by Kirk Russell
‘I’ve got her statement and I’ll send it to you as soon as we get off the phone, but let me read you her description in case there’s something to talk about. Oh, and I guess it takes you to get the skulls released to us. They said you have to sign off on it.’
‘I’ll do it today.’
‘Perfect. OK, so here are her words. Ready?’
‘Go ahead.’
‘I snuck out of the house to meet my boyfriend. He couldn’t take his car because his dad would have heard it. We rode bikes out to the river road. There was a moon so it was OK and when we got closer there was mud on the road so we left the bikes in trees and walked. Just in time too because there were headlights coming and we hid as a car passed us. Jody says it was a Subaru.’
Different than the farmer, Jacobs, Raveneau thought, but the shape at that distance was similar in some ways.
‘He parked and wasn’t super close to us, but he was pretty close and we could see him put on a light on his head like those things people wear when they go down in the caves. He took this backpack with him, you know, wearing it. He’s tallish and not real big, sort of thin. We couldn’t see his face and he walked this really still way that creeped me out. He was like a zombie. That’s what I remember most and how weird it was with the light on his head when he bent over a casket. We could hear when he opened them and it was freaky. Jody wanted to go stop him, but I didn’t let him do it.
‘We knew he was putting something in his backpack but we didn’t know what it was until later when we heard the news and I’m really sorry I didn’t come tell you sooner. He made like three trips to his car and on the last time he put the backpack inside and drove away. It wasn’t like he was in any real hurry or afraid of getting caught. He was fussing around in the back of the car like he had groceries or something he didn’t want to spill over when he drove away. He cleaned off his shoes and was careful to get everything the way he wanted it before he left. Then he just drove away slowly.’
‘Three trips,’ Raveneau said. ‘Jacobs’ account is at four thirty in the morning. Can you try to pin the time down with her a little more? And what about a partial license plate?’
‘They couldn’t see well enough.’
‘Could she tell if they were out of state or were they Missouri plates?’
‘She says no.’
‘Let’s try to get in touch with the boyfriend. If he knows it was a Subaru, maybe he registered something about the plates.’
Raveneau was standing by the fax machine when la Rosa came in. As they talked, the fax machine began to clack. Raveneau picked up the statement from the teenage witness and handed that to her, and the next fax had a list of the skulls now identified. One of the names on the list all but jumped off the page, yet he still had to read it two or three times before handing the list to la Rosa. ‘Check out the names.’
La Rosa read and then read aloud, ‘Attis Martin. This is a break.’
‘It is except there are no secrets here. They’ll know in Missouri if they don’t already know who has been identified and that’s going to find its way into a TV report or some media. Our guy here, Attis version two, is going to find out.’ Raveneau had another thought. ‘We’ll have to release something here about identifying the skulls and that should shutdown the serial killer talk.’
‘Does this interrupt their plot, if there really is one?’
‘Who knows.’
La Rosa shook her head like she was trying to get rid of something and then pushed her hair back. ‘This is all just too weird.’
It was but they were starting to figure out what to do with it. Raveneau let Coe know four more skulls were identified and that they had a Missouri connection. At his desk he looked over the list of names again. Then he got a text from Brandon Lindsley. Lindsley wrote: ‘New information.’
Raveneau texted back and told la Rosa, ‘I’m going to meet him at his apartment this afternoon.’
‘He’s texting you an hour after we learn one of the skulls belonged to an Attis Martin. This is going to sound crazy, but do you think there’s any chance he knows we just got this fax?’
‘No.’
‘The timing spooks me. That cot in the bomb shelter was used how many times?’
‘There are four blood types.’
That report was on Raveneau’s desk this morning. A positive, A negative, O positive, which was the same type as Coryell but probably too old, and the last was AB negative, which was still among the common eight types but more rare. Coryell was O positive but not only was the DNA match negative but the working theory was the blood that drenched the cot mattress did so over a span of more or less twenty years, though that was rough science, an estimation and the best they could do.
