Reel to Real (22 page)

The police were still looking for him.

***

As Shane drove to Albuquerque, he tried to act normal; attempted to be cool. He had something on his mind but he talked about everything else. Despite the fact that he had discussed the Hollywood Video murders with several other people earlier in the day, he did not bring it up with John. He knew that if he even hinted at something like that, John would suspect that he was involved.

John asked Shane to stop for cigarettes, so he pulled into a gas station about a block from Esther's apartment.

After picking up a pack of Kools, Shane turned back onto Candelaria Road. In a matter of moments, though, swirling police lights appeared in his rear-view mirror. He looked at John, trying not to freak out.

“He’s following me, man,” Shane said somberly. “What the fuck did I do?”

10:10 PM

Deputy L. P. Lazo of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office noticed a black Fiero in the 300 block of Candelaria Road that was driving without its headlights. Since it was his job to enforce traffic statutes, he pulled the vehicle over and shined his flashlight into the driver’s window. He instructed both the driver and his passenger to get out of the vehicle.

Once they were out, he asked the driver for his license and vehicle registration, both of which he produced. The officer also asked the passenger for his ID.

The man, a black man with a very short pony tail, said he didn’t have a driver’s license with him but he was able to find a social security card in his wallet. The name on the social security card read John Enfante. That seemed to satisfy the officer.

***

While lugging her bags to the car, Esther noticed flashing lights.
Wonder what that’s about?
she said to herself. Without thinking, she walked towards the police car.

To her surprise and horror, she saw Shane and John, their grim faces awash in red and blue, hands on top of Shane’s car. An officer stood next to them shining a flashlight into the Fiero.

“
They’re done for,” Esther said under her breath. She assumed they were being arrested — John for the gun incident and Shane for what he did last night. Her heart pounded so loudly she thought the officer might hear it from across the street and grab her too. But he did not look at her.

When John saw her, he gave her an almost imperceptible shake of the head, which she interpreted as a signal to keep walking. Not knowing what else to do, she put her head down and walked up the street to the Giant Station, expecting the worst.

***

Deputy Lazo took the driver’s documents back to his unit and ran them through NCIC. No outstanding warrants showed up, so his only action was to write the driver a ticket and give back his paper work.

The officer then got another call and drove off. Both John and Shane breathed a huge sigh of relief and did a silent low five.

***

Esther emerged from the gas station food mart, pushed up her glasses and waited.  A few minutes later, the Fiero pulled up. She saw only Shane and John, no cop. What happened? Obviously they weren’t arrested.

She ran over to them. It was a false alarm, they said, just a ticket.

Laughing a ridiculously happy laugh, Esther slipped her hand into John’s and piled into Shane’s car. She sat on John’s lap because the car was only a two-seater, and she held on to him as hard as she could.

They headed to the A-1 Motel down the street. It wasn’t fancy but Esther didn’t care. All that mattered was that John would be hers for the entire night, and maybe more. Any future pain could be postponed with alcohol and love. No thinking allowed.

***

Shane hung out for a while in John and Esther’s motel room, shooting the breeze with John while keeping one eye on the noisy TV. The news was on. News about a triple murder at the Hollywood Video.

There were shots of the video store and its parking lot, and shots of the crime scene tape. The newscaster said the killer or killers were still on the loose, and that police were looking for a black van with a white X or a rebel flag on the side. They were also looking for the grandparents of one of the murdered clerks. The clerk’s relatives said the grandparents might have stumbled upon the video store murders in progress.

“I’m thirsty,” Esther announced and turned off the TV. “I’m going to the gas station next door and get something to drink.”

“Whataya gonna get?” Shane asked with a boyish smile.

“Beer; maybe some schnapps.”

“I’ll go with,” Shane said, inspecting his fingernails.

John, not paying much attention to either one of them, said he’d wait in the room. While they were gone he turned the TV back on and flipped through the channels. All the stations had the same huge words “BREAKING NEWS” at the bottom of the screen.

