Chapter 11

Detective Tom Carter arrived at the office holding a hot take-out coffee. He paused at the bullpen doorway when he spotted his glutton of a partner seated at his corner desk, chowing down on breakfast, while reading the morning newspaper.

Tom strolled over and slid into the visitor’s chair opposite his partner.

‘Morning Frank.’

Frank lifted his eyes from his newspaper. ‘Hey Tom,’ he said, while still chewing on his food.

‘So…Where’s mine?’ Tom said. His eyes dropped to the four slices of raisin toast smothered in butter and cut into halves, and the two ham and cheese croissants in front of Frank.

Frank gulped down a mouth full of food. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin. With a jab of his thumb generally to his right, he said, ‘the café downstairs has plenty…’ He checked his watch. ‘You got time if you want,’ Frank said.

Tom leaned forward onto his elbows. He smiled as he watched his partner scoffing down his breakfast. ‘Nah, no need…’ Tom said. He reached across the desk and lifted half a slice of raisin toast from Frank’s plate. ‘These look good,’ he said and took a bite.

Frank’s eyebrows lifted as he watched his light-fingered partner. ‘Sure…help yourself…No really…’ he said sarcastically.

Tom lifted what remained of the toast to his colleague. ‘Thanks,’ he said. He took another bite while choosing to intentionally ignore the sarcasm.

Rather than wait until his mouth was empty, Tom asked, ‘I wonder what today will have in store for us. I don’t usually like Thursdays.’

Tom placed what was left of the toast into his mouth and dusted off his hands as he eyed off another piece.

Frank picked up a croissant. ’You don’t like any days,’ Frank gibed.

‘That’s true,’ Tom said. He timed his reach across the desk to grab another piece of toast from Frank’s plate. He lifted another piece of toast and held it up to Frank. ‘Do you mind?’ he said pretending to ask permission, before biting down on the toast without waiting for a response.

Frank slowly shook a disapproving head at his partner, while he wiped his hands on a napkin.

Tom Carter and Frank Williams were both men in their mid-fifties. Both had over twenty-five years’ service as cops and had been partners at San Diego Homicide for the past seven years.

They were no nonsense kind of guys when it came to crooks, but to each other, they readily exchanged taunts, criticism and sarcastic insults – all in good fun. They worked well together and had a strong crime-solving record and reputation.

At six feet six, Tom’s slender, but athletic build towered over his much shorter, more corpulent colleague, who stood a mere five feet six.

They were affectionately referred to as Abbott and Costello by their colleagues, from their physical appearance and their witty retorts and gibes they regularly exchanged.

In keeping with their bestowed nicknames, at last year’s Christmas break-up they delighted and regaled their colleagues and families with a well-rehearsed, humorous rendition of the famous Abbott and Costello’s skit – ‘Who’s on First’.

Tom dusted the toast crumbs off his hands and sipped on his now tepid coffee. Frank continued to work at clearing his breakfast from the plate.

‘Well…it’s just about that time,’ Tom said. He pushed himself up from his chair, just as Frank’s desk phone rang.

Tom watched Frank with interest as he answered the phone. He hoped it wasn’t a job this early.

‘Frank Williams. Homicide.’

Frank quickly removed his pen from his shirt pocket and started to scribble notes. ‘Aha…how long ago.’ Frank rolled his eyes before looking up at Tom. He slowly shook his head.

Frank continued scribbling wildly. ‘Say that address again… Right… 1428… No, slow down, slow down. Is that unit 14 number 28, or one thous-… OK got it… Who found her…? And she’s still there, is she…? Good, keep her isolated…How was she found…? Alright, is the scene taped off…? Good. Who’s on crime scene watch…? Good, we’re ten minutes away.’ Frank slammed down the phone,

‘You had to say it, didn’t you…?’ Frank said. Tom returned a puzzled expression. ‘You had to say you don’t like Thursdays.’ Frank lifted his note pad and read from it.

’We got a young female in Mission Hills, ‘bout twenty-five years. Looks like a rape and murder.’

Tom shoulders slumped, as he rolled his eyes. He collected his things from his desk.

Frank pushed himself away from his desk and stood. He lifted his jacket from the back of his chair and threw it on, then moved to exit the bullpen. Tom moved alongside, keeping step.

‘Uniform boys are preserving the scene,’ Frank said. ‘Crime Scene Unit is on site and the ME just arrived.’

‘What address in Mission Hills?’

Frank glanced at his notes. ‘Ah…1428 Westend Boulevard…Lived alone apparently.’

‘COD?’

‘Looks like strangulation…bastard raped and then strangled her to death. Apparently used duct tape to tie her up.’

---

Over in the Bureau office, things were a little more laid back for a Thursday morning, at least for the moment.

Matt sat at his desk reading the morning newspaper and sipping on his 2nd coffee for the day.

He casually checked his watch – 8.15am. As he turned the page, his attention locked onto a news item reporting on the hospitalization of a young female who alleged she was raped and strangled on Monday morning.

The article reported that the offender fled after being disturbed. The SDPD’s Sex Crimes Unit was seeking public assistance with any information.

Matt’s eyes lifted from the newspaper. He checked over both shoulders, then scanned the room. He could use this article as part of his frame up of Jason. He commenced to rip the article from the newspaper.

As he nonchalantly tore at the newspaper, Lew’s bellowing voice boomed out across the office. ‘Any danger of you doing any work today?’

Matt knew his boss was referring to him reading the newspaper. He grinned at his boss. ‘Just catching up on the important news.’ Matt lifted the newspaper so Lew could see it.

‘SDPD have just been dispatched to a Homicide in Mission Hills. You should take a drive down there and see if they need any help.’

Matt shook his head. His mouth turned downwards. ’Nuh. What’s the point? Not our jurisdiction. They’ll only think we’re trying to tell ‘em how to do their job… They’ll just get pissed at us,’ he said, then defiantly turned the page of his newspaper.

’Besides…it’s only one murder isn’t it…?’ Matt asked rhetorically, shifting his gaze back to his chief. ‘They’re more than capable of handling it on their own.’

‘Is it only one…?’ the Chief asked, with his voice rising in an upward inflection. ‘There was a rape victim admitted to hospital Monday, who claimed her attacker tried to strangle her…What if the two are related?’

Matt tapped the newspaper. ‘I was just reading about that now…’ He turned the page and kept reading.

‘I’m sure if the incidents are connected, SDPD are more than capable of linking the two.’

‘I wasn’t asking you…’ the Chief said. He glared at Matt, who continued to ignore his Boss by feigning he was reading the paper.

‘DUNCAN!’ Lew screamed. ‘Tear yourself away from that newspaper and hit the road…’ He flicked a finger towards the Rookie. ‘And take the kid with you…Just as observers – understood?’

Matt rolled his eyes. He firmly closed the newspaper before dropping it onto his desk. ‘Got it,’ he said, devoid of any enthusiasm. Matt rolled his eyes at Brad, who returned a shrug and a grin.

Matt was still shaking his head when he pushed himself away from his desk and stood. ‘OK, let’s do this.’ He lifted his jacket from the back of his chair.

Rodriguez was the only one who had a spring in his step as the three men exited the office.

---

The morning peak hour traffic congestion turned the ten minute drive to Mission Hills into a frustrating twenty-five minutes.

As Tom and Frank drove along Westend Boulevard, the gathered crowd, media vans and first responder vehicles up ahead alerted them to the house they searched for.

Tom indicated to Frank the large gathering of neighbors and onlookers standing in groups around the perimeter tape. ‘I wonder if our perp is anonymously blending in with this gathering watching everything unfold…’ he said.

Frank shrugged. ‘Could be.’

After parking their unmarked vehicle beside the Medical Examiner’s truck, Tom and Frank made their way towards number 1428.

As they approached the perimeter tape they were accosted by camera crews and reporters shouting overlapping questions and shoving microphones in their faces.

Tom lifted the perimeter tape and Frank stepped under. Tom kept walking towards the victim’s house, while Frank addressed the reporters, all of whom shouted over the top of each other in a commingled indiscernible din.

He lifted his hands to the gathering. ‘Look, we just got here. You know as much as we do at this time – OK. Thank you.’ He turned to catch up with Tom.

The Detectives stopped at the front gate at number 1428 to take a typical first time look at the premises.

The house was a small single-fronted, light blue colored weatherboard home with a low white picket fence. Two brick steps led up to the centrally located front door, which was recessed into the house, forming an entry alcove.

The uniform officer who responded to the initial call, met the Homicide Detectives at the front gate, to update them.

‘What do we know, Stu?’ Tom asked the Officer.

The officer referred to his notes. ‘Caucasian female. Twenty-four years old. Name of Wendy Spiteri. Moved here from New York two years ago to attend UCSD. Lived on her own. The property is a rental.’

‘Who found her?’ Frank asked.

The officer gestured to a Black and White parked nearby. The vehicle’s rear passenger-side door was open. A young female sat on the rear seat with her feet resting on the ground outside the car.

Her hands covered her face. She was being comforted by a female uniform officer, who squatted in front of her.

‘That’s the victim’s friend. She’s the one who found her,’ the cop said. ‘Her name is… Valerie Walters, twenty-four years of age.’

The officer gestured to his right. ‘She lives a couple of streets over in Waterview Drive at number 1014 with her parents.’

The officer continued with his update. ‘Our witness there…’ He lifted his chin to the black and white. ‘Ms. Walters, realized she hadn’t heard from her friend for a couple of days.’

The cop gestured with his pen towards the witness. ’She and the vic go to the gym together, but apparently the vic missed her gym workout on Tuesday night.

’When she failed to respond to messages that Ms. Walters left on the victim’s cell phone, Ms. Walters became concerned, so she thought she would come over to see if everything was OK.

’Ms. Walters saw the victim’s car was still in the drive and the lights were on inside the victim’s home when she arrived.

’She thought it was unusual given it was daylight outside. Her knocks at the front door went unanswered. When she realized both the front and back doors were locked, she used the spare front door key, which she knew was hidden under a rock down the side of the house, and let herself in through the front door.

She found the victim, deceased, lying where she is now – on the floor between the kitchen and family room.’

‘Do we know when the victim was last seen?’ Tom asked the officer.

The officer referred to his notes. ‘At this stage, the most recent we have is the friend, Ms. Walters…’ he said. ’She last saw her four nights ago when they walked out of their gym together…about 8pm last Sunday night, before each went their own way.

‘We haven’t had a chance to canvass the neighbors yet to see if anyone had seen the victim since that time.’

Frank jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. ‘Can you arrange for photographs of all these people watching us from the perimeter tape? Better still, get some video, if possible. We want to be able to see all their faces,’ Frank said.

The officer nodded. ‘Will do.’

‘Just curious….Do we know what gym they attended?’ Tom asked the cop.

‘Ah, yes we do…’ the officer said, then referred to his notes. ’…Club Fitness. It’s a gym in Bay Park,’ he said.

Tom nodded once. ‘Thanks.’

Chapter 12

Tom and Frank donned a pair of disposable shoe covers before they entered the property through the front gate.

As they walked along the concrete path to the front door, they removed a pair of latex gloves from their pockets and snapped them onto their hands.

Once inside, they found themselves in a small six foot, by six foot, entry foyer with three other doors leading from it.

The door to the right was open and led into a small, sparsely furnished lounge room. The door to the master bedroom was off to the left.

The Detectives moved through a doorway directly in front of them, where they found themselves standing in a large open plan room that included the dining room, the kitchen to the right and the family room straight ahead.

The victim was lying on her back on the floor between the kitchen and family room. With no ventilation, or fresh air in the house for days, the pungent aroma from the victim’s decomposing body was powerful.

The Medical Examiner knelt over the victim while the Crime Scene officers were busy dusting for prints and searching for trace and other evidence.

Following the usual greeting, Tom and Frank moved to examine the female victim. She wore a short, white colored, light cotton dressing gown that was opened at the front.

She was naked underneath and her legs were parted. It was apparent that she had experienced an evacuation of her bowels and bladder during her traumatic ordeal.

Tom gestured towards the open dressing gown. ‘Is this how she was found?’ he asked anyone listening.

The Medical Examiner looked up to Tom. ‘The victim’s body position and clothing has not altered. As I understand it…this is how she was found,’ the ME said.

The victim’s hands were tightly bound by black duct tape and were resting on the ground, above her head. Five inch strips of duct tape were used to cover her eyes and her mouth.

‘Do you think this is our primary?’ Tom asked the ME.

‘Yes I do,’ the ME said. He rolled the victim onto her side where he indicated the bluish-purple skin discoloration along the lower side and underneath of the victim’s body.

‘The livor mortis has pooled consistently in the lower parts of her body, so no, she hasn’t been moved since she died.’

‘How long do you think she has been here?’ Frank asked.

The ME returned the victim to her back and lifted her limp arm. ‘Well…it’s tough to say until we get her back for examination, but…rigor has passed,’ he said lowering the arm back down to the floor. ‘And her muscles and tissue have started decomp so, if I had to take a guess, I would say… she has been dead for around three days, maybe four.’

Frank moved away towards the rooms at the rear of the house. ‘Back in a minute,’ he said.

Tom gestured with his pen to the marks around the victim’s neck. ‘Was the COD strangulation, Doc?’ he asked.

‘Looking at this young woman…if I had to conclude a preliminary cause of death, I would say it appears that way.’

The ME indicated the purple discoloration on the victim’s neck. ’There was definitely pressure applied to her neck. That there is what is known as Ecchymosis, which is a discoloration due to extravasation of blood from ruptured blood vessels into subcutaneous tissue.

