Case of the Paper Trail Ch. 04

The chronological order of my stories is now at the end of the chapter.

This story contains graphic scenes, extreme language, and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial or racist language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

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Part 15 - The Team's Solution

Tuesday, December 9th. The MCD team met in Classroom 'E' at 8:00am.

"Okay, guys." said Tanya. "The Commander is not here. We really need to get off our asses and get this done. Myron, what did you get over the weekend? Besides your reward for that ring you put on Mary's finger?" Everyone laughed.

"Nothing new." said Myron. "We're still processing video footage. The Commander has put several files into the evidence servers, but left copies for us to find. I don't know which ones he did that for, so we're still searching for a needle in a haystack."

"We should be able to narrow this down." said Cindy. "If it's either of these two husbands, they would've taken certain likely routes, and along with the cellphone pings, we should be able to find something."

"I agree." said Martin Nash. "But I went over all that, and even drew up this map." He got up and pinned a map to the whiteboard. "If this guy is as slick in his movements as he was about dumping the bodies, then he might have taken any wacky route to throw us off."

"Okay, anyone else have anything?" Tanya asked.

Joanne Cummings said "The paper the note was written on is foreign-made, but nobody in the County imports it, as far as I can tell. So neither Mr. nor Mrs. Biller just went into a store around her and bought it- oh..." She'd caught herself as she remembered. "I think Myron did research that before. I guess I'm back to being a dumb blonde again."

"No you're not, but I think I did look that up." said Myron. He looked through some papers. "Here it is. It's German, and they don't export that brand of paper. I think Harmon Biller was buying it when he went over there."

"Oh yeah, I remember now." said Cindy. "Damn me for forgetting. I just gave blondes a bad name too, Joanne. And I'm sure that's going to bite us in the butt, that it'll be important, and the Iron Crowbar will point it out to us in some way."

"Let's just keep that one between us blondes, then... oh, damn, the Commander is a blonde, too." said Joanne, and though clearly both women were distressed they'd let that one get by them, they had to laugh at themselves.

"I think he's more of a redhead." said Tanya. "Don't ask me how I know that with such authority. And yes, I'm sure anything we forget will come back as important to him. Teddy, what do you have?"

"Ma'am," said Teddy Parker. "I've been interviewing friends of the Billers and the Davises. One thing that I'm getting a handle on is that these two couples don't have that much in common. They don't attend the same church, they don't go to the same social clubs, the wives know each other, but there's no link anyone knows of between the husbands. In addition, Edna Biller and Charleen Davis only very recently were seen together in public as friends."

"And that makes me ask 'Who would want to kill both Edna and Charleen if they had so little in common, or were only recent friends?'" asked Tanya.

"My data on these people, going back for years," said Myron Milton, "shows no correlations nor commonalities at all."

"Speaking of data going back for years..." Joanne Cummings said, "Myron, I know you checked for Mr. Biller's credit cards. Was he using his own card for his work with BigPharmaCorp?"

"Uh, yes, he was." said Myron Milton. "It was his card, in his name, but he used it exclusively for business. His other card was rarely used and nothing funky on it."

"What about before he retired from BigPharmaCorp?" said Joanne.

"Oh wait! that's a thought!" said Myron, grabbing his laptop. "BigPharmaCorp gives out credit cards in their names, with the person's name underneath. It comes up the company name on searches unless I do some trickeration..." Everyone watched, stunned.

"Guys, I gotta go downstairs to do this one." Myron said. "I'll be back in a few..." He hustled out.

"Detective Cummings," said Cindy, "you keep this up and the Commander will make me give you this blue crowbar." Tanya looked less than thrilled at that comment, but also complimented Joanne.

"Okay," Cindy said, unconsciously taking command in her frustration. "Let's keep going. We need ideas here. Let's get this narrowed down. Who, when, where, how, and why."

"I think we're back to the two husbands,." said Martin Nash, obviously trying to think like the Iron Crowbar would, "and I'm still thinking it's Harmon Biller."

"State your case." said Cindy. "Just for my' edumacation'."

Martin began. "He had means, he had opportunity, even if we don't have a clear-cut motive yet. He said his wife was a drinker, we now know she wasn't. He said she went out with Charleen, but there's no credit card used by either of them that night, no restaurant in the area that remembers seeing them that night, the theater people don't remember seeing either woman, and to top that off, Teddy just said that these women don't seem to have a particular friendship."

