found the killers."

  Christina added, "If the story ends up in the newspaper, I'm afraid the mortality rate will increase in the city as people become afraid to use ambulances. I looked up the data after you left last night and there are a hundred and fifty calls a day for medical emergencies. It will cause chaos if people can no longer trust the ambulances that arrive to take care of them."

  "I would expect that the police have thought of that," Jill acknowledged. "The risk appears to be for the employees from Manuel's division. They need to take precautions, and should have been informed this morning or even last night to take those precautions, but they would also be a logical source of a leak to the media in this instance."

  "I would hope that the leadership of the Capitol including the Governor is aware of these deaths and if that is the case you have to think that all of those brilliant minds will have thought of a way to keep people quiet," Anna predicted. "I would tell the employees that by speaking to the media they are painting a bull's-eye on themselves making it that much easier for the killer to find them. Surely that would incentivize people to stay quiet, but then again, there is a fool in every group."

  "For many reasons, the police need to solve this case quickly," Jill observed. "My question for you is how far do you want me to go in this investigation? I could wrap it up today assuming the multiple law-enforcement agencies are doing a better or equal job to what I can do."

  Anna tried to contain a snort, but it slipped out as she said, "Are you crazy? I want you on the case until the two men are arrested and charged with Manuel's death. First, you discovered that Manuel's death was a homicide. I am convinced if you hadn't performed the autopsy, we would have buried him assuming his heart gave out. If that wasn't an amazing first act, then your second act was discovering two additional connected deaths. I think you made those discoveries with about four hours on the job. I would keep you under contract just to see what your encore will look like. So, hell, no, I don't want you to wrap up the case today!"

  Jill was a little embarrassed with the fulsome praise she had received from Anna.

  Then Anna added a final statement a
s if there were any doubts about her support of Jill, "You are the only person who thought to say something to our family, were worried about our safety, and for that I want to see you through to the end of this case. Any questions?"

  Jill just smiled, touched, knowing that even though the woman was grieving deeply for her husband, she had the energy to worry about her adult children and herself, and to make Jill feel like she walked on water in the investigative world.

  "No ma'am! Okay then let me tell you my overall plan for the next few days. I may be called to do the autopsy on victim three in Placer County. The Sheriff indicated he wanted me to perform an independent autopsy if he could get the husband to agree to an exhumation. I'll be off the clock for you at that time." Anna just nodded, agreeing with the seemingly wise decision by the Placer Sheriff. "I mention in my contract that I have a group of associates that provide part time services for my cases and so they'll be doing internet searches for me. I also have a friend in Germany that runs a high tech security and software company. He has the best facial recognition software in the world. One of my team members has a boyfriend who is a graphic artist and he'll work on the video of the attendants on their way to your husband's office. Once he has the best picture possible, my friend in Germany will run it through his system for identification. "

  All three Valencias were looking at her totally engrossed in what she was saying. Christina broke the intense atmosphere with the comment, "I think I'll quit my day job and join your firm Jill. This sounds like intriguing work."

  "I love the work. I have also collected friends along the way that have an odd collection of skills to aid in my investigations. I have the opportunity to bring justice and truth to families like yours without belonging to a bureaucracy. I can't remember if I mentioned, but my day job is the ownership and operation of Quixotic Winery. The lab on my property helps me in analysis for cases and in formulating organic pest control, and scientific measurement of sugar and other quantities in my Moscato wine."

  "Ok that's it," exclaimed Christina. "I'm running off and joining your circus, Jill!"

  Jill appreciated Christina lightening the mood in the room as they were all smiling at her fanciful description.

  "Ah Christina, I have done my fair share of boring and eye-blinding searches of the internet so I'm afraid the circus is all in your fanciful imagination. I've been chased by an Albanian sniper in a helicopter, but those five minutes of terror are placed against seventy-two hours of mind-numbing work looking for a needle in a hay stack. My advice is to keep your day job."

  Anna had looked worried about her daughter's change of occupation, but then she relaxed with Jill's advice and Jill moved the conversation on, "These killers are obviously angry with the Department of Revenue and I have to think they communicated with it prior to these murders. So I need you to think back to things Manuel said about different clients and let me know if anything sticks out. I'll be searching chat rooms and websites to see if I can find a connection to someone or some group. I'm also going to work on insurance companies. The killers knew about existing medical conditions in their targets and used it to their advantage. This requires a special skill which will help limit our pool of suspects. I hope to hear updates from the detectives and if I don't, I'll have to make a nuisance of myself to get information. I also want names of people that they have letters from that are malicious. I assume that Detective Chang is going to work on getting any video footage from the two restaurants if only to confirm there are just two men involved in this killing spree. I also have a list of notes from my meetings yesterday that I want to turn into an investigational plan pending input from my team members today. On the expense side, I'm going to want to bring at least one of my team members here from Wisconsin. I'd bring them all but I'm not sure that I need their skills yet.

  "Michael, one of my team members is a CPA; we often find in these cases that it is good to follow the money trail," Jill asked thinking she might save her clients some money. "If I need some financial analysis, is that an area of expertise for you and do you know where to look on the internet to find financial information on folks?"

