the last one last job, part 8: dupre

based on an original proposal by Prof. Dan Leo

script by roy dismas and roger "peg leg" wilson

illustrations by eddie el greco and roy dismas

for previous chapter, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

mona began reading serendipity sanchez's report. 150-3 dupre : the body of "wendell dupre" was discovered behind a dumpster behind the safeway on --------- ocean boulevard on the morning of october 11 ------ by laura sanchez, an assistant manager who was first to arrive at the store that morning. ms sanchez stated she arrived at the store around 6 a m, in order to open the store at 7 a m. ms sanchez stated she called 911 on her personal phone immediately on discovering the body. she then waited for the respondent officers outside and did not open the store. responding officers were ruby ghandi and falcherbia johnson, from station 68. they confirmed the body as a probable homicide and notified station. ms sanchez told the officers she had found three bodies previously on the grounds of this store, and others at other stores she had worked at, and described herself as an "old hand from the rio grande" at finding them. ms sanchez also joked with the officers that she would be accused of murdering the victims themselves, if she kept finding them "piled up liked this". detectives robert roberts and jing chan arrived with a full crew and sealed off the area at 6:37. ocean boulevard was quiet. no spectators had gathered. at 6:45 two joggers passed on ocean boulevard. detective chan stopped them, took their names and addresses and photographed them. they claimed they had not passed the store since the previous morning. they declined to be fingerprinted or give a dna sample. detective chan allowed them to go. (see appendix a) another employee, anna marshall arrived. the detectives asked ms sanchez to open the store and detective chan entered the store with anna marshall. detective roberts remained outside with the crew processing and searching the area. ms sanchez also remained outside. she told detective roberts she did not “want any surprises” and lit and smoked a cigarette. detective roberts asked ms sanchez for the butt when she finished so that it could rechecked against any others found in the area. ms sanchez professed to find this request hugely amusing. detective chan made a search of the store, including the storage areas and the employees areas but found no bodies or anything immediately identifiable as indicative of violent or criminal activity. technician-2 jennifer o’hara made a quick match of the victim’s dna. with “wendell dupre”, an individual who had been booked for indecent exposure by the bart police on august 31 of the same year. at that time no dna matches had been made for him and he had no federal or state i d. he had been released on september 7 after the original complainant, who had given her name as “charity jeffetrson” could not be reached at the address - 653 19th street, oakland - that she had given the bart police. ( enquiries after the discovery of “wendell dupre’s” body would fail to find any trace of either “wendell dupre” or “charity jefferson” - see pp 19-23 for enquiries on “dupre” and p 31 for enquiries on “charity jefferson”) detective roberts asked ms sanchez if she was certain as to the discovery of the previous three bodies and if she remembered the dates and if she remembered the names of the detectives who had responded to those incidents. ms sanchez confirmed the three findings, was not sure as to the dates - she thought the most recent had been about 14 months previously, but could not remember the names of the detectives on any of the incidents. detective roberts thanked her and then made requests to db re the three incidents. first prior incident - ocean boulevard safeway - (pi1-ob): deceased was an african-american male, approx. 33 years old, unidentified at the time. of discovery. probable homicide. stabbed in chest. no weapon recovered. further research has identified him as claude jones, born in massillon ohio, served in the united states army from 20—— to 20——, received honorable discharge. numerous arrests for drunkenness and vagrancy, possession of class 4 drugs, and level 5 - 7 sex offenses in the cities of cleveland ohio, columbus ohio, and memphis tennessee . last recorded was 2 years ago. jones was a regular at the holy ghost mission on 18th street and the jerry macdonald homeless center on turk st and pierce st. he was last seen at the holy ghost mission two nights before his body was found. staff at both places could not recall seeing him more than a year before decease. investigation is ongoing as to jones’s whereabouts between his last arrest in memphis and his surfacing in san francisco. *** with her red pen, mona circled the words “further research” and “wrote above them “when/by who” and circled “investigation is ongoing” and added “by who”. *** second prior incident - ocean boulevard safeway - (pi2-ob): unidentified asian male, approx 26 years. dentistry indicates native chinese, probably szechuan. clothing indicates recent arrival in usa - probably very recent. no evidence of homicide. *** third prior incident - ocean boulevard safeway - (pi3-ob): caucasian female, identified as stella simmons, 42, extensive record for vagrancy, possession of drugs and paraphernalia, prostitution, indecency, child endangerment. drug overdose. no evidence of homicide. *** detectives roberts and chan did not follow up on ms laura sanchez’s statement - made voluntarily without questioning - that she had found other bodies at other stores. in light of further developments this may be worth pursuing. serendipity sanchez had initialed this “ss”. mona annotated it “maybe”. *** no money or wallet were found on the body of wendell dupre. his pants pockets had been turned inside out. several photos and pieces of paper with writing were found on the site, and fiber analysis confirmed they had been in his pockets. these items were the first that were later determined to indicate the existence of the possible serial murderer “zombie 5.748” to be designated hereafter as z-5. *** all this was mostly familiar to mona, and she was tempted to skip ahead, but she kept on. she wished she could have a cigarette. but she did decide to have another cup of coffee. to be continued

