JUSTICE REBORN (A Charlie Taylor Novel Book 1) Page 6

  Karen is the lead in the other open case: another serial killer but at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to method and attitude. This one is wild and appears completely out of control. He is a serial rapist and killer.

  Karen provides a short review. “After his first victim, he started regular reports to various news outlets detailing his physical attributes, size of his penis, bragging about his prowess as a lover, claims he is so horny he can’t help himself. This was when one of the reporters labeled him ‘Horny Harry’, an inappropriate name, but one the press won’t let go….. maybe because the son of a bitch keeps feeding them material. This rapist craves attention and always contacts the media after an attack. If the girl is strong enough, she survives the beating…… only two have survived: the first girl and our current victim in the hospital. He is not very careful, basically rather sloppy. We have DNA, some clothing fibers, and hair samples.”

  Karen is not happy with his ridiculous label because it appears to bring some humor to a situation which is far from funny. Yet, she knows she is dealing with a veteran bunch of homicide detectives and black humor is the norm.

  “Gentlemen, Horny Harry has a distinct mode of operation. Our first victim, who was lucky to survive, remembers almost nothing from the attack but does remember getting into a cab. The next four girls did not survive the assault. And, our latest victim appears to be trying to speak the word ‘taxi’. I assume he is driving a taxi or what seems to be a legitimate taxi and makes his selection from the cab, ignoring any women that are not his type.

  The girl is in the General Hospital and will survive. She is fragile, and I can only get a few minutes at a time with her. The doctors are cautious; they don’t want to add to her stress with a series of probing questions. It will be days before we can see her again for more than a few minutes.

  I recorded her statement, actually I recorded several different bursts of dialogue at various times when she was conscious. But her jaw is broken, she has numerous missing teeth, her lips split and the inside of her mouth is swollen. Really, it is impossible to understand her but she insists on talking, and I continue to record her efforts to speak. I’m only able to comprehend a few words, one of which is ‘taxi’. “

  Wes interrupted, “Karen, I’m sure there is a reason but why not paper and pen?”

  “She can’t write. Besides being feeble, both hands are severely cut and swollen, in fact, all ripped up and covered in massive bandages. She was either trying to protect herself or he was wild and swinging and slicing at everything.

  My guess: he is not a regular cab driver but has disguised a vehicle to mimic a regular cab; it has to be good disguise because women are getting into the damn cab without any reservations. The cab allows him to cruise in any area without attracting attention. Net? All I have is four different recorded statements from the lady in Intensive Care, out of which I can understand about ten words.”

  I’m rather abrupt and cut it short. “Karen I need you to participate in the brainstorming on the Five Star Couple then I promise we will form a different group to review Harry with you. We have a fresh crime scene with the Five Star Couple. I need to start there.”

  She wants to spend all her time on her case; she is not pleased. Still I have something to contribute. “Come back to my office after the meeting. I’ve a contact with an FBI technical group, and they have some gurus who may be able to work on your recordings; the contact owes me. Maybe we can get priority. Maybe get you some understandable phrases or words.”

  Everyone is starting to leave; I feel I have to say something, but my brain is mush, I almost mumble the words. “People thanks for the reports. I recognize I’m not starting from the high ground but you all know me and I hope trust me.”

  There are handshakes on the way out, and no one appears distressed by my promotion; that’s about all I can hope. Before all clear the room, the Chief’s secretary is at the door.

  “Charlie, the Chief asked me to relay this message: the Judge has canceled the special Board meeting today and will reschedule later in the week.”

  “Thanks, I don’t know what caused the cancelation but it’s good for me. I’ll be at my desk once I find my new office.”

  Karen is waiting, and we head out to find my new office.

  # # #

  Karen is gone, pleased with the FBI willingness to assist and prioritize. I start organizing my small office; it appears someone has already been at work. The place has been dusted, all the little odds and ends are in place, on my desk a new large size monitor connected to central, even my own coffee maker in operation. Since I have all the necessary passwords, I can now dig deeper into both open cases. I’m ok, just fighting a headache and sore throat.

  The blackouts are scary. I can’t believe I approached Emma in front of the whole Sector and started on her bare shoulders, like a horny drunk. Unbelievable. But then I realize, at that moment, that is what I was: a horny drunk. How depressing. I can’t focus on the damn cases.

  What’s bothering me? Why did I get promoted? I’ve known the Chief and worked with him for a long time. I understand why he placated the blond and convinced her not to proceed with a charge but why let me off the hook? Me or any other misbehaving member of his force. This is not his style. Second, after the Spring Dance, he has to be worried about me; why take a chance? Doesn’t make sense, not for a straight guy like the Chief. Why would he do this?

  I drink my coffee. Slowly it begins to filter through, the only thing that makes sense: it’s a setup. If he fires me today, there could be a backlash. I could be viewed as a grieving widower who has put in many extra hours for the department and solved some tough cases, then was thrown off the force while recovering from a personal tragedy. But, with the promotion the Chief can prove he gave me a chance.

