Victims

CHAPTER
36

Petra and Raul Biro divided the assignments. He’d look for free clinics where Grant Huggler might’ve gotten his prescription, she’d have a go at Mick Ostrovine. Figuring a soft touch might work better with the administrator than another dose of male cop.

Ostrovine sighed a lot, said, “Here we go again,” paid lip service to patient confidentiality. But sooner than Petra expected he said, “Oh, all right, come around and look for yourself.”

She crossed to his side of the desk as he opened up some files.

“See?” said Ostrovine, nudging closer and favoring her with a burnt-whiskey whiff of some terrible cologne.

Alphabetized patient records; no Huggler.

“How about James Harrie, with an i-e, maybe middle initial P.”

Long, theatrical sigh. Ostrovine pecked.

“See? Nothing. It’s like I told those first officers, we’re not connected to any of this.”

Petra said, “I’m sure you’re right, Mick. But Mr. Huggler was definitely here for a thyroid scan.”

“I explained the first time: He never received the scan so there’d be no record.”

Petra flashed him her best wholesome smile. “Just to be sure, Mick, I’d like to show Mr. Harrie’s photograph and this drawing of Mr. Huggler to your staff.”

“Oh, no. We’re swamped.”

The horde she’d seen in the waiting room said the mope wasn’t lying. “I know you are, Mick, but I’d really appreciate it.”

She showed Ostrovine the images first. The drawing elicited nothing but he blinked at the photo.

Giving him a chance to fill in the blank, she sat back down.

“What?” he said, irritated. Maybe her feminine touch had lost its mojo.

“Never seen him?”

“Not in this world or any other.”

No one on staff recognized either man.

Even Margaret Wheeling, about to prep a sleepy-looking homeless type for a no-doubt-pricey MRI, had seemed confused when shown Alex Shimoff’s second drawing.

“Guess so.”

Petra said, “When you spoke to Lieutenant Sturgis, you were sure you’d met him.”

“Well… my drawing was different.”

Like she was the artist. Petra said, “This one doesn’t resemble the man who confronted Dr. Usfel?”

Wheeling squinted. “I’d need to put on my glasses.”

You don’t need to see accurately when you’re magnetizing someone?

“Go right ahead, Ms. Wheeling.”

Wheeling let out a long exhalation followed by an eye roll. Another dramatic type; this place was like one of those summer camps for histrionic kids obsessed with musical theater.

Glasses in place, the fool continued to just stand there.

“Ms. Wheeling?”

“I think it’s him. Maybe. That’s the best I can do. It was a long time ago.”

“What about this man? He’s a friend of Huggler’s.”

Emphatic head shake. “That I can tell you. Never.”

Petra reported to Milo.

He said, “Good work, onward, kid.”

She frowned at the unearned praise.

At Biro’s third clinic, the Hollywood Benevolent Health Center, he got as far as a volunteer receptionist. The place was makeshift, set up with rolling partitions and what looked to be pretty tired medical equipment in the basement of a church on Selma just west of Vine. Big old beautiful Catholic church with intricate plaster details and an oak door that had to weigh a ton. Smaller than but not unlike St. Catherine in Riverside where Biro’s parents had taken him for Mass when he was a kid.

All that grace and style ended in the basement. The space was dank, windowless, patchily lit by bare bulbs suspended from extension cords stapled to the ceiling. The wires drooped, some of the bulbs were dead. Where the walls weren’t chipped white plaster they were rough gray block. Wilting posters about STDs and immunizations and nutrition were taped randomly. Everything in Federal Government Spanish.

The waiting room wasn’t a room at all, just a clearing surrounded on three sides by stacks of long, wooden, folded tables. Half of the lawn chairs provided were occupied, all by Latino women who kept their eyes down and pretended not to notice Biro.

As he approached the desk, his spotless beige suit, white shirt, and olive paisley silk tie drew some admiring glances. Then he flashed his badge and someone’s breath caught and all eyes shot downward.

Had to be one of those sanctuary deals for undocumenteds. Biro felt like shouting he wasn’t La Migra.

One thing in his favor: an Anglo male like Huggler would stand out, maybe this would lead somewhere.

The receptionist was also Hispanic, a well-groomed, dyed blonde in her late twenties, a little extra-curvy in places where that was okay.

No name tag, no welcoming smile.

Raul grinned at her anyway, explained what he needed.

Her face closed up. “All our doctors are volunteers, they come in and out so I don’t know who you’d talk to.”

