Friday, March 2, 2018

Rich Blood


            Tali  had been with the FBI for 13 years in the homicide division.  Although homicide is normally for local law enforcement, her department specialized in serial killers or killers that cross state lines.  Although she would say she enjoyed the job, it often pained her to see the pointlessness of the murders that came across her desk.   Oftentimes in homicide departments, the killers were drug, money or revenge related.  She would never argue that these were justified killings because she was against murder but at least the person had a reason.  When dealing with serial homicides, however, oftentimes the killer would just claim that they felt like it or they were bored.  Trying to keep emotions out of it was hard when the killer showed no remorse but killed because of some weird principle.  Many people didn’t want to admit it but characters in movies such as Natural Born Killers, where people kill because they believe it’s a natural instinct of animals and humans are animals, really exist.  Although this gave her goose bumps at night, it also made it that much more satisfying when she locked one of these psychos up. 

            Not long after she arrived at work, a file came across her desk.  There had been three murders in New Orleans.  A week earlier, two people were killed in the same manner in Little Rock, Arkansas, two slits along the ceratoid arteries in the neck.  She was to investigate whether or not it was related.  While on the plane, she took out the five victims’ driver’s license photos and put them next to each other to see if she could come up with a pattern.  The photos were confusing because nothing was consistent.  The five photos she was looking at contained two Black men, a Chinese woman, a White woman and a Hispanic male.  She tried to analyze the photos without prejudice but she couldn’t help but think that the various ethnicities meant something.  During her time with the FBI, she realized that more often than not, the killer and the victim were the same race.  If these killings were related, and were done by one person, then this killer didn’t discriminate.  She left open the possibility of a Middle Easterner since that was the most obvious race not represented.  She separated the photos by location to see if that helped.  Little Rock claimed the White woman and Black man, while the other Black man, Chinese woman and Hispanic male claimed New Orleans.  Her superior decided to investigate Little Rock first since those were the first killings. Having gotten nowhere on seeing a connection, she decided to get some sleep before she arrived.

            When Tali landed in Little Rock, she immediately checked herself in the hotel and took a map out of the United States and put thumb tacks in New Orleans and Little Rock.  She then taped the five driver’s license photos on the wall staring at them for a pattern.  She took out the case files and studied them; she would coordinate with local law enforcement the next day.  Having done this before, she knew that she would have to know all the facts inside and out.  Different divisions of law enforcement didn’t really like each other.  Local cops don’t like FBI, FBI doesn’t like CIA and CIA doesn’t like the Secret Service.  When dealing with other ingredients in the law enforcement’s alphabet soup, it was extremely important to know at least the same amount of information as the person you were speaking to.  She would be tested and any sign of weakness or ignorance, she could kiss their respect good bye, which would hurt their case.

            Tali arrived at the Little Rock police station early the next day and requested files on the case.  She heard some rumblings in the back about how they didn’t want her there but she ignored them.  She requested to go back to the areas and ask the residents what they knew.  Local law enforcement had already done this, but she would be remiss if she didn’t get primary source data rather than just rely on what others told her.  After canvassing for hours, Tali had made no progress in seeing any connection between the victims.  They were all from different parts of town, didn’t seem to know each other, and didn’t hang out in the same crowds or scenes.  She got back to the police station to compare her data with theirs pessimistic that anything would come to her.  For the most part, the local law enforcement was accommodating, and the tension was unspoken.  She knew that it was too much to ask for there to be no tension, after all, no matter how you sugar coated it, she was called in because the powers-that-be didn’t believe the local law enforcement did their jobs thorough enough and that Tali could do it better.  How could you expect no tension when you come in on these pretenses?  She overheard someone in the background remark, “Great, another one of these rich assholes is going to live.”  She couldn’t help but think negatively that two people had just turned up murdered, and they’re worried about some celebrity getting out of the hospital.  She decided that she needed a break, so she took her copies of the case files from the Little Rock police department, and left to get something to eat before returning back to her hotel.

            Tali knew the next day would be spent in seclusion so she would not have any distractions and could observe the data.  She only had two days to spend in Little Rock, before she had to pack up and go to New Orleans to do the same thing.  She had had a long day and sleep was needed because the next day would be just as nerve wrecking.  The case was taunting her; why did nothing add up?  No matter how much people wanted to believe it, she knew that there was no such thing as random killings.  There was always a pattern; it’s just sometimes too hard to find it.  What was this pattern though?  These were her thoughts before her mind closed down from exhaustion and her eyes wandered back and forth as it went through its REM cycle for sleep.