John learned there had been multiple murders at a Hollywood Video store that morning.

Hmmm?
John thought. But he was more interested in what the newscaster had to say about
how
the police were going to search for the killer. He said that police would be making sweeps of all the motels around town. They would be going room to room.

That worried John.

***

On the way back to the motel room, Shane said, “That’s weird what they said about the black van thing, huh?

“Yeah, I don’t get that,” Esther said.

“Well, it’s good for us. Remember, don’t tell John anything. Let me handle it.”

She nodded. “Okay,” she said, thankful that Shane didn’t start raging again. He seemed somewhat calmer since John arrived.

***

“Okay, line ’em up boys and girls. Let’s play Schneer,” Shane said, when they were back in the room.

Esther knew exactly what he meant and decided it was best to placate him. She took the liquor she had just purchased out of the bag, gathered up all the plastic cups in the motel room and set them on the dresser. — There were three of them. She poured two half cups of schnapps and one full cup of beer, alternating their placement on the bureau.

“Who wants to play,” Shane asked, looking at John and then at Esther. They both shook their head no. Shane frowned.

“Okay, then, it’s just me. I gotta drink ’em all in a row. I can’t stop.”

After pounding his chest a couple of times, Shane chugged all three cups without pause, wiping the foam off his mouth with his sleeve as a final flourish.

“Did it,” he said.

John and Esther clapped once, followed by a bored-looking John lifting one hand to show Shane the door.

Shane looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t. After a full minute of silence he finally left. When he did, Esther turned off the TV and buried her face in John’s neck. Later that night, she got the only deep sleep she would get for some time to come.

“Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.”

W
.
H
.
A
UDEN

Monday, March 4, 1996 9 AM

Citizen Nordaine Oliver was listening to KKOB on the radio like he always did. He was driving on State Road North 14 near Cedar Crest, New Mexico, with his wife. Every fifteen minutes or so an announcement was made to be on the lookout for a white Buick Skylark with New Mexico license plate number XXX000.

Mr. Oliver kept his eyes peeled for the vehicle as he drove to the VA hospital in Albuquerque. He was on his way to get a couple of medical issues checked out. As he passed the town of Sandia Park, something white and shiny off the side of the road caught his eye.

In an unpopulated area, behind a clump of pinion trees, he saw what he thought might be a white car or truck. As a retired law enforcement and corrections officer, Mr. Oliver was used to sizing up situations at a moment’s notice. Something about what he had just seen seemed out of the ordinary. He even mentioned it to his wife, but since he was in a hurry to keep his appointment at the VA, he did not stop.

10 AM

Autopsy: Dr. Patricia McFeeley

It was Dr. McFeely’s job as a forensic pathologist to look at unusual, unnatural, and unexpected deaths. At the time of the Hollywood Video murders, she had been working for the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) for nineteen years, and she had performed between four and five thousand autopsies.

Dr. McFeely began the autopsies, and within the first hour, she began to jot down her notes:

Zach – 133 pounds, 19 years old, freckles on face. Rigor and livor motis present. Three gunshot wounds to the head, no other traumas to the body. Stippling noted – 9mm weapon most likely fired at close range. Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Manner of death: homicide.

Mylinh – 118 pounds, 30 years old, 5'4” tall, wire-rimmed glasses, three earrings in left ear – two on right. Barely digested rice and vegetables in stomach. Rigor and livor mortis present. Three gunshot wounds to the back of the head, most likely fired in short succession and at close range. No exit wounds. Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Manner of death: homicide.

Jowanda – 124 pounds, 18 years old, 5'5” tall. Long, brown curly hair, below shoulders, held back in an elastic tie. Personal items noted: New Mexico driver's license and a Highland High School ring. Stomach contents: barely digested rice and vegetables. Rigor and livor mortis present. Three gunshot wounds to the head. All three within a four inch area – behind left ear. Cause of death: multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Manner of death: homicide.

