To Probe A Beating Heart (25 page)

             
“George asked me to come up for a few minutes, what’s up,” said

Sean?

              “We’re going to do a dump and rehash,” said Jim. “Don’t know where George went.”

             
They went into the conference room and George joined them. “Okay, I have a few minutes. First, I have given this case a lot of time and been pulling away from what I am supposed to be doing, so, I’m going to assign a new set of eyes to ride this horse.”

             
They all turned and listened.

             
“Sean, Alex you both know Vince Galley?”

             
“Yeah, we have pulled a few tours together, seems like a good guy,” said Sean.

             
“We have met, but never worked together,” said Alex.

             
“He will be in around nine this morning, he is the D that will be on this full time for a while. I have cleared his slate and he is anxious to get at it. Let’s give him some time to read the case file and let him ask the questions. Right now let’s start the dump. Sean, you have to hit the road this morning so you go first.”

             
Sean began with what he knew, then what he thought might be and finished with what he thought should be ruled out. As he was finishing his bit, a tall, slender man with half a head of grey hair came through the door. “Good morning all.”

             
“Vince you know Sean and Alex and this is Jim McClarry, he has

pulled a lot of this stuff together that we are looking at.”

              “Jim, I’ve seen you around, good to finally meet you,” said Vince.

             
“Vince, my pleasure,” and he extended his hand. Vince had a large hand and a firm grip. His rough and hardened calluses betrayed his otherwise gentle appearance, he obviously did something other than shuffle paper.

             
“Problem is, just like Sean, he’s related to Annette,” said George. “So he is in the background. Sean just unloaded, I’m about to put my piece in and then get out of the way. Jim, Vince will be the lead D from now on, so you talk to him rather than me. I will never be that far away, so I’ll know what is happening. Everybody good with that?”

             
Sean agreed and said that he had to be on the road and excused himself. George sat down with his mug and started his input. Alex took a marker and added notes to the large pad that held the last of Sean’s input. As he was finishing his part, George stood and moved to the door.

             
“Keep me in the loop Vince. Jim when you finish up here today catch me in my office. We need to talk,” and he walked out of the room.

             
Alex walked over to Vince and handed him the marker and said,

“You’re driving this bus, might as well start steering.”

              Vince took the marker and said, “First let’s hit the head, re-fill our

cups and get ready to settle in for the next hour or so. I got a bunch of

questions.”

             
The team dispersed and regrouped within five minutes. Vince moved to the last of the note sheets to be hung on the tack strip and read a few lines quietly to himself. “You guys have been with this for a while and I’m just coming in. I hope you don’t mind my late arrival and probably some dumb questions while I get up to speed.”

             
Alex responded, “Vince, you have been around a while, I am a consultant and Jim is not even officially in this group. He’s a uniform on loan because he has studied this case for the last three years. This is now your case, you call the shots.”

             
Vince nodded and turned toward Jim.

             
Jim looked up and said, “I’m not a D, yet and if I was, they would put someone else in charge because Annette is family. As Alex said, this is your case, I just want to help any way that I can without hurting the cause. If you think that my being here is negative, I’m gone.”

             
“Okay guys, it’s my case, but you better believe George will have his nose in whenever he can. He started this before he was put in the bosses office, and he wants results.”

             
Jim gave his input and Alex gave his. There was a lot of duplication of thought and the final list turned out to be rather short. Vince led off a question: “Let’s describe our bad guy. What do we know about him?”

             
The resulting profile was a middle aged man, in his thirties or early forties, married, probably divorced, professional type, probably sales, his complexion was dark, mid European.

             
“Okay, from what I see, if the blonds are his only targets, he does one each year in the summer. None have been found and the other things that appear to be consistent include age, eye color, shoes and shorts. I think this guy is fixed on an individual that would have been about seven or eight when he started, at least four years ago, probably dressed in that mode during the summer. If he is, as we think a mid European, blue eyes and blond hair may indicate a different family. Could also be a neighbor, classmate, cousin, adopted sibling, or a girlfriend. I think we should narrow the focus and see if anything pops. So I would assume a younger adopted sibling that was probably favored over him. Maybe a divorce and he was a ringer for the father and took the abuse that the mom directed at daddy. If that’s the bit, then the sister may have played on that. Trouble is, he could live anywhere over the fifty miles north and south of interstate ninety. So about four hundred miles east and west and one hundred miles north and south, that’s about forty thousand square miles of turf around Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo. A lot of area to search for something as common as this guy appears to be.”

             
“We need more information,” said Alex.

             
“You mean we need another victim,” said Jim.

             
“I was hoping for some piece of info that we have overlooked, we have to go over everything again. We should go back before the first one, before Annette Shelton. If she was the first, what made this guy start? If not, then we need the additional data about whoever came before her.”

              “Okay, let’s say Annette was the first,” said Alex, “Where does that put us?”

