Murder In the Past Tense (A Giorgio Salvatori Mystery Book 2) (24 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Giorgio had been to Big Bear Lake only once when the family had taken a summer vacation there. The lake sits in the middle of the San Bernadino National Forest. In the late 1800s, a trip to Big Bear by buggy would have taken over two days. By car, they’d be there in just under two hours.

“Apparently Big Bear is good for trout, catfish, and bass fishing,” Rocky said, reading from his smart phone. He glanced over at Giorgio. “Too bad Royce and Edmond Martinelli didn’t actually like to fish.”

The brothers arrived at the San Bernadino County Sheriff’s office just before noon. Fortunately, the sheriff was in and welcomed them into his office.

Sheriff Williams was a small man with razor cut hair, a receding hairline and a thin smile. The brothers sat in wooden arm chairs on the other side of his desk, staring out a window at a stand of pines trees.

“What can I do for you boys?” the sheriff asked amiably.

“We’re looking into a murder case that may be connected to something that happened up here back in 1967,” Giorgio said.

The Sheriff shrugged. “Whoa, 1967? You’re not going to find much information going that far back. What was the incident?”

Giorgio snuck a glance at his brother. “We don’t know. But two men who we believe are involved in the murder of a number of young women came up for a long weekend and probably rented a cabin.”

The little man had leaned way back in his chair and tapped the fingers of his right hand on the desk. “This have anything to do with all those bodies that were dug up down your way?”

Giorgio reached into his pocket and pulled out pictures of Royce and Edmond Martinelli.

“Yes. These are the two men. We believe something happened up here that made them pull up stakes suddenly and go back home. We’re trying to find out what that was.”

The sheriff studied the pictures a moment. He tapped his fingers again before saying, “You’ll need to talk with Sheriff Masters. He’s retired now, but he would have been sheriff back then.”

“Do you know where we can find him?” Rocky asked.

“Sure. He has a home over in Fawnskin by Dana Point Park.”

He popped his chair forward and punched something into his computer. Then he grabbed a sticky note and wrote it down.

“Here’s his address.” He glanced out the window. “But the sun’s out, so most likely you’ll find him down by the marina even. Even at this time of year, he likes to take his Kindle and sit down there and read.”

Giorgio nodded. “What’s he look like?”

The sheriff smiled. “Oh, you can’t miss Tubbs Masters. He lives up to his name.”

Giorgio smiled back. “Thanks for your time.”

As promised, they found Sheriff Tubbs Masters sitting on a bench at the end of the dock, a Kindle held loosely in his hands. He wore sunglasses and a straw hat. A heavy corduroy jacket was stretched tight over an enormous belly, and he had a wool scarf around his neck. The lake lapped gently against the pilings, while a few clouds floated across the sky.

“Sheriff Masters?” Giorgio said, coming up to the side of the bench.

He turned and looked up.

“Who’s asking?”

“My name is Giorgio Salvatori. Joe to my friends,” he said with a smile. “I’m with the Sierra Madre Police Department, down in the San Gabriel Valley.” He lifted up his jacket to show his badge, which was attached to his belt. He pointed to Rocky. “My brother, Rocky. Also with the Sierra Madre PD.”

Rocky nodded to him and also flashed his badge.

The sheriff glanced at the badges and closed his Kindle. “I know Sierra Madre,” he said. “I have a sister who lives in Arcadia.” He eyed Giorgio for a moment. “The monastery murders. You were the lead detective.”

“Yes, sir. I was,” Giorgio said.

“Nice job on that one.”

“Thanks,” Giorgio replied.

“Well, what can I do for you?”

The brothers moved in front of him and leaned against the dock’s railing, both squinting against the glare off the water.

“We need to know if you remember if anything significant happened up here back in May of 1967.”

A short chuckle erupted through his lips. “Like what? A forest fire? A boating accident? A celebrity sighting?”

“No, sir,” Giorgio said. “We have two suspects in a case we’re working from back then. They were supposed to be on an extended fishing trip up here, but came home after only a few days. They’ve been implicated in a string of murders – young girls. We think something happened up here that sent them packing – scared them away.”

The heavyset man sat up a little straighter at the mention of young girls.

“Tell me more about the murders,” he said, removing his sunglasses.

“The women were tortured,” Rocky said. “And murdered.”

The sheriff dropped his gaze to the water behind them for a long moment. He took in a deep breath and then said, “I think you’d better follow me to my home.”

He stood up and led them back to the parking lot, where he hefted his big bulk into an old Ford pickup. They followed him out of town and up a winding road, through the forest. Ten minutes later, they pulled off the paved road onto a dirt road that wound around a natural pond to a large log cabin.

He welcomed them into a warm living room filled with leather furniture, big throw rugs and a rough-hewn wooden dining table. Instead of dead animals gracing the walls, however, framed oil paintings of the lake hung there.