Raul said, “The doctor who treated Grant Huggler.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“The doctor or Huggler?”

“Both,” said the receptionist. “Either.”

“Could you please check your files?”

“We don’t have files.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that. We don’t have files.”

“How can you run a clinic without records?”

“There are records,” she said. “The doctors take them when they leave.”

“Why?”

“The patients are theirs, not ours.”

Biro said, “Aw c’mon.”

“That’s the way we do it,” she said. “That’s the way we’ve always done it. We’re not an official health-care provider.”

“What are you then?”

“A space.”

“A space?”

“The church merely provides access for providers to provide.”

Merely and access and providers gave that the sound of a prepared speech. This place was definitely set up for illegals. Scared people coming in with God-knows-what diseases, afraid to broach the county system even though no one there asked questions. He glanced at the women in the lawn chairs. They continued to pretend he didn’t exist. No one appeared especially sick but you never knew. His mother had just told him about one of her friends visiting relatives in Guadalajara and coming back with tuberculosis.

Telling it, the way she always did, as if Raul had the power to prevent such disasters.

He said, “No charts here at all?”

The receptionist said, “Not a one.”

“That sounds a little disorganized, Miss-”

“Actually it’s super-organized,” she said, not offering a name. “So we can multitask.”

“Multitask how?”

“When the church needs to use the space for something else, we wheel everything out of the way.”

“How often do doctors come in and use the space?”

“Most every day.”

“So you don’t do much wheeling.”

Shrug.

Raul leaned in and half whispered, “You’ve got people waiting but I don’t see any doctors.”

“Dr. Keefer’s due in.”

“When?”

“Soon. But he can’t help you.”

“Why’s that?”

“He’s new. Yesterday was his first day, so he wouldn’t know your Mr. Whatever.”

“Huggler.”

“Funny name.”

Biro looked at her.

She said, “I don’t know him.”

He gave her a look at his business card.

She said, “You already showed me your badge, I believe that you’re po-lice.”

“See what this says?”

Moment’s hesitation. “Okay.”

“Homicide,” said Biro. “That’s all I care about, solving murders.”

“Okay.”

“Grant Huggler may have a funny name but he’s suspected of committing several really nasty murders. He needs to be stopped before he does more damage.”

He glanced back at the waiting women, trying to imply that they could turn up as victims.

The receptionist blinked.

He showed her the drawing.

She shook her head. “Don’t know him. We don’t want murderers here. If I knew him, I’d tell you.”

“Are you the only receptionist here-what is your name?”

“Leticia. No, I’m not. A bunch of us volunteer.”

“How many is a bunch?”

“I don’t know.”

He pulled out an enlargement of James Pittson Harrie’s lapsed driver’s license. “How about him?”

To Biro’s surprise, she went pale.

“What’s the matter?”

“He’s a doctor.”

“What kind?”

“Mental health,” she said. “A therapist. He came in to ask questions but he never came back.”

“What kind of questions?”

“Did we do insurance work. He said he had a lot of experience with it, could help if someone needed help with an accident or an injury. I told him we didn’t do that here. He gave me his card but I threw it out. I didn’t even read his name.”

“But you remember him.”

“We don’t usually get doctors walking in to drum up business.”

“What was his attitude?”

“Like a doctor.”

“Meaning?”

“Businesslike. He didn’t seem like one of those but I guess he was.”

“One of those what?”

“Slip-and-fall scammers. Those we get from time to time. Scouts working for lawyers.”

“Trying to exploit your patients.”

Nod. No attempt to claim they’re not our patients.

“So Mr. Harrie told you he was a psychologist.”

“Or a psychiatrist, I forget. He’s not?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.”

“How’d he react when you turned him down?”

“Just said thanks and gave me the card.”

“How long ago did this happen?”

“A while back,” said Leticia. “Months.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know-six, five?”

“That long ago but you remember him.”

“Like I told you, it was unusual,” she said. “Also, he was Anglo. We don’t get too many white guys, period, except for homeless who come in from the boulevard.”

Unzipping his file case, Raul showed her a mug shot of Lemuel Eccles. “Like him?”

“Sure, that’s Lem, he comes in once in a while.”

“For what?”

“You’d have to ask his doctor.”

“Who’s that?”

“Dr. Mendes.”

“First name?”

“Anna Mendes.”

Raul kept the photo in her face. She turned to the side.