Raveneau hoped they were going to learn a lot more from the cot. But they could say now that whoever placed the skulls and cellphone did so years after anyone bled on the mattress, and Raveneau gravitated to the probable, that the mattress and skulls were not necessarily connected; same location but different events.
La Rosa was still on Lindsley’s timing. ‘Within minutes of this fax, he’s texting you.’
‘I’ve been texting with him all day and yesterday, too. He’s starting to worry.’
‘If he’s worrying he knows more than he’s told us.’
‘Oh, he does, and that’s the dance we’re doing. I’m trying to bring him over. That’s what he and I are going to talk about this afternoon.’
‘I’m coming with you.’
‘On this one I’ve got to go alone. I’ve got to be one on one with him. I get the feeling the clock is running down on whatever Attis has planned and we’ve got to get Lindsley to come across.’
TWENTY-SEVEN
Lindsley lived in the upper unit of a two-story apartment building on Miller Avenue in Mill Valley. The building was one of those you might notice driving by but were unlikely to remember. It sat back from the street with parking in front and around to one side. It was shingled with white trim and a green asphalt roof that had faded. There were stairs but no elevator and Lindsley was on the second floor in a two-bedroom that faced the street and the commercial enterprises lining it. If he wanted to get a coffee to-go, walk to the dentist, or get his nails done, he was all set.
He was ready when Raveneau called and said, ‘I’m here,’ and then knocked on his door a few minutes later. A friend of Lindsley’s who was visiting was a little less ready. She acted shocked and angry and Raveneau heard her say so as she dressed in Lindsley’s bedroom with the door partially closed. Lindsley grinned through her stream of invective and looked happy. He wove anxiety into his text messages, but Raveneau didn’t read it on his face right now.
Lindsley wore jeans, sandals, and a long-sleeved, green T-shirt with a black and gold dragon emblazoned on the back. His friend opened the bedroom door a moment later, let it slam against the wall, and left the front door wide open as she walked out. She offered one last loud word. ‘Asshole,’ echoed in the corridor.
‘That’s my new neighbor,’ Lindsley said. ‘I didn’t tell her you were coming over.’
‘I got that.’
‘Let me shut the door.’ He did and when he turned it was as if Raveneau was talking to another person. Lindsley’s face changed. ‘I want to make a deal,’ he said. ‘I’ve learned some things from Attis the police need to know about.’
‘Start with where he is.’
‘I don’t know. Everything is prepaid cellphones now and the conversations are short.’ Lindsley crossed the room, slid a phone off a bookcase shelf and tossed it on his couch. ‘He gave me that. He said everything is on the go path and we’ve started the countdown.’
‘Is he launching a space shuttle?’
‘I’m not messing with you, that’s exactly what he said and I know from other conversations everything is timed around when Ann Coryell disappeared. We’re almost there. It’s just a few days from now. All I can do is try to help you find him. Take that phone if you want or I’ll keep i
t and call him when you tell me to. Tell me what to do. I’m not asking for anything other than to be protected.’
‘Protected from what?’
‘From going down with them when they get arrested for whatever insane thing they have planned.’ Lindsley tapped his chest then crouched on the edge of his couch. ‘My ambition is to write popular history books just like Lash only better. I know these guys from an online chat room and I’ve seen them socially a bit over the last I don’t know how many years, but they’ve got their own deal going. I’m not part of whatever they’re planning. Whatever it is they’re pretty sure it’s going to work.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘From listening to Attis, from the attitude, you need to find them. Watching me isn’t going to do it. Look at this over here from the window.’ He waited for Raveneau to walk over. ‘See that white van up the street? You have to stand where I am to see it. Is that SFPD or is that someone else? I don’t think SFPD would be staking me out over a cold case.’
