Authors note: This is a work of fiction. It does not reflect any actual events, and all of the characters are fictional. Any similarity to events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
There is a real city of Oceanside, California. It’s San Diego County’s third largest city with a below-average crime rate.
The Grand Pacific Hotel is fictional, but during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were at least two similar resort hotels that did exist, primarily serving railroad passengers and tourists as described in this book.
— Tom Morrow
Chapter 8
Joe and Sara walked to the front of the hotel and pondered their next move. Somehow they had to report the discovery so the news media wouldn’t pick up on it. Any radio calls would certainly alert some wide-awake reporter monitoring their frequency. Even though Joe didn’t have his radio with him, the radio waves would come alive with other personnel once it was reported.
“What are you going to do, Joe?”
“I need to get Danny down here to help us. And I need to do it without telling him what we’ve found. If I do tell him, he would only be confused. He thinks you’re a nut, you know.”
“And when he gets here, he’s still going to think I’m a nut.”
“But in this case, a believable nut.”
“Well, after you call him, I’ll give Laura a call and get her over here, too. Maybe between the four of us, we can figure something out.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan.”
By this time, it was just shy of midnight. Danny and Yolanda were already in bed but hadn’t reached the phase of deep sleep yet. Yolanda answered the phone and passed the receiver to Danny.
“Joe?”
“Danny, I really hate to bother you, but…”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Me and Sara are over here at the GP. We’ve found something. We need your help.”
“Joe, what in the hell are you doing at the GP at this hour?”
“I can’t explain right now. You need to get over here as soon as you can. We got a situation that needs to be kept quiet. We need your help.”
“What kind of situation?”
“Danny! Listen to me. We’re okay. Don’t worry. We need you here now. And don’t call anybody at the office. You understand?”
“No! But I’m on my way. Be there in twenty.”
“No calls, Danny!”
“Okay, okay.”
Danny really had no idea what Joe wanted but knew his partner well enough to know that something important was in the wind. However, when Sara called Laura, she knew almost immediately what was in the wind.
Both Danny and Laura arrived at the GP within minutes of each other. Joe and Sara met them in the parking lot. Before any serious talks could take place, Officer Bob Talbert pulled into the parking lot in his patrol car. He got out and approached the group. He knew this time something was up. Joe looked over at Sara and mumbled an expletive. Danny and Laura looked at each other.
“What’s going on here, Joe? You having a party or something?”
“Or something. Bob, you know my partner Danny Saenz don’t you?”
“Yeah, sure do. But who’s the lady?”
“Laura Spahn, head of forensics. You probably haven’t been on the force long enough to’ve run into her.”
“Nope, can’t say that I have. Nice to meet you Laura. Now, you want to tell me what’s going here, Joe?”
“Bob, we got a little situation here.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“Did you alert dispatch before you pulled in here?” Joe asked.
“Nope. Not yet. But not far from it.”
“Good. Just hang tight for a minute and listen. We’ve found another body. It’s stuffed in the old boiler.” Danny took a sharp glance at Joe and then shook his head. Laura tightly squeezed Sara’s hand. Officer Talbert widened his eyes.
Joe explained, without going into much detail, that Sara’s intuition directed her to the boiler where they found the body. Laura could read between the lines, Danny mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Officer Talbert just stood there like a deer caught in oncoming headlights.
“What the hell!” Officer Talbert said emphatically.
“Bob, listen. Because of the way Sara found it…”
“Her intuition?” Officer Talbert said squinting his eyes.”
“We’re afraid the news media will pick up on it and turn this whole matter into another fiasco just like when we found the first body wrapped like a mummy. So, basically, we need to get this body out of here without the media picking up on it. You understand that?”
“Not really. All I know is I got a feeling my ass is gonna be put in a sling if I don’t make a report of this.”
“Don’t worry about that right now. We’ll take care of you.”
“But it’s my ass, not yours!”
“Not entirely. We’re playing with fire, too. If we handle this right, I don’t think the brass will get too uptight. But we’ve got to take care of this internally and keep the news media away to help protect the integrity of our investigation. It’s already tough enough. If word gets out how this body was found, it will only complicate matters. You don’t want that to happen now, do you?”
“No, no I don’t. But you’re going to have to explain this a little more better to me.”
“I’ll explain it to you later.” But time is not on our hands right now. We have to move quickly.”
“Okay. What you want me to do?”
“Stay right here by the cars and keep any prying eyes away while we go around to the boiler room. We’ll make a decision on what to do. And don’t call dispatch. We’ll be all right.”
