“Amazing how well they were able to enhance this video,” she says.
Just then, Tippen receives a phone call on her cell. It is the forensic lab calling.
“Hello. Yes, this is Jane,” she answers, then listens for several seconds.
“Really? Yes, if you send me a copy that will be great.”
“More good news?” asks Masters.
“I’ll say, the blood work came back positive for Rohypnol. Cooper was drugged.”
“Better get yourself a large coffee,” says Masters. “This is going to be another long night. We need to get into King’s condo tonight. If we find Rohypnol and the box of bullets, we will have enough for an arrest warrant on King. I’ll start on a search warrant affidavit if you call DA Simmons and let her know what’s going on. Then you work on organizing and listing our evidence for me to include in the affidavit. Is that okay with you?”
“Absolutely, I’ll go call Simmons now.”
Two hours later, Masters has completed the affidavit and included a detailed list of the evidence supporting a search warrant of King’s condo.
“This looks real good Bill,” says Tippen.
“Great, I just sent a copy over to Simmons for her review. Once we get the okay, we’ll take it to a judge.”
Thirty minutes later, Simmons calls Masters and gives him her approval to get the warrant signed. It is after 5:00 pm, so Masters and Tippen head over to the on-call judge’s home for issuance of the search warrant. They arrive at 5:35 pm. The judge reads the affidavit.
“This is a strange twist of events,” says the judge.
“Yes sir,” replies Masters, “it took a while to figure it all out.”
“Nicely done,” says the judge as he signs the search warrant and hands it back to Masters.
“Thank you sir, have a good night.”
Masters had already requested assistance from the Lone Tree Police Department in executing the search of King’s condo. They agree to have two uniformed officers meet them in the parking lot of the condo complex. Masters and Tippen arrive at 6:30 pm. Introductions are made, and Masters briefly explains the case and who they are dealing with. The officers will assist with entry into the condo, then stand by for security as the detectives conduct their search.
The officers approach the door and knock loudly on the door several times. There is no answer. With the use of a crowbar, the officers are able to get the door open. With guns drawn, the Lone Tree officers search the condo and find it empty. They then turn it over to Masters and Tippen.
As they walk into the condo, they notice it is not well kept. A pizza box and some fast food wrappers are still on the coffee table in the living room. Dirty dishes are in the sink and on the kitchen table. A pile of dirty clothes sits at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom and the bed looks like it hasn’t been made in several days. The second bedroom looks as though it is used for storage only. The bathroom has a towel on the floor and various toiletries scattered on the sink counter.
“Where should we start?” asks Tippen.
“Let’s start in the most obvious places first. I’ll take the master bedroom if you take the bathroom.”
“Okay.”
Masters is searching the bedroom closet and shelves when he hears Tippen yell out.
“I think I found something.”
Masters goes to the bathroom and finds Tippen holding a small tinted pill bottle, unlabeled, with 7 small white tablets inside.
“Do you think this is the Rohypnol?”
“I’ve seen Rohypnol that looks like that, so it could very well be. Where was it?”
“Right here in his medicine cabinet.”
“I wonder how many women he’s used that on,” comments Masters.
Masters returns to the bedroom and finishes searching the closet. Finding nothing, he goes to the dresser and opens the top drawer. To his delight, he sees a box of Smith and Wesson 38 caliber hollow point bullets. He also finds a Ruger six-shot revolver. Using latex gloves, Masters opens the box and sees eleven bullets missing. He then closes the box and picks up the revolver. He opens the cylinder and sees the gun is loaded with six bullets. That makes eleven. Six in this gun and five in Cooper’s gun, he says to himself.
“I think I found the bullets used to kill Naomi,” shouts Masters. Tippen enters the bedroom and Masters shows her the box of bullets with eleven bullets missing. Masters then collects the box and revolver, carefully packing them in paper bags.
While they are searching, King arrives home from work. He drives into the parking lot when he notices two Lone Tree police cars parked near his condo. He glances around and sees two uniformed officers talking outside his condo door and the door is partially opened. Are they searching my condo?
King feels his face turn flush and his body starts to tingle with anxiety. Trying not to be noticed, King makes a K turn in the parking lot and drives back onto the street. He doesn’t know where he is going, but he is not going home right now.
In searching the living room, Masters finds a dark blue windbreaker jacket hanging over the arm of the beige cloth couch. He asks Tippen if she thinks it looks like the same jacket he was wearing in the video.
“Yes, it looks the same to me.”
Masters carefully folds it and seals it in a paper bag. Tippen finds a pile of old receipts on an oak desk in the dining area. She quickly looks through them and finds several for local hotel charges. One is for the Comfort Inn Suites in Castle Rock from approximately three weeks earlier. She shows the receipts to Masters.
“Good find,” he says. “I’ll bet we can match some of those up to the phone records.”
Tippen carefully packages them up in individual envelopes. Once completed, both agree there is nothing
