by Alec Peche
She looked over at the murder board since they were all staring at it in silence and asked, “What are the little notes for?”
“While you were getting our dinner, we thought of two things to do with this case,” Angela answered gesturing at the board. “We are putting the names or at least the roles of people that may be involved in this case to the side not knowing where you wanted that information on your murder board.”
“Great idea!” exclaimed Jill. “What was the second idea?”
“We thought we should invite additional people here after we eat dinner. Marie has wine and popcorn in plentiful supply. We thought my friend, Ann, and her mom since they know everyone in town, Marie was adding her sister who has kids at Doug’s school. Jo was going to add Jack so we can bounce ideas off of him and have him available for a wine run if we run out. Oh, and we added a picture of the rifle you mentioned.”
“Wow, you guys were very productive while I was gone,” Jill approved. “ As far as adding additional people, I think that is a good idea, but in an effort to protect the victim and his family, I think we all need to take an oath on a Bible swearing that we will not discuss the facts of the case outside of this room. We owe that to Doug and Michelle and the kids. Gossip could be very harmful to them”
There was a chorus of agreement from the three friends on the oath. “Okay let’s dig into this wonderful dinner and then you can make calls to your friends and family and bring them in on the case. I really am going to have everyone swear on a Bible, so perhaps after dinner, Marie, if you can find one, we’ll plan on having a swear-in ceremony with each new arrival. Will anyone be unable to handle the picture of Doug dead?”
“I don’t think so, but we’ll check their feelings at the door and turn the picture over if we have to,” Angela replied. “When I first started working on these cases with you, the pictures really disturbed me, but then I came to realize that they help us focus on helping the victim and his or her family and I think that will be the feeling of everyone that we have invited here.”
“Okay sounds like a plan,” Jill noted. “I have one more set of pictures I would like to add to our murder board. Let me get a picture of the third green and the fourth tee box, and the woods we believe the killer departed through.”
“Why don’t I print those out for you as well as the golf course guide so we can trace our steps from when Angela shook hands with Doug, until he lay dead on the green.”
“That is a great suggestion Marie! By the way my volcano chicken is fabulous. How is everyone else’s meal?”
When Jill got approving nods from her friends, she continued, “You guys know I don’t like spicy foods, so it must seem odd that I crave this recipe whenever I come to town.”
Jo grinned, “We live in hope that you will learn to like spicy food due to repeated exposure to volcano chicken. So eat away!”
Jill grinned back, “I hate to tell you but it is not working. My English heritage craves bland food. Besides my heritage, I told you that I have more taste buds per millimeter on my tongue; so a little black pepper comes across as a jalapeno pepper. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”
Chapter Five
Soon they were all cleaning up their mess, storing the excess in the refrigerator and opening a bottle of wine. The doorbell rang and it was Marie’s sister. Marie had outlined the case when she called Samantha, but before she went in to the kitchen, Jill had her swear to keep the conversation about the story of the murder limited to her sister’s house. Jill could tell that Samantha was vacillating between feeling foolish and aggrieved that she had to go so far as to swear on a Bible. Jack arrived just as they completed Samantha’s swearing-in ceremony and the whole ritual was repeated with him. They were then checked as to their tolerance for the gruesome murder pictures and both had no qualms. They had just settled in the kitchen and Jill was about to walk them through the murder board, when Angela’s friend Ann and her mother Mary arrived. They were not pleased with the Bible swearing ceremony, either but forgot their affront once they were handed a glass of wine and viewed the murder board.
Jill took the lead with the explanation, “As you all know, the four of us assist with murder investigations on a part-time basis. Angela, Jo, and Marie put their collective heads together and thought each of you would bring something to the table to help us solve this murder. The police are also working on it, but we can sometimes solve it faster than they do due to the unique skills in this room. Today, we had the misfortune to be on the tee box next to where a murder took place on a green. The victim’s wife, Michelle, hired us at no charge to work on her husband’s case. Sorry that we made you go through the bible swearing oath, but we really need to not talk about this case outside of this kitchen.”
Jill paused and looked for nods which she got.
"Let me take you through the murder board and the events that have transpired thus far." Just as Jill finished recounting the events of the day, she heard her email alert and glanced at her phone. Recognizing the message was from the satellite company in Colorado, she excused herself from the group, saying "just a moment, I've been waiting for this message and need to respond immediately." Half the group nodded understanding and the other half looked at her in puzzlement.
Jill was pleased with their response and typed off a reply.
Looking up she added “that was good news, the satellite company can get me pictures of the woods. They are going to do it for free as long as I commit to share the photos with the police. They see this as a marketing opportunity. Why wouldn’t we share the photos with the police?”
“What are the satellite pictures for?” asked Ann looking puzzled.