He said, “So Lem comes in but this white guy”-switching back to the drawing of Huggler-“you don’t know about?”

“Correct. Do these guys know each other or something?”

“You could say that.”

“The other one, too? The psychologist?”

“What else can you tell me about Lem?”

“Just that he comes in,” she said. “He can be difficult but mostly he’s okay.”

“Difficult, how?”

“Nervous, kind of wired. Talks to himself. Like he’s crazy.”

“Like?” said Biro.

“We don’t judge.”

“Do you have a list of the other receptionists?”

“I don’t keep any lists and I don’t know who they are ’cause when I’m here, they’re not.”

“And you all volunteer.”

“Yeah.”

“Through what agency?”

“No agency, I do it for community service.”

She was too old for a high school student, didn’t look like an ex-con, any kind of troublemaker. “What kind of community service are you doing?”

“It’s for a class. Urban issues, I’m a senior at Cal State L.A.”

“You think maybe upstairs in the church office they’d have a list?”

“Could be.”

Biro said, “Okay, I’m going to leave you my card the way Mr. Harrie did, but please don’t throw it out.”

She hesitated.

“Take it, Leticia. Good people need to be good even when they’re not volunteering.”

Her mouth dropped open. Raul began climbing the steps to the church’s ground-floor lobby. One of the women in the lawn chairs said something in Spanish. Too soft for Biro to make out the words, but the emotion was obvious.

Relief.

As he headed for the church office a young man in a white coat and carrying a box crossed his path. M. Keefer, M.D. Resident in medicine at County General.

Ninety-hour work weeks but he had time to volunteer.

Raul said, “Hi, there, Doctor. Ever seen this guy?”

M. Keefer said, “No, sorry,” and bounced down the stairs.

The church office was locked, the magnificent marble sanctuary unoccupied. Raul returned to his car and got a number for an Anna Q. Mendes, M.D., in Boyle Heights.

This receptionist answered in Spanish and maybe it was Biro responding in kind, maybe not, but she said, “Of course,” and a moment later a warm female voice said, “Dr. Mendes, how can I help you?”

She listened to Biro’s explanation, said, “The thyroid case. Sure, I referred him for the scan. He came in for a refill of his Synthroid but his medical history was patchy. He looked a little underdosed to me and he was well overdue for a good look at his neck. He was reluctant but his therapist helped me convince him.”

“His therapist?”

“Some psychologist came with him, I thought that level of care was pretty impressive. Especially because the psychologist’s office was in Beverly Hills and Huggler clearly wasn’t a paying private patient.”

The ease with which she tossed out facts surprised Biro. Not even an attempt at resistance and he wondered if she’d been the anonymous tipster.

He said, “Did the psychologist give his name?”

“He did but I can’t recall.”

“Dr. Shacker?”

“You know, I think that’s it,” said Anna Mendes. “He readily agreed that in order to optimize the dosage we’d need better data. In the meantime, I upped Mr. Huggler’s dosage a tiny bit and wrote a scrip for three months’ worth.”

“Anything else you can tell me about Huggler?”

“You said you were in Homicide,” said Mendes. “So obviously he killed someone.”

Biro hadn’t mentioned Homicide. And obviously Huggler could’ve been a victim as easily as an offender.

Definitely the tipster.

“Looks like that, Doctor.”

“My brother was murdered six years ago,” she said. “Stupid wrong-address drive-by, the imbeciles shot him with an AK while he slept in his bed.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“They never caught the bastards who did it. That’s why I’m talking to you. Someone kills someone, they should get what they deserve. But no, that’s really all I can tell you about Huggler.”

“What was his attitude?”

“Quiet, passive, didn’t say much, didn’t make eye contact. In fact, he was so quiet that even before the therapist-Shacker-came in, I’d started wondering about some sort of mental illness.”

“Could that be because of his thyroid?”

“No way,” she said. “If he was a bit hypothyroid like I suspected he might slow down a tad, maybe lose some energy, gain some weight, but nothing significant. He might also feel cold, which is the first thing that tipped me off. He was overdressed for the weather, big heavy fleece-lined coat. I never confirmed my hypothesis, though, because he never came back with any lab results.”

“Could we expect him to get sicker?”

“Not if he takes his meds. Even with his old dosage this was no weakling, just the opposite. I checked him out and his muscle tone was really good. Excellent, actually. He had huge muscles. In clothes you couldn’t tell, he looked almost pudgy.”

“Overdressed because he felt cold.”

