“Forward, two steps, on your right,” David instructed
and Red led me to the indicated chair. I grinned internally as Bas
and David drew their chairs back, simultaneously, so they were both
a little behind me in the same pattern as if we were standing.
When we were seated, the lieutenant began, “I would
like to apologize. Photos and video were taken without your
knowledge or consent a couple of days ago. Officer Blair was acting
on his own accord. It is not our policy to discuss internal
employee issues, or discipline, with people outside the department.
However, since the incident affects you directly I felt, in this
case, I needed to divulge some of the details.”
Grateful for a direct answer, I still needed to
clarify our priorities. “Regardless of your wanting to further
explore our involvement with the task force, Bas, David and I will
need to know what was going on and if I'm at risk. We appreciate
your updating us with as much information as you are able to
disclose.”
Lt. Faber paused for a moment before saying,
“Detectives Garner and Westfield are with us; they are with the
cybercrimes and narcotics divisions, respectively. Detective Garner
is the man we have reviewing Officer Blair’s laptop. Detective
Westfield was hoping to talk to you regarding applications for his
department which also uses K-9s.”
Red took the opportunity to say,
“Blair is very
angry, and has aggressive body language.”
“Excuse me a moment, Lieutenant.” I leaned back in my
chair, “David?” He leaned in close so I could speak quietly into
his ear. “I don't know how close Blair is, but Red says he's angry.
Just a heads up.”
David moved away. Red surprised me by telling me
David and Bas were talking with their hands. Sign language? I
wonder if it was ASL or some type of military thing. I'd have to
ask later.
“One of the new men, Detective Westfield, stepped
behind Blair. I think he knows what David and Bas were saying with
their hands.”
Bas leaned forward this time to give me the
commentary, “Garner on left, Cyber. Westfield on right, Drugs,
knows sign language.”
“Sorry for the interruption Lt. Faber,” I said,
“please continue.”
“After you called Detective Stephens, he contacted me
and we were able to secure the laptop Officer Blair used. It’s
department issued so we were able to commandeer it without
incident. He had sent the pictures, and video, through his private
email account which he didn't log out of, so it was easy to access
his mail program.”
“Pretty sloppy for a technophile to leave his email
account logged in,” David interjected. “Were you able to identify
the person or people who received the files?”
“He sent the files to two email addresses. We
identified one as his own account, but couldn't trace the second.
That second account had been created the day before the email was
sent, and deleted the same afternoon Officer Blair sent the
file.”
“Were there picture and video files remaining on his
phone?” Bas asked, his voice silky with the warning of violence. I
could feel a shift of feet as the policemen in the room processed
Bas' threat level.
“One of the search warrants we secured was against
his personal cell phone.” The lieutenant was subtlety letting us
know other warrants had been secured, but she couldn't, or
wouldn't, discuss them with us at this point. “Detective Garner is
in the process of reviewing the phone for clues which might lead to
identification of the second email recipient. We will also secure
any photos or videos of Ms. March and Red which remain on the
phone.”
“And, Officer Blair?” David prompted, “Did he have
anything to say?”
“Officer Blair refuses to offer an explanation,” she
replied blandly.
“Red?” I asked, “Anything about Office Blair you
would care to tell me?”
“Red is sniffing Blair and circling him.” Bas told
me, “I think the new detectives are freaked the dog went straight
to Blair.” There was an evil pleasure in Bas’ tone.
“
He's scared now,”
Red told me. I relayed the
info to Bas who I assumed would sign to David if needed.
“He has
a gun in his boot.”
“Red, come.” I ordered, gently. I quickly told Bas
about the gun.
Bas and David shifted to stand in front of me, I
could feel the backs of their legs brush my knees. Red's line of
sight to Officer Blair remained unimpeded so Red explained what was
happening.
“The man who understands hand talking is taking the
gun away from Officer Blair. Someone said something about a back-up
gun from his desk. Ohhh, Lt. Faber is really mad.”
I could hear some soft scuffling and swearing, but
David and Bas finally relaxed their stances as Officer Blair was
escorted from the room. David explained, “Blair left with Garner
and Jackson.”
“Damn, I wish I could start this day all over,” Lt.
Faber said, with a heavy sigh.
I laughed. “Some days, lieutenant you’re the bug, and
some days you’re the windshield.”
Her chuckle mirrored mine. “We really could use your
perspective on the case. I spoke with the task force team, and the
Police Chief, regarding access for you and your team to articles in
evidence. It is our intention to minimize any risk to you and Red,
current events notwithstanding,” she growled. “So, we are in
agreement we don’t want you at any crime scenes, or anywhere which
risks exposing you to the public.
“What we are hoping is you and Red can examine the
victims’ clothing to learn if we may be looking for more than one
perpetrator, or verify the cases are linked. We may possibly get a
piece of new information Red could verbalize which a regular K-9
wouldn’t know was important. We didn’t find any DNA evidence, so
we’re hoping Red can smell something. Smell wouldn’t be admissible
if we go to court, but you may be able to help us find the right
path.”
“Red has a great nose and he has been excited to come
and help.” I replied. “I appreciate you keeping us behind the
scenes, especially until we know why Officer Blair was so
interested in telling someone about us.”
“Detective Westfield uses K-9s and was a handler
before his last promotion to our narcotics division,” the
lieutenant explained. “He is very interested in a dog’s perspective
of tracking scents. He has asked to observe, and I hoped you would
be open to his presence at the evidence review.”
Considering Westfield’s background, and reviewing the
events of the last few minutes, not the least of which was
Westfield being the first to move protectively when he interpreted
Bas and David’s hand signals, I decided to trust my intuition.