‘That mark there…’ He indicated a small, oval mark on the side of her neck. ‘That is the impression caused by her attacker’s single thumb.’

Tom nodded his understanding, as he scribbled notes.

The ME lightly placed his hands around the victim’s neck, simulating strangulation. ‘When a person is grabbed by two hands like this, the thumb generates more pressure than the other fingers. So, singular thumb impression contusions are found more often than contusions showing the complete hand grasp.’

The ME felt along the victim’s throat. ‘I can’t be certain, but it is possible the trauma to her neck may have fractured her Hyoid bone, which is about this area here.’ He indicated her throat, just below her jaw. ‘The pressure exerted by her attacker may even have crushed the Thyroid and Cricoid Cartilages of the Larynx,’ he said. ‘But until we get her back…I won’t know for certain.’

Tom continued to take notes as the ME described his preliminary prognosis.

‘If I am correct, and she was strangled,’ the ME continued. ‘When we remove that duct tape from her eyes, I will find a petechial hemorrhage in the eyes. This usually develops as blood vessels burst. It is commonly seen in strangulation deaths,’ the ME said. He grunted as he slowly stood up from beside the victim and slowly moved towards her feet.

‘Another very unfortunate, but common sign of strangulation is the involuntary urination and defecation, which…’ He flicked his hand in the general direction of her groin. ‘This unfortunate young girl obviously experienced.’

‘The injuries there…’ Tom said, indicating the victims groin area. ‘They certainly appear consistent with a rape?’ he said, which was a question rather than an observation.

The ME slowly lowered himself down to kneel beside the victim’s hips. ‘It certainly appears that way,’ he said. ‘There is considerable bruising to her upper vagina and she has a large laceration in her perineum. Evidence that would suggest she was indeed raped,’ the ME concluded.

Tom shifted his attention to the CSU, standing nearby. ‘Any fluids, transfers or anything else?’ Tom asked.

‘Nothing. I’ve done a full rape kit with swabs and lifted some samples for testing, but I’m not expecting them to find anything. There are no defensive wounds, so she was either ambushed, or consented to being tied up in some kinky sex play that went wrong,’ the CSU said.

‘OK…’ Frank eagerly announced on his return to the family room. ‘There’s a rear door exit from the laundry, which is still deadlocked and all the windows are still secured,’ he said as moved back to the victim. ‘It looks like there was no sign of forced entry…’

Tom chewed on his pen before he said, ‘Maybe she knew her attacker and let him in to her home.’

Frank flicked a finger at the lack of clothing the victim was wearing. ‘If a stranger knocked on her door, I doubt she would let him in when she was dressed like that – naked under a light cotton gown. She must’ve known him and known him fairly well,’ Frank said.

Tom addressed the CSU officer. ’Have you finished taking photos?

The CSU investigator nodded. ‘Yep, all done.’

‘Good,’ Tom said. ‘You can remove that duct tape from her face, Doc,’ he said to the ME, who was still crouching beside the victim. ‘Just wanna check her mouth is clear.’

‘See…here’s the thing,’ Frank began. ‘Covering the mouth I understand…it would be to silence her. But why put the duct tape over her eyes like that? It can’t be to prevent her from identifying her attacker, especially if she let him in to her house,’ he said, thinking out loud. ‘And if he intended to kill her… why would it matter if she sees him?’

‘Control…’ A voice announced from the direction of the front door.

All eyes in the room turned towards the unfamiliar voice. The towering frame of Matt Duncan and his two colleagues stood in the doorway, looking on. Matt heard Frank’s question and offered his unsolicited opinion.

Matt moved into the room. ’By covering her eyes,; Matt continued. ’She can’t see what he is about to do, or is doing. She can’t resist what she can’t see,’ he said before offering a self-confident grin.

Tom’s gaze moved from the uninvited visitors to Frank. ‘See what happens when you leave the front door open…’ He jabbed his pen towards the FBI intruders. ‘It allows any animal to just wander into your house, uninvited,’ he said flippantly.

With his hands deep in his pockets, Matt approached the victim. ‘Tom… Frank.’ He nodded a greeting at each man individually. ‘Always a pleasure,’ he said, devoid of sincerity, as he briefly examined the victim.

Matt jabbed a thumb over a shoulder, towards his colleagues, behind him. ‘Oh, and ah, you know Brad… and this is our new guy – Rodriguez,’ he said.

The ME slowly removed the duct tape from the victim’s eyes and mouth.

‘We don’t just walk in uninvited on you guys when you’re sitting in your cafés all day…’ Tom said with a grin. ‘So what makes you think you can just walk in where we work.’

‘We’re just observing, Tom… A little curious, if you will,’ Matt said. ’Don’t get ‘em in a knot.’

Matt watched the ME remove the duct tape from the victim’s eyes and individually examine each eye.

The ME separated the eye lids of each of the victim’s eyes. ‘That gentlemen…’ the ME began. ‘Is what a petechial hemorrhage in the eyes looks like.’

Each man moved in for a closer examination.

‘Do you think this case is related to the young female rape victim who was admitted to hospital last Monday morning…?’ Matt asked. ‘She claimed her attacker tried to strangle her.’

If Matt wanted his plan to succeed, it was in his best interest for the SDPD to link the two cases.

Tom glanced at Frank. His plunging brow and puzzled expression suggested they had not thought that far ahead. ‘We hadn’t…ah, connected them just yet,’ Tom said.

Matt nodded. ‘It would be interesting to see if black duct tape was used on her and where…don’t you think?’ he said in a condescending tone.

Matt removed his cell from his pocket and moved away to another room. Around the same time, A CSO approached Frank and handed him an iPhone, which the CSO indicated was located on the family room coffee table.

Frank accepted the cell. ‘Is this the Vic’s phone…?’ he asked the CSO.

‘We can only assume…’

Frank awoke the screen from sleep mode and examined the phone’s display. ‘What was the name of the witness who found her?’ Frank asked Tom. ‘Was it Val…?’

Tom eyes lifted skyward in contemplation. ‘Ah…Yeah. Valerie Walters. Why Whatcha got?’

‘There are three unread text messages from a “Val” showing on the front screen,’ he said. He tried to unlock the phone. ‘It’s password protected. We’ll have to get it hacked.’

Matt returned to the room a short time later. A large, grin filled his face. ’I just made a call to your Sex Crimes Unit…’ he said. ’It appears the rape victim from the hospital last Monday morning had her hands tied up by black duct tape,’ he emphasized.

‘Her attacker also put duct tape across her mouth and eyes,’ Matt said. ‘Bit of a signature, I’d say. But don’t let me tell you how to do your job…’

Matt’s comments piqued Tom’s interest. ’Where does she live…?’

‘About one block from here, in Wentworth Grove,’ Matt said. ‘And it won’t come as any surprise to learn that she had been living on her own at the time of the attack.’

’She wouldn’t happen to be a member of Club Fitness in Bay Park would she?’ Frank asked, curiously.

Matt shrugged. ‘Fucked if I know. It’s not my case. But it wouldn’t be too hard to find out.’

Tom’s eyes dropped to the victim. ‘I wonder if this poor kid was caught on the rebound after the offender was disturbed at Wentworth Grove…’ Tom said, thinking out loud.

‘If I may make a suggestion…’ Matt began. ‘When you conduct your media interview… don’t release the details about the duct tape over the eyes and mouth. It could be a signature of our killer.’

Tom’s eyes flicked to Frank. He jabbed his head in Matt’s direction. ’Our Killer…’ He scoffed. ‘Gee…thanks for that piece of valuable advice, Special Agent… I don’t know what we would do without the FBI. Do you Frank?’ His said in a tone riddled with sarcasm.

Matt shook his head as he flicked the back of his hand at the Detectives. ‘Leave you to it,’ he said, then exited the room, towards the street. Brad and Rodriguez followed closely behind.

Once Tom and Frank had sufficient information relating to the victim and her house, they moved outside where they interviewed their only known witness, Valerie Walters.

From there, they commenced the mundane door knock of the neighborhood, hoping to find further witnesses. They had to try and piece together the victim’s last moments, before she died.

Chapter 13

For Friday morning’s breakfast, Alicia prepared French toast and crispy bacon – Matt’s favorite, along with a fresh pot of hot brewed coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice.

They shared their breakfast on the balcony’s outdoor dining. The overcast skies and gusty, off-shore winds chopped up the surf conditions and made the usually pleasant coastal outlook from their balcony, grey and unappealing.

Unfortunately for Matt, he still had to be at work after breakfast, but Alicia was on a rostered day off.

Alicia refilled Matt’s coffee mug and handed it to him. She gave him a pleasant and loving smile as she refilled her own cup.

After adding milk and sugar to his desired taste, Matt stirred his coffee while he monitored Alicia. She held her coffee mug in both hands as she took a sip. Knowing what he now knows about them, after reading their text messages, he decided to mess with her head a little.

‘How are things coming along with you and Jason?’ he asked.

Alicia replaced her mug on the table. She held Matt’s gaze for an extended period before responding. ‘Look…’ she began. Her eyes dropped to her coffee cup, watching it, as she spun the cup on the table. ‘He’s OK…’ she said.

‘Just OK…? Problems?’ he asked.

Alicia shook her head. ‘No…No. Ni problems. When it comes to fitness training, he certainly knows his stuff…’ She paused as if searching for the right words. Her eyes again lowered to the rotating coffee mug.

‘But…’ Matt said, anticipating there was a “but” coming.

Alicia’s eyes flicked back to Matt. She smiled. ‘But…’ she emphasized. ‘It’s just that…’ She paused again. ‘Well…he’s not Calvin…and I miss Calvin.’

‘How do you find him… This Jason, as a person I mean?’ Matt took a sip of his coffee, while continuing to monitor her reaction.

Alicia stared blankly at her coffee mug on the table in front of her. She dusted some toast crumbs off the table. ’He’s a young man… a young good looking man. He is self-confident and has an over inflated ego… and… well, he is just not Calvin.’

Matt replaced his mug onto the table. ‘Do you have a training session with him today?’

Alicia nodded. ‘Yeah, at 9.30am. He wants to hold today’s workout on the beach.’ She glanced towards the uninviting beach conditions below. ‘But I doubt that’s going to happen today,’ she said.

Matt checked his watch. ‘Shoot.’ He pushed himself away from the table. ‘I gotta go. Just got time to brush my teeth and fly.’

Alicia watched Matt as he quickly move into the house. About five minutes later he returned, gave her a kiss goodbye and he was gone to fight the traffic in his daily commute.

On his way to work Matt noticed the front page banners at the newspaper stands all referenced yesterday’s Mission Hills rape and murder. He decided to stop off and purchase a copy of the U-T San Diego. He still struggled to get used to this new name. He preferred it when the daily newspaper was known as The San Diego Union-Tribune.

After parking his car in the Bureau car park, he remained seated in his car while he read the front page article reporting on yesterday’s killing.

“Police Hunt Coastal Killer,” he read, as a devious smile emerged across his face. This was perfect. He could cut out this article and keep it with the Sarah Sanderson article from yesterday.

If everything went to plan, he would plant these cut-out newspaper articles, and any others he was able to accumulate along the way, in Jason’s house.

Although circumstantial, it was a known fact that serial killers kept scrap books, records or mementos of their killing sprees. Dahmer kept the dismembered body parts from his young male victims in a refrigerator, freezer and jars.

The newspaper articles were just something else he could use towards framing the pitiful Jason.

His heart rate was elevated and his mouth was dry during the lonely drive over to Hillcrest. The feeling in the pit of his stomach was unsettling.

At one stage he thought he would have to pull over to be sick, but he pushed through – he fought it off and kept going.

After arriving in the leafy suburb of Hillcrest, he made his way to the park land he earlier scouted as a suitable out-of-the-way location to conceal his car. He couldn’t afford to be seen in this area tonight.

Once inside the park land, he drove deep into the bowels of the grounds. He parked his car in an area completely obscured from any roads, or houses, by a forest of trees and thick foliage.

The darkened figure unfolded himself from his car and stood by the open door while he scanned the immediate area.

His eyes and ears searched to detect any movement, or activity emanating from the all-enveloping darkness.

He glanced up at the blackened night sky and smiled. The cloudy overcast conditions provided a dark, moonless night. The wind was gusty and cool, which meant that only the dedicated would be out on foot tonight. It was perfect.

The constant heavy rains from two nights ago threw out his entire plans. Walking through mud and water soaked lawns and grounds would increase the risk of leaving evidence somewhere, so he had to reschedule everything to tonight.

With these conditions, he couldn’t have ordered a more appropriate night.

He quietly closed the driver’s door and opened the trunk. After rummaging around inside, he removed some items and placed them in the front pocket of his black hoodie.

Using the light from the trunk, he checked the time on his watch. It was 9.35pm. She would be home from the gym by now and probably even showered.

He lowered the trunk lid, leaning forcefully on it until he heard the click. He couldn’t risk drawing attention to himself from the distinctive thud of closing doors reverberating across the isolated park into the still of the night.

He draped his black hood over his head. He then scanned the area once more as a final check – All clear. With his head lowered, he plunged his hands into his hoodie’s front pocket and commenced the two block walk towards Dovetail Road – number 1408 in particular.

Keeping deep in the shadows wherever possible, his dark silhouetted outline skulked furtively along Dovetail Road.

His eyes and ears were honed to his surroundings, looking for any sounds, or movement. He noted that most houses he passed were in total darkness.

