by David Kersey
CHAPTER 65
It wasn’t panic as much as it was confusion. A stroke of bad luck to be certain. Stuck in the mothball laden Motel 6 was bad enough. To pass the time he was reading ‘Slaughterhouse Five’, probably Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous effort. Like Steve McQueen, Vonnegut had roots in Indianapolis. The TV, on low volume, was tuned in to a college basketball game to which Garrison paid absolutely no attention. He did however overhear, “We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this special news bulletin.” He turned the volume up from the remote. “Just an hour ago a body was found in the Beech Grove area that appears to be the work of the now infamous cross killer. The body of Wanda Lopez, a teacher at Beech Grove High was found by her sister, Maria Alvarez, at the deceased’s home near the high school.” The scene switched from showing the exterior of the bungalow. A taped interview of the sister followed. The distraught sister spoke in Spanish. Garrison leaned forward to read the subtitles. “It was awful. She was laying there on the kitchen floor when I found her. Someone butchered her with a knife and her blood was everywhere.” The scene changed again to a microphone shoved in front of an IPD officer. “This is an ongoing crime scene investigation so there will be no further comment. The FBI is now working the scene so you’ll want to talk with them.” Garrison watched the crawler scroll across the screen; ‘Cross killer strikes Indianapolis’, which four words were repeated endlessly in succession. A blonde newscaster from the control desk said, “Please stay tuned to Fox TV. We will continually update you with live reports throughout the day as soon as we have them. We now return to the halftime of the basketball game.” The crawler continued to be shown during the basketball halftime show. ‘Cross killer strikes Indianapolis’.
Garrison laid the book aside. What should he do? He hadn’t counted on being this close to the discovery. He was no more than a mile away from the Lopez dwelling that was crawling with badges. He wondered if this might be the safest place for him for the time being. In previous cases the killer had fled the area of the slayings. It was more than twelve hours ago that he did the Lopez woman. The killer would be long gone, out of state by now most likely, or so he hoped the cops would conclude. It had been less than seventy-two hours since the body in Arkansas was found. Arkansas to Indiana was not a short distance. He was trying to think like a cop. The killer is moving about over a wide area quickly so it is logical to assume the IPD and the feds would be thinking the same way.
The basketball game had resumed but the crawler continued across the bottom of the screen. Cops in Little Rock were looking for a small, dark car or SUV. There are millions of vehicles matching that incomplete description. He had an Illinois plate which was a deception though becoming riskier as time passed. Certainly all police jurisdictions nationwide would be alerted, there would be a large dragnet. Think, Garrison, Minnick, whoever he was, think.
Option number one: Stay put, keep the Monday doctor appointment. Risky. Too many uniformed and focused sets of eyes. The whatever worried him. Patrol cars would canvass motel parking lots. He was almost certain of that.
Option number two: Leave immediately for Ohio. Plausible. Would there be roadblock checkpoints already? Doubtful. But was it worth taking the chance.
Option number three: Find another vehicle. He didn’t know how to hot wire. A stolen car would be easier to chase down than his current whatever. Out of the question.
Option number four: Go to Avis and rent a car for a week. Plausible. Thanks to the K and G Tavern he had plenty of cash to rent a car. Using his real credit card was an undesirable, but he would still have to show an ID and leave the whatever in plain view.
There came a knock at his motel room door. He hurried to his soft sider and grabbed the .38 he would use only in an extreme emergency. Another knock as he held the gun to his side.
“Maid service,” announced a female voice. The door opened. She used a passkey but the chain lock prevented her from entering.
He quickly shoved the handgun back into the suitcase under his clothing before the maid could have noticed through the tiny opening. After letting her in he walked outside and placed his elbows on the hood of the whatever. It was there he thought of a fifth option, the one he would use. He waited for the maid to finish, returned to the room and reached for his laptop.
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Marlene watched with her hands on her hips. The Office Depot deliverymen were about finished unloading and placing the reception area chairs and her office furniture. When they were finished she tipped them and sent them on their way. There were at least a dozen boxes of paper forms and desk doodads that needed organizing and put away. Tillie was busy organizing the reception desk, placing enrollment forms, disclaimers, customer information handouts, and guarantee forms into plastic trays.
“Tillie, when you get a second, come in to my office,” Marlene instructed.
“Yes ma’am?”
