State of the union, p.20
State of the Union, page 20
“That said, we found deficiencies as well. Some of them you’re aware of, including a deep backlog of untested rape kits, unsolved kidnappings, assaults, burglaries and murders dating back at least a decade or more in some cases. We’re painfully aware that not every crime is solved in a way that brings satisfaction to the victims and their families. We’ve identified several former officers with the greatest percentages of unsolved cases, and in light of the recent successful conclusions to the Worthington and Deasly cases, we recommend the department employ significant resources to resolving as many of these cold cases as possible.
“Within the outstanding cases, we found a disproportionate number involved minority victims, and I expect that when the report is released, that could be the headline the media fixates on. I wanted the opportunity to tell you, face-to-face, that racial disparity is an area that needs work throughout the department. As you know, this is an issue of concern in departments and law enforcement agencies across the country. We recommend additional training in the areas of diversity, implicit bias, cultural assumptions and fair and impartial policing.
“We found no other significant deficiencies in the areas of leadership or command and recommended that the new deputy chief be hired from within the ranks of the current department. If you have any questions, I’m happy to take them.”
“Thank you, Agent Hill, for taking on this project and for your fairness and open-mindedness,” Farnsworth said. “As with any agency made up of thousands of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, we have our strengths and weaknesses. We’re more than willing to address the weaknesses to improve our track record in the areas of concern identified by your team. I speak for everyone in this room when I assure you that your recommendations will be received in the spirit in which they’re intended and will be taken seriously by all levels of command.”
The meeting ended a short time later with the chief vowing to implement enhanced training for all personnel and to take a hard look at unsolved cold cases.
“Could’ve been much worse, I suppose,” Archie said as he and Sam walked toward the pit.
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s a relief that they backed the brass, which seems to protect the chief.”
“Yeah, for sure. We’ve had enough upheaval around here without them giving him the boot.”
“I wouldn’t want to do the job without his support.”
“Me either. Heard you caught another homicide-SA.”
“We did, and if the DNA matches the earlier cases, we’re going to make a plea for an exception to the FDS policy.”
“Let me know how I can help. That technology is fascinating.”
“Will do.”
“By the way, I never laughed so hard in my life as I did at that SNL sketch.”
“That topic is firmly off-limits in this building.”
“Haha,” Archie said. “You wish.” He walked away humming the “My Humps” tune.
Freddie and Gonzo entered the pit from the other side as Sam came in with Archie. Both men still wore winter coats, their expressions grim.
“As always, notifying friends and relatives that a loved one has been murdered ruins a perfectly good day.” Freddie unzipped his coat. “We talked to Ling’s roommates, who are shocked and devastated. She’s the first of her family to go to college, and her parents are in China. We’re going to need to arrange for a translator before we call them. According to the roommates, the parents don’t speak any English.”
Sam thought of people half a world away, going about their business, not knowing their daughter had been raped and murdered in Washington. Her heart broke for them and for the hopes and dreams that had died along with Ling.
“By all accounts, Ling was a quiet person who kept to herself. Didn’t date, had a small circle of friends in the Neurosciences Department and rarely socialized. Her roommates say she spent most of her time studying or in her lab. She just went back to running recently as a New Year’s resolution to exercise more.”
“And they said she was brilliant,” Gonzo added sadly. “They’re coming in shortly to identify her.”
“I want to find this guy,” Sam said, “and stop him before he can do this again. He keeps getting away with it, which has made him brazen. We warned women to stay away from the park, and he knows we’re watching, but he does it again. He knows we can’t tie the DNA to him, so he’s careless. He wants us to know it’s him every time—and he wants us to know he’s gotten away with it—again.”
“He’ll keep doing it until we stop him,” Gonzo said.
“Hold that thought.” Sam turned to head back the way she’d come with Archie, stopping at the captain’s office. “Come with me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Malone said. “Whatever you say, ma’am.”
They arrived at the chief’s suite.
“He’s still with Agent Hill,” Helen said. “Should I interrupt them?”
“Yes, please,” Sam said.
“She’s in charge around here,” Malone added.
Helen’s wide-eyed gaze darted between them, as if she was unsure what was going on. “Chief, Captain Malone and Lieutenant Holland are here and need to see you right away.” She put down the phone. “He said to go on in.”
“Thanks, Helen,” Sam said as she followed the captain into the chief’s office.
“What’s up?” Farnsworth asked Malone.
“Ask her. She’s the one who ordered me to attend this meeting.”
Avery huffed out a laugh. “That sounds about right.”
“We have two dead women and four sexual assaults. We haven’t got the DNA back from the most recent victim, but we believe it’s going to match the other three. Our guy isn’t in the system, which of course he knows. He’s getting ballsy. He’s getting away with it, so he’ll keep doing it until we stop him. We have no witnesses, no usable film and not a single lead as to who this guy is. I’d like to try FDS to see if we can get a familial link to lead us to a suspect.”
Chapter Twenty
Farnsworth shook his head. “It’s not allowed here, as you know.”
