Cause of Death (Det. Annie Avants Book 1) (28 page)

Monday, 10 September 2012, 8:00 AM

Tom was surprised that Annie wasn't already at her desk when he arrived at work on Monday morning.  He was curious about how her 'date' with the pet shop owner had turned out.

He went to his desk and saw the artist sketches of the perp were all finally there and laid them side-by-side to make a comparison.  The other detectives and patrol officers had been in charge of going door-to-door with the sketches and he hadn't really had the opportunity to study them to see if there were any similarities. 

He went into the break room and got some coffee, greeted the other detectives, and returned to his desk.

I think I'll give Annie a call and see what she's doing
, he thought,
and then I'll get to work.

He dialed Annie's home and her cell but didn't get any answer.

That's strange
, he thought.

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Annie today?  She doesn't answer any of her phones," he said to the other detectives.

They all responded in the negative.

"It must have been one hell of a date," he said and they all chuckled.

He settled down to look over the sketches and a cold finger of fear lanced his stomach.  Staring back at him was the face of the owner of Your Petz.

"Holy shit," he said aloud.  He logged onto his computer to search for the home address of Eddie Dobbs but didn't come up with anything.

"Where the hell is his home phone number?" he said.  Finally he found his notes and there was a home phone listed.  He went onto the reverse directory and was stunned to see that his home address was Taft Highway in Pumpkin Center, right behind the Pumpkin Center Market.

Then, with cold chills running down his back, he remembered seeing several cases of rotten tomatoes dumped on the ground next to the dumpster behind the Pumpkin Center Market when he was talking to people in the neighborhood following the discovery of the body of Carmen Gutierrez.

He ran into the Sergeant's office and told her what he found and that he was en route to Eddie's home.  He asked her to have other units go to Your Petz to see if he was there and, if he was, to hold him.  Another unit was to go to Annie's home and see if she or her car was there.

"Listen, Tom, I'm sending two other units with you.  Don't do anything rash.  If his vehicle is there, and you suspect he has Annie, I'll send the SWAT team."

"OK," Tom said.  "I'm outta here."

Tom didn't waste any time getting to Pumpkin Center, followed closely by two patrol units.  They slowed down when they came to the drive into the back of the parking lot where the houses were located.  Tom had the other units stay out of sight in the parking lot of the market until he could check out the perimeter of the house.  Everything was quiet. 

Tom found two blue Ford Explorer SUVs parked at the back of the property, on the west side, just beyond the entrance to the patio.  He looked inside the newest one.  Annie's purse was tossed on the floorboard of the passenger seat.

He called it in, requesting that the SWAT team be deployed immediately.  He would meet them out of sight of Eddie's home in the large parking area at the west side of the market.

Within minutes, the team arrived.

"I have reason to believe that the serial killer is in the house, or basement, and that he has Detective Annie Avants.  We have to be very cautious that he doesn't harm her while we bring him down."

The team members surrounded the house quietly.  Tom went to the basement door.  He noticed that the lock was unlocked.  He announced, "Eddie Dobbs, come out with your hands raised.  Your house is surrounded by SWAT and there is no way you can escape."

He heard a crash, then several more crashes, then the sound of a small caliber handgun being discharged and more glass breaking.

With that, the SWAT team bounded down the stairs.  When they reached the bottom, they came face to face with Eddie Dobbs brandishing a handgun and surrounded by dozens of broken glass jars from which were swarming large black widow spiders.  He raised his handgun and pointed it at the first team member, and that was the last thing he did.  Gunfire erupted and Eddie crumpled to the ground, dead before he hit the floor.

"Clear," the leader called and Tom rushed down the stairs.  He saw Annie lying semi-conscious on the cot, grabbed her, and rushed back up the stairs.  The SWAT team members pulled Eddie's dead body out of the basement to get away from the hoard of black widow spiders that were everywhere.

"Check his body carefully and kill any spiders," Tom said.  Ambulances had arrived at the scene and he gently laid Annie on a gurney.

"Close up the basement and call an exterminator immediately," the SWAT team leader called out.

Soon afterwards, a Deputy Coroner arrived to take charge of Eddie's body.

Tom and the paramedics were tending to Annie.  Tom cut off the rope around her ankles and wrists and gently removed the duct tape from her mouth.  She didn't regain consciousness.

The paramedic said, "I smell chloroform.  We don't know how long ago he knocked her out so we don't know how long she'll remain unconscious.  We need to get her to the hospital so we can check her for spider bites and any other trauma."

