Homewrecker Ch. 01

"No room key?" I asked. Julia shook her head 'no'. "Murder weapon?" I asked.

"Knife." said Sheriff Griswold. "From the looks of the wound, I'd say a hunting knife of some kind. Maybe one of those 'Rambo' knives the military uses."

"We have not found the murder weapon yet, sir." said Lt. Jerome Davis. "We're still going through the trash cans in the hotel and the dumpster out back, and canvassing the grounds. 'No joy' on that, so far."

"Okay, good." I said. "Keep looking."

Sheriff Griswold said "I don't think she's married. As I learned from you in a previous case, there are no indentions on her left ring finger, but some of these other rings have been on for a while, so I'd speculate she's not married." (Author's note: 'Case of the Murdered Bride', Ch. 01.)

"I agree, and that's a good thing for all of you to observe." I said. "Okay, the silver lining to this cloud is that our Intelligence Division is going to get a great trial by fire. Is that not so, Captain Perlman?"

"I could not agree more, Commander." said Tanya Perlman, who had been in one of the bedrooms and had just come out. She was eating an orange creamsicle.

"Polluting my crime scene with ice cream, Captain?" I said with a grin. "Did you bring enough to share with everyone in the class?"

"If they solve this one," Tanya replied, "I'll treat them to an ice cream party. And our Intel people are already feeding us information."

"Good" I said. "Loo-tenant Davis, who am I looking at?"

"According to her fingerprints," said Jerome Davis, "her name is Beverly DeAngelo, age 38, primary address in Southport but renting apartments in the City and Midtown. She had a ton of drug possession and solicitation charges when she was younger, in her early 20s, but no charges of any kind in twelve years.

"Prostitute." said Roark Coleman. "High end escort."

"Or she found a sugar daddy and got out of the life." I replied. "Let me switch gears for a second. First, who rented this room for last night? And second, what events are going on here at the Hyatt Hotel?"

Teddy Parker answered: "MegaTech Industries is having their annual Employees Conference here, starting late this afternoon and going through Sunday evening. This suite was rented as part of their bloc of rooms, but wasn't assigned to anyone by the front desk yesterday; no key for it was given out, but a key was used to get into the room, and used only once. It's possible that someone coming in tonight was going to use the room over the weekend. MegaTech usually has their annual conference at a major place like the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, but this year they chose to come here instead."

Teddy continued: "The State Championship chess tournament is also here. It begins tonight, and goes through Sunday. They reserved a bloc of rooms, but not very many, and they're on the second floor. Also, there is one wedding reception tonight and two tomorrow night."

"Last night," continued Parker, "there was a meeting of the local chapter of the Technical Analysis Club of America, which ran from 7:30pm to 10:30pm, and people loitered around and talked for another half hour or so. They meet once a month, and for just an evening. And the MegaTech Industries senior leadership had a meeting; apparently they came in a day earlier than the larger number of rank-and-file employees. It was more of a dinner followed by a reception, and the Hotel provided a cash bar."

"Good report." I said. "We're going to need to know exactly who was assigned to each and every room MegaTech had reserved, especially last night. If the front desk doesn't have the names, find out from MegaTech. Get warrants if need be. Okay, here comes Martha, and I'll just get out of her way and look around the place." I did so, joined by the Sheriff and Lt. Davis, as Martha the M.E. came in and got to work examining the deceased.

We looked through both bedrooms. Tanya said that neither of the beds had been slept in, and that that one shower was dry and the other was not very wet, but may have been used earlier in the evening before. The Crime Lab was doing a 'deep clean' forensics examination of the bathrooms.

"Who called this in?" I asked.

"The Hotel." said Jerome. "Room Service brought up a breakfast order, but no one answered. The Hotel Desk then called the room, and got no answer. They say that standard procedure is to call Security to come up and knock on the door, in the event the guest had a heart attack or something. Security then opened the door with an electronic key, and saw the body lying on the floor. They radioed down, and the Hotel Desk called for an ambulance and the Police."

"Don't they need a warrant to do that? To come in like that?" asked Detective Roark Coleman, who was outside the bedroom door.

"We would need one, but the Hotel has a bit more leeway." I said. "It's like Housekeeping coming to deliver towels; they knock, hear no answer, then open up the door to put the towels in the bathroom. Let me ask this: was the person that called Room Service a man or woman? And what time was the call to order the room service?"

