To Probe A Beating Heart (30 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

And I have a couple of answers . . .

This latest victim proved to be that little slip in Averell’s very well thought out plans that would prove to be expensive, very expensive. This was where he had been able to thank “luck” over the last several years, when a little glitch had crept into his organized plans and an old lady’s eyes, a policeman’s slow uptake in a cemetery, a witnesses description seeing a bumper sticker rather than his license plates had failed to open the door to Averell himself. He did not know how many times that he was almost seen, how many times he was a second or a minute from being interrupted and being caught in the act. This time, his curiosity had brought him back to a scene that he should have avoided, but he ‘had to see’.

             
Jim McClarry had more information for his data base. Melissa Winton was the fifteenth victim that he recorded that fit the broader limitations that he was using. She was the second little girl taken from Cleveland Heights. She was also the eighth that fit his tighter parameters. She was a blue eyed blond with a pink top, blue denim shorts and white shoes. And her body was found. On top of that, her picture in the newspaper looked like Annette. He gave her a 10 on his rating scale.

             
“Sean, this is Jim, listen, I got something with this latest victim, why don’t you come upstairs when you have a few minutes today?”

             
“I assume you are ready to run out the door, right?”

             
“Yeah, as soon as I fold all this stuff up and put it in my brief case.”

             
“I’ll be out front in five minutes, I’m driving.”

             
“It’s two blocks.”

             
“I said, I’m driving.”

             
“Okay, see you in five.”

             
Jim packed his brief case, gave Margo a hug and said, “I may be a little late tonight, Babe, we may have something with this latest victim.” He ran down the stairs. Sean was just pulling up and Jim got in. “The Winton girl taken yesterday is almost a twin for Annette, it was scary.”

             
Sean drove to the station and pulled into the lot. They went up to the detectives office.

             
“Good morning Vince, Jim has something for you.”

             
“I figured he would, I read the newspaper too, let’s see it.”

             
Jim spread out his materials including a picture of Annette and one of Melissa. They could have been twin sisters, seven years apart but they looked very much the same.

             
“Do we have photos of the others that are on the list?” asked Jim.               “No, but we will in a few hours. George is on his way in, he will open the doors for us at the stations that we have not talked to yet.”

             
“Okay,” said Sean.

             
“Is Alex around?” asked Jim.

             
“He’s not in today,” said George. “Vince look at these pictures, what does it look like to you?”

             
“They could be the same girl or related, like sisters?”

             
“Neither, this is Annette Shelton and this other one is Melissa Winton. These pictures were taken seven years apart and Melissa is a little older than Annette was then.”

             
“What else you got?” asked Vince.

             
Jim sat down and reviewed the entire file with him. “Something else that we should be aware of.”

             
“What’s that, Jim?”

             
“Whoever the ultimate target is, assuming that she is still alive, would now be at least the five or six years that Annette was, plus the seven years since, so maybe at least thirteen or fourteen minimum and if we are a few years off on each end, possibly nine to begin with and maybe ten to twelve more in between, so maybe twenty one, twenty two on the high side—.”

             
“Okay, so what do we do with this new information,” said Vince.

             
“How about getting one of those aging programs that show what someone would look like when they grow up.”

             
“Then what?”

             
“Then we do the aging thing to each of the girls, see what they might look like today and search for this person along the corridor, we may get zero response and we may get a hundred responses, only one way to find out. Keep in mind that a hundred maybes may be exactly what we need.”

             
“We’re listening.”

             
“This Melissa was taken apart, legs, arms, head, torso and scattered in the woods at a cemetery. The question in my mind is, Why? We have not found any of the other seven, so why this one.”

             
“Good question, Jim.”

             
“Yeah. And I have a couple of answers.”

             
“Keep going, I’m listening.”

             
“Okay, the ‘Why question’ can be answered in several ways.”

             
“First, maybe he has reached his goal. I don’t like this answer, but we have to consider it.”

             
Vince looked at George and said, “We should give Alex a call, this is his turf.”

             
George looked over his shoulder and said, “Janice, can you hunt down Alex, see if he can join us?”

             
Jim cleared his throat and spoke up, “Second answer is that this is where he intended to put this body where it could be eaten by the wild life, but that again is not very likely.”

             
“Agreed.”

             
“Third, he may have been in the process of hiding the body. In a cemetery. It’s a natural. And he was seen. Someone was seen kneeling next to a fresh grave site the night before her body was found. I think he may have intended to re-dig the same site and deposit the body, then cover it up. But the patrol car upset his plan, made him improvise, scatter the body in the woods and get outta’ there.”

             
“That sounds reasonable.”

             
“The officer that drove through the cemetery and saw a man kneeling

at the grave said the plates on his vehicle were from New York.”

