While Hilary and Joshua shared the railback bench that served as an office couch, and while they drank coffee provided by Laurenski’s secretary, Tony took the phone at Laurenski’s request and spoke with two of his own superiors in L.A. His support for Laurenski and the corroboration of facts that he provided were apparently effective, for the call concluded with a promise that L.A. authorities would take immediate action at their end. Operating under the assumption that the psychopath would be keeping a watch on Hilary’s home, the LAPD agreed to establish around-the-clock surveillance on the Westwood house.
With the cooperation of the Los Angeles police assured, the sheriff quickly composed a bulletin, outlining the basic facts of the case, for distribution to all law enforcement agencies in Northern California. The bulletin doubled as an official request for information on any unsolved murders of young, attractive, brown-eyed brunettes, in jurisdictions beyond Laurenski’s, during the past five years–and especially any murders involving decapitation, mutilation, or evidence of blood fetishism.
As Hilary watched the sheriff issuing orders to clerks and deputies, and as she thought about the events of the past twenty-four hours, she had the feeling that everything was moving too fast, like a whirlwind, and that this wind–filled with surprises and ugly secrets, just as a tornado is filled with swirling clods of uprooted earth and chunks of debris–was carrying her toward a precipice that she could not yet see, but over which she might be flung. She wished she could reach out with both hands and seize control of time itself, hold it back, slow it down, take a few days out to rest and to consider what she had learned, so that she would be able to follow the final few twists and turns of the Frye mystery with a clear head. She felt sure that continued haste was foolish, even deadly. But the wheels of the law, now engaged and rolling, could not be blocked. And time could not be reined in as if it were a runaway stallion.
She hoped there was no precipice ahead.
At 5:30, after Laurenski had gotten the law enforcement machinery moving, he and Joshua used the telephone to track down a judge. They found one, Judge Julian Harwey, who was fascinated by the Frye story. Harwey understood the necessity of retrieving the corpse and putting it through an extensive battery of tests for identification purposes. If the second Bruno Frye was apprehended, and if he somehow managed to pass a psychiatric examination, which was highly unlikely but not altogether impossible, then the prosecutor would need physical proof that there had been identical twins. Harwey was willing to sign an exhumation order, and by 6:30, the sheriff had that paper in hand.
“The workmen at the cemetery won’t be able to open the grave in the dark,” Laurenski said. “But I’ll have them out there digging at the crack of dawn.” He made a few more phone calls, one to the director of the Napa County Memorial Park where Frye was buried, another to the county coroner who could conduct the exhumation of the body as soon as it was delivered to him, and one to Avril Tannerton, the mortician, to arrange for him to transport the corpse to and from the coroner’s pathology lab.
When Laurenski finally got off the telephone, Joshua said, “I imagine you’ll want to search the Frye house.”
“Absolutely,” Laurenski said. “We want to find proof that more than one man was living there, if we can. And if Frye really had murdered other women, maybe we’ll turn up some evidence. I think it would be a good idea to go through the house on the cliff, too.”
“We can search the new house as soon as you like,” Joshua said. “But there’s no electricity in the old place. That one will have to wait until daylight.”
“Okay,” Laurenski said. “But I’d like to have a look at the vineyard house tonight.”
“Now?” Joshua asked, getting up from the railback bench.
“None of us has had dinner,” Laurenski said. Earlier. before they had told him even half of what they’d learned from Dr. Rudge and Rita Yancy, the sheriff had called his wife to tell her he wouldn’t be home until very late. “Let’s get a bite to eat at the coffee shop around the corner. Then we can head on out to Frye’s place.”