“We’d welcome Detective Westfield’s presence and guidance as we all
learn how to best leverage, and maybe enhance our abilities. If you
have the clothing available, I can have Red take a look at it for
you now” I offered.
“Thank you. I was worried the issues with the photos
would cause you to withdraw your offer of help. The fact they were
taken and sent at the police department, right under our noses, is
another sore spot.”
Bas interjected, “We take our team’s security very
seriously.” That’s my Bas; he latched right on to the team
reference Lt. Faber made. “It takes a little pressure off us, as we
won’t have to worry about them being out in the public’s eye. We
also wanted to let you know we have additional expertise as a unit,
we’re happy to offer, if you wish to utilize our full skill
set.”
“When we did a reference check for you and Mr.
Declan, they emphasized your security clearances, but the work you
did was somewhat unclear. Purposely I think.”
“Our short resume,” David added, “for Bas would be
security, infiltration, and tactical planning. I’m more of a
cyber-geek. Your IT people would probably find me helpful if they
hit a wall they can’t get through.”
“You’re no slouch in the infiltration department
yourself, David,” Bas chuckled. “You saved my ass more than once,
you sneaky bastard.”
“That’s because Uncle gave me some mini-drones and a
laptop to play with. All I did was cut a path.”
“Path? Crap, David, you could have landed a 747 on
your ‘path’ by the time you were finished,” Bas recalled with
pride.
“For now,” I said, trying to get us back on task, “if
you want to point us to the clothing, we will see if there’s
anything Red can tell you.”
Clothing from the four women was in four separate
bins, lined up on a table in the adjoining room. As a precaution,
DNA samples were taken from Bas, Red, David, and myself in case
there was ever an accidental contact or stray hair.
Detective Stephens explained they would open one
container at a time and place each set of clothing on a clean tarp.
The three objectives were: a) is it the same rapist in each case?
b) is there more than one rapists involved? and c) is there any
unique scent which would provide a clue as to where to start
looking for the rapist?
Red was not happy when Officer Marks insisted he wear
paper booties to cover his feet as he walked near the evidence.
After unsuccessful attempts to wrap his hind feet David said, “Give
me a second or two with my pal while we negotiate.” Whatever David
promised was effective, and with only a few grumbles, he let
Officer Marks do his hind paws.
Bas told me the first set of clothes were being
spread out on the tarp, the woman’s underwear was kept in a baggie
to the side and would be brought out for Red’s inspection after he
was finished with the outer garments.
Red worked well with Detectives Stephens and,
surprisingly to me, detective Westfield, who I thought would only
observe. There were a few accidents when Red trod on a piece of
clothing, but it was expected this might happen and the detectives
got used to Red’s preferred way to examine the clothing. We had
already discussed Red would be looking for male scents.
While Red was sniffing, he didn’t bother to give me a
play-by-play of what he was doing, although I’d get the occasional,
“Oh man, that’s neat,”
or,
“Could Stephens lift this so I
can smell the other side?”
I would relay instructions as
needed, but I kept silent for most of the examination.
When Red had worked for about fifteen minutes, I
addressed Lt. Faber who sat next to me, making sure everyone could
hear my voice. “I want to warn you Red has unusually evolved
reasoning skills. His assessment may contain some of his
conclusions, which I have found to be uncannily accurate. I will
try to be clear about what is factual and what is conjectured, and
why he reached a certain conclusion.”
A few minutes later, Red was finished. I repeated
what he said and then answered his questions or asked questions of
my own.
“
There are two men,”
he began.
“Let’s call them John and Bob,” I told him.
“
John’s scent is all over. Her coat, outer
clothes, bra, and panties, but it’s a deep scent, I think he’s a
boyfriend.”
“What about Bob?”
“
Bob’s smell is probably the bad man. He has his
scent over the front of the shirt and the front of her jeans. There
is a little on the coat and front of the bra, but not too strong.
His smell is strong on the panties.”
“Is there anything about any of the smells you like,
or don’t like?”
“
Don’t like the cigarette smell, it’s too strong.
There is another smell here, but I don’t know what it is.”
“Does it smell like anything in our house?”
“
No. I don’t think so.”
“Okay, are you ready to try the next clothes? If you
smell the strange smell again, let me know, okay? Let me know if
you smell the cigarettes too.”
While Detective Stephens boxed and laid out the next
set of clothes on a new tarp, Officer Marks rewrapped Red’s paws in
new booties. As she worked, she explained to him how important it
was to have fresh booties after each box, and praising his
intelligence. Needless to say, he was eating it up and didn’t
complain once about his feet getting taped up again.
Detective Westfield approached. “Red, is an amazing
dog,” he said.
“
I am, aren’t I?”
he concurred, immodestly
from across the room.
“He’s agreeing with you,” I told the detective with
an eye roll.
“If Red smells something, how long does the scent
stay in memory?” It seemed like an odd question coming from a
former dog handler—wouldn’t he know the answer to that? With a
mental shrug, I decided to humor him with what little I had gleaned
in living with Red the past few months.
“He looks large because he weighs over eighty pounds
now, but he’s still a puppy. He’ll be a year old in about five or
six weeks. Of the things he’s smelled and learned, I haven’t come
across one we’ve tested him on which he’s forgotten. We play
tracking and trailing games, all the time, to keep him
occupied.”
“If you’re in agreement, Ms. March, before you leave
today, could I introduce Red to some of the common drugs we train
our dogs to detect? Marijuana is legal in Washington State now, but
he can learn that smell, as well as meth ingredients, cocaine, and
a few others we may have in the evidence and training lockers.”