by Alec Peche
“No.”
“What surprised you at the crime scene?”
“I think the psychology of shooting someone on a golf course. It’s unexpected, exotic, well-planned, and hideous for the spectators that were close by. The second weird surprise was frankly, finding you, Dr. Quint, as a witness to the crime. It was nearly as good as having a cop as a witness.”
“Okay, I think that answers all of my questions. Jill and Marie, can you think of anything I left out?”
They both shook their heads ‘no’.
“I think we are done here,” announced Jill. “We’ll take off and leave you folks to get on with your investigation.”
The women arose and Detective Haro escorted them out of the building.
“So Jill, what do you think of the officers?” asked Angela as they walked to the car.
“Actually, I think they are good. They are doing all the right things, but I didn’t see anything extraordinary. Their lack of experience with homicide is not their fault rather it’s a reflection on the community. As detectives they have a wide range of experience in major crimes including drugs, burglary, and assault. I think the motives are different for homicide. Overall the city is in good hands. What did you guys think of the officers? You have been on enough cases now that you have experience with talented, corrupt, and uncaring officers.”
“I liked them, but I guess when you walk us through your rating scale, I have to agree with you,” said Angela.
“Ditto,” added Marie.
After a short drive they arrived back at Marie’s house to find the progress that Jo, Jack, and Samantha were making. Jo had examined all the public records of Our Lady of Guadalupe Medical Center and concluded the hospital turned a reasonable profit; and the quality and other ratings of the hospital pointed to no problems. Samantha had the passwords of her children’s Facebook pages and she used those to see what Doug’s children had written. Both areas were dead-ends. There was nothing seemingly distressing in the lives of Doug’s children until their father’s death.
They decided to call it a night and get back together early the next day to see where they were. In addition, everyone would bring sturdy shoes as they planned to trample around the woods.
Chapter Seven
Jill and her team and Jack gathered at Marie’s house the next morning. They discussed the murder scene over coffee, muffins, and bagels with cream cheese. Jill decided to go back to the murder scene with Angela. Marie would perform internet searches on the suspect list from the police, the family, and the other three members of Doug’s foursome. Jo was at loose ends and took a cup of tea outside to sit on Marie's patio. She had no legal means to demand financial statements of Doug’s company, the hospital, or Michelle’s business, so she had no documents to analyze. Jack was using some special enhancement techniques to see if there was anything else to be gleaned from the video feed of the forest activity.
As they climbed into the car, Angela wondered, “Do you think the golf course will have cleaned up the mess yet?”
“I think that depends on whether the police have released the scene. If I were the golf course, I would put some soil or sand over the stain and water it. Then I would move the cup as far as I could to the other end of the green. Eventually, I would try to move the green so that the bloodstain becomes a part of the fairway or the rough. I’m sure it will creep out many golfers for years to come to know that they are playing the green of a notorious murder.”
Angela shuddered and agreed, “I bet that this golf outing sets up some kind of memorial to Doug - maybe serve his favorite drink, or have some kind of contest that contributes dollars to his favorite charity. He was loved and respected by too many people for his presence not to be noted at this event.”
“That’s a sad thought, but respectful. Hey, before we turn into the golf course, let’s check out that side road to examine where the shooter exited the woods last night.”
“Sounds like a plan,” replied Angela as she made the turns onto the street. She drove straight ahead and now they could see where the shooter had come out of the woods and skirted the trees only to re-enter at a different point. Unless someone had been standing on the front lawn watching, it would have been easy for someone to transverse the distance and not be noticed. She took a few pictures to supplement the pictures they had printed from google earth. Jack had also been able to print a few frames of the shooter walking, but those were overhead shots. Jill then noticed the for-sale sign in the front yard.
“I wonder if the house is occupied?” pondered Jill. “Let’s go knock on the front door and see if anyone is home. We could say that we’re interested in the property - especially the exterior and would the occupant mind if we had a look a look around.”
“Good story,” agreed Angela as they approached the door.
Jill pressed the doorbell twice with no sound or activity to be heard beyond the door chimes. They walked around a little and could see the house was completely empty with no furniture inside.
“Well, that’s good news,” noted Jill. "We can walk around at leisure here; in fact we should be able to visit the green from here. I wonder if the killer knew this house was empty and therefore he wouldn’t be under observation when he left."
They spent the next hour exploring paths through the woods looking for evidence and came to the conclusion that either the police had been here before them and collected all relevant information, or the killer had left nothing at the scene.
“Let’s go over to the green. I hope the course is closed so that I can place people in their proper positions. We really need a third person. Let’s see if Jo is available to join us.”
“What we really need are people who are the same height as the players yesterday,” Angela pointed-out. “Do you know how tall Doug was and what is your guess as to the height of the shooter? Did the killer shoot straight across or did the bullet go on an upwards trajectory suggesting a shorter height? You may want her to bring a short ladder, milk crate, or stepping stool if we need to get the shooter’s height right.”
