Ana

CH 16

Heidi sat in a rental car in the parking lot of the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center reviewing her notes on this bizarre circumstance. This was the second time violence was involved in one of her cases which was almost unheard of in her field. Sure, there was the occasional missing person with claims of alien abduction, but not bloodshed. Something seemed different lately. Even the sightings were more blatant, almost careless.

The main reason for her trip to California was to investigate a sighting in the mountains near Livermore, but she also wanted to check out a strange incident that took place the same day here in San Jose. Might be a connection, might not. Her dad often told her, "Everything in life is connected. It's your job to discern the importance of that connection and how it affects you."

Presently, she was reviewing footage taken by a parking lot security camera that had captured a double homicide two days ago. The local police report she had was sparse, stating only that a criminal had attempted to steal a woman's car and that she had resisted resulting in both the victim and the perpetrator being shot to death.

There were a few oddities that resulted in the security tape making its way to the FBI who in turn shared it with the CIA. Heidi tilted the screen for a better view of the tragic struggle between the middle aged victim and a large, bald man that was forcing his way into her Lexus. Heidi winced when the man pulled out a gun from under his shirt and shot the lady point-blank in the chest. She knew from the file that the woman had a husband and two sons and the wasteful loss tugged at her emotions. It was so unfortunate and a stark reminder that you never know when will be the last time you see a loved one before they are taken away from you.

Heidi put the video on its slowest setting to get a better look at what happened next. She paid close attention to a man in the background wearing a black jacket that was standing next to a very unique looking motorcycle.

Heidi's hand hovered over the pause button, waiting for the shot that killed the gunman. There it was. She froze the video with a quick stab of her finger. It was hard to see but there was a flash of light that came from the motorcycle man's outstretched hand at the instant that the would-be car thief is shot. She leaned closer to look at the mysterious man's hand. The interesting thing was that he didn't seem to be holding a gun or any other kind of weapon.

To add to the mystery, the motorcycle didn't match any production model on record. She continued to watch after the shot as the man jumped on the motorcycle and sped out of sight at an incredible speed. The guys in engineering had seen the video and agreed that it was very unusual. They wanted to run some acceleration calculations after Heidi got some field measurements from the parking lot.

Heidi closed her laptop and slid it into her shoulder bag before getting out of the car. She grimaced at the overcast skies that showed signs of rain. With luck, it would hold off until she was done with the field work planned for later today. She didn't mind getting wet but it messed up the evidence made it harder to take proper notes and photos.

Once inside the medical facility, she spoke briefly with the receptionist at the front desk and was given directions to the morgue where she was to meet with the coroner. The sound of her heels echoed loudly through the hallway as she walked down the solemn hallways until she found the double doors labeled, "Morgue — Authorized Personnel Only".

She waited to be buzzed in and once inside, paused to get her bearings. Along the wall were the stainless steel drawers where corpses were kept at near freezing temperatures for preservation and at the far end of the room, she could see an older Asian man working on a computer. She assumed he was the coroner and walked over to introduce herself.

"Hello, I'm Heidi Vanderbilt with the CIA. Are you Dr. Pham?"

"Ah yes, Mrs. Vanderbilt. You had a pleasant trip I hope."  He smiled at her and stood to shake hands.

She said, "It was fine. Thank you so much for taking the time to see me."

"Always a pleasure to help out," he replied.

His gaze drifted to her cleavage. Heidi was used to that and normally took it as a compliment. "Do you still have the body of Michael Rodriguez here?"

His smile was replaced with a thoughtful expression. "Yes, very interesting subject, but in our phone conversation you were not clear on what the CIA's interest is in this man."

She didn't feel a need to enlighten the doctor about any aspect of her case so she chose to ignore his attempt to gain information. "Have you had much of a chance to study the remains yet?"

"No, only a cursory evaluation. It may be a few days before I can do a proper examination because of our workload. I can forward you a copy of my report when it is finalized you like."

"Thank you, but if you don't mind, I need to actually see the body."

"I don't think you will like what you see - this one is very messy. Besides, anything of significance will be in my report." He said with a wave of his hand as if to dismiss her request. "That's why I told you on the phone that you didn't need come here. Waste of government resources if you ask me."

Heidi was not one to be easily put off and she knew very well that some things never made it into the official report. She placed her hands on his desk and leaned forward, locking eyes with him. "Yes I do know that. However, I need to inspect the body. Are you going to help me or should I note in my report that you refused to assist in my investigation?"

His eyebrows arched up. "This way please. I only wish to warn you in case you have a queasy stomach.  Wouldn't be first time an investigator got sick down here."

Heidi followed him over to the wall of drawers and readied herself for the gruesome sight.

"Here we are." The doctor pulled open one of the drawers and on the cold steel lay the body bag which the doctor quickly unzipped. Inside were the remains of a middle aged, muscular man with colorful tattoos.

Dr. Pham made a gesture toward what little remained of the man's head. "As you can see, most of his head is gone."

Heidi calmly reached over to a nearby table to retrieve a pair of latex gloves then forced herself to step up closer for a good look. Part of the man's face was missing, as was much of the right side of his head.

The doctor nodded at the cadaver. "A shotgun at close range might do this, but there would be buckshot in the remaining portions of the head. Maybe high caliber rifle but I don't think so... Also, very strange, you see that his eyes seem to have ruptured."

He put on a glove and reached down with a small tool to pull open one of the eyelids revealing a bloody mess where the eye should be. "I've never see that before and I've seen many gunshot wounds to the head."

Heidi fought the urge to turn away. Instead she leaned closer to examine the man's face and touched the skin that remained on the side of his head. It was red and blistered like a third degree burn and some of the remaining hair was burned. The type of marks, she suspected, a very powerful laser might leave.

She took several pictures of the remains then thanked the doctor for his help and left without answering anymore of his questions.  There was still a lot to do today and her discovery of the burn marks on the dead man's head intensified her interest in this case considerably.

A short time later, Heidi stood in the parking lot where the homicides had taken place. She walked over to the spot where the bodies had been found first. It was still cordoned off with crime scene tape and looked relatively undisturbed. She took more photos then she went to find the spot the video must have been taken from. Using it as a reference point, she was able to locate the area where the mystery man had been with the motorcycle.

At first she saw nothing of use, but then she noticed one partial shoe print in a patch of tar used to repair the pavement. She measured the print and took several pictures of it then looked for tire tracks that might be from the motorcycle he rode out of here on. After searching the area three times, she gave up. How was it able to speed out of the parking lot so fast without burning rubber on the pavement? That didn't seem possible to her, but she would see what the engineers had to say about it. That reminded her, she got a measuring tape out of her car and took the distance measurements the engineer's had asked for.

Heidi looked up at the cloudy sky, glad that the rain had held off for this long. She needed to get to where the UFO had been sighted before that changed.

[More to come. Please vote if you like this.]