This case will be solved when it wants to be solved.
In the end the name of the killer won’t even appear in one of the thousands of files, one hundred boxes of files, or have his name uttered in any of the meetings held by the investigators.
It’s difficult to say this but all of the hard work might be for naught.
I’ll give you an example. Back in the 1970’s a bank branch was broken into in the middle of the night. The smashing of the glass set off the alarm and the first officer on the scene saw three shadowy figures running down the street into a residential area. In those days the money was kept in the teller drawers all night so over $20,000 was stolen.
The case was assigned to a respected detective whose desk happened to be right next to mine. Every day I watched him hoping to learn case solving detectives. He talked on the phone, called other victims, disappeared for hours, and yet there were no notes attached to the bank case. I was convinced that he had notes and hot leads stored somewhere where other detectives couldn’t see them.
Six weeks later he said to me “want to take a ride”? He threw me the keys to his detective car and said “meet me out back”. He gave me directions to a place that I immediately realized was the neighborhood I grew up in.
He told me to turn down the street by the bank, go four blocks, and turn left and park. We walked up the steps of an unremarkable house, knocked on the door, and a girl about 18-19 answered. We showed our badges and she screamed “ Oh God how did you know”? We followed her into a bedroom and there was $17,000 spread out on the bed.
It turned out that she and two boys had done the burglary and had immediately taken off for West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and all over again never spending the night in the same motel twice. They were convinced that the police were hot on their trail when in fact nothing was being done. Nothing at all.
I have a feeling that this case will turn out this way.
