Tracking the Butcher

by William Joiner

  When Elgie arrived at the jail hospital, Michelle was asleep, so he took a seat in one of the metal chairs beside the bed. He had never seen the jail hospital ward before and was struck by the fact that it looked like a regular hospital except there were parts that had dorms rather than patient rooms. Michelle was in one of the protective custody cells, though he called it a room when he spoke to Michelle over the phone. This was, unfortunately, his first visit because things have been so hectic at work. Elgie waited for Michelle to wake up. It didn’t take long.

  “Elgie, why didn’t you wake me up when you got here?”

  “I thought you needed your rest; besides, I can wait, I’m not doing anything else at the moment.”

  “You could have woke me,” Michelle said. “I haven’t seen you since you were attacked by the Butcher. Your shoulder looks pretty bad, and you have to have your arm in that thing. Why are you back at work?”

  “I wasn’t going to let the Butcher put me out of commission. That’s all he wants is to sideline me.”

  “V told me that you’re kinda sidelined already. I saw on the news where you’re not in charge of the investigation anymore. V says they ain’t includin’ you in the task force’s part of the investigation but the guy runnin’ the task force wants you to report to him. Is that true?”

  “Yeah, it’s true,” Elgie said. “It’s not that much of a problem though. I go to the morning meetings when they go over the information they’ve come up with even though I’m not invited. If Lieutenant Gray doesn’t want me there, he’ll have to tell me to my face.”

  “That’s the guy’s name, Lieutenant Gray?” Michelle asked.

  “Yeah, that’s him alright—right now I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to get around him and catch the Butcher. Of course, when I catch him, Lieutenant Gray will probably call a press conference and tell them his task force did it.”

  “You should contact the press first. Don’t you have a friend on the news?”

  “You mean Geraldo Lopez? We’ve kind of been forced together by the Butcher since we’re the ones he contacts. It’s his phone calls and letters that are going to get him caught.”

  “I don’t know why you don’t just stay home and take care of your shoulder instead of dealin’ with that unnecessary bullshit from your job. You deserve better.”

  “I agree, I deserve better, but I have to deal with what I have. I’m continuing to work because I have every intention of catching the Butcher, and I can do that best at the office.”

  “Okay, you know what you’re doing,” Michelle said. “I hope you catch him soon.”

  “I hope so too. But that’s enough Butcher talk. How are you doing?”

  “I’m feeling better, the swellin’ in my jaw has gone down so people can understand me again. I’m supposed to be gettin’ out in a day or two.”

  “Speaking of that, since we aren’t at home right now, I thought Vanessa and I could rent adjoining rooms so you can have your own space but still have Vanessa around to help you out. You’d also have a police officer with you twenty-four hours a day. You are still a material witness and need to be protected.”

  “You mean, I’ll have a police officer with me, where ever I go?”

  “Yes,” Elgie said, “is that okay?”

  “Yeah, that all sounds good and stuff. I’ve gotten used to having police around me all the time anyway. Just one thing, though, I want to pay for the room. I have plenty of money saved so I can support myself until I get well enough to go to work.”

  “Don’t worry about that, it won’t cost very much more to rent the adjoining rooms than it does for the single room.”

  “Alright, I’ll still pay part of it, and you can’t stop me, so there.” They both chuckled.

  “Alright, have it your way.”

  “Thanks. I’d feel better knowing that I’m paying my own way.”

  Elgie talked with Michelle about general stuff for over an hour then headed home to get some rest knowing the Butcher would strike again soon. He was right. He just didn’t know how soon.

  At three-twenty-three in the morning on Friday Elgie received a call on his LAPD issued cell phone.

  “Hello, this is Lieutenant Reynolds.”

  “Lieutenant, this is Officer Thorpe, do you remember me from the Whiteford murder scene?”

  “Yes, I remember you, officer, I just don’t know why you’re calling me this time of morning. It better be good.”

  “It is, sir, there’s been another Butcher murder.”

  Elgie quickly sat up. “Where?”

