Wednesday morning, July 18th
“We got a tip, Dan, on the typewriter. Some guy says he knows where the notes from the Avenger are being made. Let’s go,” Mory exclaimed after he hung up the phone and almost lunged for the door.
When they arrived at Augusta College, they found their caller waiting in front of the library. Barney Young looked like a typical college student, dressed in Bermuda shorts and an Atlanta Braves t-shirt. He was wearing sneakers and a baseball cap.
After introductions, he told them, “I recognized the typesetting from the term paper I did last semester. The professor nearly demoted my grade because of the way it looked when I turned it in. He thought I was doing sloppy work, but that was the way it printed. After I showed the typewriter to him, one supplied by the college, he couldn’t downgrade me for that.” Barney gave them a smug smile. “Anyway, I recognized the elevated H and L, and the D was always faint. Come inside with me and I’ll show you.”
After Dan and Mory followed him to the room where the typewriters were located, Barney threaded paper under the wheel and adjusted it. He typed the same wording from the newspaper clipping nearby, then handed both to the lieutenant.
The article and photo were by James Starr, causing Dan to grimace. He held the typed page and the article side-by-side, his gaze darting back and forth between them as he did a visual comparison. No expert had to tell him that Barney’s effort looked identical to the one the Avenger had typed and left at the crime scenes. Damn, that’s all he needed, to give that blasted reporter the credit for supplying their first big clue! “Who can use these typewriters? Is there a sign up sheet?”
“Not that I’m aware of. It’s a first come first serve deal. If they’re all in use, you have to wait until somebody’s done. It doesn’t cost anything to use them, so anybody who doesn’t have access to a typewriter at home uses these.”
“Great. Anyone could have come in here and typed this note and no one would have noticed him. Especially if he was disguised as a student. Good thinking on your part, Avenger,” Dan muttered. To Mory, he said, “Let’s get someone down here and have this place staked out. We’ll make our own sign up sheet for now.”
“We also need Harold to fingerprint this baby.”
Dan shook his head at Mory’s suggestion. “Even if the Avenger didn’t use gloves or wipe it down, too many students have used it between then and now to get any viable prints or skin cells. I also noticed they don’t have any security cameras to help us.”
After questioning the library staff and introducing them to the plainclothes deputy who arrived to watch the room, Dan and Mory left.
Barney Young waited until after they departed to make his next call from the public phone outside the building. He grinned as he realized the summer session was proving to be far more interesting, and lucrative, than last quarter was.
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Dan met Andrea downtown for lunch at the Sunshine Bakery on Broad Street. It was popular with the locals. Their specialty was a soup and sandwich deal, with a different homemade soup every day of the week and with sandwiches piled high and coupled with a side order of potato salad. Dan waved to another officer while heading towards Andrea’s table. “Sorry I’m late. We got a tip on the typewriter the Avenger has been using and had to check it out. How has your day been going?”
“Pretty good so far. What did you learn about the typewriter? How?”
“Some college student recognized the typesetting from the newspaper. He’d turned in a report last semester that had the same elevated letters as the Avenger’s note. When he typed the same words, they looked identical to me. I’ll get Harold to check it, but the probability that more than one print wheel has the exact problems is slim to none.”
“I agree. Did anyone see anybody suspicious? Did you get a copy of the sign up list for the last few months?”
Dan shook his head. “Unfortunately for us, there isn’t a sign up sheet. It’s first come, first serve. There’s no time limit or anything. Supplies are located at the front desk and you have to show your student ID and sign for those, but it’s doubtful he’s on that list. We made our own sign up sheet for now and the librarians have promised to try to enforce it. That’s the best we can hope for at this point.”
“That’s good, Dan. This might be a break for you.”
“For now, I have a plainclothes officer stationed there to see if anyone tries to use the typewriters who doesn’t look like a student.”
“What does ‘a student’ look like, Dan? Lots of people take night courses or audit regular ones to further their education. How will your spy determine who isn’t a student or somebody who isn’t supposed to be there? Besides, the Avenger might be a student or a teacher or campus worker.”
“Everyone who uses the typewriters will have to show a student ID. If they don’t have one, the officer assigned to the library will ask them some questions, see how they react. He’s supposed to hold anybody suspicious. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s the only thing we’ve got right now.” Dan watched as the waitress put a plate first in front of Andrea, then in front of him.
“I ordered for both of us, Dan, I hope that’s okay. My afternoon is packed with meetings, so I only have an hour for lunch. I ordered turkey sandwiches with all the trimmings and the daily soup special. If you didn’t make it for lunch, I was going to take yours back to the office and give it to Cindi. She has a dentist appointment this afternoon, so I promised to bring her a sandwich.”
