QB1 (2 page)

“I winced, I don’t pay Darwin to sleep for 12
hours or spend his shift surfing porn. "Are there tapes there from
his shifts?” I asked.

“Yea, it’s all digital on the same hard
drive. I haven’t looked at Darwin’s shift. Don’t get me in trouble
with Darwin, Mr. Mullins. Maybe the guy was asleep during his
shifts and nothing happened. I haven’t looked, but this guy doesn’t
sleep much.”

“His report was very short,” said Roger.

“We’ll review the tape. How’s the wife,
Torley? I thought she was having a baby?”

“She is! Her water broke an hour ago. She’s
having contractions but they are slow. Her mother is with her.
We’re cool,” he said.

“Perfect, I appreciate you hanging around.
We’ll take it from here. You go have a baby,” I said.

“Call me if you got any questions,” Torley
said.

We exchanged keys and Roger and I walked to
the end of the block and slipped into the van. The area was
deserted. It was in an industrial area and strange spot for an
apartment. This guy liked his privacy.

Roger fired up the equipment and the grainy
video of Charles “Chucky” Hinton’s apartment filled the screen in
front of us. He was sitting in a lounge chair with a beer in his
hand and his head thrown back.

“Looks asleep to me, Roge,” I said.

“He does to me too, Mr. Mullins.”

I looked around the inside of the van and saw
a pillow and blanket in the corner. Probably where Darwin had spent
his shift. I got off my seat and went over and lay down.

“Keep an eye on things, Roger.”

I was asleep on the floor of the van inside
of 30 seconds.

Chapter 3

“Mr. Mullins, wake up.”

Roger was in my face. I didn’t know where I
was.

“What’s going on?” I said. When I’m tired
like that, it takes me awhile to get orientated.

“The guy is driving somewhere. We should
follow him.”

I sat up and saw that it was light outside
the darkened window of the van. Looked at my watch and saw it was
9:15. I ran my hand over my face and moved to the front seat of the
van with Roger following me into the passenger seat. “Where is he?”
I said.

Roger said, “Follow him on the GPS screen.
There is a tracer on his truck.”

Sweet, I thought. Cops don’t get to put
tracers on suspect vehicles. I could see an older pickup truck
pulling out of a building down the street. “That’s him, huh?”

“That’s him,” said Roger. His eyes were wide
with excitement. “I think he’s going to give someone some drugs. He
just got a call and said he’d be over in 20 minutes. Then, he said
$600.” He pointed at the screen. “You can stay back of him by a
half a mile and then just follow the dot on the screen. Just like
the GPS in the other car.”

“Cool,” I said. I know about this stuff I
just hadn’t used it before. Roger had spent a lot of time with
Torley when we first set the van up. We hadn’t had it that long but
they showed it to me. Tracking Hinton’s vehicle required a device
like a miniature cell phone to be hidden somewhere on it. Torley
must have set it up. I watched the dot on the screen move down the
street. When he drove around the corner, I pulled out. He took
Mission Ave and pulled up to an apartment house on Adair. I pulled
into a parking space a block away and got my first long distance
look at Chucky Hinton. “What was he doing while I was sleeping
Roger?”

“Nothing, Mr. Mullins. He was sleeping like
you. I was watching the video from the last three days.”

“Anything interesting?” Hinton came out of
the apartment house, got in his truck and started moving again. I
let him drive off and then we pulled out. There was no reason to
keep visual contact. This guy was paranoid anyway.

“He brought a woman in,” he said.

“So, did you watch them fucking, you little
perv?” I leered over at him, stifling a laugh.

“No, they didn’t do that.”

“Don’t make me pull this out of you, what
happened?”

“They started drinking and then he hit her.
Then, he threatened her with a knife.

I looked over at Roger, as I drove. I was
keeping the distance between us and the dot on the map as Hinton
drove further into the city. Roger was staring straight ahead.

“He was very violent, Mr. Mullins.” I
realized Roger had been unusually quiet up until now. I’d been half
asleep and didn’t notice. The kid was upset. Of course, there is a
fine line of emotions from Roger. He’s bawling half the time.

“He hit her?”

“Punched her really hard in the stomach. Then
he slapped her across the face. She was lying on the floor crying
and she got sick.”

“When was this?”

“Two days ago at 2:30 AM.”

“Was this written up?”