“Why don’t you have a seat, and I’ll make some coffee,” he said.

He disappeared into the kitchen, while Rocky and Giorgio made themselves comfortable. A few minutes later, the sheriff returned with a tray of steaming coffee mugs and a plate of chocolate biscotti.

“I make the biscotti myself,” he said proudly.

He dropped his bulk into a big chair and leaned back, holding his coffee cup on his chest. Giorgio dipped the hard cookie into his coffee and then took a bite. His eyes lit up. “Mmmm,” he murmured. “That’s good stuff.”

“Thanks,” the big sheriff said. “I’ll send some with you. Okay, I suppose you’d like to get to the topic at hand. So here’s what I know. It was late May back in 1967. I don’t remember the exact date. There was a young girl by the name of Amber Riley who was picked up by a couple of guys when she was hitch-hiking.”

As soon as he mentioned the name, Amber, Giorgio’s antenna went up. Hadn’t Flame mentioned seeing the color amber?

“They took her to a remote cabin,” the sheriff continued. “They raped her and tortured her over a period of a couple of days. But she escaped.”

Giorgio’s heart skipped a beat. “Did you find out who the men were that picked her up?”

“No. They burnt the cabin to the ground when they left. There was nothing left behind, and the owner said she was paid in cash by mail. So she never knew who the renters were. It was different back then. People trusted more. There were no computer trails. No cell phone records. Anyway, the girl wasn’t found until the next morning about a mile and a half away, naked, bleeding and pretty mangled up.”

“Did you launch an investigation?” Giorgio asked.

“Sure we did. But Amber said she had been on a road trip with some friends. She and her boyfriend had gotten into a big fight and she’d left by herself. These men picked her up on the way into town. They never gave her their names and never called each other by name. And from what we could tell, they never utilized any services in town, either. No gas. No food. No nothing. So they came and went like ghosts,” he said, dipping his biscotti into his coffee.

At the mention of ghosts, the muscles in Giorgio’s chest tightened. But he let his hands drop to the table in disappointment.

“Did you get a description from her?”

“Sure,” the big sheriff replied. “Tall, dark hair, dark eyes. But as I said, no one but Amber ever saw them.”

"What about the vehicle they used?" Rocky asked hopefully.

"She was pretty traumatized by the time she was found. Not long on details," Tubbs recalled.

“Damn! I was hoping we could somehow confirm it,” Giorgio exclaimed.

“Well, you could talk with Amber,” the sheriff said casually. “You might learn a little more. You have the luxury of having someone in mind. We didn’t.”

“She’s still around?” Giorgio asked, flashing a look at his brother.

“Yeah. She stayed in town and runs the area’s only homeless shelter. It’s over in the City of Big Bear, off of 3
rd
. But I need to warn you, she may not want to talk to you. What they did to her was awful. They broke two of her fingers, used an electrical probe on her genitals, and…” he paused. “They pulled her eyelashes out…one by one.” He swallowed hard and shook his head. “Amber’s case was one of the few times when I hated my job.”

“We’ll go slowly with her,” Rocky promised.

The sheriff stared at Giorgio for a moment and then nodded.

“I'd better give her a call.”

He stood up and went into the kitchen again. They heard his voice, but not what he said. A moment later, he was back with a piece of paper and a paper bag filled with biscotti.

“She said she’ll talk to you,” he said handing Giorgio a bag of biscotti and a slip of paper. “But as you said, take it slowly. I doubt any of us could fully understand what she went through.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

When Giorgio and Rocky walked into the shelter, Amber Riley was standing behind a counter, folding towels, making sure all the corners matched. She was a petite woman with short brown hair and glasses.

Giorgio noticed that her left hand seemed stiff, as if the fingers didn’t work so well. Then he remembered what the old sheriff had said about how her kidnappers had broken two fingers on one hand.

She looked up as the two men strode in and instantly stiffened. Her hands stopped moving.

“You’re the police officers,” she said before they could even introduce themselves.

“Yes,” Giorgio said. “I’m Detective Giorgio Salvatori, and this is Rocky Salvatori. We’re with the Sierra Madre Police. We’re here to talk to you about what happened back in 1967. We think we know who abducted you.”

Her eyes opened wider and slowly, her hands began to shake.

“I know this is difficult, Ms. Riley. But we need your help,” he said, modulating the tone of his voice. “One of the men we believe did this to you is dead. But we need help in identifying the second man. We’d like to put him behind bars.”

She paused for a moment, and Giorgio held his breath hoping she wouldn’t just turn and walk away.

Then she exhaled and said quietly, “Come with me.”

They followed her down a short hallway, where she handed off the towels to another woman. She led them into a small office at the end of the hallway, where she sat behind the desk, bracing her hands on the arms of the chair. Her body was tense and she looked as if she was afraid they were going to assault her. In a way, Giorgio thought, they were.

