The End of Summer: Book One in The Detective Bill Ross Crime Series Read online

  The End of Summer

  Irving Munro

  Copyright © 2015 Irving Munro

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-0692401606

  Acknowledgments

  This book would not have been possible without the help and support of many people in Austin, Texas, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

  To all of my dear friends in the northwest Austin neighborhood where I live, you know who you are. Thanks for your patience, help and understanding as I transitioned into my new career as a writer.

  Thanks to Bill Tucker for your help in editing and structuring. Thanks also to Roger Wade of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Detective Sergeant Jacob Beach of the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office and to Pastor Tim Clayton of the 1st Baptist Church in Giddings, Texas.

  Last and by no means least, thanks to my son Mark for his help and advice and for his service to our country in the Marine Corps and to my wife Aileen, for her love, patience, and support.

  Internal formatting and cover design by ebooklaunch.com

  Editing by Bill Tucker

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1 - Texas fireflies: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 2 - Jedi knight: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 3 - Reese: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 4 - Jim McCord: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 5 - Neighborly love: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 6 - San Antonio: 2005 - The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 7 - Rohypnol: The Initial Investigation

  Chapter 8 - Galina Alkaev: 2005 - A Great Adventure

  Chapter 9 - Bill Ross: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 10- The Scottish cavalry: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 11 - You’re hired: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 12 - Pavel Orlov: 2005 - A Great Adventure

  Chapter 13 - My birthday: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 14 - The LSU crew: 2005 - A Great Adventure

  Chapter 15 - The Three Musketeers: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 16 - The Oasis: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 17- Stan Hardwick: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 18 - Stephanie Lake: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 19 - Sindhur Wadawadagi: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 20 - Spiders: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 21 - Let the lying begin: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 22 - Glen Morangie: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 23 - Nora McConnell: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 24 - I see things: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 25 - The jigsaw: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 26 - A single dad: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 27 - Fran Taylor: 2005 - A Great Adventure

  Chapter 28 - Vanderbilt University: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 29 - The drowning at the lake: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 30- The sexual predator: 2005 - A Great Adventure

  Chapter 31 - The doomsday prepper: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 32 - Mary’s story: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 33 - Chubby Checker: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 34 - In the clutches of a killer: 2005 - The Killing

  Chapter 35 - The seeds of evil: 2005 - The Killing

  Chapter 36 - Psychosis: 2005 - The Killing

  Chapter 37 - It’s Galina Alkaev: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 38 - You’re under arrest: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 39 -Search warrant: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 40 - Let’s push the boat out: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 41 - We’re going on a trip: 2005 - The Killing

  Chapter 42 - G Men: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 43 - They’re coming: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 44 - A joint operation: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 45 -Let’s get this done: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 46 -Navajo State Park: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 47 -Jack Johnson: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 48 -A final resting place: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 49 -Giddings, Texas: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 50 - Reflection: 2014 - The Cold Case Investigation

  Chapter 1 - Texas fireflies

  2005 - The Initial Investigation

  “I’m telling you, Ethel, there is someone in Jim’s backyard!” slurred Bill Anderson, as he sat on his back deck, enjoying his customary after dinner cocktail. Bill and Ethel Andersen lived in Riverside, an upscale suburb of Northwest Austin. Their neighbors, Jim and Mary McCord, had a vacation home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado where they went after every Memorial Day to escape the intense heat of the central Texas summer. Their home was left empty each year while they were gone.

  “You’re imagining things again, Bill,” shouted Ethel, irritated that he had interrupted her favorite PBS show. “I’m watching Masterpiece Theater. Stop shouting at me! If there is something that is so important and you want to talk to me, come inside. Don’t just sit out here and yell at me.”

  Exasperated, Ethel got up from the couch and marched out onto the deck. “OK, I’m here now. What did you see?” she demanded, looking in the direction of Jim and Mary McCord’s home.

  “I saw the flicker of a flashlight or something. One minute it was there and then it was gone,” said Bill.

  Ethel turned on Bill, her anger and frustration with his rude self-centered behavior at boiling point. “Bill, I’m sick and tired of this. It has to stop. You think the entire world revolves around you and everyone has to stop what they are doing at the drop of a hat to come running to you. There is nothing to be seen over there. You know we always get fireflies at this time of year, you old goat. You sit there with a couple of shots of Jack after dinner and the next thing you know, you’re imagining Osama Bin Laden coming through the woods.”

  “I tell you, Ethel, I saw something!” said Bill.

  “Rubbish. You’re out of your mind!” and with that, Ethel stormed back inside. Bill was left to stare into the blackness of the night with Jack Daniels for company.

