Frank's desk phone bleated, it was a jarring annoying sound, you could hardly call it a ring or a beep, it resembled most, an unhappy electronic sheep.
"This is Captain Foyle, how may I help you?"
"Captain now is it? Isn't that grand, last time we talked you were thinking about pulling the pin," the voice said.
"Ron Corrigan, how are you enjoying retirement?" Frank asked casually.
"I'm not, I'm bored out of my tree, and my wife makes me mingle with all manner of people that I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire," Ron uttered.
"That good eh, and now you know why I didn't retire. Actually I was going to but we got a new boss and he's better than Major Sullivan, well at least easier to get along with but he's also on top of his game," Frank enthused.
"That's great Frank but I had a reason for calling, has there been anything done on the Evan Peterson case?" Ron asked.
"I'm sorry no, when the Major left and Reyes took over everybody was reassigned, but I've been putting together a loose plan for a cold case squad. Mike, the new boss embraces the idea of bringing retirees back onto the department part time. The old philosophy of use em' up and dump them doesn't fly with him.
If I can pull this off, are you interested?"
"Are you kidding? Hell yes I'm interested. Civilian employee or sworn?" Ron asked.
"A bit of both I suspect, same as the desk guys we've brought back. My biggest issue is going to be figuring out who to interview, some of the guys were burnt out and some just gave up. I blame Reyes for a lot of that but some weren't remarkable at their best," Frank concluded.
"If it happens and you take me on, I'll want to work Evan's case first thing. I ran into his mother in the market and I just felt like dirt when I told her that there was nothing new. He was only twelve, and the things that bastard did to him, well I'd just like to nail the piece of shit. Do you know if anyone has had the DNA run through the system since I retired?"
"I don't know Ron, but we have an all new forensics unit with the best DNA processing capability available. It was critical in the serial case we wrapped up recently. I will put in a request and see if any matches have been added to the database," Frank promised.
"That would be great Frank, I can't ask for more. Just keep me in mind if you get a green light for the cold case squad, and hey, would you like to talk with Spooky, about joining back up?" Ron inquired.
"Spooky Watkins, is he still alive and functional?" Frank asked.
"Very much so, and he's had a falling out with the head of faculty where he's been teaching. So much so, that he's thinking of moving to France," Ron informed.
"I better get my ass in gear and get this approved before we lose him. If I can make it happen, how soon would you be available to start in?" Frank pressed.
"How's 9:00 a.m. tomorrow sound?" Ron replied.
"A bit premature but I can grant you access and allow you to review the file so we'll be up to speed if and when the program is approved," Frank enticed.
"That sounds good Frank, let me know when the evidence arrives and I'll come in and review everything. If I can get him to come, would it be okay if I brought Spooky along?"
"Sure, I'd like to see him. I was always in awe of that brain of his. If you've got him you probably don't need the case file. I'll call you as soon as the evidence boxes arrive," Frank Promised.
After disconnecting Frank pulled up his proposal, tweaked it a bit and printed a synopsis page and then the entire proposal. Having done that he made a copy on flash drive and took both to Mike's office.
"Got a few minutes Mike?" Frank asked through the open door.
"Sure Frank, I'm at a standstill on this damn report. What do you have?"
"I have a proposal for another program involving retirees, I'm just expanding on your idea of preserving the knowledge that bad policies have allowed to wander off into obscurity."
"Well let's hear it, you have my interest piqued."
"I'm thinking of a cold case team, primarily retirees with maybe a few active detectives in the mix. Could be they only need one, maybe someone close to retirement. The point is that we have a large backlog of cold cases. I'm only discussing homicides and rapes at the moment but some haven't been looked at in nearly twenty years, I think it's worthwhile," Frank concluded.
"I agree there's a need for such a team," Mike said as he rummaged in a desk drawer. He pulled out a folder and flopped it in front of Frank. "I'll read yours if you'll read mine. I should really have discussed this with you earlier but we were just a tad busy for a while there. Also I have an idea for a boss to run the team or teams. Antonia Putnam displayed an interest in cold cases, particularly rapes, sexual battery and of course homicides when I interviewed her. I've added a few of her observations to my rough draft. I can tell you that Scot likes the idea and that he's signed off on adding a new rank in our bureau. I plan to add Chief Inspector between sergeant and lieutenant, kind of like a gunny. Maybe we can call our retirees detective inspectors, but I haven't decided how far I want to complicate things. I was about to hand that to you to see what you might like to add. Great minds eh?" Mike chuckled.
"What's the timeframe for this once we outline the program?" Frank asked. "How many months out are we talking?"
