you needed anything?”
She nodded. “I guess Triney was worried about me. Driving home, I saw him back there behind me. I always know when someone’s following me, even if I’m dead tired.”
He got up and poured himself a mug of coffee. “I don’t know why you wanted to go in Abby’s house, but it was a really bad idea.”
“Kevin got Abby out of her house last night so I could go in and look around.” She told Chip about the encounter with Toby Towalski inside the house.
“Did he touch you?”
“I’ve been groped worse on a Philadelphia subway.”
“I’m so sorry you suffered all that.” The police radio on his belt squawked and he turned it down. “Who shot him? Who did you that big favor?”
“We know Abby wanted Toby dead because she already tried to shoot him once. Maybe she showed up with a gun.”
“Or someone else came along who either wanted him dead or you alive.”
“If the shooter hadn’t saved me, Toby might have gotten me, kicking and screaming, or maybe unconscious, into his van. I’m still not certain whether he wanted to rape me before or after he killed me, or not at all.”
“He came after you with a knife. That’s a clue.” He sipped his coffee and rested the mug on the side table. “So this is about the kidnapping.”
“I couldn’t get him to talk about Jamie. His comments to me were all inherently sexual about the Privado Beach body.”
That stopped him. “Privado Beach? How do you know about Privado Beach?”
“Triney told me. The late Mr. Towalski admitted he was on the beach that night.”
“That guy, on the beach? You’ve never said anything about that case to me. Why were you discussing it with a sheriff’s detective? That’s a city case. I don’t get the connection.”
“Relax Chip. Don’t take it personally. We were talking about Kevin Olin and Triney remembered the cops stopped him two months ago at the time of the Privado case because he had a white SUV. So Triney explained about Privado Beach. But Kevin checked out okay back then. That’s all. Just a coincidence.”
“How about that, Privado Beach? This is the first break we’ve had. It’s a minor case but it bugged all of us. Now we know Towalski was on the beach and penetrated the body. Case closed.”
“He didn’t exactly admit to that. But he does have a white SUV.”
“Did Toby know the woman? He take her there?”
“The guy I should have asked is now dead. But I don’t think so. He wasn’t cool enough to connect with a woman like that. She wouldn’t have bothered with him. All I know for certain is he was there. Nothing about how the woman got there, or who else came and went that night. Stupid me didn’t think fast enough to ask. He spoke of trying to decide whether to rape her. So he was alone at that point.”
“Did he undress the body?”
“Don’t think so. Said he was looking down at the body, I assumed he meant a naked body because he was all excited and prematured before he even touched her. So he leaves. The body’s still there unmolested. The necrophile must have come along later.”
“You really believe he just walked away. Didn’t even cop a feel. Doesn’t ring true. My theory fits better and doesn’t require a delinquent exercising heroic self-control and a necrophile strolling by later. Remember, Sherlock, Toby’s young. He’d be ready to go again in ten minutes.”
“Gee, I didn’t know that. It takes you over an hour to recover.” She couldn’t resist.
He ignored the crack. “Our original theory was she’s there alone and innocently chokes. The attacker comes along and unexpectedly discovers her body. Now I’m thinking Toby attacked the body. In the first place, he most likely lied to you about everything. He’s already there. No one is around. He gets excited and can’t resist. He touches her and one impulse leads to another. It just seems unlikely that some other person not only finds her, but is inclined to assault her.”
“Do you consider the beach the primary scene?”
“Yes, we believe she choked, died, and was assaulted there.”
“She wouldn’t have been taken to the beach naked and dead. So either she stripped to swim or someone stripped her after she choked. Either way, where’s her clothing? Where’s the beach towel? Where’s the suntan lotion? No clothing left around bothers me. It might be a key to something. Why would the attacker take her clothes? Is Privado one of those nudie beaches?”
“No, what are you thinking?”
“I think she undressed in a car and she left her clothes in there. Maybe she didn’t have a swimsuit. What’s the layout of the beach? Could she have run bare assed from the car to the beach?”
“Possibly. The parking area itself isn’t obvious from the road, although someone on the highway could see a car or a person if they looked over. Maybe a stripper wouldn’t care. But you’d think she’d want something to cover up with in case someone else showed up, like a Boy Scout troop.”
“All the while eating a pretzel.”
“We don’t know if she came to use the beach or was just passing by, or was taken there involuntarily in some manner.”
“I’d guess voluntarily if she’s munching on a pretzel.”
“Soft pretzel or bagel. M.E. went with pretzel because of mustard and salt traces.”
“That led to showing her picture in area stores selling pretzels, I imagine.”
“Some of that. But there are limits. Remember this isn’t murder, only a felony-two abuse.”
“Any chance it
“The experts considered all of that.”
“What if she ate the pretzel earlier or was eating it when the guy strangles her with a large fluffy beach towel?”
“There would be signs.”
“I was choked last night with a dishtowel and passed out. Do you see any marks on my throat?”
“No, but you might have internal bruising, or something. I’m not an expert.”
“Triney said the next morning they had a tip from a nearby property owner. He’d seen a white SUV parked there late that night. What time was that?”
“The neighbor wasn't certain because he had driven past that spot twice that night. Once after dinner when he drove to a party and again later coming home around midnight.”
“Toby said it was getting dark, but he could still see the body. In other words, it was dusk. He wouldn’t dare hang around until midnight. But if the neighbor saw a white vehicle early, it could have been his.'
'And if the neighbor saw the vehicle late, it could have been Kevin Olin's.'
'Not necessarily. We are aware of only two owners of white SUV's. There are plenty of others around. You know how eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable. Perhaps, the neighbor thought he saw a white vehicle, thought it was that beach, that time, and that night.'
'No, Toby is the simplest answer. The simplest answer is usually the correct one. He was there, that says it all.”
Sandy smiled and said, “I just studied that in my textbook on evidence—
“Well then apply your studies. He's preoccupied with sex and he attacked you. Obviously, he’s capable of committing such an offense. I like him for this.”
“Chip, your theory still doesn’t answer the question of how she got there in the first place. She didn’t drive herself because no car was left at the scene. No halfway sensible woman would get in a car with Toby. Someone other than him took her there. I wish I’d found out more about what happened on that beach, but I was busy trying to stall him, psych him out, or whatever it was I was doing.”
“Surviving is what you were doing. You were lucky. If he’d attacked you inside, you wouldn’t have been saved by some shooter outside. I’m telling you, you need to knock off all your nosing around.”
“I screwed it all up, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.”
“However you handled it, you got out of there. We’ll want a statement from you on what he told you. I’ll set it
