Cause of Death (Det. Annie Avants Book 1) (15 page)

The rest of the man's evening went as planned.  He talked Maria into getting into his car and then, like with Carmen and Gabriela, he turned vicious and took her to his basement to meet his pets.

Friday, 24 August 2012, 8:00 AM

Annie picked up the phone on its first ring as she dumped her purse and messenger bag on her desk. 
I haven't had my coffee yet
, she thought
, and already the phone is starting to ring.  I hope it's important.

"Detective Avants," she said as she shuffled her stuff so she could sit down.  "Robbery/Homicide.  How can I help you?"

"I'd like to speak with Detective Tom Weston, please.  This is Officer Kyle Lancaster from the Roseville Police Department."

"Detective Weston should be coming in any minute now, can I . . . Oh, hold on a second.  Here he is now.

"Tom, its Officer Kyle Lancaster from Roseville PD for you."

"This is Detective Weston," Tom said as he grabbed for the phone.  "I hope you have some good news for me."

"I think I'll just about make your day, Detective," said Officer Lancaster.  "A woman came into the station this morning at 7:00 AM, saying the woman in the poster that you sent us is her long-lost sister, Gabriela Lozcano.  She had a photo of her sister that was quite old, but it's pretty much apparent that it's the same woman."

"Did you tell her anything about her sister?" Tom asked.

"No, I just said that you had information about her sister and that I would call you and put you in touch with her."

"That's good, Officer.  My partner and I will get on the road within half an hour and be there by early afternoon.  It's about a 4-1/2 hour drive from Bakersfield.  Can you call the sister - what's her name? - and tell her to meet us at your office around 1:30 PM?  If we're going to be any later than that, I'll call you from the road.

"Sure thing, Detective.  The sister's name is Reina Banuelos.  She and her husband have lived in the Roseville area for about 15 years now.  I asked her where her parents were and she told me that they returned to Mexico a year or so after Gabriela disappeared back in 1999.  I told her to wait until she talked to you before she contacted her parents and other siblings.  I didn't want them to get their hopes up."

"That was a good idea.  Thanks for the info.  We'll be there just as soon as we can."

Tom hung up the phone and turned to Annie with a big smile on his face.

"I think we know who our 'Jane Doe' is now.  Roseville PD had a visit from a woman who claims to be the sister of our 'Jane Doe'.  The information she gave the Officer matches what "Gabby" told the truck driver.  Her name is Gabriela Lozcano and we need to hit the road now.  Bring your files and we can go over everything en route."

"Wow, that's the best news we've had in almost two weeks," Annie said as she shoved the files into her messenger bag, grabbed her purse, and followed Tom out the door.

After a quick stop at the closest Starbucks to grab some coffee and a quick snack, Annie and Tom got on Hwy 99 and headed north to Roseville.  Traffic was light this time of day and they made good time, arriving at the Roseville PD at exactly 1:00 PM.

They approached the PSO and Tom introduced himself and Annie.  "I'd like to speak with Officer Lancaster.  He's expecting us.  We've just driven up from Bakersfield."

"Right.  He told me to watch out for you.  Let me give him a holler and he'll be right with you.  You can take a seat over there."

"That's OK.  We've been sitting for a long time and moving around a little feels good," Annie said.  "I think I'll check out your Most Wanted Posters."

A couple of minutes later, Officer Lancaster came into the room from the back area.  "It's good to see you.  You made good time.  I asked Mrs. Banuelos to be here by 1:30 PM unless she heard differently from me.  Why don't we leave it at that and go into the conference room and review your files?"

"Good idea.  There is little doubt in our minds that this woman, Mrs. Banuelos, is the sister of our 'Jane Doe.'  The truck driver told us about the same story that the sister told you."

Tom and Annie followed Officer Lancaster into the conference room and took their seats.  A few minutes later, the PSO came in with some cups of coffee for everyone and asked, "Did you have a chance to eat lunch on your way up?  If not, there's a deli close by and I can get you a couple of sandwiches and salads."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Annie said.  "I'm starving.  What do they have?"

"Just a regular deli menu - turkey, ham, lunch meat, and meatball subs, as well as other things.  For salads, they offer coleslaw, potato salad, and green salad.  Stuff like that.  It's sort of like a Subway."