“Okay Detective. But make it snappy. I don’t want my ass in a sling.”
The foursome turned about and walked over to the far side of the hotel and the dilapidated building. Once inside, Danny and Laura looked inside the boiler to inspect the remains of the poor soul who had met a grimly demise. Along with Joe and Sara, both Danny and Laura were amazed at the condition of the body—er bones.
After a few minutes inside the room, they walked back outside to discuss some sort of game plan of removing the body. Danny wanted to call Lieutenant Hastings but Joe persuaded him not to. They would deal with him later. Then Danny wanted to know more specifically on how the body was found. Joe tried to make sense of the matter but was failing miserably.
“You mean to tell me this nutcase’s intuition just happened to know there was another body here. What is she, some kind of frigging fortune-teller?”
“Now Danny, calm down. Sara has a…”
“Joe, let me talk to Danny,” Sara said butting in hoping to explain with a little more clarity.
“Danny, look. I know you think I’m crazy, but we don’t have much time for me to sit here and explain something you probably won’t understand in the first place. I have an inner spirit that allows me to see death in an unusual way. More specifically a body that has been murdered and left untouched. That’s why I told you a few weeks ago when we met at the privy hole that this place was haunted. I knew then there was more death tied to this scene. You just smirked and walked off. Remember?”
“Yeah, but your talk was ludicrous. You didn’t make any sense.”
“Do you believe me now?”
“Oh brother! Joe, do you understand any of this?”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll explain it to you later. But first we need to get this body out of here and back to Laura’s lab. We need to step on it.”
“Well then, anybody got any ideas?” Danny asked to no one in particular. Laura spoke up.
“I don’t know exactly how we’re going to do it, but somehow we need to slide something thin and sturdy underneath the body and ashes and try to extract it without disturbing the bones. We need to keep everything together as much as possible. Once that’s done, I think we can sweep it clean and gather further evidence. I think this will be the safest way to preserve what we need.”
“You have anything like that back at your lab?” Joe asked. Laura looked over at Sara.
“I can’t think of anything right off hand,” Sara replied. She looked over at Danny whose mind was clicking away with a possible solution.
“Well, I have an idea. But he’s not going to like it.”
“Who?”
“Del.”
“Del!” Jeezus Chris’, Danny. Why him?”
“He’s got something just about like what you’re talking about. I saw it over here awhile back when we were investigating.”
“But Del? Hell, he’s already pissed-off at us for shutting him down.”
“We had no choice. And he damn well knows it.”
“Yeah, but…”
“He’ll get his ass over here when I tell him we’re going to pull the yellow tape down so he can get back to work, assuming there aren’t any more bodies to be found.”
“Sara?”
“I won’t be able to tell until the body is removed. I still see the aura. When the body is gone, and I don’t see the aura, we’re good to go.”
“The aura?” Danny said somewhat exasperated.
“Danny, just think inspiration,” Joe replied. Danny shook his head.
“Do we have Del’s number?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I’ll give him a call,” Joe said.
“And for Chris’ sake, tell him to keep it quiet!” Danny said.
Joe called Del who answered rather quickly. He was just returning to bed after a midnight trip to the bathroom. After listening to Joe’s explanation, he calmed down saying he was willing to help. He also thought it would be a good idea to bring his crew chief, Martin Galindo, and a strong back, crewman Roosevelt Rosebud. Joe was reluctant on that notion but finally agreed it was all right.
The group walked back to the parking lot where Officer Talbert was waiting sitting inside his patrol car. When he saw them approaching, he got out and walked over.
“You guys come up with anything?”
“Yeah, Bob, we did. The demo guy and a couple of his crew will be here shortly. They’re going to help retrieve the body and take it back to the lab,” Joe said.
“In what?”
“His pickup truck. But he doesn’t know that yet.”
“That ought to go over well,” officer Talbert said.
“He’ll do it. Anything happen while we were gone?”
“Dispatch called to see if you and Sara had gone yet. They don’t know about the other two. I kept that quiet. Probably get my ass kicked off the force, you know.”
“Don’t worry about it, Bob. You’ll be fine. Look, let’s you and me walk back over to the boiler so I can tell you a little bit of what’s going on,” Joe said.
“Yeah, let’s do that. Let me see what in the hell is going on so I can write a book about it someday.”
