“No problem.”
I could hear her fingers clicking over the keyboard.
When I got the printout there were six drug-positive homicides investigated by Detective Montana. The names of Elizabeth Mott and Jill Harrington were on the list, because their postmortem blood was positive for alcohol. The result in each instance was insignificant, l than .05. In addition, Jill was positive for chlordiazepoxide and clidinium, the active drugs found in Librax Reaching for the phone, I dialed the James City County Detective Division and asked to speak to Montana. I was told he was a captain now in Internal Affairs, and my call was transferred to his desk.
I intended to be very careful. If it were perceived I was considering that the murders of the two women might be related to the deaths of the other five couples, I feared Montana would back off, not talk.
“Montana,” a deep voice answered.
“This is Dr. Scarpetta,” I said.
“How’ya doing, Doc? Everybody in Richmond’s still shooting each other, I see.”
“It doesn’t seem to get much better,” I agreed. “I’m surveying for drug-positive homicides,” I explained. “And I wonder if I could ask you a question or two about several old cases of yours I came across in our computer.”
“Fire away. But it’s been a while. I may be a little fuzzy on the details.”
“Basically, I’m interested in the scenarios, the details surrounding the deaths. Most of your cases occurred before I came to Richmond.”
“Oh, yeah, back in the days of Doc Cagney. Working with him was something.”
Montana laughed. “Never forget the way he used to sometimes dig around in bodies without gloves. Nothing fazed him except kids. He didn’t like doing kids.”
I began reviewing the information from the computer printout, and what Montana recalled about each case didn’t surprise me. Hard drinking and domestic problems had culminated in husband shooting wife or the other way around – the Smith & Wesson divorce, as it was irreverently referred to by the police. A man tanked to the gills was beaten to death by several drunk companions after a poker game went sour. A father with a .30 blood alcohol level was shot to death by his son. And so on. I saved Jill’s and Elizabeth’s cases for last.
“I remember them real well,” Montana said. “Weird’s all I got to say about what happened to those two girls. Wouldn’t have thought they were the type to go off to a motel with some guy who picked them up in a bar. Both of them college graduates, had good jobs, smart, attractive. It’s my opinion the guy they met up with had to be mighty slick. We’re not talking about some redneck, type. I’ve always suspected it was someone just passing through, not from around here.”
“Why?”
“Because if it was someone local, I think we might have had a little luck developing a suspect. Some serial killer, it’s my opinion. Picks up women in bars and murders them. Maybe some guy on the road a lot, hits in different cities and towns, then moves on.”
“Was robbery involved?” I asked.
“Didn’t appear to be. My first thought when I got the cases was maybe the two girls were into recreational drugs, went off with someone to make a buy, maybe agreed to meet him at the motel to party or exchange cash for coke. But no money or jewelry was missing, and I never found out anything to make me think the girls had a history of snorting or shooting up.”
“I notice from the toxicology reports that Jill Harrington tested positive for Librax, in addition to alcohol,” I said. “Do you know anything about that?”
He thought for a moment. “Librax. Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.”
I asked him nothing else and thanked him.
Librax is a versatile therapeutic drug used as a muscle relaxant and to relieve anxiety and tension. Jill may have suffered from a bad back or soreness due to sports injuries, or she may have had psychosomatic problems such as spasms in her gastrointestinal tract. My next chore was to find her physician. I began by calling one of my medical examiners in Williamsburg and asking him to fax the section in his Yellow Pages that listed pharmacies in his area. Then I dialed Marino’s pager number.