“I want to request a special exception. This is the type of case that’s solved by this technology.”
“I understand, but the city council, mayor and U.S. Attorney have been united in their opposition to it.”
“I’d like to formally appeal to them for an exception in this case. How do I go about doing that?”
Farnsworth considered the question. “Put it in writing and include as many details of each related assault as you can. If you show the mayor and U.S. Attorney what this guy is doing to these women, it may help to sway them that we need to try something outside the box to find him.”
“I’ll get right on that.”
“No promises,” he added. “It’ll be a tough sell. The mayor has been adamantly opposed to using FDS in criminal investigations. She spearheaded the bill that outlawed it when she was first on the city council.”
“I understand the objections and agree with them in most cases. This isn’t most cases. We’ve got a sexual predator who’s escalated to murder. If we don’t find a way to stop him, he’ll kill again.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, Lieutenant. Get busy making a case to take to city hall.”
Sam nodded, thankful for once to be on desk duty so she could personally oversee this project. “I hear you. We’ll make sure there’s no way she can say no. Will you come with me to meet with her?”
“Do I hafta?” the chief asked.
Sam laughed at the look of agony that accompanied the question. “Yes, you hafta.”
“Fine.”
“At least the FBI report isn’t going to skewer you on the BBQ.”
“There is that. While you’re here, I want to talk about the other homicide cold cases.”
“I planned to ask Detective Green to do a formal review and triage for us. We’ll work our way through them between other priorities.”
“U.S. Attorney Tom Forrester is asking for a formal review of all the convictions associated with Stahl’s cases as well.”
Sam blew out a deep breath. “That could get very ugly.”
“It’s already ugly,” Malone said. “It could get uglier.”
“Ask Detective Green to keep us informed on what he finds.”
Sam hobbled to the door. “You got it.”
“Lieutenant.”
Sam turned back to the chief. “Yes, sir?”
“It’s so good to have you back. We missed you around here.”
“Aw, thanks. It’s good to be back.”
As she made her way slowly back to the pit, she came face-to-face with the last person in the world she wanted to see—Detective Ramsey.
“Well, if it isn’t Little Miss Thing. You must be thrilled to see me back after all you did to get me fired.”
Sam kept walking as if he hadn’t said a word, but she picked up the pace to get away from him as fast as possible.
“Love the cane,” he called after her, “but a broomstick would’ve been more appropriate.”
Sam wanted to ask how his divorce was going, but since she couldn’t kick his ass if it came to that, she kept her mouth shut and let him spew his garbage.
“Better get used to having me back,” Ramsey said, “because I’m here to stay.”
“What’s he saying?” Freddie asked when she came into the pit.
“I wasn’t listening.”
Freddie laughed. “I can’t believe we have to put up with him again.”
Sam shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll ignore him until he goes away for good after he’s found guilty of vandalizing my office. He can’t help himself.” She turned to Detective Green. “Can I have a word, please?”
Cameron jumped up. “Sure.”
Sam went into the office. “Close the door.”
He shut the door and took a seat. “What’s up?”
“I’d like to put you in charge of reviewing Stahl’s homicide cases.”
“The cold ones?”
“All of them.”
“Whoa.”
“The U.S. Attorney wants to look at every conviction that came from Stahl’s investigations. Not to mention, we’ve got defense attorneys filing for reviews of old cases.”
“That could be a big deal.”
“It’s already a big deal.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is. I’ll dive right in. Can I have help?”
“Jeannie and Matt can help you. I’ll partner up Cruz and Gonzo until I’m back to full steam.”
“I assume we’re doing this in addition to active cases?”
“You assume correctly.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll let the others know the plan. Appreciate you taking the lead on this.”
“Thanks for asking me.”
“Keep me in the loop on anything you find.”
“Yep, will do.”
“On another front, how are things with Gigi?”
His entire demeanor softened as he smiled. “Things are great. Never been better, in fact.”
“Happy to hear it. She’s doing all right?”
“I think so, but you should ask her. She’s very anxious to get back to full duty.”
“I’ll talk to her. Sometimes we say we’re fine when we’re not because we want back in the game so badly. I’ve been guilty of that myself—and probably will be again with this damned hip thing.”
“She’s much better than she was, but there’s still a fragileness to her that wasn’t there before. And she’d hate me for saying that.”
“I’d never repeat it, but I hear what you’re saying. Jeannie was like that for a few months after she was assaulted. As cops, we live under the assumption that we can take care of ourselves in all situations. It’s a shock to the system to realize that’s not always true.”
“I hadn’t thought of it quite like that, but you’re right.”
“I usually am.”
“God, I walked right into that, didn’t I?”
Sam flashed him a big grin. “That was a softball. Thanks for the insight. I’ll talk to her, too, and I won’t mention that I spoke to you.”
“That’d be appreciated. I’m walking a fine line in this new relationship between wanting to support her and wanting to protect her.”
“She’s lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one, Lieutenant. Thanks for giving me a nudge in her direction when I needed it.”
