Into the Dark

27

Los Angeles, California

Tanner checked his phone for messages while watching L.A.’s sprawl roll by his window as Zurn exceeded the speed limit on the 10.

Twenty minutes earlier, Tanner had been at his desk reviewing an old file when Mark Harding called his cell phone.

“We just got a letter that you need to see. It’s from the Dark Wind Killer.”

“The killer wrote to you?”

“He’s responding to our story.”

“What does it say?” Tanner had opened his notebook and poised his pen.

“He’s going to kill again, and he included Leeza Meadows’s driver’s license and a photo of her bound and alive and a photo of her dead.”

Tanner’s gut had spasmed.

While he’d told Harding about the cell phone, only the killer would have knowledge about Leeza’s driver’s license. Investigators had never released that fact.

In the silence that followed, he wedged his phone between his ear and shoulder while he searched the documents on his desk.

“Do you still have the license and photos?”

“Yes, at our bureau. We just got it.”

“You’re there now?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t leave. Don’t move or touch the material, and don’t let anyone who touched any of it leave. We’re on our way.”

Before they’d left, Tanner had alerted his lieutenant to the break in the case. The lieutenant then advised the captain and a series of actions began. Calls were made to prepare to expedite a warrant in case the news agency refused to volunteer the letter. A request went to the FBI to dispatch its Evidence Response Team to collect and process the material. The FBI’s Los Angeles division was about four miles west of the ANPA’s bureau. Special Agent Brad Knox led a small team of agents and other specialists. They joined Tanner and Zurn, filling the ANPA’s small reception area where Harding met them.

“Okay,” Harding told Tanner and Knox, “we kept the letter on Allison’s desk, right over here where she was opening the mail.”

“We’ll need to talk to everyone who’s handled it,” Knox said.

“Excuse me,” Magda interrupted as she emerged from her office. The sight of the investigators, some wearing sidearms and T-shirts saying FBI Evidence Response Team, and carrying equipment cases, made her jittery. “I’m Magdalena Pierce. I’m in charge of this bureau. What’re you doing?”

“They need to process the letter,” Harding told her after quick introductions and displays of IDs.

“Not without a warrant. That letter is ANPA property,” Magda said.

“Ma’am, if I may,” Knox said. “You’re correct. It is your property and we can get a warrant. But we’re hoping you’ll volunteer it to us. It would speed up the process for everyone. Otherwise, getting a warrant will just keep us here that much longer.”

She hesitated for a moment.

“Let me call our headquarters in New York.”

Magda left and Harding caught up with her in her office.

“If we volunteer the letter we can make a case for exclusivity,” he said.

“I want to get a story out ASAP.”

“So do I, but do you want to be first, or do you want to be right?”

She stared at him and then glanced at the investigators waiting down the hall.

“We already own this story,” he said. “We have to play this right.”

“Let me call New York.”

Harding returned to the group and took Tanner aside. From down the hall they watched Magda through the office glass walls while she spoke to the ANPA’s world headquarters.

“You used us with that first story, didn’t you?” Harding said to Tanner.

“We gave you an exclusive, Mark.”

“You never once believed the killer was dead. You used our story to goad him to reveal himself. You know more about him.”

Tanner remained silent. His face betrayed nothing.

“Look, Joe, I’m trying to get you the letter now. Work with me. How about you give us a copy of the message the killer left you?”

“I can’t.” He glanced over his shoulder. “See Agent Knox and my partner there, on the phone? They’re working on the warrant. We’re going to get that letter, Mark.”

Magda stepped from her office and waved Knox, Tanner and Harding inside and pressed a button to activate her speakerphone.

“I’ve got Sebastian Strother, ANPA executive news editor, on speaker with Herschel Abramowitz, ANPA legal. Gentlemen,” Magda said. “And joining us in my office, we have Agent Brad Knox of the L.A. FBI and Detective Joe Tanner, L.A. County Sheriff’s office, with Mark Harding.”

“Thank you,” Strother said. “Magdalena’s briefed us and we have a few questions. We’re aware that with a warrant that is likely forthcoming, you’ll obtain the letter, so the ANPA turning it over to you for analysis is a foregone conclusion.”

“That’s correct,” Knox said.

“Have you received any other calls from any other news outlets indicating receipt of communication from the alleged killer, in the wake of our first report on the case?”

Knox and Tanner exchanged glances.

“None,” Tanner said.

“All right” Strother said. “You will not need a warrant. The AllNews Press Agency will provide you the letter on the condition we have copies of its contents and with the understanding that the task force will alert us to the surfacing of any other communication from the killer in time for us to produce a story. We’ll give you five hours for analysis.”

“We’ll need forty-eight to confirm its authenticity and process it fully.”

Strother muted his line for several seconds.

“We’ll agree to those terms provided you maintain cooperation with the ANPA for the duration of the analysis and the duration of the investigation.”

“Agreed,” Tanner said.

The FBI specialists set to work. Allison Porter was questioned about receipt of the letter. Had she made any new folds or notes on it? Had she marked it? Where did she touch it? Was she the only person in the office to touch it directly? Would she volunteer a set of elimination fingerprints?

The investigators also questioned the people who managed the building about mail delivery and who would have handled the letter. They alerted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The FBI people photographed and provided copies of the letter to Tanner and the ANPA as promised. Finally, they collected the original envelope and its contents in protective cellophane bags so they could be taken to the lab for further analysis.

It took a few hours.

“We’ll be in touch,” Tanner told Harding before leaving.

In the car, on their return trip to their homicide bureau in Commerce, Tanner studied his color copies of the letter. The quality was so good they looked original.

“What do you think, Joe?” Zurn asked him. “Is it our guy?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

“If it is, it’s going to scare a lot of people.”

“If it is, this could be our only shot at him.”