Fatal Encounters, Chapter 24
by Irv Pliskin
“Have you decided where to go for your ring?” Hallen asked
“No, not yet.”
“Well, unless you have a friend or a family member who is a jeweler, you want to go somewhere that’s totally trustworthy. It’s like buying an oriental rug, you’re at the mercy of the seller.”
“I’ve heard that,” Frank said. “Have you any suggestions of places I can go to. I don’t think either of us has a family member in the jewelry business.”
Hallen turned to BB. “Don’t you know a jeweler who can help?”
“There’s a guy in Scranton I know. But his prices are probably already inflated, and even if he gives you a discount, which he will do when he finds out that you’re a state cop, he still will get more than he should, more ‘n likely. You know, dontcha, that picking a ring is a matter of taste. If you find one that you really like regardless of the cost, it may very well be worthwhile buying it. If it was me, I’d go to Robbins at 8th and Walnut in Philly, or the Jewelry Factory in Norristown. Both of them are supposed to think kindly about guys in our profession. Wear your uniform, and you might save some money”
“Thanks a lot BB. I'll see what Regina wants to do, and we’ll probably follow your advice. “
After their breakfast, they drove to their appointment with the police chief in Bellwood. It was a sleepy little town, the main activity point was NJ state road 130, which was a busy, active highway that sliced through South Jersey like a cleaver.
Cletus Updyke, Chief of Police, according to the brass name marker on his desk, told them about the homicide, who the woman was, what she had done for a living, where she worked and where she was found.
He put some crime scene photos down for them to look at, and all three of them blanched.
“Jesus,” Hallen said. “I’ve seen a lot of homicide pics in my life, but this bastard is a real sick SOB. Why the hell do you think he would set the corpse up that way? That’s pretty sick.”
“We think so too,” the chief said. “I talked about this with the coroner, and he said that maybe, just maybe, this guy was insulted by the woman when he realized she was carrying that dildo with her. We really don’t know, though.”
“When was this homicide?” Hallen asked. “Let’s see, a couple of days ago? Well, you certainly don’t have your DNA results back yet. But if it’s okay with you, I’m going to assume you have them, and go through the steps we would follow if we had a DNA match.”
“What would those steps be?” the chief asked.
“I’d like to take the pictures of the man we think this is, a man we know to be a killer, and circulate them around the area. Maybe somebody saw the guy, and can give us a lead on what he did, and so forth. I’d also like to look at the place where the body was found, and see what’s around it that may be helpful. We have a unique situation here, by the way.”
“In what way?”
”Well, from everything we can determine, and we’ve determined a lot, this guy is rich as Rockefeller. He is loaded up to here”, Hallen said, and held his hand above his head. “Not millions, billions.”
“How do you know that?” the chief asked.
“Well we got lucky and identified him. Actually he had been seen with a woman who turned up dead very soon after he brought her here from England.”
“Who saw him? How can you be sure?
“Well, strange as it may seem chief, I did. I saw him and a girl on an airplane, and then the woman turned up a floater in the Delaware a couple of weeks after I saw them together. A police artist did a really good drawing, and we published it up there, in the Pocono area and got a lot of hits. Everyone seemed to know him, but he had disappeared. There was still viable semen in the dead woman, and we traced that DNA to the guy’s house where we found all sorts of proof, and lots of matching DNA. We know who he purports to be, but we don’t know where he is.”
“Okay,” Chief Updyke said. “Tell you what, I’ll take you to the area where the corpse was found, and you can have your guys do a canvas. I’ll get a couple of my guys to do one too. We’re a small department, I can only spare a couple of men for this, but let’s see what turns up. How’s that?”
“Great,” Hallen said. “ We appreciate any help you can give us. I want to get this guy off the streets before he kills anyone else. So, let’s do it.”
They parked in the bookstore parking lot. BB went down the road to the Day’s Inn motel to check with the clerks and the people there. Hallen went to the diner to check and see if Carl had been there, and Frank went into the bookstore/peep show to talk to the people there.
