Double usage

by Christine Bols

  ‘What do you want?’

  A man in his thirties came from behind the house in a dark blue coverall. He didn’t look very friendly. ‘I don’t give money at the door and if you’re Jehovah’s witnesses you can buzz off right away. Nothing but dribble you guys.’ He emphasized his words by waving the axe in his hand. Legs firmly planted apart he stood there and looked at them suspiciously. He was not very tall but his whole body screamed force. He was sweating heavily and his black hair was stuck to his head. Only when he saw Tim holding his badge and wave it in front of him, he took a few steps closer.

  ‘Detectives Sackley and McCool from Corvallis police’, Tim said quietly. The man glanced at the badge while observing them very cautiously.

  ‘We just want to ask you a few questions, that’s all. Maybe we could go inside?’

  The man hesitated but finally threw his axe on the lawn and opened the front door. The living room was in complete chaos. On the table, in between newspapers and empty glasses, stood a plate with egg adhered and something else with an undefined greenish color. At least ten empty beer bottles completed the picture. On the settee were grease stains, its back was torn.

  ‘You know lady’, he said to Jude in an apologetic voice, ‘a man by himself…’

  Jude tried to produce a faint laugh. He didn’t even make an attempt to clear the table and gestured them to it. Jude inspected the chair and swept a bit of dust from the seat before sitting down. The room smelled as if it hadn’t been ventilated for weeks.

  ‘Can you guy’s tell me what this is all about? I never had any trouble with the police and I really don’t feel like starting now.’

  ‘We’re from homicide mister Flannery, not the street police’, Tim said irritated. ‘It’s just a routine investigation, nothing more nothing less.’

  ‘The white van next to the house… it belongs to you?’ Jude asked.

  Flannery looked at her with dark eyes. ‘No, I rent out car ranks. Of course it’s mine, otherwise it wouldn’t be here, would it? By the way, don’t you need a search warrant or something? You can’t just come bursting in here.’

  ‘No we don’t’, Tim said, ‘and we don’t need one. We are not doing a search, just a little talk.’ He paused for a moment and looked at Flannery. The man got restless and finally sat down. He shrugged his massive shoulders. ‘Can you tell me where you were on the evening of May 27?’

  Flannery looked at him startled. ‘May 27, man, how should I know? That’s almost a month ago.’

  ‘Think Mister Flannery. That was the day of the massive accident on the Interstate a few miles away. Maybe that rings a bell? It was a Thursday.’

  He frowned. ‘Yes of course I remember that one. My brother is a fire fighter and he was there. Man, that must have been a mess. Five dead and more than twenty badly injured.’ When he saw Tim look at him dubiously he went on. ‘If it was a Thursday, then I probably was in the Backalley in Vancouver. That’s my den.’

  ‘So, if you go there every Thursday, there must be someone to testify to that.’

  Flannery shrugged his shoulders once more. ‘I don’t know. I’m on the pinball machine mostly and there are many different people every time.’

  ‘The bartender maybe?’

  ‘Maybe, I don’t know.’

  ‘You certainly won’t mind us checking then.’

  ‘You do as you please but I told you already, so many people. Sometimes I go to Kiggins on Thursdays too. Depends on what film they’re playing.’

  ‘If I understand correctly, what you are telling me is that you don’t remember if you were in the Backalley or in Kiggins.’

  ‘If you don’t tell me what this is all about I won’t answer any more questions,’ Flannery said angrily.

  Tim shook his head regretfully. ‘That’s within your rights mister Flannery, but I’m afraid we will have to take you to the Corvallis station for more formal questioning in that case.’ Tim was bluffing but obviously the man fell for it. ‘Tell me, what kind of work do you do?’

  Flannery hesitated for a moment but then decided to co-operate. He probably didn’t feel like being formally questioned in the station. ‘Six weeks ago I was sacked by AC Electronics. For twelve dammed years I had been working there and they just sack me, just like that.’ He snapped his fingers.

  ‘And why did they sack you then?’ Jude asked.

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Reorganization most likely. There wasn’t as much work as there used to be. Recession you know.’

  ‘And you were the only one fired? With less work it would be odd that no one else had to go. Did you get a formal termination?’

  ‘No, on the street from one day to another. I don’t even know if there were others.’