            Tali awoke the next morning and had breakfast before poring over the files again.  Her supervisor called and she was embarrassed that she didn’t have much to report.  She requested someone that she had worked with on other cases to help her.  Sometimes all someone needed was to just have a conversation and bounce ideas off another human being.  Her supervisor told her that he’d send her requested partner to New Orleans and she could just meet him there the next day.  Her last day in Little Rock just further frustrated her because she had made no head way.  The next day, she packed up her things and prepared for her flight to New Orleans to meet up with her partner.

 

            Ben had gotten the order to go to New Orleans to put more manpower on the quintuple homicide.  He had been with the FBI for 17 years and little affected him anymore.  He had little emotion or care for the murderer’s motive, to him, a homicide is a homicide and the perpetrator should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  He looked forward to working with Tali because their personalities counteracted each other in order to yield the best result.  Tali was very nice when dealing with the public and local law enforcement, whereas Ben came in and took charge.  Which way is preferred depends on the situation; some people take being ordered around well, others fight back and rebel.  This is why it was good when Tali was around because if there were negative reactions, Tali could come in and play “good cop” and get more information than Ben could from his bullying tactics. 

            After a full day of canvassing the neighborhoods, he had come up with no connection between the murders.  The case was complicated but he kept his mind focused on the goal of putting those responsible behind bars.  Tali arrived the next day only to find more of the same in New Orleans.  They followed some leads, but they always led to dead ends.  The only headway that was made was when the forensics lab reports came back.  Both Ben and Tali uploaded the victim’s pictures to headquarters to analyze them.  They had been on the force long enough to know that it was amazing how many ways someone could be identified.  Finger prints and retinal scans were only the obvious ones.  In the past, they had figured out bios of their killers from sampling their handwriting, the way they walk, how they draw trees etc..  In this case, it was how they cut a line.  Although both killers used a scalpel, the Little Rock killer drew almost identical lines in his two victims, but the lines were different for the three New Orleans victims.  To further add to this evidence, the three New Orleans victims had almost identical lines to each other.  It seemed that it was two killers after all.  Since it looked like it was no longer a killer crossing state lines, it was no longer FBI jurisdiction and they returned back to their New York office.  Although the higher-ups dismissed it, Ben and Tali had a feeling that they were still related.  How could five similarly executed murders happen so close to each other?  They wrote it off as the New Orleans killer being a copy cat of the Little Rock killer, but something told them that this wasn’t accurate. 

            A couple months later, a red flag arose from Colorado.  Another series of murders that were all killed in similar styles to New Orleans and Little Rock.  Ben and Tali volunteered to investigate.  Their supervisor didn’t believe it to be related to the New Orleans and Little Rock but sent them anyway just so he wouldn’t have to deal with their constant protests.  The first thing Tali noticed was that there was a Japanese woman and a Middle Eastern man.  She had made the report that she thought the killer may be Middle Eastern since that was the race not represented among the victims, but that seemed wrong now.  Ben and Tali bounced ideas off each other trying to make sense of it.  There were four murders, a Middle Eastern Muslim man, a white Jewish woman, a white Mormon man and a Catholic woman.  Just like the previous two cities, religion, gender, and ethnicity weren’t matching up.  Ben blurted out, “Well they’re all American so that’s something.”

            Tali smiled and reviewed the victims and found that three of the nine victims were immigrants.  So far, the only connection is that they all had driver’s licenses, but that’s hardly anything to go on.  They were given even less time in these cities since headquarters really didn’t believe in the connection.  To them, slitting someone’s throat is a common enough way to kill someone.  Tali wrote this off because the cuts were so precise; one slit per artery.  The throat slashing she had seen was almost always one swipe that made it seem like the killer was going for decapitation or creating a human Pez-dispenser. 

            Ben could see that the frustration was bothering Tali immensely.  It bothered him too, but he could hide it better.  He commented to Tali, “Well maybe they’re just horrible drivers.” 

            Tali chuckled at this.  Two weeks later, murders happened in Miami following the same MO and even the higher ups were noticing that this was too coincidental to be random.  They gave Tali and Ben a green light to travel anywhere they wanted and stay for as long as possible.  No more flying in for a couple days, see what you find, then leave.  They would be given a lot of string.  With this added freedom, however, came the added pressure of results.  They had to find something. 