"I'd like to have a look at the first case in about six weeks. Do you think we can get at least three guys pulled in by that time?" Mike inquired.
"I just talked to one and we know of at least one other that is not happy with his current status. But I have some ideas, how many do we want to end up with once we're fully operational?"
"I'd say a dozen to start, I'm thinking four teams of three but that would be up to the person we put in charge. In my time I've seen a lot of models. But the one that works the best is under six people all working on one case and also pursuing a second case each. That might not work with retirees but we can have a long talk with Antonia."
Frank traded proposals with Mike and got busy reading. He paused to request the DNA from the Peterson case to be run through the database again and ordered up the evidence boxes from the case as well. Four hours later he received a call from Bruce in Forensics.
"Bad news Frank, the sample of the DNA evidence we have is corrupted. That may be the reason they never got a match in the database. The second problem is archives, all the source DNA evidence is still being retained but it hasn't all been cataloged and collated. The problem is that we're only a third of the way through the samples and nobody has any idea when the sample for the Peterson case will be found," Bruce apologized.
"So this is the preexisting backlog before the county invested in a decent program, who did the original sample, I mean was it us or an outside lab?
"It was the FBI lab in San Jose California, not that it will do you any good. It might have been a valid sequence when we got it but it's incomplete by today's standards. Methodologies change and well, I won't make excuses for ten year old results but DNA tech has changed a lot since then," Bruce stressed.
"Well I'm not interested in beating anyone over the head with this but it's disappointing," Frank uttered.
"Well I'm sorry all the same, we will eventually find the source vial and process it on one of the new machines," Bruce promised.
"Hey Bruce, I just had a thought, would more live bodies help at all? Would they need special skills to look at vials of material and read the labels?" Frank asked.
"No I don't think any special skills would be a factor, but I'd like to clarify that with our techs. But I'd be amenable to getting some extra hands and speeding up the process.
"Great, let's put out a department wide request for any personnel that are able to donate time to the process. We should at least get a hundred or better people, maybe more. And I can get hold of the commander of the academy and see if cadets might be interested in donating some of their free time to the search," Frank speculated.
"Hmmm, that might work, as long as we know who the people are that are handling the vials so that the chain can be protected. I'll give it some thought and respond back a little later. I just want to make sure there are no obstacles before we put this in motion," Bruce assured.
"That sounds reasonable; once we get going, allowing for a reasonably enthusiastic response, How long would it take to get the job done, cataloging and collating all that?" Frank asked.
"Maybe a month, not much more than that. We only have five staff dedicated to archived DNA material. And they can only work on the uncatalogued vials when they don't have other demands placed on them," Bruce explained.
"Well I'm betting that if we get the okay we'll have to do a bit of training with each volunteer. So let me know what you find out and we'll go from there," Frank concluded.
"Okay Frank, I'll get back to you after I consult the actual DNA techs and the evidence chain regs, but there should be a way to get this done," Bruce encouraged.
The call ended and Frank went back to making notes on Mike's proposal. Mike arrived in his office just as he was completing his notes.
"Let's add my notes to your proposal, since yours is more comprehensive than mine. I think together we've covered most of the contingencies and once it's complete we can trot it over to Scott and see what he thinks," Mike suggested.
"I'm flattered, you didn't miss much but you can't be expected to know what the state of forensics was before we got our grant for the lab complex. I was just discussing DNA archives with Bruce because a sample we thought was good is in fact not. It may be deterioration or just poor processing. It's eleven years old. The victim would be twenty-three if he had lived. It's one of those cases that makes you want to torture a confession out of someone. They had a suspect but he had an ironclad alibi, he was in jail in another county at the time. The victim was an innocent, he was shy at school, smart but socially inept. He was said to have a sweet helpful personality. Whoever killed him removed his genitalia and raped the wound and the M.E. indicated he was alive when he was emasculated. The poor child died from massive blood loss but he suffered terribly. Ron Corrigan chased this case until he retired four years ago. By the way, he's my first choice for the team and Andy Watkins is the second guy I'd like to recruit. You can pull their files tomorrow or maybe they're online by now. IT has been burning coal to get all the archived documentation digitized," Frank explained at length.
"Those are the cases that get to you, and I've had my share. And it doesn't matter if a kid is and angel or a punk, to kill a child is something that we as cops and most people can't justify on any level," Mike concurred. "The name Watkins is familiar, are we talking about a guy that is practically a savant?" Mike asked.
"You know him?" Frank asked astonished.
