Blind Delusion (33 page)

Cooper and his crewmembers exited the smoke-filled maze and stepped through the hollowed out doorway into clear, brisk air. The police had already cordoned off the area with yellow tape to block neighbors, onlookers, and unauthorized entry to the crime scene. Cooper knew that once he could no longer address life and safety, their second priority was to put out the fire. He organized the suppression teams from several other units to fight the blaze from the outside. Eventually, the fire smoldered to ash and debris. The rowhouse stood gutted and soot covered. The fire had been contained in this one family’s dwelling. All other residents from the adjoining houses were safely evacuated as soon as the fire started and their homes spared.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cooper noticed that Deek and another woman were consoling the bereaved woman. He hadn’t seen this other woman arrive, but clearly she appeared to be close to the victim who had lost her loved ones. Cooper felt relieved they were there. Now that the fire was out, he would have to go back inside and search for the bodies. The Medic Unit, EMS, and the Fire Chief stood nearby. He was certain one of them explained to the woman why the rescue could not take place but that didn’t make him feel any better. He had no idea what she would do if they found her child and husband’s body and brought them out. It had taken three firefighters to hold her down to prevent her from going into the burning house. If not stopped, Cooper knew she would have gone inside.

Deek caught Cooper’s eye and noticed that he signaled for him to come over. He left Renee and Brenda standing at the edge of the sidewalk and joined Cooper and another official who stood near by. Cooper introduced Deek to Marshall Fuentes, the fire investigator. The building inspector, as well as, a specialist from Hazardous Material (Haz Mat as they were called) also arrived on the scene and approached the burned-out dwelling. Haz Mat and the building inspector had been dispatched right after Cooper reported the collapse from his radio.

Deek knew that even if Cooper had not paged him as soon as they got the box alarm, as a homicide detective he would have still been at the scene to determine if a victim’s death was caused by murder or accident. He had already begun questioning witnesses and neighbors about what they saw. Just like arson investigators, putting all the pieces together and finding evidence was also Deek’s job. He loved solving crimes and bringing the guilty to justice. Despite the tragedy of this situation, he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else and was glad that Cooper had paged him right away.

The police and fire department units worked together and everybody went through their own routine. The fire investigator could exercise police and arrest authority but he was primarily concerned with determining if this was a crime of arson or an unfortunate accident. Deek, along with the fire investigator and building inspector, all donned latex gloves and went inside the building to sift through the rubble to look for evidence. This dance between professionals proceeded simultaneously, each involved in their own unique mission. While Cooper searched for any victims’ remains, Deek and the fire inspector collected evidence of how the fire started and looked for signs leading to a perpetrator, such as, fragments and forced entry.

With the fire now out, they hoped there would be enough of a preserved scene left to examine. Cooper shared with the investigators that his gut instinct told him that this was no accident and was deliberately set. Deek and the fire investigator agreed. Because of its strength and intensity, the investigative team suspected that a highly flammable material had been used to start the fire. While rummaging through the basement, Cooper spotted a gasoline can and pointed it out to Deek and the fire investigator. Just as he suspected, a rookie arsonist, not a professional, had probably set the fire and used a simple accelerator like gasoline. Once a match or lighter ignited the gasoline, the entire room became engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes.

After the fire investigator pinpointed the blast seat to be in the master bedroom, they removed loose debris and placed it in an evidence container. Deek found a charred matchbox near the door jam and sealed it inside a plastic bag, labeled it with an exhibit number, initialed, and dated it. Next he wandered through the smoke-damaged kitchen towards the back of the house. He found pieces of duct tape scattered on the concrete back porch. Deek bagged the duct tape as potential evidence.

“Let’s hope the lab can lift some latent fingerprints from this tape,” Deek told Marshall Fuentes. At that moment, Deek noticed a shred of dark fabric caught by a protruding nail in the window frame. “Looks like our arsonist entered through the kitchen window,” said Deek with a satisfied smirk upon realizing that the arsonist ripped his sleeve either coming in or escaping through the window. He carefully removed the ripped fabric with tweezers and placed it in a labeled evidence bag.