Martin continued. "As I've said before, Biller went to the Senior Center, but made no apparent effort to go into the obvious room where his card-playing friends would be, and they were there. So why would he do that, except to establish an alibi? He cleaned out his truck with Clorox, and I know there's reasonable doubt because of the farm and the manure, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have cleaned out the truck a second time after moving the bodies in the truck."

Martin finished. "I'm thinking he could have kidnapped Charleen at the Kroger, had her in the back of his truck and then he went and got his wife. Maybe he tied her up and put her in the truck, too; or maybe he had her in the front seat. He takes them both somewhere and kills them, then transports their bodies to the site where we found them. The tire impressions don't match because he replaced all four wheels, both tires and rims. He goes to the Davis house, finds Davis asleep, and plants the blood and cell phone evidence. This has been thoroughly planned and well thought out and executed."

"He's an engineer." said Joanne Cummings. "Plotting, calculating mind."

"Oh that's right; good point, Joanne." Tanya said. "But conjecture is not worth a lot; like the Commander said, we've gotta get a prosecutable case. We still have to eliminate the doubt vis-a-vis Mr. Davis. The evidence, even if planted, was still found at his house. He has new tires on his car that have not been explained away."

"Motive." Cindy said, more to herself than anyone else. "Motive, motive, motive. Gotta have motive. Theo, get any wills?"

"Succup & Payne, P.C. were the lawyers for both couples." said Teddy Parker. "All they told me was that the wives and husbands left everything to each other, and that the wills were 30 years old, at least."

"Not much there." Tanya said.

"Who has the most to gain by these deaths?" Cindy asked, again almost ignoring everyone else, channeling her inner 'Iron Crowbar 2' as if in a reverie. "Or who has the most to lose, if... ohhhh."

Cindy practically leaped for the phone that was in the center of the Classroom 'E' conference table. "Gonna take a longshot here." Everyone watched as she said "Hi, may I speak to Mrs. Jeanine Burke, please?... Lieutenant Cindy Ross, Town & County Police... get her out of her meeting, this is urgent and she will take the call..."

Cindy looked up, covering the mouthpiece of the phone. "She's not in a meeting, the secretary is trying to prevent me from talking to her. She better not make me go over there..."

After a moment, Cindy said "Hi Jeanine. Cindy Ross here. Yes, yes, I'm just fine, but I'm afraid this is a business call: I need to ask you to give me what you can on two woman that were recently murdered, Edna Biller and Charleen Davis... yes, I'm holding... ohhhh, that's huge news... formal? no, just a preliminary visit? Thanks Jeanine!" After farewell formalities, Cindy hung up.

"Yes!" the platinum blonde gasped, making a fist pump. "Edna Biller did have an appointment and met with Tina Felton, Jeanine's fellow lawyer, and about a possible divorce. She had a second one for last Tuesday, but of course was dead by then. Okay, one more phone call..." Cindy picked up the phone and began dialing again.

"Now why the fuck didn't we think of that last week?" Tanya asked, with no small amount of asperity in her voice.

"Yes, may I speak to Mr. Ferguson Stegall the Third please?" said Cindy. "Lieutenant Cindy Ross, Town & County Police Department... yes, thank you, I appreciate it..." Cindy looked up and said "I'm on the line with Effim, Goode & Hart, the men's divorce law firm, and I wish every receptionist would stop talking about the Medal of Valor and put me on the line with... oh, hello Mr. Stegall, thank you for taking my call. You're too kind, sir, way too kind. Listen, I need to know if Harmon Biller or Bill Davis has contacted your firm anytime recently? Yes, their wives were the ones murdered... Okay, an extra free month on the gym membership... ... ...thank you, sir, thank you very much. Yes, I'll see you at the gym.."

Hanging up after the goodbyes, Cindy said "It's worth the free month for him... Harmon Biller had started divorce proceedings against his wife last month. He was hoping for a quickie surprise case, and wanted to leave her with nothing if he could help it."

