Homicide Investigation Progress Report DR#S 04-592 346-56 VICTIMS: BRAND, MICHAELA ALLY GAIDELAS, ANDREW WILLIAM GAIDELAS, CATHERINE ANTONIA GIACOMO, VICTORIA MARY MESERVE, DYLAN ROGER PEATY, REYNOLD MILLARD WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #1 WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #2 WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #3 WHITE FEMALE JANE DOE #4 LAS VEGAS, NV VICTIM DUTCHEY, JULIET LEE SECTION VIII: EVIDENCE I. FROM STORAGE BUILDING OWNED BYAir Max Shoes BNBPROPERTIES, 9421/2 WEST WOODBURY ROAD, ALTADENA, CA, 91001: 1. 3 CARDBOARD CARTONS CONTAINING CLOTHING, SOME IDENTIFIED AS BELONGING TOVICTIMS BRAND, M, GAIDELAS, A, GAIDELAS, C, MESERVE, D, GIACOMO, V. VARIOUSFEMALE ATTIRE, IDENTIFICATION UNKNOWN. 2. 2 “MADE IN MEXICO”ONYX BOXES CONTAINING VARIOUS GOLD, SILVER, AND COSTUME JEWELRY, 3 PRS.EYEGLASSES, 1 BELONGING TO VICTIM GIACOMO, V, 2 UNATTRIBUTED, 1 SET SOFTCONTACT LENSES BELONGING TO VICTIM BRAND, M, 1 PARTIAL DENTAL BRIDGE BELONGINGTO VICTIM GAIDELAS, A. 3. 3 POLYETHYLENE GARBAGE BAGS CONTAINING 53 BLEACHED HUMAN BONES,IDENTIFICATION IN PROGRESS PER THE CORONER’S OFFICE. (REF: PROFESSOR JESSICASAMPLE, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST.) 4. 1 CARDBOARD CARTON MARKED SEARS-KENMORE CONTAINING 10 JUMBO ZIPLOC SANDWICH BAGS EACH CONTAINING A CLUMP OF HUMAN HAIR BOUNDBY TWO RUBBER BANDS. (REF: PROF. J. SAMPLE.) II. FROM TRUNK OF 1989 LINCOLN TOWN CAR VIN 33893566, REGISTERED TO BRADLEY MILLARDDOWD, GARAGED BE HIND STORAGE BUILDINGAT 942? WEST WOODBURY ROAD: 1. 1 SONY DIGITAL CAMERA MODEL DSC 588. 2. 1 EXCISED SECTION OF BLACK CARPETING FROM LTC. 3. FRONT AND REAR BLACK LEATHER SEATS FROM LTC. III. FROM TRIPLEX SUBTERRANEAN BOMB SHELTERS, 43885 LATIGO CANYON ROAD, MALIBU, CA, 90265: FROM UNIT “A” (NORTHERNMOST, SEE DIAGRAM): 1. CLOTHING, COSMETICS, PERSONAL EFFECTS BELONGING TO SUSPECT DOWD, N. 2. COLLAPSIBLE TWIN BED AND BEDDING. 3. PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUSPECTS DOWD, B, AND DOWD, N. 4. 5 TEETH BELONGING TO VICTIM MESERVE, D. PIERCED AND STRUNG ON A SILVERCHAIN. 5. 1 TAXIDERMICALLY PRESERVED HUMAN HEAD BELONGING TO VICTIM MESERVE, D. 6. 2 SIMILAR PRESERVATIONS, VICTIMS GAIDELAS, A, GAIDE LAS, C. 7. 1 COMPACT DISK CONTAINING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES, MARKED“PARTY-TIME” CONTAINING PORNO GRAPHIC IMAGES OF: A. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH V’S BRAND, M, GIACOMO, V,GAIDELAS, C, GAIDELAS, A, JANE DOES 1, 2, 3, 4. LAS VEGAS VICTIM, DUTCHEY, J. B. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH SUSPECT DOWD, N. C. SUSPECT DOWD, N, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH VICTIM MESERVE, D. D. SUSPECT DOWD, B, HAVING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH VICTIM MESERVE, D. 8. 4 DIGITAL VIDEO DISKS CONTAINING MOTION PICTURES, CONTENT SIMILAR TO 3. FROM UNITS “B” AND “C”: 1. 2 250 MB COMPUTER ZIP DISKS MARKED “PT CLIMAX,” CONTENTS SCRAMBLED,POSSIBLY DAMAGED. (REF: LAPD TECHNICAL DIVISION, SGT. S. FUJIKAWA.) 2. 1 IBM CLONE PERSONAL COMPUTER, 1 APC BATTERYBACKUP, 1 MICROTEK 19" MONITOR, 1 HEWLETT-PACKARD LASERJET 4050 PRINTER. 3. 1 42" SONY FLAT-SCREEN TELEVISION. 4. 1 BRASS COAT HOOK. 5. 1 213 SQ. FT. EXCISED SECTION, BEIGE NYLON CARPETING. 1 215.5 SQ. FT.EXCISED SECTION, BEIGE NYLON CARPETING. 6. 12 BOXES OF DISASSEMBLED ACOUSTICAL CEILING TILES. 7. 2 SETS SMITH & WESSON DOUBLE LOCK POLICE-ISSUE HANDCUFFS AND KEYS. 8. 1 SET ANTIQUE “E.D. BEAN” LEG IRON RESTRAINTS, C. 1885. (REF: PROFESSORANDRE WASHINGTON, HISTORIAN.) 9. 3 WOODEN BOXES CONTAINING VARIOUS SURGICAL KNIVES, NEEDLES, SAWS,SCRAPERS, SHEARS, CANNULAS, FUNNELS. 