Giorgio and Rocky sat facing her.

She’d been pretty once. Her face had good bone structure, and she had few wrinkles, but she also had two dark splotches that stretched across one cheek, like dark birthmarks. And a small chunk of her left nostril was missing, along with her left earlobe. These were just some of the physical scars left behind from her ordeal. Giorgio couldn’t help but study her eyes, thinking about what Sheriff Masters had said about having her eyelashes pulled out one by one. When she noticed him studying her, he dropped his gaze.

“What do you want to know?” she said.

“Everything,” Giorgio replied, glancing back up at her. “Even if you think it’s not important. We believe these men have a long history of doing what they did to you. But you’re the only one we know of that got away.”

That raised an eyebrow. She clasped her hands in front of her on the desk, twisting her fingers into a knot. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I’ve spent my entire life trying to understand what happened to me,” she said, her voice shaking. “I was young and so damn carefree. I trusted everyone. The world was my oyster. Isn’t that the saying?”

She looked at them with a haunted expression.

“I know this is difficult, Ms. Riley. We don’t need to know the details of…of the physical abuse. We want to know about the men who abducted you. How they behaved with each other. How they even found you.”

She glanced down to her hands again and pressed her lips together. Then she began to speak as if it took every ounce of strength she had to get the words out.

“Two men offered me a ride one night.” Tears formed in her brown eyes, and she used her good hand to wipe them away. “They looked normal. Like my own dad. In fact, one of them said he had a daughter about my age and wouldn’t want her out hitchhiking alone. They said they’d drop me off at a motel. So I said okay.” She shook her head. “Such a simple act – getting into the wrong car.”

“What happened next?” Giorgio asked gently.

“The one in the passenger seat got out to open the back door for me. As I was about to get in, he grabbed me from behind and put something over my nose and mouth. It smelled awful and I passed out.”

She started to breathe heavily as she relived those moments.

“I woke up tied to a bed…naked.”

She had to stop for a moment. Giorgio just let her tell it at her own pace.

“I tried to get them to let me go, but of course they only laughed. One of them started to hurt me almost immediately.”

She shook her head, as if even now she couldn’t believe it.

“At first, he just pinched my skin, twisted my fingers, things like that. I could tell it got him excited. Eventually…eventually, he raped me.”

Tears began to stream down her cheeks, and Rocky reached over and pushed a box of Kleenex forward to her.

“Take your time, Ms. Riley,” Rocky said.

She took a tissue and wiped her eyes and nose and then continued.

“They kept me there for two days. They did awful things to me,” she said, choking out a sob.

“We know, Ms. Riley,” Giorgio said. “You don’t need to repeat that.”

“Why would someone do that?” she said, crying and wiping her eyes.

Giorgio let the moment play itself out as he waited patiently. Finally, he asked, “How did they refer to each other?”

She took a deep breath to gain control again. “Believe it or not, they called each other Batman and Robin. The shorter one was Batman. He seemed to be the one in control.”

“What did they talk about? When they weren’t…”

“They didn’t, for the most part,” she interrupted him. “If they wanted to have a conversation, they went outside.”

“How did you get away?” Rocky asked.

“It was the third day. I was slipping in and out of consciousness. But I could tell that Robin was getting sick. I heard him say that he’d forgotten to pack his medication. Batman swore at him, and kept saying that he could just eat something. But by nightfall, Robin was really ill. So Batman finally said he’d go back and get his medication. I was tied to a chair and pretty out of it by that time, so I guess he didn’t think I was a threat. Anyway, he said he’d be back in a few hours and gave a gun to Robin. He told him to shoot me if I moved. I think that was more for my benefit, because Robin was really sick. Anyway, it had to be at least a couple of hours after Batman left that Robin finally passed out. I could barely see him, because…” she stopped and sucked in some air. “There was blood caked in my eyes and they were really swollen.”

She was breathing heavily and Giorgio waited for her to get control again.

“But the chair I was in was close to a counter where they’d left the knife they’d used to…to…” She had to stop and take another deep breath. “I was able to push my chair back and knock the knife onto the floor. Then, I had to tip my chair over, and I remember being really scared that Robin would wake up. But he didn’t. I somehow got a hold of the knife with my good hand. It was hard and it kept slipping out of my grasp. Anyway, I tipped the knife up and slowly cut my ropes. I almost passed out several times myself. The pain in my left hand was terrible, but I used my good hand and finally cut myself loose.”

She looked up at Giorgio with a renewed sense of purpose.

“I had to wash my eyes out, and I was shaking so bad that I kept dropping the towel. But then I just ran. No shoes. No clothes. I just wanted to get as far away from that cabin as I possibly could. I had no idea where I was, but I couldn’t take the road in case Batman came back. So I stuck to the forest. I fell several times and finally rolled down a steep hill and passed out. A couple of hikers found me in the morning and got me to a hospital.”

