Jessica recalled what little she knew of the Millbrook case-a small burb outside the Twin Cities. She told Reynolds, “FBI field office wasn't called in. It was handled as a local murder by the Millbrook authorities. Kept relatively quiet given the sensational way in which she was dispatched.”
“Case went nowhere,” replied Darwin. “There were no repeats, so for the most part, authorities were pleased it just went away, that it didn't become a recurring nightmare.”
“Then it happened over a year ago in Portland,” said Abrams.
“A year in between the first and second killing,” said Sands. “Not your typical bad boy, this one, and now this, a year later.”
“Agreed,” said Jessica. “Highly unusual if all the killings were done by the same man. Spacing his killings so far apart.”
“The Oregon black mountain man case,” began Chief Abrams, “got play on Court TV. High-profile case. Guy was put on psychoactive drugs and claimed later, after getting his head straight, that he didn't do it.”
Reynolds finished for Abrams, adding, “Towne then refused any appeals made on his behalf. He's on death row, end of story for everybody who wants to look the other way-just about the whole world, because he's decided to regain control himself with institutional suicide.”
“I remember reading something about it at the time,” said Jessica.
Reynolds added, “Towne has till the end of the week, a handful of days.”
“Then he's toast,” Abrams put in.
“He's been on death row for over a year now,” added Darwin. “Third Strike law… Nature of the crime… Speed Law of the West.”
“Everybody's anxious to see him die. Isn't that right?” asked Sands as he worked to place a stray particle of lint beneath a slide. “Even he wants an end to it.”
Jessica, returned to the body to continue her pre-autopsy examination.
“Are you that anxious to see him die?” asked Reynolds of Abrams.
Sands looked up to see Abrams's reply.
Abrams said, “Frankly, until this discovery here… Frankly, Darwin, I hadn't given much thought to the case.”
“Until now.” Reynolds held his gaze. “Until this.” He indicated the Olsen body.
“Right… until now. Now that we have a spine-theft murder in our own backyard-what to me appears a copycat of Towne's work.”
“There's not a shred of evidence to say so.”
Abrams waded back in, his eyes traveling the room to see who was paying attention. “Look, Reynolds, the man tried the insanity defense and lost, and then he wanted a sanity defense? And now he wants a quick execution?” Abrams punctuated this with laughter. “Come on!”
“That's some new Johnnie Cochran-style twist his lawyers must've come up with,” added Pete as she wandered in from the kitchen.
“Yeah, who's he got? O.J.'s dream team?” commented another tech team member.
A third leapt in with, “Come up with the insanity to sanity defense. Straight out of the Johnnie Confuse em' Cochran School or that guy Roy Black.”
Jessica stayed out of it and kept working.
Reynolds kept on Abrams, ignoring the side remarks. “Look, Abrams, his lawyers are saying he deserves another hearing in light of the way his confession was gotten, in light of this crime, and the fact he couldn't be tied to the one in Minnesota.”
“If Robert W. Towne is innocent I'll-”
“You'll what? If Towne is innocent, and we find out too late, how will that play, Chief?”
Jessica had motioned for the photographer to take close-ups of the head wound she'd cleaned, and the man moved in with purpose. Jessica said to Darwin, “Are you personally involved in the Oregon case, Darwin? You seem to be.”
“I see a wrong I'd like to right. That's the extent of my personal involvement.”
Jessica considered this as she finished the depth measurements to the killing wound down the length of Joyce Olsen's back. “My guess, Dr. Sands, some sort of surgical scalpel, a large one… A very controlled cut.”
“Didn't use a machete or a scimitar, that's for sure.”
“The M.E.'s in Portland and Minnesota concluded the same,” said Reynolds firmly, his gaze probing hers. “In all three cases, there are commonalities, Dr. Coran.”
“Those being?”
Darwin spread the fingers of his enormous left hand and ticked off each item. “The obvious-a missing spine-for one. Each victim lived alone. Each had next to no family. Led a sedate life. Heavily committed to their pets-their pet preoccupations, as it were. And each of the victims had sketches drawn of themselves while involved in a favorite pastime with their pets, and there's the way the guy smeared the blood with a mop or a broom to cover his footprints. In Minnesota and Portland he used a broom in each case, here a mop. He uses a scalpel or scalpel-like knife for the incisions, and a bone cutter, not a noisy Stryker saw to detach the spine fully from the body.”
“Obviously, you've given this a lot of thought.”
“You're going to find that he used a bone cutter to remove the Olsen woman's ribs, too.”
“How long have you been working on this, Reynolds?” Jessica asked.
“Since things in the Oregon case didn't add up to me. I don't believe Towne's guilty of any of this. In fact, he claims there is-floating around somewhere-a photo of him at a lake at the Canadian border where he was fishing with a friend when his wife was being murdered.”
“Gone fishing? That's an awful alibi. I could cite you hundreds of foolish men who used it, including Scott Peterson.”
“But in Towne's case, it's true. He's an avid fisherman and hunter.”
“Who owns a deboning knife, a rib cutter, and a ball peen hammer, I'm sure,” said Sands with a shake of the head.
“And a bow and arrow, and a collection of hunting rifles rivaling Sears Roebuck.” Reynolds dropped his head, nodding. “All of which was carted into the courtroom to prove him some sort of animal.”
“Then why the hell did he confess?” asked Petersaul.
“He was out of his mind at the time.”
“What's the source of your information?” asked Jessica.
“All right, there is a personal connection. An old friend of mine is on the defense team, and I can assure you Towne couldn't afford a Roy Black. They started an appeal but Towne, shown of sound mind at the time, refused any appeals made on his behalf.”
“So you're saying that the Minnesota case, and now this awful butchery, that this constitutes new information for Towne's defense?”
“I've always maintained he could not have done the Minnesota killing. I've already faxed the broad outlines to Oregon, but they've wired back that the governor's not buying it. The DA's somehow gotten the time of death changed by a day to counter claims that Towne was in Canada at the time.”
“I see.”
“So much for that. The governor can't be convinced of a stay of execution, citing the fact that Towne himself refuses any further appeal!”
“Meanwhile, you uncovered all this coincidence surrounding the murders.” Jessica put a fiber slide together as she spoke. “Like the sketches left at the murder scenes in both Millbrook and Portland, and now here in Milwaukee.”
“According to my experts, done by the same hand,” added Darwin. “And Towne has no history of artistic ability whatsoever.”
“How do you know that?”
“Let's just say that I've seen what he can't do with the back of a napkin.”
“So you're maintaining that he can't have created the charcoal sketches,” said Abrams, still playing devil's advocate, “and I gotta agree, not here with the Olsen woman and her dog since he's sitting on death row. But this could just be a copycat killing. Your boy Towne could've done the bird lady in Minnesota, and his wife.”
This drew some laughter.
Darwin dropped his head as if defeated. Jessica saw his frustration as he realized he could not change any of their minds. She jumped in, asking, “Agent Reynolds, when Towne was in his insanity phase, did the defense use schizophrenia as a mitigating circumstance?”
“Afraid so, yes, but-”