            While in Miami, Tali said to Ben, “We have to start thinking about this outside the box.  The usual ways of finding killers isn’t working so what haven’t we done?”  So far, they had spoken to the family and friends of the victims ad nauseum both in person and over the phone.  They had canvassed the areas the bodies were found and local law enforcement files.  They had even searched the register list at the funerals and interviewed the attendees.  They went through all these motions again in Miami, then Tali said late one night, “Tomorrow is a relax day.  I’m going to the beach and laying out in the sun all day, I’m through being cooped up staring at a bunch of papers.”

Ben didn’t disagree, this case was taking a toll on them and he decided a day on the beach would be nice.  They packed up their things and headed toward Sanibel Island in Fort Myers.  Although South Beach got all the notoriety, it was usually filled with a bunch of college kids or rich snobs.  These people annoyed Tali and Sanibel, though also popular, didn’t attract the aristocratic, new money, rich bubble-living trust fund babies like South Beach.  The other added bonus about Sanibel was the beaches had sea shells sporadically spread out all over the beach.  It was just the perfect amount so that you could find a place to lay a towel and lay on the beach without laying on sea shells, but plenty to gather if that’s what you enjoyed.  Most beaches, you had to go into the water and feel for them; Sanibel they were all over for the taking.  They checked into a hotel in Fort Myers and went to sleep.  Tali woke up with the sun and left a note for Ben before heading to the beach.  A couple hours later, Ben found Tali and they relaxed rarely talking about the case.  This was their day off and they were going to enjoy it.  As the waves came up the sand only to retreat and a cool breeze flew over Tali as she was allowing nature’s towel, the sun, to dry her off, a thought dawned on her.  She said to Ben, “We should check with the hospitals and morgues where the victims were brought to.”

            “Tali, this is our day off, no work today.  Besides, all those people ever say is that they were dead on arrival or autopsy confirmed the obvious.  Guaranteed, autopsy reports will conclude that the victims bled to death due to having their throat slashed with a scalpel.” 

            “We should still try”

            “Tomorrow, today we rest.”

            That was the last thing mentioned about the case that day.  When the sun went down, Tali and Ben had dinner and then headed back to Miami.  They would follow Tali’s theory the next day since it couldn’t hurt.  They checked into the same hotel they stayed in prior to leaving.  This was done on purpose; it has been proven that people remember things better when they’re in the same atmosphere as when they learned of it.  Psychologists had tested this theory with scuba divers teaching them one thing under water and one thing back on land.  The things they learned under water, they remembered better when retested underwater than when they were tested back on land.  This also worked vice-versa in that underwater they had more trouble recalling the things they learned on land than when they were on land.  They were going to use as many psychological or otherwise theories they could to solve this one.  It had taken so much time and brain power that not finding anything was no longer an option. 

            The next day, they went to the hospitals and morgue and questioned all those that had evaluated the victims.  To Ben’s point, they didn’t have much to say that they didn’t already know.  Tali grabbed lunch in the cafeteria while Ben decided to question some more people before joining Tali.  Tali sat at the cafeteria looking over the files she had stared at countless times before.  One of the nurses that she had interviewed saw Tali’s frustration and sat down near her.  She took out some homemade chocolate chip cookies and sat down at Tali’s table and said, “Hi, would you like a cookie?”

            “No thanks” Tali said without even looking up from her papers.

            The nurse expected this but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.  She didn’t like seeing people look so frustrated.  She continued, “I made them myself, and if you don’t take one, you’re going to hurt my feelings” as she feigned a frown.

            Tali caught the frown in the corner of her eye and couldn’t help but relax a bit.  The woman had a very soothing voice, which kind of made her feel guilty if she responded harshly again.  She looked up and smiled and said, “Well if that’s the only way to get rid of you.” and took a cookie.

            The nurse took it as a victory that she got Tali to smile and handed her the cookie with an excited smile.  Tali sort of admired the simplicity of someone being so excited merely because someone accepted their cookie.  Tali took a bite and had to admit that it was really good.  Her eyes widened and the nurse said, “Good huh?”

            “These are fantastic” Tali responded staring at the cookie. 

            The nurse put a container of cookies in front of her and said, “Here, help yourself, I’ll get some milk.” As she walked away before Tali could protest.

            Tali’s mood had relaxed significantly just by the short encounter with the nurse.  The nurse came back with a glass of milk and gave it to Tali.  Tali thanked her and started eating another cookie before taking a sip.  “So where are you from?” the nurse said.

            Tali knew she was making small talk, but decided that she was friendly enough to oblige, “Brooklyn, New York.”