  All the Chief has to do is wait for the pressure of these two open cases to get to me. Then he can ease me out, telling everyone he tried his best but I couldn’t recover from my personal problems. Sure: it’s a setup. The Chief hates loose ends, everything has to fit and be neat by the book. My approach has always been hard for him to take and the last two years really tough on him. Now all he has to do is wait. The next incident and he will be able to clean up the department.

  It’s early, but I am thirsty. Jesus Christ.

  CHAPTER 10: Binary Search

  Leaving the message now appeared reckless.

  Emma Collins had a long day ahead of her and struggled with the start. There was still no response from the confidential telephone query she’d left for Dr. Joe Wilson. A decision which haunted her: stupid, hasty, and uncharacteristic.

  At 6:30 am, Emma and Janice were the sole occupants, only a few desks apart, but each engaged in her own world for different reasons. The area was part medical facility, part chemistry laboratory, part office, and part communication center, but everyone referred to it as the Combination Room. The space housed an extensive array of specialized equipment, work tables, a multitude of computers, individual desks, and large wall mounted monitors. It formed the primary working space for the Forensic Division and was a formidable site for a first-time visitor.

  Emma did not indulge in political intrigue; she was a scientist who had fallen in love with the learning process from her first days in elementary school. At university she blossomed and was recognized as one of the best students in the science program. In her last years, she developed a strong relationship with a young Ph.D. student, Jerry King. Jerry was completing some post-doctoral work and was impressed with Emma’s intelligence and creativity. They presented as a natural couple both intelligent, poised, good looking, a good fit. But, before she graduated Jerry got a prestige appointment in Paris, France. For Emma, his unanticipated abrupt departure left a void and a touch of bitterness.

  Emma’s social skills and associated behavior were not her strong point: on occasion, exchanges resulted in an inappropriate word, an unintentional rebuff, the result a reputation of arrogance. She understood she tend
ed to brood and take on the world’s problems.

  Today her career was her passion; she only dated on rare occasions, as when a friend needed her to be a blind date. Friends thought the constrained dating and the narrow social life stemmed from the unsettling conclusion of her relationship with Jerry King.

  In another corner, Janice Huber endeavored to catch up on her own backlog. She was a technician but not with the most senior ranking. Janice graduated with distinction but in this Division it merely meant acceptance as one of the crew. This was a difficult assessment for her to accept, particularly since family and friends had always told her she was the best

  This good paying job meant for the first time in her life, Janice was completely independent and earning an excellent salary. Unfortunately, her money management skills did not match her scientific prowess. Her behavior was more that of a lottery winner than a salaried employee. Even though she had a significant unpaid student loan, she proceeded to furnish her apartment with top quality merchandise and used the same approach with clothing, jewelry and all manner of trinkets. The girl loved to shop and show off her purchases, with a few credit cards it was all possible.

  Although she resented Emma’s lead with the new technology, Emma never seemed to notice; but, Dr. Kate picked up the signals and gently told her to be patient.

  This was the first time she had been alone with Emma since the party. “Red, tell me did you get lucky with the monster size detective at the Spring Dance?”

  “No, there was no lucky night. After Charlie had bent his finger we had to go to the Emergency Ward. When the doctor was finished, my date only wanted to go home to his own bed.”

  “You’re one tough broad. Charlie has to stop drinking like it’s a contest, and he wants the first prize. It’s been over two years since the accident. I think he is on the edge of pissing everyone off. He’s fortunate the Chief likes him.”

  “I ran onto the dance floor to get away from Charlie. Then he came after me and that’s why we were in full view of the entire Division. God, I could have died. How he was able to grab the finger and control my giant of a date, I’ll never know.”

  “The worst part was when your date started screaming. I mean here is this big man on his knees……..in the middle of the dance floor screaming and Charlie, very calm with a stupid grin on his face, enjoying the show…….it was unbelievable. He is lucky Wes got him out of there before it escalated.”

  Janice was mouthing words of sympathy, but in reality she had relished the dance floor screaming and Emma’s embarrassment. She thought Emma received too many kudos; she knew it was childish. But, Kate and Emma were tight and all of Janice’s efforts appeared to be of secondary importance. She found it difficult to keep jealousy from disturbing her. However, today a new car, a confirmed exotic summer vacation trip, and a manicure with new nails all enhanced her mood. And, it helped that she knew one of Dr. Kate’s buried secrets.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. The dance, Charlie, my date, the works. Forget it. I have to start collecting all the results from White Rock. Dr. Kate wants me to isolate the duplicate memory streams from every interrogation.

  We’re to start our analysis with the convicts who were found to be innocent; we have to assess why the scans took longer for this group. There appears to be a problem with the technique used during the S3 interrogation. Dr. Kate did get clearance from the Judge to bring you into the loop because we may need more manpower. I need you to run the playback unit while I assess the scenes and take notes.”

  “I’m certified for S1 and S2 interrogations and now have an upgraded clearance, tell me what happened.”

  Emma guessed Janice would press for more information about the White Rock S3 interrogations. Dr. Kate ordered her: use the term ‘duplicate’ and not ‘multiple’ and do not discuss the possibility these copies may be different versions of the same event. If Janice persisted, Kate’s instructions were clear: Emma was to lie: the streams were all duplicates and the extent of the brain damage had not been confirmed.

