Hangman (36 page)

Mandy was in love with Garth.

Mandy suggested that Adrianna needed to go home and sleep. Adrianna wanted to go home, too, but Garth was coming in. They were going to meet at the hospital, so she couldn’t leave. Mandy “volunteered” to deal with Garth. Again she told Adrianna to go home and sit on her emotions for a couple of days. Then, with a clearer mind, she could deal with Garth. But Adrianna insisted on staying and meeting with boyfriend.

That was the first mistake.

Now Mandy was getting agitated. For the last six months, she had been planning this tryst and she was inwardly enraged at the prospect of having to cancel everything. Adrianna’s timing couldn’t have been worse. She had been putting up with Garth’s womanizing for two years. For once, she had decided to show some spine and it
was totally messing up Mandy’s romantic getaway. She had to get rid of her. Not kill her, Mandy told them: that never entered her mind. Mandy just wanted Adrianna to go home and sleep for a very, very long time.

Since Adrianna insisted on staying at the hospital, Mandy suggested that she go into one of the empty “on-call” rooms and grab a couple hours of sleep before Garth came in. Adrianna concurred. Then Mandy looked up and saw her head nurse giving her the evil eye in the cafeteria. She knew she had to act quickly.

Mandy quickly found Adrianna an empty room. She attempted to give her friend an Ambien so she could get some good sleep, but Adrianna resisted, saying that Ambien would put her out for the next twelve hours. All she needed was a few hours rest. Instead Mandy gave her a couple of tabs of short-acting Benadryl. It would help her sleep but wouldn’t knock her out for the day.

After Adrianna was tucked away, Mandy went back to work, stewing about how Adrianna was ruining her life. She knew that Garth put up with Adrianna because she was his cash cow. Mandy accepted that. Garth needed money. But she wasn’t about to let Adrianna screw up her few measly days alone with her secret lover. Garth would be arriving at the hospital in a couple of hours and all Mandy wanted was for Adrianna to be “indisposed.” Then she’d tell Garth that Adrianna left and didn’t want to be contacted. The two of them could go on their planned getaway. Garth would probably go back to Adrianna, but at least they’d have their time alone.

Since Mandy worked in an ICU, she decided to knock Adrianna out with a strong muscle relaxant used in surgery called Pavulon. The drug, whose generic name is pancuronium, is used for muscle paralysis and is administered before a patient goes on a ventilator. Muscle paralysis usually takes place between two to four minutes after administration and the clinical effects usually last about an hour and a half. Full recovery in healthy adults comes anywhere from two to three hours later.

Decker had some familiarity with Pavulon because it had been
one of the drugs of choice for a serial-killer respiratory therapist named Efren Saldivar. The man had used Pavulon to murder his patients in a decade-long spree when he had worked at Glendale Adventist Medical Center about ten miles away from where Decker worked and lived. The local case was sensational and made national news. It had been a long-drawn-out affair that included confession, recantation, and exhumation of bodies. Most important, Decker knew that the drug did not show up on a routine tox exam.

While Adrianna slept, Mandy, a deft nurse with a gentle touch, injected her with the drug in the neck. The coroner didn’t pick up on it because the cable ligature had broken some of the skin and had obscured the puncture wound. When Garth arrived, Mandy made excuses, but Garth didn’t buy them. When he became threatening, Mandy finally confessed that Adrianna was sleeping in one of the on-call rooms.

How was he threatening? Decker had asked her.

Not threatening…she had whispered…just he knew some embarrassing things about her. With that confession, Mandy’s monitor started beeping. Her blood pressure started spiking and the nurses came rushing in. Mandy had talked enough for the day.

End of interview.

Decker came back the next day. It took a while to get back to where they had left off but finally he brought Mandy up to speed—that Garth had just gotten her to admit that she had knocked out Adrianna with Pavulon.

Mandy continued the saga.

Once she confessed that Adrianna was still at the hospital, Garth insisted that the two of them go to the on-call room together to wake her up. By now two hours had elapsed and the drug’s effects should have been wearing off, but when they tried to rouse her, Adrianna was unresponsive. In truth, she appeared to be dead.

Mandy was in a full-blown panic. Garth calmed her down and said he’d help her out. He told her that the best way to handle the situation was to make it look like Adrianna was murdered. At first, Mandy was appalled. They needed to go to the police and explain
what happened—that it was an accident. But Garth told her that they’d book her for premeditated murder and that’s when she really lost it. When he gave her an out, she took it. He explained his reasoning.

