Michael sat at his desk in the DA's office, waiting for the results from the DNA test on the John Doe from Silver Lake. On a hunch, he'd been in contact with the RCMP Forensic Lab in Canada and had provided their office with a sample, hoping that perhaps John Doe was a Canadian who had overstayed his visa.
His hunch turned out to be right.
Police had spoken to the owner of Bird Camera and Film and got some background on John Doe aka Gerry Scott, based on Craig's testimony about the photograph he found of Rachel as a child. John Doe was using the alias Gerry Scott, but it was a fake name and there were no records on him in the system. He'd lived about fifteen miles outside of Bellingham in a small town called Deming for over two decades, first as a laborer, getting paid under the table, and then once he got fake ID, he worked as a photography technician at Bird Camera and Film in Bellingham. Fake ID, stolen Social Security Number, lived with a woman named Louise, who no one had seen for almost twelve years.
Those who knew him from work knew he had two daughters, but according to the other clerk at the camera store, the mother left with the two girls in 2008 and hadn't been seen since. He had a new girlfriend and she and her daughter were living with him. They lived off the grid, in a cabin outside of Deming. Survivalists, according to the co-worker. Didn't believe in government, vaccinations, or taxation. Scott had a cache of weapons and ammunition, and was preparing for the grid to be destroyed in cyber warfare between China and the US.
A crackpot, in other words. With a taste for pedophilia and pornography.
He got an email first and then his phone rang moments later. The caller ID read RCMP/GRC and was from a 778-area code in British Columbia, Canada just north of Washington State.
He answered and it was his contact, Sergeant Allen Carpenter, who worked in the US-Canada liaison office.
"Hey, Michael," Carpenter said, his voice sounding pleased. "I knew you'd want to talk when you got my email with the results, so I went ahead and called. Have you read the report?"
"You beat me to it," Michael replied, laughing at Carpenter's eagerness. "Why don't you give me the executive summary?"
"Sure," Carpenter said. "I sent the sample you provided to our National DNA Databank after processing at our facility in Surrey. We just got results back and got a hit on our database. Your John Doe is one Thomas Gibson of Port Moody, British Columbia. It's a small city east of Vancouver. Gibson went missing in '96 and never showed up again in any records. He's been on our missing persons registry ever since."
"What's his story? How did he get into your database?"
"He was a suspect in a sexual assault on a minor, a friend of his sister, but was never arrested," Carpenter said. "He gave a sample of his DNA to the local police long before we had any decent methods of doing much in terms of DNA. Luckily, the sample was processed later because the family wanted to look for him and we got a profile but no hits in Canada. Looks like he left Canada, entered the US and never came back."
"We think he's been living in the Bellingham area and had a family. He has a daughter and," Michael said, trying to phrase it properly. "We discovered the skeletal remains of her twin sister on the side of Mt. Baker. We have no cause of death due to the conditions of the remains, but we suspect foul play. Also, he apparently raped his daughter and she gave birth to a daughter. Neither of the twin's births were registered but the surviving twin was registered in Seattle at a shelter for unwed mothers eight years ago after she ran away from home. We suspect she lived somewhere rural, near Silver Lake.”
"Wow," Carpenter said. "Talk about depraved. That's the Silver Lake case, right?"
"The very one," Michael said.
"How's that going? You have a suspect who confessed, right?"
"He did, but there's some issues with the confession."
"Great," Carpenter said. "Let me guess. The suspect is retracting it."
"Nope," Michael replied. "He's sticking to his story, but he's left-handed and the murderer was right-handed."
"Oh, that's no good."
"Anyway, this helps. At least now we know who we've got and can start tracking him down."
"Pretty amazing that a guy can disappear for two decades and create an entirely new identity. Good luck with finding out what he's been doing all these years. Keep me in the loop. And call if you need anything more."
"Thanks," Michael said. "I will."
Michael ended the call and turned to the file attachment in the email from Carpenter. He opened it and then printed it off. It was only two pages, but included a reference to a file in the Canadian missing persons database and to a news story about the sexual assault that Gibson was a suspect in.
A young girl assaulted near a playground when walking home along a deserted road.
It sounded a lot like a serial rapist in the making and Michael had no doubt that he was their man.
Tess would be eager to learn this new development and Michael was eager to tell her -- off the record of course. It would get out as soon as the FBI and the office of the DA did a joint news conference. The public had a right to know where the case was, given the enormity of the three murders and several disappearances involved. Given it was also linked to Bellingham, and the body of yet another missing young girl was discovered near the city, people would be concerned that a murderous group of child sex traffickers and pornographers were operating in their midst.
Michael picked up his cell and entered Tess's number on the keypad, eager to talk to her. When her cell went to voicemail, he left a message, suggesting they meet for dinner. He'd probably be working at the DA's offices late to get caught up on the case, but he could meet for a quick meal and felt like barbecue.
Satisfied that she'd call back when she got the message, Michael picked up his file and went to Nick's office to update him on the results.
Nick would be very interested to hear what they had found in Canada. When Michael stuck his head in Nick's office, he saw that the man was on his phone. Nick held up a finger, indicating he needed a minute. He waved Michael inside, so Michael took a seat across from Nick, and tried not to look like he was listening in.
"Okay, thanks for calling. Keep me in the loop on the girl's ID. You bet."
Nick ended his call and then clicked on something on his keyboard, probably sending an email, before turning to face Michael.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, but I was on the phone with the head of forensics. You'll be interested to know they got the ID back for the remains found outside Bellingham."
"Don't tell me -- it's Tracy Kemp."
"The very one," Nick said, raising his eyebrows. "So she was definitely taken from Seattle to Bellingham, and then killed relatively quickly, based on Dr. Keller's estimation of the time of death."
"Her results are back?" Michael asked.
"Yes," Nick said, opening a file and pulling out a sheet of paper. Nick placed it on the desk in front of Michael.
He picked up the paper and read it over. It was a printout of an email from Dr. Keller with the estimated time that the girl's remains had been in the ground.
Based on the date, the girl had been killed soon after she left Seattle and was seen on a surveillance camera in Bellingham.
"Given the time that had passed, it was impossible to be precise, but it wasn't long after she went missing. I don't know whether she was intended to be used in the sex trade or whether she was picked up to be killed. Was Eugene Hammond ever up in Bellingham around that time?"
"I'll have to check our records, but I don't think we had a direct match in terms of time. We put Tracy on our list of potential victims of the Paradise Hill killer, but when we checked his movements, we didn't see any evidence he was in Seattle or nearby when Tracy went missing.
Nick nodded slowly. "There are enough other perverts around who could have taken her."
"Sadly, there are."
They spoke for a few moments about the results from Canada and Nick was especially interested in the fact that Gerry Scott of Deming, Washington, was really Thomas Gibson, a Canadian citizen who had been a suspect in a sexual assault on a minor up in British Columbia before he disappeared. And that the victim was a friend of Gibson's younger sister.
"So, Gibson crossed the border, came to Washington State, and never left," Michael said. "He'd been working at Bird Camera and Film in Bellingham for a decade as a photography technician. I suspect that's his connection to this whole business. He was a pornographer."
"I expect you're right," Nick said.
"Gibson also may have killed his daughter, Rachel's twin, an unregistered child for whom we have no records. Rachel’s birth was also never registered. Neither of them ever went to school. Rachel became pregnant with his child and ran away from home, arriving in Seattle eight years ago. She gave birth to Sadie eight months later. The rest is history."
"That it is," Nick said. "If I didn't know it was true, I'd think it was unbelievable."
"Sadly, it is true," Michael said with a sigh. "So, what's next, Boss? You want me to stick around Seattle or should I follow up on Rachel and Sadie?"
"Stick around," Nick said. "I want you working the Kemp girl's case. Keep contacting police on the interstate down to Mexico for any sightings of Rachel, but this is currently heating up. I want you as my liaison with the FBI and Seattle PD."
"I'm your man," Michael said and stood up.
"Thanks, Michael," Nick said and gave Michael a quick smile. "I'm glad you're on staff."
"Me, too," Michael said and left the office.
He checked his cell and saw that Tess had texted him back.
TESS: Yes, let's meet for supper at Murphy's BBQ. Seven?
He texted her back.
MICHAEL: See you then. Lots of developments you'll want to hear.
TESS: Don't tell me -- off the record.
MICHAEL: Of course. See you soon.
She sent back a frustrated emoji and Michael smiled.
The two of them were a pair.