The Body on Ortega Highway (6 page)

She searches Seattle’s
on-line phone directory and starts dialing the phone numbers of the
many James Smith’s listed in the metro area. She finally connects
with the twin brother.

She tells him, “Remember me?
Clarissa Santy? I dated your brother?”

“Yes, of course. I’m surprised to
hear from you.”

“I’m a Detective at Orange County’s
Sheriff’s Department.”

“Really? Good for you.”

“
I’m investigating the murder
of two girls whose bodies were dumped on Ortega
Highway.”

“
I read about that.
Didn’t they have their arms chopped
off?”

“Yes. It was very gruesome.”

“How will I be able to help you
with this?”

“Your twin brother has become a
person of interest.”

“
John? No way. He’d never do
anything like that.”

“
When was the last time you
talked to him?”

“I haven’t seen him for seven
years.”

“Seven years? Why so long?”

“
John is schizophrenic. He’s
hard to keep track of.”

Clarissa asks, “How can you lose
contact with your own brother? Especially your twin?”

He says defensively, “I’ve
tried to help him. For years. Do you really think I haven’t? He’s
been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. He gets better and
discharges himself. There aren’t enough community resources to help
him remain stable and he goes off his medication and has to go
right back to the hospital again. He views me like I’m the enemy.
Like I’m the bad guy. When all I’ve done is loved him and tried to
get him the right treatment. It’s heartbreaking for me.”

“
I’m sorry, James. For you
and your family.”

“
I have kids I have to think
about, too. They’re afraid of him.”

“
Why? Has he hurt
them?”

“
No. They just think ‘he’s
weird’.”

Clarissa tells him about the phone
calls she’s been getting.

James says, “He always did
like doing those phony surveys. I guess he never out-grew it.
Sounds like he’s taken things to a whole new level. I’m sorry that
he’s been bothering you.”

“
Okay. James.
What
’s the last address you have for him?
Where was he living?”

“
He was in a half-way house
in Fullerton. By the college. I’ll have to go look for the
address.”

“Okay. I need you to send me the
most recent pictures of him that you have. I also want a list of
all the psychiatric hospitals he’s stayed at.”

“This is going to take some time
gathering everything together.”

“
James, I need this
information right away. Especially the most recent picture of him
that you have. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“
I understand. I’ll send it
to you. What’s your email address?”

Clarissa gives him her email
address and phone number.

James tells her, “Do you
really think he killed those women?”

“I don’t know, James. I hope I’m
wrong.”

“I can’t see him doing something
like that. He’s always liked women.”

Rather than add
her two cents’ worth to his comment, she tells him,
“You really do need to try to find your brother. He’s family, after
all. Even if he is crazy.”

“
Alright, Clarissa. I promise
I’ll do all I can to help the police on this. I’m sorry he’s been
bothering you. He always liked you. He told me that you were the
love of his life.”

“
It was just puppy love,”
Clarissa says.

“
Not
for him.”

“Didn’t he get married?”

“
Yes. When he was about
twenty. Things went bad for him after they lost their baby. When
the little boy was delivered, he had water on the brain and wasn’t
breathing. The doctor said it was ‘for the best’ that they let the
baby die. John was in the delivery room and grabbed the baby and
did mouth-to-mouth. The baby lived for a few months, but died. John
and his wife sued the OB-GYN. They won their case and the doctor
was reprimanded, but John started drinking heavily after that, and
had trouble holding down a job.”

“Did his wife eventually leave
him?”

“Yes. She said that she was sick of
him sitting around and feeling sorry for himself.”

“That’s cruel. Did she know he was
schizophrenic?”

“He hadn’t been diagnosed with it
yet.”

“When did he start showing
signs?”

“He was about 26. He told me that
sometimes he heard voices and saw things that he knew weren’t
actually there. It scared him.”

“Did he ever try to commit
suicide?”

“
Yes. Once, I found him
passed out on his kitchen floor and called 911.”

“Which hospital did he go to?”

“
UCI.”

“Okay. What year was this?”

“
2007.”

“Okay. I think I’ll try to speak to
his doctor there.”

“I’ll let you know if I come up
with anything to help.”

“
Great. Be sure to send me
those photos. ASAP.”

“Okay. Take care.”

“You, too.”

Chapter
Eleven

James Smith was true to his
word, and
e-mailed her many pictures of his
twin brother. Looking at the old photos, Clarissa remembers what a
funny guy John used to be. What an imagination he had. The stories
he would tell. He did the best impersonations of people. They had
fun hanging out with the other neighborhood kids. ‘That was so very
long ago,’ Clarissa thinks. ‘Another lifetime, it
seems.’

There have been many hang-up
calls since Clarissa stopped picking up her home phone and started
letting the answering machine screen all the calls. ‘What a great
invention an answering machine is’, she thinks. ‘It’s probably the
biggest frustration for obscene phone callers. They must think that
the machines are taking all the fun out of their ‘little hobby’.’
When Clarissa tells Lieutenant Harris about the big break in the
case, she is thrilled that they finally have a lead. The press has
been really pressuring the Sheriff’s Department to come up with a
name and make an arrest. It’s been hard on the girls’ families to
have unanswered questions. It makes the sheriff’s department look
bad. But it is a difficult case since there was such little
physical evidence gathered at the two crime scenes.

*******

Clarissa calls
UCI
’s Behavioral Science Unit and asks to
speak to the doctor who treated Smith in 2007. She tells him that
John is now a person of interest in two murders, and the doctor
faxes to her all of his notes from the sessions he’s had with his
patient.