Adrianna was dead. Nothing they could do would bring her back. If she was “murdered,” they’d both have alibis and be cleared of any wrongdoing. His alibi was he was away camping with his friends. Aaron and Greg would cover for him. Her excuse was that she was on shift working.

The first thing they needed to do was to get the body out of the hospital. They stuffed her into a doubled plastic garbage bag, and as they did this, Chuck Tinsley’s card fell to the floor. Mandy picked it up and they both realized it was a card that some guy had given to Adrianna. The card had his name, his occupation—contractor—his home address, and on the back were his cell number and his work address—some house near the hospital. Reading the card seemed to make Garth angry. Mandy thought that was good. The angrier Garth was at Adrianna, the more he’d help to dispose of the body.

The two of them stuffed Adrianna into a double plastic trash bag along with other trash—discarded papers and the like—just in case someone asked them what was in the bag and they had to open it up.

But no one questioned them as they schlepped the bag onto the loading dock at the emergency vehicle location. Garth pulled his car up to the dock, popped the trunk, and loaded the trash bag. He told Mandy that he’d call her and they’d meet up later on. Mandy never even thought about the security cameras on the dock—a major slipup that got the police looking in the right direction.

When Adrianna’s murder hit the news—that the body was found swinging from a rafter—Mandy knew what happened. Garth had put Adrianna’s body at the address on the card, placing the focus on Chuck Tinsley. When Tinsley wasn’t immediately brought in for questioning, the two of them figured there was a screwup.

Decker looked up from his writing. Fate had intervened. Chuck Tinsley had been the first one at the construction site and had come across the body. He had found his own card in her pocket and had
swiped it so the police wouldn’t know that he had seen Adrianna the night before. Decker went back to his notes.

The next day was Tuesday. Garth and Mandy rented a motel while the two of them figured out their next step. By Wednesday, things were spinning out of control. They needed to get out of L.A. They needed to think without the police breathing down their necks. Garth said that he owned a place in Vegas. They could lay low there.

The two of them hit the road.

From that point on, it all got fuzzy in Mandy’s mind. The days and nights were filled with sex, a lot of booze, and copious amounts of drugs. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Garth bringing home a young girl—a runaway. The three of them took drugs and Mandy remembered Garth having sex with the girl. Then things became really out of focus. Mandy remembered the girl disappearing…but not murdered. She just went away. She also had no recollection of her car crash.

All very well and fine, Decker thought, but there were some major holes big enough to walk an elephant through.

Namely Crystal Larabee.

Oh yeah, Mandy said. Crystal.

She was even fuzzier on Crystal’s death than on what had happened with the runaway. Garth initially went to Crystal’s place just to ask her about Adrianna’s investigation. When Crystal told him that the cops were looking for him, he got really worried. Then Crystal started talking about this guy that Adrianna was talking to at Garage. She told Garth that she felt that the guy was a suspicious character and that he had come on to her after Adrianna left the bar. Crystal felt that he probably had something to do with Adrianna’s murder. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Crystal was referring to Chuck Tinsley.

Then Garth got a bright idea. He thought that if Crystal was found murdered, it would really point the finger at Chuck Tinsley. Tinsley had chatted up both women and now both of them were dead. So Garth killed Crystal.

Just like that.

Although Mandy felt bad for Crystal, she bore no guilt. She didn’t know Garth’s plan, and wasn’t there when it happened. Crystal was not her fault. And she didn’t seem to feel much guilt about Adrianna, either. Mandy was quick to point out that the whole thing—meaning Adrianna’s death—was just a terrible “accident.”

And yet here Mandy was, embroiled in a scheme that would certainly end in her being sentenced to do hard time, and maybe forever. Why did she agree to go along with Garth’s plans? How did he convince her to participate in such horrible things?

“He’d…expose me,” she told him.

The BP monitor beeped loudly. Decker knew he was working on borrowed time. “But you knew it would come out, Mandy. That you gave Adrianna Pavulon. Why compound your mistake? Why not just go to the police? That was your first instinct and it was a good one.”

“It wasn’t just Adrianna,” she moaned. “It was the other…he’d expose me.”

Decker said, “You mean the snapshots of you in leather?”

Again, the BP monitor started beeping. She was silent.

Decker took a logical guess. “And there were sex tapes, too.”

“He’d…expose me.”

The nurse came in. Again, he was asked to leave.

Decker was going back to L.A. in a few hours. It was now or not for a long time. He said, “Who took the pictures and the tapes, Mandy? It might help your case down the road. It’s important that we know.”

