We had our work cut out for us, but my enthusiasm and hope were restored. I had something to work with, and if the guys could find one of those three vehicles passing by any of the cameras surrounding Bixler Park, we could narrow down what and hopefully who we were looking for.
Frank, Tony, and I jumped on the rental-car-agency angle. A dozen facilities were within the airport itself and another five or six in the surrounding area. We would introduce ourselves as the Chicago PD to get our foot in the door faster, then we’d ask about SUV or van rentals lasting more than a month. We’d whittle down the possibilities one agency at a time.
“How far should we have them go back?” Frank asked.
“Hmm, that’s a good question. I doubt if they’ve been here very long if the murders just began.”
Tony huffed his opinion. “If is the unknown word. We have no idea if the killings just started, or if there are more bodies out there that we haven’t found yet.”
“True enough,” I said. “Let’s ask them to go back the full three months to be on the safe side. Between the three of us, and since the search should only consist of a few keystrokes on their end, we should be able to knock out the airport agencies in less than an hour.”
I glanced at my computer’s clock. It was a quarter after three, and I hoped to have a few leads before our shift was done.
We dug in and divided up the agencies within the airport. We would compare notes to see if anything struck a chord before continuing on with Midway. Between the four agencies I’d called, I had only one possibility, and that didn’t even seem likely. A couple had rented a Subaru Outback for three weeks and asked for two child seats to be included. The best lead after that involved a single woman wanting a ten-day rental of a RAV4, which wasn’t on our list. I hung up and felt my shoulders automatically slump.
“You two get anything?” I asked after realizing fifty minutes had passed.
Neither of the guys were told of any rentals extending past two weeks.
“Maybe they’re playing it safe and changing up the cars,” Frank said.
I didn’t think so. This wasn’t their first time killing, and I was sure by now, they had a good routine working for them.
“Let’s move on to Midway. Who knows? It’s a hell of a lot closer to this neighborhood than O’Hare is, and if a company is footing the bill, anyway, then it wouldn’t matter if flying into Midway costs more. Convenience is what counts.”
We started over with the same parameters we’d used for the calls to the rental agencies at O’Hare. With Midway having only six rental car counters within the airport, we’d knock them out in no time.
Less than ten minutes into our calls, Tony began waving his hand wildly above his head and caught our attention. I ended the call to the last company that didn’t have anything for me, and hung up. I jumped from my chair, crossed the bull pen, and read over his shoulder as he wrote something down. Frank stood at his left side.
“Uh-huh, the Sienna was reserved by a Cornerstone Medical Staffing Service out of Kansas City, Missouri. The person who provided their driver’s license at the time of pickup was a Janet St. James. Her address is listed as what? A post office box out of Grants Pass, Oregon?” Tony looked at us and shook his head. “Okay, slowly, please, since I’m writing this down. What? Yes, that would be very helpful.” Tony gave us a thumbs-up and rattled off his email address. “I’ll stay on the line until it hits my in-box.” He waited only a few seconds, and a new email popped up. Clicking it and giving us both a grin, Tony maximized the screen. Staring us in the face was the contract between the rental agency and Cornerstone Medical Staffing Service. “Yes, I have it, and thank you very much.” He hung up and slapped the desk. “This has to be it. A light-blue Sienna was rented two weeks ago, and it isn’t scheduled to be returned until the end of November.”
“Print that out,” I said. “I don’t want to read the details over your shoulder.”
“Sure thing.” Tony hit Print, and at the back wall, the printer whirred to life.
After grabbing one of the five copies he made, I filled my cup with two-hour-old coffee and returned to my desk. I needed to absorb every word on that contract to see what I could get from it. I called out to Tony. “Give Lutz a buzz, tell him what you found out, and see if he wants to sit in on our powwow.”
Within minutes, Lutz charged through the door with a bag of chips still clutched in his hand. “Let’s see that contract.” He took a seat on my guest chair and read the document as I noted the important parts of the copy I was holding. I wrote down names and locations as I went through it. Grants Pass, Oregon, post office box. Janet St. James, possibly from Oregon. Cornerstone Medical Staffing Service. Rented Sienna fourteen days prior and had it until the end of November.
Lutz finished reading before me and called out to Frank. “Pull up that name in the DMV database and see what you get.”
Frank jiggled his computer’s mouse and typed the DMV’s web address into the search bar. Once in, he typed Janet St. James and waited for the results to populate.
“Shit, in a nationwide search, there’s forty-two women named Janet St. James.”
“Narrow it down to Oregon.”
Frank did and came up with the same post office box number in Grants Pass. “This is the woman, but the picture is so dark you can barely see her features. I’ve never seen such a poor-quality driver’s license in my life, and how do you get a post office box number to show as an actual address?”
Lutz grumbled that there were ways to get around the system. Gathered at Frank’s desk, we crowded in and gave the driver’s license photo a closer inspection. I frowned with uncertainty.
“Can that really be who we’re looking for?” I pulled my phone off my desk and calculated her age. “She’s fifty-seven. Do staffing agencies actually have revolving nurses that old?” I wasn’t really expecting an answer.
Lutz pointed at Frank. “Call them and find out. My gut says that license is phony.”
After pulling up the name of the staffing service, Frank found the one with their headquarters based in Kansas City. “This must be it.” He dialed the number and pressed the button for Speakerphone.
The usual gatekeeper answered, and like most, she tried not to connect us to a person of importance until Frank said it was the Chicago police calling and he needed to speak to the person in charge of temporary staffing immediately. That didn’t give the gatekeeper much to work with as a redirect.
“That would be Gary Alcott, but—”
“Ma’am, may I have your full name, please? This is a matter of life and death, and I want to know who the person is that’s holding up an official police matter.”
Her aggravation clearly came through the phone line. “One moment while I connect you.”
Frank winked, stood up, and turned over his phone and chair to Lutz. The commander would take charge from there.
Seconds later, Mr. Alcott answered and asked why the Chicago police needed to speak to their company in Kansas City. Lutz explained that a rental car had been reserved for a three-month stint in Chicago by a client of theirs who traveled as a temp, and that person was a fifty-seven-year-old woman named Janet St. James.
“That’s highly unlikely since our normal age for traveling nurses is from their mid-twenties to late thirties. We rarely have a travel request from anyone in their forties, let alone fifties. There must be a mistake.”
“How about checking that name in your database, anyway.”
“I can assure you, sir—”
“It’s Commander Robert Lutz, and I’m in charge of the Second District Violent Crimes Division.”
“We have over seventy temporary people staffed in Chicago at this moment, Commander.”
“We’re only looking for one—Janet St. James.”
He sighed. “Give me a minute while I check our Chicago list.”
We listened to hold music while he looked up her name. Mr. Alcott was back on the line seconds later.
“I’m sorry, Commander Lutz, but nobody by that name comes up in our database.”
“Anyone at all with the same last name?”
“No, sorry. Is that it, then?”
“Not yet. I’d like for you to email me a list of the people in Chicago who are staffed by your company, where they’re staying, and what kind of vehicle was reserved for them.”
We heard a huff through the phone line. Lutz was wearing on his nerves.
“I believe you’ll need a warrant for that information.”
“Not a problem. While I’m waiting for that warrant, I’ll make sure our local news airs your refusal to help with the investigation of two murders in Chicago that were likely committed by some of your temporary service providers. I guess that means you don’t vet the people you send all around the country. Is that correct?”
“Fine. What is your email address, Commander Lutz?”