Dan swallowed a spoon of split pea soup. “This is delicious, Andi. I appreciate you ordering for me. That saves us both some time. I’ve got a lot of paperwork to catch up on at the office and some other cases that have taken a backseat to this Avenger. I can’t let everything else slide. Now, let’s talk about something other than work. How are Cindi and Brian doing?”
Dan and Andrea chatted while enjoying their meal and each other’s company.
Before they finished, Andrea ordered a soup and sandwich to go for Cindi. She also insisted on paying for Dan’s lunch. “I’ll be tied up for the rest of the afternoon, but I’ll give you a call later. Good luck, Dan.”
“Thanks, Andi. Tell Cindi I said Hi, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
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Thursday afternoon, July 19th
The Savannah River was beautiful. He watched the water flow rapidly past him, and thought about how quickly things could change. Life had certainly been different several years ago. He was happy then, not so cynical and tormented. Back when his girl had—a peal of laughter broke into his reverie and he jumped. The sound that would have made him smile then now pierced his soul with painful, icy daggers.
The park beside the levy was filled with playing children and adults taking a break from the hectic business day downtown. It wouldn’t look suspicious for him to be here. Everyone was involved in what they were doing, so no one paid him any attention. Even if they noticed him, they wouldn’t be able to describe him later. The need to know what Mallory had discovered and what the lieutenant was planning to do to try to catch the Avenger was worth the risk. He had to stay one step ahead, or his plans could fail. He wouldn’t let that happen.
He sat down on the forest green bench and watched the water while he waited. Soon, a man came and sat down beside him. “What have you got? Does Mallory have any suspects yet?”
“He ain’t got shit. They got an officer at the library where they think that note came from, but nobody besides students have come by so far. The lab report should be back soon, but they didn’t find anything at the crime scene. Damn, this guy is smart. He’s—”
“Hold it right there,” he heard a voice say from somewhere behind him. Damnit, if Roland allowed himself to be followed, I’m going to fuck him up. Shit. At least I made a back up plan in case this happened. Now, if Roland can remember what he’s supposed to say in the event we’re caught together, everything will be all right. He heard Roland begin to stutter and defend the alliance, turning the blame entirely towards him. Oh, fuck you, Roland!
“He said he’s just trying to help the police figure out who the Avenger is. He just needs some information. I figured he might stumble onto something that might help you with the case. That’s all. I wasn’t trying to—”
“Shut up, Daniels,” Dan said between clenched teeth. “How much is he paying you? I hope it’s enough to cover your bills for a while, because I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure the Captain fires your ass! What the hell were you thinking? Obviously, you didn’t think you’d get caught, but you were dead wrong on that one.”
“Lieutenant, I didn’t mean to—”
“Didn’t mean to what? Release confidential reports so the victim’s torture could be publicized in detail for everyone to read? Or are you talking about warning the Avenger of any evidence we’d found against him so he could alter his plans and not get caught? What other classified information have you given out? Maybe you’re talking about sinking so low to accept bribe money from a scumbag. Which thing is it, Daniels? You’ve done so much, I’m sure I can’t guess what it is you didn’t mean to do.” Without allowing Roland Daniels to answer, Dan went on in disgust, “You make me sick, Daniels. You’re a traitor to the department and I’m going to recommend not only that you get fired, but I’m also going to speak to the DA about filing charges against you.”
Dan turned, leaving Roland shouting excuses to his back, and walked closer to the other male who had been standing with the greedy and corrupt officer. “Nice to see you, Starr,” Dan murmured. “Now I know where you’ve been getting your information from. Some of it, at least. You’ll have to pack your bags on this story or find yourself a new source, because Officer Daniels won’t be helping you any more. Unless, of course, you have another insider that we haven’t found out about yet. And as for your—”
“You don’t have a thing on me, Mallory, and you know it. And don’t even try your intimidation techniques, because they won’t work,” Starr glared into Dan’s eyes, daring the officer to meet his challenge. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I reported the truth, and I have every right to inform the public of the heinous crimes going on in their town. You, on the other hand, have no right to harass me and follow me.”
“I have every right to follow you if I think you might have knowledge of a serial killer which you aren’t sharing with police because you want to make your big break. You tampered with an official investigation by letting the Avenger know we knew he had been typing his notes at the Augusta College library.”
“How is that tampering with an investigation? Are you one hundred percent positive that typewriter was the one the Avenger used? If it is, are you sure, with any degree of accuracy, that he would have used that same one again? If not, you can’t charge me with tampering. And remember, you have to prove that I maliciously intended to thwart your investigation before you can make any charges stick. Believe me, I’m as interested as you are in locating this man. The only difference is, I want to hand him a hero badge and a thank-you from all the young women who’ve been beaten and tortured and raped and mutilated by these bastards, but you want to lock him up!”