  “Sunset Boulevard, sir—and I mean on Sunset Boulevard. On the sidewalk propped up against an office building less than two blocks from the prostitutes’ hangout. She’s a known prostitute.”

  “Did you call the task force office?”

  “Yes, I did, sir, but there was no answer, so I left a message and called you.”

  “Why didn’t you call Lieutenant Gray?”

  “Let’s say I didn’t have his number handy, sir. When I looked on my phone, I only saw yours. I called the coroner’s office as well.”

  “Alright, I’ll be right there. What’s the cross street?”

  “Diamond, sir.”

  Elgie quickly got up and put on some jeans, a pullover sweater, and his gun in a side holster. Grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.

  “What’s going on, Hun?” Vanessa asked.

  “There’s been another murder.”

  “This soon, but he just killed those people in L.A. yesterday.”

  “Actually, it was probably Wednesday. Lucas said he would kill again soon, but no one expected it to be this soon. No one expected it to be a prostitute either. Get this, he left her on the sidewalk.”

  “He wanted to be sure she would be found quickly, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, he did. Perhaps we’ll find out why when we catch him.”

  Elgie arrived at the scene about ten minutes later and found the scene cordoned off from the alley to the next street. He spoke with Officer West at the barricade, then with Officer Thorpe who was next to the body.

  “Officer Thorpe, who found her?”

  “The young lady in the back of my car—her name is Margarita Meredith. The hooker—I mean the prostitute, sorry, the victim is Anita Danby.”

  “Okay, I’ll take a closer look, then I’ll speak to Ms. Meredith.” Elgie turned on his digital recorder making the recording for the task force. “The victim, Anita Danby, was placed with her back against the wall with her legs stretched out and spread. There is no blood. She was probably killed somewhere else and dumped here. I wonder why she wasn’t placed in a dumpster like his other victims? Then again, he didn’t put his prostitute victims in the dumpster, but on the side of them.” Elgie turned off the digital recorder.

  “I’ll speak to the woman that found the body,” Elgie said. “Hello, ma’am, I’m Lieutenant Elgie Reynolds. You can call me Elgie.”

  “Okay, I’m Margarita, but everyone just calls me Rita.”

  “Alright, Rita it is. Can you tell me how you found the body?”

  “I was driving down the street in the right lane next to the curb, and I saw her. I thought she was asleep, so I stopped to wake her up because it’s dangerous to be sleeping on the sidewalk. I thought she might be drunk or something. When I came around the corner and parked my car in the alley there.” She pointed to an alley fifty yards east of the victim. “I walked over here and saw she didn’t look like she was breathing, so I called 911. First, they sent an ambulance, and the ambulance called you guys when they verified she was dead.”

  “Did you see anyone walking down the street or stop?”

  “No, I didn’t see anyone. There was very little traffic too.”

  “Why were you out driving at this time of the morning?”

  “Just that, I was out driving trying to clear my head. Me and my boyfriend broke up earlier this evening. I had a lot on my mind. Driving seems to help.”

  “We
ll, that’s all I have to ask. You’re free to leave if you’d like.”

  “Thank you, Elgie. I think I’ll stay at home and drink instead of driving when I’m upset from now on.”

  Shortly after the interview with the witness coroner’s investigator Andrew Long arrived.

  “Hello again, Investigator Long.”

  “Hi, Lieutenant, what have you got this time? Another of the Butcher’s gruesome corpses?”

  “Yes, but there’s no blood on this one. I thought she might have been killed elsewhere. That’s his pattern, only this one has less blood for some reason.”

  “Let me take a look,” Investigator Long said. “I see why there’s no blood. He strangled this one. I can tell by the petechial hemorrhaging. Her eyes are blood red because the blood has been forced into the whites of her eyes from the strangulation, breaking the blood vessels in her eyes.

  “After the strangulation, he did his usual twenty-two stabs with the butcher’s knife postmortem, which is why there’s so little blood.”

  “I suppose he must have gotten a taste for postmortem stabbing after his experience with the Whitefords,” Elgie said.