"That might be enough for 'probable cause', maybe enough to arrest him and try to get something out of him." said Tanya. "Let me go talk to Paulina-"

"Eureka!" Myron said as he burst into the room. "BigPharmaCorp credit card, assigned to Harmon Biller. Should have been cancelled when he retired, but is still active. He only took cash out of it about a month ago, and they shut it down once the bill came due, but that leaves the idea that he had cash to buy things... like new tires..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Things started falling into place.

"Yeah, that's him." said the owner of the Coltrane County Junkyard, where Deputy Strait had escorted Cindy Ross and Teddy Parker. "Bought rims for a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Asked if I could put tires on them, but I don't have that equipment, so I sent him to Strait's cousin Eddy in Buford."

At Eddy's Tires and Automotive in the county seat of Buford, Eddy looked at the picture and said "Yeah, Cousin, he was here about three weeks ago, no, about four weeks ago now. Had me put some old tires on some rims... yeah, he said it was just a spare set for when he was doing farm work at his cooperative..."

As they left, Deputy Strait said "It's really good seeing you again, Lt. Ross. Can I buy you lunch?"

"Thanks," said Cindy, "but we've got to get back."

As they were driving back, Teddy said, "Lieutenant, I don't need to be the Iron Crowbar to see that that Deputy has a big-time crush on you."

"Yeah, he's a sweet guy, but he's not my type." said Cindy, not saying that she didn't play on Deputy Strait's team at all...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"We don't have the tires, but we have affidavits that Biller bought tires and rims in Coltrane County." said Tanya Perlman to Paulina Patterson. Paulina was sitting behind her desk, and Tanya had chosen to stand on the other side as she laid out her case. "The divorce firms have confirmed that both Billers had appointments, though they claiming lawyer-client privilege on what was discussed. We also have affidavits from the Hardware Store that Biller bought plastic sheeting about six weeks ago, and some rope. Paid cash for all of it. Last but not least, the paper his wife's note was written on is foreign-made, not imported, and he's been known to have bought packets of it in the past."

"What about his whereabouts that night?" Paulina asked.

"That's finally coming through." said Tanya. "He seems to know all the dead spots, but we finally got a parking lot shot of him near where Charleen's car was found, and he was on the highway near to where the bodies were found, both between 7:00 and 8:00pm, after sunset. We think he was going back for Charleen's cell phone; hence his coming from the opposite direction expected."

"I'll call for the arrest warrant." said Paulina, already knowing that Lt. Perlman's MCD squad had given her enough. She picked up the phone. "Commander, they've done it."

A moment later I came into Paulina's office and handed her my box of evidence. "You're close enough." I said to Tanya. "Now use this to finish the bastard off."

Part 16 - A Successful Arrest

Late that afternoon, I was standing in the anteroom to Interrogation-1, leaning against the back wall. The Chief was standing next to me, smiling happily under his handlebar mustaches. The rest of MCD was packed into the room, as well, except for Tanya Perlman, Joanne Cummings and Theo Washington... they were in the interrogation room itself. Joanne was sitting behind the other Detectives; her presence there was her reward for her excellent thinking during the case... and yes, it might have been one very impressed Police Commander that suggested to Tanya to give Joanne that reward.

Harmon Biller was sitting on the perp side, next to his lawyer. He was slouching in his chair, looking defeated... but at the same time he was looking wary. I surmised that he was looking to see what we had. And we had a lot.

Tanya did a decent job of pointing out the many inconsistencies in Biller's statements, as well as telling him that we had the affidavits, and therefore would have the testimony of individuals that were aware of the purchases he'd made. Unfortunately, the lawyer was a bit too wily.

"Lieutenant," said the lawyer, speaking to Tanya as if she were an uncomprehending child, "this is barely even circumstantial evidence. There is nothing my client has done that cannot be explained logically and consistently as not being related to these murders at all. I don't believe you can put my client at the crime scene, nor even tell us where the crime took place. Last, but not least, there was serious evidence found at the home of Mr. Bill Davis, and that evidence should convict Mr. Davis, not to mention be reasonable doubt that will prevent any jury from convicting my client."

Tanya looked halfway between angry and nervous, Theo definitely looked rattled, and Joanne showed nothing on her face.

"Remind me not to play poker with Detective Cummings." I said. "By the way, it's obvious Biller told his lawyer about the evidence at the Davises, which he otherwise should not know about at all. That's proof enough to me, though it's not going to be admissible in Court."