Dan clenched his fists at his side in an effort to keep from knocking Starr to the ground. How was it that he was following the law and trying to capture a serial killer and yet, somehow, he felt like the villain? How had Starr managed to make it sound as if he was the one who was doing wrong? And why did he feel so damn guilty? Why wouldn’t the faces of those women go away? Dan took a deep breath and said, “I want to punish someone who has broken the law just as those men have done. Two wrongs don’t make a right, didn’t your mama ever teach you that? Just because these men were alleged to have committed a crime, for which they were all acquitted by a jury of their peers, does not give someone the right to seek his own justice. The Avenger is just as guilty as they were. Maybe you should spend your energy and creative writing skills into enraging the public to change the laws instead of directing them my way. I’m just doing my job.”
“So am I, Lieutenant, so am I. If you were doing your job, my articles wouldn’t be directed your way. You guys screwed up and let these assholes loose. I’m enraging the public to the way our system is run. They need to be aware of how many guilty men are set free to attack more innocent people. Somehow, they must be stopped. If you cops and the DA. aren’t capable of doing it, at least someone out there is.”
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Dan walked into the Captain’s office and sat down in the chair opposite his boss. “Deputy Roland Daniels is the one passing information to James Starr for his articles. I’m not sure at this point how much he knew to tell him, but I intend to find out. Mory is in with him now and he’s spilling his guts. He claims he was with Starr the other night when the call came over the radio about Dorothy Evans and that’s how Starr beat me to the scene. I’m assuming you saw the article in this morning’s paper?”
“Are you talking about the one on the front page with a picture of a college student tapping away on the typewriter supposedly used by the Avenger? The one with the picture of the same student holding a check and promising that anyone who has or gets information regarding the Avenger will also receive a sizeable reward? I hope you’ve pulled the deputy from the library, because that won’t help us now. This reporter is getting on my last nerve. We don’t have enough to make a tampering case with him, but I sure hope you threatened him with one. Is he also being questioned?”
“No, Captain, he’s not. He told me earlier he would enact his Fifth Amendment right and not tell us anything. It would have been a waste of time. You might have had to lock me up after I bashed his skull against the wall in the interrogation room.” Dan glanced toward Neal, who wasn’t smiling at his half-jest.
“You did the right thing, Mallory. Starr’s getting too much attention with his articles. He would have had a field day if we brought him in for this. Have you asked him for a sperm sample for Henri just to see how he’d react?”
“No. I was going to approach him yesterday, but I needed to catch up on some paperwork first. Then, one of Roland’s ex-partners commented on the expensive vacation Daniels was planning even though he just sent his second child off to college. I remembered him being at the first crime scene, so I decided to follow him today on a hunch, and it paid off.”
“Hold off asking Starr for a sample for a few days. He’s going to be pissed off now that we’ve closed his access. I don’t want to give him any more ammunition to use against us. He’s got a lot of support right now and the Sheriff is pitching a fit. He’s agreed to give you the manpower to arrange for stakeouts of your five worst offenders. Get the list together and make a schedule. We’ll put it in place tomorrow night.”
“Thanks, Captain. I’ll get started right away. I know it’s a long shot, but, right now, it’s the only one we’ve got. We’ll get him, I promise.”
“Make sure you do, Mallory. The shit goes down the chain and you’re at the bottom. I want everything on my desk by three tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have the men ready for you to brief by five, and we’ll see what this Friday night brings.”
“I hope it brings us the Avenger.”
“I do, too, Mallory, for all our sakes.”
“Let’s hope we don’t have another informant working for Starr. He already has the public and the Avenger himself giving him tips, or claims he does. I only wish we had just cause to demand a sperm sample. That would either rule him out as a suspect or force him to refuse and look guilty. At least we have his hair, skin, and fingerprints for comparison if our vigilante ever leaves any behind.”
“Let’s hope we luck up tomorrow night.”
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Friday morning, July 20th
Raymond Harris was waiting for Dan beside Andrea’s desk when the lieutenant arrived first thing the next morning. Harris lifted his coffee mug and asked, “How about a cup of coffee? We actually have the good kind.”
“Sounds good. If you have Equal, one for me.”
“Sure do. I’ll get it and meet you in the conference room,” Andrea said. “The files are already in there, separated by years. Would you like another cup, Ray?”
“No thanks. I’ve already had my limit for the morning. You have any leads towards the Avenger’s identity?” the District Attorney asked as he led Dan down the hall.
