Bad Blood

12. A Cellar Sale

Trotter had not slept a wink that night; in fact he hadn't even bothered going home. All night he had been contemplating the implications of Woodrow Reed having received a bone marrow transplant in the same state and around the same time that Travis Barker died. Travis sure as hell had not been in the Reeds' house last Sunday morning. But Woodrow Reed sure as hell had.

The question was, had anyone else been there?

He called O'Shea at home at the indecent hour of 6 am. It was a total breach of social protocol as between the two partners, but Trotter didn't care. As it turned out, neither did O'Shea.

"See I tried to tell you yesterday. The old goat is involved in this, up to his ears."

"He might be. We need to collect some evidence, though. Here is what I want you to do. Woodrow is leaving the hospital this morning, taking a couple of State troopers on a wild goose chase through the Umatilla National Forest. Go to the hospital and convince the nurse that they need to change out his bandages before he goes. Also convince them that they need to drop those old bandages into the evidence bags you provide them. Take those bags straight to Henson, and don't leave until they have started the DNA analysis. Bribe them or point a gun at them if you think it will make it go faster."

"Alright boss, sounds like a plan. Do we have a warrant to collect the bandages?"

"We don't need one if you confirm with the nurse that they would otherwise be discarded and incinerated in accordance with hospital procedures. Woodrow has no reasonable expectation of privacy in hospital waste."

"Okay will do. Stay tuned."

Trotter next prepared a warrant for all of the Reeds' financial records, including brokerage accounts. He might have to wait for the DNA results to come back before submitting them for the judge's signature, but patience was not a virtue he was lacking.

The second warrant he needed was for a search through the New York City bone marrow transplant records, for the fall of 2012. That was trickier, because a local judge arguably did not have the power to issue a warrant binding persons or properties in other states. But the FBI was already involved, and the FBI had offices in every state and access to federal courts. A simple phone call to Tom Colindres took care of what could otherwise have posed a difficult inter-jurisdictional problem.

Trotter rearranged the list of facts he made the night before. The pieces were now starting to come together, forming a pattern that was all too familiar:

-> W makes bad investments, may be broke?

-> W & C have a fight at restaurant, go home

-> W & C continue their fight at home

-> W kills C, W is injured in the process

-> W remove coins along with C's body ... makes it look like a robbery

-> W ditches C's body and his car at some remote mountain location, and fakes his own kidnapping and escape

He sat back and reviewed the list for a moment. The hard part would be to find evidence of Woodrow's involvement in the murder. By his own account, he got cut when struggling with the assailant. But he also intimated that the assailant got injured. Perhaps he knew that he had a mixed DNA profile, and made up that part to explain the presence of the foreign DNA?

Trotter's phone rang, and he lost his focus. He picked it up, and found Tom Colindres on the other end.

"Hey Tom, what's up? Any problems with the warrant?"

"No don't worry, that's just administration. Let me know when you have the DNA results back, and we will get that issued no problem. No I called you because right now Robert Long is calling your Lieutenant. Apparently there has been an effort to sell some of the coins from the Reeds' collection."

"What? Like right now?" That did not fit into Trotter's theory of the case. He believed the coin collection to be safely hidden somewhere between the Reeds' home and the place where he dumped his dead wife and vehicle.

"No actually a couple of months back. Three rare coins were offered confidentially to a limited selection of private buyers. There was an auction, and the coins went to an unknown buyer."

"Unknown? So why are you telling me this?"

"Because these auctions are all arranged through third party brokers, who act as agents and escrow services all at once. They provide an absolute shield of anonymity between the buyer and the seller, and guarantee that the purchase monies have been deposited before the coins change possession."

"Please tell me you have talked to that agent."

"Not be personally, but Agent Long has. Apparently this was a limited divestiture of the collection, not an outright sale. These things happen when a collector needs some liquidity, either for personal expenses, or to acquire something truly expensive for his collection."

"And this agent talked to Woodrow about selling the coins?"

"Yes, they did talk in person about it, except that it wasn't with Woodrow."

"What do you mean?"

"The agent spoke on the phone with the seller, making the proper arrangement for the purchase money escrow and transfer of possession. He remembers her very well, as she was adamant that the notice of sale could not be distributed outside a very limited circle of collectors. Of course he suspected that her husband knew nothing about the sale, but he was not willing to sacrifice his commission by having that suspicion confirmed."

"Her?"

"Cynthia. Cynthia Reed."