The first thing Frank was aware of when he walked into the garishly lit lobby of the place was the penetrating odor of some sort of strong disinfectant. He raised his eyebrows at the several ‘viewing booths’ in front of the door, girls were already in them in skimpy clothes designed to attract the attention of any male who came in. He went to the glass enclosed cashier’s cage and spoke to the man there.
“Good Morning,” he said. “My name is Godowsky, and I'm with the state police. I wonder if you would help me for a moment.”
The man paled. “Look I didn’t do nothin’. I’m perfectly clean.”
“I’m sure your are. I just have a few questions is all. Nothing to do with you.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“First of all, what’s your name, sir?”
“I gotta give you that, huh?”
“Well, do you have anything to hide?”
“Me, hell no. I don’t have nothin’ to hide. My name is Skip Smithers.”
“Skip is your first name?”
“Skip’s what they call me. My real name is Seymour. I don’t know why my old lady gave me a kike name like that. Bad as being Irving, but everyone calls me Skip.”
“Well, Skip,” Frank said in an effort to establish a less formidable rapport, “Have you ever seen this man before?” He put a picture of Rogers on the desk.
“No officer, but if you are asking because of Ginger over there,” and he pointed to a booth with the name Ginger across the top, “She didn’t come in until eleven, I’m the night man and I woulda been gone by then.”
“Ginger? I thought the woman’s name was,” Frank looked at his notes, “Betty Louise”
“That’s right officer. But we call them by the names we give them in here on the booth. The boss picks the names for the booth, thinks it is a hell of lot more sexy than Betty Louise or Anne or Mary or something dumb like that.”
“I See.”
“Afternoon man is Marion Vernon. He’s upstairs now waiting for his shift to begin in about ten minutes. Why don’t I give him a call, get him down here to talk to ya?”
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that.” Frank said.
Marion Vernon came down within minutes.
While he waited, Godowsky wandered around the magazine and video showroom looking at the explicit magazine covers and the titles of the videos and DVD’s that were for sale. He laughed at the titles, examined some of the wild and sexy pictures on the video and DVD covers and wondered what the contents were. He was a man who was not into porno films and videos. He considered them a spectator sport: he preferred real action and he decided that the videos would be deadly boring.
But, he had to admit, the people who dreamed up the titles must be pretty interesting to talk to. They certainly had active imaginations.
Marion Vernon was a wimpy little man, with a very tidy pencil thin mustache. His black hair was slicked down with very strong and perfumed pomade, so he had the look of an old-fashioned Mexican movie actor. Frank was reminded of one of the aggressive caballeros in the movies, romancing the women without finesse.
Vernon like “Skip” appeared more than a little cautious and reluctant to talk.
“Mr. Vernon,” Godowsky said, “will you look at some pictures for me please and tell me if they mean anything to you?”
“Well, okay. But I didn’t do nothing. I’m not guilty of nothing.”
“Oh, I’m sure of that, sir.” Godowsky said. And he thought how interesting it was that a citizen should automatically deny culpability about anything, long before he wa accused.
Would totally innocent people, a priest, or a minister or a rabbi make the same statements of deniability, he wondered. He considered the thought and then decided that they might. Everyone is somewhat intimidated by an official.
I might be too, he figured if some guy in uniform came to talk to me about something I might know about.
He lay the photos down on the counter. Marion looked at them and looked up.
“I recognize this guy. He came in about 3 in the afternoon, looked around for a second or two and spotted Ginger over there.” he pointed to the booth. Then he came up to me and asked me how things worked in this “Effin’ joint.” That’s what he said, Effin’ joint. I tole him and he got twenty bucks in tokens. I remember, because most guys only buy five bucks worth, twenty bucks that’s a lot.”
“What happened after that, do you know?”
“No, didn’t watch it. But I guess he spent the twenty bucks and left, or put cash in the slot. You can put cash in the slot in those booths you know. I can check the cash tally for Ginger’s booth, if ya want me to. We split the cash take with the girls, so we gotta keep good records.”
“But, you’re pretty sure this man was here, right?”
“Yeah, He was here all right. . He the guy that killed her?”
