General Fiction posted January 14, 2025 | Chapters: |
...59 60 -61- 62... ![]() |
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A new detective gives more clues
A chapter in the book Sandra's Lover
Candace Martin
by EILEEN LAW
Background Murder, Mystery and a twisted family. |
Bozeman's population had boomed in the 90's and the police department had to catch up.
Bozeman PD had seen a bunch of shifting in its departments and there were multiple new hires and new divisions. The growing pains were evident in lack of unity and division of forces, somewhat 'old' vs 'new'. As such the new departments were more reluctant to share resources and information with the old. They needed prompting and then they would, but begrudgingly.
Smythe had to go through multiple department heads and chains of command to get needed resources. Right now, she needed both a profiler and police dogs. The latter to potentially trace the last steps of Mrs. Conners and the former to build a better idea of the perpetrator than the one that Smythe had formed herself.
Hayes was old school and didn't have rapport with any of the new departmental heads or influence on their team leaders. The whole police department was seeing a clear dividing line and it wasn't something that was helping at all. Terry was getting delayed responses from her requests stating that the profiler was overscheduled or on days off and the dog teams were either training or out on patrol. Terry had no pull of her own and thought it time to contact the captain.
While in his office she heard him, in his usual firm but tactful way, get definitive responses from each department. Terry was going to get what she needed.
She sat with the profiler, David Simms, and after he poured through her evidence and files, he was able to provide her with a better inside look at the perp.
He determined that the perp was an organized and structured person, most likely a man, with a definitive separation of personality. He was probably in a position of authority. He likely had difficulties with superiors. He would, for obvious reasons, be somewhat secretive. If he was married, he would be in control of that relationship and that spouse wouldn't often question his activities.
The perps' interpersonal traits would include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits would include a lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility.
This person had certain psychological disorders that may or may not have been diagnosed. It was suggested to contact the Gallatin Mental Health Centre to see if anyone was released from care prior to the first missing person.
After meeting with Dr Simms, and receiving his report, Terry left to meet with the canine team at the Conners residence. It wasn't long before they determined that Aliss was taken away in a vehicle. No real surprise there.
It was Terry's idea earlier to have the canine teams see if they could trace any of the other missing people's direction and what specific steps they took. Later, the report on Buddy Stang showed that he had travelled through the park close to his home, this wasn't a surprise as it was the route he took daily to and from school.
Later, Terry along with Warren, went to meet with Leven. Leven reported that the final interviews with the sales clerk had revealed nothing new. The four of them then poured over the video surveillance of the service station. They watched the periods prior to and after the vehicle left the station. They were hoping something would catch their eye.
Surprising everyone, Leven suddenly said, "Stop! Back that section up just a smidge. Now look, look there."
He pointed at the back window of the car. It was mostly obscured with a dark blanket or jacket. Just barely, you could see a band of yellow on the on the object in the back window. Warren worked his magic and was able to zoom in and clear it up a little.
"It looks like a word or a symbol of some type," Leven said quizzically. "It looks familiar, a little."
It was hard to see and it was Leven, after studying the image for a few minutes, who was the one who was able to figure it out.
"It's a crest of some kind. It's the same color and shape that we use on our uniform jackets. Warren, can you get it any clearer?"
"No, I don't think so. Let's check some other frames and see if we can see it again."
It took an enormous amount of time. They looked practically frame by frame. Warren printed still shots of all the angles. Together they were able to piece together some of the image, albeit crooked and lopsided. It was a Bozeman PD police crest. This realization caused shock waves inside of Terry. Was it one of her own?
The three sat back. All sighed almost at once. What's next?
"We need to determine if this is a newer jacket or an older one. That will help us to know if its from an active officer or a retired one. Or maybe it's a jacket that ended up in a charity bin or stolen. We can't assume it belongs to one of your team members." Leven offered.
"Still, we need to track all of our current roster as well. See who were working on days that the people went missing and who weren't. We need to check for transferees and new officers as well. Retired officers can't be overlooked either. And most importantly, we can't let anyone at the precinct know we are looking at them at all. We have to keep this to ourselves." Terry responded.
Now how were they going to get access to the information they needed, without letting anyone know what they were doing? Leven offered to scout the highway around the service station. He was going to look for bias tire treads in the few roads that left the highway. Maybe he was going to get lucky.
Terry and Warren headed back to her place; they were going over the details of the case as they knew it. They were trying to formulate a plan.
Warren asked Terry, "You have your work schedule online, don't you?"
Curiously Terry answered, "Yes, but that's mine only. I don't have access to the scheduling mainframe."
"Well. Let me poke around and see if I can expand your access a little." Warren offered.
"Can you check to see if you can pull up Anderson's schedule? I had an interesting conversation with his former team leader at Idaho Falls PD. Apparently, he had a cold case of a missing college girl he had been working. They found her body at the local dump. Interestingly, her name was Cassandra."
"How long were you going to keep that little tidbit under your hat?" Warren asked surprised.
"Well, he and Hayes are close so I couldn't talk about it at the precinct. I also couldn't share it with Jensen, in case he brought it to Hayes. I still have the contact information for the Sargent in Idaho Falls, a Candace Martin. I think I might want to go see her, its only about a 3-hour drive over there. She may have more information on Anderson that will be helpful. I will have to be very careful." Terry was alone on this; the only people she felt she could truly trust at that moment were Warren and Lieutenant Leven. Perhaps she would have to create her own little team on the side, at least temporarily.