  Tim and Jude looked at each other. Getting fired without a termination usually meant misconduct. Flannery flickered his eyes away from them in a nervous way. Something was going on here that he didn’t want to see the light of day. Theft?

  ‘And what do you do now, being home all day?’ Tim asked.

  Flannery pointed at his stained coverall. ‘The odd job here and there, but with the economy as it is now, people tend to turn every cent twice. Only the really urgent things get done.’

  ‘Mostly in the area here I assume?’

  ‘I live by word of mouth and that’s around Salmon Creek most of the time. Sometimes it’s further away but not a lot.’

  ‘Did you do a job for instance in Oregon yet?’

  He thought about it for a few moments. ‘I had one in Portland once and one in Woodburn, but that’s it.’

  Tim got up from his chair. ‘Could we have a look around?’

  Flannery got rebellious again. ‘Didn’t you say you don’t have a warrant?’

  ‘That’s correct’, Tim said very quietly, ‘but if you have nothing to hide, what can be the problem? We just want to have a look around. But you would be within your rights to object of course, and in that case I can be back in a few hours with a warrant. Let this be clear Mr. Flannery, in case you hide drugs or stolen property or whatever, I’m not interested in that. But of course with a warrant, we are allowed to search the house from top to bottom, and since a warrant is an official document, we would have to inform the authorities. But, it’s up to you of course.’ Tim offered him a way out which he grasped with both hands.

  ‘I have nothing to hide’, he said in a firm voice. ‘Have a look around. I don’t care.’

  They did. The bungalow was rather small. Behind the living room was a small kitchen with only a few cupboards and a sink. The door on the right led to a utility room with in it a washing machine, a tumble dryer and a few cardboard boxes on a shelf next to a door that led to the garden. As they went outside they looked for a shed or a garage, but there was none. On the other side of the hall were two bedrooms, the left one a bit bigger than the other. Both of them had a single bed and a wardrobe. Apart from a narrow bathroom there was not a lot to find.

  ‘Where do you keep the material for your jobs?’ Tim asked.

  ‘I built a small shed next to the house, but there is nothing in it but a few tools and my lawn mower.’

  On their way to the shed, they passed the white van. ‘Nice van’, Tim said with admiration in his voice, ‘very clean and well maintained. How long have you had it?’ Tim opened the passenger’s door. Unlike the house, there was no junk at all, just a black base ball cap on the seat.

  ‘I bought it a few years ago,’ Flannery said reluctantly.

  ‘Can I have a look in the back? I’m thinking about buying one myself’, he said smiling, ‘got two Great Danes and I can’t take them anywhere for the moment.’ From the corner of his eye he saw Jude smile. Flannery opened the backdoor. On the right hand side Tim saw a big toolbox with behind it a grey woolen blanket. In the back were three cardboard boxes, closed with duct tape. On both sides there were metal hooks . One of them had thick ropes on it, the other one held a ladder.

  ‘Hm, lots of space I see. Would really be perfect for my do
gs.’

  Flannery closed the door with a disbelieving look on his face. They took a quick look in the shed. On a shelf in the back were a few electronic devices, brand new by the looks of them. Tim saw Flannery’s face redden but didn’t say anything.

  ‘That was it’, Mr. Flannery. ‘Thanks for the co-operation.’ Tim waved his hand as in farewell. Jude nodded and shook his offered hand. As they went back to the car Jude’s face indicated pain. Tim wasn’t surprised. Flannery’s handshake had looked like a vice.

  ‘Oh, before I forget’, Tim said turning back. He opened his briefcase and pulled out the 3-D pictures from Bodini and Fitzpatrick and showed them to Flannery. ‘Maybe you know these women?’

  Flannery stared at the pictures but his face didn’t show any emotion. ‘No, I don’t. Should I?’

  ‘Of course not, but it would have been possible no? Thanks again for the co-operation Mr. Flannery. If I have any more questions I’ll contact you.’

  He shoved the pictures back in his briefcase. Flannery opened his mouth, but closed it again right away, realizing he wouldn’t get any answers anyway.

  ‘What do you think?’ Tim asked as they turned onto the path.

  ‘Hm, I think he has something to hide all right, but nothing about the murders. By the way, you were great with your dogs’, she said laughing. Tim grinned.

  ‘Did you see the base ball cap on the seat?’ he asked.