“We don’t know that. This is just a routine check.”
“Well, if he is, he should be caught and his balls cut off. Betty Louise was a pretty nice country girl. She was a really good sport. Not stuck up like a lotta the girls we got working here. Some of them thought they was God’s gift to the world of sex. Not Betty Louise. If a guy was hard up, she’d help him out, too, whatever made a guy feel better. She was a strange one, though. Afterwards she’d always finish herself off. The way I got it was that she was hitched real young. Maybe fifteen or so, and the guy was some sort of a country yokel. He was a real Wham, bam kinda guy, and he never gave no never mind to what she needed. So he always left her hung up. She discovers the way to feel better, Didn’t mean no harm to nobody, just her way of getting off. But she wasn’t ready to die, I tell you that. And if this guy did it, let me at him. I’ll fix his ass, you bet.”
Frank thanked him, went out to the car, took the laptop out of the trunk and recorded it all, trying to get it all down as accurately as he could. He believed in keeping correct records, and the laptop, was a great way. He was working on it when Hallen came back from the restaurant.
‘How’d you make out Frank?”
“I got a pretty positive ID boss. A guy called Marion Vernon, a sort of cashier- manager there said that he was sure the man in the pictures had been in the place. Got twenty dollars worth of tokens, and Vernon remembered him, because most guys get five bucks only. He said some interesting things about the dead woman, too. Said she was a nice person, and here, let me quote him: “if a guy was had up, she’d help him out,” he said.
“Hard up? You don’t mean for money do you?”
“No, he said that she would be available to the guys who worked here for sex, any kind they wanted, and then when they were finished she would always finish herself. Pretty weird, right?”
“Yeah, it is. But at least we got a couple of identifications. I found a waitress who remembered from the picture, too. Seems Rogers had breakfast at the diner just before they found the body here in her car on the parking lot. She remembers he had a big breakfast and he left her a pretty good tip. Not enough to make her remember him, but she did. Something about him made an impression, she couldn’t tell me what, but she remembered. I wonder how BB is doing. He should be here by now.”
“Maybe he had to wait for a shift change or something,” Frank said. “I know I had to. Luckily my guy was just coming in to work, and he was there. But if the desk clerk hasn’t come in yet, BB may have to hang around and wait for the shift to start.”
“That sounds logical. If he’s waiting at the Day’s Inn, that is. We’ll wait a while and then go look for him. Okay?”
“Yes sir.”
Whenever any of the top brass in the Pennsylvania State Police discussed Jerry Hallen, they all shared the same general opinion.
Jerry Hallen was tough minded, smart as hell, and a true team player. He was a man who welcomed other people’s opinions and ideas, but when push came to shove, he did what he thought was right or would work.
Jerry Hallen, they would say is one of the constellation bright stars in the department and would go far.
Jerry Hallen and Francis Godowsky were sitting in the unmarked Pennsylvania state police car waiting to get the results of BB’s investigation. They were discussing the various permutations about the case, taking into account the things they knew, but they added to it their speculations as well.
Everything seemed to point to the fact that this sex crime was once more the work of the man they knew as Carl Rogers. All they needed for firm confirmation was the DNA, but that was still a bit away. But they were discussing what to do if the DNA was positive. Hallen was brainstorming in a sense, sort of free association thinking. Frank was making notes of what he said, as fast as he could on the laptop. Frank was amazed at the creative and wide spread ideas Jerry had.
But boiled down, they decided the procedure to follow would be much the same as it had been. They would make every effort to get in depth media coverage and have the man’s picture broadcast to the area. That had worked once before, It might work now, too.
“Christ,” Jerry said. “If only we had some idea of where this guy is. He’s been here, of course. But why here? What the hell drove him to come to this part of New Jersey? Does he have roots here? Family background? There is so much we don’t know about this son of a bitch that it is pretty tough knowing what to do or where to go as we’re looking for him.”
“I’ve got a question, boss,” Frank said. “You said that this guy was richer than Rockefeller. I didn’t know that, but I would guess you are right.”
”Oh, we’re right about that, Frank. We have proof of his wealth.”