the last one last job, part 7: enter serendipity

based on an original proposal by Prof. Dan Leo

script by roy dismas and roger "peg leg" wilson

illustrations by eddie el greco and roy dismas

for previous chapter, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

serendipity sanchez had come up through the ranks quickly, and at eighteen, was the youngest detective in the san francisco homicide division. she had never been afraid of hard work, and now she plopped a report down on mona's desk as thick as a pile of newspapers hot off the presses with an extra in 1939. a report on the zombie negative 5.748 murders. that mona had requested sixteen hours ago. mona ran her thumb along the edges of the report. "this looks very impressive, sanchez. before i get into it, can i ask you one question?" "of course." "the last percentage number we had for one perp was 64.7 - something like that. i gave it to the media. " mona looked at serendipity. "is that number up or down?" "up." "how up?" "to 89.2." "i see. and what's your number for coming up with this 89.2 in a week?" "i don't give a number in a report - i would say about 10 or 11 percent." mona looked out the rain-streaked window at bryant street . "that's not very good." serendipity stood a little straighter. "you asked me - that's what i think." "of course i want you to tell me what you think." mona continued looking out the window. "the d a and the chief of police are very interested in this case." "that's only to be expected," serendipity answered. mona turned back to serendipity. "and as usual are free with their suggestions." serendipity made no reply. "suggestions like bringing in somebody from outside. just as a quote consultant unquote." "no way!" mona smiled. "of course it's not up to us to decide. if the chief wants to bring somebody in… but i talked them out of it. for now." "thank you." "oh, i didn't do it for you. i hate bringing outside people in, at any level. it just confuses things." mona rolled her eyes a little. "especially when you consider who they were thinking of bringing in." serendipity was a little confused. surely mona didn't mean… "you mean…" "dave turner." "dave turner! that asshole!" "yes, my feelings exactly. all right, sanchez, while i'm looking at this report - " mona paused, and glanced at the first page under the cover page. " i see we are off to a good start, using code z-5 instead of the whole zombie whatever…" "yes, i saved some paper that way." "while i am reading it you can start trying to find our friend z-5. you have code orange for everything, don't bother with any more reports until i ask for one… contact me at - " - mona took her own phone and quickly programmed it - " maz-5, got that?" "maz-5." "good. let's get on it, so we won't have to worry about dave turner or anybody else." mona looked back down at the report lying flat on her desk. serendipity turned and left the office. she walked rapidly down the hall. "dave turner!" she thought. she had had one encounter with dave turner and it was enough. but she was almost relieved. it could have been mack treacher. *** report on the series of possibly linked homicides : 150-3- dupre, 150-24-wardell, 150-33-gomez, 150- 47-chancellor, 150-48-jane doe, 150-66-john doe, 150-67- martindale. link code (within this report only) : z-5 prepared by: serendipity sanchez, detective, homicide part 1: homicides considered individually 150- 3 - dupre p 2 150- 24 - wardell p 33 150 - 33 - gomez p 61 150 - 47 - chancellor p 94 150 - 48 - jane doe p 130 150 - 66 - john doe p 141 150 - 67 - martindale p 149 part 2: consideration of possible connections p 190 connections p 191 statistical analysis p 203 part 3: probability of 2 - 7 perpetrators p 207 probabilities p 213 part 4 : probability of single perpetrator p 218 part 5: effect of media coverage/involvement p 230 summary and action plan p 247 mona prided herself on reading every word and every number in the reports she got. it was one of the reasons for her rise to head of homicide. but maybe she needed a cup of coffee first. *** a few short blocks away, mack treacher's face lay flat on the counter of the booth in the 953 club on 7th street. boom boom shifted mack's head so he could breathe a little easier as he slept. "he's not coming around," she told ashlee. "he's just going to have to sleep it off." ashlee checked the time on her phone. "i don't know if i can wait for that. i have to be…" "honey, it doesn't matter where you have to be. just go. i'll take care of him." "are you sure?" "yes. give me your number. if i get anything useful out of him i'll let you know." "i got a couple of coaches coming in with a playbook. i told them i'd meet them at the airport." "already? they don't waste any time." "no, not if you are first round. even- even if you are only number eleven." "all right, just go then." "i can trust you?" "of course. if you can't trust me, who can you trust? i work for the bugle. truth is my business." "all right." ashlee got up quickly, and after one last look at mack with his head down on the booth, headed for the door. as soon as she got outside, her phone rang and she took it out. she had expected it to be from the london broilers coaches she was going to meet but it was from serendipity sanchez. finally calling her back. 8. dupre