  ‘Lots of people have them. No big deal I think.’

  ‘If he’s the one we’re after he can’t have held the women in this bungalow. Even with the houses so far apart the sound of the screaming must have travelled a few hundred yards. I didn’t see any hooks to attach the chains to either, unless he kept them in the van but that seems even more ridiculous.’

  ‘Could be he has another property somewhere. I will check when we’re back in the office.’

  ‘Seems highly unlikely but you never know.’

  ‘Did you have the impression he knew the women?’

  Tim shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. He didn’t have a clue why we were there and there was no emotion on his face whatsoever when he looked at them.

  ‘Problem is the license plate. It was the one on the tape.’

  Tim looked at her sideways. ‘Tell me Jude, what would you do if you drove a white van to observe your future victims, knowing that at any given time somebody could write down that number?’

  She thought about it for a moment. ‘Fake license plate?’ she said.

  ‘Good. And would you choose one at random?’

  ‘Probably not. I would drive around till I found the exact same van and use that number.’

  Tim smiled. ‘I will have the local police keep an eye out for him. You never know if he ever won an Oscar for best performance.’

  ‘We can’t ignore the fact he had a base ball cap and the correct license plate.’

  ‘You’re right, but I want to observe him first. It’s way too early to have him arrested. And also, Bodini’s neighbor said he was skinny and that is not something you can’t say about Flannery.’

  Half an hour later they stopped in Portland to grab a bite to eat, and after that continued to Eugene. Maybe he would have done better to phone the parents first, but on the other hand he didn’t want to tell them over the phone about the purpose of his visit. He hoped they would be home.

  It was a tough job to find Birch Lane. Even the GPS was confused. After driving in circles for half an hour they finally found it and stopped in front of number 2560. Birch Lane was a path that reminded him of the one Flannery lived in. The houses stood far apart from each other too and a lot of them were hidden behind trees and bushes. Fitzpatrick’s parent’s house was a contemporary bungalow in stone with a paved driveway that led to a built on garage. The front garden was well kept but felt a bit over the top because of the four brightly painted garden gnomes in different poses, all holding wheelbarrows. As they got out of the car, the front door opened. In the doorway a man in his fifties looked at them with distressed eyes.

  ‘No’, the man moaned, ‘tell me this is not true.’ Tears welled up in his eyes. He probably had seen it was a Corvallis police car and knew why they were there. He leant against the doorpost and held his hands to his face.

  ‘We would like to talk to you and your wife Mr. Fitzpatrick. Maybe we could go inside,’ Tim said in a soft voice. Jude put her hand on the man’s arm. She put a little bit of pressure on it and led him inside to what she supposed to be the living room.

  In the middle of the hall he stopped suddenly. ‘When she didn’t come home this weekend, I knew’, he said sobbing. ‘I just knew. After she called us a few weeks ago she didn’t pick up her phone anymore.’ The continuous sobbing made his words almost inaudible.

  On a couch in the living room sat a woman with greyish hair in a low pony tail, staring into the distance, her hands clenched together in her lap. Her husband sat down next to her and stroked her head softly. ‘Police are here Rina’, he mumbled. She didn’t react, didn’t say anything, just stared lethargically. Tim and Jude sat down at the dining table. This was part of the job he hated, but it had to be done. Unless Fitzpatrick asked for details, he wouldn’t say anything.

  ‘I’m so sorry, but like you guessed already, we can’t bring you good news,’ Tim said softly. ‘Your daughter was found last Thursday. She had been dead for a few weeks already.’

  Fitzpatrick looked at him with hollow eyes. ‘Was she found in Florida?’

  Tim shook his head. ‘No, she never went to Florida, nor did she have the intention to go.’

  Fitzpatrick looked at him, this time in disbelief. ‘But she called us herself’, he said. ‘This must be a mistake.’

  ‘He probably forced her to call you.’

  ‘You mean her murderer.’ He pronounced the last word disdainfully. ‘Was she … raped?’ Again he burst out in tears.

  ‘No’, Tim said hastily, ‘no signs of rape.’ He wholeheartedly hoped the man wouldn’t ask any more.

  ‘Can we see her? Where is she now?’

  ‘She’s in the morgue, but I’m afraid this wouldn’t be a good idea sir.’