"I know his brother, we served together in the gulf and before that in Grenada. He was a bit out there but you never met a better tactician. But he was quirky and never got the promotions he should have received. He should have been a brigadier but he retired a colonel. He had some difficulty tolerating stupidity, especially in command. He came back and opened a design firm and did pretty well for himself. It's rumored that he told a journalist which rugs to look under for dirt on some of the bigger blunders and who was responsible. Nobody was fired but a bunch were reassigned and demoted. But like I say, it's a rumor and nothing more," Mike added.
"We called Andy "Spooky" because the way his mind worked was just that. He could remember every detail of a case file and if you ask him today about the Simonson case he can probably recite the whole thing for you, that kind of spooky," Frank related.
"I've met a few guys like that, usually their social skills suffer but once in a while you meet one that breaks all the conventions. I'll bet he could clean up in Vegas though, at least until they realized he was counting cards. Although I don't think that's fair, if a person isn't using a machine counting cards is perfectly legal. But casinos ban you for doing it. Remember those college kids from MIT? What do you think, were they unethical for using their skills to beat the systems at the casinos?" Mike asked.
"I don't know, I can barely play rummy with my wife, we're not casino type people. It's a good thing I was never assigned to that end of Vice, I would have failed miserably," Frank laughed.
When they had finished Bruce called Frank and informed him that he was go for getting extra hands involved, the only proviso was that only lab personnel would handle the actual evidence. Any volunteers would work in teams with the lab people cataloging and collating the data into portable computers drawer by drawer. Bruce had opened it up to police Explorers since they would only be handling data. Frank ran the memo by Mike before putting it on department wide circulation. He then called Mark Souder at the academy and asked about cadets being available. Mark agreed that it would be good for cadets to have the experience and he would urge the current class to volunteer a few hours to the cause.
Frank's last act for the day was calling Ron Corrigan and telling him about the DNA problem. Ron was philosophical about it. The case was eleven years old and samples degrade over time. He offered to volunteer for the search and Frank told him he'd get back to him on that.
Tuesday Mike and Frank were in Scott's office.
"Okay I've reviewed the proposal, and I think it will be workable and so does the Sheriff. I know you only asked for twelve people not including a full timer to run the show, but we thought sixteen was a better number and would offer more flexibility. I'm factoring in the nature of the retirees involved. They're likely to need time away to deal with medical issues, either theirs or their spouse and other issues that crop up as you get older. Did you guys come up with this together?" Scot asked.
"Independently actually, Frank's was closer to completion than mine and I added a few notes which he incorporated. I'd be hard pressed to say which of us started first, but it doesn't matter as long as it gets done. I would have to say Frank's proposal was more comprehensive. I've been talking to Herb about potential candidates and Frank has a couple in mind. We've tapped Antonia Putnam to be the lead and the first recipient of the Inspector Rank designation. It should give her enough grunt to get things done without overshadowing the lieutenant's status. How does that sound to you?" Mike asked.
"Pretty good, but is she up for it, does she have the attitude to overcome entrenched opinions about gender in our business," Scott inquired.
"She seems highly motivated, and she thinks that we can clear a lot of the unsolved rape cases, with the state of DNA there's a large statistical chance that many of our actors are already in or have been incarcerated. That means they'll already be in the database. That might account for a third to a half of the outstanding rape kits but the rest will be a slog and we'll have to accept that some will never be solved. I was thinking last night that it's possible that some of these creeps might also be in commercial databases like Ancestry or 23 and me. We would probably need a court order to get them to comply. With a court order, they can tell their clients, "hey, we had no choice," it's protection from lawsuits for them and proof that we acted legally to obtain the evidence. I checked and Boston set precedent a few years ago," Mike explained.
"I never considered that, how did you come up with that?" Frank asked.
"I was discussing the problem with my fourteen year old son, he did a study on DNA for school. He told me there were at least fifteen commercial databases for DNA based genealogic research, they're just not as sophisticated as the government operated systems. When I was his age my major concern about DNA was finding someone to share mine with," Mike chuckled.
Frank and Scott laughed too and they moved on.
"I do have one concern, a lot of these guys are not computer friendly. We might need a couple of IT savvy people that can be compatible with the retirees. The systems are a lot more complex and versatile than those little CRT's with green screens I started out on. It took forever to accomplish anything with those systems. Do you guys remember those days?" Mike pressed.
"Oh yeah, I think our first countywide system was coal fired. But look at what they can do now. I'd hate to go back to handwritten reports. Reading other people's notes and crap," Frank agreed.
"Okay guys, it sounds as if you have your work cut out for you, but I hope it's successful. You know there will be detractors just waiting for a crash and burn," Scott warned.
"Only because they can't come up with ideas like this because there's no way to grab personal credit. Frank and I don't really give a damn who gets the credit, we're only interested in the results," Mike declared.
"Damn right," Frank agreed.