He turned and stared and didn’t look like any history PhD candidate Raveneau had ever met. Lindsley’s face was surprising, something raw about it when he got animated, none of the nervous agility of his friend, Attis Martin. And when sitting quiet Lindsley’s face had a blunt solid look to it like stone, his eyes faraway, returning nothing.
‘I don’t want to make you angry,’ Lindsley said, ‘and Attis is no genius, but he’s bright and he’s smarter than you.’
‘Great.’
‘I’m just telling you, and Ike has probably already hacked her way into whatever he needs. They’re not afraid of you. About a year ago they were analyzing police surveillance techniques and supposedly that was just out of curiosity, but it was about this. They give me little bites always sort of testing me to see where I’m at. They’ve thought ahead. They’ve planned.’
‘For what?’
‘I don’t really know. I just know I don’t want to be part of it or them.’
‘Well, I’m all ears, and by the way that van isn’t ours. It probably belongs to the florist it’s parked out in front of.’
‘Their van has their name on it.’ He turned from the window. ‘You’re underestimating them and it’s a mistake.’
‘I’m still waiting to hear what they’re going to do.’
‘They’re planning to try to kill people.’
‘How do you know that?’
Lindsley shook his head. He didn’t want to go there. He wanted to allude to but not reveal what he knew and Raveneau wasn’t going any farther that way.
‘Until you come across, we’re nowhere,’ Raveneau said. ‘Do you have knowledge that they placed the iPhone and the skulls in the bomb shelter and that the phone threat came from them? It’s that simple, Brandon. You’ve got to give us something and we’ll want it on tape and then we’ll start working with you. We won’t make any promises until we know everything, but if you show good faith we will too.’
‘Attis asked me once years ago if I knew about a fallout shelter. Somehow he knew about it. When I introduced him to Professor Lash it seemed like they already knew each other, so maybe he and Lash had contact I never knew about.’
‘When did you introduce them?’
‘It’s going to make me a liar.’
‘Think of it as a spiritual cleansing and crossing to the police boundary.’
‘I introduced them a long time ago at a party at Lash’s house in 2002 when Ann was still alive.’
‘Was she at the party?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘OK, a decade ago in 2002 and Ann was still alive. When was this party?’
‘On Memorial Day.’
Raveneau felt a rush of excitement and hid it. It just might be and it would give them an opening and he knew what was coming next, but he asked the question anyway. ‘Was Attis a student?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, so what’s his real name?’ When Lindsley hesitated, Raveneau said, ‘We know it’s not Attis Martin.’
‘Alan Siles.’
Raveneau nodded, showed nothing. Alan Siles, the name Lindsley used with Marion Coryell, and for a moment he wondered if Marion had called Lindsley and confronted him. But he didn’t think so. She was humiliated to the point of shame for having been taken in and tricked by Lindsley. She was very proud and he doubted she would carry that humiliation any farther. It would soon turn to hate.
Lindsley cleared his throat. ‘We weren’t friends. I didn’t hang with him and I didn’t know what he wanted with Lash other than to meet him. He didn’t tell me anything.’
‘Did he know Ann?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you certain of that?’
‘Yes, and what’s funny about this keeps going through my head is that Albert knows all of this. He could tell you.’
‘He doesn’t know about the plot. Was Siles enrolled at Cal?’
Lindsley nodded. ‘He was a visiting student from McGill. He had some project he was working on and was at Cal for that. I don’t know if he stayed or went back or what, but Albert would probably remember. He has a very good memory for students.’
‘Canada, McGill University.’
‘Yeah, where Leonard Cohen went.’
‘I need you to flesh this out. Did he get to know Lash, was he at the house often after you introduced them, and where else did you have contact with him?’ Raveneau sat and wrote notes. At some point he’d have to take Lindsley back to the homicide office, but not yet. Lindsley didn’t want to leave here and he wanted him to keep talking.