Another team of detectives had arrived by this time and Tom turned the scene over to them as he followed the ambulance to the hospital.

When Tom arrived at the ER, a nurse told him that he would have to wait outside while they examined Annie and someone would let him know what her status was as soon as possible.

"I've got to see her," he said.  "She could have multiple black widow bites that are attacking her system even as we stand here."

"We're aware of the situation, Detective.  The doctors are going over every inch of her body right now checking for bites.  So far, they've found nothing.  Please be patient and let us do our job."

Tom knew he could do nothing else.  He called Sarge, brought her up to date, and then called Laine and Jesse to tell them what was happening and that the alleged serial killer was dead.

Laine had been called out to the crime scene and already had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but Jesse was stunned.  He rushed right over to the hospital to sit with Tom while they waited on word about Annie.

Half an hour later, a doctor emerged.

"We didn't find any signs of bites on her body, but we are doing extensive lab work to see what's in her blood, if anything.  We should have the lab results back shortly.  She's starting to come around from the chloroform and we see no reason why you can't talk to here as soon as we get her moved into the ICU.  We'll keep her a day or two as a precaution."

He turned and went back into the ER and left Tom and Jesse standing there.

"Thank goodness," Jesse said.  "If anything happened to Annie I would be devastated."

"Yeah?" Tom said.  "Is that why you dumped her for that Indian lady?"

"What Indian lady," Jesse asked.

"Annie said that the two of you were having problems, and then she and Laine saw you at Uricchio's with a young, beautiful Native American woman.  She said you sure recovered fast and that's why she decided to accept this creeps offer to take her to dinner.  She told me he was pleasant and charming," Tom snorted in disgust.

Jesse was stunned that Annie had been on a date, but he was still amused as he said, "Yes, the woman they saw me with is very young and beautiful and I love her very much.  She's my sister, Chianna, and she came to Bakersfield to visit me.  She is trying to set me up with her friend, but I'm really not interested.  I decided to give Annie some space because she said I was pressuring her, so I backed off for a while."

"Oh," was all Tom could say.

About fifteen minutes later, a nurse came and led them to the ICU where Annie was barely awake.

"Hey, kid, how's it going?" Tom said.  He couldn't stand to see Annie so weak and pale.

Annie just grimaced as she tried to smile.  "I'll be OK.  What happened?"

"Not now, Annie.  The doctor said we could only stay for five minutes," Jesse said.

"Jesse?" Annie said.

"Yeah, it's me.  Listen, I'm sorry we had a disagreement. The woman you and Laine saw me with at Uricchio's was Chianna, my sister.  She came for a surprise visit."

"Oh," was all Annie could say.  "I feel so stupid.  What happened to Eddie?"

"He's dead, Annie.  He's the serial killer.  We'll talk about it more later.  Now, we have to let you rest.  Don't worry about anything anymore, OK."  Tom leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.  "I couldn't stand breaking in a new partner."

"Jesse, you were right about his schedule.  He told me he assumed we had it figured out, so he decided to abduct me instead of another Hispanic girl.  He said I was getting too close."

Jesse leaned down and kissed Annie on the other cheek. "Take care, lovely lady.  We'll sort everything out when you're better."

"Yeah," Annie said, as her eyelids closed and she drifted off to sleep.

Tuesday, 11 September 2012, 7:00 PM

"Hey, Annie, how're ya doing?" Laine said with a big grin as she entered Annie's hospital room.

"I'm ready to get out of here," Annie said.  "They just wanted to make sure I didn't have any spider bites so they did a bunch of blood work and other lab tests.  I don't know what all, but I feel poked and prodded enough."

Laine laughed.  "Well at least you didn't have to be at the crime scene when we were finally let in to process it.  That was the worst crime scene I've ever seen.  If I never do another crime scene like that, it'll be too soon."

"What was it like?" Annie asked.

"Creepy.  We had to bring in lights because there was only the one bulb hanging from the ceiling.  When we lit the place up, I was ready to turn the lights off again.  There was broken glass and dead spiders all over the floor and jars on the shelves that weren't broken and contained live spiders.  Now, I'm from Texas and we have our share of creepy crawlies, but just being cooped up down in that basement, knowing what had taken place gave me a real case of the willies, I'll tell ya.

"We videotaped and photographed everything before we even began to collect evidence.  Then we sketched the scene and diagrammed where the spiders were laying as best we could.  There were too many.  It was almost like diagramming blood spatter, I swear.