“Or maybe it was a symptom of mental illness, you see that from time to time.”

Biro said, “Speaking of mental patients, they told me at the clinic that Lem Eccles was your patient.”

“Was? Something happened to him?”

“Afraid so,” said Biro. “He’s dead.”

A beat. “And that’s connected to Huggler?”

“Could be.”

“Oh, wow,” said Mendes. “Well, if you’re going to ask me did I see them together, I didn’t.”

“Could you check your records and see if they happened to be at the clinic on the same day?”

“I could, if I was at my other office in Montebello where I keep all the clinic records.”

“Kind of a strange system,” said Biro. “Doctors taking the paperwork with them.”

“Big pain,” said Mendes, “but they insist upon it. That way they’re not an official clinic, just donate space.”

“In case La Migra asks.”

Mendes laughed. “It’s not very subtle, is it? I don’t get involved in any of that. I treat patients, politics isn’t my thing.”

“You work there on a volunteer basis.”

She laughed harder. “Did it look like there was any serious money to be made there? Yes, I volunteer. I was a scholarship student at Immaculate Heart and the archdiocese helped with my med school tuition. They ask for a favor, I say sure. So what did this Huggler actually do?”

“It’s nasty,” said Biro.

“Then forget I asked, Detective, I trained at County, saw more than enough nasty. I certainly hope you catch him and if I ever see him again, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Couple more things,” said Raul. “You said Dr. Shacker showed up after Huggler. So Huggler came in by himself?”

“Technically I guess he did,” said Mendes. “A few minutes later, Shacker showed up, said he’d been parking the car. I got the clear impression they’d arrived together. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got patients waiting.”

Parking the car. Small point to her but Raul’s brain was screaming A Vehicle. Ripe for a BOLO.

He said, “One more question. How come you referred Huggler to North Hollywood Day?”

“Because Dr. Shacker recommended it. You should get the details from him, he really seemed to care about Huggler. Then again, he’d probably have confidentiality issues. So do I, but murder’s different.”

Biro filled Petra in.

She said, “It’s a good bet Shacker spotted Eccles at that clinic. I’ll go back to the uniforms who busted Eccles, see if there’s anything else they remember about Loyal Steward. And seeing as Harrie directed the doctor to North Hollywood Day and he’s an insurance whore and they’re an insurance mill, it’s obvious my charm didn’t work as well with Ostrovine as I thought and he’s still holding back. You up for bad-copping him?”

“More than up,” said Raul. “Raring to go.”

On the way to the Valley, he phoned in and reported to Milo.

Milo said, “Good work, Raul. Onward.”

I’d just stepped into his office. He wheeled his chair back. “See how supportive I am with the young’uns?”

“Admirable.”

“Not that anything they’ve learned adds up to a warm bucket of spit until we locate these freakoids.”

He summarized.

I’d been up late, trying to answer some questions of my own. Mentally reviewing my brief talk with James Harrie to see if I’d missed something.

Understanding why someone like Huggler would welcome Harrie’s caretaking but not getting what was in it for Harrie, because if a man that calculated was able to exact his own brand of vengeance, why raise the risk of discovery by collaborating with someone so deeply disturbed?

Engaging in twenty-plus years of what was effectively foster-parenting.

What was in it for the parent?

The small questions had resolved quickly but the big picture remained clouded and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d made several wrong turns.

I said, “The pension angle didn’t work out?”

“The pension board is absolutely certain that no checks are mailed from any government agency to James P. Harrie, same for the welfare office regarding assistance payments to Grant Huggler. I tried out a whole bunch of spelling variations because paperwork gets messed up. Even checked under Shacker’s name, because he’d also been a state employee, maybe Harrie had stolen his benefits as well as his identity. No such luck, those checks are sent to a cousin in Brussels. So maybe we’re dealing with free-enterprise criminals, intent on making it the old-fashioned way.”

I said, “How much money are we talking about?”

“Best estimate I could get was someone in Harrie’s situation could pull a pension of three to four grand a month, depending if he claimed stress or disability. No way to know exactly what Huggler’s qualified for, there’s an alphabet soup of welfare goodies for someone who knows how to work the system. Top estimate was two or so a month.”

“The two of them pool their funds, they can rake in as much as sixty, seventy thousand a year, tax-free. I don’t see them forgoing that, Big Guy, even with Harrie making money as a fake psychologist. He put up serious money for that office, must’ve started with some sort of stash. So the checks are going somewhere. What if Harrie stole I.D.’s other than Shacker’s? For himself and for Huggler?”