“We need to know whatever you can tell us about the man who got sick. It sounds like he was a diabetic.”

She nodded. “Yes, I think so. When I recovered, I studied up on it.”

Giorgio nodded. “We can check that out,” he said, remembering what Edmond had said about feeling ill the night they had returned early from their fishing trip. “Anything else you can remember about him?”

“For instance, can you describe them for us?” Rocky asked.

She glanced at Rocky. “Both of them were very tall and had dark brown hair, almost black. On the slender side. Robin was taller than Batman, but by only an inch or two. Dark, blank eyes,” she said, stopping again. “Dead eyes.”

“Any unusual things about how they looked or how they moved?” Giorgio said.

She looked up at him. “Unusual in what way?”

He shrugged. “Anything that made you think to yourself, ‘Hey that’s weird.’ Or when you saw it you commented on it in your mind.”

She thought a moment and then her eyes lit up. “Yes. Robin’s feet.”

“His feet?” Rocky said.

“Yes. He had enormous feet. I had to look at them for hours when I was in that chair. Sometimes he was sitting in front of me, toying with me. Other times he was sitting on the bed close by. His shoes looked custom-made. Very expensive. And when he walked, he walked like a duck, his toes pointed way out to the side. He sat like that, too. It was like his feet weren’t his own, you know what I mean? Like someone had stuck someone else’s feet on him. Does that help?”

“Yes,” Giorgio said quietly. “That’s exactly what we were looking for, Amber.”

“Do you know who he is?”

Her voice had taken on a plaintive quality.

“Yes,” Giorgio said.

Giorgio pulled out several pictures. Three were of local cops they used in line-ups. The other two were of Royce and Edmond. He cautiously slid them all across the desk. She stared at them for a moment and then slowly picked up the ones of Royce and Edmond. Her face had gone pale, and she suddenly looked like she might be sick.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

She dropped the photos and glanced up at Giorgio, her eyes filled with tears.

“Who were they?” she asked, as if even now, she feared them.

“Brothers. I can’t give you their names, because they haven’t been charged with anything. But we think they have a long string of murders on their hands. You were very lucky. You
do
recognize them, I take it.”

She seemed to shudder. “Yes. That’s them,” she said, pointing to the pictures of Royce and Edmond. “That’s Batman,” she said pointing to Royce. “And the other one was Robin. But it doesn’t feel like I was lucky. There were many times over those few days that I prayed for death.” Her right hand fluttered to her face. “I lived, but I’m covered in scars.” She touched one of the places where they’d peeled skin away. Her fingers were shaking. “Will I have to testify in a trial or anything?”

Giorgio glanced at his brother. “I don’t know. As I said, one of the brothers is already dead. He died several years ago. The other one is in his eighties.”

“But…how did you find me?” she asked.

“We’re following up on the murder of another young girl who was killed the same night you escaped. Her body was just recently discovered. She hadn’t been kidnapped and tortured like you. It looks as if these men had been doing this for a very long time, and there had never been any problems. Then you escaped. That became a very big problem. They came home earlier than expected, and we believe this other girl overheard something, perhaps a discussion about what happened with you.”

“And that got her killed?” she almost screeched.

Giorgio drew his lips together and nodded.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Rocky said quickly.

Giorgio stood up. “Ms. Riley, I’m going to ask the sheriff to send an officer over to stay with you. I believe we’re very close to solving this case, but things are at a critical juncture right now. I want to make sure you’re safe.”

She straightened up. “From who? The guy who’s in his eighties?”

“We don’t know. But two
other
people connected to the family involved have recently died under suspicious circumstances.”

“Why come after me now?” she asked, standing up. “Why didn’t they try to find me all those years ago?”

“Maybe you can answer that better than we could,” he said.

She thought a minute. “Well, they didn’t know
my
name, either.”

“You didn’t have your purse with you?” Rocky asked.

“No. I stormed out when my boyfriend and I got in a big argument. I didn’t take anything with me. I was kind of stoned, to be honest. I just started walking. And when I was finally found, Sheriff Masters purposely kept my picture and name out of the papers. He’s been very protective of me over the years.”

“Sheriff Masters said that no one in town ever saw them, so they may have felt that if they could just lay low, no one would ever be able to ID them. They must have brought everything they needed with them to the cabin. Food. Gas. Water.”

Her eyes lit up. “Yes. They had several coolers and boxes lined up along the wall.”

“They were very smart,” Giorgio said. “They just didn’t count on Robin forgetting his insulin. If they’d tried to go to a hospital or a doctor’s office to get that, it would have stood out. Somebody would have remembered that. So Batman had to go back home to get it.”

“But why didn’t they just kill me? Then both of them could have left.”