Garage Sale Stalker (Garage Sale Mysteries) (9 page)

CHAPTER 15

B
ack in his office,
Adam studied the two snapshots taken at the morning sales. Not bad, working new clues on a stalled case and meeting a cute girl at the same time. He thought about Hannah… beautiful and personable Hannah, good to look at and fun to be around and...

Straightening in his chair, Adam pushed away this intruding distraction, slid the photos aside and ran the five license plates through DMV on his computer. Always uncomfortable about coincidences, he wanted logical explanations. Even if a connection existed between the sales and the burglaries, Mrs. Shannon’s “Regulars” might not be involved at all. It was a long-shot, but that was detective work for you: tracking down every possibility to uncover the one that clicked.

He chuckled at the nick-names she’d given her Regulars. She was something else! To his annoyance, he now found himself using them as if they were their real monikers.

Running these vehicle license numbers would net him the vehicle’s registration number and whether the car was stolen, as well as the owner’s name and address. Using these names, he then looked up their drivers’ licenses, learned their date of birth, whether their license was current or suspended and a review of their driving record. He would then run each name through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, which chronicled vast criminal data from stolen cars to missing children, including outstanding arrest warrants.

First he typed Englishman’s plate into the Virginia DMV system: Nigel Ridley on Audmar Drive in McLean, vehicle 2009 Ford Taurus, not stolen and a few minor traffic violations.

Next Adam entered Stevedore’s tag: Robert Belford on Lost Acre Lane in Great Falls, vehicle a 2010 Dodge Caravan and no significant traffic citations.

The Yugoslavian’s info produced his name as Vladimere Karwoski, address on Abbotsford Drive in Vienna, vehicle a 2008 Ford pickup truck with a previous suspended license for DUI, reinstated the previous year.

Duchess came next: Matilda Verling on Arnon Chapel Road in Great Falls, driving a 2010 Lincoln and with no adverse record.

Last was Swordsman: Ralph Forbes on Woodruff in Arlington, driving a 2004 Honda van with another clean driving record.

Printing it all out, Adam paper-clipped the Forbes and Verling information to the photos Mrs. Shannon snapped at the sale. She seemed pretty sharp for an old broad.

Though none of these might be suspects at all, at the sales he took a good look at her Regulars. First impressions were tricky, but experience taught detectives to hone and explore their intuition, while backing it with solid evidence. The knack was pursuing the hunch while remaining open to other facts pointing in new directions. No blinders.

None of the names pulled up rap sheets on the National Crime Information Center, but for some reason, he liked Forbes for these crimes. Mrs. Shannon’s uneasiness about the man underscored Adam’s own impression since she’d described the others as “colorful,” but Forbes as “strange.” He’d start with Forbes.

Studying the man’s Arlington address, he pulled out a book map and pinpointed the location. Next, he dialed the Arlington County Clerk, explained who he was and inquired about the owner of record of that property: an Orville Thompson with a California address and phone number.

Adam began punching in his number but stopped midway. Some crimes had invisible tentacles involving layers of additional people. What if the landlord were in on the scam? Alerting him to police interest blew any chance of surprise. Adam also knew people tended to trust a female voice on the phone. He strolled down the hall to his favorite secretary, Adrienne, described his dilemma, and asked for her help getting the information.

Adrienne agreed. Smiling broadly at him, she dialed the number he handed her and heard a man’s voice say, “Hello.”

“Mr. Thompson?” she inquired.

“Yes.”

“I’m a secretary here in Virginia updating property ownership information and I just need to verify a few things. Do you still own a house located at 5562 Woodruff in Arlington County? ”

“Why, yes I do. Is anything wrong? ”

“No, Sir, I’m just collecting information to update our current records. Is that still a rental property?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you know the name of your current tenant?”

“Actually, a real estate company handles all that since I’m out here on the west coast. My parents lived there for 40 years before they died and I’m hanging onto the property until the housing market improves. Are prices there coming back up?”

“Up then down then up again, always a roller coaster,” she said. “Would you mind giving us the rental company’s name and phone number?”

“Sure, glad to do it. Wait just a minute while I find it.” He did. She thanked Mr. Thompson, hung up the phone and showed Adam the information.

They grinned at their plot’s success! “The realty company probably isn’t in on this either, but subpoenaing their info would cause suspicion. Would you mind making one more call?”

“Actually, you’re in luck,” Adrienne volunteered, giving Iverson her most dazzling smile, “because I happen to know someone who works there, so you might not need that subpoena if I get lucky.” She dialed the local rent-management company and was put through to her friend, who described Ralph Forbes as a renter at that address for ten months of a one-year lease. A model tenant with no complaints and on-time rent payments.

“Did he fill out any forms for you?”

“Sure did. All our renters do so we can run a credit check to protect our landlords.”

“Could you e-mail or FAX me that information?”

After a hesitation, Adrienne’s friend said, “No, but I’ll read it to you.”

