To Probe A Beating Heart (26 page)

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CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Tell her the rest . . .

Winter came and went, spring followed and summer was just getting started. Jim passed the test and placed high enough to get him a gold shield and a desk on the second floor. Margo was now Mrs. James McClarry and Jim was settling into the routine of a detective’s life. He was assigned as Vince’s partner and the two worked well together. Cleveland Heights was a large enough city to experience it’s fair share of major league crime but the borders between the several east side communities were such that most cases were cooperative efforts. They involved several individual police departments and Jim proved to be an asset in coordinating activities between them. He was becoming well known in the area amongst the law enforcement groups and it was obvious that he was going to be more than a detective some day.

             
On Thursday June 22, 1995 Linda Young, an eight year old girl living in Northeast, Pennsylvania was seen being dragged into a silver mini-van at 12:20 in the afternoon. Her abductor, a man in a light blue shirt, dark baseball cap and blue jeans was described as being about five feet, ten inches and heavy set. His hair was short and dark and he was clean shaven. The van had white license plates with blue lettering. Linda’s remains were found four weeks later in a ditch beside a country road. She had been violated, beaten and murdered. Death was determined to have been by strangulation.

             
At the time of her abduction Averell was in Toledo, Ohio, over three hundred miles away in a meeting with a store manager discussing a special deal on marking pens. Jim McClarry expanded his database to include Linda and searched the newspapers for additional information. He learned that she had brown hair and had blue eyes and that she was wearing a sun dress and flip flops. Everything that he read about the girl was copied and put in a file or entered into the data base. Linda was the number seven possibility attributable to Annette’s abductor. Once again, Jim studied the information available and Linda did not exactly fit his outline of the predator he sought. Linda was found, unlike the others, and her hair and clothing did not match the developing profile. Even though the predator’s description was close, five foot ten, dark hair and the van were in line, Linda was given a lower probability of being one of the group.

             
Jim rated each potential case with respect to it being the work of the same predator on a one to ten scale giving Annette a ten. Candice, Kathy and Allison were given eights, Linda got a seven and Megan and Sandy were given fives. It was not as definitive as he wanted it to be, but he was not about to abandon this record keeping. He talked to Vince about the latest development and Vince suggested that the group gather again for a few minutes to look at everything. Later that afternoon, as Sean and his new partner were coming off their shift, Vince saw them and asked Sean to come up to the second floor, when he could, to talk about it. “I don’t think this Linda Young is one of our guy’s victims, but I want to run the entire thing through with you anyway.”

             
“When do you want to do it and should we get Jim to join us?”

             
“Not now, but check after your next shift, and keep checking till you catch me or Jim.”

             
“You sound busy.”

             
“Yeah, a case of mine is finally in court and I have to testify, so, I’m there a lot.”

             
“Okay, I’ll see ya.” Sean checked in every day for the next week and Vince was downtown at the county court house most of that time or overloaded with his normal load. Jim was available and they talked and caught Alex for a quick review.

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              On Monday, August 14th, Averell was meeting with clients in Toledo, Ohio. He finished in good time and drove to Sandusky on Tuesday to visit another two clients. Again, finishing in good time, Averell drove to Cleveland and visited another two clients. His log book indicated that he then drove to Erie, Pennsylvania where he visited another two clients, spent the night in Erie and drove to Buffalo on Thursday.

             
Actually, Averell filled his tank in Erie and back tracked into Ohio past Cleveland that Wednesday around noon. Before beginning his search, he readied a gag with a ball of cloth and duct tape and placed several pull ties in the passenger pocket, behind the driver’s seat. He also had a large blanket folded on the rear seat. He was ready. He drove to a residential section outside Sandusky proper and began to cruise the streets early in the afternoon. He spotted a very cute young lady with blond hair and blue eyes and he estimated that she was about fourteen. She was wearing a red top, blue denim shorts and white shoes. It could be better, but she would do. He noted that she was heading across an open park toward a housing development. Averell quickly drove around the park and stopped directly in her path. She was about fifty yards away when he got out of his car and stood looking off to the right. When she was about to divert around Averell’s car, he turned and acted surprised.

             
“Oh excuse me, did I bump into you?”

             
“No, you didn’t bump me,” replied Rebecca.

             
“Well could you tell me where Main Street is, I’m afraid that I’m lost,” he said.

             
“Sure, is that your car?” she asked looking at Averell’s car.

             
“Yes it is.”

             
“Well, go straight the way you are pointed and in about three blocks, turn right, then the next street is Main. I think that right will head north and left will head south, I think.”

             
He stepped toward the car and muttered something that Rebecca could not hear. She took a step in his direction saying “Excuse me.”

             
Averell half turned still muttering and making Rebecca lean in his direction to hear what he said. She took another step getting a little closer to him and started to say something when he grabbed her turned and pulled her into the car. Her arms were under her body and pinned against the back seat. He pushed a prepared gag in her mouth and smoothed the tape over her cheeks. He then took a pull tie and rolled her over grabbing her right arm and placing a pull tie above her wrist he pulled it snug. There was a second and third tie attached like a daisy chain and he placed the third tie around her left wrist and again, pulled it snug. With her hands bound, he grabbed another pull tie daisy chain and bound her ankles. He pushed her to the floor and pulled the blanket over her, closed the door and quickly got behind the wheel.