After arriving at number 1408 he continued walking about four or five doors up the street, conducting a reconnaissance of the neighboring properties.

There were no dogs barking that could bring unnecessary attention, and everyone was inside, in bed or out for the night.

He quickly crossed the street and returned down the other side. Same result.

Satisfied with his recon, he moved to a suitably darkened position between street lights. Following a check of his surrounds, he crossed the road and made his way to number 1408.

He stood off to the side, near the side fence with number 1406, while he conducted one last visual scan of the vicinity. All was still clear. He quickly stepped over the low picket fence and moved into the front yard of number 1408. He was immediately swallowed up into front yard’s abyss-like darkness.

The veil of darkness provided cover while he crouched down near the side access gate. He reached into his hoodie pocket and removed a pair of latex gloves.

Quietly and carefully he slid them onto his hands, snapping them in place. His honed senses continued to monitor his surrounds. He then removed a black full-face balaclava, pushed off his hood and slipped it over his head, before replacing his hood over the top.

He hadn’t previously considered the chance of being identified as an issue, especially when it was expected that all his victims ultimately died. But when his first victim survived after he was unexpectedly interrupted, it was luck, more than good planning, that she never got to see his face, before he attacked her.

He could therefore not risk being identified again. So moving forward from the first time, he now chose to wear a full-face balaclava – just to be sure.

Everything had been planned to the finest detail. Earlier in the week he visited this very address and was able to gain access to the young female occupant’s home under the pretense that with her living on her own, he was concerned for her safety.

He convinced her that he wanted to check all the doors and windows were properly secured. She was completely compliant and trusting. That was her first mistake. She even thanked him for his concern.

When he was supposedly checking the locks, he was actually gaining an understanding of her house and the layout of the floor plan. He noticed the young woman’s rear door led into the back yard from the laundry.

Immediately to the right of the back door was a laundry sink. Above the laundry sink was a small sliding window about two feet by one foot that looked out into the backyard.

The locking mechanism on the window was a black plastic lever, positioned half way up the leading edge of the sliding window.

When he checked her laundry door was properly secured, he surreptitiously unlocked the small sliding window by disengaging the window’s lock, just enough to unlock the window, but leaving it closed enough so as not to be easily detected.

Sitting in this position the plastic lock gave the impression it was engaged. This was to be his point of entry, when he later returned.

Carefully and quietly in the complete darkness, his blackened silhouette made its way down the side of the house. When he passed under the kitchen window he noticed the light was on, but the shade was drawn.

He continued down the side and made his way to the rear door. The laundry window’s shades were not drawn, which made his job easier. Even better, the internal laundry door that led into the adjoining hall, was closed.

Slowly and quietly he edged the sliding window open, pausing at intervals to monitor any movement from inside the house.

Once the window was open enough he removed a rolled cloth from his hoodie pocket and flicked it open. He placed it over a drain pipe from the laundry sink that protruded from the wall. He stood on the cloth covered drain pipe and reached in through the window and unlocked the back door.

He lifted the cloth and rolled it back up and replaced it into his hoodie pocket. Next, he quietly opened the back door and moved inside. He carefully and quietly closed the back door, locking it.

He paused momentarily while he listened to make sure he was not heard. Next, he quietly slid the window closed until he heard the lock engage. His point of entry was now disguised.

His darkened shape stood in the middle of the pitch black laundry. All he could hear was the blood pumping in his ears as his anxiety levels started to rise. His stomach started to knot up with the tension of what he was about to do.

Killing these young women never got any easier for him, but it was something he just had to do. It was out of his control.

He slowly turned the laundry door handle and peeled the door open about one quarter inch to peep out through the thin opening.

The hall outside the laundry was in darkness, but the lights in the kitchen and family room up the hall were all on. Music played at a moderate sound level, but not enough to mask any screams.

He suddenly pulled back from looking through the door when he saw something move into his view from the obscured right side. He recalled that was the area of the bathroom. He moved his eyes back to the slender opening just in time to notice his young prey moving away from him down the hall. She disappeared from view, into the kitchen.

She wore a white towel around her body and had a white towel wrapped around her head, like an oversized turban.

He opened the door a little further and checked his right, towards the bathroom. The bathroom door was open and the light was off, but the dense heavy steam that had accumulated during her hot shower still hovered in the atmosphere.

Now was his time. He slowly opened the door and moved out into the hall. Sliding his way along the wall, he moved with the stealth of a trained ninja. His ears were tuned into every sound. He could hear her singing along to the music. The kitchen tap was running.

He cautiously arrived at the juncture where the hall opened out into the kitchen on the left, and the family room to the right.

With his back firmly pressed against the wall, he slowly peeked around the corner to the kitchen. His victim stood at the sink with her back to him, drinking a glass of water. He quickly checked the family room to his right. No unexpected visitors. Now was the time.

He quickly moved out from the security of the darkened hall and moved directly towards his victim.

She had just rinsed her glass under the tap and inverted it on the sink drainer and started to turn towards him.

He saw the whites of her widening eyes as her fear started to register. But before she could react to the sight of the balaclava clad man in front of her, he struck out at her with the speed of a rattle snake, delivering a powerful short, sharp right hook to her jaw. She was instantly knocked unconscious.

He thought he heard her jaw crack from the force of the powerful blow. She wouldn’t have known what hit her. She was out on her feet. Her body fell limp.

He grabbed her and assisted her down to the floor. The towel covering her body unwrapped and fell to the floor. He stood for a moment and examined her naked body.

He had to move quickly before she awoke. He grabbed her ankles and dragged her away from the kitchen sink, into the center of the room.

Moving with precision-like dexterity, he removed the black duct tape from his hoodie pocket and tightly wrapped it around her wrists, securing them together.

He severed the tape using the flick knife he brought with him. He then lifted her bound arms and placed them on the ground above her head.

Next, he cut off two strips of tape and placed one over her eyes and the other over her mouth. He stood back and once again examined her naked, lifeless body on the floor in front of him. His pulse raced as his arousal levels started to peak.

It was not until he had his victim’s immobilized that this inexplicable rush of power engulfed him. It excited him to see these helpless women naked in front him. He could do anything he wanted to them and it strangely aroused him to uncontrollable levels.

It was always his intentions to just strangle the girls and leave them to be discovered. But when he saw their naked, bound and gagged bodies, he felt an uncontrollable urge that he couldn’t resist.

He had to force himself on them. He knew it was wrong, but he just couldn’t resist the temptation.

While gazing down at his victim, his pulse raced. His heart beat so heavily he could feel it thumping against his sternum. He removed a condom from his hoodie pocket, ripped it open and returned the wrapper back to his pocket.

Keeping his pants on, he flicked his erect penis out though his fly and rolled on the condom.

With her lying on her back, he kicked her legs apart before lowering himself down towards his motionless victim.

Chapter 14

After claiming his second victim in the space of two weeks, he moved through the kitchen, opening and closing cupboard doors, while his victim’s lifeless body lay on the floor. Clearly he searched for something in particular.

He moved to the laundry, returning a short time later with a bottle of bleach. He removed the rolled up cloth from his pocket and moved to the sink where he liberally poured the bleach over the cloth.

He returned to his now deceased victim and, using the bleach soaked cloth, he wiped down her body to effectively destroy any possible DNA evidence.

Once his clean-up was completed, he removed a plastic bag from his hoodie pocket and shoved the bleach-soaked cloth into bag and tied it off. He returned the bag to his hoodie pocket and the bleach bottle back to the laundry.

When he returned to stand over his victim, he took the time to check that he hadn’t inadvertently dropped anything that could identify him. Everything appeared good.

Satisfied he had again outwitted any forensic examination, he moved to exit the house, via the front door. He slowly opened the door and peeped out towards the street. It appeared safe to exit. His solid figure cautiously stepped out through the door, before he quietly closed the door behind him, ensuring it locked.

He quickly moved to the security of the front yard’s deep shadows and hunched down against the side fence. He paused to check the street was clear. He began the process of removing his latex gloves and balaclava.

He flipped the hood back over his head and he moved to the street. As he stepped over the picket fence he scanned the surrounds before briskly walking down Dovetail Road. His head was deep within the hood and intentionally lowered as he walked.

Back at his car he scanned the darkness for anything that would indicate the presence of someone nearby. All was clear.

He opened the front door. When he was satisfied the park was deserted, he slid into the driver’s seat and quietly closed the door.

While holding the steering wheel, he rested his head on his hands, taking a few moments to calm his racing pulse and ease the choking tension he felt.

A few deep breaths later he started his car and exited the park, driving himself far away from the vicinity.

He was mindful to obey all road laws to avoid being intercepted by any patrolling police. He did want to be detected anywhere near Hillcrest.

Alicia was sitting up in bed reading when Matt arrived home and made his way upstairs. He exhaled heavily as he walked into the bedroom.

‘Hi Hun,’ he said. He moved to kiss her hello. ‘I’m glad that is over.’ He sat on the bed to remove his shoes.

‘Tough day, huh?’ She rubbed his back. ‘I got your message that you had to work back late. Everything go OK?’ she asked.

Matt lifted his shoes and socks and stood from the bed. ’Yeah, it did actually. It took longer than we expected, but it went well.

‘Our UC was able set up a buy in a few days’ time. We had to monitor him to record the conversations and ensure he remained safe. If all goes well, we will be waiting for them. It will be a huge bust,’ he said. He smiled then moved towards the en-suite to take a shower.

‘Good for you, Hun.’ She watched him disappear from view into the bathroom before lowering her eyes back to her book.

After about fifteen minutes, Matt emerged all refreshed from his shower, towel drying his hair as he walked back into the bedroom.

Alicia lifted her eyes from her book to her naked husband, as he moved towards the bed. Her eyes lowered to his large appendage, as he approached.

She smiled to herself admiring his penis as it rocked from left to right as he walked.

Without taking her eyes off it, Alicia put her book down and slid across to his side of the bed where he now stood. She cupped her hand under the head of his flaccid penis and lifted it upwards, taking the weight in her hand.

‘I’ve been waiting for this all night,’ she said glancing up at him. She started to massage him.

She cupped and caressed his balls and massaged his highly sensitive perineum, as she took him in her mouth, working her fellatio prowess on his now fully engorged penis, while he remained standing beside the bed.

While still pleasuring him orally, she grabbed his hands and gently pulled him towards the bed. He responded by lowering himself onto the bed beside her where they embraced and kissed passionately.

Before long, she straddled him, with her hands resting on his powerful chest, as her hips worked their magic. Thrusting against him, she plunged him deep inside her with every forward lunge.

Although Alicia still excited him, the passion he felt in his love making was fading. He knew he had to perpetrate this charade of being a happy, gullible loving husband, if he wanted to successfully carry out his plan to frame her stupid trainer.

He thought about it often. It would be very tough to kill her. The thought of it even sickened him a little. But she was the one who chose to screw around. She was the one who chose to humiliate him and abuse his trust. Leaving her was not an option — not to him.

Such was Alicia’s appetite for sex, and her lustful craving for the way her husband made her feel, she would ensure that there would be an encore performance before she would eventually allow him any chance of sleeping.

‘9-1-1 what’s your emergency,’ the dispatcher asked.

“Um, my name is Flora… Flora Donovan. I live at number 1406 Dovetail Road Hillcrest. Could you send the police please?’

‘What seems to be the problem ma’am?’

“Um. We have a young women who lives on her own next door to us and well… we haven’t seen her for a number of days. I think something is wrong. Her car hasn’t moved and her mail is not being collected. Oh…and there is a terrible smell down the side of her house.”

‘OK. Police are on their way now Ma’am. Please wait out the front of your house for their arrival.’

After conducting preliminary inquiries with first response police, Tom and Frank stepped through the open front door of number 1408 Dovetail Road and made their way to the kitchen area.

The smell was overpowering, causing both men to simultaneously remove their handkerchiefs and hold them over their noses.

The Medical Examiner was already in the kitchen kneeling over the victim’s body when they arrived.

‘I hope this isn’t becoming a habit, Doc,’ Tom said as he and Frank approached the victim.

The ME glanced over a shoulder towards the approaching voice. ‘There’s definitely a pattern here Detective,’ he said, as he continued to work.

The victim was lying naked on her back on the floor. Her wrists had been bound by black duct tape and she had duct tape over her eyes and mouth.

Tom’s face screwed up when he saw the victim’s fly-blown body. ‘Jesus, Doc…how long has she been here?’ he said though his improvised face mask.

‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to tell with this one.’ He lifted his eyes to Tom. ‘It would be over seven days though. She has parasitic dipterous fly larvae feeding on her necrotic tissue…’ The ME indicated her groin area. ‘I have sent for the entomologist I often employ in these types of cases…I’d rather leave it to her to collect the specimens she requires to establish time of death.’

‘Same COD as the other one, Doc?’ Tom said as a question.

The ME’s eyes moved to the victim’s throat. ‘I would hazard a guess and say it appears to be strangulation. She has similar injuries to the young woman from Mission Hills. Although…’ He manipulated her jaw between his hands, as a demonstration, ‘This young woman has an apparent fracture to the left side of her jaw.’

‘Probably how he subdued her – single punch to the jaw,’ Tom said.

‘Most probably…’ the ME said.

‘The damage to her left jaw would suggest a right handed assailant…would it not?’ Tom said.

‘Quite possibly…’ The Doc said.

‘Or an ambidextrous one…’ Frank offered. He flicked a finger at the victim’s groin area. ‘Can you tell with all those flies and maggots if she was raped?’ Frank asked.

