Gone

CHAPTER 44

Homicide Investigation Progress Report

DR#S 04-592 346-56

VICTIMS:

BRAND, MICHAELA ALLY

GAIDELAS, ANDREW WILLIAM

GAIDELAS, CATHERINE ANTONIA

GIACOMO, VICTORIA MARY

MESERVE, DYLAN ROGER

PEATY, REYNOLD MILLARD

WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #1

WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #2

WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #3

WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #4

LAS VEGAS, NV VICTIM

DUTCHEY, JULIET LEE

SECTION VIII: EVIDENCE

I. FROM STORAGE BUILDING OWNED BY BNB PROPERTIES, 942½ WEST WOODBURY ROAD, ALTADENA, CA, 91001:

1. 3 CARDBOARD CARTONS CONTAINING CLOTHING, SOME IDENTIFIED AS BELONGING TO VICTIMS BRAND, M, GAIDELAS, A, GAIDELAS, C, MESERVE, D, GIACOMO, V. VARIOUS FEMALE ATTIRE, IDENTIFICATION UNKNOWN.

2. 2 “MADE IN MEXICO ” ONYX BOXES CONTAINING VARIOUS GOLD, SILVER, AND COSTUME JEWELRY, 3 PRS. EYEGLASSES, 1 BELONGING TO VICTIM GIACOMO, V, 2 UNATTRIBUTED, 1 SET SOFT CONTACT LENSES BELONGING TO VICTIM BRAND, M, 1 PARTIAL DENTAL BRIDGE BELONGING TO VICTIM GAIDELAS, A.

3. 3 POLYETHYLENE GARBAGE BAGS CONTAINING 53 BLEACHED HUMAN BONES, IDENTIFICATION IN PROGRESS PER THE CORONER’S OFFICE. (REF: PROFESSOR JESSICA SAMPLE, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST.)

4. 1 CARDBOARD CARTON MARKED SEARS-KENMORE CONTAINING 10 JUMBO ZIPLOC SANDWICH BAGS EACH CONTAINING A CLUMP OF HUMAN HAIR BOUND BY TWO RUBBER BANDS. (REF: PROF. J. SAMPLE.)

II. FROM TRUNK OF 1989 LINCOLN TOWN CAR VIN 33893566, REGISTERED TO BRADLEY MILLARD DOWD, GARAGED BE HIND STORAGE BUILDING AT 942½ WEST WOODBURY ROAD:

1. 1 SONY DIGITAL CAMERA MODEL DSC 588.

2. 1 EXCISED SECTION OF BLACK CARPETING FROM LTC.

3. FRONT AND REAR BLACK LEATHER SEATS FROM LTC.

III. FROM TRIPLEX SUBTERRANEAN BOMB SHELTERS, 43885 LATIGO CANYON ROAD, MALIBU, CA, 90265:

FROM UNIT “A” (NORTHERNMOST, SEE DIAGRAM):

1. CLOTHING, COSMETICS, PERSONAL EFFECTS BELONGING TO SUSPECT DOWD, N.

2. COLLAPSIBLE TWIN BED AND BEDDING.

3. PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUSPECTS DOWD, B, AND DOWD, N.

4. 5 TEETH BELONGING TO VICTIM MESERVE, D. PIERCED AND STRUNG ON A SILVER CHAIN.

5. 1 TAXIDERMICALLY PRESERVED HUMAN HEAD BELONGING TO VICTIM MESERVE, D.

6. 2 SIMILAR PRESERVATIONS, VICTIMS GAIDELAS, A, GAIDE LAS, C.

7. 1 COMPACT DISK CONTAINING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES, MARKED “PARTY-TIME” CONTAINING PORNO GRAPHIC IMAGES OF:

A. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH V’S BRAND, M, GIACOMO, V, GAIDELAS, C, GAIDELAS, A, JANE DOES 1, 2, 3, 4. LAS VEGAS VICTIM, DUTCHEY, J.

B. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH SUSPECT DOWD, N.

C. SUSPECT DOWD, N, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH VICTIM MESERVE, D.

D. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH VICTIM MESERVE, D.

8. 4 DIGITAL VIDEO DISKS CONTAINING MOTION PICTURES, CONTENT SIMILAR TO 3.

FROM UNITS “B” AND “C”:

1. 2 250 MB COMPUTER ZIP DISKS MARKED “PT CLIMAX,” CONTENTS SCRAMBLED, POSSIBLY DAMAGED. (REF: LAPD TECHNICAL DIVISION, SGT. S. FUJIKAWA.)

2. 1 IBM CLONE PERSONAL COMPUTER, 1 APC BATTERY BACKUP, 1 MICROTEK 19" MONITOR, 1 HEWLETT-PACKARD LASERJET 4050 PRINTER.

3. 1 42" SONY FLAT-SCREEN TELEVISION.

4. 1 BRASS COAT HOOK.

5. 1 213 SQ. FT. EXCISED SECTION, BEIGE NYLON CARPETING. 1 215.5 SQ. FT. EXCISED SECTION, BEIGE NYLON CARPETING.