“That’s right, Lieutenant Hamilton,” nodded the fire marshal in agreement, “It might be just enough threads for lab analysis to identify the type of material and possibly the manufacturer.”

While Deek and Marshall Fuentes finished checking the exterior, the building inspector examined the extent of the structural collapse and damage. The inspector concerned himself with the building’s safety for the homeowners as well as for adjoining residents.

Several minutes later, Cooper yelled out. He had found the remains of an adult, male victim, but still no baby. The burns on the victim were so severe that they showed bone destruction and covered large areas. If this was the woman’s husband, he had been burned and blackened like charcoal beyond recognition. None of the fire fighters had found the infant’s body anywhere. It could take several hours to locate the remains of a tiny, three-month old victim. But Cooper and his crew would work straight through their shift if they had to in order to bring closure to that poor mother. Deek and the fire investigator were the first to leave the house. The paramedics carried the victim’s sheeted body out on a stretcher. They wouldn’t ask the wife to look. The people at the morgue could deal with that.

When Brenda spotted them bringing out a body, she broke free from the Medic’s grasp. Renee rushed after her but an officer blocked both their entrances through the yellow police tape.

“Officer, my name is Dr. Renee Hayes. I’m a psychologist but I used to be a nurse. Perhaps I can help here.”

“Then help her stay out of the way,” the officer said grim-faced, “This is a crime scene.”

While Renee was talking to the police officer, Brenda tore through the yellow tape and dashed towards the covered stretcher, carrying her husband’s body. She snatched the sheet away. Then, she crouched to the ground on her knees, screaming, and doubled over in pain. The burns had seared off his skin and hair to the point of being unrecognizable. Deek pulled her away and draped the covering back over the victim’s body. Brenda looked up at him and shouted through her tears, “Oh God, No! This can’t be happening.” She buried her face in her hands, as Deek supported her in his arms. “Please God, please help me. Oh God, where is my baby? Where’s my son?”

Renee hurried forward and bent down to help Brenda up as Deek inched back. Renee answered the fire investigator’s questions for Brenda and gave him the names of both victims, even though the infant’s remains had still not been found. Renee also gave the fire marshal her contact information where Brenda could be reached. Renee knew that right now this tragedy was too unfathomable for Brenda to deal with all alone. While Brenda wailed uncontrollably over Jerome’s sheeted body, Renee gently grabbed her secretary to allow the paramedics to take over. The paramedics hoisted the stretcher into the waiting ambulance as Renee held onto Brenda.

“Where are you taking my husband?” Brenda shouted at the EMS crew.

The fire investigator spoke up. “To the morgue, Ma’am. We need the medical examiner to perform an autopsy. This will confirm the cause of death.”

“What for? It’s not like he had a heart attack,” she yelled, “I don’t want my husband cut up.”

“I know how you must feel, Mrs. Johnson. We’re all sorry for your loss but we have strong evidence that suggests arson. That makes this a homicide,” said the fire marshal. “The ME will conduct a blood test to look for the presence of carbon monoxide. Then we’ll know if your husband was alive when the fire started and succumbed to smoke inhalation.”

“Who cares about that?” cried Brenda, “It won’t bring Jerome back. My husband and my baby are gone. You can never understand how I feel.”

The fire marshal explained to Brenda that the rescue team had not found her baby’s body yet. “We’re doing everything we can, Ma’am. But we need the ME’s report as soon as possible,” explained Marshall Fuentes, “It’ll reveal valuable information so we can bring whoever did this to justice. It’s possible your baby could have been abducted by whoever started this fire.”

Long after they took her husband’s body away, Brenda stood there looking disoriented as the tears steadily flowed down her face. She walked around the yard in front of her house in a daze—speechless. Brenda tried to scream but no sound came out of her mouth. She could hear the noise from the ambulance siren until it faded off into the distance. She detected a strong stench of smoke that lingered in the air. But to Brenda this was not the pleasant smell of a wood burning fire on a chilly night after the fire has gone out. It was the putrid smell of death. Brenda didn’t notice the stares from curious onlookers that still collected along the sidewalk around her house. She felt Dr. Renee and Detective Hamilton’s presence close by, but she was not able to make out the mumbled sounds of their voices as they spoke to her. Then, she heard a loud shriek as if it came from a wounded animal—at least that’s what her brain had registered. A distorted image of someone’s face appeared as a gray shadow in front of her eyes. This face was the last thing Brenda saw before everything went blank and she felt her legs give way.