“It was on Darwin’s shift. There wasn’t
anything about this in his report.”

“So, he smacks her around, has a knife and
threatens her?”

“He said, you nasty fucking cunt. You puked
on my carpet. I’ll fucking take you apart. I’ll make you wish you
were dead.” He grabbed a towel and told her to clean up after
herself. While she was doing that, he pulled her head back and put
the blade of a knife against her throat. He said, get downstairs
you fucking whore. He picked her up and they left through the
door.”

“And what happened then?,” I said.

“I don’t know, we only have a feed for his
apartment.”

“Did they leave?”

“He came back alone about an hour later. He
came in naked, took a shower and then he left again. He came back
30 minutes later.”

I picked up my cell and called Darwin. I got
voicemail and told him to call me as soon as he got the message. I
called Torley and got voicemail and told him to call me. We were
now downtown in the Tenderloin. At night this is a pretty shitty
area. During the day, it’s bums, runaway kids and the occasional
prostitute. A block up, I saw Hinton pull over next to a woman. Or
at least I thought it was a woman. Tough to tell even next to some
of them. She leaned into the truck. I pulled to the curb and
watched. “I wouldn’t do that sweetie,” I said. “Roger, call Mission
Kaiser and try to get Torley’s wife’s room. Tell them it’s an
emergency and I need to speak to the husband.”

Roger opened his laptop and went looking for
the hospital’s number. I opened my cell and called Ed Tonelli. I
figured he was asleep but I left him a message to call ASAP. As I
watched the woman get into Hinton’s truck, I called Tonelli’s phone
at the Department. I got a machine there too but I punched for the
operator. I had to talk to someone. I got an operator who asked
what the call was regarding and I said I wanted to speak to
Inspector Tonelli or anyone else working on the Butcher case. The
woman got into Hinton’s truck and he started to move. I finally got
a live body on the line.

“This is Officer Chavez, can I help you?”

“Manny, this is Tom Mullins.” I knew Chavez
well, a good guy.

“Tommy Mullins, dude, how’s it hanging?”

“Loose Manny, you know me.” I could hear
Roger talking to the hospital next to me. He was pleading to be put
through to the wife’s room. “Manny, I got a question. I was talking
to Tonelli earlier and he says you got a new Butcher stiff?”

“Yup, the fun never ends around here, Tommy.
Hey, how you doing? I hear you’re working as a PI?”

“You got it right. Up to eyeballs in
alligators all over again.” Roger looked over at me and indicated
he was on hold. “Manny, I got a call into Tonelli but I want to
find out, did you have a time of death on the newest body.”

Chavez hesitated. I knew he shouldn’t be
talking about an investigation but I knew he would. “That hasn’t
been released yet, Tom. If you want a guess I‘d say 48 to 60 hours.
Probably closer to 48. He’s usually dumping them in the early
morning hours. He’s murdered them a couple of hours prior to that.
Why? What do you got? We could use anything here.”

“You got prior photos of this victim?”

“We got a couple of mug shots. She’d been
busted for prostitution a half a dozen times.”

“Would you email me them to me, Manny?”

“If you tell me what’s going on, I’ll think
about it.”

“Just a couple of coincidences from another
case. It’s probably nothing. I’ll get back to you whether this
turns out to be anything or not. Word, Manny.” All I had was some
circumstantial shit we’d found with illegal bugs and I didn’t want
to get SFPD into Hinton, yet. If this was Tonelli, it might be a
different story. “Can you send them over to me Manny, please?”

“I guess so.” I gave him my email address.
When can you send them, Manny?”

“Fuck you, Tommy! I’ll send them in a few
minutes.”

Roger was still on hold as we headed south on
101. “Is Hinton the Butcher, Mr. Mullins?”

“I don’t know, Roger. How well do you see the
face of the girl on the video?”

Roger sat up. “Thank you,” he said. They’re
connecting me to Torley’s room, Mr. Mullins.” Roger handed the
phone to me. The phone line was ringing the room.

“Hello?”

“Torley, it’s Mullins.”

“Mr. Mullins, it’s a boy!”

“That’s great, Torley. Congratulations.” I
followed Hinton on the screen and got off at the Army exit. He was
headed home. “Torley, got a question for you.”

“Sure, Mr. Mullins.”

“Did you know anything about the girl Hinton
had in Tuesday night or no, early Wednesday morning?”

