Tracking the Butcher

by William Joiner

Vanessa got up and walked over to the doctor as did Quinn and Lucas.

  “Mrs. Reynolds I’m Sophia Yasmin. I’m the surgeon on your husband’s case. I’m happy to report that your husband made it through surgery and should make a full recovery.”

  “Thank you, Doctor, thank you!” Vanessa said. “Can I see him?”

  “Sure, they’re taking him to the intensive care unit, and he’ll be out for a least an hour, but you’re welcome to wait with him if you’d like.”

  “Yes, I would, thank you.”

  “Do you mind if I go with you, Vanessa?” Lucas asked.

  “I’d love for you to come. I’m sure Elgie will be glad to see you when he wakes up.”

  “Mind if I come along?” Quinn asked.

  “Of course, you can, Quinn,” Vanessa said.

  The three went to the ICU and were greeted by a nurse who was basically the gatekeeper in charge of visitors.

  “Are you Mrs. Reynolds?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “We’ve been expecting you. Are you two family members?”

  “No, we’re not family,” Lucas said.

  “Only family members are allowed in the ICU.”

  Quinn flashed her badge and said: “We’re his partners.”

  “You know, we get enough police officers up here to know that you are family. Go on in.”

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Quinn said.

  “Yes, thank you,” Lucas said.

  “There are only two chairs in there,” the nurse said. “I’ll get you another one.”

  The nurse came back with the chair. Lucas met her halfway and carried it to Elgie’s room. The three took seats. Lucas asked Vanessa to share some stories about her husband as a way to keep her mind on his life and off her thought of his possible death. After two hours Elgie showed no signs of waking up. It occurred to Vanessa that the doctor could have been wrong.

  Vanessa got up and began to pace.

  “Vanessa, why don’t you sit back down,” Lucas said.

  “I can’t sit right now. She said one hour, it’s been over two. She said one hour.”

  “I’m not a medical doctor, but I can tell you that according to the heart monitor he has a good strong heartbeat. He’ll be fine.”

  “If you’re not a medical doctor what kind of doctor are you?” Vanessa asked.

  “I’m a psychologist. I used to be in clinical practice, but now I do forensic work.”

  “So, you can tell that I’m overreacting?”

  “I wouldn’t say overreacting. I think your feelings are valid. You have every right to be worried, but that doesn’t mean there’s actual cause to worry.”

  “You have a point, Lucas. Thank you. I think I’ll sit back down now. He has a good strong heartbeat, right, Lucas?”

  “Yes, he does, Vanessa.”

  Elgie opened his eyes and looked around—still under the influence of the anesthetic, “I’m in the hospital, huh?”

  Vanessa shot up when she heard her husband speak.

  “Yes, Elgie, you’re in the hospital,” Vanessa said quietly as she stood at her husband’s bedside. “Quinn and Lucas are here.”

  “Doctor Connors, Detective Kim, what brings you here?”

  “You did, actually, sir. And please call me Lucas.”

  “Okay, Lucas. So how are you and Quinn doing?”

  “We haven’t been stabbed and almost killed if that’s what you mean, Boss,” Quinn said.

  “Oh yeah, I was stabbed,” Elgie said. “Did you catch the Butcher?”

  “No, he was long gone by the time the first officers arrived,” Quinn said. “They were there in less than a minute because you had them checking on your wife—they were nearby.”

  “How did he get in the house?” Elgie sounded like he was going to pass out at any minute.

  “I don’t know,” Vanessa said. “I think he must have been inside when I got home. He managed to come up behind me and knock me out with chloroform or something like that. I never saw his face. Did you get a good look?”

  “No,” Elgie said reluctantly. “I couldn’t tell you which one of our suspects it was. I can’t even say it was any of them. He was wearing a Halloween mask, I think it was Bill Clinton. He didn’t say anything. Did he say something to you, Vanessa?”

  “No, he never said a word. When I came to, I was in the dining room in the dark, and he was standing in the corner, apparently waiting for you. I tried to talk, but I was gagged and handcuffed to the chair. I was really wondering why he hadn’t killed me.”

