“Defrosting,” Ciara corrected.
“Despite the heat of the day,” Alex said, “he’s far from thawed. We want to get him to the coroner’s office as soon as possible, so that he doesn’t end up smelling like the last three.”
Hamilton stood. “I heard they were fairly ripe. I’ll admit I wasn’t looking forward to getting a snout full of that when they called me to come out here.”
As the coroner’s assistant and the others moved the litter away, Alex showed Hamilton what he could of the scene. He pointed out the place where the rope had been anchored.
“There are a number of obvious differences this time,” Alex said. “Frozen body, openly displayed outdoors in a visible location. But while the others were hanging nude, this one was wrapped in a tarp-as you saw. The other bodies were also left hanging over bathtubs, but this setup is not as elaborate as those were. The person or persons who left this body here simply set up a rock climber’s anchor at the edge of the cliff and lowered the body over.”
“Person?” Hamilton said. “I thought you figured this was a duo at least.”
“Still do, but Victor Elliot was a small, thin man, so the body could have been placed here by someone acting alone. This time, the victim didn’t seem to have been subjected to torture-the autopsy will tell us more, but we didn’t see knife wounds, and the body was not exsanguinated. There does not seem to have been any use of blood-thinning agents, either. There was one wound to the back of the skull, probably a blunt instrument applied with some force.”
“That’s the presumed cause of death?”
“Too early to say.”
“Extreme cold seems more likely,” Ciara said.
“They froze him to death?”
“Too early to say,” Alex repeated, with emphasis, as he looked at Ciara.
“And the similarities to the other cases?” Hamilton asked.
“Left in an area known to be in the sheriff’s jurisdiction. Hanging upside down, tied around the feet and hands. A rappelling rope was used again-probably another length of the same one-the lab will be able to tell us if the ends match. There’s another difference, by the way-while the knots around the hands and the feet are similar to the previous three cases, the ones that actually held him over the edge of the cliff are tied differently. My guess is, someone else tied them this time.”
“I wonder how long it takes to freeze a human body?”
“Depends on weight, I suppose,” Ciara said. “Like a side of beef. For a skinny little guy like Elliot, maybe not too long at all. Just put him in the old home freezer overnight.”
“I guess so.”
“I don’t know that it would have been so easy, Ciara,” Alex said. “His arms and legs were extended when he was frozen-so he was frozen without his knees or elbows being bent. Elliot was thin, but he was about five seven-even if a home freezer was empty, it’s not likely he’d fit inside in that position.”
“So, you think he has been in a commercial freezer?” Hamilton asked.
“Maybe. Or, if he’s been in the freezer of a private home, it’s a big house.”
“A mansion,” Hamilton said, looking back at the lights along the peninsula.
“Yes, there’s a lot of wealth in this area,” Alex said. “It’s not the only wealthy area in Los Angeles County. But you know that, right?”
Hamilton blushed again. “The tan or the accent?”
“To my ear, the lack of accent. And the USC college ring.”
Hamilton laughed. “Yes, I went to SC. And I grew up in L.A. It’s one of the reasons why I was given the assignment, I’m told. I know the LASD and my agency aren’t on great terms right now…but I’m hoping we can improve the situation.”
“We’re on the same side,” Alex said.
“Thanks. Anything I can do to help out?”
“Do you know the last date anyone in your agency received a report on Elliot? Last time he was seen alive?”
Hamilton pulled out a Palm PDA and turned it on. He tapped the stylus on the screen a few times, then said, “We received reports in February, after the show aired.” He read for a few minutes, then said, “Looks as if we had a reliable report on February twenty-seventh, in Lafayette, Louisiana. A bank teller called to say someone who looked like Elliot had been in just before Christmas and set up a safe-deposit box. We took a look at the security camera tapes and agreed. We got a warrant and got his prints off the box, but something or someone must have tipped him off, because we watched the address he gave to the bank and he never showed up. We checked it out later, and he had definitely been there. Nothing after that.”
“So they’ve probably been working on your top ten list at least since February,” Alex said grimly. “They’ve got a big head start.”
“Anything in the safe-deposit box?” Ciara asked.
“About a hundred thousand from one of the robberies.”
“Seems likely he saw his story being featured on TV, don’t you think?” she said.
“The show aired February twentieth,” Hamilton said, “so I don’t know-if that was going to make him nervous, wouldn’t he have left on the twenty-first?”
“If the box had been empty, I would have said the show spooked him,” Alex said. “But you say he left a hundred grand, right? So he must have planned to return. How long between the teller’s call to the FBI and the Bureau’s response?”
Hamilton looked uneasy. “About ten days-we received a lot of calls after the show aired, so it took some time to check them all out.”
“Not all that many commercial flights in and out of Lafayette, are there? I mean, nothing like JFK or DFW, right? So let’s look at passenger lists from February twenty-seventh to March-whatever day it was the agents arrived-and pay special attention to anyone ticketed through to LAX, Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario, or other nearby California airports during that time.”
“Okay. And when we have this list?”
“Find out who paid for the tickets, for starters. Did he have a phone at this house you watched?”
“No phone.”
“How did they contact him?” Alex said, rubbing his forehead. “And out of all the places he might have been, how did they choose Lafayette?”
Hamilton shrugged. “We’ll have to look at all the calls that came into the show, try to learn how they thought it out. Maybe we can look at the calls logged for some of the other shows and get ahead of them.”
“I’ll try to go back there tomorrow, see what I can get from them.” Alex stood looking out at the moonlight on the water for long moments.
Behind him, he heard Ciara say, “Four down, six to go. Unless all ten are already dead.”
Alex considered asking Hamilton to give Ciara a lift back to the office. He had reached his limit for the day, and if he hadn’t been so sure that she would repay the insult by making tomorrow worse for him, he would have foisted her off on the agent.
But as he turned to face them, he heard Ciara say, “Agent Hamilton, could I trouble you for a ride to my car? Alex has had a long day, and his house isn’t far from here. Besides, his nephew is waiting for him.”
“I’d be glad to be of help.”
Alex almost protested out of guilt, but instead said, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Come on,” Ciara said to Hamilton. “I’ll buy you dinner. Have you ever eaten at Cafe Misto? I think we can make it before they close.”
Before they left, he exchanged cards with Hamilton. He watched them walk away, past the deputies who were still keeping the scene secure.
Alex went over the same things he had gone over earlier, only this time, in relative solitude. He tried to picture the killer coming out here with his burden-or a pair of killers doing the same. The crevice in the cliffs would have been chosen beforehand-perhaps from offshore? They probably would have parked as close as possible to the place where they dropped the body. They set the anchoring system first. Then the rope and body were set at the edge, the rope tied, and the body lowered. At some point, the person who tied the knots this time had cut the
