It Looks Like There was a Party
11:52 AM - Saturday, November 1, 2014
El Polin Spring, The Presidio
Jeannie heard the van before she saw it, and then heard the telltale annoying beep of a truck backing up. She walked to the end of the spring loop and saw the coroner and his assistant opening the back of the van and unloading a gurney with a body bag.
“The Coroner is here.” She reported to Greenberg and Mayfield.
“Thank goodness.” Mayfield said. “Baker, take your SUV and park it at the bottom of MacArthur - the less people seeing the coroner van, the better. McGuinness said he was close too.” She liked Paco, not just because of his beauty, and he was beautiful. The angles of his face and nose made him look eternal, mystical even. He was just so contemplative and quiet, even though he was clearly stressed. She never knew quiet stress. They always had screaming, yelling, lashing-out stress. Paco was calm even though she knew he wasn’t.
The sight of that body would ruin anyone’s calm. There was something about the hair. Jeannie knew it was a wig, but it was something familiar. A character? What was it?
As Baker pulled away, another SUV pulled up. A man with a beard got out, and reached into his back seat, pulling out a large tool box and what looked like a camera bag. He wore a flannel shirt and vest, looking like he was comfortable in the outdoors. He hailed the Coroner and the Coroner’s assistant who were still gathering their things and walked right up to Jeannie. He was shorter and looked directly in her eyes.
“Hi - Doug McGuinness. I do forensics for the Park Police.” He said simply.
“Oh - wow, perfect timing.” She said, eyes wide. “We’ve been needing you.” Doug nodded as they began to walk over to the spring head. “Do you have anyone else coming? There’s a lot to cover.”
“Sure. Two more are on their way. Anything we know so far?”
“Victim appears to be female and young, but other than that, physical attributes are fairly obscure.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.” Jeannie’s voice was barely above a whisper. Paco saw them arrive.
“Ah- McGuinness, you’re here, thank you.”
“Yeah, sorry. The call for Rodeo Beach came in first.” McGuinness put his gear down, opened the tool box and pulled out a paper-y white over suit. He gently pulled it on over his clothes.
“Yeah, what went on out there?”
“Looks like some kids wanting to be trouble on Halloween. A lot of empty booze bottles, smashed signs and some graffiti. I took fingerprints but that was basically it. Quite a few signs needing to be replaced though. I’ll put it in the report.” He shrugged into the suit and zipped it up. Greenberg joined them, introducing himself.
“Wow, you guys are already here too.” McGuinness said, shaking hands. “Okay, show me.”
Greenberg tilted his head toward the spring head and lead him over.
Greenberg held back the blackberry this time, while McGuinness took his first look. Jeannie didn’t want to look at the body again, so she looked at Greenberg. He looked back, his blue eyes calculating. Jeannie had thought Mark was attractive from the moment he got out of his truck. His tall, lean frame, the way he walked, the low voice, the blue eyes. She’d noticed the wedding ring though, and that he was hopelessly uninformed on the case, which wasn’t entirely his fault, but he was slightly boorish about it. At least he seemed to want to be helpful now that he was here, and that was something. Jeannie supposed they all had been thrown into the deep end on this one.
“When was she found?” McGuinness asked quietly, staring at the bloated, pale hand. He popped open the camera bag and Jeannie heard it power up. He began taking rapid fire photographs with the camera making a quick, sharp hissing sound as he took multiple frames.
“I got a call from SFPD emergency around 8:40, and I got here maybe about 10-15 minutes later?” Paco told him. McGuinness consulted his iWatch and made a face.
“What’s with the buckets?” McGuinness was photographing the hand, the brick dam, the wig.
“I can’t stop the flow of the spring, but I figured there could be evidence in the water.”
“Hmmm.” McGuinness said, behind the camera. “You may have something there. When we get her out, we should try and divert the water away somehow if we can. Empty the bathtub and see what’s left.” McGuinness handed Jeannie the camera abruptly as he eased over the fencing to get closer. He then gestured for her to hand it back to him. “Amanda and Jon are right behind me. Maybe show them the other areas that need work and I’ll do the body.” Jeannie nodded as he took closer photos, and gingerly began to make his way up the side of the hill, moving away from the spring and the body. Jeannie could see he was trying to get behind the body to get a better view. The ground was uneven and obscured by the overgrowth of grass and shrubs. He tested some ground a few times, with his foot sliding away. “I need to get up higher - is there a way up there?”
“Back this way,” Mayfield said, leading McGuinness back north toward the parking lot, looking for a clear path. At the same time, a pair of people with their own toolboxes and camera bags started walking toward them. The pair were a bit younger, but just as outdoorsy-science looking. They seemed to know Paco, sharing greetings as they walked to the spring head. Paco showed them the scene and made introductions.
“Where should we go first?” Amanda had goth black hair, dark eyeliner, and bright blue eyes. As she pulled her gloves on, Jeannie noticed she had tattoos all over her hands. Jon appeared quiet and kind of nerdy, deferring to Amanda.
“There have been search teams out doing a grid search for the last hour or so up on the higher trails, but I don’t know what they have. What do you guys think?” Jeannie looked from Paco to Mark. She was scared she was over-stepping; she reminded herself she was just meant to be a local cop in an assistance capacity.
“I agree,” Mark nodded. “Maybe take Amanda and Jon up above - they can start documenting and taking pictures of what’s been found so far.”
“But come back quick, Hagen.” Paco said. “The three of us need to get over to the Thomas’ and gather the missing persons report.”
12:27 PM - Saturday, November 1, 2014
“Hagen this is Mayfield, what your 20?”
“Mayfield, I’m on the lower Ecology Trail heading your way. Be there shortly. Copy?”
“Copy Hagen. We’re at the car. 10-4.”
A minute later, Paco saw a dark navy flash moving down the stairs that connected the Ecology Trail to El Polin Spring. Jeannie moved toward them at a light jog and arrived slightly out of breath.
“They found a jacket. A boy’s - it’s a senior jacket from Xavier Prep. Amanda said she’d process it first.”
“Where was it?” Mark asked.
“In the garbage can where the connector meets the Upper Ecology Trail - right where it turns into the Redwood Grove. It was right on top, but it still stinks. Nothing but dog poop in there.” She bent double and heaved a deep breath. “Hoooo. There’s a lot up on the Upper Trail - it looks like there was a party last night. A lot of little airplane bottles of Titos and a few fifths of Fireball, some beer cans, vape cartridges — it’s a mess. The team said they found some in the Inspiration Point parking lot, but there were more on the stairs and then on that rounded sort of bald dome rock that’s on the Upper Ecology?” She looked at Paco. He nodded at her. Shit. Who was on duty last night? Why didn’t they see that? “Most of the bottles were there, kind of all over the place. It’s going to take them a while to tag it all. I can’t believe they just left all this shit everywhere.”
“Believe it.” Paco said, climbing in the SUV. Greenberg got in the front and Jeannie in the back seat. “Even in a National Park people seem to have a problem with the “leave nothing behind” rule.” Paco eased the car out of the MacArthur circle. “I’ll have to check the schedule for last night and find out how this party happened. They may have had their hands full, but still.” He liked to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but this oversight will come back to them.
“So, what’s our plan when we talk to these people?” Mark ventured. It was quiet for a few seconds.
“Well, the body hasn’t been identified. We don’t even have any physical characteristics we can offer up to them.” Paco said.
“The costume.” Jeannie replied. “We can ask what their daughter was dressed up as.” Mark considered this.
“That’s true. Maybe they have a photo of her in the costume from last night.”
“What should we ask them?” Paco asked, glancing at Mark as he drove.
“Well, we should ask if we can get her laptop or phone, if it’s around. We can get forensics on it, or I can do it myself.”
“You can?” Paco asked. He heard Mark give a slight huff of annoyance.
“Yes, my background is in cyber crime. I studied computer science. Hacking a teenager’s computer isn’t exactly hard.” Paco pulled a face and nodded.
“Okay, that would be good.” Paco replied, trying to take the temperature down. Mark’s tone was short.
“Listen, I’m sorry I’m just - distracted.” Mark began. “This is the last place I expected to be today.”
“Copy that.” Jeannie called from the back seat.
“My wife is 8 months pregnant and this weekend we were finally going to get the nursery done. She’s furious with me for leaving. And it doesn’t look like I’ll be home any time soon.” Mark swallowed. It was quiet for another few seconds.
“Well, congratulations.” Jeannie said. Paco smiled at him.
“Yeah, man. Congratulations. That’s a big deal.”
“Huge.” Mark said. “She’s huge. She’s beautiful, but she’s huge. And I was supposed to be neck deep in Benjamin Moore’s “Misty Rose” right now.” Jeannie giggled.
“So, it’s a girl?”
“It’s a girl.”
“Good job, Dad.” She said. Laughing. “Any name?”
“Hannah.” Mark whispered.
“That’s lovely.” Jeannie said quietly. Paco could hear the smile in her voice.
“It’s just hard to think about that, and see that girl…” Mark trailed off. It didn’t need further explanation.
Infantry Terrace was just ahead of them, and 341 was the first house, a large brick one elevated from the road by a set of stairs.
“Okay, I’m just going to ask this.” Jeannie began. “At what point do we know we need to tell them their daughter could be dead?” All of them were quiet. Paco pulled to the curb. He could see the face of a woman looking out the window at them. Jeannie’s question was in the air and he was suddenly filled with dread.
“Let’s see if we can confirm the costume, but I’d rather wait until we can get photos of her face before we ask the parents to come ID her. I want us as sure as we can be.” Mark breathed, looking out at the house. “Let’s not ask about the computer for now. Once we know it’s her, then we’ll get it.”
They all sat silently, trying to hold off the inevitable a bit longer.
“Okay.” Paco finally began. “Let’s do this. Jeannie, see if you can get names and numbers of any friends, or whoever she’s dating - who she was hanging out with last night. Might be good to start interviewing this afternoon if we can.”
Paco suddenly felt exhausted. It was barely 1 PM. He opened his door, feeling that it took a monumental effort. The other two followed. He started up the short flight of steps to the front door, his legs heavy.
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