  ~

  Like most of the homes in the area, the Anderson estate sat on a five-acre lot. Being a neighbor meant that you saw each other occasionally while working in the yard or driving to the store. Privacy was important and everyone in the neighborhood respected that.

  Still, this was Texas, a place where people watched out for one another. Woe betides the stranger that might wander into this quiet part of God’s country or worse still, try to break into a home. The typical owner was someone who took the second amendment seriously and would likely shoot first and then ask questions later.

  The following morning, Bill awoke to a feeling of uneasiness. He was still thinking about the night before and what he thought he had seen. Bill and Ethel had
been married for almost forty years and as Ethel constantly reminded him, he did have “one too many” after dinner some evenings and had “seen things” in the past. But this time, it felt different; he was sure that he had seen something.

  As he walked downstairs to the kitchen, each downward step sent a shudder that vibrated through his body and up through his head as the Jack Daniels hangover kicked into maximum overdrive. He ran over the events of the previous night in his mind and was sure that he had seen something.

  When he arrived in the kitchen, he saw that Ethel had a fresh pot of coffee already made. I’ll have my coffee first and think about it some more, he thought to himself. Maybe Ethel was right again. He sighed as he poured the steaming hot coffee into his burnt orange University of Texas mug.

  The coffee didn’t help. His head still hurt and his mouth felt like he had eaten cat litter for breakfast. This health kick that Ethel had him on was a complete waste of time. There was no way he was going to get by with grapefruit and oat bran for breakfast. He snuck out the backdoor.

  “Mickey Dee’s, here I come,” he muttered to himself. He could taste the Egg McMuffin as he backed the Lexus out of the driveway. “Just the ticket when you have a little hangover in the morning,” he said to himself. “Hope John Harkins is there and I can talk to him about what I saw last night.”

  ~

  “Not like you to listen to what Ethel ever says!” laughed John Harkins as he shoveled another mouthful of eggs and hash browns into his mouth. John was a retired oilman and didn’t give a crap about anything or anyone. He had been divorced three times and his last wife, Emily, had left him for her tennis instructor and they now lived together in Florida.

  “Good riddance!” John had said to Bill at the time, “I always thought the tennis guy was a faggot. Shows you that you never can tell with people. Don’t trust them, never will!” That was John’s comprehensive assessment of the human race. Bill loved the guy.

  “Why the hell didn’t you just grab your Smith & Wesson and get over there?” barked John. “To hell with what Ethel thought; you should have gone over.”

  “I know, I know, but I did have a few pops in me, Johnny. Alcohol and guns don’t mix,” said Bill.

  “Let’s finish up here and get on over there now,” replied John. Bill could see the excitement in his friend’s eyes. Bill could tell John was now in his full Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry mode and was itching for someone to “make his day.”

  “Nah, don’t think so, Johnny,” said Bill, “but I do think we should go ask the cops to check the place out.”

  ~

  It was almost noon when Bill and John reached the Travis County Police Office at Hudson Bend. The main Travis County Police HQ was on 34th Street in Austin. The Hudson Bend office was a small grey single story building with the US and Texas flags hanging from huge flagpoles on either side of the glass fronted entryway.

  John Harkins led the way across the parking lot with a swagger that said he was ready to knock some heads to get things done. He had a wad of chewing tobacco stuck in his cheek and paused outside the entry to the office so he could propel a mouthful of dark brown spit in the general direction of a white trash can with Travis County PD stenciled on the side.

  John barged through the doors, sauntered up to the front and announced, “We need to see someone about a house invasion in Riverside!”

  “It’s not a house invasion, John!” snapped Bill. “We need to get real here; we don’t know if it’s anything yet.”

  The African American woman behind the desk looked up and said, “Do you two want to go out and come back in once you get your story straight?” She chuckled and turned her attention back to the current edition of People magazine.

  “Sorry, miss, but we’d like to speak to a detective about a disturbance out at Riverside last night, if that’s possible”, said Bill. John rolled his eyes in disgust at his buddy’s lack of assertiveness.

  “It’s Mrs. Celia Brown, not miss. Take this form, sit over there and fill it out. I’ll see that it gets to the right person.” Celia went back to the more important issues of the day, namely Oprah Winfrey on the cover of the magazine.

  John stormed away from Celia and shouted, “This is a complete waste of time!” He was livid that Bill had not demanded to see someone in authority. “They’ll just take the form and throw it with all the others. It will never see the light of day!”

  Bill glared at his friend. Maybe it was bad idea to bring him along after all. “Shut it, Johnny, this is just the way things are done down here. Being rowdy and belligerent won’t help! Let’s just get this form done and we can then see if we can talk with someone. And get rid of the chew. Clint Eastwood never had brown drool seeping from the corner of his mouth in any of his Dirty Harry films!”

