Third Time, Not A Charm

Chapter 3 Changing Circumstances-1

Chapter 3

Changing CircumstancesTime has a way of changing everything. So it was for Josie, Phoenix Homicide, Jim Cade, all of them. It happened suddenly. A body was found near the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Mounted Posse Facility on North Seventh Street in Phoenix. The body was a deceased young woman. She had been stripped of all clothing, had been savagely beaten and her throat had been cut so deeply her head was nearly severed from its torso/neck connection. Phoenix Homicide was called immediately upon the body being found. Jim took the call. “What is the state of the body,” he asked the patrol officer, after being told of the discovery.

“Hold on sir,” the officer replied. “I have to get the other officer who is here because I have not seen the body. It was covered by the other officer before I got here.”

“Okay,” said Jim and waited.

“Officer Greg Malloy here. Who am I speaking with please?”

“This is Captain Cade with Homicide. How are you Officer?”

“I'm fine sir. But I am afraid I cannot say the same for our victim.”

“What is the state of the body … well first I understand you are the only one who has seen the body?”

“Yes sir, other than a civilian. I was called to the scene by a golfer who was going to play at the Pointe Resort course right next to where the body is located. He saw something which looked strange, stopped to take a look and saw the woman. He is still here by the way. He called 911 and I responded. When I got here he pointed her out to me and I covered her with one of those space blanket kind of things.”

“Good work Officer Malloy. What is the state of the body?”

“She is nude sir. She has been severely beaten. You can see bruises all over her body and arms. I could not see all of her face but it appeared to be bruised up as well. Her throat has been cut rather badly. It's all I could see sir.”

Again Jim said, “Really good work Officer Malloy. You are most observant. We will be sending a homicide Detective, maybe a Lieutenant as well if he is available, right away. Stay with the body, as close or as far away as you want but within eye sight so no one bothers the body. Of course don't allow any animals near it as well. As I remember there are a lot of Coyotes out there near that golf course. Put up a perimeter far enough away so the news cameras will not be able to see her. Can you do all that Malloy?”

“Sure sir. What would you like me to do with the civilian? He tells me he didn't see anyone near the body, no cars or anything of that nature, nothing to help other than he saw something odd and took a look.”

“Get his information Malloy. And tell him we may contact him later today or perhaps later in the week. Then you can let him go.”

“Thank you sir. I will let the other officer go as well. We have been having a lot of problems out in this area recently, especially with g**g bangers, and he needs to get back on patrol. Is it okay sir?”

“Of course Malloy. We will be there soon along with CSI's etc. Have you called the Coroner's Office?”

“No sir. I thought you folks at Homicide would want to do that.”

“Okay Malloy. Once again, good work. Hang in there.” Jim immediately called the Coroner's Officer after speaking with Malloy, rang Josie at her desk and Jaime who just happened to be in the office, called the Crime Scene Investigations Unit and asked for a team to be sent to the scene. As Jaime and Josie walked into the office he said to them, “There's a db, a woman, throat cut, been beaten severely, out at the area of Tapatio Cliffs Resort, by the golf course entrance. You two are up for this one. Be very thorough. This may or may not be connected to the others we have seen recently.”

Jaime and Josie got their respective kits and left in a hurry. It would take them a while to get to their destination which is about ten to fifteen miles north of the downtown area. As they drove each silently wondered what they would be getting into, what they would find at the scene, yes, but more what would it lead to in time. Or would it lead to some kind of confrontation? Uncertainty, apprehension, no fear, but certainly some worry occupied both of these veteran police officers, one more grizzled and experienced than the other, nonetheless with unspoken thoughts paralleling hers.

As they neared the site of the body locale they noticed there were floodlights already installed around the area and there was a perimeter created by crime tape. There were a few news hawks there pacing along the tape trying to get a view of the scene. It was not dark yet but soon the sun would be falling and the lights would be on. The perimeter was well set so the news cameras would not be able to use long distance lens to invade the scene and photograph the victim.

The CSI's were doing their jobs by the time Jaime and Josie arrived. As they stepped under the tape the news people tried their best to get some information from one of them but neither spoke. Jaime said to Josie, “At some time a little later we will have to give them something. Try to put something to say together. Let me know what it is and we will send them back to their typewriters or whatever.”

“You've got it boss,” Josie replied. Jaime grinned thinking about how many times he had said the same thing to Jim.

As they neared the body Patrolman Malloy stepped forward and asked who they were, trying to be sure. Jaime handed him a badge as did Josie. Malloy smiled inwardly and thought to himself I have heard a little about her. She's the gal that kicked the s**t out of that i***t at the station one night. Nice looking woman. He said to her, “This is a rough one Detective.” He thought to himself dammit, if this were not a crime scene I might try to get to know her a little better.