  “I’m not sure what happened because I haven’t seen all the results. I’m only familiar with the 12 we interrogated. The appearance of duplicate copies caused delays and a number of scans took too long. The duplicates confused the technicians. They spent inordinate amounts of time trying to clear a duplicate scene so they could get to the next memory segment. We’re still not sure about the impact on the prisoners who survived. Each surviving inmate was assessed for brain damage, but the results aren’t back.

  If we can finish in the 45-minute time frame, there are no problems but as the scan drags on the risks increase and there is no way of telling what the complications might be. The scanning is more of an art than a science. We conduct the scanning or probing process as a Binary Search, like a three-dimensional binary search. Once we’re focused on an area of the brain, we treated it as if events were stored in a chronological or sequential fashion. This concept works up to a certain point. With a few days of experience, you can maintain a good rhythm as you are probing.

  But, there are times when you have to change your perception of the memory scheme. Memory storage appears to be a continuous stream but then individual cells of unique events are discovered in this stream. These are pockets which don’t fit in this chronological time stream…..they just appear to be an event thrown in at random. This slows down our probing.”

  Janice wanted more. “Wait…..wait ….. hang on a minute. I’d like a review of the Binary Search algorithm.”

  Emma said, “You have our Standards Manual on the shelf; open the textbook, go to Page 15 and read the underlined portion.”

  Janice took the book off the shelf and read out loud, a formal description.

  The binary search technique is a fundamental method for locating an element of a particular value within a sequence of sorted elements. The idea is to eliminate half of the search space with each comparison. First, the middle element of the sequence is compared to the value we are searching for. If this element matches the value we are searching for, we are done. If, however, the middle element is “less than” the value we are searching for, then we know that, if the value exists in the sequence, it must exist somewhere after the middle element. Therefore, we can eliminate the first half of the sequence from our search and just repeat the search in the exact same manner on the remaining half of the sequence. If, however, the value we are searching for comes before the middle element, then we repeat the search on the first half of the sequence.

  “That’s a start, but more would help.”

  “Let me take some artistic license and give you the simplified version which in essence covers the process. Think about an old parlor trick where you ask me to guess a number between 1 and 100. You think of a number, and I have to find the number by asking you a limited number of questions. Let’s suppose you select 68. Well, first I divide the search horizon in half by asking if the number is 50 or is it larger or smaller. You tell me it’s larger and I now know it is in between 50 and 100; this I divide again and select 75 and ask the same question. You tell me it is smaller and I now know it is between 75 and 50. This goes on until I get the number.

  For an inmate’s brain scan our horizon is restricted between his date of birth and the current date; from there the search is a very similar process. Once we retrieve the first memory stream, the decisions start.

  We jump either forward or backward in time; the probes are series of jumps to narrow into the event of interest. Of course, the schema for memory storage is more complex than a parlor game, and it’s a more difficult assessment to move the probe to a new location but the general concept is the same.”

  “Alright, that certainly helps. I’m booked for more training next month and hope I can get certified for an S3. But you still seem upset. Something else is bothering you. Care to share?”

  “I’m just concerned about our small window for solving the problem. I haven’t had an opportunity to assess what took place at White Rock.
I need to review how the technicians reacted when they encountered the duplicates and see if we can adjust the technique for a faster scan. We have to consistently get under the 45-minute barrier. So you and I have a lot to get done in a short time.”

  Emma took the book. As she returned it to the shelf, she paused when she noticed her old physics text. This brought to mind her first physics lecture in the massive auditorium style classroom, with a professor who looked like the building janitor but soon destroyed that illusion.

  His start had been elementary: units of measure and on to first principles of science. Any measurement made without knowledge of its uncertainty is useless. This was the mantra he continued to stress for the entire first term.

  Had Dr. Max ignored first principles and assumed his ‘measurements’ were always 100% accurate, giving no concern to the fact there are always elements of uncertainty associated with any measurement?

  CHAPTER 11: Charlie’s Log: Karen

  Our victim’s face looks like a Ford F-150 truck ran over it.

  I’ve been delayed getting to the hospital. A few months ago when the Chief transferred me to Records he ignored me, now he insists on making sure I conform to all current Homicide standards. During my absence, he introduced a new set of forms which are really a declaration that each detective must sign: Have you read all the relevant JR material? Do you understand the process before an S1 interrogation can be initiated? And, a few others. I’m not skipping one bloody hurdle. Jesus, he even made me go to the shooting range; I understand this weapon’s recertification is important: particularly if I encounter Billy the Kid.

  I feel rushed; it’s my second day without a drink. This is going to be one helluva of a day. Finally, Karen and I are at the hospital where Horny Harry’s last surviving victim is recovering, but the lady fades in and out of consciousness. Karen is intrusive and demanding; nevertheless, the hospital staff perceives a dedicated woman, and cooperation is not an issue. I know she spends many extra hours near the victim, hoping there will be a lucid moment. Shit, this is a delusion.