Bob joined us ten minutes later. “I’ve been thinking.” He pulled out a chair, sat down, then blew over his coffee. “Jesse, you’re my senior detective and second in charge. You need to be on the streets.”
I quietly breathed in relief. I was sure Frank would be discharged from the time-consuming task of digging through paperwork and looking for a common thread that would tie our new case to the old ones from other states.
“Frank, since you and Jesse are partners, you’ll be on the streets too.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
Lutz turned to Henry. “Kip and Tony will join you and Shawn on the paperwork end of the investigation. You need to research where the man’s clothing came from and go through the missing persons files to see who has recently been added. The man in the park could have come from a nearby town or even a different state. Maybe that’s why nobody has called our precinct and reported him missing.”
Henry took notes while Lutz talked. “We need to get his face on the air, sir.”
“And we will as soon as Don gets the man’s information to us. We need a picture that’s mild enough to air on TV, so Don will have to clean up his face first. We also need an age range, his height and weight, eye and hair color, that sort of thing.” Lutz yelled across the bull pen. “Kip and Tony, come over here.”
Both detectives rose and joined us in the back. “What can we do for you, Boss?”
“You’re going to take part in this investigation. You two, Henry, and Shawn, will work solely on following the killer’s trail on paper with whatever we learn from California and North Carolina. We have to know if there’s a connection. We should be getting the police reports within the hour. Put your heads together. Jesse and Frank will work the streets.”
“Didn’t we finish at the scene earlier?” Kip asked.
“Yep, but there’s a good chance that old guy won’t be the only victim.”
I remembered a question Lutz hadn’t answered when we were in his office earlier. “About the other vics. Were they identified?”
Lutz fell silent for a few seconds before responding. “Only one was.”
“Only one out of five? Why?”
“The others were in the elements for weeks and were too decomposed when found. If these cases are related, it’s telling me that the killer has taken on a whole new persona and is becoming far more brazen.”
“What about the vic who was identified? Who was he?”
Lutz took a gulp of coffee before answering. “He was a well-known and easily recognized politician from Sacramento who had recently announced his engagement.”
Frank raised a brow. “So?”
“It was to another man.”
I raked my hair with both hands. “And that, my friends, just opened up a whole new can of worms. Maybe we are looking at a hate crime after all.”
Bob knuckled the table and stood. “I’ll let you know when the police reports hit my in-box. Until then, work together on a plan of action.”
I stood and crossed the bull pen. “I’ll check in with the boys downstairs.”
I entered our medical examiner’s office first since Don had left with the body much earlier than our forensic boys had left with the park bench. Peeking around the second door that stood ajar, I saw Don at the autopsy table. A sheet was draped over the man’s body and covered him from his feet to his shoulders. He lay on his side, I assumed because he was still fixed in that bent-knee position. It appeared that Don had already started the preliminary exam.
“Can I enter?” I thought it was more respectful to ask than to barge in.
“Sure. Nobody in here is going to object.”
Don tried to add a little humor to his job on occasion, and I appreciated his attempt.
“Got any preliminary information for us? We’d like to get this man’s face and description on the news as soon as possible. Since we have nothing yet, we’ll be leaning heavily on the help of the public.”
“Understood.” Don stared at the man then rubbed his chin. “I can give you a guestimate on his height. It’ll be off a little because he isn’t exactly prone.”
“Sure, whatever you think.” I pulled my notepad from my pocket and grabbed a pen from the back counter.
“I’d put him between five foot ten and six foot but not more. His weight is one hundred eighty-six pounds. Salt and pepper hair, but mostly salt.” He shot me a quick smile, which I returned. “Dark eyes and a scar on his right shin.”
“Really? Enough to be considered an identifiable feature?”
Don tipped his head toward the body. “Here, have a look.” He lifted the sheet from the man’s legs and pointed at the front of the right leg, about four inches below the knee. A sizable scar, about two inches long, covered a vertical area of his shin.
“Humph. What do you think that’s from?”
Don shrugged. “It isn’t surgical, so it could be from anything. He could have fallen off his bike as a kid or gotten into a car accident as an adult.”
“Or he could have tripped over something.”
“Exactly. It’s noteworthy, though, especially to anyone who may be looking for him.”
I breathed deeply. “Okay, no tattoos, piercings, or birthmarks?”
“Nope. Clean as a whistle.”
“How about the tox report?”
“Should have it by tomorrow afternoon.”
I gave Don a nod of thanks, left the autopsy room, and headed for the crime lab. Through the double glass doors, I saw Mike and Danny inspecting the bench they had placed on a workstation table.
I walked in and got a head tip as I approached the guys. “Find anything we can use?” I was hopeful.
“Not sure, but we’ll test it. There’s a blood smear on one of the bottom slats but away from where the man’s hands were positioned,” Mike said. “A smear doesn’t fit with the scene of blood dripping from the finger wounds.”
I rubbed my chin as I processed that detail. “So blood transfer, maybe from transporting the body?”
“Possibly. We’ll definitely test it to see if it belongs to the vic or somebody else.”
“Can you make that a priority?”
Mike shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”
“Was there anything else? Caught fibers in the bench, something like that?”
“No, can’t say we found anything like that, just the smear along with the blood that pooled under the vic’s lap.”
“Okay, and how long will that take?”
“I’ll call you when we’ve got something. Give us an hour.”
“Good enough. Thanks, guys.”
I passed Lutz’s office on my way to the bull pen. “Boss, got a second?” I popped my head through his half-opened door.
He looked up from his computer, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. “I think I need a stronger prescription. Damned old age.”
I chuckled. “I hope that’s not me in fifteen years. Anyway, I got some information from Mike.”
I had Lutz’s full attention. “Yeah? What did he say?”
“They noticed a blood smear on one of the lower slats on the front of the park bench. The fact that the man was placed there after death, and the only wounds that would have dripped would be from his missing fingers, wouldn’t result in smears being on the bench.”
“Unless the perp accidentally transferred blood from the dead guy’s clothes or wounds to the bench when he moved him. No prints in that smear, though?”
“Nah, just the smear.”
Bob jotted that down. “So only an observation, or what?”
“Mike said he’d test it against the vic’s blood to make sure it was his.”
“Okay, keep me posted.”
I gave the doorframe a smack with my open hand. “Will do.” I returned to the bull pen and joined the guys at the back table. “Figure out how to divvy up the paperwork?”
Henry responded. “There are four of us assigned to compare the police, autopsy, and crime lab reports, and six vics in total. We’ll divide up everything the best we can.”
“Sounds good. Frank and I will tell the news channels what we have on the Bixler Park case and give them the dead man’s description. I have everything I need from Don except the facial shot, and I’ll have Danny run over there and take a decent picture for us. I’ll see when Don will have the vic ready. We need to set up a few dedicated call lines, and unless another victim is discovered, Frank and I will man the phones. We’ll have to interview people that sound credible, whether it’s about knowing the deceased or seeing something suspicious in the area of the playground. A witness could have driven by and noticed something that looked off, so we’ll see what shakes out.”