"Uh... I don't have that, sir." said Jerome. "If you'll excuse me..." He was about to leave the room, when I stopped him.

"Mr. Roark, to coin a phrase on your name," I said, "why don't you go down to the desk and get that information. Also secure any video footage, if that hasn't happened already. If they give you any crap about a warrant, say that one is on the way, and you're seizing the tapes under exigent circumstances to prevent the destruction of the evidence." Roark Coleman moved out smartly.

"It's already getting interesting." I said, mostly to myself.

"How so, Crowbar?" asked Sheriff Griswold.

I replied "Unless Martha the M.E. tells me something vastly different about the time of death than what you observed, Sheriff, our victim did not order breakfast this morning. Of course an order could've been placed last night, to be delivered this morning, but I expect Mr. Roark to resolve that quickly enough. The bedrooms were not used last night for sex nor sleeping, again unless someone made up the beds to the Housekeeping standard. So that suggests that whoever called in for breakfast wanted the body to be found."

Tanya said "I was wondering why it was discovered before Housekeeping showed up at 11:00am or so. But why would someone want the body found earlier?"

I replied "No data yet. But it's a 'strangeness' to be noted."

We went back into the main room. Detectives were watching Martha work, and were theorizing with insufficient data, as well.

"So she's stripteasing for the guy that hired her." said Theo Washington. "Say he's sitting on the sofa, she's at the edge of the sofa here, drops her clothes, he gets up with a knife in his hand, she turns to the door to run, but he's already caught up to her, slices her open, drops her, and leaves himself."

"If a man did this." Julia Rodriguez said.

"You think a woman could do this?" Theo asked. "And she's pretty tall... he's likely even taller than her."

Martha the M.E. interjected: "If our victim here was on her knees, then you can't rule out a shorter person."

"Very true, Martha." I said. "Okay, you guys need to stop theorizing without data---"

I was interrupted by Detective George Newman coming in through the main door. "Sir," he called out, "the Crime Lab has something in the hallway." I followed him out, where CSI Mark Walker was on a 3-foot ladder, peering at the hall camera.

"Sir," he said, "the lens has been painted over with black paint. Done from close-up, so you can't really tell unless you look hard, as opposed to it being done hastily and black paint all over the place."

"Good catch." I said. "So the cameras will tell us very little... except when the paint was applied."

After a few more minutes of looking around the entire suite, I said: "Lt. Davis, in addition to every frame of video evidence you can get your paws on, let's not forget the parking lot. Video, records of every vehicle that went in and out, all that good stuff."

"Yes sir. That's already in progress." said Davis.

"Unless you need me to stay here, Sheriff, I'm going back to Headquarters." I said.

"I'll ride with you, if you don't mind." said the Sheriff. "I caught a ride with a Patrol car to get up here."

"I'll get a ride in Tanya's Van with her." Cindy said when I went to fetch her. Though mildly surprised, I nodded. The Sheriff and I left.

As we drove back, Griswold said "So why didn't you stay?"

"I want the Detectives to work on this, sir." I replied. "That's best served by getting my useless presence out of the way."

"Har." Griswold barked, then said "Don't say 'no data yet'. What are your initial impressions of this?"

"Okay, I won't say it." I said with a grin. "Seriously, Sheriff, it looks like the simple killing of a working girl, but there are some points of interest about it that make me think there's more to it. Of course, if we'd found a Bible in the place, I'd put out a warrant to arrest SBI Chaplain Steven Ikea."

The Sheriff burst out laughing at that, and couldn't stop laughing for a moment. "God, that's rich!" he finally gasped. "I'd forgotten how he'd hire a prostitute to come to his hotel room, then try to preach to her and save her. A couple of girls beat the snot out of him for that, too."

"Yep." I said with a chuckle. "But there's a lot more to this one, from what I was seeing. This truly is an excellent first test for our new Intelligence Division."

"Think MegaTech Industries might be involved?" growled Griswold.

"No data yet, Sheriff." I replied, earning a 'look' from him...

Part 3 - The Investigation

10:30am, Friday, November 15th. Detectives Julia Rodriguez and Teddy Parker went to the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel. It was very busy at the front desk, but they went up to the desk anyway.

"Ma'am," the girl at the desk said to Julia Rodriguez, "you'll have to get in line behind these others."