the last one last job, part 6: "you never know"

based on an original proposal by Prof. Dan Leo

script by roy dismas and roger "peg leg" wilson

illustrations by rhoda penmarq and danny delacroix

for previous chapter, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

"really?" boom boom took another sip of her drink. "what about - the professor?" the professor! it took mack a couple of seconds to realize that boom boom had asked him about the professor. if boom boom knew about the professor, then who else knew about him? "you know about the professor?" "you might be surprised what i know," boom boom replied. "it's the twenty-first century," ashlee added. "everybody knows everything. well, almost everything." mack blinked a few times. "but not about the professor. the professor couldn't do what he does if everybody knew about him." "you mean like - what he did in -" "don't say it!" mack shouted. the bartender looked over at him. the customer at the bar kept staring straight ahead. boom boom laughed. "okay, mack, calm down." mack took a deep breath. he looked a little embarrassed. "dad," said ashlee. "everybody knows about the professor." "they do? how?" "he's featured prominently in all the books about you." "books?" but mack looked as if he was starting to remember. "yeah, the books about your adventures. that used to be best sellers - " "but," added boom boom, "not so much any more." "who wrote them?" "dave wilderberg wrote them," said ashlee. "you remember dave? he used to come over to the apartment in ghirardelli square back in -" "oh, yeah, yeah. used to drink the imported japanese beer." "yes, i can remember tripping over the boxes full of empties on my way to school in the morning." "he sure could drink some imported japanese beer." "yes he could." "and these books, they were about - " "the professor, his time machine or whatever he called it - going back and forth to ancient egypt and mars and all that -" "jeez - i hope none of it was true -" "don't worry," said boom boom. "i don't think anybody believed any of it anyway." "i guess it's okay then." mack rubbed his eyes and then looked around. "i could use another drink. just one more." boom boom signaled to the bartender. "no problem, mack. one more, two more, three more, whatever it takes." the bartender came over and boom boom ordered another whiskey for mack. ashlee looked straight ahead and took a sip of her orange juice. "that's enough about dave wilderberg and ancient history," said boom boom when the whiskey was delivered and the bartender back at his post, "let's get back to serious business. the zombie 5.748 murders. they don't wrong a bell at all?" "he's already said twenty times they don't," ashlee snapped. "just checking. i mean he is sobering up. a little." the lone customer at the bar now got up and left. he headed straight to the door without saying anything to the bartender or looking over at mack, boom boom and ashlee. boom boom turned and watched him go. when he opened the door they could see that the rain had picked up again, and a little wind and rain blew into the bar. "that guy look familiar?" boom boom asked. "not to me," said ashlee. "what guy?" asked mack. "excuse me," boom boom called to the bartender. "yeah?" the bartender came quickly over to the near end of the bar. he pretty obviously enjoyed getting close to boom boom and even more to ashlee. "you know that guy?" boom boom asked him. "the one that just left?" the bartender hesitated. "no. i never saw him before." "you sure?" "not one hundred percent. but i don't think so." "you got a lot of regular customers in here?" "not so much. it's not really what you call a neighborhood bar." boom boom looked around. the place was pretty bleak, didn't exactly have a warm homey vibe. "huh. so who do you get?" the bartender shrugged. "i don't know. just people coming and going. sometimes it gets busy at night." "o k thanks. what's your name by the way?" "carl." "pleased to meet you, carl. i'm bella beauregard, i write a column for the bugle." "oh yeah, right." "you read it every day of course." "um - almost every day." "i bet you are more of a standard guy." "well, they -uh -" "have a better sports page, right?" "well, they do! but you know, people bring papers in and leave them here so i read them when things are slow. so i see your column." "that's cool, carl. say, if you read the papers, you must be aware of the vampire 5.748 murders, right?" "yeah, i read some stuff." "any thoughts on it?" "um - not really. he sounds like a pretty bad guy, i guess." "indeed." "i could use one more drink," mack interrupted. "just one more." "sure," boom boom agreed. "bring him another one," she told carl. carl went to get the drink. "let's make this the last one for real," ashlee said. she had finished her orange juice. "we'll just be getting him totally drunk all over again. if he can walk, let's find someplace else with no temptation, like a coffee shop." boom boom shrugged. "we can go up to my place - if he can stand up and you can get him there." ashlee thought a second. "fine with me." boom boom changed the subject. "that guy who left - he was in an awful hurry." "was he?" "looked like it to me. maybe he heard us talking about the vampire. maybe - he was the vampire." "you never know, do you?" ashlee agreed. she looked over at carl behind the bar. "maybe he's the vampire. he seems interested in our conversation." "i think he's interested in you." "but you never know, right?" "no," boom boom agreed. "you never known do you, dad? - fuck!" mack was face down on the counter of the booth again. 7. enter serendipity