About one-thirty that morning, the demo crew showed up at the hotel riding in Del’s extended-cab pickup truck. He was met in the parking lot by the two detectives and the two forensic experts. Officer Talbert had left the scene to handle a domestic dispute.
Joe briefly explained to Del and his crewmen the situation and swore them to secrecy. The inspiration part about how Sara found the body was purposely left out. He also didn’t tell Del that he wanted him to haul the bones over to Laura’s lab.
After the explanation, the group walked over to the boiler room where Del looked the situation over. The large sheet of tin he had brought with him was just barely small enough to fit inside the boiler door and slide underneath the bones and ash. Retrieving it was another matter. Holes had to be punched on each side so a rope handle could be attached. No big deal.
After this was achieved, Martin and Roosevelt slid the makeshift stretcher inside the boiler and carefully pushed it underneath the burnt corpse and ash. After ten minutes of wrangling, peppered with a variety of colorful language from Roosevelt and Martin, the task was completed. Now they had to remove it.
Grasping the rope handles, Martin and Roosevelt pulled while Del carefully placed his twenty-four-inch construction floor-sweep to the back of the tin in an attempt to keep as much of the bones and ash from sliding off the rear. When the end of the tin was near the door, Joe and Del grabbed a portion of the tin and helped set it on the ground. The plan worked. The remainder of the ashes in the boiler were then swept to the front and deposited into a thick black plastic bag Del had stored in his truck.
“Now what?” Del asked to no one in particular.
“We need you to haul this over to the lab,” Joe said.
“What? You’re kidding, right?”
“No, really.”
“But you didn’t tell me that.”
“Well, we are now,” said Danny.
“But…”
“Del, you’ve got to do this for us. It’s too risky to get any more folks involved. If I call my office to get the wagon over here, it’ll wave a red flag. That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” Laura said.
“Ah Jeezus Chris’. Now you’re turning my truck into a hearse. I swear, you guys are something else, you know that?”
“We need your help, Del,” Sara implored.
“What the hell you think I just did?”
“In know, I know. Joe should’ve told you earlier. But he was afraid if he told you, you wouldn’t have helped,” Sara said.
“He’s got that right. But hell, if it gets me back on this job quicker, so be it.”
“Thanks, Del,” Laura said giving him a loose hug.
“When am I going to know if this is the last body at this grave site?”
“Sara?” Joe said looking over at her.
“First the body needs to be removed from here. Afterwards, I’ll let you know.”
“How the hell is she going to know?” Del said slightly agitated.
“Del, I’ll tell you about it later. It’s complicated. But it’s all directly related to why we’re doing this on the q.t. We don’t have the time to explain it to you right now. But you need to get these bones in the bed of your truck right now and hauled over to the lab,” Joe said urging Del to get a move on it.
“Del, you can follow Laura back to the lab. I need to stay here for the moment. Laura, I’ll have Joe bring me over to the lab when I’m finished here. I’ll help you with the preliminaries.”
“All right. See you shortly.”
“Del, get a move on it,” Danny said.
“Okay guys, grab a handle, and let’s move these damn haunted bones over to the meat wagon. I sure as hell hope there’s no more bodies found in this place. If I find any more while tearing it down, I’m going to charge you for hazard pay. And it ain’t going to be cheap!”
“Thanks, Del,” Sara said giving him a light hug around the neck.
“Now don’t be gettin’ mushy on me.”
There wasn’t much else for Danny to do. Before he left to go back home, he told Danny he’d see him in the office early so they could try and explain the situation to Lieutenant Hastings. He felt he would probably understand but knew both he and Joe would receive some sort of tongue-lashing.
On the other hand, Joe and Sara remained at the site. It was time to see if Sara’s haunting apparitions could see if the place was free of bodies. Just as everybody had left, Officer Talbert pulled into the parking lot. He saw Joe and Sara standing near the front of the hotel. He approached them.
“Well, I see everybody has finally left. You don’t know what all I’ve had to go through to keep things quiet around here. I ran into one of my buddies over at the all-night diner for coffee, and he asked about all the cars parked around here.”
“And?”
“Just told him you were doing a little investigative work on the mummy case. We sort of joked about it and that was that. Told him I was keeping an eye out for you so you wouldn’t be disturbed.”
“No big deal, right?” Joe said.
“Yeah, no big deal. Besides, we’re both kind of anxious ourselves to find out who committed these crimes. He thinks the butler did it.”
“Butler? Hell, there was no butler here!”
“Yeah, I know. That’s what we joked about. I told him I thought the housekeeper did it.”