            “Oh well, we need to show you some southern hospitality then” the nurse said as she patted her on the back before continuing, “those stern wall street types in New York don’t go around offering cookies and sitting with you just because you look like you have the world on your shoulders.”

            Tali was shocked not by what she said but when the nurse patted her shoulder, she felt all the knots in her shoulders and back relax. It was as if she had no control over her body and a load had been lifted off her shoulders.  She started looking at her shoulders in shock as if they were defying her.  The nurse expected this.  She had gotten into nursing because she had always had the ability to relax people with a simple touch. She was used to calming people before going through life threatening surgery, this detective who was frustrated about a case she couldn’t solve was a walk in the park for her.  Tali looked up taking in the nurse for the first time and temporarily forgetting the case.  Having a meaningless conversation didn’t seem like too bad of an idea right now. She hadn’t been this relaxed in months so she said, “Actually I lived in New Orleans for a while.”

            “Oh so you know how we are then?”

            “Yea”

            The conversation continued uneventfully but Tali soon went back to the case.  She talked to the nurse about her frustration but was a lot more relaxed about it now.  The nurse didn’t really know how to advise on this but she knew the next step was to talk about the case and attack the frustration at the source.  The nurse had always believed that every situation had a silver lining and there was a bright side to everything.  She decided to share with Tali the bright side she found in the murders.  She said, “If it helps at all, all the people who died ended up saving a life.”

            Tali rolled her eyes; it bothered her when people were always cheerful about everything.  After the things she had seen for the last 13 years, it was hard to think the world was a good place.  It was because of people like Tali, however, that stopped the people who make it ugly from further exacerbating it so that the optimists could be given a case for why the world is a beautiful place.  Law enforcement rarely gets this recognition for allowing the world to seem like a nice place, but they also were the type that didn’t seek out fame and praise.  They liked being in the background and working in the shadows.  She decided to fuel the nurse’s excitement and asked, “How’s that?”

            “Well they were all organ donors and each surgery that used the organs was successful and they were now living their lives, so it’s not always all bad.”

            Tali got an idea; she finally found a connection between the victims.  She immediately snapped back into detective mode and said, “Can you get me a list of all the patients to receive an organ after the murders?” 

            “Ummm I think that’s okay.”

            “Thank you.”

            “Tali saw Ben come over and waved him over excitedly.  She saw the confusion on the nurse’s face and didn’t want to be rude.  She said, “Thank you very much for the cookies and for calming me down but it is extremely important that I get those files, how soon can you get them?”

            “Well you would have to talk to the doctor…”

            “What’s his name?” Tali interrupted.

            The nurse told her and she wrote it down.  She started getting up from the table before sitting back down.  The nurse had gone out of her way to help her and she was about to storm off.  Ben had sat down at this point and Tali offered him a cookie making sure to praise them.  Ben had a similar reaction after tasting them and praised the nurse.  Ben said, “I’m starving”

            “Take it to go” Tali said then turned toward the nurse, “Thank you very much for sitting and talking to me.  You made me smile for the first time in months, but I think you just unlocked a vital point of this case that I need to follow up on.  Again, thank you for the cookies and for keeping me company but I have to go now.”

            Ben spoke up, “What’s going on, I just got here, and I’m starving”

            “Get it to go!” She snapped

            Ben turned to the nurse and said, “Why is she so nice to you?” and smiled.

            The nurse knew that there was no turning Tali back from work mode so she told her where to find the doctor and excused herself.  She wrote off the encounter as her getting Tali to relax a little bit before she reverted back.  She didn’t realize just how much she helped. 

            Ben got some portable food and followed Tali.  Tali filled him in on the parts of the conversation pertinent to the case and Ben immediately followed the logic, “You don’t think it’s just coincidence that these people miraculously found a donor that quickly?”

            After getting the files, Tali and Ben went back to the cafeteria to pore over the files.  They took out the victim’s driver’s license photos again and checked the line next to “organ donor.”  Each one followed with a “Y.”  Tali called New Orleans and Little Rock to check with the hospitals on if they found a similar coincidence that all these people’s organs were all of a sudden useful in saving someone’s life.  Ben called Colorado and confirmed that all four cities had similar patterns.  They looked at the list of people who were saved by the organs and started thinking of ways to question them.  Then Ben got the idea to call back the hospitals and find out who was the last person on the lists and cross-reference it with the patient’s incomes.  Since more than one organ was used, this made the list longer than nine, but it did narrow it down.

            Tali called headquarters and asked the computer people to find out everything they could about them paying close attention to any wealthy ones.  In each city, there was a seven-figure income patient to have benefited from an organ provided by one of the victims. 