“So far he’s managed not to leave any clues, but we’re going to get him. Sooner or later, he’s going to make a mistake and I’ll be there to catch it.” As Dan followed Raymond into the conference room, he took note of the large table in the center with ten chairs pushed close around it. Files almost covered the entire circumference of it, so very little wood showed beneath it. Two chairs in the corner were piled high with folders and others were on the floor beside them. “Holy shit,” Dan muttered.
“More than you expected, Lieutenant? These are the worst of the worst. Andi has already been through most of the cases in your time span. She eliminated some because they don’t fit the profile you gave us. She wanted you to read these yourself,” he said as he waved his left hand over the table.
“That’s right,” Andrea said as she entered the room with two steaming mugs. “I don’t want to be responsible for excluding the file that leads you to the Avenger. The ones I ruled out over there on the chairs don’t match the type of victims he’s been selecting so far. I feel pretty confident about setting them aside, but these...” Andrea let her voice trail off. “I want your opinions on these first. Then, you can scan the others. You have the skills and experience to see something I may have missed. To be honest, Dan, going through this many files on vicious crimes in such a short time period was difficult, but I knew it was a rush job.”
“Thanks, Andi, I appreciate your hard work. I’m sure it was a grisly task.”
As Dan and Raymond sat down, Andrea explained how she had organized the cases for them. “I pulled the files for the last three years for anyone who’s been charged with rape and not convicted for one reason or another, whether or not the case actually went to trial. Then, I excluded those that didn’t involve torture or mutilations. I pulled out the ones that were obviously innocent or where there were too many discrepancies. I eliminated gang rapes, but left in those that involved only two people because of Paula’s attackers. Anything involving children was also put aside, because he hasn’t focused on them. The youngest victim involved so far was sixteen, so I left in anyone fifteen and older. Then, I separated the cases where the victim was killed, since we’re not sure if one of them is the original motivator for the Avenger. I put the ones I ruled out over there,” she motioned to the chairs. “So far, he’s been attacking men who left their victims alive, so I thought we’d concentrate on them first. Then, you can tackle that other batch. How does that sound to you?”
“Sounds like you’ve put a lot of time, thought and work into this. And it looks like too many files left after the exclusions have been pulled out.” Dan surveyed the table. “I can’t believe this many rapes have happened here in Augusta in the past few years.”
“The sad thing is, there’s probably three times this many assaults that occurred and weren’t reported for one reason or another. That’s scary. Well, let’s get to work. Where would you like to start?” Andrea asked.
Dan felt two pairs of eyes on him and wondered the same question. Where should they start? What was the Avenger thinking? Andrea had said he should try to think like him. What would be going through his own mind if he was the one who was seeking justice? All of the victim’s cases so far had been several years old, so Dan said, “Let’s start with 1988 and come forward in time. Each of us can take a file and write the case’s highlights on the front for severity of the crime, specific tortures, age of the victim, and results of the charges or trials. Then, we can compare them.”
“That’s already been done,” Raymond responded. “My past assistants and Andi always type a page that discloses the meat of a case for me. It’s in bullet style, so we can find things we need quickly when a case is active. That info page is left in the front of the file. That will save us some time. All we need to do is go through them and decide which—how many are you looking for?” When Dan held up five fingers, Raymond continued, “which five are the worst and go from there.”
“Let’s get started,” Dan replied. He picked up the first file, opened it and began to read the outlined page.
It didn’t take long before Dan felt sick to his stomach. He knew several officers who worked in the Rape/Sexual Assault Department. How did they do it? The plight of these women tugged at his heart. Images came to mind of women pulling at his sleeves, begging him to stop these evil men, begging him to help them and others. Maybe the Avenger was doing some good, he thought. The world was definitely a better place without such evil. But he had sworn to uphold the law and to put the bad guys away. The Avenger was still committing crimes, even if he was doing them against pernicious men. This vigilante must be stopped before others took up the fight.
“Are you okay?” Andrea asked, concern tingeing her voice, after Raymond excused himself to answer an emergency phone call.
“Not really. I’ve seen a lot in my days, and I’d learned how to detach myself from becoming emotionally involved. I’ve seen some of the most vicious and heinous crimes you can imagine, but I’ve never had to deal with a woman years after she’s been raped. I thought I’d hardened myself, but talking with these victims has gotten to me.”
“There’s evil in this world, Dan. Maybe that’s what drives the Avenger. Maybe he’s seeking to even the score a little bit. You’ll have to ask him when you catch him.”
