Frozen Past (13 page)

Holt was shaking his head. “Tough one my friend,” Holt said. “We’ve only been able to get information out of them once or twice. It’s the Russian mob and they are not too friendly with us.”

“I figured,” Jaxon said, “but I’d like for you to try. Can you give it a shot? It’s important.”

“I suspected as much or you wouldn’t be here.” He stared at Jaxon for a moment. “Is this related to the pool murders?”

“Yes,” Jaxon said.

Holt nodded, sat up straight and looked over the printout. “Who was the call made to?”

“My cell.”

Holt’s eyes looked up at him over the printout. “Who was the caller?”

Jaxon fidgeted for a second. “We’re pretty sure it was the perp. His voice was electronically altered, but he had knowledge of the case that has not been publically released.”

“What did he say?”

“He was basically taunting us.”

“Yes, I would suspect so, but what was the exact conversation.”

Jaxon sighed and pulled out his notebook. He read from his notes and Holt listened carefully with his fingers steepled over his desk and his eyes focused on the ceiling.

“He’s a brazen bastard isn’t he?” Holt said when Jaxon was finished. “Any luck finding traces of him after the call. I’m assuming you combed the area.”

“That’s the other favor we need,” Jaxon said, pulling out another printout. “He installed a kind of web-cam to a light pole and accessed the feed through a server belonging to a company here in the U.S.” He handed the information to Holt. “We could subpoena the company for its records, but I thought you might be able to do it faster.”

“This one will be easier,” Holt said. “Though it may not be what you expect. Usually these companies allow access to the server with just a user name, password, and the serial number from the device itself. They do not have to collect any personal information such as addresses or phone numbers.”

“I’m aware of that,” Jaxon said. “I was hoping to find out where he is accessing the server from.”

“We can usually get an I.P. address from the server records, but if it ends up being a public internet café or some wi-fi hotspot, it may not prove useful.”

“Anything will be helpful at this point,” Jaxon said.

“I’ll see what I can find out. When do you want this?”

“As soon as you can. He’s killing kids and it doesn’t look like he’s going to stop.”

“Has he started helping you yet?”

Jaxon was surprised. “As a matter of fact, yes. That was part of the phone conversation. He provided us with a means to identify his first victim. It was a class photograph from the boy’s school.”

“You were unable to identify the first victim? Was he badly mutilated?”

“He was frozen. For twenty seven years.”

Holt’s eyebrows went up and he sat forward. “Where?”

“We don’t know. He could have kept him in a freezer anywhere.”

“No,” Holt said. “Where was the boy from?”

“Reston.”

Holt sat back in his chair, his finger resting on the side of his temple. “So this was 1984?”

“Stewart Littleton disappeared Halloween night, 1984. Yes.”

“Any animals turn up frozen?” Holt asked.

Jaxon looked at Sally who was staring at Holt with a face he couldn’t read. “Not frozen. Decapitated. Why?”

“We had a case turn up twelve years ago. Very similar. Indiana. About the time of Michael’s murder. A boy of twelve surfaced in a pond and they had trouble identifying him. Nobody had reported a missing child and the usual dental records and fingerprints were coming up negative. They contacted the local FBI office for assistance and we discovered he had been frozen for sixteen years and had went missing from Hobart, Indiana in 1985. The case remains unsolved. Everything dried up and the only other associated incidents in the area involved frozen animals. At least they had once been frozen.”

“Let me ask you something,” Sally said. She had been quiet the whole time and it startled Jaxon when she spoke. “Was anything found in the bloodstream?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact that’s how we linked the animals to the boy. Diethyl Ether.”

“Shit,” Jaxon said, and stared at Sally who was grinning.

Chapter 25

Luke and Ellie had called everyone during the day and they met that evening under the guise of a kick-the-can game. It was dark outside as they all gathered in the street. The conversation was somewhat heated. Luke hadn’t expected anything less.

After a few minutes of hot debate, most wanted to go to the police.

Luke stood up. “We have an issue you should know.” The group grew quiet. Ellie lowered her head.

“Apparently he knows quite a bit about what we do and he seems to be able to track our every move.”

