Mind Switch (34 page)

“I showed the pictures of Ford that you wired me to owners of the houses nearby. Although none of the neighbors recognized them, they also qualified their statements by saying that they couldn’t be sure.”

“I see,” said Jim. “On the plane I had another thought. The packages sent to Goshen, which likely contained stolen jewelry, were sent via Fed-Ex. If there’s a local delivery center in the area, perhaps with any luck we can find the carrier who delivered them.”

“It’s worth a shot!”

* * *

Jim had lucked out. He had found the Fed-Ex employee who delivered Ford’s packages in Goshen. Fortunately the packages had been delivered recently, so the drop off area was fresh in his mind. He didn’t remember the address but he did remember clearly that they were from Sarasota and they were wrapped more securely then any package he had ever seen.

The delivery man was taken to the two possible addresses where the package may have been delivered. When they arrived at the second house, owned by Baker, he said, “I recognize it; this is definitely it. I even remember the broken board in the porch where my leg almost went through. When I rang the door bell the guy opened it immediately, like he had been expecting the package and that it had been urgent. There were a total of eight packages and he kept asking me if I was sure that I had all of them.

“Like, what did he think; that I put one of the packages in my back pocket? At any rate when I gave him the last one, he slammed the door in my face, no thank you, no nothing.”

Jim said, “Now, tell me, do any of these pictures look like the guy?” Jim hoped that somehow the FEDEX man would recognize Ford.

“No way; he was much older, perhaps in his fifties or sixties. He squinted out of one of his eyes like it had been injured or something. His eyebrows were very thick, unlike the thin ones the guy in your picture has. No, it was definitely a different person.”

Jim said. “Thanks very much, we may need to call on you again.”

When the delivery man left, Jim asked Sergeant Johnson “Do you know a friendly judge? We need to get a search warrant right away.”

“You want a search warrant to be able to look through the house?”

“Not initially, first I want to get access to all the phone calls this guy placed in the past month. He obviously is not the guy from Sarasota that I am looking for, but I suspect he is working with him, perhaps to fence the jewelry that was shipped to him. Maybe we can, using the phone list, find out who his contacts are. I would also love to see the last time he talked to our missing Mr. Ford.”

“I think you’re in luck. I guess you noticed our court house when you arrived; Goshen is the county seat of Orange County and I know a local judge who was a former cop. He went to law school nights to get his degree. He’s hard nosed, but he can be counted on to be on our side.”

“Ok, and I would also appreciate it if you would check to see if Mr. Baker has a record.”

* * *

Turning down the temptation to take the extra day off, Fred returned to the station the next day. During the period he had been at home, he had shown Maureen how to use the weapon that he purchased for her, not that he believed she would under any condition ever be able to fire at another human being, unless someone else was directing the firing.

Now that his mind was back on the job, Fred realized that he previously had committed to proving that certain people in the bank killings were designated to be eliminated, and others were thrown in for confusion purposes only. Up to now he had been too busy in other areas to seek the proof that he needed. He had decided to watch the bank video one more time to see if he there was anything he had missed in his previous viewings. He asked his secretary to set them up, and join him in the conference room.

Looking at the videos, it was again evident that certain people were being bypassed during the shooting spree. Jan said, “I’ve read about some mass murderers killing those that they didn’t like, and skipping over those that they did.”

“Well, yes, that’s true except that in this case, the only common tie we can find seems to be associated with AU. I believe that was the objective, to kill selective division heads from that company and throw in some additional victims to put noise in the message that we were receiving.”

“Fred, you said that you could prove that the last time we viewed the tapes.”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t had time up until now. Now is as good a time as ever to get started. Jan please bring me the entire file on the bank murders as well as the theater killings. However, I want to keep the data for each location separated. I especially am interested in the autopsy report for each of those slain; and I also need a report from the hospital relative to the wounded.”

“Boss, I don’t get it.”

“You will!”

* * *

Shortly, his secretary brought the complete files of the autopsies into the conference room. Fred said, “Let’s start with all those killed at the bank. Put down their names and find out in each case how many bullets were found in the body.”

Jan’s brow furrowed. She said, “This effort still makes no sense to me. We know they were all killed and we know how, so what does counting bullets add to our intelligence gathering?”

“I understand how you feel, but please pacify me. You take this group of victims, and I’ll check the rest.”

In less than an hour they had compiled two lists. Next to each name was a number which represented the bullets found in each of the bodies. If a bullet had entered and left the body that was counted as well.

“Aha, quite interesting!” Fred said. “The victims at the bank with the greatest number of bullets in them were the employee from AU and the bank guard. No other victim at the bank had even half as many bullets.”

“Now, let’s compare that with the results of the shooting at the theater.”

Their review shoed that five people, two from the bank and three from the theater shooting, had sustained most of the bullets.

Jan asked, “And your conclusion with this data is?”

“That our killers were compelled to make sure that their two targets were eliminated. They wanted no errors, no heroic life saving antics by medical personnel that would somehow keep them alive. With an average of ten bullets in our victim from AU and the bank guard, that objective could be assured.”

Jan asked. “Why the bank guard?”

“He was the first victim and he had to be eliminated first because he was the sole individual who could have prevented the shooting.”

Jan was still not convinced. “But three people in the theater had roughly the same number of bullets in them. Based on your logic, that would mean each of the three had been earmarked to be killed. And some of those people were not AU employees!”