“Those are excellent points, Angela. As I recall from the police report, I believe it stated that he was five feet eleven inches tall, and the bullet traveled in essentially a straight line. So that would lead me to think that either the killer was tall or was standing on something. Let’s see if she can bring two milk crates. She can stand on one on the green, I’ll stand where I was standing when we heard the sound of the gun firing, and you can be in the woods checking out the angles.”
“That will work, I’ll give Jo a call now and we’ll see what we can arrange,” replied Angela.
About fifteen minutes later, Jo arrived on the scene with crates in hand. She also had a toy telescope that Marie’s nephews had left at her house that would be useful in sighting the kill view. While waiting for Jo to arrive, Angela and Jill had viewed the hole and it appeared that the golf course was closed for the day as they saw no one playing on any of the fairways.
Soon, they were all in place according to their memories of the previous day and after perhaps twenty minutes of position adjustments they were able to guess where the killer had stood. If the killer moved much to the right or left they would have hit Jill or the bullet would have hit the side of Doug’s face. If the killer stepped forward they would have been seen, if the killer stepped back, tree branches were in the way.
Jill knelt down to examine the foliage and ground. She did not see any crushed leaves or footprints. She looked for tracks away from where they thought the shooter was standing. Certainly there should be a footprint toward the exit from the woods. There had been rain recently and the ground was naturally soft. With the aid of a large flashlight in addition to the bright sun, made the tree-shaded ground as illuminated as possible. Jill lifted up a branch and found a solid footprint underneath. It looked fresh and moldable. She measured another two to three feet and found another footprint. They then followed the path of footprints to the edge of the woods where t
hey were lost to the grass.
"Maybe I’ll give the Detectives a call and see if they’re interested in these footprints. They might tell us if the shoes were male or female and that might provide us with information," Jill thought aloud.
Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed Detective Van Bruggin and the phone rang then went to voicemail. So, then she dialed Detective Haro’s number with better results.
“Detective Haro.”
“Hi detective, this is Jill Quint from the murder investigation.”
“Yes, what can I do for you?”
“Angela, Jo, and I have been examining the crime scene this morning and we think we found some footprints that might be worth casting.”
“Where are you specifically?”
“In the woods, where the killer stood and fired the gun.”
She heard a sigh on the end of the phone followed by, “Why are you at the murder scene?”
Jill had to sigh now with the ridiculousness of that question.
“Doing my job; conducting an investigation. There is no police tape here so I am not violating any police procedures. Let me repeat, there are some footprints in the woods that might belong to the killer. Are you interesting in casting them?”
“Yes,” came his short answer. “I’ll be on the scene with a crime tech within the hour.”
“Thank you,” Jill responded and she disconnected the call.
Looking over at Angela and Jo, she explained, “He’ll be here within an hour so we are at loose ends here for the time being.”
The temperature was in the low 60s and, like yesterday, they could see the sun’s heat burning away the morning mist. Looking around, they could view displays of tulips decorating the course. There was a light breeze with no discernable scent. Given the many dairy farms in the state, it was a blessing not to have the smell of manure in the air.
“Why don’t we have a seat on that bench and give thought to who potentially could be the killers,” suggested Angela. “I don’t like the thought that Michelle is their top suspect. It seems like they defaulted to her for a lack of anyone else. Could she have done the shooting from a technical view point?”
“Yes and no. She is capable of hauling a crate into the woods,” replied Jill. “She may or may not be a good enough shooter. If the footprints and the image of the suspect skirting the woods are correct, I don’t see how it could be Michelle. Sure she could have worn extra-large shoes, but let’s go to the front and see if we can figure out the height of the shooter based on the landmarks like trees. Michelle would have a hard time having the natural walk we observed on the video clip in shoes too big or being much taller than her five feet four inches. That of course doesn’t release her from the suspect list as she simply could have hired out the kill shot.”
“That’s depressing,” declared Angela. “I thought I had reasoned she couldn’t be the killer based on the reasons you cited, but I forgot she could hire the kill shot! Crap.”
“Who else should be high on our list?” Jo questioned. “I am always keen on the money angle. Whose pot of money would be impacted by some action of Doug that the killer needed to insure did not occur? Again we would look to his family first - perhaps a life insurance policy. Next I would look at any business partners, both partners at work and partners in any private holdings like real estate.”
“We need to interview Michelle when we are done here to answer Jo’s questions,” Angela remarked. “It would be great to slip in a question about gun shooting skills. Jo, you are best at slipping in innocuous questions so that no one notices.”
“Ha,” Jo grunted.
“Let’s lay out our questions for Michelle,” Jill suggested. “We could give her a call to arrange an appointment, but I really have no idea how long we’ll be involved with the police. Let me find pen and paper in my purse and we will work on our questions.”