“How?” Patrick interrupted.

“If I knew that, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion. He’s smart,” Luke said.

“What does he know?” Ralph asked.

“Just about everything. He called Ellie’s cell phone today and made some threats. He also knows we have talked some to the cops, Jaxon and Winston.”

“What was the threat?” John asked. “Anything new?”

“As a matter of fact, it was toward you, John. He said there is some evidence he planted on Jason’s body that would point to you if he wanted it to. Ellie and I don’t know what it is, but he said if we talked to anyone else, he would somehow frame John for Jason’s murder.”

“It’s bullshit!” John said. “There’s no way he could pin this on me. I haven’t done anything.”

“We know that, John,” Ellie said. “I don’t know what he’s done, but I can’t imagine what it would be that would make the police believe you did it. We need help. I think we should call Jaxon and Winston right now.”

Luke felt he was losing the battle. There was a lot of talk amongst themselves for a minute and he could hear them all agreeing with Ellie. How could he stop this? He needed to find a way to keep her safe until he could figure out what to do.

“I think we should tell the police everything we know,” Katy said, “and then stay in hiding until they catch this guy.”

“That could be a long time, Kat,” Luke said. “We have no idea if what we know will even help them. It could be months and I don’t know about you, but I can’t stay cooped up in our house for that long. Sooner or later, we’re going to get lazy, or tired, and then he’ll make his move. We stay safe and keep quiet like he wants, and no one will get hurt.”

Suddenly cell phones started going off. Anyone in the group who had their cell phone was getting a message. Luke’s heart rose in his throat as he pulled out his phone and looked at the text message.

Nice town meeting. Hope you’re discussing how to keep quiet. I’d hate to see someone get hurt in your little club. W.S.

Deana squealed and dropped her phone like it was diseased. “How does he know! How does he know! How does he know!”

Katy grabbed her sister and hugged her tight.

“Damn!” Jimmy said.

“Oh no,” Ralph whined. “How did he get my number?” He pointed at Luke. “Now you’ve done it. He knows who we are!”

Ellie’s face looked pained and she stared up at him with eyes that broke his heart. She didn’t say a thing. Luke knelt down and took her in his arms.

“We can’t stop this, can we?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m going to try.”

* * *

Jaxon and Sally were leaving the Hoover building when he heard his name being called. He would recognize Victoria’s voice anywhere and it bothered him she still invoked some kind of deep emotional response that made him have to stop and turn around. She walked up smiling. Her long, dark hair was down, but held back behind her ears with a black band that matched her grey skirt and black blouse. She still had great legs and at age forty five, carried herself as if she were in a body twice as young.

“Hey, Sally,” Victoria said, casually, then to Jaxon. “What, Jaxon? You weren’t going to stop and say hello?”

“We didn’t have much time and I knew you were busy.”

“I wasn’t so busy I couldn’t say ‘Hi’ to an old friend.”

“Vick, we haven’t been old friends in a long time.”

Her smile faltered just a fraction, but she recovered quickly. “Still, I thought you’d at least stop in. I called you a couple of months ago and you never returned my call.”

“I must have forgotten.” In fact, he had looked at the phone for three days, but could never make himself pick it up.

“Uh huh. I found some old stuff of Michael’s and I wanted you to have it.”

He didn’t know what to say so he remained silent. She stared at him for a second and then brushed it aside like she always did.

 “So, what are you guys up to?”

“We came to see Holt about a case. He’s going to do some digging for us,” Jaxon said.

“What’s the case?”

“Couple of murders.”

“I hadn’t heard.”

“Three kids actually,” Sally said, and Jaxon shot her a look.

Victoria frowned. “How old?”

Jaxon fidgeted. “Twelve to thirteen.”

“Oh no, Jaxon. Is it happening again?”

“This is different, Vick.”

“Are you sure? Because you know there were some unknowns in the case.”

“Switzer’s behind bars. Case closed. This is different.”

“How?”

“I don’t have time right now. It’s our case and if I wanted to involve you I would have. Besides, Holt is in on it.”

She looked hurt and angry. A difficult look to pull off, but she did it well.

“Alright. Be careful.”

