"Where'd you pull the vehicle?" Mike asked the tow lot attendant as the trio progressed from the tow lot office to the car itself.
"Someone from Baker Industrial called. Said the car had been in their lot for a few days with no one claiming," the older attendant said. "Baker is a small tool and dye place near the bay, probably about 3 blocks east of here."
"This car could be crucial for a murder investigation," Mike added.
"Officer Murphey, you probably know him, gave us a heads up to keep our eyes open. He said there was a body found in the Bay and that he was identified from out of town."
Mike smiled, happy to hear that the veteran had followed through on updates that Murphey had followed through on briefings coming out of the case through his local station house. "Murphey was there when the body came out," Mike commented.
"Who pulled it in?" Steve asked.
"I did. Except for jimmying the lock and getting it on the truck, it's how I found it."
"So it was locked when you found it," Steve confirmed as they approached the car.
"Yes and it looked pretty neat. I didn't see much in it."
"Did you have to touch the steering wheel?" Mike asked.
"If I did, it would have been minimally. My prints are on file with you folks. This isn't my first abandoned car, that's for sure."
Mike and Steve put on rubber gloves to keep the scene clean and opened the doors of the unlocked car. "Pop the trunk, will ya?" Mike asked Steve.
Doing as he was told, Steve opened the trunk to find it basically empty, save for a spot on the trunk's carpeted bottom. "We'll have the lab boys take a look at that," Mike commented.
Steve was in the front combing through what appeared to be a clean car and began searching between and under the seats. Feeling something metal, he called out as he saw the evidence in the daylight. "Mike, I got a set of keys."
"Car keys?" Mike asked.
"No. They are labelled," Steve said as he was reading the tags on the key set. "Looks like they are a set to the school. The keys are labelled 'front', 'back' and 'gym'. So I'm thinking that this was to the school."
"Anything else?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, there's a carbon copy slip from a gas station. Looks like this is for a place in Stockton. Maybe he filled up on the way here." Steve popped both the keys and the receipt into a bag.
"Could be. It'd be interesting to see how much gas is left in the tank."
"Actually," the attendant stepped in, "I can comment on that. When I got to the car, there was a syphon hanging out of the gas tank. If it was full when it was abandoned, someone grabbed the gas."
Mike frowned, noting that the car was likely tampered with after being abandoned.
Almost reading his mind, the attendant responded. "Yeah, well with gas at almost fifty cents a gallon, I can understand. It's highway robbery what's going on with gas prices...still!"
Mike smiled. "You got that right." He looked over and saw the police impound unit approaching. "Our guys are here and they'll take over now," Mike commented.
"Yes sir," the attendant replied as he too saw the police tow truck and other officers approaching with additional equipment and supplies.
"Check the trunk," Mike ordered the approaching officers. "I think you may find a blood stain, but it was hard to tell against the dark carpeting. We're also taking a set of keys and gas receipt with us. Let us know if you find anything else."