  “He didn’t kill you because he wanted to kill you in front of me,” Elgie said. “Or maybe he meant to kill me in front of you and then kill you. It’s hard to tell how his twisted mind works. What do you think, Lucas?”

  “I think you’re right, Lieutenant,” Lucas continued speaking in his therapist's voice, “he was going to kill you in front of your wife then kill her. I guess he wasn’t going to go through the torture because she wasn’t cheating on you. He was probably going to leave the knife in your chest, Mrs. Reynolds, just like he did with Mrs. Haskell.”

  “That’s certainly disturbing,” Vanessa said.

  “Well, that morbid stuff is out of the way, now, let’s get to a little business,” Elgie said. “Vanessa, I want you to go home and get me a fresh suit, pack a bag for yourself, bring me the suit, and check into a hotel. I’m going to stay in the hospital overnight, go to the AA meeting in the morning, and then to the task force meeting.

  “Vanessa, I would appreciate it if you would either stay in the hotel or come to the office with me. Under no circumstances are you to go back to the house without me. Have you got all that?”

  “Yes, I’ve got it, Elgie. I’m not going to argue with you about it. I’m also going to pack a bag for you. You’re not going home either until you catch the Butcher. Plus, our house is a crime scene. We couldn’t go home even if we wanted to—at least not tonight. But I’m going to go to work today. I’ll inform the building security of the threat so they’ll make sure they know who they let into the building. One other thing, I almost lost you this morning you’re staying in the hospital until the doctor tells you that you can leave and not a minute sooner.”

  “Alright, if you insist I’ll stay put. Quinn, I want you to assign a car to patrol Vanessa’s office building and report to you directly if they see anyone they think is suspicious. And give them the names of our suspects.”

  “Right, Boss,” Quinn said, “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Great,” Elgie said, “once you take care of that you two go on home, and I’ll see you when I get back to work or if you have time to come see me before then.”

  “No,” Quinn said. “I’m going to be here to keep you company until your wife gets back. Then I’m going back to your house and check in with the investigation team.”

  “Excellent, Quinn,” Elgie said, “but Lucas will be here with me, so instead of being here you can take Vanessa home to get her stuff and my suit and check in with the investigators at that time. Then you can all go home and let me get some rest.”

  The hospital phone rang in Elgie’s room.

  “Hi, who’s calling?” Elgie said in the most cheerful voice he could manage.

  “Hello, Elgie. This is Captain Greer, I heard you had been attacked by the Butcher, and I want to know how you’re doing.”

  “I’m okay,” Elgie said, “Vanessa is here—so are Doctor Connors and Detective Kim.”

  “That’s good, you don’t need me to come down then.”

  “No, I think I have enough visitors. Besides, I’ll probably be asleep by the time you’d get here.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you when you return to work or sooner, depending on how long you’re going to be in the hospital.”

  “Thanks,” Elgie said, “but I’ll probably only be here a couple of days, so it’s not really necessary.”

  “What do you mean? You can’t leave the hospital in two days. They told me you had an artery sewed up, that’s se
rious shit! You need to be in the hospital for at least a week.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but I have work to do, and I’ll be fine. If not, I’ll return to the hospital.”

  “I see,” said Captain Greer. “I’ll see you in a couple of days, then.”

  “Okay, see you then.”

  The nurse came into the room.

  “I see you’re awake, Mr. Reynolds. Do you feel up to going to a regular room, or do you think we need to keep an eye on you to monitor your condition?”

  “I’m ready to go to a regular room, nurse.”

  “I’m Nurse Matthews.”

  “Okay, thank you, Nurse Matthews.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Two days later, Elgie left the hospital in the morning and went straight to the six o’clock morning AA meeting, then the task force meeting. After the brief meeting, Elgie returned to the quiet of the tip line office. Sixteen minutes after he arrived in the tip lin, his cell phone rang.

  “This is Lieutenant Reynolds; may I help you?”

  “Hello, Elgie,” a voice that sounded like a villain in a video game said, “this is your friend the Butcher. How have you been?”

  Elgie put his hand over the mouthpiece and told Sergeant Johnson to put a trace on the call and turned on the voice mail to record the conversation.

  “Why are you calling? You tried to kill my wife and me, and now you want to taunt us some more, is that it?”

  “No, if I wanted you two dead, you’d be dead. I just wanted to let you know I wasn’t bluffing. I can find you, your wife, and that whore anytime I like. You’re only alive because I chose not to kill you and for no other reason.”

  “Why don’t you just turn yourself in, you must be tired of killing by now.”

  “Not really, I’m only getting started. I just called to tell you that I plan to kill a cheating man next. Guess how I’m going to do it. How I’m going to find a cheating man?”

  “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me.”

  “No, that would be cheating. You’ll have to figure it out on your own. I’ll be seeing you around, but you won’t see me. Actually, you’ve seen me you just didn’t know it. That ought to be something to get your juices flowing. I’ll send you another letter soon. Until then, be careful out there. You never know what kind of maniac is lurking around the corner. Have a wonderful day.” The caller hung up.

  “Johnson, did you get a location for the caller?”

  “No, sir, the computer room staff didn’t have enough time to triangulate the cell phone signal.”

  “Alright.”

  Elgie picked up his desk phone. “Hello, may I speak to Lieutenant Gray?”

  “Who should I say is calling?”

  “Lieutenant Reynolds.”

  “I’ll put you right through, sir.”

  “No, never mind, I’m going to come over there.”

  Elgie made his way to the task force office and went straight to the back and into Lieutenant Gray’s office.

  “Hi, Elgie, I was just about to call you. We have cadaver dogs searching the clearing at Griffith Park where the woman’s body was found. Doctor Connors says the Butcher likely buried other prostitutes there. I think he’s right. To change the subject, how are you feeling? Your shoulder looks foul, not a line drive at all. The Butcher really got you.”

  “To answer your question, yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking,” Elgie said.

  “What about the sling? How long are you supposed to be a southpaw?”

  “The doctor says about two weeks.”

  “I couldn’t help notice that the sling matches your suit, do you have a sling to match all of your suits?”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

  “I guess you wouldn’t. You are always such a sharp dresser in those expensive suits. What is that, Armani?”

  “Yes, it is. Good eye,” Elgie said.

  “I can see your ties are silk. Are your shirts silk too?”

  “No, they’re cotton. Now can we get to why I’m here?”

  “Sorry, I got off track for a minute. So, what can I do for you, Elgie?”

  “I want to let you know that I just received another call from the Butcher and he says he’s going to kill a man. To be exact, he said a cheating man.”

  “How do you think he’s going to hit that pitch?”

  “I figure the only way he could do that is if he found a bisexual man who cheats on his wife. Or he could use one of those websites that people use to cheat on their spouses. He could just say he’s a woman and arrange to meet some unsuspecting man.”

  “That makes sense,” Lieutenant Gray said, “but I think it’s more likely that he’ll look for a switch hitter. He could probably find one on a gay sexual encounter website. They have cheating spouse ads too.”

  “I didn’t think about that—good idea.” Actually, he had thought about it.

  Lieutenant Gray’s phone rang.

  “Elgie wait a minute, I have to take this call.”

  Elgie waited for about two minutes.

  “Thanks for waiting, it’s going to be worth your while. It looks like Doctor Connors hit a home run on this first time at bat with his new team. He was right about the bodies at Griffith Park. That was the SID evidence collection coordinator at the park. She says they’ve found two more graves. They’re going to excavate them, and the dog handlers have their dogs looking for more bodies.”

  “I don’t know if that’s good news or not,” Elgie said. “All that means is that the Butcher has been killing longer than we thought. We still don’t know how long. There could be bodies buried in other places. This is a big city, and unfortunately, there are plenty of places and ways to dispose of a body. Anything from dumping it in the ocean to burying it in the desert and everything in between.”

