Justice Page 9

  "Lynne went to get them." Decker frowned and went over to the bed. "I can't stand it. I'm going to take her down."

  He gloved up, then slowly undid the knots on the bow tie and stocking that bound the victim's wrists to the headboard. Her arms remained extended, as stiff as a cardboard cutout. He lowered the T-shaped girl to the bed, then dropped the bow tie into one plastic bag, set the stocking in another. He examined the neck.

  A voice behind him said, "Rather large bruises. I'd say our perpetrator had large hands."

  Decker looked up. ME office had sent Jay Craine. He was a thin, good-looking man in his mid-thirties. Heavy with affectations but a good coroner. Today, his face looked exceptionally drawn. His nose was Rudolph red. 73

  Decker asked, "Allergies or a cold?"

  Craine sneezed, then slipped on a mask. "A tad of both, I'm afraid. Oh my. Terrible. Was she tied to the headboard?"

  "Yeah." Decker made room for Craine to work. "I couldn't look at her anymore like that. I took her down."

  "Obviously rigor has started." Craine leaned over and started examining the body. "She's not ice-cold. I'll take a rectal temperature as soon as I've checked out her anus for sexual penetration."

  He attempted to flex her arms, then bent her legs at the knee.

  "Rigor's not totally set. Lividity's evident." He looked at Decker. "Perhaps we're working within a range of three to eight hours. When was the body discovered?"

  "Eight in the morning."

  "So that's more or less between the hours of twelve and eight. Rigor is somewhat advanced although physical exertion prior to death can speed it up." Craine opened his leather bag, took out a swab kit. He snorted, coughed, sneezed, then began his examination. "Semen in her vagina."

  Decker paused. "Are you sure? Ben found a condom in the bed sheets."

  "And another in the garbage can," Ben broke in. "Someone was having a good time."

  Decker regarded the rigor-laden girl. "And someone wasn't. Why would she have semen in her vagina if her partner was using a condom?"

  "Perhaps he ran out and they got careless," Craine postulated. "Or she had more than one partner."

  "What about her anus?"

  Craine examined her rectum with watery eyes. "Appears clean from a visual." He took several swabs and sealed them in vials. He sneezed ferociously. "But one cannot tell..." Another sneeze. "Until one puts it under a microscope."

  Craine continued on. "First impression, Sergeant..." A pause, then a sneeze. "The girl might be pregnant... thickening of the vaginal tissue, vascularization. Either pregnant or it's her period. But I don't see any menstrual blood."

  Decker ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, then wrote down the word pregnant. "How far along?"

  "Early. I'll tell you more specifics when I get her on the table."

  "Now there's a switch," Benny said. "Someone was using a condom even though the girl had been knocked up. The power of the virus." 74

  "But she had semen in her," Decker said. "Maybe Doctor C. is right. We're working with more than one man."

  "We'll know for certain once the tests come in." Craine stood, then sneezed so hard he rocked on his feet.

  Decker said, "You sure you should be working, Doctor?"

  "On the contrary, it's the best time to work," Craine sniffed. "The nasal mucosa is so inflamed, it virtually blocks out all odious olfactory sensations. I can't smell a thing. Shall I remove her so Ben can dust thoroughly?"

  "Great idea," Ben said.

  Decker said, "Take care of yourself, Doc."

  "Oh, yes, indeed. Rhinoviruses are persistent little creatures. Bed rest is essential."

  As soon as Craine left, Officers Crock and Miller walked back into the room. Crock said, "Got hold of the principal at Central West Valley and West Valley. They'll call the girls' veeps and meet you down at the schools whenever you come. I haven't hooked up with anyone from North Valley yet. Also, no frantic parents have called any of the station houses."

  Decker nodded, then turned to Officer Miller. "What about you, Russ?"

  "Maid seems on the level as far as I can tell. So does the desk clerk, Forrester. You want to interview them?"

  "I'll introduce myself before I leave for the high schools. What time did the maid go on shift?"

  "Six."

  "And the desk clerk?"

  "Six, also."

  "So at six, we had a changing of the guard at the desk Forrester came in and..." Decker rotated his shoulders as he checked through his notes. "And Henry Trupp went off duty. Phone calls from the room, Russ?"

  "Two calls to room service downstairs. One at twelve-oh-six, another at two-fifty-six." Miller rubbed his hands against his pants. "That should help narrow down the time frame."

  "If she was alive when the calls were made. Who was on duty in the coffee shop last night?"

  Miller cleared his throat. "Seems room service is brought up by the busboys. They come and go ... paid in cash. Everything is off the books."

  "Illegals?"

  "Probably." 75

  Decker said, "I'll take it from here. Thank you. You two can go back in the field now."

  He looked at his room map and started on the first quadrant. After an hour search, Decker had a collection of carefully marked plastic bags containing hairs, buttons, two beer-bottle caps, a butt of marijuana, specks of white powder, three bathroom towels, all the bed linens, discarded underclothes, a pair of pink sequined shoes that matched the dress, and one wilted orchid corsage that said it all.

