Chapter 20
Max glanced through the conference room door’s window and saw Noelle was already seated at the long table in the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Department, the yellow pad in front of her already full of notes.
She always wrote down or recorded everything, her insurance against her occasional memory loss from the brain injury she’d gotten when her husband was murdered.
Like right now.
The exhaustion he’d seen on her face melted away. “Thank you,” she whispered. He bent over and kissed her since they were the only ones in the room.
“You had a long night,” he said as he rolled out the chair beside her and sat.
“Both Mercy and I did.” Noelle checked the time. “She should be here any minute.”
“Is Evan going to make it?” asked Max.
“No. He got called out to a robbery an hour ago, but Mercy said Truman will be here.”
The FBI and the Deschutes County sheriff were pooling their resources to form a task force and examining the three recent murders that Max was nearly certain were tied together.
This morning was their first joint meeting.
Voices sounded in the hall, and Mercy and Truman came in, both carrying large coffee tumblers.
Max foresaw a lot more coffee in everyone’s future.
He stood and shook hands, but Noelle stayed in her seat; the exhaustion had returned to her face. Mercy looked similar. Both women had faint purplish hues below their eyes. She took the seat next to Noelle with Truman beside her.
Max had a small déjà vu moment, remembering how recently the four of them had sat down to dinner together. That had been fun and relaxing; today was not.
Many more law enforcement personnel were involved in the three cases, but Max wanted to start with this core group of the new task force and establish a plan.
He walked up to one of the huge whiteboards on the wall and wrote across the top: John Doe 1, John Doe 2, car bomb, and Rachel Johnson.
He spaced the headings far apart and put a thick line below each.
He turned to his audience. “John Doe One. The man Emma Chambers found in the woods the day before yesterday. Where are we at?”
“The autopsy will be late this morning,” said Noelle.
“I plan to go. I hope the medical examiner can get an ID, because we need it to get this case moving. The people I spoke with so far didn’t know anything about a body near their party site and didn’t see anything odd happen.
There won’t be an official age range until the autopsy, but Dr. Lockhart told me he’s not a teenager and not over sixty. ”
“Not real helpful,” said Mercy.
“I’ve combed missing persons databases with his height and hair color.
I’ve made a short list of the recent missing persons that fit that description—which isn’t many, but I need more physical information on our John Doe,” said Noelle.
“I’ve checked all West Coast states and Idaho.
I can expand the searches, but I want to wait until after the autopsy, when I’ll have a better idea of age and hopefully some other identifiers. ”
“What about the tattoo?” asked Truman.
“I sent a picture of it to the gang teams at the FBI and at the Portland Police Bureau. You might be right that it’s a flower,” Noelle said to Truman. “Still looks more like a tree to me.”
“Any other witnesses from the scene to talk to?” asked Max.
“I have a few more high school kids on my list,” said Noelle. “But I’m not optimistic that they can tell me anything, so first I’ll see where the autopsy leads and then decide if I want to interview more. We’ll at least have the bullet when the medical examiner is done.”
“Kids talk,” said Mercy. “Trust me that the message is out that we’re looking for anything or anyone unusual from that party area. I suspect we’ll hear if someone has something to report.”
“And if they’re trying to hide something?” asked Truman.
“Rumors spread. We’ll hear about it,” said Mercy.
“Forensics report from the crime scene?” asked Max. “What about the shoe that was there? It was the only clothing object, right?”
“Forensics found beer cans and other scattered garbage,” said Noelle.
“As for the Nike shoe, they believe it was there much longer than the body. It was a man’s shoe, but there were pine needles and even some packed dirt inside that were consistent with the surroundings. I doubt it came with the body.”
Max wrote autopsy, bullet, tattoo, and interviews with a question mark under John Doe 1. “What do we have on the car bomb and the body in the trunk from yesterday?” he asked.
“I know the medical examiner has removed the body from the trunk,” said Mercy. “She said he also has a gunshot wound in the forehead and no exit wound, so if the bullets from both men are in good shape, we’ll be able to tell if they were fired from the same weapon.”
“Rachel was shot in the head too,” said Max. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. When will John Doe Two’s autopsy be done?”