"I think I'll have a ham and cheese sub and coleslaw," Tom said.

"And I'll have a turkey sub and potato salad," Annie added.

"Right, I'll be back in a few minutes," the PSO said and left the room.

While waiting for their lunch, they went over the information Officer Lancaster had received from Reina Banuelos.  When Annie and Tom looked at the actual photograph of the young woman, they knew it was their 'Jane Doe'.

"What a shame to have to bring this kind of news to this woman who hasn't seen her sister in so long.  And she will have to tell the rest of her family.  At least, it'll give them some closure, regardless of how sad it is."

"We can't release the body until our investigation is a little further along and all of our lab reports have come back, but we should be able to release her in less than a week.  I wonder where they will bury her?  It could be a problem if they plan to ship her body back to Mexico," Tom said.

"From what the sister told me, she and her other siblings live in this area.  So it makes sense that they would bury her here.  We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it."

After they finished eating and cleared away their trash, it was 1:30 PM.  The PSO returned to the conference room and said that Mrs. Banuelos had arrived.

The PSO escorted Reina Banuelos into the conference room and Annie was struck by how much she resembled Gabriela Lozcano.

"Thank you for coming in," Annie said as she introduced herself, Tom, and Officer Lancaster.

"There's no easy way to tell you this, but the women we know as "Gabby" was a murder victim in Bakersfield.  Her body was discovered on August 13th and we had no way of identifying her."

"Oh, my god," Reina Banuelos sobbed.  "I was afraid it was something bad.  I felt like Gabriela was dead when I saw her sketch.  Why else would someone be looking for her?"

After they explained what happened, they gave Mrs. Banuelos a few moments to take in all the information and get her emotions under control.

"Well, I'm glad she told that man as much as she did and it led you to me.  I will contact my parents in Mexico, and my brothers and sisters.  This is such a terrible tragedy, but Gabriela went out of our lives such a long time ago that we were always fearful something bad would happen to her.  Can I bring her here for burial?"

"Yes," Tom said.  "I talked to the forensic pathologist before we left.  He said there is no reason she can't be released to you within the week.  We just need to be sure that all the lab results are in.  Will you bury Gabriela here in Roseville, or in Mexico?"

"We're all in this area, except my parents," Mrs. Banuelos said, "and, someday my parents may return.  We will bury her here so she is close to most of her family."

"As soon as we return to Bakersfield I'll have the Coroner's Office contact you to make arrangements.  In the meantime, you can contact a funeral home of your choice and they can tell you what needs to be done," Annie said, as she handed the grief stricken Mrs. Banuelos her card.  "Please let us know when the funeral will be.  We would like to attend, if that's OK with you."

"Thank you.  That would be very kind of you.  I'll let you know as soon as the arrangements are made."

Officer Lancaster spoke up at this time, "Mrs. Banuelos, please feel free to contact me directly if there is anything I can personally help you and your family with during this trying time.  Anything at all, please don't hesitate."

"Thank you all so much for your kindness," Mrs. Banuelos said.

"Again, please accept our condolences.  We feel like we know Gabriela now.  She has been part of our lives for almost two weeks," Annie said.  "We will, of course, continue working to find the person responsible for her death.  Knowing who she is, and how she came to be in Bakersfield, is a big help to our investigation."

"Just so you'll know, the truck driver who gave Gabby a ride to Pumpkin Center stressed how much she wanted to reunite with her family again and how much she missed all of you.  I know it's small comfort, but she loved you all very much," Tom said.

Officer Lancaster escorted Mrs. Banuelos out to her car and then returned to the conference room.

"Such a nice lady to have this tragedy come into her life.  The only positive note is now they have closure about Gabriela, if that's any help.  If I hear anything else, I'll be sure to let you know.  If you don't hear from me, I'll most likely see you at Gabriela's funeral.

Friday, 24 August 2012, 9:00 AM

Noura was busy reviewing some files for an upcoming case when her boss entered her office.

"Good morning, Mitch," Noura said with a smile.

"Good morning, Noura.  May I have a word with you?"

"Of course," Noura said as she rose and followed her boss into his plush office.

After they were seated, Mitch steepled his fingers under his chin and regarded Noura.  She had been his lead paralegal for many years and her work was exemplary.