6. 12 BOXES OF DISASSEMBLED ACOUSTICAL CEILING TILES.

7. 2 SETS SMITH & WESSON DOUBLE LOCK POLICE-ISSUE HANDCUFFS AND KEYS.

8. 1 SET ANTIQUE “E.D. BEAN” LEG IRON RESTRAINTS, C. 1885. (REF: PROFESSOR ANDRE WASHINGTON, HISTORIAN.)

9. 3 WOODEN BOXES CONTAINING VARIOUS SURGICAL KNIVES, NEEDLES, SAWS, SCRAPERS, SHEARS, CANNULAS, FUNNELS.

10. 1 “TI-DEE” HEAVY-DUTY SUCTION PUMP, MODEL A- 334C.

11. 1 KINGSLEY SECRETION ASPIRATOR, MODEL CSI-PG005.

12. 4 SPOOLS MEDIBOND NYLON MONOFILAMENT SURGICAL SUTURE MATERIAL, TWO 20 MM, TWO 24 MM.

13. 2 UNMARKED CARDBOARD CARTONS CONTAINING SEALED CLEAR PLASTIC BAGS OF COTTON STUFFING.

14. 4 PLASTIC GALLON CONTAINERS, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE.

15. 1 BOX “PLEASURE-RIB” LATEX CONDOMS.

16. 1 5-GAL. PLASTIC CONTAINER, FORMIC ACID PICKLING SOLUTION.

17. 5 SETS “SNUG-FIT” LATEX GLOVES.

18. 1 EPOXY “TAXI-FORM SCULPTING KIT.”

19. 1 QUART BOTTLE EATON SKIN DEGREASER AND PRESERVATIVE.

20. 1 5-LB. BAG “READI-TAN” DRY PRESERVATIVE.

21. 1 OAKES G- 235C “MINOR SURGICAL PROCEDURE” TABLE WITH HEADREST AND DETACHABLE DRAIN…

Milo returned to his office and took the murder book from me.

“I wasn’t finished.”

He dropped the file in a drawer. “Michaela’s Honda finally showed up. Parking garage of a BNB building in Sierra Madre, towed to the motor lab as we speak.”

“Congratulations. As I was saying- ”

“How’s my prose?”

“Eloquent,” I said. “Please don’t tell me you want to have lunch.”

“It’s way past lunchtime, have your people call my people and we’ll do dinner.”

He sank down hard enough to make the desk chair groan. “Enough with the glib macho posturing. I’m thrashed and not ashamed to admit it.”

“Get any sleep?”

“Around five hours,” he said. “Over five days.”

“Time for a break,” I said.

“It ain’t the workload that’s keeping me up, boy-o, it’s the reality. As long as you’ve perused, care to add any insights?”

“The PlayHouse was a talent pool in a much worse way than we imagined. For Nora, it served double duty. She got to feel omnipotent and she and Brad both enjoyed selecting victims.”

“Cold bitch,” he said. “Arrogant, too. That time we came to her house, she didn’t even pretend to care about Tori or Michaela.”

“I’m not sure she’s capable of pretending.”

“No acting chops? How’d she get so many people to believe in her?”

“By attracting a hungry crowd who thought they were getting a bargain. Emotionally needy people will swallow poisoned Kool-Aid.”

He sighed. “All those pretty folk auditioning, having no idea what the part really was.”

“Any luck identifying the other girls?”

“Not yet. No other male bodies show up yet, but I’m not counting on this being the end of it. There’s still a dozen BNB properties we haven’t looked at and the backhoes have only dug up a corner of the property. How do you see the hoax figuring in?”

“Theater of the cruel. Nora and Brad hatched it up for fun, convinced Dylan Meserve he was a coconspirator. But he was a human chess piece.”

“Think he knew what was in store for Michaela?”

“Have you found any indication that he was aware of the other victims?”

“Not so far,” he said. “But the way he had Michaela pretend to choke him, that coulda been foreshadowing her fate, right?”

“Or he had his own kinks,” I said. “We’ll probably never find out unless some kind of diary shows up. Or Brad or Nora start talking.”

“So far, they’re both dummying up,” he said. “I got Brad on suicide watch, like you suggested. Jail guard said Brad thought that was funny.”

“Maintaining the facade,” I said. “Once it crumbles, he’ll have nothing left.”

“You’re the shrink…back to the hoax. Nora wink-winks at Meserve, pretends to be outraged and kicks Michaela out of class. Why?”

“My bet’s still on setting Michaela up for Brad’s ‘rescue.’ She was broke, unemployed, hungry for attention, frustrated career-wise. If Brad just happened to drive by in one of his shiny cars and struck up a conversation, it could’ve seemed like providence. She already knew his face from the PlayHouse so there wouldn’t be any stranger anxiety. And Brad’s connection to Nora would’ve made Michaela eager to hook up with him.”

“Trying to get back in Nora’s good graces.”

“Or he might’ve told her he had his own connections, could help her career. Same for Tori. Same for all of them.”