For now, she needed Warren to get into scheduling and she was going to try to get Andersons' file from human resources. That was going to be fun.
Bozeman PD had seen a bunch of shifting in its departments and there were multiple new hires and new divisions. The growing pains were evident in lack of unity and division of forces, somewhat 'old' vs 'new'. As such the new departments were more reluctant to share resources and information with the old. They needed prompting and then they would, but begrudgingly.
Smythe had to go through multiple department heads and chains of command to get needed resources. Right now, she needed both a profiler and police dogs. The latter to potentially trace the last steps of Mrs. Conners and the former to build a better idea of the perpetrator than the one that Smythe had formed herself.
Hayes was old school and didn't have rapport with any of the new departmental heads or influence on their team leaders. The whole police department was seeing a clear dividing line and it wasn't something that was helping at all. Terry was getting delayed responses from her requests stating that the profiler was overscheduled or on days off and the dog teams were either training or out on patrol. Terry had no pull of her own and thought it time to contact the captain.
While in his office she heard him, in his usual firm but tactful way, get definitive responses from each department. Terry was going to get what she needed.
She sat with the profiler, David Simms, and after he poured through her evidence and files, he was able to provide her with a better inside look at the perp.
He determined that the perp was an organized and structured person, most likely a man, with a definitive separation of personality. He was probably in a position of authority. He likely had difficulties with superiors. He would, for obvious reasons, be somewhat secretive. If he was married, he would be in control of that relationship and that spouse wouldn't often question his activities.
The perps' interpersonal traits would include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits would include a lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility.
This person had certain psychological disorders that may or may not have been diagnosed. It was suggested to contact the Gallatin Mental Health Centre to see if anyone was released from care prior to the first missing person.
After meeting with Dr Simms, and receiving his report, Terry left to meet with the canine team at the Conners residence. It wasn't long before they determined that Aliss was taken away in a vehicle. No real surprise there.
It was Terry's idea earlier to have the canine teams see if they could trace any of the other missing people's direction and what specific steps they took. Later, the report on Buddy Stang showed that he had travelled through the park close to his home, this wasn't a surprise as it was the route he took daily to and from school.
Later, Terry along with Warren, went to meet with Leven. Leven reported that the final interviews with the sales clerk had revealed nothing new. The four of them then poured over the video surveillance of the service station. They watched the periods prior to and after the vehicle left the station. They were hoping something would catch their eye.
Surprising everyone, Leven suddenly said, "Stop! Back that section up just a smidge. Now look, look there."
He pointed at the back window of the car. It was mostly obscured with a dark blanket or jacket. Just barely, you could see a band of yellow on the on the object in the back window. Warren worked his magic and was able to zoom in and clear it up a little.
"It looks like a word or a symbol of some type," Leven said quizzically. "It looks familiar, a little."
It was hard to see and it was Leven, after studying the image for a few minutes, who was the one who was able to figure it out.
"It's a crest of some kind. It's the same color and shape that we use on our uniform jackets. Warren, can you get it any clearer?"
"No, I don't think so. Let's check some other frames and see if we can see it again."
It took an enormous amount of time. They looked practically frame by frame. Warren printed still shots of all the angles. Together they were able to piece together some of the image, albeit crooked and lopsided. It was a Bozeman PD police crest. This realization caused shock waves inside of Terry. Was it one of her own?
The three sat back. All sighed almost at once. What's next?
"We need to determine if this is a newer jacket or an older one. That will help us to know if its from an active officer or a retired one. Or maybe it's a jacket that ended up in a charity bin or stolen. We can't assume it belongs to one of your team members." Leven offered.
"Still, we need to track all of our current roster as well. See who were working on days that the people went missing and who weren't. We need to check for transferees and new officers as well. Retired officers can't be overlooked either. And most importantly, we can't let anyone at the precinct know we are looking at them at all. We have to keep this to ourselves." Terry responded.
Now how were they going to get access to the information they needed, without letting anyone know what they were doing? Leven offered to scout the highway around the service station. He was going to look for bias tire treads in the few roads that left the highway. Maybe he was going to get lucky.
Terry and Warren headed back to her place; they were going over the details of the case as they knew it. They were trying to formulate a plan.
Warren asked Terry, "You have your work schedule online, don't you?"
Curiously Terry answered, "Yes, but that's mine only. I don't have access to the scheduling mainframe."
"Well. Let me poke around and see if I can expand your access a little." Warren offered.
"Can you check to see if you can pull up Anderson's schedule? I had an interesting conversation with his former team leader at Idaho Falls PD. Apparently, he had a cold case of a missing college girl he had been working. They found her body at the local dump. Interestingly, her name was Cassandra."
"How long were you going to keep that little tidbit under your hat?" Warren asked surprised.
"Well, he and Hayes are close so I couldn't talk about it at the precinct. I also couldn't share it with Jensen, in case he brought it to Hayes. I still have the contact information for the Sargent in Idaho Falls, a Candace Martin. I think I might want to go see her, its only about a 3-hour drive over there. She may have more information on Anderson that will be helpful. I will have to be very careful." Terry was alone on this; the only people she felt she could truly trust at that moment were Warren and Lieutenant Leven. Perhaps she would have to create her own little team on the side, at least temporarily.
For now, she needed Warren to get into scheduling and she was going to try to get Andersons' file from human resources. That was going to be fun.
I enjoy the stories my mind makes up. both in the dream world and the imaginary one. this is one I wrote down.
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