"I'm afraid I just had some bad news, Noura, and it concerns your brother, Tito."

Her boss was one of the few people who knew about her black-sheep brother.

"What about Tito?" Noura asked, as she leaned forward in her chair.

"Remember that case where the chain of custody of the evidence was broken and Manolo Alcantar was released?"

"Yes," Noura said.  She suddenly paled.  She knew this conversation was not going to be good.

"Manolo Alcantar was arrested last night for armed robbery and murder.  This time he killed the person he was robbing.  And your brother, Tito, was with him and was also arrested."

"Oh my God," Noura said.  "No one called me."  She begin to weep as the ramifications of what she had done began to sink in.

"Noura, I know this is a shock.  I had my doubts about the innocence of Mr. Alcantar when we took the case as a favor to your brother.  It seemed straightforward.  Because of the knife with his fingerprints, I truly felt he was guilty.  Nevertheless, you know, our basic premise is to make sure each person we defend gets a fair trial.  Because I felt Mr. Alcantar was guilty, I was hoping to get him a sentence that included a lot of counseling and perhaps he would be rehabilitated.  But with the loss of the evidence, he was free to go.  Now he's in real trouble and your brother along with him.

"I talked to the Prosecutor who is handling this case and asked to be kept up to date on its status.  I'm not sure if we should represent them or not.  I really have a bad feeling about this."

"No, Mitch, I don't want our firm involved.  Let them get Public Defenders.  I'll check the visiting hours and go talk to Tito and see what he says."

"I looked up visiting hours for Saavedra and they are Sundays from 11 AM to 3 PM.  So the best time would be for you to visit him this coming Sunday.  Then, we can talk again on Monday.  By then, I'll have all the preliminary reports and pleadings from the Prosecutor.

"In the meantime, there's nothing you can do.  You might want to take the rest of the day off and go visit your family and let them know what's going on.  It would be better than having them find out from a newscast  You can be sure the media is going to jump all over this because of the previous trial where Manolo Alcantar was released."

"Do you have any information about what happened and who the victim was?" Noura said.

"As best I can understand, it's a gang related matter.  Apparently, someone from the East Side Crips stole something from the Southside Bakers - which apparently both your brother and Mr. Alcantar belong to - and the two of them went to East Bakersfield to take back whatever was stolen.  During the robbery, Mr. Alcantar allegedly shot and killed an East Side Crip.  I don't remember his name."

Noura stood up to leave his office, shaking her head in disbelief.

"I'll go ahead and leave for the rest of the day and talk to my parents, but I'm serious about not representing them."

Mitch could see the coldness in Noura's eyes and it gave him pause. 
I wonder why she's so adamant about not helping them
, he thought. 
I think there's more going on here than meets the eye.

Friday, 24 August 2012, 10:00 AM

Mr. & Mrs. Ortiz parked their car close to the front of the Lamont substation and walked briskly up the path to the front door.

The deputy at the front desk greeted them, noting that they seemed distraught.

"Good morning, can I help you?" she said.

"Our daughter is missing.  We need someone to find her before she ends up like the other girls who went missing," Mr. Ortiz said.

"Please, have a seat and I'll have someone come out immediately and take down the information.  Did you bring a picture of your daughter?"

"Yes, it's right here," Mrs. Ortiz said as she pulled a photograph of Maria out of her purse.

"OK, just hold on to it for the moment.  We'll get someone out here right away," the deputy said.

A few minutes later, another deputy arrived and escorted the distraught couple into a private conference room.

"I'm Deputy Sam Drexler.  Please, have a seat," he said.

"I understand your daughter is missing.  Can you tell me the last time someone saw her?"

The couple related the story told to them by the Abeyta sisters and that Maria failed to return home the night before.  The couple went to bed early and didn't realize she was missing until this morning.

"OK, give me all the information on Maria and we'll send out a missing persons report."

After they finished with everything they knew, the deputy said, "I'm going to turn this case over to the Detective Bureau at the main office.  They will contact you if they need more information.  I'm sure they will want to talk to the Abeyta sisters to get a description of the man they were all sitting with at El Mercado Latino.  If you do hear from Maria, be sure to call us."

Mr. & Mrs. Ortiz went back to their home on Bates Avenue, within walking distance of El Mercado Latino, where their daughter was last seen.