“Sure.” She locked eyes with him and stayed that way for what seemed an eternity. Finally, Sally cleared her throat and Victoria looked away.

“Ok,” she said. “I’ll get back to work. If you need anything, call.”

“Yep,” he said.

“Actually, call me anyway, so I can get that stuff to you.”

“Alright.”

“Promise?”

He crossed his heart and she smiled. He knew he’d break it.

Chapter 26

Jaxon and Sally were riding back from DC when she asked, “What were the unknowns?”

“In what?”

“The murder of your son. Victoria said there were some unknowns.”

He drove for a bit without saying a thing and he finally glanced over at her. “You really want to drag this up?”

“I just want to know.”

He sighed. “With Michael, the timeframe had some holes in it.”

“Like what?”

“The time of death didn’t match up with Switzer’s activity.”

“Ok…”

The silence dragged out as the memories flooded back in.

“What? Was he doing laundry at the time? Baking bread? Come on. How did it differ?”

He stared straight ahead driving in silence for a minute as she waited patiently. He really didn’t want to go back there.

“Most people don’t know this,” he said, “but Switzer was taunting me. We were getting close to him and he started making threats against my family. I ignored them and it got Michael killed.”

“You’ve told me some of this,” she said, “and I know it’s tough for you to talk about, but what if it helps us with this case? Maybe we’re overlooking something. We seem to have a lot of unknowns.”

“Yes we do.”

“So, why didn’t the time of death match up?”

He sighed. “You know time of death is not exact.”

She nodded.

“The M.E. determined Michael’s time of death as 11:00 p.m. Unfortunately, Malcom Switzer was under surveillance close to that time.”

“Who was watching him?”

“Me.”

Her face showed surprise at this. “I’ve never heard this before. How were they able to get the conviction?”

“He was tried on multiple counts and Michael’s murder was just one of them. Because of the inexactness of the Time of Death Certainty Principal, the D.A. was able to convince the jury Switzer could have done it in that timeframe.”

“How?”

“Remember the Certainty Principle states that if the subject was certain to be alive at a known time, and you know with certainty when they were found dead, then we are 100% certain the death took place within that interval. Then the M.E. uses other techniques to narrow that down further. Lividity, rigor, vitreous humor, etc. It can still be off an hour or two based on how long the person has been dead.”

“What was the interval?”

“Five hours.”

“That’s pretty good. How did they know?”

“I know when I left him and I know when I found him.”

“Tell me.”

He drove in silence a little more and then it spilled out of him like water. “Victoria was out on her own case with Stansfield. I was at home with Michael. He was in bed at 9:00 when I got the call about Switzer. We’d been trying to track him down, but he had been missing for over a week. He showed up at his trailer and they called me. He only stopped for a few minutes inside the run down piece of shit he lived in and then was on the move. They figured he was on the hunt again. I needed to go, but I couldn’t leave Michael alone. I called the babysitter and I apparently woke her up. She said she was sick, but would be right over. Michael was only going to be alone for a few minutes, or that’s what I thought. I had to go, so I left him asleep and locked up. The sitter had her own key.”

“What happened to the sitter?”

“She never made it over. She told us later, she had taken some cold medicine earlier, before I called, and fell back asleep immediately after. She didn’t even remember me phoning. Switzer killed him while I was out supposedly watching his every move.”

“Oh Jaxon—I’m sorry.  I’d heard things about Michael, but I never knew all this. Jesus, I’m sorry.”

He nodded without looking at her and they drove in silence for a few minutes.

“How did Switzer do it?” she asked.

“We lost sight of him for forty five minutes at 10:45 p.m. We picked him up again coming out of the bar we lost him in. He headed straight to his trailer and never left it until we arrested him two days later. He must have gone out the back of the bar and done the deed, then high tailed it back to the bar and walked out the front like nothing happened.”

“Wasn’t Switzer fond of ears? He was known to keep the left ear of his victims as a souvenir, right?”

“That’s another one of the unknowns. He cut the left ear off of the first four victims. We found them in his trailer folded up in newspaper and sealed inside a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Michael had both ears missing and they have never been found.”