Chapter 35
“Renz, I’m thinking we should go back to Torrie’s house.
I’ll call Taft, explain what we know and think, then ask if bringing the forensic team to Torrie’s house is the prudent thing to do.
If Torrie was actually killed there and James cleaned the house thoroughly, we wouldn’t be able to see evidence with the naked eye. ”
“But luminol would expose any blood he missed in his cleanup attempts.”
I smiled at Renz. “Exactly.”
“Okay, let’s go back, you call Taft, and if she agrees, we’ll wait there for the forensic team.”
“We could even walk the neighborhood and look for cameras mounted on the front of homes while we wait.”
The drive to Torrie’s house took only a minute. Renz parked along the curb, leaving the driveway available for Forensics if Taft okayed it.
I made the call to our boss and explained that Torrie wasn’t home, but her car was.
From her house, we’d walked the distance between her home and the gas station, coming across two bars on the route.
The first bartender hadn’t seen her but knew her as a regular customer.
I also told Taft that we got information from Mike, the bartender at the second bar, Ed’s Corner Tap.
I went over the conversation we’d had with him, and he said that Torrie was there the night before.
A customer came in after Torrie, set his eyes on her, and took a seat next to her, although there were other available barstools.
After an hour of drinking and talking, Mike said, they left together with a bottle of wine.
“Did it seem to Mike that Torrie and the customer knew each other?” Taft asked.
“No, ma’am. Mike said he’d never seen the guy before, and Torrie didn’t know him either.
Our assumption is that after the bar, they walked back to Torrie’s house, drank the wine, and he killed her there.
There’s the chance that he roofied her wine, making it easier to subdue her.
The privacy of her house would give him plenty of time to do what he did to her, clean up the mess, then get his vehicle, put her into it, and drive away.
What we would like is for the forensic team to meet us here at Torrie’s house.
Lorenzo and I looked through the house but didn’t see anything amiss, yet a little bit of luminol can go a long way in telling us if Torrie’s house is a crime scene or not. ”
“Okay, I’ll tell them to head out. What’s Torrie’s address?”
I rattled it off and told Taft that we would conduct knock and talks and check for neighborhood cameras while we waited. I thanked her and ended the call.
Renz texted Hal Friedman, the lead in Forensics, and asked that his team let us know when they arrived. Until then, we would be talking to the neighbors.
We exited the car and looked up and down the street.
Each side had four houses on the left and right of Torrie’s.
Our main focus would be the houses across the street.
Those houses, if equipped with cameras along the front, would have better chances of catching activity at Torrie’s house than the homes on the same side of the street.
If the person responsible for Torrie’s disappearance was James Smith, I doubted that he moved her out of the area during daylight hours or when anyone was awake. He sneaked away under the cover of darkness like the gutter rat he was.
We began walking, but my hopes of luck were quickly extinguished. We didn’t see a single camera. The mostly middle-class older residents were probably lacking in tech knowledge or lived on a fixed income and couldn’t justify the cost of cameras or the monthly fee.
“Now what?” The disappointment in my voice was evident.
“We wait to see what Forensics comes up with, and if they do find evidence of a crime, we go full speed ahead.”
“Why would a crime at Torrie’s house change Taft’s mind about our involvement? We still don’t have an ounce of proof that James Smith did anything to anyone.”
“If you want to put in some extra hours after five o’clock, and if Taft gives us extra leeway, we might see Torrie and the mystery guy walking back to her house. There are other businesses on that main street that may have outdoor camera footage we can look at.”
It was all we had, but we would have to wait until Forensics told us whether they found blood.
If Torrie was killed in her home, they would definitely find some, even if it was just a small amount.
There was no way a killer could clean up every speck of blood if he committed a murder and dismemberment like he did with Della and Beth.
Renz got the text that the crew was a block away. It didn’t matter then since we’d struck out on the cameras. We were waiting on Torrie’s front porch for them to pull in.
The forensic team of four arrived, unloaded their cases, and followed Renz and me into the house through the side garage door. They needed to focus on the bathroom first then the rest of the house.