Josie, a little concerned over what the woman would look like asked, “What was the final mechanism of death do you think, Officer Malloy, isn't it?” She thought to herself, wow, nice looking guy, been around for a while, seems to have his stuff together. I wonder if he is married. I might have to look into that… One of the CSI's chimed in at that point,

“Oh, there's no doubt, she died because her throat was cut from ear to ear. Both of her arteries were severed. She bled out in a very short time.”

“Was this the place where she was assaulted,” Josie asked?

“We think so Detective. There is one helluva lot of blood all around her.” Josie and Jaime had arrived at the body. It was still covered but they could see the blood spread in several directions. The CSI added, “There was a lot of arterial spray. It happens when the carotid artery is severed completely as hers was.” The CSI lifted the blanket off the victim, shielding her from the view of the news cameras. Jaime bent down and looked carefully at her. Josie took one long look and then looked away, looked back again, and rushed away from the scene toward a nearby horse barn where she barfed for a while.

Jaime took her a bottle of water after a few minutes.

Josie said to Jaime, “My God whoever did this to her was either angry as hell, or very strong, or a combination of the two. Jesus Jaime he almost cut her head off.”

Jaime responded, “Well you knew it coming out here, didn't you?”

“I know, I know, and I am sorry for losing it like this. But oh my God what a shock.”

“Rinse your mouth out, drink a little water and come on back over there. We need to take some pictures for our use aside from those the CSI's take. I want to have some discussion with Janet Mc Donnell, our chief CSI on this scene, some talk about how she thinks it happened.”

“Okay boss. Give me just a minute or two and I'll be all right again.” Jaime walked to the scene and began to take pictures as the CSI who had uncovered the body continued to block the view of the news people. Josie took a few minutes and then came back to the scene. She had been to many murder scenes already and some of them had been stabbings where there was a lot of blood. But she had never seen someone with their head almost completely cut off. It was still shocking to her. She looked, looked again, continued with that pattern for a few minutes and then just accepted what was there and started working on diagramming, making sure they had everything Jaime wanted. As she did this she decided what she would say to the press. She went to Jaime and told him what she proposed to say. He agreed and she walked to the area where most of the press was set up a distance from the body.

Josie told the press she was prepared to give them a statement. They turned their cameras and lights on and she designated one reporter she thought had been fair to the department to ask questions. She started when the reported asked, “What is going on here tonight Detective?”

“We have a woman who has expired at this site. We are investigating her death to determine if foul play can be isolated as the cause. It's about all I can tell you at this point other than to say she was not shot. You will have to contact Central for future statements as to her condition and cause of death. Those things will not be released until we have identified her body. We hope any family in the area who might have a daughter missing tonight will contact the P.D. so we might communicate with them. Thank you for your cooperation in staying behind the tapes. I don't have anything else for tonight.” All of them began to shout questions of course. But when she finished she abruptly turned on her heel and walked away rapidly.

Within a matter of seconds all the news people were headed back to their trucks, whatever vehicles had brought them there, and leaving. Jaime who had watched from afar made the circle gesture to Josie for a perfect performance and went back to taking pictures.

The CSI's began to wrap up and put away their equipment and the few pieces of evidence they had gathered. Dr. Lomati had been to the scene and gone. Jaime spoke with Lomati briefly before the doctor left but got no more information. Janet Mc Donnell walked over to the two of them as the scene was closing up and said “Did you want to talk before we leave?”

Jaime responded positively and he and Janet went out to her car and sat down inside with the air conditioning running. It was a warm night, late spring, not quite one hundred degrees yet as it would be and more, soon enough. It was warm enough certainly for the two of them to enjoy the air conditioning.

“What do you think happened here Janet? You have had as much or more experience in these kind of crimes as I have. What's up, what do you think?”

Janet sat quietly for a few moments and then said “I don't want to speculate too much Jaime. Let's start with the obvious. Her throat was cut from behind. Whoever did this was very powerful, either large and powerful, or in excellent physical condition and powerful. The kind of cut he inflicted here takes a tremendous force to accomplish. He still might have blood all over him, by the way. But I think he was long gone before we ever got called. The officer told me the guy who found the body didn't see anyone around, no cars leaving, nothing of the sort. And Dr. Lomati did a rectal and said he thought on a preliminary basis she had been here around twelve hours. So the time of death would be sometime last night. There was nothing going on out here then and it was dark. So he could have done the entire thing here but I think not. There is some bruising around her wrists which is indicative of a possible restraint being used. What type I cannot tell. But the width of the bruising would be consistent with almost any kind of restraint, rope or handcuffs, almost anything.”

“Wait, Janet. You said cuffs could have been used?”

“Sure, or rope or telephone wire. No, maybe not telephone wire, it's probably a little too narrow to make the kinds of bruises which are there. Lots of things could have been used but she was definitely restrained for a time. The bruises associated with the beating are indicative of restraint as well. There is an area under the arms where there are no bruises and those are just about the only spots on her torso which are not bruised badly. I would say she has a number of broken ribs. There are a lot of grinding feelings to palpation in the area of the ribs.”