“Seduction instead of abduction,” he said. “Nice dinner, good wine, come up and enjoy the sunset at my Malibu place. Wonder how Michaela felt when she saw he was taking her back to Latigo Canyon.”

“If he’d built up trust by wining and dining her, it could’ve kept her anxiety in check. Or he took her somewhere else first and restrained her.”

“If he’s got another chamber of horrors, it hasn’t turned up yet. One thing’s for sure: Nothing went on at his house or Nora’s. Not a speck of nasty at either.”

I said, “Why sully the home front when you’ve got a special place set aside for your hobbies. These people are all about splitting.”

“Speaking of hobbies, any theory about why Meserve and the Gaidelases were the only specimens they preserved?”

“The neck wound says they thought of preserving Michaela,” I said. “Went so far as to insert a cannula in her neck then changed their minds. No way to get inside their heads, but the Gaidelases and Meserve fit some kind of fantasy. If I could finish the file- ”

“There’s nothing in there about the past, Alex. Just more ugly. I’m stuck with this, but you’re not. Go home and forget about all of it.”

I said, “Any luck decoding the scrambled disk?”

He ran his tongue over cracked, dry lips, scratched his scalp, rubbed his face. He’d shaved carelessly and a patch of white fur ran along his jaw. His eyes were hooded and weary. “You’ve developed a hearing problem?”

I repeated the question.

“You never let go,” he said.

“That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”

“The disk is decoded and loaded in Room Four. I’ve been watching it for the last hour. Hence, my sage advice about going home.”

“No sense postponing the inevitable,” I said.

“What’s inevitable?”

“I was at the scene when you found the shelter. Someone’s going to subpoena me. Either the D.A. or Stavros Menas.”

“Both Dowds tried to hire Menas but Nora got him and she wasn’t feeling sisterly. Brad’s looking for new representation.”

“Money talks and she’s got the mike.”

“Minus the millions Brad skimmed,” he said. “Most of which seems to have gone into the car collection and a little island he bought off the coast of Belize two months ago. And one more luxury purchase, three weeks ago: jet card for a Gulfstream V, twenty-five hours. That’s three hundred fifty grand for a plane with international range. Wanna take bets on there being an offshore bank account somewhere south of the equator? The estate lawyers who appointed him trustee are gobbling Prilosec and the new court-appointed lawyers are licking their chops. We’re talking years of litigation, there goes the rest of the estate.”

I said, “Planning his escape, those brochures were for real. Then he got clever and planted them in Nora’s nightstand.”

“Too clever,” he said. “Sitting in that Range Rover, using Billy’s land. Dutiful caretaker of his sibs, meanwhile he’s screwing them, literally and financially. Think he was planning to take Nora with him or go it alone?”

“Unless she knew about the island I’d say alone. Is anyone protecting Billy’s interests?”

“The court-appointed lawyers claim to be.”

“I finally got permission to see him yesterday, drove out to Riverside.”

“How’s the place they put him in?”

“Grim,” I said. “Assisted care facility, a hundred Alzheimer’s patients and Billy.”

“Learn anything?”

“He’s in shock and disoriented. I got about three minutes before the attorney-on-premises ended it.”

“Why?”

“Billy started crying.”

“Because of you?”

“That was learned counsel’s opinion,” I said. “Mine was that Billy has lots to cry about and not letting him express it will only make matters worse. I told learned counsel Billy needs a full-time therapist, I wasn’t volunteering for the job, only suggesting he find someone. He begged to differ. When I got back, I phoned the judge who wrote the placement order. Haven’t heard from her yet but I’m thinking of other judges who might be willing to help.”

“You see Billy as totally clean?” he said.

“Unless you find something more ominous at his duplex than Star Wars action figures and Disney videos.”

He shook his head. “Like a kid’s place. Boxes of sugar cereal, bottles of chocolate milk.”

I said. “Being a kid’s hard enough. Being neither boy nor man is something else. Any sign of Billy’s allowance money?”

“Nope, just coins in a piggy bank. Some of the pennies date back to the sixties.”

“Fifteen hundred a month and all he spent on was pizza and Thai food and rental movies. It explains Reynold Peaty’s drop-ins. He pretended to be Billy’s friend, had his way with the cash.”

“Makes sense,” he said. “Except no money showed up in Peaty’s dive.”

“A guy like Peaty would have ways to spend it,” I said. “Or, if his relationship with Brad went beyond janitor and boss, maybe the money found its way back to Cuz. Then Cuz set him up to die.”

He frowned. A muscle just below his left eye jumped.

I said, “What?”

“What a family.” He found a stale cigar in a drawer, rolled it, and bit off the end. Spat it into his wastebasket.

“Two points.” I stood and walked to the door. “Time to view the disk.”

He stayed put. “It’s really a bad idea, Alex.”

“I want to get it over with.”

“Even if someone does subpoena you, it could be months away,” he said.

“No sense harboring fantasies all that time.”

“Trust me, your fantasies can’t be worse than reality.”

“Trust me,” I said. “They can.”