FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 37

 Chapter 37



Terry’s call threw me.  How could the cops have missed it? Then it came to me: maybe they were too young to have even heard of Charles Manson and the Tate-La Bianca murders. The Manson name probably meant nothing to them. Therefore, there was no reason to include it in their reports. However, there were two older detectives who should have known: Spears and Olsen. Olsen was the smarter of the two, so no excuses for his sloppy work.


I took a couple of deep breaths to bring me back to the present. I was standing in the middle of a bedroom. 

         Start with square one. What could I see from this vantage point?

         I noticed a thick coat of dust on everything. Easily one year’s worth. Katherine’s Mac was covered with it. 

         I felt a breeze.

         Her window was cracked open.

         Did she leave it like that?

         I went to the windowsill and inspected the handle. Impressions in the dust, fairly recent. Someone had lifted the window. A maid? Couldn’t have been. She would have dusted and picked up? Rollins?  Perhaps he wanted to air the place out, irrespective of the dust that might float in. Aside from an intruder, that left Katherine, herself. Regardless, the open window intensified  the eerie feeling that Katherine was still alive, maybe hiding in the next room. 

         I went to her closet.

         Her clothes pole was filled with black clothes. On the floor were black shoes and sandals and black and white cowboy boots and a beat-up black skateboard covered with stickers. On it were names of punk bands, skulls and other death symbols. I checked the hamper. Nothing but dirty clothes. Her panties were pink or beige. Everything else was black.

         I sat down in front of her Mac.

         Thanks to Terry I knew how to access her Hotmail account. There were many notes to Amy and a few girls’ names that were on the list that Rollins brought me. Tellingly, there were no messages to or from Zack Tyler. Did she delete them? I guessed that Zack might not be into Hotmail. Definitely a low profile dude.

         I searched her desk drawers, then drawers in the bureau, which was painted black. In the bottom drawer under a foIder, I found what I was looking for: Her diary.

         I leafed through it until I came to the last entry. It was written the day before the family camping trip to Death Valley.

Dear Diary,

It sucks that my parents are making me go on their stupid camping trip to—wait for it--Death Valley! I looked it up. It’s in a huge desert in the middle of fucking nowhere. O, but the wildflowers will be in bloom, sez Mom. Screw the flowers, we’ll be living in tents! Just my bad luck that A. wanted to come. No way she’ll get high with me. I’ll have to wait until she hikes off somewhere. Then, instead of seeing wildflowers’ color I’ll see brilliant colors, all for me. All  thanks to Jake Potter, who was dumb enough to leave his car door unlocked. Z’s been giving me a lot of shit, but he can’t prove a thing. You’re staying here, Diary. Lucky for you!

I closed the diary, disappointed. I was hoping for a few details, or even one, that might be illuminating. That would have been too easy, I thought.


I came downstairs, thanked Mike Rollins.
         “About tomorrow. What time are we leaving?” he asked.

         “How’s nine o’clock?  It’s about seven hours to Death Valley.”

         “Nine is fine.”

         I had already agreed to pay for my share of gas for his Suburu. It had four-wheel drive, which we might need.

         “Anything else?” I asked.

         “Uh, no.”

         “I’m working on an angle that might lead to something.  I’ll tell you about it on the way.”

         “What kind of angle?”

         “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep, Mr. Rollins.”

         “Call me Mike, for God’s sake.”

         “Mike it is.”

         “As far as ‘a good night’s sleep’ goes:  I haven’t had one of those in years. My pills knock me out eventually. Best I can do, I’m afraid.”

         “Better than nothing,” I said and let myself out before he could become maudlin. 

That night I had trouble sleeping myself. Manson’s head hung suspended near the ceiling, like a wraith. His crazy dark eyes burned brightly. He was grinning at me! 

         

         

 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 83

  Chapter 83 Downstairs in the hospital’s cafeteria, Chief Howell and Detective Colin Kelly nibbled on sweet rolls and drank coffee. Happy Donuts in Noe Valley would have been preferable, but they were now on the other end of 24 th , and the coffee was decent. “What’s the real story, Detective? After you found the bodies inside the house.” Colin took a sip of coffee, deciding how to spin his own narrative without getting his little brother in trouble. “I had just missed him when I got there. I was pretty certain there was nowhere he could go to hide except Glen Canyon Park. Sure, he could have broken into a neighbor’s house and hidden there, but that would be risky. Burglar alarms. Shouts. Other kinds of noise. On the other hand, the Park would be dark and silent except for the birds and critters.” “So this came to you out of the blue?” Colin hesitated. “Well, not exactly. Francis thought of it first.” “Ah.” “He reminded me that we used to play in the Pa...
Read more

FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 85

Chapter 85 Colin broke his promise to the chief the next evening. He was barbecuing ribs for Mike Rollins and his ex, Joy, Amy Feingold and me. I watched Mike Rollins and Amy, who had come in together. I thought they might be a couple, but then I remembered the powerful bond they shared. Katherine. Not to mention they were still neighbors and running partners. Joy looked fabulous in her designer jeans and silk blouse. Mostly she looked relieve d. Linda told me later that Joy had been crying before she came. No surprise there. And Linda? She wore a Stanford sweatshirt and a pair of jeans and played hostess, as if nothing had happened. Perhaps it was my imagination, but she appeared to tense up when she looked at Colin and me. Clearly, the get-together was not her idea.  The idea was to eat ribs and drink beer and then listen to the Official Story, as told by Detective Colin D. Kelly. Along with Linda, I wasn’t sure that having bereaved folks over in this way was such a g...
Read more

FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 82

Chapter 82 It turned out that Colin’s bullet missed both the heart and lungs of Jason Powers, but it hit his spine. The attending physician said it was too early to tell if he would be able to walk unaided. Late afternoon of the next day he was fully conscious inside SF General Hospital. Chief Howell signaled the attending nurse to leave the room.  She did. He hovered over Powers. “There are a lot of people who want to hear from you,” he said. “They want to know what happened to their daughters.”  “I’m not talking without my lawyer,” Powers said. “Speaking of lawyers, the D.A. might cut you a little slack if you cooperate.” “Define slack. ” “No death penalty.” Powers said nothing. “Some guys would rather be put to death than spend long years in prison for the rest of their lives. That’s what they say . But many years later, when that final morning comes around and the con eats his final breakfast and the priest comes in, he falls apart. H...
Read more