"Okay guys, you've solved this case," said the Chief, "but you still have one thing to learn from the Master... interrogating perps, and there is nobody better than the Commander. Crowbar, get in there and wrap this shit up. It's hopefully my final big case as Chief, and I want to walk out a winner."

"Yes sir." I said quietly, feeling the disappointment of the MCD team. "Call Paulina in here." I said. I knocked hard on the one-way glass, and the Detectives inside all came out. As I waited for Paulina, I concentrated hard on getting 'into the zone' in my mind, preparing myself mentally for the verbal legal combat that was about to take place. By the time Paulina arrived, I was ready.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Oh shit." said the lawyer when he saw Paulina enter Interrogation-1, followed by... me. The legal beagle recovered and tried to bluster: "What's the matter, Commander? Your minions can't handle an interrogation? They're failing, so they bring you in to browbeat my client?"

"My team can and will get the conviction of your client." I said. "And they'll watch him die by lethal injection in the State's Death Chamber, too-"

"There you go, trying to intimidate my client." said the lawyer. He stood up. "If there is nothing more, it's time for us to leave. Come on, Harmon."

"Your client is under arrest." I said. "He is going nowhere, even if you do leave. Now sit your ass down, or get out."

So far my voice had been quiet, but the menacing undertone of the last sentence had not escaped Biller's attention. I looked Biller in the eye.

"Harmon Biller," I said, "despite the theatrics of your legal beagle here, who is unable to hide his fear from the moment I entered this room, I have a case against you so solid that I do think I can get the death penalty. In fact... why don't I tell you what you did that night, and you just correct me where I go astray, okay?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the anteroom, Cindy Ross said "You're right, Chief. We cannot do what he is doing now. We're not losing face, but there's nothing like what the Iron Crowbar can do to a perp when he starts telling that perp what he or she did as if Don were there himself." Tanya grimaced at the words, which the Chief noticed. He patted Tanya on the shoulder.

"You guys did very well." said the Chief. "You solved the case and made an arrest. It's no bad mark upon any of you to let the Iron Crowbar wrap this up and extract the confession, so we can all go home in time for supper with the Baby Petes of the world." Tanya couldn't help but smile at the thought of her baby son. The Chief still had magic with his people.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Oh, sometime in the late afternoon of Sunday, November 30th," I said, "you, Mr. Biller, followed Charleen Davis to the Kroger that she frequently shops. You pulled in behind her car, came up to her, and asked her to come with you, that her husband had had a fall and was being rushed to the hospital. In her shock, she was easily subdued, thrown into the back of your covered pickup truck, her hands quickly tied with rope and her mouth gagged, her body wrapped in plastic to immobilize her."

"It took a while, during which time you were parked in a 'dead zone' of another parking lot where you could not be seen by cameras, and you waited for your wife to park. Seems she was not meeting you, but a gentleman she had met some weeks before, and was now meeting on a regular basis... a gentleman introduced to her by one Charleen Davis."

The look on Biller's face was priceless: he was in total shock, and I knew that I was right to this point. His lawyer tried to save him.

"We don't have to listen to this crap." yelled the lawyer. "Either you stop this harassment, or I'll have your badge!"

"Yes, you do have to listen to it." said Paulina Patterson. "Well, Mr. Biller here has to listen to it. It's a formal interrogation. You can leave if you like, but we're going to hear what the Commander has to say. Keep interfering, and I'll have your badge as an Officer of the Court, and then your disbarment will quickly follow."

"Thank you, District Attorney Patterson." I said. "Now, where was I? Oh yes... when your wife showed up, you practically jumped her. I suspect you showed her Mrs. Davis in the back of the car, and then forced her into the front of the car, made her write that note on your high-quality German stationary- oh yes, that's where you first went wrong, Biller..."

I had seen Biller's eyes light up when I mentioned the paper; gears in his mind had crashed into place. "Yes, you threatened to kill Charleen if Edna didn't write the note. Once she did write it, you tied her up, wrapped her in plastic, then drove both of your victims out to the farms, where you forced Edna to watch as you slit Charleen's throat. You then applied the same murderous stroke to your wife's neck, her face still showing the horror of having watched you murder Charleen."