Tim nodded. ‘Indeed Mr. Tomasson, very important. It is about your porter Dawson.’
‘About Jacob?’
‘He was taken to prison a few days ago.’
The man looked at him open mouthed. ‘And why?’ he stuttered.
‘Possession of drugs and dealing’, Jude said. ‘At least two years I would guess, probably longer. By the way, did you know he has done some time before already? Rape I believe.’
Tomasson rearranged a few documents on his desk with trembling hands. ‘No’, he said softly, ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘So, you don’t ask for a certificate of good behavior when you hire people?’ Tim looked at him with raised eyebrows. ‘I always believed it was a requirement in a state company.’
The man was visibly annoyed. ‘Well, we are not that strict about that. Do you know how difficult it is to find personnel willing to work on Saturdays and on shifts?’
‘And who is replacing him now that he is on so called sick leave?’
‘Arnold, the man behind the ticket window. I first considered getting someone from the cleaning company to fill in, but since it would only be for a few weeks I thought Arnold could handle it.’
‘The cleaning company?’ Tim asked. ‘Are they on the payroll?’
‘No, it’s an external company, Office Cleaning in Albany, twice a week.’
Tim looked at Jude with an expression of disbelief on his face.
‘Another thing that might interest you Mr. Tomasson.’ He waited till he had the man’s full attention again. ‘During the drug investigation we found copies of your surveillance tapes on his PC.’
Tomasson looked stunned. ‘I can’t believe that’, he said worried. ‘These tapes are kept behind locked doors and I’m the only one with a key.’ His face turned all red.
‘So you clean that office yourself then’, Tim said.
‘No, of course not. The cleaning crew gets my key.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t understand all of this.’
‘And you stay in your office while the crew is cleaning?’
‘That depends. Most of the time yes, but it happens sometimes I have to leave, but every time the key is put back in my drawer. I trust these people implicitly.’
‘Just like you did Dawson’, Tim said sarcastically. ‘It’s very laudable that you are so trusting of humanity Mr.Tomasson, but this is the real world, not Utopia.’
With these words they left a completely shattered stationmaster.
Back in the car Jude called Susan right away and asked her the address for Office Cleaning. One minute later they were heading for Goldfish Farm Road.
‘I get the feeling this is the first lead since Dawson appeared on scene’, Tim said.
‘Could very well be, but we thought the same about Flannery.’
‘So you’re skeptical about this.’ He looked sideways at her.
‘Not skeptical, and this may be a real lead but I wouldn’t put my money on it yet.’
Office Cleaning was an old and somber building erected in grey stone. It stood lost in an almost deserted street. The parking lot had been filled up with red gravel but there were a lot of bare spots where brown grass was visible. There seemed to be hardly any activity at all. In the hangar they saw one blue delivery van with the logo and the name of the company. The door to the office cracked ominously as they went inside. Behind the desk was a young man with a broad smile on his face, obviously expecting them to be new clients. As they showed him their badge that smile vanished quickly.
‘We would like some information on your personnel Mr…’ Tim said politely.
‘Wilkins’, the man said suspiciously, ‘Don Wilkins.’
He had pitch black hair. A lock hung in front of his right eye which made him blink constantly. He didn’t look very good natured but nevertheless he asked them how he could be of service.
‘Well, your personnel list would be a good start’, Tim said. ‘How many people do you employ?
Wilkins pulled a folder out of his drawer. ‘Eighteen at the moment.’ He handed a document to Tim. ‘Sometimes there are more but that depends on the work. They all have temporary contracts.’
Tim looked at the list. Not one name that rang a bell. Jude looked at it over his shoulder. ‘Is there a permanent team in Albany station?’
Wilkins took the list back out of Tim’s hands, marked three names with a fluorescent pen and handed it back over. ‘Justin Mitchell, Beau Gillespie and Dean Williams’, Tim read out loud.
‘The addresses are next to the names’, Wilkins said. The man waited for an explanation for this request, but didn’t ask.
‘And this team, are they currently working?’
‘Only Mitchell and Gillespie. Williams didn’t show up this morning.’
‘Did he call you with a reason for that?’
‘No, nothing at all. I really wonder why I keep this guy in my team, nothing but problems.’
‘Thank you Mr. Wilkins, you have been a great help. I have no other questions for now.’
Both Tim and Jude gave a friendly nod. He shook his head to get rid of the lock of hair but it obstinately stayed in place. As they went back to their car, they burst out laughing.
‘What do we do?’ Tim asked still grinning. ‘Do we check these addresses or go back to the office?’
Jude had already taken her cellphone out of her bag and pushed the speed dial button for Susan. ‘Susan, can do you me a favor and look at Klamath’s list for the following names.’ She read them out and put the phone on speaker so Tim could listen in.
‘No Gillespie, no Mitchell. But bingo, we do have a Dean Williams. And you won’t believe this, he was in the same block as Dawson.’ Her voice sounded all excited.
‘Read all the details to me you have on him’, Jude said. Her voice sounded a bit more agitated than she intended it to.
‘He did two years for selling marihuana to a minor and he got out one month before Dawson did.’
‘All right, see if he has other convictions.’
It stayed quiet for a few moments on the other end and just as Jude went to repeat her question the answer came: ‘Convicted in 1999 for murder of his mother. Because of extenuating circumstances he only got four years in a closed juvenile center. Released in 2003, September 21.’
‘Thanks Susan’, Jude said as calmly as possible. They looked at each other stunned.
After Tim had brought Foster up to date, his boss had promised to send four patrol cars to the Williams’s house right away and have a road block put up. He had added rather angrily: ‘You try to get to the house without being seen. If there is any danger, or you need any back-up, call me right away. Don’t do anything foolish Sackley. Everything by the book you understand?’
A shiver ran up his spine when they left for Park Avenue. It was a narrow street that ran along the river Willamette and finally ended in a sort of dust track. In the first part the houses were built closely together, but where the path started they were much further apart. There were only a few. Tim had come in through Goodnight Avenue so he could get to the back of the house without being seen. He saw the four patrol cars arrive and position themselves at strategic points. Slowly he turned into Park Avenue, staying in the shadows of the trees as much as possible. As they were both focused on what was about to happen, neither of them said anything. The silence was overwhelming. He parked the car behind a fallow piece of land that bordered on the back of William’s garden. Their Smith
Wessons ready, they crawled in between the bushes to the left hand side of the house. Unless Williams happened to be in one of the rooms at the back, he wouldn’t be able to see them. The bushes went all the way to the front of the house which made it safer for them.
‘The back door is ajar’, Tim whispered. ‘I go in first and only on my sign you follow.’ He knew this wasn’t by the book but he didn’t want to expose her to any danger.
‘I go in too’, she said protesting.
‘Jude please, this is not the t
ime for an argument or for doing everything by the book. Do as I say.’
She threw him an angry look, but stayed down in the bushes. His body low to the ground he crawled underneath a window and crept up two worn steps to the back door. There he waited and listened. Everything seemed quiet. He slowly opened the door and came into what seemed to be the kitchen. Everything was dark and he shone his torch around the room. On the kitchen table were the remains of a meal, over a day old by the looks of it. His gut feeling told him something was wrong. As he entered the living room he heard a soft ticking noise. He shone his torch round to see where it came from and saw the red flickering light of a CD-player. The display showed number sixteen. His gun in front of him he advanced through the hallway. He felt the hairs on his arms rise as he saw a heavy door on the right hand side, hanging on a hinge. A trace of dried blood led to the front door that was partially open. Slowly he went to the broken door and looked down into a basement, on the stairs traces of dried blood too. Since the room was lit he switched of his torch and went down. The smell of urine and excrement was overwhelming. As he came down, the first thing he saw were four metal chains, two of them fixed to a wall the other two in the concrete floor. There was a mattress with on its left a puddle of blood and a butcher’s knife. It was a sinister sight, and as he turned back to get Jude, his stomach turned over. Jude was still sitting in between the bushes but jumped up the minute she saw Tim.
A young woman was found at Crystal Lake at two in the afternoon. She had been spotted by a man who was taking off in a hot air balloon. The ambulance brought her to the Good Samaritan at quarter to three. For the hospital staff it was clear right away that the girl had been the victim of a violent crime. The hypothermia and pneumonia she had probably got from being in the woods for hours, dressed in only a parka. After she had been given the first aid, the head of staff called Corvallis police. Just as Foster wanted to call Tim with this news, Tim called himself.
‘He has legged it out of here and I think he is badly wounded.’
‘Probably his last victim escaped and she is the one that butchered him’, Foster said calmly.
Tim was silent for a few moments. ‘And why do you think that?’, he asked stunned.
‘Because a young woman has just been brought into hospital, more dead than alive I would say. She lost one eye and a nipple.’
‘Oh God, Amy Donovan isn’t it?’
‘Probably, but since she is still unconscious we don’t know for sure. ‘
‘Make sure there is an officer guarding her hospital room. He might come back to finish the job.’
‘Has been taken care of’, Foster said with a hint of frustration in his voice. ‘Although, if what you say is true and he is wounded, I don’t think that will happen.’
‘We can’t take any risks.’
‘What are the plans now?’ Foster asked. ‘Any idea where he is now?’
‘I found blood in the garage too and his car has gone. He could be far away by now already. I suggest we comb the area. I take it there isn’t a problem me taking Haynes and Connely along?’
‘Do whatever you think is necessary. Just find him. Do you need any further assistance?’
‘I want the other teams on stand-by in case I need them. You will have to dispatch a message to every doctor and hospital in the area. The airports need to be alerted and fax his picture to every police station and sheriffs office in the neighboring counties. Tell them to be on the look out for a white Chevy van’, he added.
‘All right, I will send the technical team on site to compare the blood in the house with that on the girl. I’ll call you as soon as I have the results.’
‘There is something else. Can you check out if he has any family in the area?’
Tim was well aware that Foster hated to be told what to do, but this case was much too serious to worry about a bruised ego and he was sure Foster felt the same way. While Tim was on the phone with his boss, Jude had called the hospital. The head nurse of the trauma unit had told her they didn’t know her identity yet because the girl was still in a coma. Jude thanked the man and ended the call.
Tim had one of the teams posted next to the house awaiting the arrival of the technical unit. He ordered Connely and Haynes to do a house-to-house enquiry in the surrounding streets. Not that he believed someone would really know Williams, but it wouldn’t hurt.
‘Tell me, what would you do if you were a criminal, badly hurt and trying to stay out of the police hands?’ He turned onto Goodnight Avenue in the direction of the river.
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t think I would go into the city.’ She thought about it for a moment. ‘I would probably try to find shelter in an unused barn of maybe with family.’
‘An unused barn… hm, like the hundreds down here you mean.’
‘He could be in another state already. Don’t forget he probably has a head start of a few hours at least.’
‘My guts tell me he isn’t. He got at least one stab wound and by the looks of the blood in the basement maybe more than one. The further he goes, the weaker he gets by the loss of blood.’
‘By the way, were are we heading for?’
‘I want to take a look at the place where they found the girl.’
They followed the road that ran along the back side of the Willamette Park and then took an unpaved path to the sports grounds of Crystal Lake.
‘That poor girl has traveled quite a distance in her condition’, Jude said sympathetically. She shook her head. ‘I hope she makes it.’
As they got out of the car, Foster called. The only family Williams had was a cousin in Florida and a distant one in Ontario. Foster had called the airport but neither yesterday nor today had there been any passenger without a pre booked flight to Miami or Ottawa. But Foster had some good news too. Benton County’s sheriff had spotted a white van on his morning rounds, coming from the Old Irish Bridge on Campus Way.
‘That road leads to the camping grounds where we found Susan Palthrow’, Tim said looking at Jude.
‘Do you think he is hiding there?’
‘Well, we have to start somewhere don’t we? If he has been seen on Campus Road then there is a big chance he’s still in the area. Call Connely and tell him to stop the house-to-house and send them to the entrance of Benton Oaks. We can discuss our strategy from there.’
Ten minutes later Tim turned onto the parking lot of Benton Oaks and slowly drove along the sandy paths of the camping grounds. There was not a lot of movement and nowhere did they see a white van. When they passed by the camper where the woman was found they looked at each other without saying a word. Then they drove back to the entrance where Connely and Haynes were waiting already for them. It had started to rain and Tim signaled them to the back of his car. As they got in, he pulled the Corvallis map out of his glove compartment.
‘Look’, he said, pointing at the Old Irish Bridge. ‘He was seen here early this morning and that could mean he is still somewhere in the area. I think that if he had wanted to leave the district he would have taken the Interstate.’
‘It’s a large area to search’, Susan said hesitating. ‘He could be anywhere.’
Tim looked at her angrily. ‘And that’s exactly the reason why we will look everywhere Susan. Walnut Boulevard is a low probability’ he said, looking at the map again. ‘He would end up in a densely populated area.’
‘I put my money on Fitton Green’, Susan pointed at the map. ‘It’s a wooded area with lots of dead ends, probably only used by holiday makers who have a bungalow there. It’s not the holiday season yet, so a lot of them will be empty.’
‘Do you think we need more back-up?’ Connely asked.
Tim shook his head. ‘Not for the moment. Both of you search the main road and the side streets on the east, Jude and I will do the same on the west side. Every house you see you ask the phone number at inquiries. You call the people and you will hear right away in their voices if something is wrong. If you don’t get an an
swer, try to approach that house and take a look around. The moment you think something is not as it should be, you call me or Jude right away.’
Both cars left the parking lot while the rain was pouring down.
Dean Williams felt very weak and had trouble focusing on his four victims, gathered closely together in a corner of the living room. His hand trembled as he pointed the gun in their direction. He had probably lost more blood than he realized. That stupid bitch. He didn’t remember how long after the stabbing he had woken up. He had tried to go after her but soon realized that would be a dead end. She had a head start and could be anywhere. By now the police would be looking for him but she couldn’t tell them where he lived or what his name was. She had been sedated when he brought her to the basement, but he didn’t want to run the risk. He pointed his gun at the older woman. Her face looked mushy and he blinked his eyes in an attempt to focus. ‘You there’, he shouted at the woman. ‘Get me some bandages and disinfectant.’
The woman looked at him but didn’t make an attempt to get up. Her daughter was crying softly and had pressed herself against her mother’s body. ‘Be quiet Steffie, everything will be all right.’
Steffie, Steffie. His cat had had the same name. That was when he still very young and hadn’t had a worry in the world. When he played in the big garden on the trampoline and the swing, and his mother didn’t grope him yet. When he didn’t have to worry yet about shuffling foot steps on the stairs and when sleeping with his mother in one bed seemed natural and something all the boys his age did. He swallowed his anger away.
‘What do you want from us?’ a powerful male voice said suddenly. ‘If it’s money you want I can give what I have in my wallet, but it’s not a lot.’
‘Shut your face’, he said furiously. ‘I didn’t ask you to speak.’ He pointed his gun at the woman again. ‘You, go get the bandages. And don’t even think about playing games or your family gets it.’
‘Tracey, stay down Jake said when he saw his wife getting up. ‘I’ll do it.’
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