“That’s a given, but if he has that much money, why does he come to a middle class, half assed area like this to do his dirty work? If he shacked up around here, it would be anything but fancy. Why wouldn’t the guy stay in the fanciest places, and throw his money around?”
“We don’t know that. But it's a good question. Another good question is where did he get all that money? How the hell did he manage to do that and remain anonymous? You got any ideas, Francis? I sure as hell don’t.”
Hallen looked at his watch. “It‘s about twenty minutes after the hour, and that would leave time for an on-the-hours shift change over at the Day’s Inn. I wonder where the hell BB is. He should be here by now.”
“I'll go see if I can find him,” Frank said. He opened the car door, and stepped out, as Billings walked briskly across the parking lot.
Hallen looked up at him. “Hey Barney, where the hell have you been?”
“Sorry,” BB said. “But I had to wait around for the afternoon shift to come on. The desk clerk on that shift was very helpful. She said that she had, indeed, rented a room to our guy.”
“What name did he use”
“He signed the card as S.Gingerman, from Chicago. No address, nothing more. He paid cash for two nights.”
“Gingerman, huh?” Hallen observed, “Bastard has a sense of humor, since Betty Louise’s booth was marked Ginger and that’s the name she use in this joint.” he pointed to the bookstore. “Gingerman, the man for ginger. Jesus. If it wasn’t so sick, it might be interesting.”
“How?” BB asked.
“Beats me, but it might tell us something. About how this guy’s mind works. You gotta agree, it would be very helpful to understand something about this cat. I don’t have a clue. So, did you check the room?”
”Well, it’s been cleaned, of course. But I had it sealed off. It apparently hasn’t been rented since our guy used it. I thought maybe the Chief here can send in a forensic team to go over the place. If he can’t, then we can call for one of our own, can’t we Jerry?”
“Yeah, good work BB. I’ll call the chief and see if he can help and get us a forensic team. If he can’t I’ll get one over from the Philadelphia barracks, or ask the N. J. State Police to help out. They will, I’m sure.”
“Shall I make the calls, Boss?” Frank asked.
“Yeah, why don’t you call Chief Updyke and see what facilities he has, or has available to him. Tell him you’re calling for me. Also tell him we’ve been successful in tracking the guy, and his survey team can go back to work. I don’t think they can find much more out for us.”
“Yes sir.”
BB and Hallen went over their notes as Frank made the call.
Updyke was very receptive to calling his men back in. “Listen, Frank,” he said, “tell Hallen that I was going to call him, I have some info he might find interesting. My guys turned up something interesting.”
“Would you like to talk to him now, Chief?”
“Sure, if he’s available.”
“Hold on, sir.”
Frank handed the phone to Jerry. “Chief has some information for you detective. Here he is.”
“Jerry?” the chief asked.
“Yep, Cletus, it’s me.”
“My fellows checked the shopping center over there, and they did get a hit or two. It seemed that your perp made a lot of purchase at the drug store and the liquor store. I told them to tell the people there to expect you or one of your team. It might be useful to check it out.”
“Thanks a lot chief. I appreciate it. We’ll check it out. What stores did you say? The liquor store and the drugstore? Good we’ll check it out.”
“We couldn’t get any information from the 7-11, the people who were on haven’t come to work yet. You might want to check it out, too. The people will be in there in an hour or so.”
“Thanks a lot chief. I do appreciate it.”
“No problem. If you can catch that deranged son of a bitch, you’ll be doing the entire world a favor. As soon as I get the DNA results, I’ll call you. Okay?”
“Fine, and thanks again.”
“DeNada”
Hallen, Godowsky and BB drove over to the parking lot to get further details about the information Chief Updyke had given them. They hit pay dirt in the Drug Store. There there was a surveillance video camera trained on the cash register and the pay out section.
“When was this man in here, do you think?” the store manager asked.
They checked their data and told him when they thought it might be.
