by Rick Reed
Jerrell said, “We’re back to square one.”
“No. We just have to keep an open mind. We can create a list of police contacts with homeless people or hitchhikers.” Jack said for Shaunda’s benefit. “Do the officers on either of your departments make out field contact cards?” A field contact card is created when an officer stops someone or has a situation where they need to identify the person for later use. It’s not a search and seizure issue and not an arrest.
Shaunda said nothing so that was a no.
Jerrell said, “We don’t have anything on paper, but we don’t have that big a problem with panhandlers. My guys usually talk to them and they move on or we find them a bed in a shelter somewhere to get them off the street. Sometimes local churches take them in for short-term lodging and food. I’ll put word out to my people and find out if any of them know of anyone.”
Jack said, “Particularly pay attention to people who moved from the Hutsonville area to Linton or Dugger. Nothing has happened in Hutsonville for seven years. Maybe the killer moved here. I’ll have Angelina get into the Bureau of Motor Vehicles database and see what she can find.” He was glad neither Jerrell or Shaunda asked how Angelina was getting access to all these records.
Shaunda said, “I’ve had a few transients over the years but I don’t keep information on them. I doubt they’d even have identification if I’d have asked.” Her cell phone rang. She dug it out and had a short conversation. When she hung up she said, “That was Joey. He’s on his way to the morgue with Claire. He asked her if Brandon had any enemies and she insisted that he was loved by everyone. He tried to ask her about possible drugs, girlfriends, angry fathers, and stuff but she wasn’t listening to him. She was upset that Brandon’s body was brought to the Greene County Coroner. He told her the FBI were assisting in the investigation and he said she seemed impressed and quit complaining. He gave me the credit for bringing the FBI in on this. I love that kid.”
Jack said, “Were any of the anonymous callers identified as male or female voices?”
No one knew.
Chapter 15
Shaunda had taken Liddell with her to Dugger City Hall to collect Troy’s cell phone.
Jack was going to call the Sullivan Police Department to ascertain if they still had Daniel Winters and/or Lamont Washington’s property. Chief Jerrell was doing the same with Greene County Sheriff’s Department asking for Leonard DiLegge’s property. They were both primarily interested in the victim’s cell phones. DiLegge’s cell phone had not been recovered according to the reports but it was possible it had been found or turned in and that information hadn’t made it into the case file.
Before they split up to do the work Jack asked, “Chief, when you had the autopsy on your son did you collect fingerprints, hair, DNA?”
Jerrell answered, “Crime Scene did that. I wish Shauny had told me about that damn phone.”
“Water under the bridge, Chief,” Jack said, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole again.
“I can put a rush job on it with the State Lab,” Jerrell offered.
“Let’s see what we get. We should send them all at the same time,” Jack said. The horse was already out of the barn regarding chain of custody of the evidence but if they could get a lead it was worth a shot.
“I don’t know what she was thinking,” Jerrell said, his mind still circling the rabbit hole to the past.
Jack said, “What matters is that we find Brandon’s phone and the Jeep. All we need is a solid lead from all this. If we get something it’ll save us a lot of legwork.”
“I’ve got two officers searching around Dugger for the Jeep. I called in a couple of reserve officers to make runs. We’re stretched a little thin and I don’t know what Shauny’s been able to do on her end.”
“The State Police and both sheriff’s offices will loan us some boots on the ground,” Jack suggested. “You make the call and I’ll talk to them, too.”
“I want to keep control of this thing.”
“Call them,” Jack said. “More eyes and ears. Just give them what they need to know. Murder suspect with no description yet. Possibly in Brandon’s Jeep. Treat as armed and dangerous and hold for the FBI. My authority. I think you’ll find them very helpful. You’ll be the primary case officer working with me. We have to include them.”
“You can use my office and I’ll use Crocker’s desk. Someone has to be here.” He gave Jack the phone numbers for Sullivan city police and the Sheriff’s Department and then headed for his office to make his calls to Indiana State Police and Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Jack called the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office first, rightly thinking that the two cases would have been in their bailiwick. He started to ask for the Adult Investigations Unit or Homicide but remembered in time that he was working for the Feds on this one. He would eventually be switched back to the investigators but protocol said he had to talk to Boss Hogg first.
He spoke to the sheriff, identified himself and went through the routine advising her of the task force and how he had become involved. Five long minutes later he was told he needed to talk to the Commander of the Investigations Unit. While he waited for his call to be transferred he hoped he wouldn’t be transferred again before he found someone that could answer his questions. He was in luck.
“Adult Investigations, Captain Harvey,” came a woman’s gravelly voice.
Smoker’s voice.
“Captain Harvey, this is Jack Murphy. I’m a Special Agent with the FBI USOC Task Force.” He had to explain what USOC was, but that was expected. “I’ve been assigned to investigate several murders, including two that your office worked five years ago.”
Captain Harvey listened as Jack briefly recounted the cases. When Jack finished she said, “I vaguely remember the two cases out near the City Coal Mine. I was a detective sergeant back then and may have had a hand in those.” Jack read the detective’s names on the police reports. Harvey wasn’t one of them. “That’s great, Captain,” Jack said. “I’ve got the right detective.”
“Give me a moment to pull the cases up.”
Jack waited less than a minute before she came back on the line.
“Got them. What do you need, Agent Murphy?”
Jack told her what he needed.
“Agent Murphy, I’m showing those files are closed as death by misadventure.” That was legal jargon for accidental drowning. “You’re saying they were murdered by a serial killer?”
Jack could hear the barely disguised excitement in her voice. “We’re still in the early stages, Captain,” Jack said. “If you have what I want we may be able to confirm our theory about a possible serial killer. We just got into Linton this morning.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I heard about the drowning in Dugger Lake. You looking into that one too?”
“We are looking at everything for now. You know how that is. Everyone’s a suspect and every case is connected until you can prove differently.”
“You got that right. I’m more on the administrative side now but I remember my days working cases. I suppose you want me to see if we still have any of the property and pull the files for you?”
“You read my mind, Captain.”
“I’ll check for you myself. Do you need a place to set up shop? We can give you our big conference room, phone lines, computers, personnel? Be happy to help.”
“We are still in early stages so I’ll get back to you on that,” Jack lied. “Any assistance you can give us is greatly appreciated.”
Shaunda had told them she never had cooperation from Sullivan Sheriff’s Office but they were rolling out the red carpet. He’d keep it in mind, but he had no intention of moving the investigation. He was having too much fun watching Jerrell and Lynch take each other apart.
Captain Harvey didn’t sound happy that she wouldn’t be running lead on this, seeing her f
ace on television, but she was smart enough not to push it.
“I’ll get the tapes of the calls, property, copies of the case files and any notes we may have. I’ll have an officer drop them off for you in Linton. I’m not positive we still have the dispatch tapes. We live in the technical age so you’d think we’d keep everything digitally forever.”
“My thoughts exactly, Captain,” Jack said. “Don’t forget the cell phones of the victims. I’ll sign the chain of custody.”
“You want us to run phone records?”
“Not necessary, Captain. We have an intelligence analyst that works miracles with this stuff.”
“Anything else, Agent?”
“We might want to talk to the detectives that worked the cases. Will you send copies of your crime scene photos?”
“Okay. When do you need my detectives? I’ll can make them available today.”
Jack said, “Like I said, we’re just getting started. We have some things to sort out but we can come tomorrow, if that works for you?”
She said, “Just call. I’ll get the detectives that worked the case to show you anything you need. Well, one detective anyway. One of them retired last year and is down in Florida. Lucky stiff.”
“I hear you,” Jack said.
“Detective Minnie Park will be your contact. The retired detective’s name is Bob Parsons. Minnie will take care of you. If you need anything else just call.”
Captain Harvey gave Jack her work and personal cell phone number, and Detective Park’s numbers. She took Jack’s contact information and promised he’d hear from Minnie Park by the end of the day with an answer about the items he’d requested. She said she’d make sure Minnie had a phone number for Parsons in case Jack needed to talk to him.
Jack met Jerrell at the front desk and they headed back to the roll call room. Jack put on a pot of coffee while Jerrell got them mugs and condiments.
“I put out another statewide BOLO for the Jeep,” Jerrell said. “I called Greene County. They never found DiLegge’s cell phone, but the call to dispatch was definitely made from his number. It hasn’t been used since. They don’t have the tape of the call to dispatch anymore, but I found the dispatcher that took it. She remembered taking the call but she didn’t remember anything. I called the State Police to see if they could send a couple of troops to help search around Dugger since Shauny’s low on troops.”
Jack told Jerrell about his conversation with Captain Harvey.
“If we get the dispatch tapes and cell phones from Sullivan County I want to get it all to the FBI lab ASAP. I’ll call Toomey and have a rush put on it. If they have dispatch tapes I think the lab can do a voice analysis to tell us if it’s the same voice and maybe if it’s a man or woman. Who knows? If we can find some phones maybe we’ll get DNA.”
“At least we’ll have Troy’s phone. Shauny’s DNA is probably all over it,” Jerrell said.
Jack said, “We have air service at our disposal. Let me make a quick call.”
Jack went outside and called Director Toomey and explained what he needed. He came back in and said, “Toomey is going to call Sullivan PD himself and get this expedited. That’ll save about a week of our time.”
Jack’s phone rang and he answered. “Detective Parks, that was quick.” He listened and said, “You’ll be getting a call from the Deputy Director of the FBI if you haven’t already. He’s going to send someone to pick up the phones and tapes if you found them.”
He listened again, then said, “You do? That’s great. Can you have someone email the crime scene and autopsy photos to Chief Jerrell, Linton Police?” He gave her Jerrell’s official email address and disconnected. Jack called Liddell, updated him and asked if they could take Troy’s cell phone by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.
Jerrell said, “You should come to work for me.”
“We’d kill each other inside a week,” Jack kidded.
“Probably.”
Chapter 16
Liddell and Shaunda came into the roll call room. Jack and Chief Jerrell had the case files arranged on the tables along with steaming mugs of coffee.
Shaunda said “You boys haven’t made an arrest yet, I see,” Shaunda said.
