Deaf and Mean?

My name is Alma Rossi, and I'm the senior homicide detective from the Hillsford Police Department (HPD). I'm on duty from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Officers Nolan and Shi from the swing shift and Mitchell and Arroyo from the graveyard shift support me. Lieutenant Calderon is my superior, and she provides support, too.

“3027 Henry, we have a 187 at our location. Please send 3027 David to the scene,” a code for a homicide came over the radio.

“10-4 3027 Wolf,” I acknowledged the message and started preparing for the scene. I walked over to Cooke’s desk.

“Evening, Cooke. Can you answer the patrol call to take over the crime scene?”

“Of course, I just heard that message and tracked their location.”

“Thanks, I will join you soon.”

“3027 Wolf. I am 3027 Cheetah. Headed your way.”

“10-4.”

As Cooke left our area, I returned to my cubical to research the victim. She was a 27-year-old woman who worked as a librarian for the public library in Hillsford. Why would someone kill her?

Once I had that information, I headed to the scene. Onsite, I signed the login sheet. Officer Shi was managing the logins. I put on latex gloves and booties and entered the scene.

“Rossi, this is a tight scene because the apartment is so small. Nolan went out to interview neighbors. Cooke is viewing evidence from the scene and taking pictures.”

“How was she murdered?”

“The killer slit her throat.”

“Nolan. Did you request the medical examiner and the forensic team?”

“Officer Shi did that as soon as we arrived at the scene. The building supervisor had already tried to enter.”

“He probably wants the scene cleared as fast as possible so he can rent the apartment again.”

I walked around, which didn’t take long. This was a one-bedroom, around 800 square feet. A small bedroom, a tiny kitchen, one bathroom, and the rest was a living room. I didn't see room for a dining room table.

Nolan re-entered the scene and came over to talk to me.

“Hi Rossi, I interviewed six residents on this floor and four on the ground floor. Most said things were quiet the past two days. One person from the ground floor told me a well-dressed gentleman tried to enter the building. She said he used sign language with her. She couldn’t help him because she didn’t understand sign language. She also did not let him in.”

“Send us any witnesses that might have information we want. Cooke should interview them, too.

I saw cameras in the hallways. Do you know if they are active?”

“I left the building supervisor a phone message about that.”

“I am going back to the station. Call me if the supervisor responds.”

By this point, the Forensic team had logged in, making the apartment feel smaller. I told Officer Shi I was leaving, and she noted the time on the login sheet.

The apartment was in the Technology District, a newer building with expensive rents. I took Commerce Street to Union Street and turned left. I traveled on Union Street until I turned right on Main Street. HPD Headquarters was on that block, and I made a left and went into the parking garage. The trip took twelve minutes. I parked my car. It is so lovely to be working in a small city.

Nolan called me as I reached my desk.

“What’s up?”

“The building supervisor returned my call. The cameras are active. He gave me the link to the footage. The first time the deaf man appeared was the one the woman told me about. She left him standing in the lobby, just as she said. An hour later, one of the older residents let him in. After entering, he showed up on the second floor.”

“Is this going to be an easy crime to solve?” I asked.

“Not so fast. The woman lived in apartment 212. The deaf man knocked on the door of apartment 226, and a woman let him in. He exited 226 three hours later, well after the librarian was killed.”

“Are there CCTV cameras outside the building?”

“I need to check on that. Do you think he went out a window in 226, walked the ledge over to 212, and entered the victim’s apartment?”

“That’s one idea I have. The other one is what type of ceiling is in her apartment?”

“It’s similar to an office ceiling with removable panels.”

“He may have used a crawl space to reach 212 If apartment 226 had the same panels. Check if any of the panels in her apartment are disheveled.”

“Give me a minute to check.”

“I am back. None of the panels appeared to be disheveled. However, one has a faint handprint on it as if someone with dirty hands grabbed it.”

“Might it be blood?”

“I suppose so. You think he touched it on the way back to 226?”

“He might have done it in either direction. We also need to talk to the resident in 226. She might have helped him.”

“I will interview her now and get back to you.”

“Thanks, Nolan. Is Cooke performing OK with the scene management?”

“He is doing fine.”

“This is his first experience with crime scene ownership, so I want to help him avoid mistakes.”

After the call, I sat back in my chair, wondering which of my ideas was a real possibility. I was interested in what the woman in 226 tells Nolan.