            Tali and Ben returned to New York so they could work closer with the labs to try to further narrow the list down.  They confirmed that the victims all had the same blood types as the millionaire, or they were O-, which is the universal donor.  They asked them to find any large money transfers to off-shore accounts and informed the CIA since off-shore accounts was their jurisdiction.

            Tali and Ben then called the local law enforcement in the cities where the killings had occurred to tell them what they found.  The local law enforcement didn’t want to admit it, but this was a promising lead.  The off-shore records were a little tricky, but the local law enforcement brought in the millionaire’s for questioning.  Unfortunately, their high price lawyers came with them and made their jobs that much harder.  They didn’t get a confession, so they had to let them go because they only had circumstantial evidence. 

            Ben and Tali knew there was no way they had enough to convict.  Their lawyers would stop them from confessing.  They would just have to catch them in the act.  They monitored the hospitals in cities large enough to have multiple professional sports teams since that is where wealthy people normally live.  After a couple months, they caught a break in that a millionaire had a life threatening illness and needed an organ transplant.  They put a flag on his finances and when the off-shore transfer was made, they monitored the airports for any flights booked on short notice.  The city was New York, and they were happy that this was going to happen in their own back yard.  They investigated everyone who made last minute flights and the ones that didn’t have much of a past or any information they decided to bring in for questioning.

            Luckily, Ben and Tali had a lot of help in that there is a lot of law enforcement in New York.  They had the airports report any passenger that had a scalpel in their checked luggage and cross-referenced it with the list of people who made short notice flights from the final country that the funds were transferred to with the luggage reports and had customs check their bags.  Their possession of a scalpel was certainly not enough to convict, but it was enough to question them. 

            Ben and Tali interviewed everyone that met their criteria and grilled them.  They allowed local law enforcement to aid them but they wanted to speak to each suspect personally, and it was of no concern to them that local law enforcement didn’t take too kindly to this. 

            They arrived at a police station and went into the interview room as they had done a lot in the past few days.  At this point, they had the routine down that they could do it in their sleep. Provide the evidence, accuse them of coming to kill someone, then adapt to the answers.  Although they saw shock and fear in most of the people they questioned, this time they found intrigue.  The victim looked up and said, “Offer me a deal, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

            “Are you admitting that you came to New York to kill someone?”

            “No, I’m here on vacation, my sister is sick.  But that answer can change if you agree to send me back to my home country and drop all charges.”

            “In return?”

            “Names of everyone involved in the case you’re looking for, including the killer’s name.”

            Ben and Tali were shocked that he turned so easily.  Ben quickly checked with his superior and confirmed that he had the okay to make the deal.  They made the deal and the man admitted he was the killer, who hired him, the millionaire in the hospital was his financer, and how the list of people he was supposed to kill, which corresponded to the number the millionaire was on the list of people who needed the organ he needed.  Ben was satisfied but Tali had to know why he gave in so easily.  She asked as much and the killer responded, “Ma’ame, I’m a mercenary, I have no ties to these people.  Mercenaries, by definition have no loyalty.” 

            Tali then asked, “Why the scalpel?”

            “It’s a quick death that still allows blood and messages through the spinal cord so the body doesn’t naturally corrupt the organs.  It would be too easy if we just cut out the organs, but that is normally what’s done.  Of course, if you’re going to do that, you don’t really need an organ donor.  You just kill an immigrant or someone that has no family and take their organs.”

            It bothered her immensely that they were going to let someone who would kill for money go, but they had the deal and his agreement to testify.  Even the millionaire’s high priced lawyers couldn’t get him out of this one.  They built the case and handed it over to the District Attorney and they charged the Millionaire with conspiracy to commit capital murder.  The millionaire died before the trial even started.  The FBI leaked the story to the press in order to warn anyone else who had this idea to think twice about it.  It was a national story and almost overnight people flocked to the DMV to change their status of being an organ donor to “No.” 

            Ben and Tali went back to their respective jobs awaiting the next mystery.  They had received much commendation from their superiors for solving the case.  Ben was satisfied at the positive result but it still bothered Tali that this trade could exist.  All the other murderers were long gone and ready for hire again.  Even the informant didn’t have her forgiveness.  He had gotten away with being hired to do a murder.  What would stop him from doing it again?  She had to accept, however, that she couldn’t stop the business worldwide but at least she established a precedent so people would know what to look for if a rich person in the future decides to try this life-saving scam. 

No comments:

Post a Comment