“Ummm. No. I was off. That was Darwin’s
shift.”

“Darwin didn’t mention anything about a
woman?”

“No, he didn’t say anything.” That
motherfucker Darwin, thought Mullins. He had to be asleep, off
getting shitfaced or laid.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Mullins?”

“No. Torley, what’s downstairs. You’ve been
in there. What’s underneath the apartment?”

“Well, that’s where he keeps his truck.”

“I know. Is there anything else down
there?”

“Yea, I think it’s a paint room.”

“A paint room?”

“You know where you paint vehicles, big
stuff?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, it’s a big area enclosed in plastic
sheeting.”

I drove up Hinton’s street and stopped in our
same parking spot and watched Hinton’s truck drive in to his
building. “Torley, you see any painting equipment?”

“I don’t remember,” said Torley.

“Torley, how did you get into his apartment
to set the bugs?” I leaned over and said to Roger, “Fire up the
camera.” Roger scrambled between the seats back to the
equipment.

“I picked the entrance on the front of the
building when he wasn’t home. Why, you want to get in?”

“Yea, I might.”

“I made a key from a copy I found inside.
Should be in the glove compartment. I always do that when I can
because I’m not the best lock pick and saves time retrieving
equipment.”

Fucking, Torley. I made a note to give him a
bonus. “Dad, enjoy your new baby. Do me a favor and leave your cell
on. Kiss Mama for me.”

I grabbed Roger’s computer and went to my
email. There were 42 new emails waiting for me. One of them was
from Manny Chavez with attachments. I opened it and saw a mug shot
of a skanky tired looking woman. I showed it to Roger. “Is this the
woman in the video?” He studied it and slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know, Mr. Mullins. It looks kind of
like her.” The video screen lit up and we could see the inside of
the apartment. The woman sat on the couch while Hinton was firing
up a crack pipe. I opened the other email attachment and showed
Roger. It was different and she looked much more attractive than
the first. Roger shook his head again.

“I can’t tell Mr. Mullins,” he whined. “It
looks like her but I can’t say for sure.” Hinton took another pull
on the pipe and offered a hit to the girl. “Do you want me to show
you? I can find it again.” After the woman blew the smoke out,
Hinton stood over her.

“You like that bitch?” he said. “Of course
you do, you little fucking whore.” He then twisted her arm back and
hit her on the side of the head with a punch that dropped her to
the floor.”

“Oh no,” said Roger.

“Fuck me,” I said. I picked up my cell and
called Tonelli. I heard the phone start to ring as I went looking
for the key to the apartment in the glove compartment. I found five
separate keys. I got Tonelli’s voicemail again. I hung up and
called his house. As the phone rang, I said to Roger, “I want you
to call Manny Chavez at the Department. Tell him to get his ass out
here, now. Before I could finish, Jennifer Tonelli picked up. “Jen,
its Tommy, is Eddie there? It’s an emergency.”

“Oh everything is an emergency with you,
Tommy. What’s going on we never see you anymore.”

“Jennifer!!! I screamed. Get fucking Eddie on
the phone!”

“Gees Tommy, he’s asleep. I don’t want to
wake him.”

“Jennifer, I swear to God. I’ll come over
there and strangle you myself if you don’t put him on the phone
right now.” I could hear Roger working his way through the SFPD
phone system on his cell. We both were looking at the video screen
as Hinton lit up another pipe with the girl lay moaning at his
feet. When he finished with the pipe, he stood up and kicked her in
the ribs as she tried to crawl away. I handed the phone to Roger.
“Tell them I’m going in. I think it’s the Butcher.”

I went out the rear door of the van, keys in
hand. I ran up the steps to the building. It was 11 AM and there
still wasn’t a person on the street. The door was industrial
strength with no windows on the lower level. I tried the first key,
the second key, the third key turned the lock and I was in. I
pulled my Glock and went in to the lower level. I stopped and let
my eyes get used to the darkness of the garage. I could see what
Torley said was a paint room but no paint equipment. There was just
an enclosure covered in plastic. I moved slowly up the wooden
stairs. Take him down and let the cops figure this out was the
plan. As I got to the door to the apartment, I heard a noise,
wheeled around in a shooters stance, then pulled it up. Roger poked
his head in the door. I put my finger to my lips and pointed for
him to get out.