Chapitre 38: Police Interviews
The Lexington Police Department was having a rather strange couple of weeks. They were one of the safest suburbs in Boston so they didn't get nearly as much action as their urban counterpart. At least…not usually.
In the past two weeks they had found two bodies in different dumpsters located behind businesses and another that was still alive. Then there was the car bomb found in the same strip mall where one corpse and the tied up person were found. Now there was another body found with a bullet through its heart on the side of a road.
According to the autopsy, the victim seemed to have fallen off of something right after he was shot. But what could he have possibly fallen off of on the street he was found on? The injuries from the fall weren't consistent with the height of a building and that was all there was on that street.
The forensic pathologist speculated falling off of a car. The height would be consistent with the injuries, as well as the fact that the victim seemed to have fallen off of something moving based on the graze patterns on the damaged skin.
The body had been found by someone making their morning commute around 6:20 AM and it was still fresh. The time of death was estimated to be sometime between 5:30 and 6:15. It was probably closer to the latter end of that time frame because no one else had bothered to call it in.
The real question was why someone wearing multiple gun holsters and knives had been shot down off of a moving car in a quiet place like Lexington. Being armed to the teeth was one thing all of the victims had in common.
Two out of the three had criminal records as well. It was for minor offenses but they were definitely thugs.
The victim who had been left alive was found after someone called in an anonymous tip about how he supposedly tried to kill her. The tipster was probably on the level based on how many weapons were found on the guy.
He refused to crack no matter how much they interrogated him. The police might not be able to hold him on attempted murder without further evidence but at the very least they were able to charge him with unlawful possession of firearms.
The guy's name was Anthony Vitolo and he was from New York City. None of the three guns on him were obtained legally and he was suspected of having ties to the Mafia. He was in a cell right now as they tried to cooperate with the NYPD to get more information to nail him with.
It was highly suspicious that most of these incidents seemed to be connected to a single strip mall so it was decided that pairs of detectives would be sent out to each business and request the cooperation of the employees to know if they had seen anything. If not, they would try to get warrants.
That was how detectives Douglas Calhoun and Marina Walsh ended up inside of that strip mall's pharmacy around 2 PM the day after the third body was found.
The manager of the pharmacy said they were lucky they showed up when they did because most of their employees were there right now. There were only a few people who worked out in the store itself on the later shift who weren't in.
The manager was willing to cooperate because he had heard the sirens two of the three times the police had to come out to the strip mall recently but couldn't guarantee all of his employees would want to.
"That's fine," Calhoun assured him. "Anything we can get would be helpful at this point. Thank you for cooperating with us."
"No problem, Detective! Happy to be of help," the manager said eagerly.
They ended up setting up shop in the break room and talked to the manager first. He didn't tell them anything they didn't already know, unfortunately. Neither did the cashier or any of the other main store employees.
Nevertheless, Walsh recorded everything and took copious notes about her impressions of the employees' testimonies. She was a faster writer than he was so he usually took point on interrogations.
The two of them had been partners for nearly eight years now so they had this down to a science. They didn't come across anything useful until they spoke to one of the pharmacists, a man named Ray Jorgensen.
He spoke with a slight frown on his face, seeming concerned. "Actually, I have noticed something strange recently. I think someone has been loitering in this area the past few weeks. Call me crazy but I've seen glimpses of someone in a black hoodie more than once.
"I can't say for sure if it's the same person every time because their hood is up and I haven't seen their face. I'm sorry this isn't more helpful. I didn't think much of it at the time but now I wonder if one of the girls here or at a neighboring store has a stalker or something…"
"Thank you for your time, Doctor Jorgensen. Please let us know if you see this person again," Calhoun said at the end of the interview, handing the man a business card.
Ray accepted it and nodded seriously. "I hope you figure out what's going on soon. I thought Lexington was supposed to be low crime."
"Rest assured, we will do our best to find who is behind this," Walsh said seriously. "You may go back to work now. Send in the next person on your way out please."
He nodded and left the break room. The two detectives exchanged a glance. Finally, this might be something to go off of! A person hanging around in a black hoodie was definitely suspicious, especially since there were so many incidents in this particular area of town.
The first tip called in had been with a semi-hysterical female voice but the second had been calm and male. One of them must be the person in the hoodie. Which meant that the other was either an accomplice or a witness.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone