The Ghost

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  he thought of one...

  he would call himself the ghost…

  Chapter 4-

  Conversations, the New Victim is Found

  Jeanne picked up two copies of the autopsy report prepared by Samantha Reynoso. One of the copies had a yellow sticky note on it which simply said "Good luck." Jeanne talked for a long time with her Lieutenant during the morning. His name was Tom Leivas. Tom had no specific advice for her to follow, just to keep working hard and see what turned up. Tom was willing to go with Jeanne to meet with Marilyn's parents. But another case came up demanding Tom's attention so she ended up going by herself.

  As Jeanne began to talk with the Cummings she realized that Mrs. Cummings was not crying nearly so much and not with the intensity of the previous visit. Jeanne looked at Lindsay searchingly and Lindsay responded, "The son of a bitch who killed my daughter is going down Ms. de Leon. And if there is anything I can do to bring his fall about I will do it. Until he is in prison or dead I will no longer allow myself the luxury of grieving deeply."

  Jeanne handed Mrs. Cummings the extra copy of the autopsy report. Jeanne said, "If you will turn to the paragraph headed 'Conclusions,' it is what I want to discuss with you both. In part those conclusions are going to help to bring about the downfall of the man who did these things to your daughter. Please read the paragraph carefully, both of you, and then I want to talk with you about it."

  As Mr. and Mrs. Cummings were not well acquainted with the language of autopsy reports they asked several questions, each of them, while reading. Jeanne explained the words they did not understand and they continued. As they were reading and discussing the autopsy report of their daughter's death the body of another young woman, Rachel Mc Guire, was found by her boyfriend. He had just gotten off work from his graveyard shift at a local gas station and convenience market and was tired when he came in the house. He took off his clothes, dropped them on the floor of the bedroom in which Rachel was located, got into bed nude and even though tired he was ready for sex with her. He reached over, pulled her toward him and found her to be stiff and cold. He turned on the lights, saw that she was dead and called the police. Glendale P.D. took the call.

  Two officers arrived at the scene of Rachel's death with the idea in mind the boyfriend had probably killed her. They were acting on the usual attitude toward these kinds of crimes, being the person doing the reporting is often the killer. They found him devastated, bent over, keening on the couch in the living room, uncontrollably crying and sobbing. The emotions were not necessarily an indicator he had not killed his girlfriend.

  He pointed to the bedroom. They went in and could see she was dead but saw no signs of there being a struggle or of any weapon being used. They called it in to their own homicide unit and two detectives from the homicide unit, along with a forensics team, arrived an hour or so later. In the meantime, the two beat cops tried to get the boyfriend to admit the killing. He did not, would not, and demanded to see an attorney. They left him alone.

  An ambulance was dispatched from a company operated by the same company which operated St. Thomas’ Hospital. The company dispatching the ambulance was owned by a man named Carter Johnson. Carter and his entire family were staunch believers in the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. Carter also was personal friends with Manny Freeman who supervised the emergency staff on one shift at the hospital. Carter got word of another murder of a young woman. He also got word from the ambulance attendants no evident manner of death existed.

  It was clear no knife or gun had been used and there were no ligature marks around the neck, nor bruising on the neck from hands being held on the throat. He called Manny to relate what was going on because the house in which the victim lived was quite close to the Scalian campus. Carter knew Manny had dear friends on the campus and thought Manny would want to contact them. Carter was oh so right!

  Manny called Jeff up to tell him there was another victim of a killing nearby the campus. Jeff was shocked of course but said to Manny, "I'm sure this killing has nothing to do with our rapist. Whoever the rapist is he has not been violent in the past. Oh yes, he beat the girls up some, but he didn't deliberately kill them."

  Manny reminded Jeff about Marilyn's injuries obtained at the hands of the rapist. He also reminded Jeff the injuries were compounded by the ineptitude and negligence of the Campus Police. Finally, he said those things probably were what caused the death of Marilyn Cummings. Jeff pooh poohed the idea that Marilyn died as a result of any ineptitude of the Campus Police and said "I'd like to see anyone try to prove it was what occurred."

  Manny had heard from the post docs at the hospital another autopsy had been done on Marilyn and a cop had taken the remaining organs away from the hospital under a subpoena. He also heard there were rumblings of a complaint being filed against the doctors at St. Joe's who had done the autopsy. He related those facts to his friend. Jeff asked, "Do we know who did the autopsy Manny?"

  "No Jeff. But I can tell you this much. My administrative staff is aware of the situation. The docs are covering their asses. There are rumors of administrative action being considered after a complaint was filed with the medical board. And I will be covering mine soon. Don't expect when a law suit comes, if one does come, the hospital will be able to be of much, if any, help to you and the university."

  "Come now Manny," said Jeff, "you entered into that effort to keep the situation a little quieter than it might have become just as quickly as I did and with no arguments either."

  "That is not how I remember it Jeff. The dead girl's roommate has already seen a lawyer we are told and he is one of the finest in the state. We are also told the parents of Marilyn Cummings are likely going to be visiting with a lawyer soon as well. You had better get your people well versed in a good solid story about this whole thing."

  "How many of the employees know an autopsy was done on the Cummings girl there? And how many people's jobs would be gone if it were discovered you and I decided how the autopsy results would read rather than the doctor, Manny?"

  "I get your drift Jeff. But I am not sure what can be done to salvage this thing at this point. Of course if the girl Sherry files some kind of suit against the university none of this will come out. None of what happened to the other girl, or virtually none of it would be admissible. So we may have something to work with. But still who would you have to get rid of in order to make sure the university is protected? Or how many would be a better question? How many cops? What about the dorm mother? Is there anyone else? And what about other rape victims?"

  "One step at a time, Manny, one step at a time," Jeff said as the Cummings settled in and down to listen to Jeanne after completing the reading of the autopsy report.

  The first thing Jeanne did to explain the content of the autopsy report was ask if they thought they understood everything well enough to discuss it at some length. She also asked if, having seen the report, they would like her to come back another day to do this. Both shook their head.

  Jeanne began. "I know this is tough for both of you but the first thing which you must understand from the autopsy report is it was not an accident which caused your daughter to die. I want you to understand there is a difference in the medical jargon from the language used in the legal world. In the police department we would say she was the victim of a homicide. In the autopsy report the cause of death can be one of four separate categories; natural, accidental, inconclusive, or homicide. The doctor says it was homicide. Do you clearly understand what that means?"

  Lindsay Cummings said "It appears that she was raped and beaten severely, and the beating she suffered caused broken ribs. Are these things true Jeanne?"

  "Yes, and the reason her death was a homicide is the injuries which were inflicted on her by the rapist eventually caused her death. But those notions do not tell the whole story about the situation. In fact, if the Campus Police had gotten her to the hospital maybe an hour before they did she might not have died. So their negligence and incompe
tence adds to the beating as a link to her death. Having recognized the negligence of the police it was still the rapist who caused her death."

  "So what is the difference between manner of death and cause of death in this document Jeanne," asked Mr. Cummings.

  "There was no tool used to kill Marilyn Mr. Cummings. The man used his feet and his fists to beat her unmercifully after he raped her. The manner of death is blunt force trauma. Blunt force trauma could but does not always include the use of some form of instrument during the beating. She died literally as a result of the injuries she suffered from the beating he administered."

  "What about this other autopsy report we got from the hospital, Jeanne? It says there is no basis to find homicide and though the manner of death was blunt force trauma it could have been from a number of different sources, meaning falling down, whatever?"

  "I believe, and I am going to set out to prove, that the university and the hospital conferred on this issue Mr. Cummings. I think they decided to use the term inconclusive to try and minimize the role of the university Campus Police in Marilyn's death. I also believe she was not the first victim of a rapist on the Scalian campus. I believe other rapes have been covered up in order to protect the university and its reputation. My working hypothesis is based on those thoughts."

