Unfinished Business. C. A. Walters Walters
drive, Wilson accessed it, and found only one file, an .avi file. “Some kind of movie on it, only a few minutes by the size of the file,” he said. Double clicking the mouse on the file, the screen soon opened a video viewer program, and the file began to run.
After a few seconds, the men could see that this was surveillance video from the room of an elderly woman. Then the orderly came in, and they witnessed the rape of the woman by the orderly. The same orderly they had found in the woods.
“Well, I guess we know now why the perp did what he did, but how did he get this video, and why leave it where we could find it?” asked the Chief.
“Because he wants everyone to know why he did what he did, he’s sending a message.” Replied Wilson. When the filed was finished running, a message came on the screen.
“Wait a minute, he appended a message onto the video. It says, “Tell the media why this man was killed, or I will release the video on the internet for all to see why. We need to see if this ties into the murder earlier this month, at the other nursing home. It seems like we have a weird kind of serial here.”
“Yeah, two orderlies, the first accused of mistreating his patients, now this one, who obviously was raping at least one of his.” said Ron. “I’ll order a rape kit on the woman, Ms. Lafontaine.”
As he reached for his phone, Wilson told him not to bother, they would just drive over there right away to talk to the manager.
As the detectives drove to the site of the latest murder, they talked a little about what was going on.
“The nurse who used to work in the first home said that Mr. McCutcheon, the orderly, was verbally abusive most of the time when he though nobody was around, and had pushed one old woman down onto her bed, shortly after she had abdominal surgery, causing a couple of her staples to open. This was the incident she had reported, now we have an orderly sexually assaulting a patient, and he gets this. Just like the first one.” said Ron.
“No such thing as a coincidence in this line of work pal, said Wilson.
For the next twenty minutes or so they rode in silence, each wrapped in his own thoughts, until they reached the crime scene.
Driving through the New England scenery always gave the detectives some time to think about the case they happened to be on at the time. Quiet forested areas, interspersed with smaller towns, all seemingly a century behind the rest of the world. Small town charm still existed in this part of the world, alongside the new age types. It presented an interesting dichotomy, one which seemed to create just such a situation as faced them now.
Pulling up in front of the nursing home, Wilson let his eyes roam all around the area, scanning in ten degree increments as he had been taught so long ago in the military. Nothing should escape the notice of a trained observer, and Detective Wilson was no exception to this rule. Any broken tree branches, any pieces of paper where they shouldn’t be, anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be seen, so they entered the building.
Entering the lobby, Detective Wilson showed his badge to the receptionist, and told her that the manager was expecting him. The receptionist told the two detectives to follow her, and walked down a short hallway. Following her was a pleasure, though Wilson, as he watched her petite derriere sway down the hallway.
“Here is Mr. Montgomery’s office, gentlemen. If you need anything, he will call me”, she said as she opened the door to the manager’s office.
Stepping inside, Wilson noted that the décor was a mixture of modern and 1960’s Salvation Army chic. Apparently, there was not a lot of money in the budget for office furniture.
“Welcome, gentlemen, have a seat.” The manager, Mr. Montgomery, was a balding man in his early fifties, slightly overweight, and given to excessive displays of friendliness to overcome his nervousness at the situation he found himself in.
“Relax, Mr. Montgomery, we just need to ask you a few questions, and we may need to look at some of your records, then I’m sure we can be on our way”, said Wilson.
“That’s right sir”, said James. “There is nothing implicating you in anything, so you have nothing at this point to be nervous about.”
One hour and two aspirins later, the detectives left the nursing home with not much more than they had arrived with. The victim had been with the home around 9 months, and had no record of any infractions, though working basically alone at night, it was easier for him to fall through the cracks.
A standard background check had been done when he applied, but no felony record came to light, and he had the requisite certification from a community college as a Certified Nurse’s Aide, so the decision was made to hire him.
“So I guess it boils down to a couple of questions that need to be answered”, said Ron, thinking out loud. One, how did the perpetrator know that this guy was sexually assaulting the patients, and two, how did he get that video?”
“According to the administrators, there were no cameras, security or otherwise, to take that video. So our perp not only got hold of the video, but probably managed to install the cameras that took it, too”, replied Wilson. “Records show that the “Atlas” fire equipment company sent out a rep to inspect the sprinkler system a few days before the murder, however; the home has no contract with that company.” Also, the manager never ordered an inspection on his system, so it seems the killer must have hacked his way into the home’s computer system.”
“I guess we need to go see the fire equipment company then,” said Ron. “This is getting really weird; someone really did their homework.”
“The receptionist gave me a description of the guy who came to inspect the sprinklers, very generic. 6’ 2”, with wide shoulders and a slender waist. Dark hair, almost black. Brown “bedroom” eyes. Aside from the height, half the male population could fit that description.” said Wilson.
“Well, at least it’s a start. There’s no way the guy who set up the cameras isn’t the killer, unless there are two of them working together, and that’s just scary. One would be a psychopath; two would be a cult of some sort. Not the kind of thing we really want to be trying to pin down.” said James.
“Remember Jonestown,” chided Wilson.
“And it follows the pattern of what went on in the last scene, just a little more gruesome. I hope he doesn’t carry through with releasing that video footage, imagine the impact on the family, and the lawsuits. It would be enough to shut down that nursing home, and probably a few others.” said James.
“I agree. We’ll release information that the victim had been accused of abusing patients, and that one of the female patients, who will remain unnamed, was found to have his bodily secretions in her vagina.”
“Well, I guess our next stop will be the Atlas Fire Equipment Company. But I guarantee it will be a dead end, in my opinion, whoever did this just used their company name.” said Wilson.
The two men went to the offices of the Atlas Fire Equipment Company, and as predicted, found little of any use. The company had no contract with the nursing home, and had not sent anyone out to inspect their sprinkler system.
None of the employees matched the description of the person who went to the home, and on the day in question, all were accounted for. It being a fairly small company, there were only 12 employees to track, and they all checked out as being somewhere else on that day.
“So this is just another dead end for now, I guess. File the information; we’ll put it into the track we’re developing. This guy has to slip sometime.” said Wilson.
“Let’s hope there’s something here that can help us, I’ve got people checking out the cameras, where they can be bought, and canvassing all the companies in the area that sell them to see if anyone placed an order that is close to what we found.” said Ron.
“I doubt it will be that easy,” replied Wilson. “This guy managed