Wishing their business relationship could blossom into a personal one, Adrienne basked in Adam’s attention as he lavished deserved praise for her nerve, innovation and buddy-in-the-right-place connection. Then he grabbed the information she’d copied and strolled half way down the hall before her expectant smile faded.

Reading as he walked, Adam noticed Forbes listed his occupation as “student,” hence no employer. His previous residence was Paramus, New Jersey. Also the location of his bank reference. Person and relationship to notify in case of emergency was “Fred Forbes, brother” at the Woodruff Street address in Arlington. NCIC showed nothing for Forbes, but local police sometimes had another take. Adam dialed the Paramus police department and identified himself.

“I’m looking for information about a 23-year-old Ralph E. Forbes, listing previous address as 2124 Bonfort Street in Paramus. Do you have anything local on this guy?”

“Here’s Ralph E. Forbes at that address, but per his birth date, he’s 55… maybe the father?”

“Could be. Nothing on the younger one?”

“Ah, this older one has some blips: mostly misdemeanors and a couple of short jail stints for DUI. Oh wait, here comes the one you want, Ralph E. Forbes, Jr., a sealed juvenile file from six years ago. That’s about right if he’s 23 now, he was 17 then. And here’s something: shoplifting arrest in l999 and burglary in 2000, but charges dropped.”

“A criminal family profile?”

“Not a Mafia name but hey, you’re raised in it, you step in it. You don’t need to be mobbed up for that. You want me to send this to you?”

Adam did, printed out the resulting information and added it to the papers on his desk.

Time for a little off-duty surveillance. Finding Woodruff Street on the map, Adam drove just over the Fairfax County border to one of North Arlington’s modest old residential neighborhoods.

Any discovery here counted as research only, because Fairfax County jurisdiction stopped at the Arlington County line. On the other hand, if nothing surfaced here useful to Fairfax County, he could still mention his findings at the multi-jurisdictional monthly meeting where adjacent-county criminal investigators compared notes on crimes, suspects and arrests.

Forbes’ Honda van was not visible on the street in front of the house but might be parked in the detached closed garage beside it. Adam pulled to the curb, parked unobtrusively among other cars along the street and pretended to read a newspaper as he watched the house.

He hadn’t long to wait. Forbes and the girl walked from the house and entered the closed garage via a people door. Five minutes passed before the motorized garage door lifted and the van backed out. Adam followed them at a safe distance as they drove to an upscale Arlington County neighborhood and stopped at a moving sale.

When the two emerged from their van, Adam did a double take. Forbes now wore a convincing brown wavy wig and compatible moustache. Red hair, cut in a bob style, transformed the girl dramatically. These deliberate disguises raised a red flag for Adam.

The girl went into the sale first while Forbes rummaged for something in the back of their van. A few minutes later, he followed her into the house. Locking his own car as he climbed out, Adam went inside also. Thanks to the Shannon connection, he knew the sale routine now, and he wandered among the rooms, ostensibly shopping while tailing his quarry.

Common at such sales were signs on closets or locked rooms that read “Do Not Enter” or “Nothing in Here for Sale.” Most bedroom door locks could be opened effortlessly with a simple tool the size of a toothpick, easily concealed in one’s hand. As Adam climbed the stairs to the second floor, he pretended to look the other way as Forbes emerged from one of these closed rooms and sauntered nonchalantly down the hall to shop in the open rooms. The harried couple giving the sale mistakenly posted nobody upstairs to watch buyers.

Adam lingered upstairs long enough after Forbes left to notice the girl ease out of the other closed room. Her bulky purse hung heavily from a shoulder strap. Did it bulge more than when she arrived? Back downstairs, Adam noticed they left the sale separately, pretending not to know each other. Peering out from the corner of a window in the house, he saw them meet down the street at their van.

Returning to his unmarked police car, he recorded the sale address and eyed their car while pretending to study a magazine. As they drove away, he followed at a distance, back to their house. They parked in the garage and its automatic door closed behind them. When they left the garage for their house, they looked to neighbors exactly as when they originally started out. For Adam, this subterfuge and clandestine behavior at the sale clinched criminal activity.

As he waited to see what they’d do next, Adam turned on his Computer Aided Dispatch and checked the screen. Half an hour later, they came out, got into their van and drove, this time toward McLean. As he followed, something else on the CAD caught his eye. A burglary reported at the very moving sale they’d just left. Wallet missing $1,200 in cash, no doubt profits from the sale which the owners had temporarily stashed for safe-keeping in one of the upstairs “locked” rooms.

Was what he’d seen sufficient probable-cause to toss their house for evidence? If he were an Arlington County cop, he’d try for a search warrant or at least put active surveillance on their activities. If caught red-handed at a house they’d earlier cased, the warrant was a given.

But with this jurisdictional issue, Adam could either alert the local Arlington County police to take over now or he could try to catch Forbes committing another crime in Fairfax County.