  Suddenly a loud husky scream filled the air. Rina burst out into tears and started shivering all over without any control. Fitzpatrick put his arms around her and cradled her softly.

  ‘And did you find that monster yet?’ he asked sobbing. In sudden realization he jumped of the couch. ‘Oh no, that article in the newspaper, it was about Lilly wasn’t it?’ As Tim nodded he sat back down and buried his face in his wife’s lap.

  ‘Shall I get you a doctor Mr. Fitzpatrick?’ Jude asked with a voice full of compassion.

  ‘No, thank you, just leave us alone now please.’

  ‘I only have one more question sir, an important one. Did she call you with her mobile?’ Since they hadn’t found a mobile in her flat, she must have had it with her while jogging.

  The man straightened his back in an attempt to get his mind focused again. ‘I believe so. Yes, her ID appeared on the screen.’

  ‘Would you be so kind to check your phone? I would like her number and the exact time she called you.’

  Fitzpatrick ripped a piece from the newspaper and scribbled down a number which he handed to Tim. After that he scrolled through the incoming calls on his phone. ‘Here it is. May 28, nine in the morning.’

  ‘Thank you sir. If you have anymore questions feel free to call me. Here is my card.’ Fitzpatrick didn’t make any attempt to take the card, so Tim put it on the table. Rina was still sobbing and shivering, while her husband tried to stay composed for her sake.

  The minute they got in the car, Jude called the telephone provider. She explained who she was and why she needed information. She got transferred to someone else who asked what it was she needed. He promised to call her back with the information within ten minutes.

  ‘He’ll probably call Foster now to check us out.’

  ‘Seems logical. I would do the same if I were him.’<
br />
  Eight minutes later the man called back. Tim looked at her awaiting the result.

  ‘And?’

  ‘Her telephone was switched of May 28 at five past nine and hasn’t been active again since. Her call was registered on the mast on Fisher Island. It has a range of five miles.’

  ‘So, if he kept her in his house, we are looking at a diameter of ten miles.’

  ‘I think it’s unlikely he made her phone her parents from his own house. He must be smarter than that.’

  ‘I think you’re right.’

  CHAPTER 15

  Tim had decided to start jogging every morning for an hour, but when his alarm clock woke him at six, he felt like smashing the thing to pieces. But then the image of his belly that he had studied extensively last night appeared in his mind. The tight muscles of which he had been so proud when he was younger seemed to have turned into blubber. Jogging by itself probably wouldn’t do the trick but it was a start. He hoisted himself from his warm bed and pulled on the track suit he had put over the chair last night. Dammit, the elastic band was too tight around his middle. He picked up his mobile phone and wallet from the night stand and put them in his pants pocket. Downstairs he picked up the keys from the tray in the hall and put them in his top pocket. Outside it was still dusky and mist hung in the air. He started at a slow pace but even before he reached the end of the street he felt his legs cramp up. He decided to slow down even more. After turning into Lilly Avenue he carried on to the City Park in the direction of the Willamette. His heart pounded as if it was going to jump out of his body and he was glad to see a bench a few yards further on. His condition was nothing to speak of and he realized he would have to take it one step at the time. Thick mist was floating over the river and painted the land in an almost surreal picture. He thought about Fitzpatrick who was pulled into the van a bit further down the road and about the mutilations the poor girl had suffered afterwards. Apart from the van and Albany station there was no lead at all. They had to find this monster before he could kill again but he didn’t have a clue how to set about it. As he started running again, his thoughts went to Jude. In a strange way he felt attracted to her but there was something inside him warning him to be very careful and not give into that feeling. With the Cam and Susan fiasco clearly in mind, he feared he wouldn’t be able to make any woman happy. Maybe he should have taken his parent’s advice at the time to do psychology. He knew he had the brains to see it through and he didn’t doubt for a moment he would have succeeded. ‘There will always be nutcases’, his father used to say. But he had been attracted to police work, chasing criminals, protecting the innocent, and he had ignored their advice. Moments like this he regretted that deeply. Sean had chosen technical studies and was now an electronic engineer. Thinking about Sean made the acid come up in his throat again. In front of the Panda Express, a Chinese restaurant, he crossed the road and went back the same way he had come. He was forced to rest a few more times before arriving home, sweating like a pig.