“I do what I can for my people.”
Smiling, he stood. “Glad to be one of your people. I’ll keep you posted on the Stahl situation.”
As he was walking out, Gonzo came in. “What was that about?”
“I put him in charge of reviewing Stahl’s cold cases and convictions.”
“I would’ve done that.”
“I know, but I need you to be my legs in the field for a few more weeks. And that sounded weirder than I intended it to.”
Gonzo laughed. “I understood what you meant. What’re we doing about this rapist-murderer?”
“We’re writing a detailed justification for FDS that we’ll take to the mayor. Can you do the part about the two prior assaults? I’ll do Olsen and Woo.”
“I’ll do it right now.”
“Thanks.”
Sam spent the next several hours summarizing the report on Audrey Olsen’s rape and murder, focusing on the more brutal elements of the attack. While the perpetrator covered her mouth with his hand, he raped and sodomized her before strangling her.
If that one sentence wasn’t enough to convince the mayor to let them use FDS, Sam wasn’t sure anything would be.
She stood and went to the door. “Before we take this to the mayor, I want to talk to the two women who survived,” Sam said to Gonzo.
“They’ve already been thoroughly interviewed,” Gonzo said.
“Not by me.”
* * *
The next day, Sam asked Kaitlyn Oliver to come to her, since Kaitlyn lived in a third-floor walk-up in Foggy Bottom, and Sam couldn’t do stairs yet.
“I appreciate you coming in,” she said when Kaitlyn was seated at the conference room table with a bottle of water in front of her. They had turned the murder board around so Kaitlyn wouldn’t have to see the details of the Olsen and Woo cases.
Sam had asked Jeannie to join her, hoping Kaitlyn might be more comfortable speaking to two women. Not to mention Jeannie had survived a similar attack. “This is Detective Jeannie McBride.”
“I wish we were meeting under different circumstances,” Jeannie said.
Kaitlyn nodded. “Me, too.”
Sam noted that Kaitlyn’s hands trembled as she wrapped them around the bottle. “We’re sorry to have to put you through this again, but we just want to be sure that we have all the information.”
“I don’t mind. If it helps to catch him, I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Can you take us through it from the beginning?” Sam asked gently.
“Yeah, sure. I was, um, out for a walk in the snow. I’m one of the few people who grew up here who loves the snow. I can’t get enough of it. Although… It’ll never look the same to me again after this.” She swiped at a tear as if it made her angry. “I was distracted, had my face turned up to the snow, breathing in the cold air and just enjoying it so much. He got me from behind and had me deep into the trees in a matter of seconds. I hit the ground hard, facedown.” She rubbed at a spot on her cheek where a faint bruise remained from the attack two weeks ago. “Everything I’d learned about self-defense was worthless. He had me completely immobilized in a matter of seconds.”
Sam reached over to open the bottle of water. “Take a sip.”
Kaitlyn drank from the bottle and used the tissue Jeannie handed her to wipe her eyes. “Sorry.”
“Please don’t be,” Jeannie said. “I still cry every time I think about it happening to me.”
Kaitlyn seemed startled to hear that.
“And trust me, I know how to defend myself, too.”
The young woman drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. “That’s the part I wrestle with. I knew what to do, but when it was happening, I was just frozen with fear.”
“Anyone would be,” Sam said.
“It’s just… It’s hard to talk about it.”
“We understand, and we’re so sorry to put you through it—again,” Jeannie said. “But since he’s since committed two homicides, the case is now ours. We just want to be sure we have every detail we need.”
“I can’t stop thinking about the girls he killed,” Kaitlyn said softly as she wiped away tears. “That could’ve been me.”
“Take all the time you need,” Sam said, forcing herself to be patient with the traumatized young woman.
“He covered my mouth with one hand and pulled my pants off with the other. He tore my underwear and jammed the fabric in my mouth. I started to hyperventilate because I couldn’t breathe.” She took another deep breath. “He raped me while keeping his hand over my face the whole time. I remember being so cold and not being able to breathe. And that it hurt—a lot. I thought it would never end.”
“Do you have any idea how long it lasted?” Sam asked. That was one thing she hadn’t seen notated in the reports.
“I’ve gone over it in my mind a thousand times, and I just don’t know how long it was. It felt like an hour at the time, but it was probably more like ten or fifteen minutes. Long enough for him to rape me twice.”
Which led Sam to believe the man they were looking for was young and recovered quickly—or that he’d taken medication.
“Did you see him at any point?”
“No, he was behind me the entire time. I was facedown on the ground.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Not a word.”
“Tell us how you got away from him.”
“I struggled the whole time, kicking and fighting him. At one point, I connected with something, and he grunted and loosened his hold on me. Just for a second, but that was all I needed. I jumped up, pulled the fabric out of my mouth and stumbled away, screaming for help. I was in a state of panic, sure he’d come after me, but he didn’t. Two joggers came to my rescue and called the police. One of them was female, and I recall her helping me get my pants back on while the guy she was with looked away.”