             
“That was in 1991, so our guy has been traveling the road up and

down ninety for the last four or five years. Smells like a salesman of some
kind.”

             
Vince went back over the list of information hanging on the walls. “Here, it says he was in a dark blue van with tinted windows. A traveling salesman would tend to have a more economical vehicle, unless he has bulky materials that he carries with him.”

             
“But he was dressed in a sport coat, so he’s not selling tires or anything else that would mess up a white shirt and tie get-up,” noted Jim.

             
Alex added, “He could be one of those guy’s that goes from store to store and takes the orders for tires or whatever and never touches the product itself.”

             
“Yeah, so why the van?,” asked Vince.

             
“Maybe he has samples, or display banners that you hang in a window.”

“So do salesmen buy or lease vehicles?” asked Alex, “I lease my car
because most of the driving that I do is business related and the tax thing is better for me. I would guess if he is in sales, he probably leases his vehicles.”

             
“If his turf goes from Cleveland to Buffalo or a little beyond in each direction, he probably puts a lot of highway mileage on whatever he drives and would probably trade it in every year or two. So today, four years after Annette, he might well have a different vehicle, may have gone through two or three by now,” said Jim. “He could be driving a Cadillac today.”

             
“Well let’s check with the lease places locally and see if anyone leased a dark blue van in ninety one. It’s a start.” Vince put the marker down and sat in a chair facing the notes hanging from the tack strip. “That was the only visual. Damn. Let’s keep going. Have you guys looked at the known pedophiles in the area and their vehicles?”

             
“I don’t know if anyone has, but I will now,” said Jim.

             
“No, make a note of that and I will do it in the morning. That will take some time and we want to get through this process first,” said Vince.

             
“You’re the boss.”

             
Vince looked at Jim, “Thanks.”

             
“Let’s talk about where the bodies are. None have been recovered. Where does he put them, or are they even dead?” Vince slumped in his chair. “Let’s kick that around a while.”

             
The group spent the remainder of the day talking through scenarios of what might be and tried to reduce them to the several most likely ones. They ended up with little more than where they started.

             
“Whoever this guy is, he is smart. He leaves no trace, gives us nothing to go on.” Vince sipped his coffee and made a face. “Cold. Okay, let’s call it a day. There’s a lot for me to digest and I have a few items to check out in the morning. We will get there guys, it’s a matter of time. He has left a clue somewhere and we will find it.”

             
The group broke up and Jim walked over to George’s office. “Hey boss, you wanted to see me.”

             
“Yeah, c’mon in and close the door.”

             
“That doesn’t sound good.”

             
“No, nothing like that. Listen, Ken is going to retire soon, like in a month and the slot he is holding is going to be open. I have watched you and your work and I like what I see. Talked to Jeff and he is with me on this. So, are you intending to sit for the exam next week? Because if you are, you have to get the paperwork in, like yesterday.”

             
“Oh, I meant to do that. “

             
“Well this may be the only break that I’ll ever give you. Here’s a package. Fill it out and get it to me before you leave today and I’ll say it was in on time. No word to anyone else on this. Just do it and say nothing.”

             
“When’s the exam?”

             
“In two weeks. And by the way read everything in the folder, it will be on the exam.”

             
“Thanks George, I really appreciate this.”

             
“Yeah, now get outta’ here and fill out the forms.”

             
“Aye aye sir.”

             
“That’s more like it.”

             
Jim went into the conference room and started writing. He was a little late getting home, and just on time for his date with Margo. The test was an all day affair. Two parts, a morning session and an afternoon one with an interview. By the time he got home, Jim’s brain was toast. He gave Margo a call and suggested dinner and a movie.

             
“Sure Jimmy, when should I be ready?”

             
“Be there in fifteen minutes.”

             
“I could use more than that to scrub up and change.”

             
“Let’s pretend that we’re already married and you don’t have to primp for me.”

             
Silence, Jim thought to himself, “What did I just say? Margo, did I

cut you off .”

              “James Daniel McClarry, did you just propose to me?”

             
He thought for a minute, “Oh Margo, a slip of the tongue, I—.”

             
“Shush, I’ll be ready when you get here,” and she hung up.

             
Jim washed his face and stared in the mirror for a few seconds, smiled and went to his bedroom and took a small box out of his dresser drawer. Margo was almost ready when he arrived. She held the door open and he stepped inside and he said “Where would you like to go to dinner?”

             
She was a little quiet and didn’t look at him when she said, “Anywhere is good.” Margo started to turn and walk back to her bedroom.

             
Jim said, “Margo, let’s sit down for a minute.”

             
They never made it to the restaurant or the movie that night. In the morning Margo was making coffee and singing when Jim came into the kitchen. She looked at him with a big smile and held up her hand,               “See how it sparkles in the sunlight.”

             
“It’s kinda small.”

             
“Yeah, but it worked.”