              “What else you got, Jim?”

             
“Well, when I add it up, we had a man seven years ago that could be the same man in the cemetery, the descriptions are close. We have a blue van seven years ago that he could have traded for the sedan that was seen in the cemetery yesterday. The plates were from New York, so, I think that we should look for the possible target, the current version of what these little girls could grow into, in New York rather than Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”

             
“Sounds reasonable,” George saw Janice and asked, “Is Alex around?”

              “Can’t find him, boss.”

             
“Okay, we will catch him up later,” George came back into the conference room and sat down. “Jim, this is good, and I want to run with it, what are you going to do next?”

             
“I got this far and now I or we have some more work to do. If you give a go ahead, I’ll get one of those aged pictures generated and try to get them circulated in New York State along the I 90 corridor. And I know you won’t let me forget the other three files on my desk.”

             
“Okay, good, we will do this again when Alex is available and maybe you guys will have more to add at that point.”

             
“We may, let’s get at it,” and the meeting was over. Jim went back to his desk and wrote up a summary of what was just covered in the meeting and put it together with a cover note stating that the psych evaluation should be attached. He then filled out a requisition for a forensic artist to do an age progression sketch.

             
When Alex came in and reviewed the package, he made a few notes and the information was forwarded to the FBI for their review. They already had that and a little additional information from local police, about the location of the cemetery. Still, no one had enough to focus in on any one individual.

             
Averell was very uncomfortable and needed to know that he was safe from any suspicion by the police. He drove back to the cemetery and drove past, straining to see if there was still activity at the grave site. He drove around the block several times, trying to see and finally drove into the cemetery. He drove slowly around and past the site, looking for activity.

There was yellow tape around several trees in the woods and two men

slowly walking through the wooded area, looking down. As he continued
on the road, he passed a police car coming the other way.

             
Josh was given the task of looking at anyone and everyone who came near the site in an effort to try to find the kneeling man. The car was all wrong, but the guy was close enough for a second look. The car was wrong, he noted the license plates, New York, and he called it in. “47 to base, I got a maybe on the kneeling man. It’s kind of thin, but a maybe nonetheless.”

             
“Keep an eye on him and we are sending back up.”

             
“Roger that, he’s pulling out and heading east on Derby. I’m on him.”

             
“47, this is 23, We are close, on the way, Josh, hang with ‘em.”

             
Within five minutes there were three black and whites closing on Averell. He saw them and calmly pulled into a shopping center with an office supply store. He had never been to this store but he did deal with the distribution center that supplied this store. His ploy was to claim that he was looking at different stores where he could run a promotion for the up-coming school season. As he stepped out of his vehicle, an officer approached him. “Mr. Danker, you are Averell Danker, correct?”

             
“Why, yes, is there a problem?”

             
“We would like to ask you a few questions, do you have a minute?”

             
“For you guys, absolutely. What can I do for you?”

             
“Where were you on Tuesday the eleventh?”

             
“Ah, you mean two days ago ?”

             
“Yes, Tuesday.”

             
“Well I’m not sure, I had an appointment in Erie at ten in the morning and—.”

             
“You were in Erie, Pennsylvania?”

             
“Yes, in the morning, then I went back to Rochester to get more

materials for this trip.”

              “So you were not here in Ohio on Tuesday?”

             
“Oh, no, I drove down this morning. What’s this about?”

             
“We noticed you at the cemetery and thought if you had been here on Tuesday, you might have seen something. Thanks for your time,” and the police let him go.

             
“I don’t know about this guy. We should let the Feds know about him and follow their lead.”

             
Averell was watched very closely by the local police as he went into the store and as he stayed in their jurisdiction. The Feds were notified and picked up the observation as he headed north toward Interstate 90. For the next several weeks Averell was observed, closely. He was extremely careful and stayed close to his work routine, taking in a movie periodically and stopping at the library to exchange books and book tapes.

             
Alex Robertson had developed a preliminary profile of the predator with all the information that the team had assembled. When Averell Danker was made a possible suspect, he drew as many parallels as possible. The problems were many and not all resolvable. Danker could well be the one, but the proof was not there. Both Vince and Jim were in agreement, he could be the one, but could was not good enough. They wanted to be absolutely sure. The only case of the eight missing girls that matched the profile that could be considered was the Melissa Winton case. There was a body and a connection to Danker, a very weak connection but a connection nonetheless. Meetings with the district attorney were held and even several trial scenarios were put on the table. Each one assumed that they had more evidence to effect an arrest than they actually had, but in the end, they had nothing. If Danker was the best they could do, then they failed. So time passed and the case against Averell Danker could not be built, the team on his case was diverted to other things. Averell was beginning to feel as though he had dodged a very large bullet.