He decided to sit tight another half hour to see what they did next.

CHAPTER 16

F
rom Woodruff A
venue, Forbes
and the girl drove down Chesterbrook to Kirby Road, a right on Chain Bridge and down to the Dogwoods. Sure enough, another target: an estate sale run by professionals. Even Adam gaped at the mansion’s size and grandeur.

Forbes got out first, now clean shaven, wearing a blond wig and different shirt and shoes. He strolled toward the sale. A few minutes later, the girl emerged, now also a blond with short, curly hair and clad in slacks and a jacket. Changing clothes in the van, hidden by the vehicle’s deeply tinted windows, resulted in transformations so effective that sellers at the previous sale would describe their burglars
very
differently from those at this house. Clever!

Adam considered the link between garage sales and the subsequent burglaries at the same addresses. While a light-fingered thief might pocket anything handy at a sale, he’d need an accurate sketch for the big heist when he returned. Under the watchful eyes of pros in charge here, this pair who just stole easy pickings at the Arlington sale more likely cased this place for a future burglary. Adam couldn’t call for backup
before
they committed a crime and, unlike their activity at the previous sale, this might be a mapping operation only. Though suspicious,
sketching
at an estate sale broke no law!

Before starting into the sale himself, Adam realized his two suspects had seen him numerous times in the past few hours. He might spook them by appearing yet again. Unprepared, he glanced around the car for an impromptu disguise. Borrowing Forbes’ strategy, he covered his hair with a baseball cap, slipped on a light windbreaker and donned sun glasses before appraising the results in the rearview mirror. Not a total redo, but not
bad!

I
nside, the gleaming white marble
foyer, gorgeous flower
arrangements in stunning vases, expensive Oriental rugs, custom furniture and unique, pricey knick-knacks impressed Adam, as he guessed they would everyone who entered. The house was so very large that Adam moved fast to find either Forbes or the girl, who had deliberately split in different directions. With four rambling stories to cover by himself, he realized he couldn’t be everywhere at once. Nor did he choose to alert this pair that he shadowed them. Reluctantly, he resigned himself to wait for them outside in his car.

How long would it take to map a house this size? Unable to do it all from memory, they’d need to draw a layout shortly after their visit when details were fresh. The resulting sketches were likely kept at their house, together with loot from previously burgled houses. If cops could get into Forbes’ house, he felt sure they’d find evidence to take these two down.

Cops understood frustration. You invested your time, risked
your life and caught y
our perp, but could you c
onvict him?
Sure, law protected the innocent, but the prospect of losing these
arrogant young criminals irritated A
dam. They would keep
scoring, eventually graduating to greater criminal activity, because that’s how it worked. The cockier they got and the riskier their heists, the likelier an encounter with a homeowner that could end disastrously for that innocent party. Some called it the “Las Vegas syndrome” because however much you won was never enough once you fancied yourself on an unbeatable roll.

Adam thought of Bernard Welch’s legendary case that rocked Fairfax County in l980. Posing as an antique dealer, Welch bought a house in Great Falls to use as headquarters for burglarizing wealthy homes over a 20-mile radius. Unbelievably successful, he grew increasingly confident and took ever greater risks. Welch’s own crime spree would have lasted even longer had a home owner not returned unexpectedly to discover him mid-burglary. Michael Halberstam, a cardiac physician, confronted Welch, who shot him twice at close range and then ran outdoors to escape. Though seriously wounded, Halberstam dragged himself to his car, attempting to drive to a hospital, when he spotted Welch in the road and deliberately ran him over.

Both critically injured men were rushed separately to Sibley
Memorial Hospital,
their ironic connection unknow
n. Doctors
worked in different operating rooms trying to save each of their lives. They succeeded with Welch but not Halberstam. Welch received sentences totaling 143 years for felony murder, second-degree burglary with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand larceny, while the community lost a celebrated physician and the Halberstams, a beloved family member.

Adam’s reflections halted abruptly as he glanced up to see Forbes and then the girl exit the mansion separately and return independently to their van. Follow them again? He looked at his watch. No, time to call it a day. He needed to get ready for his first date with Hannah tonight and he wouldn’t miss that! Warm thoughts of her floated into his mind. Not just her great looks, which he’d noted immediately, but her appealing personality. She was smart, funny, clever and desirable... He smiled. She’d needle him when she learned he’d spent his off-duty afternoon still working a case.

His watch showed 5:00 p.m.. Just enough time to go home, shower, shave and pick her up at 7:00. Thinking fast, he called the McLean sub-station and explained the circumstances of this case to Jake Torres, a friend who had duty tonight. “ We need to watch out for Forbes’ tag number anywhere in Fairfax County. Don’t apprehend but follow and observe. Look, I’m off tonight but call my pager if anything breaks on this Forbes case. That’s right, day or night.”