“Someone cross-checks Social Security numbers, they’d get found out.”

“Big if,” I said. “But okay, what if they went the legal route and changed their names in court? Any switch for Huggler would have to be within the last four years because he was still using his real name when he got arrested behind Wainright’s office.”

“Send the check to Jack the Ripper and his lil pal the Zodiac? Some computer obliges without a squawk? Wonderful.”

He called a Superior Court clerk he’d befriended years ago, hung up looking deflated.

“Guess what? Court orders are no longer required for name changes. All you have to do now is use your new moniker consistently while conducting official business and eventually the new data’s ‘integrated’ into the county data bank.”

He yanked a drawer open, snatched a panatela, rolled it, still wrapped, between his fingers. “But you’re right, no way they’d pass up that much easy dough.”

His cell phone played Erik Satie. He barked, “Sturgis!” Then, in an even louder voice: “What!”

He turned scarlet. “Back up, Sean, give me the details.”

He listened for a long time, scrawled notes so angrily the paper tore twice. When he clicked off he was breathing fast.

I said, “What?”

He shook his head. Attacked the phone with both thumbs.

The image appeared moments later, a grainy gray peep show on the phone’s tiny screen.

Tagged at the top with rolling digital time and the I.D. number of a Malibu Sheriff cruiser’s dash-cam.

Six thirteen a.m. Malibu. Pacific Coast Highway. Mountains to the east, so north of the Colony where the beach city turns rural.

The deputy, Aaron Sanchez, justifying the stop on the fifteen-year-old Acura.

Not because of the BOLO; the tags matched a recent theft from the Cross Creek shopping center.

Felony stop. Extreme caution.

Six fourteen a.m.: Deputy Sanchez calls for backup. Then (on loudspeaker): “Exit the vehicle, now, sir, and place your hands on your head.”

No response.

Deputy Sanchez: “Exit the vehicle immediately, sir, and place-”

Driver’s door opens.

A man, small, thin, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, emerges, places his hands on his head.

Flash of bald spot. Bad comb-over.

Deputy Sanchez exits his own vehicle, gun out, aimed at the driver.

“Walk toward me slowly.”

The man complies.

“Stop.”

The man complies.

“Lie down on the ground.”

The man appears to comply then whips around, pulling something out of his waistband. Crouching, he points.

Deputy Sanchez fires five times.

The man’s small frame absorbs each impact, billowing like a sail.

He falls.

Sirens in the distance gain volume.

Backup, no longer needed.

The whole thing has taken less than a minute.

Milo said, “Bastard. They ran the car, found the BOLO, contacted Binchy because his name was on the request.”

“Was the thing in his hand for real?”

“Nine-millimeter,” he said. “Unloaded.”

I said, “Suicide by cop.”

“Whack-job suicide by cop was the Sheriff’s initial assumption because Harrie getting that hard-core to avoid a license plate theft rap made no sense. And initially, they saw nothing in Harrie’s car to make him squirrelly, just fruits and vegetables and beef jerky and bottled water, probably from one of those stands on the highway. Then they popped the trunk and found a bunch more firearms, ammo, duct tape, rope, handcuffs, knives.”

I said, “Rape-murder kit.”

“And stains on the carpet presumptive for blood. What they didn’t find was any sign Harrie was running with an accomplice.”

I said, “Because Huggler’s waiting back home for Harrie to return from his grocery run. Somewhere north of where Harrie was pulled over.”

“That’s a lot of territory. What does a kit say to you?”

“None of our victims showed evidence of restraint and none of the females was assaulted or posed sexually. I’d bet on a separate victim pool.”

“Games Harrie played solo.”

“More likely with backup by Huggler.”

“Jesus.”

“It fills in a missing piece,” I said. “Harrie taking Huggler under his wing because of altruism never made sense. He was attracted to a disturbed child because of a shared fascination with dominance and violence. Think of their relationship as Huggler’s alternative therapy: The entire time the staffs at V-State and Atascadero were struggling to devise a treatment plan for him, Harrie was sabotaging them by nurturing Huggler’s drives. And coaching Huggler in concealing his bad behavior. When Huggler got transferred, Harrie moved with him. When Huggler finally gained his freedom, he and Harrie embarked on a new life together.”

“Foundation for a wholesome relationship,” he said. “Too bad Harrie bit it before the two of them could be booked on the talk-show circuit.”