“Take a seat, honey, let’s get on the same page about how to use our cell phones as pagers. Do you have an email address kiddo, and by the way, I’m required to have an employment application form for you in file to be absolutely legal.”
“My email is TFS28.
“Gotta be more to it than that. Who is the provider?”
“Oh yeah, at yahoo.com.”
“What’s the TFS28 stand for?”
“TillieForSure, an’ I set it up last year when I was 28 years old.”
Marlene chuckled at the for sure part. “Ok, you’ll need to check your email in a little bit to get an authorization to set up the pager system.”
“For sure. Should I use this address for the application form?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine. There’s a place on there for your former address. Another thing. You’re going to have to go through a training course to get certification as a trainer. My certification transferred but yours from Texas doesn’t because it’s expired.”
“I know, the attorney told me as much.”
“And now for the really important thing.”
“Yes ma’am?”
“Let’s plan on a hayride for tomorrow night. I am going to see if Chip can make it. How’s that sound?”
“Oh, mom, do you really mean it? Wooeee!”
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One of the wonders of the internet and modern computing is a program called Google Earth. He had used it many times before and during his campaign of killing. It is essentially an outer space view of the entire planet but has the capability of zooming in to whatever aerial view detail is suitable, even down close enough to recognize the makes of automobiles. He used the zoom feature to capture the city of Indianapolis eastward to Pittsburgh. He used the Add feature to place a stick pin in the area of Warren, Ohio, which was close to Buck’s Canine Training Facility according to their website insert map. Pittsburgh 320 miles, both Akron and Cleveland 250 miles from Indy. He checked the airlines from his laptop. No direct flights to Akron, but there were redeye directs to both larger cities. He liked Pittsburgh better even though it was a farther distance. He liked the thought of landing two states away and doubling back the seventy miles by rental car to Warren.
He had found, using Google Earth, an Indy utility site of about thirty acres that was nothing more than parking for the city’s dump trucks. The site contained a centralized lake of about five acres which was probably used for excavating fill dirt. There appeared to be no onsite dwellings or guardhouse and the site was heavily tree lined inside the thirty acre perimeter to disguise it from adjacent residences. Almost exactly eight miles from Motel 6 to 30th Street and Richardt Avenue, the closest proximity to the entry point, only it would be farther because he would use backstreets on the way. He had to make two important assumptions which if ill-advised could be a danger point. Was the lake deep enough to completely submerge the whatever, and was there a fence and gate to negotiate? He couldn’t tell f
rom the aerial for the canopy of tree foliage may have hidden a fence underneath.
He didn’t have a sure fire plan B but he had a flimsy one. In the same area as the utility site there was a wrecked automobile storage area. It definitely had no fence to negotiate and the aerial indicated there were hundreds of wrecks stored there. He could back his car in to a spot there but eventually someone would run the VIN number and trace the car to his real name. The cops knowing who he actually is would mean his mug would be sent all over the country. ‘Have you seen this man’ shots would make television newscasts. No, somehow the lake and submerging had to work. That would give him considerably more time to continue his mission.
There was a lot to do with several moving parts which he broke down into the various elements:
Number one: Book the flight online for the 2:21 am flight to Pittsburgh
Number two: Pay his bill at Motel 6. He would pay for the extra unused day since he would leave the room at 10 pm. He would pay in cash.
Number three: Ditch the Florida license plate that was under the driver’s seat, and ditch the handgun, and unfortunately, the San Mai knife. Airports and handguns and knives don’t mix. He would use a McDonald’s trash bin for all the above.
Number four: Once the car was disposed of, walk to the corner of 30th and Richardt. There was a vacant lot there full of trees. He could sit undetected there until a taxi arrived. He would tell the cab driver that his wife finally pushed him out after years of threats.
Number five: Taxi to the Indianapolis airport, check in, and wait. He would rent a car in Pittsburgh upon arrival, then get some sleep at a flea bag motel. Unfortunately that would mean a Sunday to shop for a knife. He would search for a flea market to make a Sunday purchase.
Number six: Arrive in the Warren, Ohio area no later than 6 pm and book a room. He would case the dog place that very night using two methods; Google Earth and his eyeballs on site.
Minnick went over the notes two times looking for the weak spots. There were many, not the least of which was that he would be forced to use his actual credit card and show his Florida driver’s license at both the airport and car rental agency. He decided to proceed anyway by enacting element number one.