Thirty minutes later, Nolan called again.

“Hi, Nolan. Did you talk to her?”

“First, she denied letting him in until I showed her the footage on my phone. When I asked her what they did until he left three hours later, she said they were making love. She claims they are dating.”

“Did you check her ceiling?”

“It is the same type and was not disheveled.”

“Did you ask her for her boyfriend’s name?”

“Yes, because I wondered if it matched when we searched for his picture.”

“I searched for his picture and got no results. He is not in any of the criminal databases.”

“She said his name was David Wheeler.”

“No one comes up with a picture like his if I Google that.”

“Should we arrest her in the hope we can find him?”

“We don’t have enough probable cause to get a judge to sign off on an arrest warrant,” I said.

“We need more evidence.”

“Yes. When Cooke returns, I will work with him to do a deep dive on her and him.”

“The Forensic team just left, and Cooke cleared the scene. He needs to wait for the medical examiner to arrive to pick up the body. The Forensic team took one thousand pictures despite the apartment being small.”

“Tell him to brief the medical examiner with what we know and let them do a walk-through of the scene before taking the corpse. It is a small scene, so that shouldn’t take too long. He can call me if he has any questions.”

“I will talk to him now. See you back at the station.”

My phone rang again.

“Hi, Cooke. How is everything?”

“Fine. Thanks for the comments about briefing the medical examiner. I did that when she arrived; her investigator is looking at the scene.”

“That means you should be done soon. I know it has been a tough night. Check the login book for the Patrol team exit of the scene and remember they opened it a little past six p.m.”

“Wow, it is now eleven p.m., so they were here for five hours.”

“That was a small scene. On something bigger, we might be there 24/7 until we can clear the scene.”

“Nolan and Shi said they were headed back to the station, and their shift ends in an hour.”

“Mitchell and Arroyo are on the graveyard shift and start at midnight.”

“Is there anything else I need to do once the medical examiner leaves?”

“Leave the crime scene tape up for now. I don’t want the building supervisor to begin fixing up the apartment to lease it again.”

“The scene being released is an internal police matter?”

“Until we are ready to announce that. I would tell you to take the tape down if I thought we were done with the scene. Because we are working on a theory on how the murderer got into the apartment, I want the chance to reopen the scene.”

“Does that affect the medical examiner? She couldn’t pick up the body until the scene was cleared.”

“No. She collects the body when her investigator is done with the scene. The scene only gets reopened if the investigation needs more clues from the scene.”

“Great. She just took the body out. I will close the door and head back to the station.”

“Outstanding. When you return, we are going to do a deep dive on the deaf man who entered the building and his girlfriend in apartment 226.”

“That sounds interesting.”

“Yes, it is time for us to further our investigation.”

While I waited for Cooke to return, I picked up some iced coffee to get me through the rest of my shift. When I returned to my desk, Cooke was waiting for me.

“Let’s start with the girlfriend. Her name was Lauren O’Reilly. We must search all databases, social media sites, and Google to see what we can find for her.”

“I can take the social media sites,” Cooke said.

“I will search the databases. If we don’t come up with anything, we can search Google as a last resort.”

“Excellent plan. I need my laptop. I will be back in a minute or two.”

The databases we have access to include people who have been arrested. I didn’t expect to find anything. I started a search against every database using her name and an image of her. By this time, Cooke was back and doing a similar search against social media sites.

“What social media sites can we search?” Cooke asked.

“Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and TikTok.”

“That sounds like the normal ones. Others have popped up, but they might be niche ones.”

“While we wait for our searches to complete, let’s chat. How are you doing with the job?” I asked.

“It’s been a slow start. I was a senior patrol officer involved with everything at my last job. As a new detective here, things are slower.”

“Part of that is on me. I know you have a master’s degree in criminal justice. That is what I call book experience. I am introducing you to street-level experience as a detective. I was a patrol officer for six years before becoming a detective, and I struggled for the first six months. The two jobs are different on the streets.”

“I appreciate that. Managing the crime scene today taught me a lot. As a patrol officer, I would radio the detectives, set up the login book, and be the gatekeeper of the scene. It was different today to take pictures of evidence and interview witnesses after patrol interviewed them.”

“It will become more natural once you have done it a few times. It’s a food chain kind of thing. Patrol sets up the scene, calls the detectives and the Forensic team, manages the login book, and interviews witnesses. As a detective, you photograph evidence and brief the Forensic manager and the Medical Examiner. You re-interview witnesses that caught the patrol’s eye. The last step is for  you to determine when to release the scene.”

