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I pressed on.
“Brady. I sent you a video of Ralph Hammer’s murder. You have to see it now.”
CHAPTER 21
CAPPY AND CHI were running late for our 6:00 p.m. task force meeting for Team Blackout, so, we three went to the empty corner office and started without them. Alvarez drew a timeline on the whiteboard; Conklin and I taped up the morgue photos of Ralph Hammer. We’d dragged chairs up to the well-used metal table and were ready to work when the door swung open and Cappy came in alone.
“Chi’s wrapping up a few things. Be just a minute,” he said and he dropped his 270 pounds into the seat next to Alvarez. Cappy McNeil is a storied homicide detective who even worked the Zodiac Killer case—he has an extensive network of CIs throughout the Bay Area and a great partner in Paul Chi. Chi has half the years on the job that Cappy has but is tireless and brings his Mensa-grade brain to our unit.
In partnership with Marin County PD, O’Neil and Chi had spent their day in Sausalito, tossing Ralph Hammer’s apartment, looking for something, anything that might have gottenthe guy killed. I couldn’t read Cappy’s expression. He looked worn out and as wired as the rest of us.
He began his debrief.
“Hammer was renting an apartment over a garage outside Mill Valley. He had full use of the garage, which was a dump. Half the space was floor-to-ceiling bags of found items which we inventoried: canned goods, old magazines, bubble wrap and T-shirts with the tags still on. The other half of the garage was for his car.
“Upstairs in the apartment we found more bags of junk, piles of screenplays on the floor, and we turned his computer over to the local PD. His landlord stated and I quote,” Cappy flipped open his notebook and read, “‘Ralph sleeps all day, is out most nights, hasn’t brought home any girls or friends. Thinks Hammer’s a part-time bartender and a wannabe writer.’”
Cappy summed up by saying that he and Chi found no evidence pointing to why someone would have killed Ralph Hammer.
“But,” Cappy said, impishly, “our friend, Chris Fama, gave us something. It’s either a big fat zero or a red-hot clue.”
Alvarez said, “Ten bucks says it’s a clue.”
If only. Even a small break would send me to the moon.
The door opened again and Chi came into the room, wearing a coat and tie, high-shined shoes, good haircut. He apologized for being late, then, picked up where Cappy had left us hanging.
He said, “Just got off the phone with Fama. A copy of Cindy’s book was found in Hammer’s car where Blackout popped him.”
Conklin said, “Whoa.”
Chi said, “Keep your expectations in check. There are a lot of brunettes in this state, and only one who washed up on Baker Beach.”
CHAPTER 22
CLAIRE WAS WAITING for me in the doorway between reception and her offices. Something was up. She was scowling and had crossed her arms over her chest.
I said, “You look like you want to punch someone.”
“Back at ya, babe,” she said.
“Point taken.”
Yeah, I was mad. Team Blackout had four open homicides, a mystery video of one, but no leads to the killer. And the worst of it was how much the unnamed woman and her baby brought to mind another young woman found on China Beach and her child found on Baker Beach. Coincidence? Or a connection?
“I’ll be quick,” I said. “I need your read on Jane Doe.”
Claire relaxed her scowl and handed me a sealed packet of protective gear. I gowned and gloved up and followed her down the corridor.
She said, “You do understand that I haven’t done the internal autopsies.”
“Got it,” I said.
Meaning, Claire would be giving me an off-the-record first look without her final conclusions. She strong-armed a pair of swinging doors and a cold breeze blew at my face as we entered the autopsy suite. Directly across the room was a wall of metal drawers. Claire went to one, pulled the handle and slid out a body covered with a blue cotton drape and lying on a stainless-steel tray.
Claire drew down the drape, revealing the nude remains of the woman who’d washed up on the sand this morning. I felt a fresh blow to my heart and couldn’t turn away.
“Here’s what I know. Jane and Baby Doe were in the water for about a day. Jane was a healthy, well-nourished Caucasian female, mid-twenties,” Claire said. “She has an old appendix scar and abrasions on the side of her left foot and knee. Those injuries are postmortem and were probably sustained when she was dumped out of a vehicle.”