  After a smirk at his sister Michael said, "See Christina, you may be the doctor in the family, but I get to have more fun than you by joining Jill's circus."

  "Children, children, stop fighting now," Anna said with perhaps her first big genuine smile in days.

  Michael with a smile of his own, perhaps pleased to find his mother smiling, looked at Jill and said, "Yes I can help. I'm also a CPA, in addition to being a tax attorney. I need to know both tax code and accounting to understand and advise corporations. While most of my advice is related to how to account for revenues and expenses, I have provided an analysis of Board of Directors member's financial assets to assure a Board that there are no conflicts of interest. Sometimes you have to get pretty deep in personal assets to make that ruling and do some sleuthing to assure yourself that a candidate revealed all assets. While I have rarely performed that analysis, I'm up to the task here."

  "Good to know," Jill noted."I don't have any names to look at yet, I just wanted to know your skill set should I need it. How much longer are you going to be in California? If I need your help, can you do it remotely for me from New York? Do you have the time in your day to do so?"

  "I'm scheduled to return at the end of this weekend. I can extend that but," looking at his mother and sister, "I think all three of us were planning to return to work on Monday. When I return to New York, I'll have a backlog of work, but I believe that everyone will understand if I parcel some it out so that I can give you any analysis you need, Jill. Finding Dad's killer is more important than work."

  Anna reached over to put her hand on Michael's arm in silent thanks, and he responded to the gesture by placing his other hand over his mother's in silent support. Jill had worked with some pretty wonderful clients over the years, and this family was top of the list, a nice cleansing feeling after the bad taste left in her mouth from some of her previous clients that ended up being involved in their family member's murder.

  "Thanks Michael, I have nothing for you to do at the moment; I was just checking your willingness and abilities. I think that is all I have for the moment. Do you have any questions?"

  They shook their heads 'no' and she began to gather up her notes, "Let's hold on meeting tomorrow morning - if I am deep into internet searching, I can do more good staying at home and working. Let me see how this day goes, yesterday's discoveries had me changing directions multiple times during the day."

  "Jill, if you don't mind, we could come to you," Anna suggested, and then laughed as she saw the panicked look on Jill's face. "I won't expect you to lift a finger in your empty kitchen, we could schedule for mid-morning, away from meal times. The kids and I could then go visit the Giant Sequoia Grove at Yosemite; it's our favorite family place where I will always feel Manuel's presence."

  With that last sentence, Jill knew she couldn't say 'no'. "That will work. I'll let you know tonight if I am back in Sacramento tomorrow or working from home."

  A few minutes later Jill was out on the driveway skimming her email to help her decide next steps. As none of the law enforcement agencies had invited her to meetings so far, she decided to head to a Wi-Fi location and finish reading all her email related to the case. It was there she found an email from Lieutenant Moss's assistant asking Jill to contact his office. After checking in with his office, Jill found herself on her way to a building she had never visited before – the California Highway Patrol headquarters on the west side of Sacramento. Lieutenant Moss had taken over a conference room which became the command post charged with protecting the Department of Revenue employees.

  Jill was pleasantly surprised to see what looked to her to be cooperation between various agencies. After introductions were performed, she noted that Detective Chang's supervisor was in the room as well as Deputy Williamson.

  Jill sat down and said, "Gentlemen, what can I do for you?"

>   "We have been meeting and making plans this morning when it occurred to us that we would really benefit by talking to you," Lieutenant Moss explained."There is a strong medical component to these deaths and we have no expertise in that area. Are you still under contract with Mrs. Valencia?"

  "Yes, I am. I suggested she might cancel my services this morning as I think there are several capable law enforcement agencies on the hunt for the killer. She disagreed with my suggestion and so I am actively on the hunt for the killer."

  "Contractually, we would like to work out an arrangement with you to pay you for your time related to the deaths other than Mr. Valencia. Are you willing and able to do that?"

  "Yes, I am. If I'm able to work with your agencies, it will accelerate our finding the killers. You have access to records that I don't and I have access to technology that your agency doesn't so I think it's a win-win for me to work with your group. If you have a contract available right now I can read it and sign it as long as I have no problem with the language in the contract. This does present an accounting problem for me in that I don't know how I've will be able to separate the work done for this agency versus the work done for Mrs. Valencia. In addition I will need to share some of the work in this room with her as I owe her that."

  "I understand your dilemma Dr. Quint and I respect you laying out your concerns at the start," Lieutenant Moss imparted. "Why don't we pay you for any work you do in this room or for this command post and any private meetings with Mrs. Valencia are handled by her contract. I understand she is an attorney and I would like her word that she will not discuss whatever information you choose to share with her beyond herself."

  "Thank you, Lieutenant Moss, for understanding my position," Jill said thinking that she would enjoy working with the Lieutenant. "Two addendums to your request; Mrs. Valencia's adult children are staying with her at the moment and she has shared everything with the two of them. One of the children is an attorney and the other is a physician and I believe we can trust them to keep matters private; secondly I had discussed using her son, Michael, who in addition to being a tax attorney is also a CPA, if I required any financial analysis. Unless you have that resource immediately available to this group, I would recommend we use Michael in that manner. I'm sure he would readily agree to sign the contract as all the family wants is justice for Mr. Valencia.