the last one last job, part 5: "how classified can it be?"

based on an original proposal by Prof. Dan Leo

script by roy dismas

illustrations by eddie el greco

for previous chapter, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

boom boom was not too happy about ashlee showing up, but what was she going to do? at least she was helpful in getting mack over to the 953 club on seventh street. in fact she practically carried him over single handed, and boom boom was able to stay under her umbrella and hardly get wet. the 953 club was almost empty, just as boom boom had hoped. there were no customers in any of the booths, and only one at the bar talking at the bartender. the customer turned and stared at boom boom and ashlee as they dragged mack in and propped him up in a booth. the bartender followed his gaze, and then came out from behind the bar and over to the booth. the customer, a fat man in a cheap suit, continued to stare. what was the big deal? "can i help you ladies?" "no thank you," boom boom answered. "i think we've got everything under control. this gentleman needs to rest a while. maybe a nice glass of tomato juice or v-8 juice would suit him." "i have my own special recipe that i think would be just the thing." "thank you, that would be very nice." the customer kept gawking at them and the bartender was in no hurry to get his special recipe. it was a bar on seventh street, hadn't they ever seen a drunk before? suddenly the great light dawned on boom boom - they weren't interested in her or mack but in ashlee. "anything else?" the bartender finally asked. "uh - i'll have a kahlua and cream. i guess it's not too early." "if we're open it's not too early." "you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning," the fat man at the bar put in. he was ignored. "how about you, ms treacher?" the bartender asked ashlee. "sorry i can't offer you anything too strong. i got a license, you know?" "you got gatorade?" "uh - that's one thing we don't have. we have milk." "how about orange juice?" "yeah, we got all kinds of orange juice." "i'll have your most organic orange juice." while all this palavering was going on, mack was gradually slipping out of boom boom's hands holding him upright in the booth. she pushed him deeper into the booth and sat down beside him. the bartender still could not tear himself away. "my pleasure. it isn't every day we get a first round draft pick in here." "uh, thanks, " ashlee answered. "but - um - it's still kind of a painful memory." "you mean because you fell a little bit? hey, i wish you fell even further." "oh?" "yeah, all the way to the niners." "ha ha. yes, i guess that would have been kind of cool - in its own way." "yeah. well i'll get that order. special recipe, orange juice, kahlua and cream, right?" "right," boom boom answered. as she turned in the booth to face him she lost her grip on mack and his face hit the table. *** it took about ten minutes - ten long minutes - to get mack's eyes open again and at least some mumbling out of his mouth. they got some of the special recipe down his throat - to no visible effect. boom boom hoped that maybe ashlee would give it up but she just sat sipping her organic orange juice, obviously not going anywhere. at least no other customers had come in. outside the wind and rain had picked up and could be clearly heard in the quiet bar. "fuck this," said boom boom. "let's get some hair of the dog in him." "no argument here," ashlee answered. "excuse me, " boom boom called to the bartender. he and the customer had gone back to muttering with their heads together. "yeah?" "i think a double whiskey might be in order here." "coming right