“That was fast,” Jack said.
Liddell explained, “She was flying low. I may need to change my pants.”
“Had him crying like a baby,” Shaunda said.
“I was. I admit it.”
“Meanwhile,” Jack said, “we were slaving away trying to solve multiple murders.”
“I told you he doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Liddell said.
“Neither does the big ugly one,” she said, meaning Chief Jerrell. “We gave the phone to Sullivan County. They said your private FBI plane was on its way. What did we miss?”
Jack answered. “I called Angelina and told her to expect downloads from the sim cards in the phones. She found Brandon’s cell phone number and said she could track it if the “Find My Phone” thing was turned on.”
“Can she find DiLegge’s like that?” Liddell asked.
“It’s been too long,” Jack said.
“Too bad,” Shaunda said. “Joey called and said he’d taken Claire to the morgue and she almost had a meltdown. He’s taken her home and I told him to stay with her as long as she needed. Poor woman.”
Sergeant Crocker came in with an armload of hard bound books. “I got all the yearbooks, Chief.”
Jerrell flipped through the Stockton-Linton books. He held it open and said, “Here’s the eagle pendant I was telling you about.”
Everyone gathered around him. The portrait photo was of a teenage boy with a shock of blond hair, a big smile on his face showing a full set of braces. He was the spitting image of his father. Around Junior’s neck was a heavy gold chain with a gold eagle pendant the size of Jack’s thumb.
“You sure you didn’t see that, Shauny?” Jerrell asked her.
She didn’t answer.
Jerrell went through the other three yearbooks, finding the pictures of his son and in each he pointed out the eagle around his son’s neck, reinforcing his statement that Troy Junior would never have parted with the gift from his mother. Jack was glad Shaunda didn’t suggest that Troy Junior may have sold it or traded it for drugs which was very probable.
“Someone needs to go through the yearbooks completely, every picture, see what clubs the victims belonged to, who their friends were. It’s too bad we can’t get their personal yearbooks to see what everyone wrote about them,” Jack suggested.
“I’ll do the yearbooks,” Crocker said.
It was going on lunchtime. Liddell reminded them.
“We need something to eat. I don’t do my best thinking when I’m hungry.”
Jack asked, “Is there anything we need to do first? Did we miss something?”
Jerrell said, “Go ahead without me. I’ve got some calls to make.”
“We have to find a place to stay,” Jack said. His phone rang. It was Angelina.
Liddell and Jack sat in their Crown Vic on the west side of Linton City Park, backed into a space in the parking lot of a motel aptly named The Park Inn. South from them, across the two lane highway, was an O’Reilly Auto Parts store. Further East was a Chuckles gas station and a Taco Bell. They had a good view of the west and south side of the park where a Vietnam Era Army tank, an M60 Patton, was on display. A concrete drive, the Phil Harris Parkway, named after the 1950s comedian/actor Phil Harris, encircled the park.
Angelina’s call had given Jack the general location of Brandon Dillingham’s cell phone. That fact that his phone had made the call directly to Sullivan County dispatch that morning and hadn’t come in through 911 was unusual. Not many people would know the direct number. Angelina told Jack the phone was currently near the Linton City Park and was stationary and pinging. She was trying to narrow
down the location.
Chief Lynch had ridden with Chief Jerrell. The two Chiefs were parked on the southeast side of the park where Highway 54 intersected with County Road 1100 West. Crocker was watching the east side. Two more Linton PD cruisers were told to stay in the area but to stay out of the park. Angelina was passing the phone location info to Liddell who was in turn relaying it to Jerrell via a borrowed portable radio.
They had been sitting for the better part of an hour when the radio squelched in Jack’s lap causing him to jump.
“Is it moving yet?” Jerrell asked.
Jack keyed the mic. “It hasn’t moved for a while, Chief.” He let up on the talk button and muttered, “Not since the last five times you’ve asked.”
Jerrell said, “I say we go ahead and do a walk through. For all we know the phone is in a trash bin. Or it might be in Chuckles. Who knows. I thought that little gal of yours knew where it was.”
Jack keyed his mic. “It’s stationary, Chief. Angelina’s trying to narrow its location down.”
“How narrowed down can she get it?”
“To a gnat’s wingspan,” Jack said.
Liddell was on an open phone line with Angelina. He held a finger up. “Angelina just pinpointed the phone. It’s not in the park. It’s in a residence just north of the park.” Liddell gave Jerrell the address.
Jack keyed the radio. “Chief Jerrell, keep someone out here in front of the park to watch for the homeless guy Chief Lynch’s daughter described. He’s the best lead we’ve got.”
Jerrell’s truck started moving and Jack hurried to follow. Jerrell was on the radio giving instructions. Jerrell would take the front door with Chief Lynch. Jack and Liddell would cover the back door. Crocker was to set up at the intersection to block traffic from entering or exiting. Jerrell ordered his roving cars to close in on the park and keep a loose perimeter.
They followed Jerrell’s truck down the county road. On their left was the city park; to their right was a mobile home park. As they passed through the intersection Crocker angled his car blocking the intersection behind them.