  Thursday morning at seven, Matthew Wright was taking his trash down to the dumpster in front of his apartment building. While throwing the trash in, he noticed something odd.

  “What the hell is that?” He exclaimed.

  He said it so loud that the person in the apartment above the dumpster opened her window and looked out then went out to her balcony.

  “Matt, what’s going on? Is something wrong?” the woman asked.

  “There’s someone in the dumpster, and I think he’s dead.”

  “What the hell! Are you sure?”

  “Of course, I’m sure, Miriam. I’m looking right at him.”

  Miriam walked over to the end of her balcony so she could see into the dumpster.

  “Jeez, there is a body in there. But how do you know it’s a man? The face is so swollen and bloody; it’s hard to tell what it is.”

  “If you get a close-up look, you’ll see it’s a man.”

  “No thanks, I’ll take your word for it. I’ll call the police—just stay there until they get here.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m going back to my apartment.”

  “No, you have to be there to tell them what you saw and how you found the body. They’ll also want to talk to me so I’ll come down and wait with you.”

  “Alright, go ahead and call.”

  Miriam made the call and came down to wait for the first responders. Officers Nick McNicholas and Dan Bell arrived on the scene in six minutes. Officer McNicholas took out his notepad and began to question the witnesses.

  “May I have your names please?”

  “I’m Matthew Wright.”

  “My name is Miriam Linden.”

  “Which one of you found the body?”

  “I did, Officer,” Matthew said.

  “What did you see when you came out of the building?”

  “Nothing really,” Matthew said. “I just came down to dump some trash and saw that man in the dumpster. Then I basically screamed, and Miriam heard me.”

  “Yeah, that’s when I went to the balcony and asked him what he was yelling about, and he told me about the body.”

  “Did you see anyone on the street, Mr. Wright?�
�

  “No, not a soul.”

  “How about you, ma’am?”

  “No, I didn’t see anyone, either.”

  “Alright, I need you two to wait for the detectives and the coroner to come. They’ll want to ask you some questions.”

  Elgie got in the tip line office at six-forty-five and got the word about the man’s body around seven fifteen and informed Lieutenant Gray. He told Elgie to go to the scene, and he would send Bywater and McBean with him. The three met up in the Butcher Task Force Office. Before leaving Elgie spoke to Lucas.

  “Congratulations, Lucas, I understand you put Lieutenant Gray on to the possibility of additional bodies at Griffith Park.”

  “It was just an educated guess,” Lucas said. “What about the promised communication from the Butcher—what information do you think it will contain?”

  “Well, I think either he’s going to tell us what his future targets are going to be or tell us something about his previous victims.”

  “I’ll go with previous victims,” Lucas said.

  “Why?” Elgie asked.

  “He wants to challenge you. That’s why he invaded your home and continues to communicate with you. For some reason, he’s focused on you. Probably because you provided him with his moniker. If he tells you about previous victims, he’ll provide you with more insight into his crimes and that information will be useful in determining his identity. Telling you about future victim types doesn’t help you locate or determine who he is or if he’s one of your current suspects. He wants to provide you with an intimation of his deed, thinking that you still won’t be able to apprehend him.”

  “So, that’s why he attacked me in my house. He wanted to show me that he’s ahead of me. He knows about me, but I don’t know about him. Is that it?”

  “Affirmative,” Lucas said, “by letting you know he knows where you live, and knows about your wife, but you don’t know anything about him. The letter is his way of giving you some information about him to dare you to catch him. That’s also the purpose of the phone calls.”

  “Does any of that help you refine your profile?” Elgie asked.

  “Yes, it does,” Lucas said, “but more so the other bodies. I’m willing to bet those are all prostitutes. Something must have precipitated this change in victimology. I hypothesize that he was rehearsing prior to his debut by killing the prostitutes. That’s why we didn’t know anything about him until he announced himself. He buried the bodies so no one would know there was a serial killer at work until he decided to expose himself. To continue my supposition, I believe his mother cheated on his father, and he felt like she was cheating on him as well.