“Sorry, I didn’t explain that avenue of investigation. In recent years, there have been private companies launching satellites into earth’s orbit for a wide variety of reasons - weather, communications, or spying. I had heard that private citizens, for non-military reasons could purchase satellite images. I did an internet search and found a company in Colorado that seemed to fit the bill. So I sent them an email asking if they would have the images for a fifteen minute period of time for the woods adjacent to Mystery Hills golf course. They have the images and will share them with us. I have no idea how sharp they are, but they might provide us with information about the suspect’s identity.”
“Are you also getting them for when the killer entered the woods?” Jack asked.
“I had thought about asking for that, but I decided against it for a couple of reasons. I would have to get several hours of photos since we have no idea when he entered the woods. Did the killer know what foursome that Doug was in? That certainly would have been easy information to get - the shooter could have called the clubhouse, indicated that he or she was running late and need to know what hole he was starting on. Perhaps the shooter stood in the woods and looked through his scope at each foursome looking for Doug. About one-third of the golfers were women, so he could have eliminated them easily, but it seems unorganized to study each man of each foursome for Doug’s visage. By the time we arrived at the hole, fifteen foursomes would have played the third hole. If I were the killer, I would have gotten there at the start just in case any last minute foursome changes were made. I would have still casually studied the visages of every man in every foursome, but I would have felt secure that I expected to see Doug when I did.”
“So you would like all of us to help solve this murder by trying to get inside the mind of a killer to figure out what they would have done,” Jack concluded.
“I don’t know if I would wish that on anyone - being inside a killer’s head, but I suppose in a way I am asking you to think about what you would do logistically to set up this murder. Actually, we thought that each of you brought different skills to the table. Jack, you're a good listener so we brought you here to bounce off ideas and keep us supplied in wine. Ann and Mary, you know so many people in this community and we thought you could supply us with information about the players involved
in this case. Samantha, you know Doug through the connection of your kids and his kids.”
"Okay, I understand where you're going," Jack smiled. "I'm going to take my procurement of wine very seriously and start by asking you ladies if you have sufficient wine at the moment?"
The ladies in question held up their wine glasses toasting his question.
Jill’s cell phone dinged indicating an e-mail arrival. “I hope these are the pictures from the satellite company."
Taking a moment, she looked at the content of the e-mail and then moved over to the larger screen of the laptop sitting on the kitchen island.
"This is our largest screen to look at the images on; let me pull up the pictures.”
"You know, I could bring additional value to you ladies," Jack smirked. "I am a graphic artist and I likely could manipulate the pictures better and faster than you, Jill."
"Jack! How could I have forgotten your skills in this area?" Jill exclaimed. "Okay I have revised our game plan to solve this mystery and I have reassigned the wine procurement to Angela. All joking aside, I'm really sorry that I forgot how valuable you could be with satellite images. Let me forward the e-mail to you and you can load the images on whichever computer makes sense."
They all gathered around Jack as he first pulled up his e-mail account and then a graphics program that Jill had never heard of. There were three files each containing five minute video segments of the satellite’s view of Mystery Hills golf course.
"By my recollection, we heard the sound of the gun shot at about 12:13pm,” Marie guessed. "Angela, what's the timestamp on your picture?"
"I took a picture of you guys on the green of the third hole at 12:07pm. I took a picture of Doug at 12:17pm. So I think your guess is a good approximation.”
Jack turned around and asked Angela, “When you took the picture of everyone standing on the green, in which direction were you aiming your camera?”
"Jack, you're getting quick in the mode of investigation. That's a very good question," Angela said as she held out her camera viewer screen and pulled up the picture in question for him to view.
"Let me pull out the satellite video and we'll move on to your camera next," said Jack as he opened the first video. Using this software program, he sped through the five minutes determining that no person was seen leaving the woods. Jill had an incredible urge to ask him to slow down the video, but she told herself that he was an expert in looking at images and therefore he knew what he was doing. He loaded the second segment and again they all watched the image in high-speed. This time Jill had to agree there was nothing in the segment. This was the segment that covered 12:13pm, but who knew if their clocks were synchronized. The third segment played out the same way. Again no one was seen exiting the woods.
Jill pondered this lack of evidence and then said aloud, "Do you think we got the time wrong? Do you think the shooter could've stayed longer? I'll have to get a copy of the police report to see what they wrote. It felt like they walked into the woods at about 12:20pm. These videos represent 12:08pm to12:22pm, so they should cover the time period.”
“We went into the woods ourselves wondering how the killer departed and we determined that the only way out was towards the house on the right,” Marie stated. “What if we are wrong and there is another exit? Were there any tree stands that we missed? Could someone have climbed a tree while the police and the four of us stood below him or her at some point?”
“Now that idea creeps me out,” said Jo with a shudder. “I may never go out into the woods again.”
“Those are good suggestions, Marie,” nodded Jill. “Let’s watch the videos again and see if there is any movement at any other exits.”
This time they watched the videos at regular speed and each person watching the screen staked out a section of the video to keep watch on. Again they were disappointed as they didn’t see any movement.
“We need to go back to the woods tomorrow and search again,” Marie proposed. “Could the shooter have been so bold as to step out on the fourth hole in golfer’s clothes and casually walk away? Or, did he or she hide up in the trees?”
“Let’s study the video again to see if we see movement at the front of the wooded area that wasn’t you ladies,” Jack suggested. “In fact let’s study your movements. We should be able to see you guys drop to the ground if we have the right video feed.”
For the third time, they again studied the video segments. Jack was right; they should have been able to see themselves drop to the ground, but there was nothing. Not a single person could be viewed anywhere on the screen.
“Well this is strange. None of us are on the video,” puzzled Jill. “I will concede that there are times when no one would be on that golf course, but even after we left, I would have thought the police would have taken another look at the woods, and the golf course maintenance, if they were cleared to do so by the detectives, would have had to clean up the green. Any other theories as to what happened in the woods?”
“I think you need to contact the satellite service and asked them to confirm that the tape you are looking at is today's date in the central time zone," suggested Jack. "Let's eliminate the technical problems that could have occurred with the satellite feed first. I don't believe there is technology yet that could be used to block an orbiting satellite from collecting routine pictures. There are thousands of satellites within our orbit; so in addition to blocking the satellite, you would first have to figure out which satellite is recording this section of Earth. And it's likely that several satellites are trained on these coordinates."
"Those are great suggestions, Jack!" agreed Jill. “I'll contact them now and see what I can find out."
Jill stepped into the living room to make the call to the satellite company. She explained her problem to the technician. With a little research on his end, he was able to determine that while the date on the video feed was correct, the time was actually about two hours earlier due to an error in the company's part. They would be sending her the video for the correct time within the next ten minutes. Jill returned to the kitchen and the conversation that was going on therein.
“Hey Jill, I was just updating everyone on the current state of Our Lady,” said Ann as Jill entered the kitchen. “I don't think Angela told you, but I'm on the board for the hospital. Doug gave a presentation on 'quality measurements in a healthcare setting' during a board member orientation that I attended last month. I was really impressed with his passion about the patients at Our Lady.”
"Angela did forget to tell me of your service to the board, and now, I'm happier than ever that you've joined us in this investigation.” noted Jill. "The satellite company did indeed make a mistake on the time zone. The feed they sent us was from two hours earlier when all the golfers were in or near the clubhouse waiting for the starter's pistol to go off."
Jill looked down at her phone to see an incoming message from the satellite company which she promptly forwarded to Jack.
“Jack, it's all yours to work your magic with,” said Jill as she hit the ‘send’ key.
Jack brought this latest round of images up on his computer and again went through his fast paced review of each video clip. He saw nothing in the first video to make him slow down. Close to the start of the second video clip, he slowed the video down, then stopped, backed-up and the entire room leaned closer to watch in super slow motion as someone left the woods and walked towards the house as they had theorized. What happened next they had not expected…
“It looks like a man and it looks like he might be carrying a rifle, but that could be wishful thinking on my part,” Marie said peering intently and pointing at the screen. “We need to look at more footage, because it looks to me like he is skirting the woods with a plan to re-enter them just north of this house. Jill, this was a brilliant idea to request this footage.”
“Jack, can you enlarge or get better resolution to this picture?" asked Angela.
“Why don’t you let me p
lay with the images for a few minutes while I can see if I can bring the gun into focus. I don’t know that we’ll ever get enough resolution to see the person’s face as the picture is shot from overhead.”
“Good point! Let’s glean all we can out of these videos, then I’ll give Detective Van Bruggin a call to let him know we have some evidence for him."
In the end, they decided they could agree that this was likely the killer, that the killer knew the area based on how he or she walked along the edge of the woods, and that indeed the person on screen was carrying a rifle in his or her hands. The satellite company would have additional footage by email in another ten minutes. It was taking longer this time as they were verifying that it picked up where the other video clip left off. Having embarrassed themselves with the wrong time zone, they didn’t want to repeat the error.
Jill pulled the detective’s business card out of her purse and dialed his number.
“Detective Van Bruggin,” sounded the detective’s voice over Jill’s mobile phone speaker.
“Hi detective, this is Jill Quint. I was at the crime scene this afternoon.”
“Yes, of course, I know who you are,” was the brusque reply.
“Yes, well we contacted a satellite company in Colorado to see if they had footage of the golf course at the time of the shooting.”
“Who is the ‘we’, and why would you think a satellite company would have footage let alone share it with you?”
“Actually, detective, they did share it on condition that I notify you that we have it. Which is what I am doing with this phone call. If you would like to see it with the aide of an expert video technician available to manipulate it, I can give you the address of where we are. If you would just like me to email it in its raw form, give me your email address and we’ll consider ourselves to have met the company’s request.”
There was a long pause.
“Detective?” asked Jill not sure what to make of the silence.
“Yeah, well I was just thinking,” with a sigh he added, “give me your address.”