  The three of them talked further about the way the entire thing happened from the time Sherry became involved in it until Marilyn's death at the hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Cummings were both angry during the conversation. Jeanne knew their anger would lead to the potential for a lawsuit. “In fact,” Mr. Cummings said at one point, "I am going to try and find out who is the finest attorney in this city with regard to wrongful death and I am going to engage that person immediately." As the conversation was winding down Jeanne received a call on her cell phone. She was told there was a new homicide that might be related to the death of Marilyn Cummings.

  The homicide scene was not far from the home of the Cummings. Glendale Police Department had requested that a forensics team be sent from Phoenix to help their team. The team from Surprise was finding nothing. Phoenix agreed and asked if Jeanne, who was in the area, could also look at the scene. Glendale agreed and soon Jeanne found herself looking at the dead body of another girl, another rape victim, which was obvious from the positioning of the body and the badly bruised and battered area of the girl's vagina. As Jeanne walked into the bedroom one of the Glendale cops, in an attempt at graveside humor, said, “Jeanne de Leon, meet Rachel Mc Guire. Rachel meet Jeanne."

  Jeanne looked carefully at the girl to see if there were any marks other than on Rachel's bottom end. She found nothing save for a small bruise at the side of the girl's neck. There were no gunshot wounds, no stab wounds, no ligature marks around the girl's neck and no marks that could have been caused by the girl being choked to death.

  But as soon as Jeanne looked at Rachel's eyes she knew that Rachel had been asphyxiated. There were many small blood vessels broken in the girl's eyes. They showed spots called petechiae. Jeanne knew that petechiae were very common in asphyxiation deaths. She said to the Glendale detective who was present, "Did you notice the petechiae?"

  "Yeah, we saw that but how the hell could she have been asphyxiated?"

  Jeanne, having heard Sherry's recounting of Marilyn's experience with the rapist said, "Bear with me a minute. First of all, look here at the wrists. It is evident her wrists were restrained and the way the restraint marks appear they probably were behind her back. So If the murderer put a plastic bag on her head, rolled her over when he had finished raping her and simply shut down the bag by gathering it at the side of her neck here where this bruise is located then she would have died in a few minutes. He most likely sat on her to keep her from making too much of a physical mess of the room."

  "Wow," the Glendale detective said, "I guess your ability and knowledge is why they pay you the big bucks, huh, Jeanne, to figure out things like this one. Is there anything else you see?" He left the words, "we missed," hanging in the air.

  Jeanne only smiled at his remark and told the Glendale people she needed to leave. But she added there appeared to be a small residue of a white or pale colored substance near the girl's vagina. She didn't try to identify the substance for them. The Forensics people would take swabs and the swabs would be sent to the labs for analysis and DNA testing if possible.

  She drove directly to the university campus. She went right to the Campus Police station and asked for Jason Montague. He was on duty but not in the station. She asked to have him meet her at the dorm where Marilyn had lived. Jeanne went directly to the dorm without stopping and went to Marilyn's old room. As it happened Sherry was just getting ready to leave for a class but Jeanne caught her for a momentary conversation. Jeanne asked, "Tell me again what Marilyn said about how the guy who did her restrained her."

  Sherry told Jeanne that the rapist had put a plastic bag over Marilyn's head and told her if she moved or made noise she would die. Sherry also said that he had secured Marilyn's hands behind her back according to Marilyn with something like twist ties after he had Marilyn pull down her shorts and her panties. The similarities in the two crimes of which Jeanne was aware were too evident. The doer was creating a profile for himself. When Sherry finished, Jeanne told her to go ahead and go to her class but they would talk again another time.

  As Sherry and Jeanne walked out of the door of the dorm Officer Montague of the Campus Police pulled up in front of the dorm and got out of his car. He was used to hugging Jeanne. He put out his arms to do so and she rejected him by sticking out her hand to shake hands. Rebuffed by her standoffish attitude he said, "Hello Jeanne, what is this about?"