Chapter 24
 

T
he guard in front of Gallaudet University had noticed a darkly clad driver getting out of an SUV, and looking around suspiciously as he left something on the curb in front of the gate. Then, the driver had dashed back to his SUV and sped off. The guard left his station and went outside the gate to investigate. To his shock, he saw that the driver had left a baby on the curb and the guard squatted down and gently lifted the infant. He went back inside the booth and called Central Administration to report that someone had just left a baby at the gates. “Call the authorities,” said the guard, “I have an abandoned baby out here that some idiot just drove up and left on the sidewalk.”

“Oh my God! Who left it?” asked the secretary in Central Administration.

“Don’t know. The person was gone before I could open my door,” said the guard, “But somebody better come out here ASAP and get this kid ‘cause he needs immediate attention.”

“All right, All right. I’ll call the police to see if anybody’s reported a missing infant and then I’ll call child protective services. Even if someone has filed a report with the police, child protective services will still require proper identification. I‘m sure the police will wanna talk to you when they get here.”

“Fine, but I don’t know what to tell ‘em. Like I said I didn’t see much. I couldn’t even make out the license plate but I do know the car was a black SUV. Looked like a Chevy model to me.”

“Well, that’s something. I’ll send Rebecca out to your booth right now to get the baby.”

“Good,” said the guard and hung up.

Rebecca drove down to the guard’s booth, retrieved the baby and took him to the administration building where several University officials waited for the police and a social worker to arrive to pick up the infant.

When the call from Gallaudet University came into the police station, the authorities immediately notified Child and Family Services’ Intake Division at 400 6
th
Street in Southwest. They had not yet received any report of a missing infant. Less than thirty minutes later, Miss Angela Shepherd, a social worker from Youth Division, accompanied by a uniformed officer, arrived at Gallaudet University. While the police officer drove down to the front gate to question the guard, Miss Shepherd went to the ladies room and attended to the infant’s immediate needs with clean diaper and fresh clothing. She returned to the secretary’s office and sat down to feed the infant a bottle of already prepared formula while she waited for the officer to come back. After the baby had finished the bottle, Miss Shepherd propped him up in the car seat that she had brought along and took out her Polaroid camera and snapped a few pictures of the abandoned baby.

“What happens to the kid now?” asked the secretary who had placed the call.

“Well, we don’t know who he belongs to and no one’s reported him missing. Right now he goes to foster care until a legitimate relative steps forward and can prove who they claim to be,” answered the social worker as she removed the baby from the car seat and held him in her arms. “Since the little fellow can’t make it easy for us and simply tell us his name and where he lives, I’m going to Court first thing in the morning to report a John Doe,” said Miss Shepherd. “I’ll ask the Court’s permission to release the baby’s picture to the media where it’ll be seen on television and in newspapers. Hopefully, someone will recognize him. Don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can to find his folks.” The secretary nodded, visibly relieved.

Miss Shepherd patted the baby gently on the back as she explained. “As soon as we get the Court’s approval or until we receive new information, Officer Benson will do a TV broadcast for unidentified abandoned children and show his picture under a ‘Do You Know This Child?’ caption,” said the social worker. “It’ll list the contact information and I hope someone from his family sees it in time.”

“He’s a cute little guy,” said the secretary, smiling at the baby from behind her desk, “What if no one contacts the agency in time?”

“That creates a big problem,” Miss Shepherd said, frowning. “Child and Family Services will keep the case in a hold status for only five days. If a relative produces the proper identification within that five-day holding period, the child can be released to them without much hassle. But after our holding period, it could take as long as six weeks to get through the courts no matter what anybody says or does. I’d hate to see the little fellow separated from his family that long.”