The ME shook his head as his eyes fell to the victim’s groin area. ‘I won’t know until I get her back for full examination. I have intentionally avoided disturbing the fly larvae ahead of the entomologist attending.’

‘This is the primary scene…?’ Tom said as a question.

The ME gestured towards the victim’s side and nodded. ‘Correct. The lividity pooling suggests she hasn’t been moved.’

Frank addressed one of the Crime Scene officers who had just re-entered the kitchen. ’We wouldn’t happen to be lucky enough to get a print, or any trace….would we?

The Crime Scene officer returned a wry smile and shook his head. ‘Sorry…no such luck.’

Frank’s focus shifted to Tom. ‘Do you think this guy is employing counter forensic measures…? His crime scenes are too clean.’

Tom’s eyes scanned the scene in front of him. ‘He either has knowledge of law enforcement and crime scene forensics… Or, he is just very lucky,’ Tom said, He shook a frustrated head.

Following a check of the doors and windows, the Detectives established that, like the previous case in Mission Hills, there was no sign of forced entry and the victim did not have any defensive wounds. The only notable difference was the broken jaw, which could suggest a surprise attack.

‘This is another case where the victim appears to know her attacker,’ Frank said.

‘Or, she was ambushed,’ Tom added.

‘Yeah but…’ Frank began. ’If she was ambushed, and there is no forced entry, then she would have willingly let her attacker in…before she was ambushed.’

Tom nodded his understanding of Frank’s logic. ‘But…like the vic in Mission Hills,’ Tom added. ‘She wasn’t wearing much.’ He gestured to the crumpled up white towel on the floor, near the sink.

‘What female answers the door to a stranger wearing just a towel?’ he said.

‘Exactly… Which brings me back to my earlier comment…’ Frank said. ‘It appears the victim knew her attacker. And dressed like that… Naked under a towel…’ he said, ‘She would have to have been comfortable enough to still let him in…Maybe she knew the attacker intimately.’

Tom located a California Driver’s License in a purse he found in the kitchen. This provided the necessary ID for the victim. The photo on the license confirmed she was Bree Madeline Gilbert, twenty-two years of age.

Tom held up the license to Frank. ’It would’ve been her 23rd birthday in two weeks…’

Frank rolled his eyes. His sympathetic eyes fell heavily to the victim. He slowly shook his head.

‘According to neighbors…’ Tom began. ‘The vic lived on her own and did not have many visitors. So… at this stage, we have no timeline as to when she was last seen alive.’

Frank lifted his chin to the body. ’She looks fit…you know…well-toned. I wonder if this one’s a member at Club Fitness as well,’ Frank said.

‘Good question… We’re just about done here. We’ll have a chat to the neighbors then take the scenic route back to the office… via Club Fitness in Bay Park,’ Tom suggested.

Chapter 15

The drive from Hillcrest to Bay Park was relatively short, giving the Detectives minimal time to revisit and discuss their known evidence. During the drive Frank asked Tom, ‘Do you think this is the start of some sick serial killer with a thing for young single women…Fit young single women…’ he corrected.

Tom glanced across Frank. ‘I hope not partner,’ he said. ‘I truly hope not.’

‘Speaking of serials…’ Frank began. ‘The FBI was conspicuous by their absence at the last scene. Wonder what happened there?’

‘Don’t speak too soon.’

After a drive of about twelve or so minutes the Detectives arrived at the Club Fitness gym in Bay Park. Tom parked the vehicle immediately outside the front door and both men made their way inside. He didn’t need a parking space, they were the police.

The glass front doors opened automatically as they approached. Tom noticed a security camera covering the entrance.

Once inside the men moved towards the front reception desk located on their right. One of the two attractive young women behind the desk, wearing purple colored Club Fitness polo shirt, smiled at them as they approached.

‘Good morning gentlemen…’ Her greeting was pleasant and welcoming. ‘What can we do for you today?’

‘Good morning… Lisa.’ Tom said overemphasizing that he had just read the name tag pinned to her chest. ‘My name is Detective Tom Carter and this… Is Detective Frank Williams.’

‘Hi. Welcome to Club Fitness,’ she said with a warming smile. Her brilliant white teeth were faultless. Along with her large green eyes, they were the prominent and appealing features of her natural beauty.

‘I was hoping you could help us with some inquiries we’re conducting,’ Tom said. He intentionally withheld they were from Homicide, or that they were investigating a murder. He didn’t want to risk any inferences being drawn from his inquiries until the victim’s next of kin have been notified.

‘I‘ll certainly try.’

‘Great,’ Tom said. He smiled back at the young woman. He opened his folder. ‘Can you tell me please if you have a gym member on your records by the name of…’ he consulted his notes. ‘Ah…Bree Gilbert…’

‘Ok, let me have a look here…’ Lisa commenced tapping on the keyboard. ‘Um…Yes we do have a member by that name.’

Tom flicked a finger towards her computer. ‘Does that tell you when she was last here working out?’

Lisa smiled. ‘It certainly does.’ She tapped on the keyboard. ‘Now… she was last in on…oh,’ she frowned as she consulted the desk calendar beside her. Her eyes flicked between Tom and Frank. ‘She hasn’t been back since Tuesday week ago.’

Tom and Frank exchanged a brief glance before Tom said, ‘What’s today…? Thursday…’ he said answering his own question. ‘So that would mean she hasn’t been back for the past…Nine days or so,’ Tom calculated.

‘You sounded surprised when you read that,’ Frank said to Lisa. ‘Any reason?’

‘Well, it’s just that when you look at her training history…’ She gestured to the monitor. ‘She regularly trains every second night, sometimes nightly, so a nine day break is totally out of character – of course unless she took a vacation somewhere,’ she added.

Tom gestured to the security camera over the front door. ‘Is that the only security camera you have here?’ He scanned the area behind the reception desk. As he did so he noticed a second camera mounted on the rear wall, in the corner to his right. ‘Oh, and that one there.’ He pointed to the corner camera. ‘Are they the only two cameras you have here?’

Lisa smiled as she pointed over Tom’s left shoulder. Tom and Frank turned to a wall mounted camera facing the front reception desk.

‘We also have two in the gym, mainly to protect people’s property, but they cover most of the floor area.’

‘Great. We will need to have a look at those for Tuesday, nine days ago,’ Tom said.

‘I don’t think there will be any problem, but I will have to clear that with my Manager first. Do you mind waiting?’ she asked with her familiar pleasant smile.

‘Of course not,’ Tom replied.

---

By the time the Detectives had completed their reviews of all available camera footage they were able to deduce that the victim spent the first half hour running on the treadmill before moving to an exercise bike. After fifteen minutes she then moved to the exercise floor. Apart from a brief chat with one of the gym trainers, she completed her entire workout without conversing with any other gym patron.

She left the gym on her own shortly before the 9pm closing time. There did not appear to be anyone following her out. There were however a couple of males who exited shortly after her – but it was closing time.

Although not considered as suspects, the Detectives still intended to follow them up for the purposes of elimination.

The Detectives also took the opportunity to review the gym footage for the victim from the Mission Hills murder. She was last seen leaving the gym two Sundays ago with her friend Val Walters, but they were more interested in seeing if the girls were followed out.

This review returned the same result – nobody appeared to be following the girls when they left the gym around 8pm.

With their inquiries at Club Fitness completed for now, the men returned to their office.

---

Tom sat perched on the side of his desk with his arms folded. Frank sat in a chair beside him. Neither man spoke. Their focus was firmly fixed on the whiteboard in front of them, studying what they knew.

Staring back at them were the smiling faces of three young women from the three, ten by eight inch photographs spread side-by-side across the board.

Each of the three victim’s names, age and suburb was written across the top of their respective photograph. Positioned underneath photographs two and three was each victim’s crime scene photo depicting their naked bodies with their wrists bound by black duct tape, and a strip of tape across their nose and eyes.

‘Do you think this guy’s a serial?’ Tom asked. ‘It’s just that…’ He pushed himself from the desk and moved to the whiteboard. He tapped the second victim’s photo before continuing. ‘The timing of this victim suggests she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It looks like when our perp was disturbed at victim number one…’ he tapped the first photograph. ‘He has somehow found victim two a couple of streets away.’

‘Maybe she was next on his list of victims and he just moved on to her,’ Frank suggested. Tom nodded in acceptance of the possibility. ‘It’s too early to tell if this guy’s on a killing spree though,’ Frank said.

‘Let’s look at what we know,’ Tom suggested. ‘Physical traits of the victims?’ He asked.

‘OK,’ Frank began. ‘All were young – twenty-two to twenty-four years of age. All were fit and healthy, but there are certainly no similarities in physical appearance,’ Frank said. ‘Victim one is a blonde, while victims two and three were brunettes. Victim two has a large breast size, while victims one and three have small breasts.’

‘All were single, and at the time of the attacks, lived on their own,’ Tom added. ‘What about occupations?’

Frank gestured to the photograph of Victim one. ’She is a hairdresser in Mission Valley…’ he said. Moving to photo two he continued. ’She was a student at UCSD and worked part time waiting tables at Tony’s Bar & Grill in the city…And she…’ he said moving to photograph three, ‘was also a student at UCSD but she was fully supported by her parents, who live in Oregon. She didn’t have a part-time job and she especially didn’t want to live on campus.’

‘What about lifestyle of each?’ Tom said.

Frank regarded each of the photographs while he considered his response. ‘Well,’ he perched himself on the side of Tom’s desk with his arms crossed. ‘All were fit and healthy. Victims one & two were socially active with numerous friends and acquaintances, while number three was a loner – kept to herself and had minimal friends in San Diego,’ Frank said. ‘Ah…’ Frank raised a finger. ’Then there’s the fact that each girl was a member of Club Fitness gym in Bay Park.’

’Correct. So far that gym is the only connection between each victim,’ Tom said.

‘Our perp could be a gym employee…or even another gym member,’ Frank said. ‘But it’s too early to tell. For all we know the perp could wait in the car park until his victim leaves the gym and then he follows them home. Who knows?’ Frank shrugged. ‘What do we know about any enemies?’ Frank asked.

Tom scratched the side of his head in contemplation. ‘According to friends and relatives, none of the girls had any known enemies, or had recently been threatened in any way. There is nothing on any of their social media pages that would suggest they were being stalked or threatened.’

‘All the girls were clean skins,’ Frank said. ‘No priors of any kind, not even traffic violations,’ he said. ‘Model citizens. According to their friends they did not do drugs and only drank alcohol socially on some weekends.’

’At this stage… all we know is that each of them was last seen leaving the Club Fitness gym,’ Tom said. ‘We don’t know what happened after they left the gym, or how long after they left the gym they were attacked,’ Tom said. ‘Hours, days…’ He shook a frustrated head, ‘We can’t tell at this stage.’

‘Yeah but Forensic evidence suggests each girl died somewhere around the time they were last seen leaving the gym.’

‘True,’ Tom nodded. ’Keeps pointing back to that gym, doesn’t it?′

’It would’ve been handy if they kept personal diaries…you know…Dear Diary today I met such-and-such he is coming over for dinner and…’ Frank said trying to add some flippancy to the tense atmosphere.

Tom smiled in response. ‘Have we ever been that lucky?’ He asked rhetorically before continuing. ‘Each of the girls came from solid, loving family backgrounds. Parents still together, siblings all got along. Dads in good secure jobs,’ Tom said.

‘Even the way they traveled to and from the gym differed with each girl,’ Frank said.

Tom rubbed a thoughtful hand across his mouth. ‘So why were these three girls targeted?’ He scanned the three images smiling back at him.

‘Would have to be coz they lived on their own…wouldn’t it?’ Frank asked. ‘Lower risk, no chance of being seen, or disturbed. Although that theory didn’t work for victim one, did it?’

‘Maybe Vic one was his first and he has learned and evolved from that one,’ Tom said. Frank nodded as he regarded the whiteboard.

‘So you don’t think they were randomly selected?’ Tom said.

‘On the contrary…’ Frank began. ‘I think they were all purposely selected because they lived on their own – nothing opportunistic about their selection at all.’

‘So how did the perp know they each lived on their own?’ Tom said, more or less thinking out loud. ‘Or know where they lived…’

‘Could following them home answer those questions?’ Frank asked.

Tom nodded unconvincingly. ‘Yeah, but…it has to be more than that. How would he know she lived on her own if he simply followed her home…The victim’s family or boyfriend could be out on the night he followed her,’ Tom said. ‘No…’ he said shaking his head. ‘No. He has to have interacted with each of them at some stage. He has to have spoken to them…asked them questions about their lifestyle. As you know…A young girl won’t answer personal questions about herself unless she is comfortable with the person.’

‘True…’ Frank said. ‘And if he did meet them, he would have to be a charmer, probably even handsome. Because nothing had been said to any of the victim’s friends that would suggest the girls felt threatened in any way,’ Frank said.

Frank pushed himself away from the desk. ‘I think we have a long list of male gym members to work through trying to establish alibis,’ Frank suggested.

‘And male gym staff too…’ Tom added.

Chapter 16

Thursday afternoon in La Jolla was warm for this time of the year, even by California’s usual sunny standards.

A cloudless sky of brilliant blue painted a seamless backdrop against the North Pacific Ocean to the west and the panoramic hills and landscapes to the east.

The shadows from the tall pine trees were lengthening from the winter sun having passed its apex on its westward descent.

The warmer weather had brought out the joggers, strollers, people walking their dogs and a surprising number of people braving the cool winter waters on the beach.

For Heidi, the light breeze and warmth from the sunshine had a different lure to most who resided along the San Diego coastline. She saw it as a perfect opportunity to study outdoors in the sunny fresh air, rather than the stuffy indoor alternative of her family’s cliff top home.

The paved area around their azure kidney shaped pool was the ideal location for a sun lover to sit and review her course notes.

Oblivious to the seaside vista on offer from their elevated hillside pool deck, she sat crossed legged on the lower half of a poolside lounge chair.

Her back was slightly hunched forward and her head was lowered towards her study notes. Wearing dark sunglasses and casually dressed in hot pink short-shorts and a white singlet top, she sat with her elbows resting on her knees.

Her long blonde hair fell forward around her face, like blonde blinkers to outside distractions, as she read.

Heidi Schwarz was a vibrant, independent twenty-three year old senior completing the final year of her law degree at San Diego University. With the exception of her blue eyes, her plain, nondescript features were framed by her long straight blonde hair that extended down to her lower back.

She lived at home with her parents and her sixteen year old brother, Hans. With both her parents being successful prominent California Lawyers, some might argue her vocational destiny was predetermined.

Her father Karl, a German immigrant from the seventies, had established a highly successful US law practice in San Diego. With her mum Marjorie as an associate, they had expanded their West Coast practice to include offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

But for Heidi, she never felt any pressure, perceived or otherwise, from either of her parents to try and influence her career choices. She was her own person and her choice to pursue a career in law was just that – her choice.

Having recently emerged from a long term relationship, she was now single. Despite her parents’ affluence and insistence on financially supporting her through college, Heidi still elected to work part-time earning minimum wage as a waitress at a small restaurant in La Jolla.

Heidi lifted her eyes from her notes and noticed that low, fast moving rain clouds were now dominating what was previously a clear blue sky. Such was her focus on her studies, she hadn’t noticed the late afternoon clouds move in.

The gentle breeze off the ocean she previously enjoyed had strengthened to a cool onshore wind. The discernible drop in temperature was cool on her exposed skin.

She hugged her arms close to her body before deciding to pack up and move back inside.

When she entered their ground floor family room via the rear sliding patio door, she noticed her Mom pottering about in the kitchen.

‘All packed…?’ Heidi asked, as she passed her Mom, on her way to her bedroom, for some attire more suitable to the current temperature.

Her Mom turned to Heidi and smiled. ‘All packed…’ she replied. ‘I’m starting to get excited now,’ Mom said. Heidi smiled as her Mom continued. ‘I wish you were coming with us dear…you would’ve loved it down there.’

Heidi stopped walking and turned to face her Mom. ’It would be fantastic, Mom…’ she said in a comforting tone. ‘But, I just can’t afford the time off from my studies,’ she replied.

‘I know dear… You’re right.’ Her accepting tone was a little despondent. ‘Dad and I are so proud of your maturity and commitment towards your studies.’

With her brother and parents poised to leave on a four week vacation down under to Australia, Heidi volunteered to drive them to LAX later this evening, ahead of their 11.00pm flight.

Winter was usually a quiet time for their law practice, so it was the perfect time to travel. And with it being summer down in Australia at the moment, it was a win-win.

Dinner was arranged for a little earlier than usual for Heidi and her excited vacation-bound family, to allow sufficient time to drive to LAX and check in the required three hours before flying.

‘It’ll be interesting when we hire a car down there Heides…’ Her Dad, Karl said. ‘They drive on the other side of the road down there…and their steering wheels are actually where our passengers sit,’ he chuckled.

Heidi smiled.

‘And here’s there weird thing…it’s already tomorrow down there… DOO Do DOO Do DOO Do DOO,’ he said waving his hands and attempting to make spooky, sci-fi sounds, like something out of The X-Files.

Heidi smiled and shook her head at her Dad’s failed attempted humor. ‘Where in Australia did you say you were going…?’

‘Well…’ Dad began. ‘We arrive in Sydney first. While there we will check out the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.’

‘Sydney is the capital of Australia, right…?’ Heidi’s brother, Hans ignorantly asked.

’No, it isn’t buddy. The capital is a town called Canberra, which is in the Australian Capital Territory…’bout an hour’s flight south of Sydney.’

Hans nodded in understanding. ‘For some reason I thought it was Sydney,’ he said with furrowed brow.

Heidi smiled at Hans before asking, ‘Where to from there?’

‘Um…’ Dad began. ‘From there we head north to a state called Queensland where we will get to see the Great Barrier Reef,’ he said. ’I was reading up on it recently…it must be truly amazing.

‘It’s actually one of the seven wonders of the natural world. They say it is bigger than the Great Wall of China…’ He shook his head in amazement. ‘And it is apparently the only living thing on earth that is visible from space…’ He said.

‘It sounds really big, Dad…but…what is it though…? Just a reef…?’ Hans asked.

‘From what I read…’ Dad began. ‘They say it’s the world’s largest coral system composed of over… I think it was…almost 3,000 different reefs,’ he recalled.

‘It stretches over an area of about 2,600 kilometres… which is about… what’s that…?’ he asked rhetorically as he performed a mental conversion. ‘Oh, about one thousand six hundred miles…give or take,’ he said.

Mom shook her head. ‘Your memory recall never ceases to amaze me, Darling.’

Karl smiled and placed his hand over Marjorie’s hand.

‘Do you remember that man from outback Australia we used to watch on TV?’ Karl asked.

‘Crocodile Dundee..?’ Hans replied with a confident smile.

Karl laughed. ‘No… Not Crocodile Dundee.’ Hans’ smile instantly wiped. ‘You know the show I’m talking about…’ Dad continued. ‘The young man who wrestled crocodiles in Australia… and caught snakes with his bare hands… He had a show we all used to watch together on TV…’ He clicked his fingers trying to recall.

‘Oh…’ Heidi pointed. ‘That was um…’ she tapped her lip in contemplation. ‘That was…wasn’t he the man that was unfortunately killed by one of those stinger ray things they have in Australia?’ Heidi asked.

‘Stingrays…’ Karl corrected. ‘But that’s right…oh, got it…’ he raised a finger. ‘Steve Irwin…’ he recalled. ’That was his name…Steve Irwin. Well, he had a zoo called Australia Zoo, which is now run by his wife…so we will be going there as well.’

‘It sounds like it will be a fantastic trip Dad,’ Heidi said.

‘It would be even better if you were coming with us though, Heides,’ Mom said, still ruing their daughter’s decision not to accompany them.

Heidi smiled. ‘Maybe next time Mom.’

Karl slammed the trunk lid and dusted off his hands. ‘Well, that’s the last of them,’ he said having loaded their luggage into their family car. ‘We’re all ready to rock and roll,’ he said with a little jig and twist of his hips.

He lobbed the car keys a couple of feet into the air before snatching them again. He held out his closed hand to Heidi and smiled. He opened his hand to reveal the keys.

Heidi’s eyes fell to the keys. She frowned. ’Aren’t you driving to the airport, Dad…?′ She said,

’No… You are,’

Heidi nervously accepted the keys.

‘You’ll be fine… I trust you…’ Karl said over a shoulder as he ran to check the front door was locked.

Marjorie and Hans climbed into the back seat of their midnight blue luxury Series 7 BMW, while Heidi nervously climbed in behind the wheel.

Karl jogged back to the car and climbed into the front passenger seat. As he fastened his seat belt he turned to the back seat. ‘All set…?’

The excited smiles that were returned was all he needed for an answer. He looked across at Heidi. He smiled. ‘Well driver… let’s go.’ He rubbed his hands together.

’Which way should we go Dad… the 1-5N…? She asked.

‘It’s as good as any…’ Karl pointed to the dashboard digital clock. The bright blue digits glowed 6.00pm. ‘We’re looking at about a two hour drive…so we have plenty of time Heides. So you go the way you are most comfortable with.’

Heidi started the car. She rarely drove her dad’s car, so she was quietly excited at the opportunity.

The engine revved then purred. She looked across at her Dad who returned a reassuring smile. She moved the shift to Drive and they were on their way.

Although her family would only be away for four weeks, the good-byes at the airport were still very emotional. Tears flowed freely from both Heidi and her Mom.

Dad gave her a list of dates and the contact numbers of hotels they were staying at, in case she needed to reach them and had trouble reaching their cells. She later placed them on the fridge under a takeout pizza magnet.

Before they left, Mom told her that she had ensured the pantry was sufficiently stacked with food. Dad told her he deposited $2000 into her bank account for her to use for anything she needed over the next four weeks.

Dad also informed Heidi that he had registered their vacation with the police, so the cops were aware Heidi would be home alone during their travels.

Then they were gone, disappearing through the customs departure doors on their way.

Walking through the quiet house on Friday morning seemed a little strange for Heidi. In reality though, it was no different to any other Friday morning where she slept in because she didn’t have classes.

Her brother was usually at school by the time she got up, and Mom and Dad were both at work.

On this occasion though, because she knew her family was on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, everything seemed a little surreal to her. She was now on her own.

As the realization started to sink in, she began to feel a little excited at the prospect of all this independence; not having to answer to anyone. This could actually be fun.

After breakfast she showered and hit the books for some much needed study, which took her through lunch, to mid-afternoon.

Realizing she needed to come up for some air, she decided to head to the gym for her Friday workout.

She rarely missed her Friday gym sessions; it was only the time she attended that varied.

Following a muscle toning weight session and a thirty minute run on the treadmill, Heidi sat on the exercise mats talking with a college friend she bumped into at the gym, while they stretched down from their workouts.

During the casual chatting that ensued among the stretching, Heidi told her friend of her recent independence.

‘Did I tell you I am on my own for the next four weeks…?’ Heidi said.

‘No…Why’s that?’

‘My family left on a vacation to Australia yesterday, so I have the place to myself.’

Her friend’s eyes widened. ‘Australia..? Your family is on vacation in Australia and you didn’t go with them…?’

Heidi nodded and smiled.

‘Why didn’t you go? Are you Crazy?’

‘Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have gone, but my studies are more important at this time,’ Heidi said.

‘I would love to go to Australia,’ her friend said.

One of the male gym instructors approached the girls and squatted down beside them. He briefly enquired if they were enjoying their workouts?

Following their starry-eyed, school-girl giggles and one word responses, backed up by lots of smiles, the instructor moved on with the customary line of “enjoy your work out, girls.”

Heidi’s friend watched the instructor walk away, eyeing him favorably. ‘He is sooo cute…don’t you think?’ Heidi’s friend asked.

Heidi watched the instructor, who was now talking to other gym patrons. Heidi shrugged. ‘He’s not bad.’

Heidi’s friend noticed the time. ‘Shoot. I’ve gotta go if I’m going to catch my bus.’ She started to get up from the floor.

Heidi lifted a hand to her friend. ‘Don’t be silly…I’ll drive you home,’ Heidi said. She flicked a finger at her friend. ‘Relax…Finish your work out properly,’ she said with a relaxed smiled.

Her friend sat back down as instructed. ‘Cool. Thanks. I appreciate that.’ Her friend smiled her appreciation.

Chapter 17

For dinner Friday night, Heidi decided to prepare some pasta for one. Penne was her choice on this occasion, complimented by a creamy bacon sauce.

Once the preparation was completed she decided to leave the pasta boiling and the sauce simmering, while she stepped from the kitchen into the back yard for some fresh coastal air.

She loved the serenity of the coast and found it relaxing, even a little hypnotic to stand and watch the rhythmic motion of the rolling waves and listening to the breaking surf.

Heidi made her way to the back of their pool landing and leaned her arms on the handrail overlooking the shore line below. She briefly closed her eyes and lifted her chin to welcome the refreshing breeze that appeared to gently caress her face.

Heidi remained leaning on the handrails in the full moon-lit darkness overlooking the ocean and the beach below from their cliff top elevation. A smile of satisfaction emerged across her face while she waited for her pasta to reach al dente.

Her trance-like state snapped back to reality when she heard the piercing cheeps of the alarm she set to remind her to check the pasta.

She quickly jogged back to the kitchen to silence the irritating alarm and turn off the pasta and the sauce.

While Heidi stood at the kitchen sink rinsing the pasta, she heard a noise. Her head snapped towards the back yard. While holding her frowning gaze on the rear door, she turned off the tap.

She didn’t know what she heard, but it was out of place and it caused her heart to beat heavily in her chest. Squirts of Adrenalin pulsed through her body.

With her eyes fixed on the back door, she wiped her hands on a cloth before discarding it onto the bench. She moved towards the back door. She frowned when she noticed the sliding back door was wide open. Did I leave the door open? Heidi scanned the family room and kitchen before turning her focus to the rear yard.

She flicked on the outside lights. The bright flood lights lit up the pool and its surrounds like it was day. Normally ideal for pool parties and barbecues, tonight they were her security; her peace of mind that what she heard was nothing.

She slid the glass patio door closed and locked it. She remained at the locked door scanning the floodlit yard one last time, until she felt reassured. She returned to rinsing the starch from her pasta.

It was all a little too quiet in the house and she was starting to imagine things; creepy sounds.

On the way back to the sink, she detoured via the family room and pushed the Play button on their CD player. Whatever was already in there would do, to add some background music for a little company.

Walking back to the sink she smiled to herself when she recognized the track booming through their surround sound speakers was Carol King’s You’ve Got a Friend. The Tapestry CD was her dad’s favorite. It’s a wonder he hasn’t worn it out by now.