“Crystal Larabee,” Mandy whispered. “The bitch…”

A
T SEVEN IN
the morning, Decker thought he’d have the squad room to himself, but Wanda Bontemps was already at her desk, her attention focused on the computer. She didn’t even look up when he came through the door.

“Good morning,” Decker said, out loud.

Wanda greeted him with a smile that opened up her face. It wasn’t one of those “nice day, isn’t it” kind of looks, but a “we got the bastard” grin. “Have a minute?”

Decker motioned her into his office. Wanda was wearing a hunter green blouse and black slacks, with Vans on her feet. Under her arm was a case folder. He closed the door and the two of them sat down. “What do you have for me?”

She laid the papers on his desk. “A copy of Roxanne Holly’s homicide file.”

“It’s very thick. Want to cover the highlights?”

“You’ve got it.” Wanda took out her notes. “According to Roxanne Holly’s roommate, Latitia Bohem, Roxanne went out for drinks at a local restaurant called El Gaucho and never returned.
The place was about four blocks from Roxanne’s apartment. Lots of locals go there. It was a balmy night, so she decided to walk.”

“Alone and in the dark?”

“Yes.”

“Never a good idea.”

“It wasn’t in her case. After her body was discovered, the bartender and waitresses on staff that night were interviewed. They put Roxanne in the restaurant from about ten to midnight, but it was crowded enough that no one really remembered exactly when she left. The place closes at one.”

“So how do they know she left at midnight?”

“Her tab was paid around twelve. She could have lingered longer, but let’s assume she left around that time. The bartender did recall her talking to people—guys and gals. She seemed to be having a good time. There was nothing mentioned in the case files about servicemen or anyone in a uniform.”

“That could be a dead end.”

“Agreed. The detectives returned to El Gaucho several days later for a second round of interviews with the staff and local patrons. Among those who remembered Roxanne being there was a guy named Chuck Tinsley.”

“Whoa!” Decker was amazed. Things didn’t routinely fall that way. “Go on.”

“Chuck was working at a lumberyard. He was living about six blocks from the El Gaucho and ten blocks away from Roxanne’s apartment when she was murdered.”

Decker raised a brow. “What did Chuck have to say for himself in the files?”

“He claimed he knew her from the area, maybe talked to her a couple of times at El Gaucho. Casual kind of thing. The kicker is that a patron recalled them talking the night that Roxanne disappeared.”

“That’s indeed notable.”

“Chuck’s alibi was that he was at the restaurant until the bar closed up. And that was verified by the bartender.”

“So he’s saying that if Roxanne was attacked at twelve, it couldn’t have been him because he was still at the place until one in the morning.”

“Exactly. But if things were busy and no one remembered Roxanne leaving, Tinsley could have easily left and come back. I mean honestly, Loo, what was he doing with Roxanne’s necklace?”

Decker thought a moment. “Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to pull some DNA off the hair and it’ll be a match with Roxanne. Then we can say that Tinsley had her necklace. It’s still circumstantial.”

“A little more than circumstantial.”

“Sure. Putting Chuck in the vicinity is both good and bad. You can make a case that Tinsley was involved with her murder. Or you can make a case that Tinsley found her body after she was dead and ripped the necklace off her neck.” When Wanda gave him a look, Decker said, “It’s what his attorney will say.”

Wanda said, “Remember the primary suspect, Burt Barney?”

“The homeless guy who found the body.”

“Yes. Oxnard police grilled him for hours. They asked him over and over what he did with the necklace. He never gave it up, Loo. He swore he didn’t kill Roxanne, and when he found the body, there was no necklace.”

“A lawyer could say that Tinsley took the necklace before Barney found her.”

“That’s stretching.” Wanda threw her arms open.

“We need beyond a reasonable doubt and this is my problem. Tinsley looked like a potential serial killer when we thought he had something to do with Adrianna Blanc’s murder. But we know what happened to Adrianna and Crystal, and Tinsley didn’t have anything to do with them. That was Garth Hammerling.” A pause. “Who is also a serial killer.”

Wanda shook her head. “How many serial killers have you come across in your career?”

“In my thirty years of police work including Florida, I have dealt with three serial killers, although one case was iffy because there were charges against him for only one murder. It was just suspected
that he may have done others. They’re out there for sure, but not with the frequency portrayed in the media. To have one serial killer involved as a witness in a murder case committed by another serial killer is crazy. That’s why we need to proceed slowly…so we don’t make a mistake.”

“So what do we do with Tinsley?”

