Two weeks later …
The newsroom was in an uproar. Apparently, people were protesting outside the police station this morning. An angry mob held signs demanding the police chief’s resignation because it had been two weeks and there was no sign of an arrest in the Jackie Chandler killing. And worse, the autopsy results were back. Jackie Chandler had been raped before she was strangled. Tommy felt sick to her stomach when she thought about Don Chandler and his daughter, Lynn, learning that detail.
Tommy and Parker rushed over to the second precinct. When they arrived, they had to park a block away at the end of a long line of cars. About three-dozen people were gathered on the steps to the precinct.
All the television stations were there, reporters and cameramen jostling to interview the outspoken protesters, who held signs saying “No Arrest = No More Chief.” And “Will it take another murder for our cops to care?”
One woman held court on the steps as the crowd gathered below her.
“The police are incompetent,” she said through a megaphone. “They are no closer to finding the killer. I live a block from where the murder was. I don’t let my kids in the yard anymore. And I certainly don’t walk my dog alone anymore. I’m going to get a gun next.”
Another woman on the steps took the megaphone: “If we have to take the law into our own hands we will.”
After Parker interviewed several of the protesters, he went inside. He came back out right away and told Tommy that the chief was not going to make a statement, but that the public information officer would be right out.
Sgt. Kathy Mattson came out. Her brown hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her freckled face was heavily lined giving her an odd appearance of both age and youthfulness.
It soon became clear that she did not have any new information and had only been sent outside in an attempt to placate the angry protestors. She spent a few minutes recapping the details of the crime and outlining the number of investigators working the case.
Police were working hard to follow all leads and gave a number for anyone who had information she said.
The protesters heckled her. “So, in other words you are relying on the public to solve murders for you? Well, then go ahead and deputize me, baby,” one man yelled and everyone laughed.
Mattson went back inside and slowly the crowd dispersed.
Minnesota nice prevailed.
Tommy took a few snapshots and headed back to the paper.