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“Mr. Switzer. Redirect?”
Switzer rose to his feet and walked over to his client who had gone red in the face. Sullivan said to Switzer, “Who does she think she is?”
Switzer said, “Is there anything else you’d like to tell the court?”
“Yes. I love Barbara. I’ve loved her since we were in the eighth grade. I haven’t been permitted to speak with her but if I could, I would tell her how sorry I am and that I love her with all my heart.”
CHAPTER 34
LOOKING SHELL-SHOCKED AND sleep-deprived, Cindy sat beside me in Alvarez’s desk chair. I taped her with my phone as she described Hammer’s appearance as well as the tone and content of his verbal attack on her.
“He looked to be in his thirties. He dressed in well-worn casuals: khakis, a black leather bomber jacket, and glasses. Thick ones. He looked, ummm, artistic.
“He seemed friendly at first,” she said. “His opening line was, ‘I come in peace.’ But then he launched into a tirade, not peaceful at all. He said that I was a ‘man-hater.’ Me?”
I asked, “How’d he get that?”
“I advised women to be on guard with men they don’t know. I was referencing Evan Burke. He stabbed the air with his finger to make his points. So, he was quite aggressive. And he said that my book ‘rewarded an unrepentant killer.’ That pissed him off. About then, he was hustled out by security and you guys. He had a limp. Left leg.”
I hadn’t noticed a limp. Cindy’s memory of Hammer was impressive. He’d been standing thirty yards away from her. We ordered pizza and went on to watch surveillance video. First, Book Passage, then Vroman’s. We were looking for similarities, anomalies, a suspicious someone who after leaving Book Passage killed Ralph Hammer. We were looking for the same person who after leaving Vroman’s killed a female jogger in the park, the woman Lieutenant Rick Martinez identified as twenty-eight-year-old Beth Welky. Would we recognize a serial killer in the crowds? It was unlikely, but still within the realm of possibility.
We rolled the video tape.
Both stores were crowded, and there was both too much and too little to see. But going back and forth throughout the next three hours, one person stood out. At Book Passage, a man stood to the left and a few yards behind Ralph Hammer, as if watching him. Someone who appeared to be that same man also left Vroman’s with Marge, the woman who had told Cindy she was insensitive for writing about Burke’s victims.
Rich said, “What about this guy? He’s the only one I see who’s at both locations.”
Conklin isolated the image of the man who may have been Marge’s companion and was also at Book Passage standing behind Hammer. Cindy hadn’t noticed him and neither had I. Now, I assessed him. He was maybe forty, five ten, brown hair, lightweight tweed jacket and brown trousers. His clothing was loose, disguising his frame.
A sprint through the DMV database came up with his name, address, and phone number. He lived in a one-familyhouse on Page Street in the Lower Haight, San Francisco, California. No points on his license.
I said, “I didn’t imagine Blackout looking like this. We just keep digging.”
CHAPTER 35
CAPPY ENTERED OUR war room with Chi right behind him. He peered at Conklin’s monitor and at the man who’d been matched by the software.
He said, “Man looks like a baked potato.”
I agreed. “Excellent look for a serial killer. How’d it go at the ad agency?” I asked.
Chi answered in four words: “Fleet’s alibi checks out.”
Cappy added, “He signed in at the front desk at eight fifty-seven a.m. and signed out at seven ten p.m. We spoke to fifteen people from top boss to the mailroom guy and Fleet’s assistant. They all confirmed that our man was at work on Monday and in meetings all day. Doesn’t seem possible he could’ve killed Catherine and Josie Monday morning, dumped their bodies, changed his clothes, and still gotten to work on time.
“Plus,” Cappy added, “He couldn’t have killed them over the weekend either. We spoke to the Fleets’ neighbors. Brad was seen with Catherine and Josie, bringing home pizza on Sunday night.
“But here’s the clincher. We talked to a Mrs. Krauss who was friends with the Fleets. She was walking her dog Monday morning and spoke to Catherine as she was walking on Macondray Lane. The baby was crying, but mother stopped to pet the dog.”
I said, “Good job, you guys. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent certainty, Brad didn’t do it.”
I crossed Brad Fleet off our list and filled Chi and Cappy in on the lady in red. I divvied up the assignments, leaving Cappy and Chi to bring a man named Marvin Bender in for questioning, and wrapped up the meeting.
“We’ll continue to meet at six every evening unless we’re in the field,” I said. “Cindy, you’re on book-tour leave from theChronicle.Please work from here for now.”
“Okay, Linds. By the way, I’m booked to do a signing in Vegas this Friday.”
“Take a pass,” I said automatically. Then again, I know Cindy.