“If we get Roxanne’s DNA off of the necklace, we can arrest Tinsley on stolen property—which is how he’s going to plead. He saw Roxanne’s body in the open lot and made a bad decision. It would be great to find a witness who saw Chuck and Roxanne leave together. Anyone in the files look promising?”

“I have to reread the pages.”

“You might want to check out Tinsley’s buddies at the time. Maybe he confessed to someone, although if he truly is a serial killer, I’d have my doubts.”

“I’ll go over the files again.”

“What’s going on with Lee Wang and Oceanside PD?”

“He’s still looking. We’ve sent the ring found in Tinsley’s possession to the lab. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a DNA match for Erin Greenfield.”

“Was Tinsley in Oceanside at the time Greenfield was murdered?”

“I don’t know. I’ll call up Lee and compare notes.”

“One piece of jewelry is circumstantial,” Decker said. “Two pieces with DNA that matches two murdered girls can’t be explained away easily. Right now all we can do is cross our fingers and put our faith in science.”

AFTER THREE WEEKS
in the hospital, Jacqueline Mars, the sixteen-year-old runaway whom Garth and Mandy had abducted, strangled, and wrapped up in a garbage bag, had recovered sufficiently to be discharged from the hospital. Unfortunately, her memory of what happened during the period of time in question was even fuzzier than Mandy Kowalski’s. At present, she still has no recollection of those fateful days she spent in a stupor.

Mandy Kowalski was arrested for the first-degree murder of Adrianna Blanc, and the attempted murder of Jacqueline Mars. She escaped charges in the murder of Crystal Larabee. She is assumed innocent of all the charges until proven guilty.

After the news about Garth Hammerling and Mandy Kowalski’s drug-induced crime spree broke open, St. Tim’s started examining routine deaths that had taken place during their shifts. Mandy’s cases came up clean, but there were several suspicious deaths during Hammerling’s years of employment. One month after the grisly discoveries at Hammerling’s Vegas condo, those hospital cases that Garth handled still remained under investigation.

Decker finally did receive a copy of the tox report on Adrianna Blanc. It took a little longer than usual because the pathologist had to reorder a blood screen for Pavulon. And while the drug was found in her system—and might have killed her—the amount in her blood was not considered a lethal dose. A more likely case was that Adrianna was alive but paralyzed when Garth had strung her from the rafters at the construction site. The coroner’s ruling was death by asphyxiation from the hanging.

It could have been that Garth genuinely thought she was dead. But Decker and his detectives thought otherwise. They all concluded that even if Garth had known that Adrianna was still alive, he would have followed through with his plans. As evidenced by Crystal Larabee and the two bodies and piles of bones found in his Vegas house, Garth simply enjoyed killing.

Six weeks after Tinsley’s jewelry pieces were sent to the lab for DNA, the reports came back to the police with distinct DNA profiles. The necklace contained Tinsley’s DNA as well as DNA from a hair root that belonged to Roxanne Holly. The ring took a while longer because of the scant biological evidence. The tests involved repeating the same sample of DNA over and over. Eventually two profiles were extracted: Tinsley’s and that of Erin Greenfield.

Chuck Tinsley was arrested the following day. The timing couldn’t have been better for Lydia and Nathan Grossman, the property owners. They had just passed final inspection.

The murders of Roxanne Holly and Erin Greenfield had taken
place outside Decker’s jurisdiction. He was aching to be part of Tinsley’s interrogations, but the whole thing became moot once Tinsley asked for a lawyer.

Although there was cause for a cautious celebration in Tinsley’s arrest, there were also problems. Tinsley had allowed the detectives to search his apartment, but that was only in regard to gathering evidence in the Adrianna Blanc case. The jewelry, his lawyers pleaded, was inadmissible because it had nothing to do with Adrianna Blanc. And without the jewelry, there was no case against Tinsley in the Holly and Greenfield homicides.

The district attorney argued that the police had taken the pieces with Charles Tinsley’s permission in order to see if any of them belonged to Adrianna Blanc. When the two pieces showed up in the files as identical to jewelry belonging to two other murdered women, it would have been negligent not to test them for DNA. And since the jewelry was obtained with Mr. Tinsley’s permission, nothing illegal was done.

After many continuances, the first judge sided with the D.A. The jewelry was admissible. Tinsley’s legal team appealed. Months later, the appellate judge sided with the first judge. First-degree murder charges were levied against Charles Michael Tinsley for the deaths of Roxanne Holly and Erin Greenfield. Tinsley is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Garth Willard Hammerling still remains at large. Anyone having information to his whereabouts is requested to call the Los Angeles Police Department and/or the North Las Vegas Police Department.