10. 1 “TI-DEE” HEAVY-DUTY SUCTIONAir Max 24-7 PUMP, MODEL A-334C. 11. 1 KINGSLEY SECRETION ASPIRATOR, MODEL CSI-PG005. 12. 4 SPOOLS MEDIBOND NYLON MONOFILAMENT SURGICAL SUTURE MATERIAL, TWO 20MM, TWO 24 MM. 13. 2 UNMARKED CARDBOARD CARTONS CONTAINING SEALED CLEAR PLASTIC BAGS OFCOTTON STUFFING. 14. 4 PLASTIC GALLON CONTAINERS, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. 15. 1 BOX “PLEASURE-RIB” LATEX CONDOMS. 16. 1 5-GAL. PLASTIC CONTAINER, FORMIC ACID PICKLING SOLUTION. 17. 5 SETS “SNUG-FIT” LATEX GLOVES. 18. 1 EPOXY “TAXI-FORM SCULPTING KIT.” 19. 1 QUART BOTTLE EATON SKIN DEGREASER AND PRESERVATIVE. 20. 1 5-LB. BAG “READI-TAN” DRY PRESERVATIVE. 21. 1 OAKES G-235C “MINOR SURGICAL PROCEDURE” TABLE WITH HEADREST ANDDETACHABLE DRAIN… Milo returned to his office and took themurder book from me. “I wasn’t finished.” He dropped the file in a drawer. “Michaela’s Honda finally showed up.Parking garage of a BNB building in Sierra Madre, towed to the motor lab as wespeak.” “Congratulations. As I was saying—” “How’s my prose?” “Eloquent,” I said. “Please don’t tell me you want to have lunch.” “It’s way past lunchtime, have your people call my people and we’ll dodinner.” He sank down hard enough to make the desk chair groan. “Enough with the glibmacho posturing. I’m thrashed and not ashamed to admit it.” “Get any sleep?” “Around five hours,” he said. “Over five days.” “Time for a break,” I said. “It ain’t the workload that’s keeping me up, boy-o, it’s the reality. Aslong as you’ve perused, care to add any insights?” “The PlayHouse was a talent pool in a much worse way than we imagined. ForNora, it served double duty. She got to feel omnipotent and she and Brad bothenjoyed selecting victims.” “Cold bitch,” he said. “Arrogant, too. That time we came to her house, shedidn’t even pretend to care about Tori or Michaela.” “I’m not sure she’s capable of pretending.” “No acting chops? How’d she get so many people to believe in her?” “By attracting a hungry crowd who thought they were getting a bargain.Emotionally needy people will swallow poisoned Kool-Aid.” He sighed. “All those pretty folk auditioning, having no idea Air Max Kids what the partreally was.” “Any luck identifying the other girls?” “Not yet. No other male bodies show up yet, but I’m not counting on thisbeing the end of it. There’s still a dozen BNB properties we haven’t looked atand the backhoes have only dug up a corner of the property. How do you see thehoax figuring in?” “Theater of the cruel. Nora and Brad hatched it up for fun, convinced DylanMeserve he was a coconspirator. But he was a human chess piece.” “Think he knew what was in store for Michaela?” “Have you found any indication that he was aware of the other victims?” “Not so far,” he said. “But the way he had Michaela pretend to choke him,that coulda been foreshadowing her fate, right?” “Or he had his own kinks,” I said. “We’ll probably never find out unlesssome kind of diary shows up. Or Brad or Nora start talking.” “So far, they’re both dummying up,” he said. “I got Brad on suicide watch,like you suggested. Jail guard said Brad thought that was funny.” “Maintaining the facade,” I said. “Once it crumbles, he’ll have nothingleft.” “You’re the shrink…back to the hoax. Nora wink-winks at Meserve, pretends tobe outraged and kicks Michaela out of class. Why?” “My bet’s still on setting Michaela up for Brad’s ‘rescue.’ She was broke,unemployed, hungry for attention, frustrated career-wise. If Brad just happenedto drive by in one of his shiny cars and struck up a conversation, it could’veseemed like providence. She already knew his face from the PlayHouse so therewouldn’t be any stranger anxiety. And Brad’s connection to Nora would’ve madeMichaela eager to hook up with him.” “Trying to get back in Nora’s good graces.” “Or he might’ve told her he had his own connections, could help her career.Same for Tori. Same for all of them.” “Seduction instead of abduction,” he said. “Nice dinner, good wine, come upand enjoy the sunset at my Malibuplace. Wonder how Michaela felt when she saw he was taking her back to Latigo Canyon.” “If he’d built up trust by wining and dining her, it could’ve kept heranxiety in check. Or he took her somewhere else first and restrained her.” “If he’s got another chamber of horrors, it hasn’t turned up yet. Onething’s for sure: Nothing went on at his house or Nora’s. Not a speck of nastyat either.” I said, “Why sully the home front when you’ve got a special place set asidefor your hobbies. These people are all about splitting.” “Speaking of hobbies, any theory about why Meserve and the Gaidelases werethe only specimens they preserved?” “The neck wound says they thought of preserving Michaela,” I said. “Went sofar as to insert a cannula in her neck then changed their minds. No way to getinside their heads, but the Gaidelases and Meserve fit some kind of fantasy. IfI could finish the file—” “There’s nothing in there about the past, Alex. Just more ugly. I’m stuckwith this, but you’re not. Go home and forget about all of it.” I said, “Any luck decoding the scrambled disk?” He ran his tongue over cracked, dry lips, scratched his scalp, rubbed hisface. He’d shaved carelessly and a patch of white fur ran along his jaw. Hiseyes were hooded and weary. “You’ve developed a hearing problem?” I repeated the question. “You never let go,” he said. “That’s why you pay me the big bucks.” “The disk is decoded and loaded in Room Four. I’ve beenAir Max Hyperfly watching it for thelast hour. Hence, my sage advice about going home.” “No sense postponing the inevitable,” I said. “What’s inevitable?” “I was at the scene when you found the shelter. Someone’s going to subpoename. Either the D.A. or Stavros Menas.” “Both Dowdstried to hire Menas but Nora got him and she wasn’t feelingsisterly. Brad’s looking for new representation.” “Money talks and she’s got the mike.” “Minus the millions Brad skimmed,” he said. “Most of which seems to havegone into the car collection and a little island he bought off the coast of Belize twomonths ago. And one more luxury purchase, three weeks ago: jet card for aGulfstream V, twenty-five hours. That’s three hundred fifty grand for a planewith international range. Wanna take bets on there being an offshore bankaccount somewhere south of the equator? The estate lawyers who appointed himtrustee are gobbling Prilosec and the new court-appointed lawyers are lickingtheir chops. We’re talking years of litigation, there goes the rest of theestate.” I said, “Planning his escape, those brochures were for real. Then he gotclever and planted them in Nora’s nightstand.” “Too clever,” he said. “Sitting in that Range Rover, using Billy’s land.Dutiful caretaker of his sibs, meanwhile he’s screwing them, literally andfinancially. Think he was planning to take Nora with him or go it alone?” “Unless she knew about the island I’d say alone. Is anyone protectingBilly’s interests?” “The court-appointed lawyers claim to be.” “I finally got permission to see him yesterday, drove out to Riverside.” “How’s the place they put him in?” “Grim,” I said. “Assisted care facility, aAir Max 2009 hundred Alzheimer’s patients andBilly.” “Learn anything?” “He’s in shock and disoriented. I got about three minutes before theattorney-on-premises ended it.” “Why?