  “I wasn’t at the Whiteford scene, but if he did the stabs after they were dead, I’m sure he must have liked it.”

  “I’d better call Quinn and Lucas to come take a look at this since they are both assigned to the task force.”

  “Who are Quinn and Lucas?”

  “Detective Kim and Doctor Connors.”

  “Oh, the cute Korean girl,” Investigator Long said. “Is she single?”

  “You’d have to ask her, Investigator Long.”

  “Call me Andrew.”

  “Alright, Andrew, I’m going to make my call now. Excuse me.” Elgie stepped to the side and called Lucas and Quinn. Both of them came down immediately.

  It took Lucas and Quinn about fifteen minutes to arrive at the crime scene. They arrived within a minute of each other.

  “Lucas, Quinn, thanks for coming so soon, sorry to keep you waiting but I just had to take another look at the body. Come on in.” Elgie lifted the barricade tape.

  “Why didn’t Officer West let us in without you coming to get us?” Lucas asked.

  “They don’t want to give this case to the task force, they want me to handle it. You two are with the task force now, you no longer work for me, or with me. You are part of the task force, and some of the officers think the task force wasn’t the best call. I think they might be right.”

  “They are right, Boss,” Quinn said. “Now, let’s take a look at the body.”

  “Well, Lucas, I’m sure you’re not pleased, but you were right. He did strike again soon. Just a lot sooner than we thought.”

  “You mean sooner than I thought,” Lucas said. “The evaluation was my hypothesis. I further hypothesized he wouldn’t select an opportunistic victim like we have here. Further, I’m flabbergasted at this level of brutality. I never expected this. And his utilization of strangulation is well out of his usual modus operandi. Also, the after-death stabbing is so morbid. This says loud and clear that he is declining mentally. He no longer gets the thrill he once got from killing in his normal pattern. He may also have a shorter period of satiation between killings.”

  “Yeah, all that stuff,” Quinn said. “But will he get sicker with his fantasies?”

  “He might break down to that level if we fail to apprehend him within a reasonable period of time. Like today,” Lucas said.

  “I’m going to call Geraldo Lopez and tell him about this,” Elgie said. “I want him to get on the air as soon as possible and ask his audience to call the tip line if they were on Sunset this morning and saw something on this block. Like someone walking or driving away from this woman.”

  “But you’re only supposed to talk to the media with Lieutenant Gray’s permission, Boss,” Quinn said.

  “I know, but he’s not here, and this is an emergency. I’ll deal with the fallout. You two stay off camera. I don’t want you to end up in Captain Greer’s doghouse with me.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Around four-twenty-two the SID team arrived with Doctor Brooks to evaluate the scene.

  “Good morning, Doctor Brooks,” Elgie said, “sorry I had to call you so early—thank you for coming out personally.”

  “Not a problem, Lieutenant Reynolds—where’s Lieutenant Gray?”

  “He’s not here. I haven’t called him. I thought he needed his sleep.”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you—it also leaves you to run the investigation into this murder without his baseball metaphors.”

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “I saw the report on the Channel Three News. You look good on camera even without your suit. Of course, you’re not supposed to be on camera.”

  “I’ll just have to deal with the fallout. Hopefully, the TV appearance will generate some tips before Lieutenant Gray, and Captain Greer find out.”

  “Alright, Lieutenant, I wish you luck. Now let’s get to the crime scene.”

  Elgie told Doctor Brooks about the finding of the body and Investigator Long told him about his preliminary findings. Doctor Brooks took a magnifying glass and took a close look around and on the body.

  “I found a hair on her top, and there appears to be another that matches the first on the ground next to her. Neither has a root, but they’re useful anyway. I can make a visual comparison of the hairs back at the lab against the hair we have from the Griffith Park victim. If they match, we’ll know that the Butcher left that hair in the makeshift grave. Of course, we already believe that, but he could talk his way around it. If this hair matches, then he would have a hard time explaining how his hair is in both places.”

  “Are you doing anything with the DNA, like trying to match it to someone?”