While singing along to Carol King, Heidi continued rinsing her pasta under the hot water. A floorboard creaked. Heidi’s head suddenly shot up like a startled deer. She left the water running over the pasta, as she slowly checked over her shoulder. Her pulse raced. Her mouth was dry. Her apprehensive eyes scanned the kitchen and adjoining family room.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. She frowned and slowly returned to finish rinsing her pasta. Her ears remained peeled to any foreign sounds. But in reality, all she could hear was the blood pumping in her ears.

Heidi turned off the tap and shook the excess water from the colander. She placed it on the sink to drain. She lifted the pasta sauce from the cooker top and placed it on the kitchen bench, where a dinner-for-one setting had been laid out

Heidi lifted her dinner plate and returned to the pasta draining on the sink where she shoveled out a small serving of pasta.

Something suddenly caught her eye. Heidi lifted her eyes to the window. The kitchen window over the sink was slightly fogged from the hot water earlier running over the pasta, but it started to clear. She tried to focus, looking through the thinning steam. Something in the window’s reflection distracted her.

Her eyes suddenly widened and she quickly inhaled. Someone was behind her. Her plate of pasta fell from her grasp. The plate of food smashed into pieces sending fragmented pieces of china and pasta across the kitchen floor. She quickly spun around.

The last thing she would have seen was a person wearing a black ski mask under a dark hoodie rushing towards her, only inches away.

Before she could scream out in fear, her mind would’ve turned black from the resultant blow. She would not feel or know anything else.

It had been a long Wednesday for Tom and Frank trying to find and follow suitable leads – any leads that would assist in the murder of the two young female victims.

They were troubled by the fact that the crime scenes were too clean. The paucity of available witnesses for each murder was more than a coincidence. They suspected they were dealing with a well-rehearsed and well-prepared offender, who possibly had knowledge of law enforcement and crime scene procedures.

After returning from their exhaustive inquiries, Tom parked their unmarked police vehicle. He glanced at the in-car digital clock before exhaling. It glowed 8.42pm. Such was their determination to find a case-breaking lead, they hadn’t stopped for dinner.

Tom turned off the ignition and looked across at Frank, who met his tired gaze. Both men were frustrated at the lack of evidence, and after working a thirteen hour shift, they were no closer than when they started.

‘I just hope we don’t get any more victims, partner… We’re struggling with these two,’ Tom said. Both men exited the vehicle.

Frank heaved open the glass front door and allowed Tom to pass through first. While making their way through the foyer, both men glanced to their right.

A male and female stood at the general inquiries counter talking to a uniform police officer who was taking notes. The female was crying and was being consoled by her male companion.

Tom reached the back of house door first and opened it for Frank to pass through. ‘Ladies first,’ he joked, as Frank ambled by. Before moving through to follow Frank, Tom casually glanced back towards the crying female. Something caught his attention. He remained unmoved, still holding the open door, while he continued to monitor the couple at the counter.

He looked back to Frank who ambled down the corridor away from him. ‘Frank…’ Tom called to his partner. Frank stopped and turned. Tom jabbed his head towards the inquiries counter.

Frank moved back towards Tom, ‘What’s up?’

He lifted his chin towards the counter. ‘That couple just handed the officer a large color photograph… Judging by the woman’s emotions, it’s either a missing person report… or god help us…. another victim.’

‘Or both…’ Frank reluctantly conceded. He stepped passed Tom to re-enter the foyer.

Both Detectives approached the General Inquiries counter.

‘Excuse us Officer,’ Tom said. He then addressed the grieving couple. ‘My name is Detective Tom Carter and this… is Detective Frank Williams.’

The couple’s pleading eyes greeted him with sadness.

‘Forgive me for intruding on your discussion with the Officer here… but I noticed you handed a photograph to the officer just now.’

The male responded. ‘That’s right. It’s a photograph of our daughter.’ He lifted his chin towards the officer at the counter and continued, ‘He asked if we had a recent photo of her.’

‘This is Mr. and Mrs. Chapman,’ the uniform officer began. ‘Their daughter, Felicity, has been missing for three days, Detective. On Sunday evening, about… 7pm…?’ the officer asked the male. The male nodded his verification.

The officer continued. ‘Yeah, 7pm…she left to catch a bus to visit her boyfriend in Del Mar, but the boyfriend said she never arrived. They are worried coz they haven’t heard from her since. They said she isn’t answering text messages and all calls go to voice mail,’ the officer said.

Tom regarded the distressed parents. ‘Has she done anything like this before?’ Tom asked. ‘You know… stayed away for extended periods of time…not told you where she is…?’

Both shook their heads in unison. The male responded. ‘No never…that’s why we are so worried.’

‘Did you have an argument, or disagreement with her before she left?’ Tom said.

‘No, nothing like that,’ the male replied firmly.

‘Do you mind if I ask how old your daughter is?’ Tom inquired.

‘Twenty-two,’ the male replied.

Tom briefly exchanged a knowing glance with Frank before Tom continued with his questions. Right now, he held concerns this young girl could potentially be victim number three.

‘And… she normally resides at home with you both…?’ Tom said as a question.

‘That’s correct,’ the male replied.

Tom addressed the officer. ‘When you have finished here can you bring all the details through to me in our office.’

The officer nodded. ‘Will do.’

Tom and Frank excused themselves to return to their office. Tom suddenly stopped and turned back towards the couple.

‘Oh… One more thing…’ he asked with his hand cupping his forehead in contemplation. ‘Is your daughter a member of a gym?’

The male and the female exchanged glances. Each was clearly confused by such a random question. ‘Ah…yes she is, as a matter of fact… I’m sorry, but why is that relevant?’ The male asked.

‘We need to know everything about your daughter, if we are to try and locate her,’ Tom said with a feigned smile. ‘Do you happen to know which gym she attends?’

’Of course. It’s the same gym we all go to… Its Um, Club Fitness in Bay Park.’

Tom nodded once and smiled at the couple, returning his best poker face. ‘Thank you very much for your time,’ he said. He continued to his office. His silent gaze met Frank. Both men knew the odds were, they had just met the parents of victim number three.

Matt stepped from his morning shower feeling refreshed. He reached for his towel. As he did so, his cell phone vibrated on the bathroom bench top. He pressed a button on his phone and noticed it had identified text message exchanges between Alicia and Jason.

Matt left the cell phone lying on the bench while he accessed the text messages. He dried himself while he read the messages. Not liking what he started to read, he stopped drying, threw the towel over a shoulder and lifted the phone to read further.

Standing naked in front of his steam covered mirror, Matt read the message. It was from Jason to Alicia.

“Looking forward to our highly physical workout this afternoon…but we’ll get training out of the way first. Ha.”

Alicia replied.

“Ooh u r soooo bad…wait… no u r quite good actually…”

Matt rolled his eyes. What he read sickened him. What’s worse, Alicia was exchanging these offensive text messages from down stairs, while Matt took his shower.

He dropped his phone back onto the bathroom bench. He shook his head as he leaned on his hands and stared at his reflection in the foggy mirror.

This was very difficult for him. He was usually a man who confronted his problems, head on, often in a no nonsense manner.

On this occasion though, he had to play the naïve husband, who supposedly had no idea his wife was screwing around with her trainer.

What he really wanted to do was snap this Jason’s neck. But he had a plan, and if he wanted it to come to fruition, he had to be patient. After all, he no longer considered her his wife once she betrayed him and continued to do so.

Alicia had finished preparing breakfast and was patiently sitting at their outdoor setting on the rear balcony when Matt made his way down stairs.

Her smile was welcoming as he walked out onto the balcony. She poured him a hot coffee.

‘Nice shower?’ She handed him his fresh brew.

‘Lovely, thanks.’

Matt slid into the seat opposite her. He took a deliberate whiff of the tantalizing aroma wafting up from his appetizing cooked breakfast.

‘Looks scrumptious.’ He lifted his cutlery. ‘So where’s training being held today?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know at this stage, maybe a park, but Jason warned me it will be a physical workout though,’ she smiled.

Matt’s eyes flicked up to Alicia in response to her comment, knowing what he had just read in the text message. ‘Just how you like it….’ he said at the deliberate double entendre.

Part of Matt’s plan was to appear like the loving husband and they, the perfect couple, so when she was found dead, he would not be considered as a suspect. He couldn’t be – everybody knew he adored her. All evidence would point to her being the unfortunate, untimely victim of a serial killer, and if all went to plan, Jason would be fingered as that killer.

He needed to be seen out more with her, if he was to successfully perpetrate the charade.

‘I was thinking…’ Matt began, as he knifed through his French toast. ‘With both of us having the weekend off… Why don’t we eat out tonight…? You know, a restaurant and whatever cuisine you desire.’

Alicia’s face lit up from his suggestion. ‘That would be lovely. We haven’t been out for dinner for… I don’t know how long,’ she said. ‘It will be like a Friday date night,’ she suggested.

Matt smiled. ‘A Date night…’ he repeated. ’I suppose it would be. You’re right. Any preferences…?’

‘What about Chinese…?’

‘OK then…it’s a date.’ He grinned. ‘I’ll book us a table later today…say…8 o’clock?’

‘Eight o’clock sounds lovely. I can’t wait.’

Chapter 18

Troy Bradley casually lounged in the break room hut chatting with his colleagues, enjoying his morning coffee before work.

It was the end of the working week and none of them was overly enthused about another day shifting garbage, especially not on a Friday.

He was not the most motivated of employees. At twenty-six, Troy had long, matted, straw-like brown hair jutting out from under a black woolen beanie that resembled something worn by the Seven Dwarfs.

With his full-face, unkempt black beard and old dirty, well-worn jeans, he appeared more suited to be roaming the Rocky Mountains than working in the city’s landfill dump.

After his morning coffee, he was assigned to operate the front end loader for the day. It was his responsibility to move the piles of accumulated rubbish from the public dump sites, to level out the area for the landfill compactor.

All he required when working alone in his operator’s glass cube cabin was his head phones pumping out his favorite tunes to drown out the relentless engine revving. The music also helped get him through the tedium of moving around other peoples’ discarded trash.

Troy lifted the front end bucket and drove it deep into the accumulated rubbish. The machine’s engine revved as he reversed to drag the dislodged rubbish away from the pile.

With the revving of his engine once again to operate the hydraulics, he lowered the front bucket and scooped up the loosened rubbish and relocated it to a low lying area to his right.

He was to spend the day repeating this action, over and over again, moving to his right along the rubbish face, with each new lift.

Troy had been working about thirty minutes and had just dragged the next load of loosened rubbish clear from the pile. He was about to lift and relocate it when he noticed his Supervisor standing to his left. He was waving his arms over his head, like a shipwrecked survivor trying to signal a passing plane.

Three other colleagues stood behind the Supervisor. Their attention was firmly fixed on the dump pile in front of front-end loader.

‘What the hell does he want…?’ Troy blurted to himself.

When the Supervisor noticed he’d successfully caught Troy’s attention, he held both hands up to Troy, signaling him to stop.

Troy killed the loader’s engine and plucked out his head phones. By this time his Supervisor beckoned to him to come down from the loader. Troy climbed down and moved towards his Supervisor.

‘What’s going on…? Where’s the fire…?’ Troy asked.

His Supervisor approached Troy without saying anything. He placed his hand on Troy’s shoulder and guided him towards the rubbish face.

‘There’s no fire, Bradley…’ His Supervisor replied. He gestured to the rubbish pile in front of the loader. ‘But there’s that…’ he said. ‘You just uncovered a body in a garbage bag.’

‘Oh shit…are you sure?’ Troy scanned the mass of rubbish. A leg protruded from a green garbage bag. He flinched and took a backward step. ‘Oh shit,’ he said, cupping his forehead. He turned and walked away a few steps before turning back to face the body.

He dragged off his beanie and swept his hand over his knotted hair. ‘Oh shit,’ he repeated while staring at the exposed leg.

‘It’s OK…’ the Supervisor said, trying to calm Troy down. ‘The cops are on the way. You haven’t done anything wrong, son.’ He placed a hand on Troy’s shoulder and gently directed him towards the break room hut. ‘Go and take a break… have a coffee, or something until the cops get this sorted out. This is a crime scene now… so we won’t be doing any more work here for a while.’

Tom and Frank had finalized their investigative formalities at the City landfill site by mid-morning. The photograph they brought with them was all they needed to unofficially confirm the body was that of missing woman, Felicity Chapman.

Her naked body was found bound at the wrists by black duct tape, with strips of the tape placed across her eyes and mouth. Her cell phone, property and clothes were yet to be located. Her body had been placed in a large, green colored heavy duty industrial garbage bag and dumped at the landfill waste site.

Crews of police working in lines had begun the mundane task of sorting and sifting through the garbage piles looking for her property and any possible evidence.

The uniform officers arranged for formal ID of the body ahead of the unenviable task of notifying the victim’s grieving parents of the gruesome discovery.

Prior to leaving the dump site, Tom confirmed Felicity’s parents had been notified. He then approached the producers from the various television crews gathered around the City Dump perimeter and requested an interview.

At his request, the networks broadcast a recent photograph of Felicity, while Tom made a plea seeking public assistance from anyone who may have seen her prior to, or since her disappearance late last Sunday.

Anyone with any information at all, regardless of how insignificant they may thought it was, was asked to contact police.

After returning to the Homicide office, Tom and Frank sat perched on the front of Tom’s desk. Their arms were folded as they studied the whiteboard, which had been updated with the new inclusion – Victim number three.

Concerns were growing. The killer appeared to have moved from selecting victims who lived alone, and attacking them inside their home, to taking them in full view from the streets.

This acceptance of greater risk suggested the killer was becoming more desperate, or even evolving.