‘I don’t know how close he and Albert got. Close, I think, and he was around and he didn’t really talk to me much. Most of my contact with Alan in the last five years has been online.’ Lindsley paused. He glanced over at Raveneau and then stared at the big window facing the street as if inwardly debating. ‘You’re right, Alan knows about the bomb shelter and he’s been in there. He talks to me like I showed it to him, but that’s his way of trying to keep me in line. Do you know what I mean? It’s like a threat where I’m supposed to hear that he doesn’t really care what happens to him and he wants me to know that he can take me with him just by saying whatever he wants to the police. Albert must have showed it to him or maybe they went down into it together.
‘After Lash sold the house and the house was in escrow, Alan knew who had bought it. He knew it was a Chicago couple. He knew they had hired an architect and planned an extensive remodel that was going to need all the approvals that would drag out the process for a couple of years. He knew there’d be a big gap between when they moved out and the start of construction. He said that to me once and it was obvious that mattered to him and I was supposed to ask why. But I didn’t.’
‘When was that?’
‘I don’t even remember. We were getting coffee somewhere in San Francisco.’
‘You need to remember where.’
‘I’ll try. Alan was very into her. I know he went into the guest cottage after Lash moved out and no one was living there.’
‘He broke in?’
‘No, there was a key hidden near the guest house. I knew where it was and I told him one time years before but after she was dead. I guess he remembered and no one collected the key when Lash moved out. You don’t get how into her Alan is. He wanted to get into the cottage so he could meditate in the space where she lived. He was trying to contact her by going to where he said her energy was strongest. He would come up through the trees from the Presidio or that’s what he told me.’ Lindsley exhaled hard. ‘I do not want to go down with these guys. They’re going to say I was part of everything but that’s bullshit.’
‘Were you there when the skulls were brought in?’
‘No, but they showed me later.’
‘OK, stop there, so when you and I were in the shelter that wasn’t your first time there. You’ve been in there with Alan Siles and you saw the skulls?’
‘Yes, and that was the only time. They said they were from a gr
aveyard.’
‘Did you think about contacting us?’
‘I had a really bad experience with the police when I was sixteen. You are the first cop I’ve had any contact with since and I wish I hadn’t done that. In my life, police have been nothing but bad news and stupid and lazy.’
‘Well, as you said, we’re not that bright.’
‘Don’t underestimate him. With you, I followed you. I made a guess when you didn’t go back toward San Francisco and you got on the Fairfax-Bolinas Road. I knew if I was right you’d be parked at the trailhead and you were. The rest was easy.’ Lindsley turned from the window. ‘Alan expected to be questioned before now. He’s not sure why he hasn’t been and no one has figured out where he’s living, so now he’s starting to get a little nervous. You need to make him think you know where he is. I could tell him something. Tell me what to say and I can call him. I can make him believe me. But I don’t know where he lives or where John or Ike live. I’m sure the ID she gave you is bogus.’
‘It is.’
‘Every six months she has a new name, and John has never said ten words to me. I used to think he was totally drugged up and taking a bucket of antidepressants every day. John might be his true first name and I think he sleeps in his car somewhere because that’s what Alan told him to do, make himself invisible. If Alan told him to lay down at his feet, curl up and go to sleep, John would do it. He does whatever Alan tells him.’
‘Does he work?’
‘Yeah, that’s the strange part. I think John does work somewhere part-time. I don’t know where or what. Ike had a sex change in Mexico so her past is as a male.’
‘You’ve told us that and let’s hold right here because what needs to happen now is you ride back to San Francisco with me and we do this more slowly in an interview room with my partner. I’ll call and tell her we’re coming and we’ll go through it all slowly. We’ll get some food if it runs long or we’ll go to dinner later. There are agents at the FBI who will want to talk to you also. You’ve done the right thing, Brandon.’
‘I can’t go with you. I can’t go to a police station. I wouldn’t be able to talk there and I’d be afraid of one of them seeing me leave here with you.’