By this time, our searches were completed.

“She isn’t in any criminal databases,” I said.

“I found her on Instagram. Let’s review her profile.”

“She works in marketing for a local technology company. Now I know why she is living in that building. It is within walking distance of her office,” I said.

“Do you think her boyfriend may work with her?”

“He was dressed in an expensive suit, which leads me to believe he is not a technology worker. He might be in sales or management.”

“How can we find that out?”

“We don’t have a database of workers at technology companies. Let's swing for the fences and pass his picture to her company to ask if he is employed there. If it hits, we can arrest them?”

“If it doesn’t hit, we need a way to search other companies.”

“How he dressed might mean he works for a financial company or a law firm. We have one prominent financial company in Hillsford. Let's take a swing with them, too.

“Do you want to start with those two and see what happens?” Cooke asked.

“We won’t get an answer until tomorrow, but it is worth checking both.”

“I will write it up and have you review it?”

“Sure. Send it my way when ready. There is nothing else we can do tonight. We should have answers by the time our shift starts tomorrow.”

The financial company confirmed that David Wheeler is an employee. He has worked for them for seven years and has risen to one level below being a partner. That means he is highly paid. That doesn’t sound like someone who would be killing people. Of course, sociopaths are at every level of our economy.

At midnight, the patrol graveyard shift started, and officers Mitchell and Arroyo arrived at the scene.

My phone rang. 

“Hi Mitchell, what did you learn about the woman in 226?”

“Rossi, she is the Chief of Marketing in the technology company. That means she is part of the C-suite. With what we learned about the deaf man, as a couple, they are rich and powerful.”

“Did you confirm they are a couple?”

“Yes. They have dated for the past three years.”

“That means we need to examine both of their histories. Sociopaths can be men and women.”

“Our next task is to figure out how they could have done it. I will try to get a search warrant for apartment 226 and everything above the ceiling tiles. Once I have the search warrant, we must call the forensic team back,” I said.

“Sounds good. I will make sure that Cooke keeps the scene roped off.”

“Thanks. I mentioned that to him the last time we spoke.”

I created two affidavits for the search warrants. One was for everything in apartment 226. The other one was for everything above the apartment ceilings between apartments 226 and 212. That second one is where I wanted the Forensic team to investigate.

I sent the affidavits to Judge Chabra’s office and waited for a call to see if she approved them. I worried that it was well past midnight, so I was not sure if she would sign them tonight.

About an hour later, I received the call. Judge Chabra had approved the warrants, and her office sent them to me electronically. I could not stop by her house at this time of night, so I printed the warrants and called Detective Cooke.

“Hi, Rossi.”

“Hi, Cooke. I am headed back to the scene with two search warrants. Tell Mitchell to recall the Forensic team to the scene. I will see you in about 15 minutes.”

“Thanks, Rossi. Now I know why you told me to keep the scene roped off.”

I ran down the stairs to the parking garage under the station, jumped in my unmarked car, and drove to the apartment building. I then returned to the apartment crime scene.

♦♦♦

“Mitchell, here is the search warrant for apartment 226. Wake up the woman and do a thorough search of her apartment. We know the librarian’s throat was slit. None of the knives in apartment 212 are missing. Check everywhere for a knife, including the dishwasher. Also, check for clothes in a hamper because they might have blood spatter.”

“Can Arroyo come with me?”

“Yes, you can both go. We will send the Forensic team over there when they arrive.”

Cooke and I waited at the original crime scene. The Forensic team arrived thirty minutes later.

“Rossi, where do you need us?”

“Go over to apartment 226 and go atop the ceiling. I want you to traverse over to apartment 212 using the crawl space. Look for anything that might prove our couple did the killing. There might be blood spots, and you should be able to tell which direction they traveled based on them. Also, look for loose threads matching the clothes the patrol team finds in the hamper. If Patrol doesn’t find the knife, you might find it when you get above the ceiling.”

“Thanks, Rossi. We will let you know what we find.”

“Rossi, all that information rolls off your tongue. I need notes for everything.”

“Give it time. Remember, I am in my fifth year as a detective and spent eight years as a patrol officer. That was a lot of crime scenes I was at.”

Around 4:00 a.m., the patrol and Forensics teams returned to apartment 212.