  "Why are you concerned Jason, or have you already heard the one who killed Marilyn Cummings has murdered again?", she answered, smiling. Her lips were smiling but he could see that her eyes were hard, not smiling at all.

  "We have been told you are investigating Ms. Cummings' death as a homicide. But I was not aware there was another murder."

  "That is absolutely correct, Mr. Montague. On both counts you are correct. We are investigating Marilyn's death as a murder and there has been another young woman killed near the campus in the same manner that Marilyn Cummings was first attacked. Would you like to be interviewed informally, here and now, or would you prefer a subpoena, and a formal interview at my office later to include a lie detector test."

  "You cannot . . ." he started to say, then shook his head and said "Can we start over here please. I am not the enemy. The Campus Police Department is not the enemy. I tried to help the girl. I took her to the hospital, for crying out loud." He saw no sympathy or friendliness in Jeanne's attitude or demeanor despite his hopes to create some good will.

  She said, "Would it surprise you to know, Mister Montague, if you had removed the cuffs from her, which she had on for no reason other than you had an abusive son of a bitch working at the desk the night she died, Marilyn Cummings might well have lived.But you didn't take them off did you? You left her cuffed in the front seat. What were you afraid of Mister Montague? Were you afraid she, in her condition of being nearly beaten to death anyway would attack you?"

  "Oh my God," he said, hanging his head a little. "Honestly, I didn't know, Jeanne; please, don't treat me like this, like I am some kind of suspect."

  "Oh but you are a suspect Mister Montague. From this day forward my name when you speak to me is Detective de Leon. Is that quite clear to you Mister Montague? I am the investigating officer in the second rape of Marilyn Cummings, that initiated by you and your university police department, namely the attempt to cover up her death."

  "I don't know what to do," he said. "If I talk to you at all, in an interview here or at the station, I will be fired. I have been promised by my lieutenant they will fire me. If I don't talk to you I am a suspect in a crime. I feel a little like I am being raped here."

  "Oh don't give me that bullshit Mister Montague. Your Campus Police and your administration tried to initiate a co
ver up of the rape right away. Marilyn's clothing was taken surreptitiously from her room with you standing and guarding the dorm so the leaders of your police department could complete the necessary thefts of her stuff and thus complete the cover up of the rape. Or at least they thought they had completed the cover up together with the false autopsy report they caused to be filed. You and your entire department will eventually be tried for obstruction of justice and it, my former friend, is a felony in this state. I ask again, do you wish to be interviewed here and now or later at my office? One more thing. Be assured under the rules which govern you having a badge at all you will take and complete a lie detector test eventually. Which is it?"

  "I will have to wait until later Detective, he said meekly, "because I cannot afford to lose my job today. If I talk with you today I will be fired today."

  "Oh, I cannot sympathize between your exercise of power over a girl's life and your loss of job, Mr. Montague. But you will not be the only one, I assure you. Your Lieutenant and your Chief are both going down as well. And the first of your department to go down will be that damned sergeant who cuffed the girl up. Where is the sergeant, do you know? If you do and you don't tell me now there will be another count of obstruction which will be filed. And just for your information I will be referring this case to the U.S. Attorney once all my reports are complete for an evaluation by their office of the federal charges of violation of civil rights. Where is he, the piece of dog dung?"

  "I don't know Detective," the officer responded coldly, "I don't know but be assured if I find out I will most certainly provide any information I have or will acquire just as I will give you a formal interview."

  "As soon as I can get the subpoenas issued you will be served or arrested, or maybe both." With that she turned on her heel, walked to her car, and sped away from her former friend.

  But she didn't go directly to her office or home. Instead she went to St. Thomas’ Hospital in Phoenix. She had some ass ripping to finish there before she went back to her office. She and her lieutenant had discussed what she was about to do and he was in complete agreement with her. She stopped at the front desk and told the greeter to warn the head of the emergency department, Manny Freeman, she was coming.