Page 61 of The Girl from Devil's Lake
“What about her clothing or her boots?”
“As far as I know, none of those were returned.”
“Tell me about the knife.”
“It had an ivory handle and a four-and-a-half-inch blade,” Luke replied. “I also gave her the whetstone so she could keep the knife sharp. As soon as I saw the whetstone in the envelope, I realized the knife was missing. I tried contacting the North Dakota Highway Patrol to tell them about it, but, as I said, Amanda’s death was a cold case, and no one gave a damn.”
“Maybe they didn’t, but I do,” Joanna declared. “We’re reasonably sure our killer takes trophies. If we can find him, your description of that knife may be a key piece of physical evidence linking him to your sister’s murder.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to nail him for it, even after all this time?” Luke asked.
“I hope so,” Joanna said. “I’m working on it, and so are lots of other people.”
“And you’ll let me know what happens?”
“Absolutely,” Joanna replied. “I promise.”
Chapter 36
Bisbee, Arizona
Friday, December 8, 2023
By the time the conversation with Luke RunningDeer ended, Joanna was pulling into her parking place at the Justice Center. She was glad she’d heard the man out. For decades he’d needed to tell his story to someone who was actually listening, but now Joanna’s head was on fire with everything that had to be done.
As soon as the outside door to her office closed behind her, Kristin showed up. “Everyone’s in the conference room.”
“Good,” she said. “Tell them I’m coming, but first I need to make a call.”To say nothing of gather my thoughts, she told herself as she dialed Anna Rae’s number.
Once the call was answered, Joanna quickly recounted both her meeting with Craig Witherspoon as well as her long conversation with Luke in which he’d told her about the missing knife, ending by saying, “We’ll handle the search warrant on this end if you can come up with an arrest warrant.”
“Will do,” Anna Rae said. “I’ll get Philip Dark Moon on this right away. Assuming he’s able to get one, I’ll have it sent to your department so you can take Roper into custody.”
“Good deal,” Joanna said.
The call ended then, but for a minute or so after she was off the phone, Joanna remained seated at her desk, giving herself time todo some strategic thinking. Having warrants in hand would be great, but her main concern was Stephen Roper. Not only did she need to figure out how to keep track of his whereabouts until those warrants could be issued, but also how to handle him once he realized law enforcement was closing in. Would he come quietly, make a run for it, or put up a fight? Knowing she had to be prepared for all contingencies, Joanna squared her shoulders and headed for the conference room where she found the place already jammed. The previous conference room meeting had been limited to her top officers and the investigation team. This one included everyone. Her deputies had shown up without any idea as to why they were being summoned, and now they needed an explanation. Looking around the room, however, Joanna couldn’t help but wonder if Marliss Shackleford’s source was sitting there along with the rest of her team.
Before speaking to everyone else, Joanna addressed her chief CSI. “Casey, do you happen to have your iPad with you?”
The question was strictly rhetorical since Casey was never without her tablet, but she obligingly held it in the air.
“In a few minutes, I’m going to need a Google map of Bisbee and its surroundings up on this screen,” Joanna said, pulling it down. “Can you do that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Casey said.
“All right then,” Joanna said, turning back to the others. “First off, thank you for showing up even though you were given no specific reason for doing so. Here’s the deal. I’m sure you’re all aware that we’ve been investigating the death of a child, Xavier Delgado, of Naco, Sonora, whose body, stuffed in a duffel bag, was found in flood debris in the San Pedro last Saturday. We’ve since learned that Xavier is most likely the latest victim of a serial killer who has been living and working in Bisbee for decades.”
“Did she just say serial killer?” The question came from someone in the far corner of the room who turned out to be Deputy Sunny Sloan.
Sunny’s husband, Dan, was the only one of Joanna’s officers ever to die in the line of duty. At the time of his death, Sunny had been pregnant with their only child. Knowing all too well what it was like to be a widowed single mother, Joanna had eventually offered Sunny a job working as a civilian clerk in the department’s public office. She had done that for a number of years before becoming a deputy. For the past several, she’d served as a sworn officer.
“Yes, Sunny,” Joanna replied. “I said serial killer. I’ve just come from a meeting with the county attorney. With his blessing, as soon as Deb Howell can prepare the documents, she’ll be going to Judge Norman Askins requesting a search warrant on the home of our suspect, a Mr. Stephen Roper.”
That news was met with gasps of shocked surprise. “The guy who used to teach chemistry at Bisbee High?” someone asked.
“The very one,” Joanna answered. “The same one who, since his retirement, has built a good-guy reputation around here by playing Señor Santa Claus for a charity called Hands Across the Border while delivering food and other necessities to impoverished migrants stuck in Naco, Sonora. Two weeks ago today, on the day Xavier disappeared, we have eyewitnesses who place the boy inside Mr. Roper’s refurbished food truck eyeing a pair of high-topped sneakers in the hours before he disappeared.
“During the course of the autopsy, Dr. Baldwin discovered details that made her suspect the killer might be a repeat offender. That suggested the possibility that an unidentified DNA profile from a previously unsolved crime might have been uploaded to CODIS. Without enough probable cause to initiate a search warrant requiring his DNA, on Tuesday Detective Raymond staged a middle-of-the night trash raid at Mr. Roper’s residence, the contents of which he delivered to the DPS crime lab in Tucson. As far as I know, they have not yet developed a DNA profile, but using AFIS, they found a match to an unsolved homicide that occurred in North Dakota in 1962.