They had worked on their questions for perhaps twenty minutes when they looked up to see a golf cart coming their way containing Detective Haro and another fellow, perhaps the crime scene technician.
They stood up awaiting their approach. The crime scene tech was introduced as Sam and he was carrying a large toolbox.
Detective Haro asked, “Tell me again, in great detail, what you are doing here this morning."
Jill, never one to back down from an investigation, replied, “Detective Haro, can you point out the crime scene tape that we have violated?”
“Excuse me? I don’t understand your question. There is no crime scene tape here," puzzled Detective Haro.
"Exactly my point. You're acting as though we have violated a crime scene. My team and I are group of professionals who are here to get at the truth. We are not here to tamper with evidence."
"Let me apologize for my brusqueness this morning. As you can imagine with so few murders in this city, we are under tremendous pressure to solve this case immediately. Between you and me, I don't think we have any legitimate suspects yet. Our number one suspect, Michelle, has an iron clad alibi for the time of the shooting. The police chief is not happy with us nor is the mayor, and probably Doug's friends and family are not happy with our progress either. Let's start over with a new question. What have you and your team uncovered that will contribute to solving this crime?" asked the detective with a small smile.
Jill understood the position that the detective was in and recognized it was time to move on. "We knew we wanted to visit the green again this morning after viewing the satellite pictures last night. Out of curiosity, we drove over to Money Lane to look at the house and the property where the shooter exited the woods yesterday. The house is for sale and is unoccupied. We left Angela's car there and followed the woods around to the green here. As the golf course appears to be closed, we have had unfettered access to try and understand the crime scene.
"Jo stood on the green where Doug was shot. I stood on the tee box where I had been standing yesterday when we heard the gun go off. Based on the preliminary autopsy results, the position of the gun’s muzzle was level with Doug's forehead. Using that milk crate,” pointed Jill, “we determined the height of the gun and location in the woods. It wasn't hard as there are few options given the positions of the trees that would block the movement of a bullet. After we determined the location of the shooter, I put on my micro goggles to examine the soil between where we believe the shooter stood and where he or she walked to exit the woods. By lifting up some broken branches, we found three footprints that are recent and could be casted to be used for shoe identification. I know this is a long shot, but I'm hoping that it might help us identify whether the shooter is male or female, and potentially their height and weight."
"Ladies, that is excellent detective work. We ordered the golf course closed today because we wanted to come back and look at the crime scene some more. We removed the tape because we believed we had collected every clue available on the green yesterday. That also gave the golf course manager the ability to clean up the green. You appear to have done our work for us on identifying the position of the shooter. Thank you. Let's hear your results."
Forty-five minutes later, Sam, the crime scene tech, had collected three shoe imprint plasters. Those impressions would be photographed and sent to the state crime lab for matching.
Sam indicated, "It will take about two days to receive a response from the state crime lab. They generally like to match a specific shoe to an impression; it was much more difficult to match an impression to as yet non-identified shoe."
The five of them spent an additional twenty minutes on the front side of the woods looking for evidence before they turned their attention to the backside of the woods. Jill had a picture on her phone from Jack. The picture pinpointed where the suspected shooter reentered the woods. No one had explored this area yet in the investigation. They had good sunlight streaming through the trees providing perhaps the best light of the day to look for evidence. They found matching footprints to the front area of the woods. In fact, by measuring
the length of the stride they could approximate the height of the killer. Using trees as markers from the satellite pictures and the killers stride, they estimated his or her height at five feet eleven inches.
Better still there was a second candy bar wrapper located and it was the same type of candy as was found the previous day. It had not rained overnight and thus the candy bar wrapper was in good shape.
"Detective Haro, have you received a fingerprint analysis of the first candy wrapper that we found yesterday?” asked Jill.
“Sam, I haven't heard back from the lab as to a fingerprint match. What happened with the candy bar wrapper?"
Sam replied, "We dusted the wrapper and found probably ten different prints on the wrapper. Of those ten, we only have two on file. The other eight fingerprints come from people that do not have their fingerprints on file in any law enforcement agency which is not unusual.”
“Who are the two people?” asked Jill. “What is their reason for having touched the candy bar?”
“One person works as a clerk at a convenience store. The other is a local high school student and we haven’t figured out his connection to the wrapper. We are contacting him this morning to clarify that.”
“A high school student?” mused Jill. “Why would he have his fingerprints on file? Did he have a juvenile record?”
“No juvenile record. He has worked several kid camps and all of those employees get fingerprinted - minor or not.”
"Do you know how tall the minor is?" questioned Jill. “That might rule him out."
"I know the kid because he attends the same school as my son and plays with him on the basketball team. He is six feet two inches tall."
"Then I would say that rules the minor out as he is likely too tall to be the person walking around the edge of the woods," Jill concluded.
"Like I say I know the kid and I can't imagine him being Dr. Easley’s killer. I also agree that he's too tall and lanky to be our suspect from the satellite images."