  He pocketed his survey notes and left the room, yielding the final check to Benny and his lab men.

  A brief talk with the maid and Forrester revealed no new information. Neither one saw or heard anything. He used the lobby phone and dialed Henry Trupp's phone number. It rang and rang and Decker hung up. He found Officer Mike Wilson, who had just finished canvassing the first floor. Decker called him over.

  "Anything?"

  "Nothing."

  "Why am I not surprised?" Decker shook his head. "Mike, go into the coffee shop. I want a list of everyone who was working last night. If they hassle you about giving names of cash-only employees, tell them we're not interested in calling either the INS or the IRS. But we'll call both if we have to."

  "I understand, Sergeant."

  "Yeah, make sure they understand as well. Be back soon."

  Decker slipped on his jacket and headed for high school. 76

  North Valley was a bust.

  Central West was a different story. Decker took out the Polaroids and laid them on the principal's desk. The rotund black man winced distastefully, but there were no sparks of recognition in his eyes.

  Not the case for the girls' vice principal, Kathy Portafino. One glance turned her a putrid shade of olive. She was about Marge's age and height early thirties, around five ten and hefty, with a square jaw and a no-nonsense face that said, "I've seen it all." But there was something uniquely ugly about postmortem photos. A cold finality combined with clinical sterility brought out emotions in even the most jaded.

  "Who is she?" Decker asked.

  The woman covered her mouth. "I think it's Cheryl Diggs."

  "You think?"

  "No, it's her. She just looks so ... different." She wiped her forehead and swallowed weakly. "Excuse me, but I'm not feeling "

  "Go," Decker said.

  The woman fled the room. Decker turned his attention to the principal. He was staring at the top of his paper-piled desk.

  Decker said, "Do you know this girl, Mr. Gordon?"

  The principal ran his hand over his close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair. "Now that Kathy has identified her, I know who she is." He sat down in his chair. "This is just... terrible." 77

  Decker took out his notepad. "Did the school hold its senior prom last night?"

  The man nodded, rubbed his forehead. "All of a sudden that seems like years ago."

  "And Cheryl Diggs was there?"

  "I suppose."

  "Do you kn
ow who she went with?"

  "No, I couldn't tell you that."

  "Then tell me about Cheryl."

  "Ms. Portafino would know more."

  "What do you know, Mr. Gordon?"

  "What do I know?" His pause told Decker he didn't know much. "Cheryl ran with the wild crowd. Wild over here doesn't mean homeboys mowing each other down. This is still a predominantly white, middle-class, gangless school. But we have guns here." He took a deep breath. "We have guns, we have knives, we have drugs, we have pregnancies, we have diseases, we have suicides and overdoses. We have every urban problem you can think of, including violent crime theft, robbery, rapes, assaults. But this!"

  "Never any murders before?"

  "One in the five years I've been here. Two boys fighting over a parking space. One of them just pulled out a thirty-two and shot the other in the head. You don't recall that?"

  "I wasn't in Devonshire five years ago," Decker said.

  "I thought we'd hit rock bottom then." Gordon sighed. "Even though we beefed up our security afterward, it took a long time to calm jittery nerves. Lord only knows what this is going to do."

  "Tell me about Cheryl's crowd."

  "Cheryl's crowd..." He hesitated, trying to formulate his thoughts. Just then, Kathy returned to the room. Her face had been splashed with water. She was pale but no longer green. Gordon turned to his ally. "Kathy, who were Cheryl's friends?"

  "Lisa Chapman, Trish Manning, Jo Benderhoff "

  "Boyfriends," Decker interrupted.

  "She hopped around." Kathy sat down. "Steven Anderson, Blake Adonetti, tom Baylor, Christopher Whit " She stopped talking. "I think she went to the prom with Chris Whitman. At least I saw them there together. I remember them because they made such a beautiful couple." The VP tapped her foot. "You know, I think something was wrong. Cheryl looked upset."

  Decker wrote as he spoke. "Is that hind-sight talking or was there some definite incident you remember?" 78

  "Nothing precise. She just looked ... sad. I noticed it because it marred her otherwise stunning appearance."

  "Did the boyfriend seem upset?" Decker asked.

  She shrugged. "Chris is always hard to read. Also I'm more tuned in to the girls. All I remember about Chris is that he looked great. He always looks great."

  "He's a handsome boy," Gordon added. "A gifted cellist."

  "More than gifted," Kathy added. "He was professional quality."

  "He didn't belong here," Gordon continued. "He should have been in milliard."

  "Then why was he here?" Decker asked.

  Both Gordon and Kathy shrugged ignorance.

  "Don't tell me," Decker said. "He's a quiet boy. A loner with social problems."

  "Not at all," Kathy said. "He has friends. As a matter of fact, he's quite popular. Very well liked with the boys as well as the girls."