  As Bill filled out the form, the door next to Celia’s desk opened and a guy that looked like he belonged in a Texas rodeo burst on the scene. He reminded John of the actor in the Longmire TV series with his boots, blue jeans, belt and Longhorn buckle. When he saw Bill, his eyes lit up.

  “Hi Billy! How the hell are you? What are you doing down in this neck of the woods?”

  “I’m good Garrison, haven’t seen you in a while,” replied Bill.

  Garrison McMullen should have been a lawman or a steer wrangler. Instead, he was one of the most successful real estate developers in Austin. He owned a huge ranch on the shores of Lake Travis and had built most of the homes in Riverside. He knew Bill Anderson well and had built the home of Jim and Mary McCord, the very house Bill was in to report.

  Bill shook Garry’s hand and said, “Hi Garry. Good to see you. You know John Harkins? He and I are down here to try and get the cops to take a look at the McCord place. I was sure I saw someone in their backyard last night and as you know, Garrison, they are gone for the summer in Colorado.”

  Garry’s brow wrinkled. “Someone in their backyard, you say? Are you sure that their son isn’t in from Oklahoma and staying at the place?”

  “I just want to see if an officer can drive over there and check it out. It may be nothing,” said Bill. “Celia here was good enough to give us the necessary paperwork to get the ball rolling.” This little side compliment was completely lost on Celia as the admiration for Oprah in her red dress was getting the better of her and she had gone off to powder her nose.

  Garry nodded his head and said, “I just finished up with Detective Stan Hardwick. He recently bought a piece of land over by Lake Buchannan and wants me to build a retirement home for him on it. Let’s go see him right now and see if he can just get on the radio to one of the officers in the area and ask them to swing by and check it out.”

  Garry turned on his heels, went back inside and when he returned, had Stan Hardwick in tow.

  “Hi guys, Stan Hardwick. It’s good to meet you both. Come on back to my office. Garry here says that you want us to check out some goings on out by Riverside?” bellowed Stan.

  “They are filling out the necessary paperwork, Detective Hardwick!” interjected Celia with a hint of desperation in her voice.

  “No worries, Celia. We can get that done later,” replied Stan.

  This deviation from standard procedure resulted in Celia being on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her mouth fell open and she stared in amazement at Stan Hardwick. She had just returned from a weeklong training course at 34th Street on new procedures in effective policing and here she was, less than a day back on the job, being asked to violate standard practice. This would need to be written down in the violation notebook and sent in with her weekly report.

  Celia was busily checking the date and time of the violation as the three men disappeared back to Stan’s office at the rear of the building.

  Chapter 2 - Jedi knight

  2005 - The Initial Investigation

  It was getting late in the day when Officer Tommy Ross rolled up in his police cruiser at the McCord home in Riverside. Stan Hardwick had called and asked him to make sure everything was kos
her at the residence as a favor for a friend of his.

  A graduate of the Travis County police-training program, Tommy had recently been approved to be out on his own for routine neighborhood duties. He lived in an apartment in Cedar Park, a working class section of Austin. When compared to the upscale Riverside neighborhood, Cedar Park was at the other end of the Austin real estate market.

  His apartment was on the second floor with two bedrooms and was about the max Tommy could afford. He didn’t really need a two bedroom but the second room gave him a little more space for his big screen TV and his PlayStation. Every night, he would settle down after a long day of law enforcement and become Count Dooku, Imperial Commander and Jedi Knight in Star Wars Battlefront II. His Jedi accomplishments had been proclaimed across the galaxy and Princess Leia had honored him with the sacred cross of Revered Knights. A battle hardened universal soldier was Tommy.

  “Impressive pad” muttered Tommy to himself as he walked up the driveway.

  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was a two-story home with five bedrooms, four baths, a pool and a large backyard that backed on to Lake Austin. There was a separate building off to the right that had a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and bathroom that could be used for in-laws or for guests who needed to be kept at arm’s length. A large swimming pool and BBQ pit took up a major portion of the yard.

  Tommy walked up, rang the bell and for good measure, knocked on the huge metal door. It was a custom, wrought iron door, typical to this type of home with frosted glass panels. He could see light shining through from the back of the house. There was no response and there appeared to be no movement. It was as quiet as a grave.

  He walked around the side of the house to see if the owners were perhaps working in their yard. Being a seasoned Jedi Knight, he knew you should never make assumptions and always be on your guard. The enemies of the Republic can be lurking around any corner. He moved cautiously, inching closer to the rear of the home, step by step, diligently looking for any signs of abnormal activity.

  He never saw it coming; it struck him with full force on the side of the head. The automatic sprinkler system engaged and, in an instant, he was soaked from head to foot.