It would take only a few minutes to spray the luminol to see if anything illuminated.
If we saw evidence of a crime, we would contact Taft immediately.
Hopefully, she’d let us continue working past five p.m. We planned to question business owners on the main street that Torrie and the mystery man had taken to Torrie’s house.
If we saw them together on footage, we might have something to work with.
It would be dark out on the video, and they might be a good distance from the camera. Also, since Mike had said the guy had on a ball cap and glasses, that could put a damper on getting a positive ID, but all we could do was try.
The team was in the bathroom for only a few minutes when they called us in to take a look.
I had to give the killer credit. To the naked eye, he’d done a good cleanup job, but you couldn’t fool luminol.
Blood droplets were under the tub and around the toilet, and what appeared to be wiped-up spatter still showed on the wall to the left of the tub.
Clearly, the blood we saw couldn’t have come from Torrie nicking her legs while shaving. We had a crime scene.
“Okay, boys, you know the drill. Dig deep for prints and DNA,” Renz said. “How soon will you have results?”
“Monday should work. We’ll take along the homeowner’s toothbrush for the DNA comparison if we get anything from the bathtub area.”
Renz and I stepped outside, took a seat on the porch, and called Taft.
I suggested that Renz do the talking. He might get her to agree to an extension of our five o’clock deadline.
Renz planned to tell her that blood was found in Torrie’s bathroom.
He would also mention that it would be prudent to check with the stores along the walking route to Torrie’s house last night.
If we got lucky and saw them together on video, and if the tech department could enhance the footage, it might be enough to put the final nail in James Smith’s coffin.
Renz got the okay. We told Forensics to do what they needed to do, leave the same way they came in, and not to lock the side door. We would likely be back.
We already knew that Ed’s Corner Tap had only one outdoor camera over the entrance. We still had to check with All Hours Tavern, the pawnshop, and the automotive repair shop. My bets were on the pawnshop as having the best and largest number of cameras. We headed there first.
Renz and I set out on foot. Later, we would go back to the house to make sure the lights were off and the door was closed before returning to St. Francis.
The pawnshop was the closest and first establishment we needed to visit, then the automotive repair shop. All Hours Tavern would be open late, so we’d go there last.
We entered the pawnshop and saw only one person browsing the display cases.
The middle-aged man behind the counter wore a name tag that read Leon and asked if he could help us. As I looked for wall-mounted cameras, Renz approached him.
I saw two cameras, one facing the left cases and the other facing the right ones. I joined Renz while he explained who we were and what we needed to know.
“Do you have any cameras located outside or other ones in here that could catch movement on the sidewalk through your windows?”
“Well—” Leon rubbed his chin as if he was thinking. He leaned closer to us and whispered that a hidden camera behind him caught customers at the counter. “Just in case somebody plans to rob me or sell me stolen merchandise. I’m the owner, and I won’t tolerate that nonsense.”
“Of course not,” I said. “My question is would that camera capture the barred window and the door too?”
Leon pulled up the camera on his phone and turned it toward us. The glass-barred door and window were clearly visible.
“Do you have an outdoor light at night?” I asked.
“Only the ambient lights from my sign.”
I looked at Renz. “That might be enough.” I turned to Leon. “Is that camera set to record twenty-four seven?”
“Yep. I have all of them set up that way. I can check on the store when I’m at home, and the police station gets the call if there’s a break-in too.”
“Great. Can we take a look at last night’s footage for that camera only?”
“Yeah, sure.” Leon looked over our shoulders and saw that the customer had walked out. “Guess he wasn’t all that interested in buying anything. So, I can set the time frame if you want.”
“Sure, how about eight p.m.?”
“Not a problem.” Leon set the time then handed his phone to me.
Renz and I watched the footage as it played.
The time stamp was in the top right-hand corner, and I kept my eye on that too.
If we saw them walk by, I would have Renz back up the footage, then I would record that section.
I was sure we would watch the footage over and over if we were lucky enough to see them pass the window.