“Well, I’m reasonably sure we have a record of that on the video camera. We keep the videos for a couple of weeks, just in case there should be a dispute, and then we recycle them. Now, we can do this one of two ways,” he said to Hallen. “I can give you the tape and you can screen it when you get home and send it back to me. Or you can look at it in my office, but it may take you a while to find the person you are looking for, you know.”
The store manager looked at Hallen as he said this, and then he thought about it some more. It seemed obvious to him that Hallen wanted the entire tape so he could carefully screen it in the lab. “Why don’t you take the tape officer and screen it at your leisure. Don’t bother sending it back. Just hang on to it for about a month. If we need it, we’ll get to you, and you can send it back. Otherwise it might be evidence in your case, so just hang on to it.”
“Thanks,” Hallen said. “If you like I can have the entire tape copied and returned to you.”
“That would be just fine, detective. If you would do that, our records would remain complete.”
Although Hallen was fairly certain that Carl Rogers had been the perpetrator of the murder of the nude-dancing girl, he still needed one more piece of proof before he took the matter to the media. He needed the results of the DNA test of the semen. Once he had that, he would be able to ask for media help. Then he would be sure his culprit was or had been in the area. It would be a few days, yet, before the DNA testing would be finished, Chief Upddyke had told him. He could do nothing more than wait.
They decided to go home to Pennsylvania. Before they left the area, they stopped at the offices of the local newspapers and spoke to the editors. The editors for both newspapers agreed to do what they could to help. Although they did not generally publish pictures of wanted suspects, since this man had a strong history of crimes against woman, they agreed to do what they could. They told him that as soon as he was certain of his identification to let them know. They would do what they could.
Frank had called Regina three times during the day on his cell phone. She seemed to be feeling better, her mother was floating in and out of consciousness, but the doctor’s were sanguine about the results of the surgery. They were fairly certain she would make a full recovery complete with memory and regain her normal mental capacity. “I’ll be waiting in the apartment for you, darling, whenever you get here,” she said.
Frank felt good about that. He assuredly didn’t want anything harmful to happen to Regina, and he relaxed as they drove home.
Frank had driven the unmarked car back to where they had left their own cars, so Hallen could work on the phone and make plans for the next few days.
Hallen arranged with the office that as soon as any call came in from New Jersey that he would be notified so he could call Cletus back and get the DNA results.
When Frank put his key in the lock of the door of Regina’s apartment, the door opened before he could turn the lock. He stepped into the foyer. Regina was standing behind the door, wearing only a small, French maid’s type apron and nothing else. She smelled of expensive perfume and looked, to Frank, absolutely devastatingly beautiful.
He leaned forward and kissed her, gently and then vigorously. She locked the door, put on the chain and then leaned forward and engulfed him in an embracing hug.
He stepped back after a moment, and looked at her. “Are you always going to greet me dressed like that after we’re married.?”
“You asked me that before. I will if you want me to. But I figured today, has been such a long one for you, you needed some relaxation, and this would be a way to start. What I really think you should do is climb into the bathtub. It is full of warm water. I fixed it just for you, with bubble bath and everything. And after you’ve soaked out the day we can shower together. I ‘m dressed like this so if you splash me while you are in the bathtub I won’t get my clothes wet.”
“Do you like my outfit? It’s what they sell specifically for the sport I think we are going to be engaged in.”
“Love it,’ he said. And tweaked her right nipple.
Frank lay back in the water, luxuriating in the warmth and the comfort of it. Regina came into the bathroom in her pert little apron, and suggested that he roll to one side so she could wash his back with the loofa sponge.
He turned to one side. She carefully folded a thick bath sheet and put it on the tile floor so she could kneel on it. Then she knelt over the side of the tub and vigorously scrubbed his back.
She scrubbed the middle of his back, the neck and shoulders and then let the sponge go further down. After a few minutes, she put her hand under him and touched him, gently and lovingly. He rolled over on his back, and she could see that she had had an effect on him. She grinned, stood up, took off the apron and joined him in the water. When she climbed in the tub, he said “Listen we’re going to make a mess on the floor. It will be soaked.”
“Who cares?” she asked. “I can always clean it up later. Now, shut up and concentrate on the matter at hand.”
He did.