‘How is it no-one heard, or saw anything Sunday night…? The bus stop is in a residential street, surrounded by houses,’ Frank said.

‘We don’t even know if she made it to the bus stop on Sunday night, Frank,’ Tom said. ‘There are two possible scenarios…’ Tom continued. ‘She was grabbed on her way to the bus stop…which I think is highly unlikely…or she made it to the bus stop, but while she waited, she was coaxed into a vehicle.’

Frank nodded once. ‘True. But what if she actually got on the bus and was grabbed after she arrived in Del Mar…?’

‘Then there’s that,’ Tom conceded. ‘All possible scenarios, aren’t they?’ Tom rubbed his chin while he studied the whiteboard. ‘Let’s start with the bus stop…’ Tom said. ‘Let’s work on assuming she made it to the bus stop and boarded the bus.’

’If that’s the case… then someone on that bus must’ve seen her get on…’ Frank said. ‘Maybe the driver might remember her. I would expect Sunday nights would be quiet for the buses. We need to check with the bus line and then pay a visit with the boyfriend in Del Mar, to see what his movements were Sunday night,’ Frank suggested.

Tom lifted his jacket from the back of his chair, Frank moved to his desk and did the same.

‘Is the MTS office still down on Imperial?’ Tom asked.

’As far as I know they’re still there… down near Petco Park…’

‘Yeah, that’s it.’ Tom checked his watch. ‘If we hurry we can catch the Bus Company before they go to lunch,’ Tom said.

Frank and Tom approached the front reception at the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. They were greeted with a pleasant smile from the middle-age woman at the counter.

‘Good morning…’ Tom said. He unclipped his badge from his belt. My name is Detective Tom Carter and this is Detective Frank Williams.’

‘What can I do for you gentlemen…?’

‘Can you tell me please, what buses ran from Grand Avenue, in Pacific Beach to Del Mar on last Sunday evening?’

The woman checked her computer. ‘Ah, it looks like the bus you want is the 101,’ she said.

‘We were hoping to speak to the driver of this bus from last Sunday. Is there someone we can speak to who can assist us with this?’ Tom said.

‘Just one moment.’ The woman made a phone call. After speaking quietly to someone on the phone, she hung up and said, ‘someone will be with you shortly.’

A short time later a woman in her forties, with salon styled blonde hair, introduced herself as Sally then escorted the Detectives to her office.

Sally gestured to the visitor chairs, while she moved around and sat at the desk opposite. She clasped her hands on the desk. Her inquiring eyes flicked from Tom to Frank. ‘Now, what can I do for the SDPD?’ she asked.

’We’re investigating the murder of a young female, who we believe caught your MTS 101 bus from Grand Avenue Pacific Beach to Del Mar on Sunday evening, before she went missing…’ Tom began.

‘Oh, how horrible.’

‘I was hoping to find out who was driving the bus, so we could speak to him, or her, about whether they remember the victim boarding his bus at Pacific Beach.’

Sally checked her computer. ‘The driver on Sunday was Malcolm Bates, but he is not working today…’ Sally said. ‘But I may be able to do one better, gentlemen.’ She smiled confidently.

‘How so?’ Tom asked.

‘Well, all our buses have digitally recorded security cameras to protect the drivers, and to record customers boarding and alighting from the bus, mainly for slip and trips claims and the like,’ Sally said. ‘At the end of each shift all security footage is downloaded and electronically stored as a file on the company’s computer mainframe.’

Tom’s eyebrows arched as he exchanged a brief glance with Frank. ‘So, you’re saying you have a recording from the 101 from last Sunday night?’ Tom said as a question.

Sally smiled. ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’

‘Are we able to review the footage?’

‘Of course.’

Sally escorted the Detectives to a small dark room, too small to accommodate three adults. A table with a computer screen and keyboard and two chairs was the only furniture in the room. Sally called up the footage the Detectives sought.

‘When you’re finished… leave everything here as it is and I’ll shut everything down and close it all up… Just come back and see me at my office.’ She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.

‘Thank you,’ Tom said.

Both Detectives slid into a chair each where they painstakingly reviewed and re-reviewed the camera footage from the 101 bus for last Sunday night.

It was a quiet night for passengers. Six people boarded the bus from Pacific Beach to Del Mar. The only person who boarded the 101 bus at the stop where Felicity was supposed to pick up the bus, was a middle-aged female.

Frank flicked a finger at the review monitor. ‘I wonder who she is…’ He thought out loud. ‘You would think she would know if Felicity even made it to the bus stop.’

A quick review of the footage revealed the unknown middle-aged woman left the 101 bus in La Jolla.

During the stroll back to their vehicle, having completed their reviews, Tom said, ’Well the reviews show conclusively that Felicity never boarded the bus Sunday night…

‘So was she grabbed off the street as she walked to the bus…or did she accept a ride…?’ Frank said. ‘Each scenario presents different challenges and possibilities, don’t they?’

When they arrived back at their parked vehicle Frank’s stomach audibly protested the lack of sustenance since breakfast.

Tom unlocked the driver’s door. He grinned across the roof to his partner. ‘Was that your stomach…?’

‘I’m starving here, man.’ Frank checked his watch. ‘It’s almost 2.30pm and we haven’t stopped for lunch.’ Frank opened the car door and slid inside. ‘Next stop, before we do anything else, is for food,’ Frank insisted.

Tom fastened his seat belt. He lifted his chin at his partner’s expanded waistline. ‘By the looks of that stomach of yours buddy, you could do with missing a meal or three.’

Frank patted his corpulent stomach with both hands. ‘Better than being built like a celery stick…’ he retorted with a smile. He flicked a hand out the front of the car. ‘Come on…Let’s just get something to eat.’

Tom dropped it into Reverse. He checked behind to start reversing from his parking space, when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He rolled his eyes and dropped the shift back into Neutral. He left the car idling while he answered his phone.

‘Tom Carter…’ He smiled when he saw Frank tap his watch, then simulate eating from a plate.

Tom quickly removed his pen from his shirt pocket and clicked the end. With his phone wedged between his shoulder and ear, Tom flicked open his folder and scribbled down notes. Frank leaned over to try and read what Tom was writing.

At the end of the call Frank said, ‘I don’t give a shit who that was… We are not missing out on getting something to eat. Whatever that was…it can wait. Let’s go.’ Frank jabbed a firm thumb over his shoulder.

‘Don’t you want to know what that was about…?’

Frank folded his arms in protest. ‘Right now, I don’t care. Ask me again when I have a full stomach.’

Tom had not driven far when Frank identified the next available café. Such was his hunger, Frank was almost out his door before Tom had parked the car.

The Detectives strolled into the café. They stood inside the doorway scanning the restaurant. Apart from two men seated at separate ends of the counter, the diner was empty at that time of the afternoon.

Neither had been here before, so they remained where they could examine the large menu on the wall.

Frank waved a hand. ‘This’ll do,’ he said.

The men selected a table overlooking the street and placed their lunch orders with the table waitress. While they waited, Tom placed his folder on the table and flicked it open to his recent notes.

‘That call I took related to a woman who rang the station. She says she saw my news appeal on Felicity Chapman. She claims she saw Felicity on Sunday night at the bus stop in Pacific Beach.’

Frank’s eyebrows arched. ‘Interesting…’ he said. ‘Where does she live…?’

Tom grinned, but he didn’t respond.

’Wait… that wasn’t the woman who got off the bus at La Jolla…?′ Frank said.

Tom shrugged. ‘Could be…certainly sounds like it. She wants to speak to us, so I said we would drive up there this afternoon.’

It didn’t take long for their lunch orders to arrive. Tom watched his partner start to devour the first of his two hamburgers like he hadn’t eaten for a week, pausing only long enough to wash down each mouthful with a sip from his large chocolate milk shake.

‘Better count your fingers on each hand when you’re done there, buddy,’ Tom said.

Frank paused from shoveling food into his mouth to flip his middle finger at Tom, before biting down on his burger.

Chapter 19

Tom slowly rolled their unmarked police vehicle along Vaucluse Boulevard, La Jolla as they scanned the properties for number 1428; the home of the bus stop witness who earlier contacted police.

‘Some of these numbers are hard to find,’ Frank moaned.

Tom indicated to Frank’s left. ‘That’s 1422 there…so that one there, three doors up with the hedge fence should be 1428,’ he calculated.

He parked the vehicle directly out front of number 1428. After alighting from their vehicle they paused momentarily on the street, passing an assessing glance over the property.

The neat and tidy single story, red brick home had contrasting fresh white window frames and roof fascia. It appeared well maintained. With manicured lawns and flourishing garden beds, trimmed shrubs and shaped hedges, the front yard would be the envy of its neighbors.

Frank knocked on the door. The response was quick.

‘Can I help you?’ A woman’s voice answered through the closed fly screen door.

The woman was short and although it was difficult to discern by looking into a darkened house through the fly screen door, she appeared to resemble the lady they saw in the bus video footage.

‘Good afternoon ma’am. I am looking for Mrs. Jasmyn Perry?’ Tom asked.

‘It’s Ms… Ms. Jasmyn Perry. That’s me. And you are…?’

‘My name is Detective Tom Carter. We spoke on the phone a short time ago. And this is Detective Frank Williams.’

The screen door opened. ‘Yes, of course, come in please gentlemen.’ She pushed the screen door outwards towards the men. Tom caught the door and waited for Frank to enter first.

As the men entered, they were instructed to continue walking towards the back of the house to the rear sunroom.

The end wall of the north facing sun room was lined with picture windows to take in the northern sunny aspect, but also to capture the tranquil view of the landscaped rear yard.

Upon entering the room and noticing the outlook, both men were drawn through the room to the windows overlooking the back yard.

Both were rendered speechless at the beauty and serenity of the magnificent Japanese style garden they overlooked. Their eyes flicked from feature to feature as they absorbed its splendor.

Japanese Black Pines and Japanese Maples artistically shaped into traditional Bonsai trees of varying heights was the first to captivate.

Japanese stone lanterns and ornate statues rose up from garden beds of Azaleas, flourishing with sprays of pink and red, cleverly planted to contrast the abundant green landscape.

Large stepping stone rocks bordered by white raked gravel and tiered timber decking provided pathways through the manicured trees, shrubs and hedges.

An arched timber bridge with distinctive red iron hand rails crossed over a flowing stream that cascaded over landscaped rocks into a small central pond, surrounded by thousands of large river pebbles.

Although they stood in silence, Tom was amazed at how the magic of the garden evoked the relaxing sounds of Japanese flute music playing in his conscious mind, while he appreciated the tranquility.

‘Beautiful isn’t?’ Ms. Perry said, noticing how captivated her guests were.

‘I have never seen anything like it before,’ Tom said. ‘It is simply stunning.’

‘It is,’ Ms. Perry agreed. ‘I wish I could take credit for it though, but it was like this when I bought the house. The previous owner was a professional Japanese landscape gardener. I think he used his yard as a showroom, or something for prospective clients… Now, can I get you gentlemen a tea or coffee.’

Both men accepted the offer for a coffee as they moved to sit in the three seater sofa, awaiting their host’s return.

After a brief wait, Ms. Perry returned carrying a tray with three cups, a small milk jug, a sugar bowl and a plate of cookies. She placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the men and handed each man his cup of coffee.

‘I’ll let you milk and sugar your own,’ she said then moved to sit in the lounge chair opposite.

Tom took a sip. ‘Mmm, that’s a nice coffee,’ he said.

Shuffling forward in his seat to place his cup onto the coffee table, Tom paused mid-way while he noticed Frank take a cookie from the plate. He smiled as he watched his partner bite into the treat, all the while not realizing he was being closely scrutinized.

With a grin and a slight shake of his head, Tom placed his cup onto the coffee table. He flicked open his folder and slid out the photograph of Felicity Chapman.

‘You mentioned on the phone that you think you recognized the photo of the young girl on the news…’ Tom began.

‘That’s right. I did.’

‘Is this the girl you think you recognized?’ Tom showed the photograph.

Ms. Perry accepted the photo from Tom and examined it. She nodded. ‘That’s definitely her.’ She handed the photo back to Tom. ‘I can’t believe she is dead…I mean…I didn’t know the poor girl, but I was only just talking to her Sunday night… She seemed so lovely,’ she said. Her eyes fell heavily to the floor.

Tom and Frank exchanged a glance. ‘So, you actually spoke to her on Sunday…?’ Tom clarified.

‘That’s right. I was sitting at the bus stop on Grand Avenue, waiting for the 101 to catch home and she came and sat beside me.’

‘Where had you been Sunday evening?’ Tom asked.

’I was at my daughter’s place in Pacific Beach. She’s a mom with three children aged two and under. She has a two year old boy, who is a real hand full, and newborn twin baby girls. Whenever her husband works afternoon shift I go down and give her a hand.

‘My daughter picks me up and we usually have lunch together and visit a park with the kids, then I go back with her and help her with the night time routine. But because her husband takes their car to work, I catch the bus back home. It’s not that far and I don’t mind.’

Tom nodded. ‘You said you spoke to this young girl…’ He indicated the photograph on the coffee table.

‘That’s right. She sat down beside me waiting for the same bus. She was so chatty. She said she was going to…’ her contemplative eyes lifted to the ceiling. ‘Del Mar to visit her boyfriend. She seemed so excited about it too.’

‘So why didn’t she get on the bus with you?’

‘How did you know she didn’t get on the—?’ Ms. Perry cut herself off. She had a knowing grin across her face. ‘Doesn’t matter…’ she said. ‘I don’t need to know….I understand…secret police stuff,’ she said. Both men smiled at her quirkiness.