  An ember ignited in Decker's brain a familiar profile. He said, "You said he was hard to read. What did you mean by that?"

  Kathy thought a moment. "Chris is very ... even-tempered. A trait like that stands out when you're dealing with a thousand hormonally unbalanced adolescents."

  Decker said, "More adult than the rest of the kids?"

  Kathy nodded. "Yes."

  Gordon suddenly spoke up. "Kathy, isn't Christopher an emancipated minor?"

  "I think he's eighteen now, Sheldon."

  "But he came in as an emancipated minor," Gordon said. "I remember that clearly. Despite all the divorce and broken homes, very few kids have their own apartments."

  Bingo! In his notepad, Decker wrote: WHITMAN, CHRIS. NARC? CALL VICE. "So Christopher Whitman has his own place?"

  "I believe he does," Gordon said.

  "Is he a druggie?" Decker asked.

  Gordon looked at Kathy. She said, "I don't recall him ever getting busted, but he hangs out in the druggie crowd."

  "But as far as you know, he isn't a user."

  "As far as I know, yes."

  "And you saw him with Cheryl at the prom last night," Decker said.

  "Yes. I couldn't swear he came with her. But he and Cheryl were hanging out together."

  "And she looked sad. Any idea why?" 79

  Kathy shook her head no.

  Decker was quiet. According to Jay Craine, the coroner, Cheryl was probably pregnant. If Chris Whitman, her supposed boyfriend, was a narcotics officer and knocked her up, he'd be finished as a cop.

  Talk about motivation for murder.

  "I'll need Chris Whitman's address," he said. "Cheryl's address as well. I'll also want all the addresses of her friends male and female."

  Gordon looked at Kathy. She stood up. "I'll pull those for you right now."

  "I'd like to come with you," Decker said. "Take a look at Whitman's transcript."

  Kathy eyed Gordon. He waved his hand. "Let him see it."

  Decker followed Kathy into the registration room a long, cavernous hall filled with banks of metal files. She went to an area marked currents, sifted through the w's and pulled out Whitman's file.

  "Here you go."

  Decker studied the particulars. According to the files, Whitman was almost nineteen old for a high school student. He had transferred as a junior from St. Matthews High in Long Island, New York. All that was listed from his prior education was about a year's worth of mediocre grades. Nothing written in the space reserved for parent or guardian. Though he had provided the school with his current address and phone number, there was no emergency listing. He showed the papers to the girls' vice principal.

  "The vitals are incomplete."

  Kathy took the transcript. "He came as a junior, mid-semester. Sometimes the schools just send a partial. The rest of the transcripts usually follow."

  "Anything else in his file?"

  Again, Kathy plowed through racks of folders. Finally she shut the file and shook her head, a troubled expression on her face. "There's nothing else listed under his name."

  "In other words, the boy's a cipher."

  Kathy gave him a sheepish smile. "We have lots of kids here, Sergeant."

  Decker said nothing. He went back into Gordon's office and gathered up the Polaroids still resting on his desk. The rigor-laden corpse had turned into a person named Cheryl Diggs, a victim snuffed out by a madman. Since she could no longer speak for herself, Decker would have to be her voice. 80

  He regarded Sheldon Gordon. Elbows resting on his desk, the principal sat with his head in his hands.

  "This is going to be so traumatic for the kids." He raised his eyes. "It's going to scare the wits out of the girls here. Every single boy is going to be seen as a potential rapist/murderer."

  Decker thought of his daughter. For a decade plus, Decker had worked juvenile and sex crimes in the Foothill Substation of LA's San Fernando Valley. Every so often, he had unwittingly exposed his daughter to the horrors of angry, unbalanced men. He often wondered if he had skewed her perception of the male gender.

  He glanced at a Polaroid of Cheryl Diggs. At the moment, with Cindy being alone in New York, a campus rapist on the loose, he wondered if her skewed perception wasn't an asset.

  Whitman lived on a nondescript side street populated by twenty-year-old apartment buildings that had made it through the earthquake. Sundays were usually quiet, but to Decker's eyes, the neighborhood seemed exceptionally sleepy perfect camouflage for a secret narcotics agent. After giving Whitman's door a firm knock, Decker waited a beat, then pounded the sucker until his fist turned red.

  Either no one was home or Whitman wasn't answering. Decker left a business card with his phone number, instructing Chris to call the station house immediately. Then he rode the elevator back to the first floor and studied the place's directory.

  No on-premises manager, just a small-print phone number that had been inked out and replaced with a set of new digits that were written in barely legible pencil. Decker copied the phone number down, called and got no answer.

  He took the staircase down to the apartment's underground park
ing lot. Whitman drove a red Trans Am. Ten minutes of searching produced no such animal.

  He left the building, walking over to his unmarked Volare, cramming his legs under the steering wheel. Left hand drumming the dashboard, he put in a call to Devonshire Detectives. Luckily, Scott Oliver answered the Homicide desk working Sundays to avoid his wife.