  “Yes, the detectives assigned to follow up on the cross-references have been collecting DNA and hair samples from the suspects, and we should be able to eliminate some and find our Butcher—maybe. What do you think, Lieutenant Reynolds?”

  “I don’t think the geographic profiling will do us any good. I don’t think he’ll dump or commit crimes in a recognizable pattern. Given his knowledge of our investigation, he wouldn’t make that mistake.”

  “I think you’re right,” Andrew said. “Excuse my interruption, but I thought that if he knows what you’re doing, he probably knows how. I’m just saying that from what I’ve heard from his letters. I’m sure you have more information than that, Lieutenant.”

  “You’re right, Andrew, the media has reported the letters, but they don’t have all of the phone calls. In those calls, he makes it clear that he knows who we all are. That’s what makes me the most concerned.”

  “I wasn’t aware of any additional phone calls,” Doctor Brooks said.

  “I’m sure Lieutenant Gray will mention that last one, the one that told me about the Whiteford murders,” Elgie said. “The other one was the threat on me and the one survivor of a Butcher attack. The call about the Whiteford murders didn’t give any information outside of the location of the couple he had killed. It’s not what he says so much as the way he says it. He always makes it clear that he knows about me. Every call has been when I wasn’t busy. That’s the most important thing about the phone calls, he wants to demonstrate his knowledge and the extent of that knowledge. In the letter, he made it clear he knows about Lieutenant Gray and his family and threatened them. Actually, it wasn’t a threat per se, it was more of a message that he could be gotten to. The Butcher also said he knows who his family members are and where he lives but says we won’t attack them.”

  “Do you and Lieutenant Gray believe that?” Doctor Brooks asked.

  “Yes, so far he’s done what he’s said, and I think he won’t try to attack Lieutenant Gray’s family. He has already shown that he doesn’t hurt children with the Haskells, and he didn’t hurt my wife. He also says he didn’t mean to injure me as much as he did.”

  “That’s a lot to accept
from a murderous maniac,” Andrew said. “He kills, why wouldn’t he lie?”

  “I just don’t think he’ll attack Lieutenant Gray, at least not now,” Elgie said. “Lucas says he’s likely to attack any target of opportunity as his meltdown continues. We can tell that he’s reached that point by his choice of victim.”

  “His meltdown as you say is only part of the totality of this degeneration of character.” Doctor Brooks said. “That’s indicated by his raised brutality level.

  “There was a case I was involved with in which the victim was stabbed, shot, strangled, and drowned. The perpetrator inflicted the first injuries lightly enough that the victim didn’t die and remained conscious. It’s that type of need to cause pain and satisfy his macabre needs is what I see this Butcher heading toward. If that happens—or should I say when that happens—he is likely to attack anyone including you, your wife, and Lieutenant Gray and his family. He may even kill kids. No one will be off limits.”

  “Doctor Brooks, may I confide in you?”

  “Of course, Lieutenant.”

  “I have a suspect in mind, but I don’t want to expose him until I’m sure. Right now, all I have is a hunch. If I get a DNA sample from him surreptitiously, can you run it against the hair from the Griffith Park murder victim anonymously?”

  “I don’t see why that should be a problem. It’s an unusual request, but I think it can be done without violating anyone’s rights or my ethics. I have a kit in my car. You just swab the area or item in question and put the top over it to preserve the DNA and bring it to the lab.”

  “Good, because I don’t want to ruin a man’s life over a hunch. Once I have tangible proof, I can expose him. Now the hard part, getting the DNA sample without anyone knowing about it.”

  Later in the morning, Elgie went to the six o’clock AA meeting then attended the seven o’clock task force meeting. This time he was expected.

  “I understand you’ve had a busy morning, Elgie,” Lieutenant Gray said. “Would you share with the team a play by play of your time at bat?”

  Elgie told the group about his morning, the findings of the coroner’s investigator, his own findings, his contacting Geraldo Lopez to let him know about the murder so he could go on air and help find witnesses. Doctor Brooks told the group about his findings and his prediction of what he called “the Butcher’s destructive journey.”