11 AM

Nordaine Oliver finished his doctor’s appointment at the VA Hospital and headed north back to Cerrillos where he lived. But he hadn’t forgotten that vehicle he’d seen on State Road 14. He told his wife that if it was still there, he was going to stop and check it out because he knew the police were still looking for the white Buick.

“There it is,” Mr. Oliver said. “I see it. It’s still there.”

It was the same shiny white object he had seen earlier. He immediately turned around. Later, at trial, he described what happened next:

“I slowed down and took a good look because I knew there was something white back there. And when I saw it, then I went ahead and took the little dirt road that cuts into the back of the trees until I could see the vehicle quite clearly.”

Oliver estimated that he had gotten to within 13 feet of the car before he stopped to park his own vehicle. He noted it was a very junky looking area, with a lot of trash and debris. He looked at the tail end of the car and saw the same license plate number that had been repeatedly broadcast. Due to his previous training, he realized this was a problem area, a probable crime scene, so he did not exit his car.

Once Mr. Oliver realized that this was the missing vehicle, he backed his car straight out the way he had come in and proceeded south towards the sheriff’s station. As he drove, he saw a group of officers congregated in the San Antonito Elementary School parking lot, so he pulled in behind them. He informed one of the sergeants in the parking lot about what he had discovered.

“Okay,” the sergeant said, “I’ll contact the main office and have somebody come and pick you up.”

***

Sergeant David Frazee, the day shift supervisor, was on duty at the Tijeras substation with Deputy Steve Rogers and dispatcher Deputy Betty Gallagher. Deputy Rogers received a radio broadcast that a citizen had called in a description of a white Buick found on North 14 that matched the description of the one they were searching for.

“Let’s go up there,” Frazee said. “Betty, you pick up the gentleman that called in and we’ll meet you up there.”

Sergeant Frazee and Deputy Rogers, took separate units and drove to the area at high speed, running full code.

Shortly, Deputy Gallagher arrived at the San Antonito Elementary School parking lot. Mr. Oliver repeated his story about what he had seen behind the pinion and juniper trees.

“Let’s go take a look,” she said to Mr. Oliver.

At the location, Deputy Gallagher got out and asked Oliver to lead her to the Buick.

Near the car and just to the east lay the dead bodies of George and Pauline McDougall. Mrs McDougall was lying on her side and Mr. McDougall was lying next to a barbed wire fence. George McDougall had his hands inside his coat pocket and his coat was snagged on the fence.

11 AM

For John, life in the motel room was, if not idyllic, then tolerable. The room was small, dingy and noisy, but Esther brought in food and hung out with him, so it was okay. Naturally, Esther was a little chattier than he preferred but he had grown used to it. He didn’t understand, why she suddenly seemed weirder than he remembered. For instance, why was she so fixated on the future?

He personally didn’t think much about the future. He was a “live in the moment” kind of guy. He planned things, just not too far in advance. His plans were for, like, maybe later on that day. But Esther was the opposite, at least she was now. All she wanted to talk about was later. Later, later, later. Like, “Later when we run away together,” or “Later when we get married;” stuff like that.

The other strange thing was that Esther seemed to be constantly watching the news. John had spent long periods of time with her before and, for the most part, when they watched TV, they almost exclusively watched movies. It was kind of their thing. In fact, that was part of the appeal of being at the motel; they got free HBO and could see some of the flicks they had missed. But now, Esther was into the news. And not just any news either. She seemed to be fixated on the recent video store murders. If one station stopped talking about it, she would switch to another.

But on the other hand, John didn’t really care. She was paying for everything and he was enjoying the two bottles of Jim Beam she brought up to the room. She explained to him she was only interested in the video store thing because it had happened so close to her house.

12 NOON

While watching television, Pauline and George McDougall’s granddaughters, Heather and Holly, heard APD was going to hold a news conference later in the day. They paged Sandy Dietz from the Victim’s Impact Program to come over to their house. Ms. Dietz informed the sisters that police officers were on their way over.