"We also found leaves and twigs from the many olive trees on the property.  They had blown down into the basement over time.  That accounts for the leaves found stuck to the back of the first victim's body.  The leaves were probably on the cot since she was the first victim.

"The cot you were on was filthy.  We took it to the lab to be analyzed for DNA from the three women since each one was probably laying on it the whole time they were there.  This guy was a real creep.  How on earth did he fool you into going out with him?"

Annie thought about this for a minute before she answered.

"He was funny, and charming.  I guess he just played me for all he was worth.  I almost told him I'd meet him at the restaurant for dinner, but he said where we were going was a surprise and he'd be delighted to pick me up and escort me.  I fell for it.  I feel really stupid."

Annie reached over, took a sip of water with ice, and rubbed the cool glass against her forehead.

"Well, you're lucky Tom put two and two together.  Has he been in here to see you yet?"

"Yes, he and Jesse staked out the halls until they let them in to talk to me last night for a few minutes, and again this morning.  I told them everything I could remember.  When I asked Tom if they knew why Eddie was breaking all the jars and setting the spiders free, he could only speculate that he was liberating them or hoping enough of them would bite me or the SWAT members when they came down the stairs.  Tom figured Eddie knew he was finished."

"You have had calls from the families of the three women, you know.  They all wanted to thank you for catching the man who killed their daughters and wish you well.  You're kind of a celebrity now.  I'm sure the media is going to be all over you when you get out of here.  For the moment, a uniform is posted outside and only a few of us are allowed in to see you."

Laine stood up to leave and turned back around as she reached the door.

"Oh, before I forget.  We found an ammo can - the kind you can buy at military supply stores - with his journal inside.  It's in evidence, but I made a copy for the file.  When you're up to it, you'll want to read it.  It's fascinating.  He goes into why he had such a paranoia about spiders and why he targeted young Hispanic females.  Also in the ammo can were four earrings, including one of yours, and a gold cross necklace.  They matched the ones left on the victims."

Annie thought for a minute.  "Another serial killer that keeps tokens from his victims."  She shivered at the thought.  "Well, we definitely don't want the media to get a hold of that journal.  They'll run with it for weeks."

"Don't worry.  No one will see it until all the final reports are issued.  At least we won't have a trial to go through.  Can you imagine the media frenzy that would be?"  Laine said.

"I don't even remember much about what happened.  I was out cold most of the time.  I get chills just thinking about it and how close I came to being his fourth victim."

"Well, lady, get some rest now.  You'll be out of here soon and back to work before you know it.  I've a lot more to tell you about his house and stuff, but it can keep.  I just wanted to see for myself that you were OK.

"Oh, by the way, I was talking to Tom and he informed me that the beautiful Native American woman we saw Jesse with at Uricchio's was Jesse's sister, Chianna."

"Yes, he told me.  I really feel stupid now.  Well, I guess Jesse and I have to have another talk.  I don't know where it's headed, but we'll see.  I actually felt guilty when he was here and we were discussing my 'date' with Eddie."

Laine walked over and gave Annie a hug.  "Noura called me this afternoon and asked me how you were.  She would like to come and visit you.  The thought that you may have died with things between the two of you being unresolved upset her.  What do you think?"

"I'd like to see her, yes.  Life's too short and, in some ways, I can understand why she did what she did.  Family is important and I know she's suffered from her decision.  You can tell whomever is controlling who sees me that she can come.  I hope to be out of here tomorrow.  The food is terrible."

"Well, if your worrying about food, you must be feeling better.  We'll have to have another one of our potlucks as soon as you're up to it.  I'll make a double batch of President Johnson's 'Perdernales Chili' so you can stash a bunch of it in your freezer."

"Can't you sneak me in some tonight?  I'm really hungry."

"It takes a couple of hours to make, silly.  It's not like I can go home and open a can.  What would you like?  I can run out and get you something and be back before visiting hours are over."

"A pizza would do for now," Annie said.  "I'd like some biscuits and gravy," she laughed, "but that's breakfast and I doubt if you could find it anywhere now."

"OK, one pizza coming up," Laine said and headed out the door.

Thirty minutes later, Laine returned and the two friends enjoyed their pizza. 

"Now maybe I can get some sleep," Annie said.

On that note, Laine left and Annie flicked on the television and flipped through the channels, never finding anything interesting to watch.  Finally, she slept.