‘We were waiting for the bus together, just the two of us,’ Ms. Perry began. ‘And a car pulled up in front of the bus stop.’ Ms. Perry flicked her finger at the photo. ‘She certainly seemed to know the driver coz she smiled when the car pulled up and she quickly jumped up, a little excited like, and walked over to the car. She leaned on the window sill talking to the driver through the open passenger side window.’

‘Did you get a look at the driver?’ Frank asked.

She shook her head. ‘No. She was standing in the way and it was too dark to see inside the car anyway.’

Tom replaced his cup onto the coffee table. ‘Could you see if the driver was male or female?’ He asked.

’I couldn’t see, I ‘m sorry.’

‘Do you know what make of car it was that she climbed into?’ Tom asked.

Ms. Perry smiled. ‘It was a dark color…possibly brown.’

Tom scribbled down the color. ‘Did you happen to get the make…?’ He asked.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know much about cars… I’m sorry. It was just a car to me, that’s all I can tell you.’

Tom’s shoulders slumped slightly. He flicked a quick sideways glance of frustration to Frank, who returned his brief gaze. ‘Did you happen to see a license plate..?’ Tom asked hopefully.

She shook her head. Her mouth straightened. ‘I just thought…how lucky she was that someone she knew drove by and gave her a ride. Better than the bus.’

‘Lucky…?’ Tom replied. He lifted his eyebrows. ‘You said she knew the driver…what made you think that?’

‘She was sitting beside me at the bus shelter when the car pulled up. She jumped to her feet, all smiling and happy and moved over to the car, like she recognized the driver.’

‘So what happened then?’

‘She jumped in and they drove off. Her window was still down from when she was standing outside the car talking to the driver… When she sat in the car she had a huge smile across her face, so she was definitely happy with the offer for a ride.’

Tom drained his cup and placed it on the coffee table. He lifted the photograph and slipped it back into his folder. Both men stood to their feet. Ms. Perry followed.

‘Thank you for taking the time from your day to speak with us Ms. Perry. You have been most helpful,’ Tom said. They started to move towards the front door.

‘Would’ve been better if I knew my cars though, right?’ she said.

Tom nodded. ‘That…would certainly have been valuable, but…what you have told us is still of great assistance.’

Walking to the front door, Tom noticed a framed professional portrait of a male Army Officer hanging in the hall. ‘Who is the person in all the army photographs that you have around your home?’ He gestured to the portrait.

She smiled. ‘That’s my son, Brandon… He’s a Captain in the Army. He loves it. He’s doing his second tour of Iraq at the moment,’ she said proudly.

Tom admired the portrait. ‘Good for him,’ he said. He gestured towards the rear sunroom. ‘There was also an older gentleman – also an officer in some of the photos out the back…’ Tom said as a question.

Ms. Perry rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, that’s my ex — Brandon’s dad. He’s a Colonel in the Army.’

Tom nodded his understanding. ‘Well, we won’t take up any more of your time. It was a pleasure meeting you, and thank you once again for the lovely coffee,’ Tom said as they exited the front door.

As he walked to the street Tom checked back over his shoulder towards Ms. Perry, who stood at her front door watching her guests leave. ‘Still can’t get over that back garden,’ he said to her.

Ms. Perry smiled at the departing compliment.

Chapter 20

During the return trip to the office, Frank summarized what they knew about Felicity Chapman’s disappearance.

‘She wasn’t kidnapped, that is, grabbed kicking and screaming before arriving at the bus shelter. She willingly got into an unknown…’ Frank held up quotation mark fingers, ‘brown vehicle,’ he said. ‘The victim appeared to know the driver, but we don’t know the driver’s gender,’ Frank said.

‘But was this person the killer? Or did the killer strike after she was dropped off?’ Tom added. ‘We don’t know if the ride she accepted was all the way to her boyfriend’s front door, or part of the way.’

‘At the moment, we are working on the driver of the car being the killer,’ Frank said. ‘So for a young woman to willingly get into that car, she had to know the driver very well, and must have trusted him, or her.’

They decided to check road safety cameras in the area in the hope that they would be able to obtain a license plate from the suspect vehicle.

Matt topped up Alicia’s drink, emptying the last of the red wine into her glass. He set the empty off to the side. He lifted his own glass and took a sip, as he casually reclined back in his chair.

Alicia held her wine glass in both hands with her elbows resting on the table. She smiled lovingly at Matt across the table. ’Well, this was really lovely. I had a good time tonight, Hun,’ she said.

Matt smiled. ‘How good was the food?’

‘It was delicious,’ she said, after their multiple course Chinese dinner.

‘Did you have enough to eat?’ Matt asked.

Alicia puffed her cheeks and exhaled. ‘I couldn’t fit another thing in Hun,’ she said. ‘Everything was just perfect.’

Matt signaled to the waitress for the check.

When his focus shifted back to Alicia, her interest was on the floor beside her. She set her glass down and lifted her purse up from the floor and rested it on her lap. She had both hands inside the open bag. Matt suspected she had just received a text.

‘Everything OK…?’ he asked.

Alicia’s eyes lifted to Matt. She smiled reassuringly. ‘Everything’s great thanks, Hun…I just need to go to the Ladies’ Room.’ She slid out from her chair. ‘Will you excuse me?’

Matt feigned a smile as she walked by him towards the toilets. Once she was out of sight he retrieved his cell phone. He rolled his eyes when he read the display on his screen. His suspicions were correct. She had just received a text message from Jason.

Matt watched on as his phone displayed the exchange of text messages between Jason and Alicia, while she was in the Ladies’ Room.

“I was hoping to see you tonight… any chance?????”

“I’m out to dinner with my husband!!!!”

“What about after dinner???”

“Are you kidding me!!!”

“Wait until he falls asleep then come over…?”

“You cannot be serious Jason.”

“I’m missing u that’s all.”

“Ur not missing ME ur missing FUCKING me! There’s a difference.”

Isn’t that a distinction without a difference?”

“Not to me!”

“So the answer is NO then?”

“I’ll C U Sunday at training!”

Matt threw his phone onto the table. His jaw clenched in frustration. He dragged both hands across his short hair.

He was incensed by Jason’s arrogance and insolence and his audacity at contacting Alicia while they were out to dinner. Such was his frustration, he banged his open hand onto the table in anger. Plates and cutlery bounced.

He wasn’t the slightest bit concerned that the sound he sent reverberating through the restaurant caused every head in the room to snap in his direction. He simply stared at the table in front of himself, trying to control his escalating rage.

All he could think of was driving over to Jason’s house and putting a bullet in his head. He could feel his face reddening. Suddenly, his thoughts shifted to the pleasure he would derive from witnessing Jason being railroaded for multiple murders, he didn’t commit. That would be payback enough. Matt sat back in his chair. Fuck with me at your own peril.

His hate filled eyes narrowed as he sneered across the table. Such was his focus on what he hoped to achieve, he didn’t notice Alicia return from the Ladies’ Room.

Alicia froze when she noticed Matt’s determined stare across the table. She could see something had upset Matt. She knew his angry face.

‘Hun..?’ She said cautiously. She lowered her head into his range of vision. ‘Hun…Are you alright…?’

Matt wakened from his trance. He lifted his eyes to Alicia. He hadn’t heard any of her questions.

Matt sat back in chair. ‘We right to go?’

Alicia remained standing as she regarded her husband. ‘What just happened? You looked like you wanted to kill someone there, Hun. Is everything OK?’

Matt waved a hand as he pushed himself from his chair and stood. ‘It’s all good. Let’s go.’

He removed his money clip and peeled off some notes and dropped them into the check folder, before making their way to the exit.

Tom sat at his desk sorting through the delivery of mail he received. After selecting a white business sized envelope from the pile, his eyes lifted to the photograph of victim number three on the whiteboard, while he ripped into the envelope.

It had been around 1½ weeks since the body of Felicity Chapman was found at the City Landfill site. He had been expecting the Coroner’s preliminary autopsy report on the cause of death. It just arrived. He unfolded the report and commenced to read.

Frank was at his own desk when he noticed Tom reading the autopsy report.

‘Victim three…?’ Frank said knowingly.

Without lifting his eyes from the report Tom nodded his confirmation.

After reading the report, Tom dropped it onto his desk. ‘Same old-same old…’ Tom said somewhat despondently. ‘Autopsy reports for all three killings to-date, are similar.’

‘Strangled, raped and no defensive wounds…?’ Frank said as a question, albeit somewhat knowingly.

’Yep, Hyoid was fractured and evidence of forced or forceful sexual intercourse – lacerations and bruising etc.’ Tom shifted his focus to the whiteboard beside him, to the three smiling faces in the photographs staring back at him. ‘What are we missing girls…?’

‘Excellent,’ Frank blurted.

Tom’s frowning glare shifted to Frank. He was puzzled at what his partner could be so excited about.

Frank was in the process of popping the top off a three-foot long cardboard mail tube he received in the day’s mail delivery.

‘Watcha got…?’ Tom said.

Frank slid out a long, rolled up document from the tube. He pushed himself away from his desk and moved across to the cork board wall, beside the whiteboard. He proceeded to roll out the three foot by five foot aerial map of San Diego they had ordered.

Tom moved over to closely examine the map. As requested, the printers overlaid mile markings on the map to use as reference points. Frank returned to his desk and lifted his notes and some marker pins and returned to the map.

‘OK…’ Frank began. ’Murder victim number one was murdered and found in her home here in Mission Hills…’ He jabbed a blue pin and a red pin side by side over the victim’s Westend Blvd address.

‘Victim two was also murdered and found in her home in Hillcrest…’ He thumbed in a red pin and a blue pin side by side over this address.

Frank checked his notes, then continued. ‘Victim number three was picked up from here at a bus stop in Grande Avenue in Pacific Beach…’ He jabbed a blue pin into the map. ‘And she was found here at the Miramar Landfill site.’ He thumbed a red pin into the map. Frank stepped back to view his work.

He re-approached the map. ‘Now…the gym in Bay Park that all the victims attended is…’ he scanned the map. ‘Here.’ He thumbed a yellow pin into the map.

‘Using the mile markings on the map…’ Frank paused to check the distances for each victim’s pin. ’The murders have occurred within a six mile radius of the Club Fitness Gym in Bay Park.’ Frank tapped one of the pins. ‘Six miles to Hillcrest…’ he moved to the next pin. ‘Four miles to Mission Hills and four miles to Pacific Beach,’ he said indicating the last pin.

Tom approached the map. He tapped on the Miramar dump site. ‘Yeah but… he drove his last victim twelve miles away to dump her here…’ he said. ‘That’s outside the six mile range…’

Frank rubbed a hand across his mouth. ‘Felicity is also the first victim who was not killed in her home,’ Frank said. ’Do you think the killer is evolving…?’

‘It is possible…’ Tom said, ’But I think he is killing within an area of comfort to him. We already suspect he either works at the gym, or is a member of the gym right…?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘So…it’s fair to assume he probably lives somewhere within this six mile radius.’ Tom circled a hand over the map.

‘So, it appears that Miramar was just a random, out of the way location to dump the body…’ Frank said. ‘If there are to be any more killings, they are likely to occur in the six mile hot zone area.’ Frank flicked a finger at the map.

Such was the Detectives concentration on their map they didn’t notice their Lieutenant, Bob Winter approach.

‘Any revelations?’ their Boss asked.

Both men turned toward the voice. ‘Nothing concrete yet, Boss,’ Tom offered.

The Lieutenant scanned the map. He lifted his chin. ‘These the murder locations in blue…?’

Both Detectives nodded.

The Lieutenant circled a hand over the map. ‘All within a six mile radius…?’ he said as a question.

‘Correct,’ Frank said.

The Lieutenant studied the map briefly. ‘Well, you may have to reconsider the zone slightly,’ he said.

Frank and Tom exchanged a puzzled glance.

‘I have just received a job referred to me by SDPD uniform. Apparently the distressed parents of Heidi Schwarz called the San Diego police from Australia, to report they were concerned about the welfare of their daughter. They had not heard from her since they left for holiday over three weeks ago,’ the Lieutenant said.

Tom’s face screwed up. ‘Three weeks…’ He rolled his eyes.

The Lieutenant nodded. ‘Their daughter, Heidi failed to respond to text messages they had sent her, which is apparently completely out of character. And calls to her cell divert to her voice mail. Her social media accounts have been inactive and she has not accessed the money left for her in their bank account.’

Frank checked his watch. ‘It’s 3pm….’ he said. ‘You said they called from Australia…? What time would it be down there?’ Frank asked.

The Lieutenant checked his notes. ‘Um…It’s apparently 9am tomorrow down there.’ He grinned.

‘So, don’t tell me…’ Tom began. ‘The daughter is around…twenty-two years old…?’

The Lieutenant nodded. ‘Twenty-three…’

Tom rolled his eyes. ‘Three weeks…’ He again screwed up his face, knowing all too well what a three week old body looked – and smelt like.

‘What’s the address…?’ Frank asked.

The Lieutenant referred to his notes. ‘2136 Oceanview Boulevard, La Jolla.’

Frank moved to the map. ‘There it is on the cliffs…’ He tapped the map. ‘Looks like the radius just moved out to seven miles, if this is another victim.’

‘I told uniform we would handle it because it is more than likely another vic…’ The Lieutenant said.

’Oh, this will be another victim…’ Tom confidently predicted. He flicked a finger at the photographs on the whiteboard. ‘Rest assured…this will be number four.’