Reading his case history
makes Clarissa feel sorry for him and his family.
She learns that he was very traumatized when his
19-year-old brother died from epilepsy. John, only eighteen at the
time, was the one who found the body. It was still warm and John
felt guilty that he couldn’t revive him. The doctor thought John
had felt those feelings all over again when he couldn’t save his
baby. He had an older sister who was schizophrenic. She was always
at the computer, “working on her book.” John walked into her room
one day to read what she’d written and was horrified to find that
it was all gibberish. He was afraid that he was going to end up
just like his sister. His mother and twin brother wanted the sister
to go to a psychiatric hospital, but he fought them tooth and nail.
He said he’d take care of her. She ended up committing suicide. He
blamed himself for not allowing her to go to a psychiatric hospital
like his family wanted her to do. Such a sad family.

Clarissa ends up driving over
to the house where he used to live.
The
house she grew up in was on the same street. She knows that his
family sold it years ago, but she tries to imagine all of the pain
he and his family must have gone through. She has brought along a
Jackson Browne cd and listens to a song that begins, “Well, I
looked into a house I once lived in, ‘bout the time I first went on
my own...” She thinks about all those long summer nights when the
neighborhood teenagers would stand around talking until close to
midnight or until their mothers finally told them to come inside.
‘What were we talking about all that time?’ she wonders.

*******

She’s thinking about all this
while she’s making dinner tonight. As she is
taking a roasted chicken out of the oven, her home phone
rings. She jumps when she hears the ring and practically drops the
entire chicken on the kitchen floor.

She turns on the recording
device that the Sheriff’s tech guys installed for her and
picks up the phone.

“Clarice, is that you?”

Clarissa recognizes
John’s voice and says, “My name is
Clarissa.”

“I know.”

“
Not Clarice, like in the
‘Silence of the Lambs’.”

“
I know. I thought you’d
appreciate the humor in it.”

“
There’s nothing funny about
this. What do you want, John?”

“
I’m just calling to ask how
your dog is doing.”

“
Why?”

“He’s so cute. I just love him. He
looks like Eddy on ‘Fraser’.”

“I know.”

“
I hope you’re not thinking
of having this call traced. You wouldn’t betray an old friend like
that would you?”

“
Did you kill those
girls?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I thought it would interest
you.”

“It doesn’t.”

“
Seems to me like it
does.”

“
What do you want from
me?!”

“I want to meet with you.”

“Why?”

“To catch up on old times.”

“
That was ancient
history.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t play hard to
get. We all know what a slut you are. All the boys in the
neighborhood know that.”

“
How can you say such hateful
things?”

“I love you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“
Yes. I do. I know all about
you. I’ve been following your career. I’m your number one
fan.”

“Well, don’t be.”

“Come on, Clarice. I want to see
you again.”

“Forget it.”

“You wouldn’t want me to cut off
your little Gumbo’s arms, now would you?”

“
Leave him out of this. He’s
just an innocent little dog!!”

“You love him, don’t you?”

“Yes. I do.”

“I really don’t want to hurt him. I
like dogs.”

“
Leave him out of
this!!”

“Don’t make me hurt him. I don’t
want to. I like Gumbo.”

“
How do you know his
name?”

“I know all about you.”

“
What do you want me from
me?”

“I want to meet you at the Tustin
High bleachers tonight.”

“Tonight? That’s kind of short
notice.”

“
Meet me in 30
minutes.”

“
I’m busy. That’s too
soon.”

“That’s the deal. Take it or leave
it.”

“I leave it.”

“Don’t hurt me like this.”

“
Stop calling me, John!”
Clarissa says, and slams down the phone.

When the phone rings again,
Clarissa rips
the chord out of the wall. She
calls Ron to tell him what just happened and he says, “Stay where
you are. I’m coming home.”

“
What are we going to do,
Ron?”

“
Stay close to your phone.
I’m on my way home. Call your boss. Tell her what’s just happened.
I want a cop over there right away. You need to have
round-the-clock protection.”

“
Ron, I’m so scared. He wants
to hurt Gumbo.”

“We won’t let that happen.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Clarissa, let me make some calls.
I’m on my way home, sweetheart. Hang in there."

She grabs her cell and calls
her boss to tell her that
John Smith has
just confessed, on tape, to the two murders. Her boss says that
she’s sending someone over right away to watch the house and make
sure she’s okay.

*******

When
Ron comes home, she throws her arms around him. “Don’t leave
me. Don’t you ever leave me.”

“I won’t honey, I promise. I’m here
for you.”

“What are we going to do about
Gumbo?”

“
I think we need to take him
to the vet. At least, he’ll be in a cage and be safe while we’re at
work. We can’t be with him all the time. At least we’ll know he’s
safe.”

“
Okay. I think that’s a good
plan.” She picks up Gumbo and sits down in rocking chair in the
front room, pets him, and starts to cry.

Ron says,
“What are we going to do about you, honey? I’ve never seen you
this frightened. You’re always such a brave little
soldier.”

“Can I go hide somewhere, too?”

“I wish we were back in Savannah on
vacation.”

“Me, too. We were so happy
there.”

“
Come here, sweetheart,” Ron
says. “Give me a hug.”

She puts Gumbo down and walks
over to Ron to hug him.
“Don’t let him get
me.”

“I won’t, honey. I promise.”