“Good news, you two,” Alana from the Forensic team said as she held up an evidence bag with a bloody knife in it.

“Where did you find the knife?” I asked.

“Halfway between the two apartments. My guess is they didn’t figure we would go up there.”

“Did you find blood spatter?”

“Yes. Directionally, it went from 212 to 226. We found many spatter areas. We think it fell off of the killer’s clothes.”

“That’s fantastic news.”

“My turn,” Arroyo said.

“I see you have an evidence bag, too.”

“Yes. She wore this dress when we first met her last night. It has a lot of blood spatter, so we can tell she was part of the kill. We think the deaf man wore his clothes home. We need those to see if he was part of the kill, too.”

“As soon as we return to the station, I will request a search warrant for his clothes.”

“If both sets of clothes have blood on them, how do we know which one killed her?” Cooke asked.

“We might be able to tell by the amount of spatter. Anyone close to her during the kill would have a lot of spatter. The other person may have been across the room without blood on their clothes.”

“If both have a lot of blood?” Cooke asked.

“Then we hope one is left-handed and the other one is right-handed. The medical examiner can tell us if the slit was left to right or right to left.”

“Can we head back to the station now?” Alana asked.

“Yes, we can all go back now. We have one more search warrant to execute, and then it might be time for an arrest.”

♦♦♦

I returned to my desk at 5:00 a.m., and my shift was almost over. I created one more affidavit for David Wheeler’s clothes. Luckily, I had his address, so I sent that one to Judge Chabra’s office.

Mitchell and Arroyo's shift ended at 8:00 a.m. However, they could pick up his clothes if the search warrant arrived early.

At 5:50 a.m., the judge approved the search warrant and said someone could pick it up from her house before she left for her office at 7:00 a.m.

I called Mitchell’s cell phone.

“Rossi, any news?”

“Yes. The search warrant is ready for pickup. You must pick it up from the judge’s home before 7:00 a.m.”

“Perfect, we will head there now.”

I decided to extend my shift because I wanted to know who the killer was.

At 6:45 a.m., Mitchell and Arroyo returned with David Wheeler’s clothes. They brought them to the Forensic team. Luckily, Alana worked a graveyard shift, so she was available to test them.

Fifteen minutes later, Mitchell and Arroyo arrived at my desk.

“Rossi, you were correct about sociopaths. Sometimes, they can be a woman. There was no blood on David Wheeler’s clothes.”

“Awesome. Let me create an affidavit for an arrest warrant for Lauren O’Reilly.”

I sent the affidavit to Judge Chabra, and she said it could be picked up at her office as she is leaving for the office now.

“The arrest warrant has been approved. You can pick it up at the judge’s office.”

“We have enough time to bring her back and book her in before the end of our shift. Aren’t we past the end of your shift?”

“Yes, but I want the chance to interview her first. I want to know why someone in the C-suite killed a librarian. They operate in different worlds.”

“We will let you know when her booking is completed.”

I knew I had another hour of waiting before I could interview her, so I walked to the coffee shop for more iced coffee.

At 8:15 a.m., I was told Lauren O’Reilly was in interview room three, and she had signed a Waiver of Rights form so I could question her.

I walked to the other end of our floor and entered interview room three.

“Ms. O’Reilly, I only have one question for you. Why would someone at the C-suite level murder a lowly librarian?”

“I caught her flirting with my boyfriend.”

“This murder was about jealousy?”

“Call it what you want.”

 “Did she threaten you?”

“Not physically.”

“Did you think your boyfriend would leave you for her?”

“Yes. He is attractive and rich. Many women try to attract him.”

“Why go to the level of killing? You don’t kill every woman he attracts, do you?”

“No. I killed her because she lived in my building. If he left me for her, I would see them daily. I couldn’t have that.”

“Sounds like this was a combination of jealousy and territory.”

“I suppose so. I don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

“Enjoy the rest of your life in prison.”

“We’ll see if I get charged with voluntary manslaughter because this was a heat of passion homicide.”

“Good luck with that. This looks more like first-degree murder to me, but I will wait for the DA’s office to make that decision.”

Lieutenant Calderon wanted to know how we solved this crime so fast. I told her everyone worked in concert, from the detectives to the patrol officers to the Forensic team to the medical examiner to the judge.

(This story is a work of fiction. Some of these characters will appear in my next novel – The Chameleon Killer.)