“Possibly this afternoon, but most likely tomorrow,” said Mercy. “Dr. Lockhart told me that he wasn’t shot in the trunk. There was very little blood on the carpet, and like our first victim, the lividity didn’t match up with the position we found him in.”
Max wrote autopsy and bullet under John Doe 2. “The media reported that there was a body in the trunk. Has that brought in any solid leads on his identity? I know two deputies were assigned to handle calls.”
“It’s brought out the wackos and the desperate,” said Noelle.
“I was told the calls have been everything from it’s Elvis in the trunk to accusations that we’re covering up that it was actually the judge’s wife, even though both she and the judge have been on camera since then.
One person swore the woman on camera wasn’t really his wife and that she had been murdered. ”
“I have faith that Dr. Lockhart can verify the victim’s sex as male,” said Max.
“I saw him,” said Noelle. “I have no doubt he was male and that he was not Elvis. The deputies have a few leads that could be legitimate. We’ll rule them out after the autopsy.”
“Check the leads against both John Does,” said Max.
“Callers were also asked if their missing person had tattoos,” said Noelle.
“Good,” said Max. He tapped the car bomb entry on the board. “Cameras at the courthouse showed Judge Holtz parking his vehicle in the morning. The Mercedes was in view until the bomb went off. The trunk was never opened, and no one stopped near the car.”
“The judge drove in with the body?” asked Truman.
“It’s looking that way. At home he parks his car outside. He sent over video from his own cameras for us to review, but he said he already fast-forwarded through forty-eight hours’ worth and no one had tampered with his vehicle.”
“So it was done somewhere else,” said Mercy. “Did he tell you where he’s driven the car recently?”
“He’s putting together a list of locations.” Max noticed Noelle shifting in her seat and tapping her pen. She met his gaze and gave a brief reassuring smile.
Talking about the car bomb has got to be hard on her.
He’d seen the video from when her SUV had exploded. Watching it shook him up every time, even though he knew that she’d been okay.
“When I get it, I’ll send deputies to check for video at each place the judge has been the last few days,” Max continued. He wrote videos under the car bomb heading.
“Dr. Lockhart said the victim hadn’t been dead very long when the car blew up,” said Noelle. “Again, we’ll have a better time frame after his autopsy.”
“We don’t have a report on the device that caused the explosion yet,” said Max.
“Both the FBI’s fire investigators and the state fire marshal’s office will examine the vehicle and device.
They’ll bring in the explosives experts they feel are needed.
” He added explosive device and fire reports to the same column.
“Most likely the device was activated with a cell phone. I feel a timer is unlikely because I think he wanted the bomb to go off at the courthouse. There was no guarantee that the judge would be there at that time yesterday. It was likely, but not definite.”
“It seems like the bomber didn’t want to hurt the judge,” said Mercy. “Just scare him. And everyone else. Possibly his primary goal was to shock us with the body in the trunk.”
“Showing off?” Max asked.
“Any bomb is showing off in my book,” said Mercy with a shrug. “Someone wants attention.”
“And according to what Rachel told me, it’s possible something bigger is planned,” Max said. “Or else the guy with her was showing off too. Acting as if he knew what was going on.”
“The judge will get me a list of people who expressed anger with him in the courtroom. He plans to take a closer look at his records today for more. I’m not sure how far back he should look. Someone could have been holding a grudge for a decade.”
“I’ll pull the judge’s financials,” said Mercy. “I want to know if he’s having any money problems. And I want to know how his marriage is. This could be an angry ex-lover of his or his wife.”
“The wife’s movements for the last few days should be looked at too,” said Truman.
“The wife put a dead body in her husband’s car?” asked Mercy, looking at her own husband.
“Great way to point suspicion at the husband,” Truman said. “Maybe she has Gone Girl aspirations. What do we know about her?”
“She has a law degree but never practiced,” said Noelle. “Two young kids. Essentially a stay-at-home mom.” She looked at Max. “We need to know if she ever drives his vehicle.”
Max wrote wife’s movements under the car bomb entry. “What else?”
The room was silent, so he went on to the next item. “Rachel Johnson. Did you learn anything from her sister last night?” He directed the question to Noelle and Mercy.
“Cory didn’t take it well,” said Mercy. “As expected. She pointed a lot of blame at me and the FBI. She seems to think our questions the other day are what triggered this.”