"I'm not here to check in." Julia said, exhibiting her TCPD badge. "This is official Police business. Would you please call the Manager on duty to come speak to us?"

"Ma'am, we're really busy today." said the girl.

"We're busy, too." said Julia. "Solving a murder in this hotel."

"You'll have to speak to the Manager." said the girl, seemingly unfazed by what Julia had just said to her, and getting circular in her protests. "He's also busy, and I'm not sure where he is."

"They're busy, Teddy." Julia said to Teddy Parker. "Too busy to cooperate with the Police."

"Maybe we can find a way to make them 'less busy'." said Parker. He then held his badge high in the air as he raised his voice and said: "Everyone! The hotel desk is closed until further notice! These desk attendants are about to be under arrest, and you won't be able to check in or out for several hours once we shut the computer systems down!---"

"What the heck is going on here?" yelled a short, portly man with a receding hairline and a trimmed beard, mustache and goatee, who had just hurtled out of the back areas behind the desk.

"Are you the Manager on duty?" asked Julia Rodriguez.

"Yeah." said the Manager. "What do you want?"

Julia showed him her badge. "I'm Detective Rodriguez, this is Detective Parker. We need to talk to you. The alternative is to carry through with arresting your desk staff for Obstruction of Justice, for impeding our MURDER investigation." People's heads turned upon the loudly spoken word 'murder'.

"All right, all right, keep your voice down." said the Manager. "Come into my office..."

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

Back at Police Headquarters, Cindy Ross came into her office, then a moment later knocked on my (open) door. I nodded and she came in, closed the door behind her, and sat down in a hot chair.

"Out of sheer curiosity, and between you, me, and the crowbars," she said, "why did Tanya have the entire MCD squad go to the crime scene?"

"I dunno, and I never asked." I said. "I didn't really think about it, but my guesses would be she wanted to see how the new guys Coleman and Newman did, and she wanted to see how the new partnerships were working." Cindy nodded, and I said "What had my curiosity is why you wanted to go to the scene."

Cindy shrugged. "I dunno. Just a vibe that I should go. Seeing the Sheriff working a crime scene was worth the price of admission in its own right. And maybe I just wanted to not be here when KXTC started throwing shit at the fan after that stunt you pulled, giving KFXU that report. I'm figuring you had the Sheriff and Chief's permissions to do that?"

"Well, you know what they say." I said adroitly. "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

I was unable to 'not laugh' at the look Cindy gave me, then I said: "Yes, of course I had their blessings to do that. The Chief knew we'd have to release that report to stop KXTC from making a huge fake news story out of it, and I suggested the way we did it, by giving it to KFXU after KXTC kept saying that I was unavailable for comment. I do admit my verbal shots at Holder were my own."

"And that's another thing." Cindy said. "Not to hit this one too hard, but Roark Coleman called him 'Penis Holder' in front of everyone in MCD... including Julia Rodriguez. No, she didn't complain, but Jerome Davis took Coleman into the hallway for a 'counseling session'. Of course we don't mind in our private coffee klatches, and it's Teresa and Tanya that say it the most. But we need to set an example and put the kibosh on it in public."

"I agree." I said. "Quietly disseminate that to everyone. So, what else is going on, that caused you to want to be in the field with us rather than sitting in your office and twiddling your thumbs as if you're an Operations Commander or something?"

Cindy burst out laughing, then said "Well, I got notice of the U.S. Department of Justice's audit of the Police Department for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and their ever-changing, never-written-down Civil Rights compliance regulations. We had one of these two years ago, and passed it just fine. It does help that whenever they mention wheelchair access, I just say 'Let's ask our Captain of Detectives about that.' and give them to Tanya."

"And the Civil Rights compliance? That's just filling up the forms to show we're complaint, isn't it?" I asked.

"Usually." Cindy said. "But they usually just send the forms. This time, they gave a notice that an audit was on the way. I wouldn't be surprised if they show up on our doorstep. And if they do, we'll handle it."

"Just make sure you're never in a room alone with any of them, nor answering questions that we are not recording for posterity." I admonished. "Don't trust them for one second."

"It's an audit, not a Grand Jury summons." Cindy replied as she got up. "I gotta go. I'm having lunch with Chief of Staff Oswald and the other Beans-And-Bullets people..."

After she left, I suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. I picked up the phone and called the Chief. "Can I come talk to you for a moment, sir?" I asked...

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

"For God's sake," said the Manager as he led the Detectives to his office. "this is one of the biggest events we've ever booked, and we want them to come back. And you're screwing that up."

"Do you really want them back after a murder occurred while they're here?" Julia adroitly asked as Parker virtually forced the Manager to sit down in his chair behind his desk. "Now we need some cooperation from you. Who was staying in Suite 802 last night?"

"Don't you need a warrant for that information?" snarled the Manager.

"What's your name?" asked Teddy Parker.

"Robert Rhineheart." said Rhineheart.

"Mr. Rhineheart thinks we need a warrant." Julia said, as if sharing a joke.

"So he does." said Parker. "And here it is." he said, exhibiting the folded document. "All of your hotel records belong to us now, Mr. Rhineheart. So why don't you get on your computer there, and tell us who was in Suite 802 last night."

Rhineheart grunted unhappily, but reached for his keyboard. He did some typing, and said "All the suites on the 8th floor were reserved by MegaTech Industries. The keys to the bloc of rooms were picked up at the desk all at one time."

"By who?" asked Julia Rodriguez. "You can't issue keys without having a name attached to them. Who picked up those keys?"

Rhineheart looked exasperated, but under the stares of the Detectives he finally said: "Their Events Coordinator, Deborah Wilkins, picked them up. We don't have a record of who she gave the keys to."

Julia brought up Wilkins's DMV photo. "Is this her?" he asked. Rhineheart nodded, and Julia asked "Where can we find her now?"

"I have no idea." said Rhineheart.

"Really?" Teddy Parker said, sounding incredulous. "You're the Manager, she's the Events Coordinator, and you can't tell us where she is?"

"No I cannot." said Rhineheart, crossing his arms as he stared into Parker's eyes defiantly.

"Thank you, Mr. Rhineheart." said Julia. "And stick around; we might need more information from you..."

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

"This is Camera 8A." said the Security man as he sat with Crime Lab technician Mark Walker and Detective Roark Coleman in the Video Room of the Hyatt Hotel. "As you can see, it was fine until about 3:00pm Thursday afternoon, then it just goes black, like a cap had been put on the lens. And it has stayed that way until now."

Mark Walker asked "You didn't notice this?"

"Oh yeah, I noticed." said the security man, almost indifferently. "And I reported it to the Manager on duty at the time, Mr. Rhineheart. He said that the MegaTech CEO, Elliot Sanders, was coming in, and Mr. Sanders values his privacy. That camera overlooks Suite 801 at the end of the hall, 802 and 804."

"How convenient." said Detective Coleman. "We're going to need this tape, or copies of it."

"No problem." said the Security man.

"What about the other cameras on the 8th floor?" asked Coleman. "And the elevator cams?"

"We've already turned those recordings over to the TCPD." said the Security man. "And I wasn't here every hour of the day and night, so I don't know what's going on with a lot of it..."

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

Meanwhile...

Captain Perlman drove into the new Intelligence Center, followed by me, Lt. Davis, and the Detectives who were not at the Hotel. Yes, I was the highest ranking Officer... but Tanya had a Tank, and had no compunction about running over anyone that got in her way, present company included.

I felt the buzz about the place: the Intelligence Team was excited about a new case, and the chance to show off their wares as well as what they could do to help solve cases. At Tanya's bidding, everyone crowded around the big table in the middle of old Classroom 'C', facing the big screen... except Your Iron Crowbar. A rocking chair with a cushion providing lumbar support was in front of the table, and I sat down in it, grateful for that lumbar support. Tanya parked her wheelchair next to me.

"You guys at the Hotel there?" Captain Perlman called out. A window opened at the top left of the big screen, showing Detectives in a side room watching on a tablet.

"We're here." said Julia Rodriguez. "But the screen is pretty small."

"That's okay." Lt. Mary Milton said. "You're seeing the screen we're seeing, and hearing our voices. And you can all tune in on your Police iPhones. Just tap that app." Several Detectives did so.

"Okay, where to start?" asked Captain Perlman, knowing how I'd answer.

"From the beginning, and the first question, as always." I said. "Who called it in?"

"Hotel Security, sir." said Lainie Everett. "Working backwards, they were called just before 8:00am by the Hotel Desk, who had been notified by the Room Service department that no one was answering the door when an order for that room was delivered. Security arrived and knocked, then opened the door to make sure all was all right, and the body was discovered."