             
The trip to the Portage county site was uneventful. Rebecca was cowering in the back seat on the floor, unable to get up to a sitting position and to scared to do anything but cry. Averell pulled into the wooded area and parked in the clearing. Nobody was about and from the look of the grass, no one had been there for some time. He pulled Rebecca out of the back seat and stood her next to a tree. “I’m going to stretch you between these two trees, okay.”

             
“Tell her the rest.”

             
“I am going to check your insides with my new probes.”

             
“And then?”

             
“Yes, then, I am going to open you up and see your beating heart.”

             
“There’s more.”

             
“Oh and then we will remove your arms and legs.”

             
“And finally?”

             
“Yes, well finally we will kill you. Isn’t that absolutely exciting?,” he said as he broke into a sweat. He reached up and grabbed a branch of a tree, pulled it toward Rebecca’s hands and with another pull tie, he bound her right arm to the branch. As he started to cut the binding between her arms he positioned another tie to bind her left arm to another tree. With both of her arms bound to the trees and her ankles still secured together, Rebecca was unable to defend herself. She was completely at his mercy and she was terrified. He was talking to someone who was not there and he was breathing hard almost to a point of collapsing and sweating profusely.

             
“Calm down, Averell. You have to be in control. Take a deep breath and relax. We have things to do.”

             
“Yes, I have to calm down.”

             
Averell paced for a minute until he was able to gain control of himself again. “Now, to work.” He picked up a probe and approached Rebecca. As he placed the probe against her mid section, she tried to scream but inhaled the cloth gag. She choked and was dead before Averell realized she was in difficulty.

             
“Damn it, I wanted to see her heart.”

             
He was furious and took his larger knife and hacked her apart. When finished he stood over her remains sweating and soaked in blood.

             
“That was exciting, not very profitable, but exciting. We should find another subject to examine.”

             
“I’m very tired right now and all I want to do is sleep.” He sat down and hung his head.

             
“C’mon Averell, Let’s finish what we started and get out of here, we can sleep when we are home, or in Erie.”

             
“Yes you’re right, Let’s finish up here.” With that Averell stood and walked to the car, took the shovel out of the trunk and found a spot to dig. The finished hole was about five feet deep and Averell placed the three bags evenly at the bottom . He threw in some leaves and rocks and filled the hole with the dug out dirt. He put more rocks at the top of the hole and covered the entire site with heavy brush. A trip to the stream and a thorough washing was all that he needed to reinvigorate him for the trip to Erie, and his motel room and bed.

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              Jim read the article about Rebecca in the Cleveland newspaper and noted the similarities: her hair, eyes, shorts and shoes all lined up. The mid week, afternoon timing also fit and finally, the interstate corridor. He made a few quick notes, sent an e-mail to Alex, and Sean listing all the similarities and was leaving for the station when the phone rang. He answered.

             
“Jim, it’s Vince, come into the conference room when you get in. I have already contacted Alex and Sean. Also talked to Jeff and cleared it for Sean to join us today.”

             
“Okay, I was just about to head out, so I’ll be there in a few minutes,” and he hung up, picked up his notes and hustled down to his car. Sean was in the parking lot, talking to Jeff, when Jim pulled in.

             
“I’ll see you tomorrow Sean, don’t get used to wearing a suit, you’re still on my crew,” said Jeff and he went back into the building.

             
“He has to juggle a few things before roll call, and we have to be upstairs. Are you ready?”

             
Sean grinned, “Hell yes I’m ready, let’s go.” They went up to the second floor and met Vince in the conference room.

             
“Good morning again guys, come on in and sit down. I think Alex will be in a little later and we will brief him on this then. Okay, now we have identified another incident that ties into the Shelton case and we want to revisit the neighborhood and run a new set of interviews. The two of you have to stay out of the way of most of the stuff, but I would like you to talk to the family. Are you good with that?”

             
Both nodded and Jim said, “Yeah, sure, we can do that today.”

             
“I added Rebecca Markum to the list. She lives in Sandusky. That puts her in the interstate corridor that I initially thought was a common factor for the first few and she is the eighth since Annette, that’s now eight in a four year span between Utica, New York and Goshen, Indiana That’s less than seven hundred miles of Interstate ninety. Now of those eight all are Caucasian, disappeared in the summer months of June, July or August, on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and all in the afternoon between 12:20 and 7:30. When I figure in the physical characteristics, five are blond with blue eyes. These same five were wearing blue shorts and white shoes. If I tighten the times based on these five, the range reduces to 2:45 to 7:30, just under a five hour span and with Goshen being the farthest west at 7:30. We had a description of Annette’s abductor as a man about five eight, one fifty and dark hair, Linda’s abductor is about five ten, two hundred and dark hair. Both drove vans, different colors and four years apart.”

             
“Okay, that may mean that we have more than one bad guy. It could also be the same guy several years apart, the descriptions are that similar and the van thing rings a big bell. If we continue to concentrate on these four similar cases, we may be dealing with the same predator. The Linda Young case could be our guy so I think we should I think we should start with contacting the other shops again and share what we have. Once again, they may be able to add something to our data base, just as we add to theirs. Jim, this is yours to set up, you know some of these guys and might as well meet the others.”