Chapter 14
"I know that look, Charlie," Sarah broke his train of thought as she'd noticed her partner's far off look. He'd gone somewhere for a minute or two.
"Sorry, I was having a thought about the case," he said. Sarah's parents had finally agreed to take themselves out for lunch and give their daughter and her partner a few moments alone. Well Daniel convinced Mai, was more like it.
"Well spill it," Sarah told him. He chuckled before asking,
"Why was there so much mail on Tim Watkins porch?"
"What do you mean?" Sarah figured that one was easy – he'd been dead so he wasn't collecting his mail.
"Well, we had to hear it from a neighbor, who noticed the mail. None of his patients?" Charlie wondered.
"Good point. What would the likelihood be he didn't have any patients?" Sarah was on the same page as him.
"Right? I'm calling Jesse," he said. The detective pulled out his cell phone and called the younger man.
"Hey Jesse, I've got you on speaker so Sarah and Rex can hear you," Charlie said.
"Hi Sarah – how are you feeling?" Jesse asked.
"Better. Thanks Jesse," she smiled, even though he couldn't see her. Rex barked and Jesse quickly apologized,
"Hi Rex, I didn't forget about you."
"So, Jesse, we've been thinking – why was there so much mail in Tim Watkins' mailbox? Shouldn't a patient have stumbled onto the scene rather than a neighbor?" Charlie asked him.
"Joe went to see about getting a judge to release at least a patient list. Despite the family's consent, the judge seemed less than willing to break patient confidentiality. Hopefully, we can get some traction now since we have Tim Watkins schedule but to answer your question, the victim's schedule was clear after Danny Bauman's appointment. He does have a patient on for the afternoon of the day after he was found by the constables though," Jesse explained.
"He didn't have patients on for almost four days, in the middle of the week? Isn't that a bit odd?" The elder detective pointed out.
"My thoughts were the same so I went snooping through the code and I found that someone deleted the appointments. That would not have been enough to have patients not show up though. I checked Tim Watkins' e-mail account to see if cancelation notices were sent out. They were. Trouble is – they were sent out after the coroner's time of death window," the younger detective said.
"Do you have to be a computer genius to do that?" Sarah wanted to know.
"No. Once you had access to the calendar and the e-mail account, you could do it with a few clicks of a mouse," Jesse confirmed.
"That's why our killer stole the laptop. Besides it containing patient files, it was a way to get into his schedule and change it. Our killer bought himself time for Danny to mess up the crime scene," Charlie said.
"It gets better. Inside his phone e-mail app, I noticed that there was an e-mail sent to Danny, telling him all about those photos. Danny replied to it but got no response," Jesse let them know.
"Ok, so our killer, shoots Tim Watkins, knowing that Danny Bauman was his next appointment. Then, using the laptop they stole, they cancel appointments, and get Danny whipped up into a heightened mental state. Danny shows up for his appointment and stumbles onto his dead therapist. He starts tearing apart the house and opens the windows because, more than likely, it is starting to smell inside the house," Sarah lays it all out.
"He can't find what he's looking for, so he keeps coming back. He does this so he doesn't get caught by the neighbors for spending too much time in the house. Doesn't that mean, he had to be somewhat in his right mind at the time?" Charlie thought that the indication of planning would mean that maybe Danny wasn't completely over the edge mentally, just yet.
"His Army training may have kicked in. It might have been the only thing keeping him tethered to reality, until he saw all those police officers there," Sarah said.
"Rex and I need to go check out that backyard. The neighbors' cameras didn't pick up our shooter so he used the same back way in as Danny. That means it wasn't some well-kept secret," the elder detective said.
"I wouldn't think so. I have to go meet Major Sheridan. He says that he might have a lead for me. The address on file for his family is now owned by someone else," Jesse told them.
"Give him my regards. Can you have Kelly meet us out there? If we find something, she's going to need to process it fast," Charlie said.
"You got it. Mika is on her way to you, so if you could bring her up to speed, I'd appreciate it," Jesse admitted.
"Why is she on her way here?" Sarah was confused.
"The neighbor we found – Ethel Bowles – she had a story to tell and we may have a lead on our child abuser," he said.
"We have to tie him to those crimes and to the person who shot Tim Watkins. Someone intended to make sure that his victim took the fall for Tim Watkins' death. Somehow Tim and Danny are all tied into this together," Charlie told him.
"Hopefully it's the lead we've been waiting for," Jesse said before hanging up.
"Do you think there could be more than one person involved in this?" Sarah suddenly wondered.
"How do you mean?" Charlie asked.
"One person kills Tim Watkins and sets up Danny Bauman so well that we can't manage to track him down? This person would also have to know of photos taken by a serial child predator? Not only know of them but send them to Danny and break into his place to plant them and the duffle the shotgun was in?" Sarah was beginning to think this was all way too complex for one person to manage.
"Why would the person mail the photos but then hide them inside Danny's apartment?" Charlie nodded.
"Exactly. Seems very odd but it also seems to indicate a second person involved," Sarah figured.
"Unless the reason we didn't find Danny's prints on them was because he did collect the mail but recognized the postmarked address on them? There was no return address. I mean you'd have to be pretty stupid to put a return address on photos like that," he said.
"But a postmark is just a town where it was processed. If it weren't St. John's then it would be the next biggest depot - which would be Mount Pearl," she said.
"That's only an eight-minute drive from St. John's," Charlie pointed out. There was a knock on the doorframe and the two and Rex turned to see Detective Mika Parsons standing there.
"Jesse says you have a lead," Charlie said, without saying "hello".
"I do and it's in Mount Pearl," Mika smiled at them.
"Excellent. Tell Sarah all about it. Rex and I need to meet Kelly out at Tim Watkins' place," he smiled back.
"Something tells me you guys had a thought as well," Mika chuckled as Charlie stood up and grabbed his jacket. Rex hopped down from the bed and quickly went to join him.
"We did. Can we all meet in the middle somehow?" Sarah wondered.
"We definitely can. Meet back here for dinner?" Charlie gave Mika a wink.
"I'll bring the crew," she promised as the two scooted out of the room and down the hall. The Special Victims detective looked at Sarah and asked,
"What about your folks?"
"They'll be back but I can tell them that we need to have a staff meeting," she said.
"Will they buy that?" Mika raised an eyebrow.
"No, but it'll give my Dad a reason to get Mom out for dinner. Besides, my sister is hopefully making it in tonight and they'll have to get her from the airport," Sarah smiled. Mika nodded.
"So, Mount Pearl," the Head of Forensics started.
"Ethel Bowles recognized the guy from the redacted photos. Seems he used to coach little league hockey. Her son played with Danny Bauman," Mika said. Something was weighing on her and Sarah could see it.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Ethel's son, Steve… she noticed behavioral changes but before she could get into the heart of the matter, he was killed. Drunk driver hit him while he was on his bicycle," Mika heaved a sigh.
"Poor kid," Sarah shook her head.
"I can only imagine what would have happened if Ethel had been able to find out what was going on. The trajectory of so many lives may have changed – besides poor Ethel and Steve's," Mika figured.
"We can't save Steve but we can help those who have been left behind," Sarah told her.
"That's why I'm going to get him. See you in a bit," Mika promised before leaving the room.
To Be Continued…