Dan smiled at her. She gave him the confidence he was lacking right now. She always seemed to believe in him and what he was doing. You know what they say, his mind claimed, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. But he couldn’t find anything about her that didn’t seem right, didn’t feel right. She appeared to fit into his life so easily. He watched her eyes as she dropped them to the file in front of him.
“So, which are the five worst? Now, you see why you have to do the choosing instead of me and Ray. It’s hard to pick, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I’m sure I want to stake out Freddie Sims, Manuel Greene and Stuart Morgan. The rest in this stack are a close fourth and fifth. God, what is the Avenger thinking? How can I get inside of his head? How can I figure out what he’s feeling, so I can get one step ahead of him, instead of the other way around?”
“One way would be to look at the victim’s reactions to their fate. Have they been able to go on with their lives? Have their families supported them, or turned their backs on them? It seems as if the Avenger has chosen those who didn’t have someone to take up for them, those who were further victimized by their friends and families, or by society. Everyone he’s chosen to avenge so far has been someone who is still suffering horrible effects from the rape.”
“How am I supposed to know what has gone on in their lives since that God awful day? Things like that aren’t in the files, Andi.”
“They are if you look closely enough, and if you have someone who worked on the cases close by who might have more inside information.” Andi smiled at him after she said this. “I told you I would help any way I can. There are, of course, things that I don’t know about, but I might be able to help with some things. Like Barry Freeman’s case, for instance. His victim, Sherry Meade, contracted AIDS from him and is now in the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. She had leukemia, so it hasn’t taken long for this deadly disease to ravage her body. She isn’t expected to be alive next month. And you don’t need to investigate anyone in her family. Her husband left her and took her two kids, because he thought it would be more traumatic for them to see her die this way. After that, she’s refused to contact her family in California, and is dying alone in the hospital. I would say Barry Freeman would definitely be one to follow.”
“Maybe the ex-husband left the kids with friends or family and is seeking his revenge now,” Dan surmised.
“I doubt it. He didn’t seem like the type who would do something like this. He was a small man with a small heart.”
“How did Freeman get off?”
“Same as the others. A stupid little technicality that disallowed the information that proved his guilt. The judge wouldn’t allow the sperm samples in court, and without that, it was her word against his.”
“Why wouldn’t they allow the sperm samples?”
“Apparently, Mr. Freeman was out on probation after serving a few years behind bars for aggravated assault. He gave the sperm samples without the presence and permission of his attorney. Right to counsel was denied, so the judge had to disallow it. Or have it thrown out later in appeals. One way or another Freeman was going to walk.”
“Shit! What’s wrong with our system, Andi, when the guilty are free to roam the streets and the innocent must hide in fear?”
“Minor technicalities that force a judge to dismiss evidence or a case, even when there’s no doubt the person committed the crime. We can’t start punishing the police officers if they break a rule or don’t follow a procedure to the letter, or we wouldn’t have any left. We just need to find a way to protect people’s rights without dismissing charges on an obviously guilty party. But how? Unless someone is directly affected by all of this, most people aren’t going to get involved. At the rate this is going, sooner or later, it’s going to affect everyone. I just hope it’s not too late by then.”
“Me, too. Okay, so we’ve got Freeman, Sims, Greene and Morgan. Does anyone else stick out to you?”
“Everyone’s story is sad, Dan, no matter what happened to them. Excuse me for a minute. I’ve got to use the restroom. Be right back.” Andrea rushed out the door.
Dan looked down at the manila folders. Details from each of the many cases began mingling together. Pictures of the accused men meshed to form one horrible figure in his mind, a beast of monstrous proportions created from horrific evil. He needed to get out of here. This was too much. How did Andrea work with this misery every day and not be affected by it? The answer was there before him: the same way he faced the evil on the streets night after night and yet went back the on the next one to fight the devil again. The good guys were going to win the war, he told himself. Until then, it was one battle at a time, and this one was his to conquer.
Raymond returned while Dan perused the remaining files. “Narrowed it down a little more, I see. I saw Andi in the hall and she told me you’ve picked four and are trying to decide on the last one. Let me have a look and maybe I can help.” Raymond picked up the remaining six files and glanced at the bullet page created for each. “I’d say Kevin Davis. Don’t ask me why, because there’s no reason, really. Other than his case just seems to stick out in my mind. Of course, if he’s not the next one the Avenger selects, you won’t come running my way, will you?”
“Davis it is. We can substitute any of these bastards if our stakeouts determine somebody isn’t a likely next victim. Thanks, Ray. You and Andi have been a huge help today. I’ll go show Captain Bolton our five choices. Mind if I get a copy of their info pages to show him?”
“No problem, Cindi can do it for you. I told Andi to take a break. More like a needed escape from all this unnecessary evil.”