PART II Chapter Thirty-two
Kate had brought another case to completion. The murder case of William Duncan was now in the hands of the district attorney and out of her hands completely. She could concentrate now on her kidnapping murder case that had begun with her own daughter Megan.
She had to wait for all of the physical evidence from the house to be processed so she could determine just exactly what they did have. She had several victims who had agreed to talk. She had an undercover officer who could testify about the abduction methods and the victims had verified those techniques were widely used on all of them.
The department had several men in custody that had been at the house. The owner of the house however was the one who was of prime interest to Kate. His name was Alanso Romano and it had been rumored for a long while that he had some crime syndicate connections. They had never had any real evidence that would prove that, but that could easily change since they had turned the house upside down looking for evidence.
Kate wanted the lab to have time to process everything that had been bagged at the house. Kate heard there had been some weapons found at the house. They would be tested of course to see if they could be connected to any unsolved crimes. Drugs had been found at the house, many of those could be tied to the kidnapping of several of the girls. Karen had collected samples of what was given to her that was still in the reservoir in her purse.
Kate had several people who had been to the party and came forward with a video showing Matt bringing drinks to Karen and also of Karen pouring it into the reservoir of her purse. Once she had a lab report of the contents of those drinks that evidence would be complete.
Kate wanted the lab results before talking to the men she had in custody but figured she would have some results by the next day. She was ready to go home for the day and invited Cindy and Karen to join her for dinner to celebrate solving the William Duncan murder. After they agreed she called Megan to see if she would like to join them.
Megan wanted to see both Cindy and Karen again and agreed to meet them. Kate suggested “Sofia Italian Steakhouse” relaying that she was in a celebratory mood. They all decided to drive there and leave for home afterward, in their own car.
Kate ordered a bottle of wine and calamari for appetizers. Kate and Cindy had the Grilled ten-ounce filet Mignon while Megan and Karen had the grilled salmon. Megan was interested in what went down at the house in the gated community. Karen went through the details of being primed with drinks and pretending to pass out. She told Megan about being put in the trunk and waiting for them to open. Megan related waking up in a trunk and escaping from it.
Kate and Cindy talked about what they were hoping from the lab reports and from the questioning they would start conducting soon. The women enjoyed their dinner and had a chance to let off some steam. The night ended with each woman going their own way but also with Kate following Megan home.
When Kate arrived to work the next day there was a folder on her desk from the lab. She opened it to find multiple pages of results from the testing of items from the house. They found containers full of the same drugs that were found when they tested Karen’s purse.
Several weapons were found, most were handguns with serial numbers filed off. But with modern technology that Kate didn’t understand, most of those numbers were recovered. The weapons were tied through ballistics to several crimes, including the murder of Jason Brinkley. They had to figure out who the guns belonged to and that might take some work.
The details listed on the lab report showed that the serial numbers from the guns had been recovered and they had all been reported as stolen. Since the guns were found in the house, the owner could be charged with possessing stolen goods. Kate wanted much more and hoped the guns had prints on them but she had to look through the report to see if she could find that information.
When Kate checked farther down in the lab report she found an interesting tidbit. The guns were stolen but one was tied to the murder of Jason Brinkley. There were no prints on the gun, it had been wiped clean, but the prints of Alonso Romano were found on several of the shells loaded in the pistol, giving evidence that he loaded the shells in the gun. That didn’t prove murder but it tied Alonso to the gun.
Kate had evidence of Alanso using the gun and with the drugs found in his house along with testimony from the girls involved she could tie him to the kidnapping and also of rape of several of the girls, if not directly then as a facilitator.
Kate was combing the lab report for evidence of the murder. She would charge the other things but she wanted the murder charge. Finally on the lab report she found what she needed. Jason’s blood was found in the trunk of a car registered to Alonso. There was also blood DNA from an unknown female victim.
Kate also found that DNA from the body they found under the slab matched the blood DNA in the trunk. Kate continued to go over the lab report to see if they had any other evidence. She received a phone call from the house and the lead forensics expert said that when they sprayed the clothes in the closet, a couple of the outfits lit up like a Christmas tree. The expert said, “There is definitely blood there, we are bringing the outfits back in.”
Blood evidence on the clothes of the owner of the house would be incriminating. It was just the kind of thing she was looking for. Kate knew that getting someone to confess anything would be next to impossible. The guys who work for Alonso would be afraid to testify and she knew Alanso’s lawyer was already around looking for her to get the charges filed so bail could be arranged. Kate was hoping to present enough evidence to show her suspect as a flight risk.
Kate decided to have a little chat with Alonso and had him brought to an interview room. She wanted to just get a feel of his demeanor and to let some of the evidence be known so he could think about that for a while. Sometimes that information would change a personality instantly.
Kate asked in a sarcastic tone, “Why did you kill Jason Brinkley? Did he know too much or was he going to the cops?”
Alanso replied, “I don’t know any Jason Brinkley.”
Kate responded, “You should really get out and meet the people who work for you, it’s good for employee morale. Who is the dead girl whose DNA was found in the trunk of your car along with Jason’s?”
Alanso replied, “My people use my car all the time, I don’t know what they do when they borrow it.”
Kate said, “We found the pistol used in the murder. We recovered the serial numbers that had been filed off and we know the gun was stolen. You did a nice job of wiping the prints off of the gun, but not such a good job of wiping the shells you loaded in it. Your prints were all over those, you must have been sweating rivers when you loaded that thing.”
Alonso didn’t respond, in fact, she had just wiped the smirk off of his face. Kate would let him stew in his own mess for a while, she hadn’t even told him they had security video of Jason entering his house from the cameras on the gated property.
Alanso’s lawyer sat quietly by his side but would bend over and whisper in his ear once in a while. Kate knew they could enhance the sound later and probably hear what he was saying. The lawyer, a slick, well dressed Italian man asked if he could visit with the district attorney about working out an arrangement.
Kate told him that the case had not been presented to the DA as yet but as soon as they took the evidence over she would mention Alanso’s willingness to make a deal.
Kate did present the case to the DA and mentioned Alanso’s request. She told the assistant DA who was in charge of this case that they had a lot of evidence but didn’t know who did what. They could make the case that since it all happened at Alanso’s house that he would be the primary defendant charged.
Alonso got his meeting and made an offer to clear everything up in exchange for them taking the murder charge down to manslaughter. Kate really didn’t care, Jason Brinkley was a bad guy and was the one responsible for kidnapping Megan. A little part of Kate thought Alanso did them all a favor.
The DA made the deal and they reduced the charges to manslaughter. There would be some kidnapping and drug charges. Alanso told the story of who was involved and what each had done. Kate was able to make a case of three other men from the information supplied by Alonso. The remainder of the information included info about the blood DNA they had found of a girl. That DNA was in Alonso's car. He said that she wasn’t dead and that she had been injured but she was okay.
He was smiling but that went away when Kate told him they jack hammered the body out of the slab in his garage. Alanso wasn’t smiling now.