I grabbed the ringing phone from its base. “Detective McCord speaking.”
“Detective, it’s Fay Brooks again.”
“Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Mrs. Brooks. What have you found?”
“There was a different name listed on Gladys’s DNR orders as well as her advanced directive. It’s actually another son, but I don’t believe I’ve ever met him and don’t remember him visiting her.”
“Okay, and what do you have on him?”
“His name is Philip Smith, and the advanced directive shows that when it was filled out, he lived in Walnut Creek.”
“That’s in California too?”
“Yes. Sorry, I assumed—”
“No worries. I’m a Chicago guy, born and raised. I’ll still need Gladys’s file emailed to me, though.”
“I’ll zip it and send it now.”
I thanked her, hung up, and began my search for Philip Smith of Walnut Creek, California. Hopefully, I would get lucky, and Robert’s body and belongings would be taken care of by a family member. I’d found three Philip Smiths within a hundred miles of Santa Rosa. None showed up in Walnut Creek, but I found one in San Mateo, one in Stockton, and one in Hayward. I would call them all and hope that one was Robert’s brother.
Hitting my computer’s refresh icon before making the call, I saw that an email had come in from Fay, and Gladys Smith’s complete file was attached.
Good, that’s taken care of. Now to track down Philip.
I was surprised to find that many people still had landlines. I dialed the first number, and a man answered. I asked if he was related to a Robert Smith, and he said no. After thanking him for his time, I hung up and dialed the Stockton number. That number picked up with a voicemail, and I left a message and my contact number. I had one more chance before hitting the proverbial brick wall, and I held my breath as I called the Hayward number. A woman answered. I introduced myself then told her why I was calling and who I was hoping to speak to. She put her husband—Philip Smith—on the phone.
I listened to his explanation for being estranged from Robert ever since their mother had died. Something about the will and the fact that she had chosen Philip—the eldest of the brothers—to be her power of attorney. Philip admitted there was bad blood between him and Robert and said they hadn’t spoken in years. I gave him as much information as I could about Robert’s death, and he said he’d catch a flight to Chicago tomorrow. We planned to talk more when he arrived to identify his brother’s remains.
With that chapter closed, I could focus on Cliff. At that point, I had my doubts that we’d ever identify victim number two. I called Lutz’s office to tell him what I’d found out about Robert, and he said he was on his way—he had news of his own.
Moments later, I looked over my shoulder, and Lutz entered the bull pen. He stood against the doorframe and addressed all of us. The warrants had been issued, and singlechicagoprofessionals.com had acknowledged that they’d received them. They were gathering the names for us, yet each woman would have to be notified before the site would send us the names.
“We’re getting there, guys, and by the day’s end, we should have the names of the women who messaged Cliff, or at least a partial list. It’s a good start.”
“How will the process be handled?” Tony asked.
“We’ll make unannounced visits to each residence after we perform background checks to see if any have police records. Regardless of whether they have a record or not, each woman will be questioned thoroughly. I’ll let you know when the names start rolling in.” Lutz tipped his head at me. “You have news on Robert?”
“Yep, that part of the investigation is coming to a close. I found his long-lost brother who lives in California, and he’s going to catch a flight here tomorrow to handle Robert’s affairs.”
“Did you go into detail about his death?”
“I didn’t tell him everything, but I said I’d explain what I could once he arrives.”
Kip rubbed his chin as if something was on his mind, then he spoke up.
“Several of the murders took place in California. Do you think it’s a coincidence that Robert lived there, too, or do you think the killer followed him to Chicago?”
I offered my opinion. “According to what Ted Sorensen—Robert’s landlord—told us, Robert left California in 2016. Apparently, he’d been traveling the country since then.”
Frank piped in. “That’s what he said, but now I’m wondering about that. Do you think he was really traveling, or was he running away from someone?”
That was a theory we hadn’t checked into yet, but it did raise some questions. “Wasn’t one of those traveling nurses from California?” I asked.
Henry flipped through his stack of notes. “Here it is, a Gail Fremont.”
I couldn’t recall what city she was from. “What area? California’s a big state.”
“Um, Petaluma, wherever that is.”
My mind went into overdrive. “Let me think about that for a second. Robert lived in Oakland, the politician was from Sacramento, and what about the other two men who were too decomposed to identify? Where were they found?”
Lutz had those answers. “One was found in Concord and the other out in the Delta near Martinez.”
I raised my brows as I had an epiphany. “And Gail Fremont just happens to be from California too. Maybe that’s where everything began.” I looked at Kip. “Print out a map of California. I want to see how close those cities are to each other.”
Ten minutes later, we gathered at the back table with the map in front of us. We had already missed our lunch break, but since this revelation could prove helpful, nobody seemed to mind.
“Okay, let’s figure this out. Put a red dot on Sacramento, one on Oakland, and the other three on Petaluma, Martinez, and Concord.”
We stared at the cluster in front of us. The cities were close together, with Sacramento being the farthest away, and that victim was the only one ever identified. We had a clear connection for those cases—opportunity and proximity.
“Did you ever get the tox reports from California?” I asked.
“Only from the politician, and he had ingested liquid ammonia. The other two couldn’t be tested because they were too decomposed.”
“Jeez. What about North Carolina?”
“Still waiting.”
Frank spoke up. “I think we should pick up Gail Fremont for questioning.”
Lutz shook his head. “Not until we have confirmation that she was one of the women who communicated with Cliff. We have no evidence whatsoever to say she was involved in a crime. Living in the same state as several murder victims is far from proof of wrongdoing. If that were the case, then everyone in Chicago would be a person of interest, so we have to wait it out. Until we have that information, start digging into the backgrounds of Robert and the politician to see if there was ever a reason for them to cross paths.”
A few hours passed without significant leads. We couldn’t find any connection between Robert and the politician. At three o’clock, Lutz stormed into the bull pen and waved a sheet of paper.
“We have a few names. Let’s get started.”
I pushed back my chair with excitement. I was raring to go and needed to get out of the bull pen. Lutz jerked his head at Frank and me. “Hold your horses. We need information first on a Debbie Bachman and a Patricia Moore, both from Chicago. Pull up their names to see if they have police records, get their most current addresses from the DMV database, and then head out.”
“You got it, Boss,” Frank said.
“Nothing on Gail Fremont yet?”
“Nope, still waiting on her and six other women’s information.”
“I’ll take Debbie Bachman,” I said as I dug in. I pulled up her name, got her current address—which matched the one on her credit card payment method for the dating site—then did a nationwide criminal background search on her. She was clean—no arrests ever, not even a speeding ticket. Lutz said we had to interview everyone, so I programmed her address into my cell phone’s navigation system. “How does it look for Patricia Moore?”
“Hmm… she had one arrest for solicitation in 2013. Misdemeanor charges, paid a fine, and did community service for six months. Clean ever since.”
“Has she always lived in Illinois?”
Frank tapped a few more keys and pulled up her address history. “Looks like she lived in Virginia for a year, and that was in 2011.”
“Okay, let’s head out. Got a workplace for her in case she isn’t home?”
“Yep, I’ve got it all.”