up." "nothing against your special sauce here," boom boom told the bartender when he came over, "but we are a little - just a little pressed for time, you know?" "sure, sure." he put the whiskey down. "how's the orange juice?" he asked ashlee. "good, thanks. i'll have another when i finish this one." mack snatched up the double whiskey and got it down in one gulp. "ahh ----." "better now?" boom boom asked him. "a little." he rubbed his eyes. "ready to talk? actually, you don't even have to talk, just listen." "i guess." the bartender returned to his post. the customer, now acting nonchalant, kept his eyes straight ahead. *** "you read the papers, mack? you read about the zombie negative 5.748 murders?" "huh?" "that's what you said before. let's try to be a little more specific. do you ever read the papers?" "hell, no. they're nothing but lies." "you don't even read my column? i'm hurt. do you read the news online?" "that's even more and bigger lies." "that is certainly true." boom boom reached into her coat which she had hung on the edge of the booth and took out a slightly soggy copy of the paper she worked for, the bugle. she spread it out on the table. the headline read: 5-7-4-8. it's getting late "i will read you just a little bit: 'district attorney sandi chen and chief homicide detective mona malaika effectively confessed themselves at a total loss yesterday when asked about any progress on the zombie 5.748 murder cases. detective malaika even professed to not understand the term "zombie 5.748" despite the considerable evidence unearthed by this newspaper and the occasional corroboration from other media…" "did you write that?" ashlee interrupted. "sort of. i reported it and the desk cut it to shreds, the way they do." "but is your name on it?" "yes, they were nice enough -" "i need a drink," said mack. "bear with me," boom boom told him. "let's at least get started here." "can't you buy your own drink?" ashlee asked. "i just checked. i must have lost my wallet." "oh? you have any i d in it? anything - anything - " "incriminating?" boom boom asked. "nah, i don't carry around nothing like that. everybody knows who i am -" "maybe everybody used to know who you were," ashlee told him. "there was nothing except a few bucks. that's all i carry on benders. and maybe that was all gone." mack looked down at the empty whiskey glass in front of him. "come on, boom boom, get to the point." ashlee pointed to the paper. "is this zombie 5 7 whatever even real? is anything in the story real?" "i will tell you this - the investigation is real. mona and sandi can blow their smoke, but you can believe they are taking it seriously." "so what's it got to do with us?" "us?" boom boom laughed. "it has nothing to do with you!" "i mean, anything besides mom being on the case? i mean, she is head of homicide." "we've got a tip at the paper - that mack might be involved. but i wanted to hear his side." "oh, please! he may be a total hopeless drunken asshole but he's not some kind of zombie serial killer. and you know it." "the tipster seemed to know quite a bit about him." "right. from those stupid books about him that nobody reads any more." "this person knew a little more than that. real classified stuff." ashlee laughed. "how classified can it be if you know about it?" "you'd be surprised." "very surprised." "how about it, mack?" boom boom took a sip of her kahlua and cream. "ever hear of operation canebrake bluesboy?" "say what?" "bogota - 2002. mongolia - 1999. ring any bells?" "huh?" "don't play dumb." "i need a drink. that's all i know." "really?" boom boom took another sip of her drink. "what about - the professor?" 6. "you never know"