“Remember, Jan, that unlike the bank, the theater was dark and our killer was shooting a distance away at the upper row of the theater. The target was sitting in the lower row. The killer knew the general location of the AU employee; but in the darkness he had to spray his bullets somewhat to make sure he killed his target. I’m sure we will find that the other two who were killed sat very close to the target. Unfortunately, they became collateral victims based on their proximity to the intended victim.”

“Ok, and what about all the other fatalities?”

“They were thrown in to the mix only to confuse us and divert our thinking.”

Jan said, “Someone who would do that would have to be a sociopath, someone who cares absolutely nothing about the value of human life. He would be an absolute monster.”

“Yes, without question.”

“And how do you explain the fact that Mr. Slivers paused in his shooting?”

“That was deliberate as well. Let me ask you a question, do you know how many males versus females were in the bank at the time?”

Jan thought for a period, “I have no idea.”

“I checked, there were a total of eighteen females and seven males. Do you know how many females were killed?

“I believe you previously told me none were.”

“That’s right, and the women that were wounded in the bank only suffered one gunshot wound each. That was not the case in the theater shooting; but I suspect that the shooter could not easily determine gender in a darkened room. I suspect he knew where his intended victim was sitting and not much else. I firmly believe, however, that in the case of the bank shooting, the women were simply the unfortunate by-product of an untrained shooter who didn’t know how to handle his weapon.”

Fred then asked a rhetorical question, “Based on what you witnessed on the video, who was Slivers’ last victim?”

“It was a woman.”

“Yes, Jan, but I believe she was never intended to be a victim; and when he realized he had shot her he couldn’t stand it any longer. It set up some terrible conflict in him, a
conflict between being compelled to go through with this heinous crime, and an inner value system in which he could not be driven to kill or injure a woman.”

“But if this guy is a sociopath, why would he have any values at all? If he has no regard for human life, why would he make an exception in the case of women?”

“Jan, the first question we have to answer is did Mr. Slivers act on his own, or was he being controlled by another person – a person who dominated him and masterminded his actions? I strongly believe the latter. And if he was being controlled by another person, was the firing up of his conscience and his subsequent burst of emotions stimulated by the fact that he violated his own value system? Or had it been because he had violated the constraints established by someone else? I don’t know the answer to that question; in fact my wife would have the expertise to answer it much better than I. But I believe that even in the worst of mankind some residual good rests in us all. I know it’s a trite observation but it’s true. Even Hitler was kind to his dog and mistress. He just didn’t give a shit about the rest of the world. That doesn’t make him any less of a monster; it just shows that some values are so well embedded in us that they remain even if our psyche over time turns black with evil and becomes totally corrupted.”

“By the way, Jan, did you know that normally mass murders do not exclude women from their crimes, that statistically 65% of victims are women? This case would be an exception to the mass murder’s normal tendency.”

“Wow, that’s a lot to digest.”

“Yes, and I’m sure that somehow Mr. Ford is the brains behind the killings. The problem is that I still don’t know why or how he did it.”

“Do you think you should tell the chief about your theory on this?”

“Yes, up to now I’ve been keeping my theory somewhat to myself; but I believe that now is the time to discuss it with him.”

Chapter 57

The Marvel
was getting very worried.
Whether it’s just blind luck or brilliant police work, Lieutenant Harris is getting much closer to the solution than I ever expected. His death will have to come quickly without the careful planning that I would have desired. Once he is eliminated from the scene, no one else on the force would be able to reassemble the details and put them together as he has. The longer he is alive, the stronger the possibility that he will convince others of his theories. I can’t afford to let that happen.

Chapter 58

Jim had decided to spend a few more days in Goshen. The day’s high temperature had dropped to the mid teens; and with a brisk wind the chill factor dropped below zero. Sergeant Johnson was kind enough to lend him one of his heavier coats as well as a pair of fur laden gloves. That wasn’t enough for Jim in this devil’s winter play land. Jim asked for a heavy sweater as well.

Sergeant Johnson laughed, “Do you think you will ever thaw out after you leave here?” Jim didn’t answer; he wasn’t being impolite, his lips were chattering too much to respond.

Meanwhile, the local judge they had contacted for a search warrant had been very supportive and in less than a day they had compiled a list of phone calls that Baker had made from his Goshen home. Most of the calls were made to a number in New York City; a couple of the calls were made to Ford’s business in Sarasota.

The last call that was made to Ford was four days ago, which was the time that the Sarasota police had lost track of Ford.

“Well,” Jim said to Sergeant Johnson, “the connection between Baker and Ford is now well established. Now we have to find out who was his mystery contact in New York City.”

“Do you think we have enough on Baker to arrest him?”

“I’m not sure, and I sure don’t want to scare Ford away. I would guess he’s on his way up here to meet with his associate; and that’s why we have to be especially cautious, so neither of them suspects that we are actively investigating them in the Goshen area.”

The New York City number Baker had called turned out to be a jewelry store on East 86th Street.

“That’s it,” Jim said. “That must be his fence. Let’s contact the precinct in New York that handles that area and see if they can be of any help.”

The New York City precinct that handled the area was the 19th. When Jim told them of his suspicions about the Jewelry store, the officer manning the desk transferred him directly to the burglary division.