Chapter 46

I was at Joe's Pest Control at 9:45. Joe had me all suited up in a Tyvek suit before the Task Force guys even got there. I looked like one of those state workers at a chemical spill. When the task force arrived they were delighted, there was all kinds of room to hide all kinds of surveillance equipment under the suit. I had a hard hat cam that looked like a light and another cam that looked like some kind of meter hanging around my neck on a strap. I had two digital cameras, one in each pocket.

We were sitting In front of the frat house at ten after ten. The guys that were monitoring the equipment were parked two spots back in a beat up old modified Ford Econoline van.

Five minutes later the ear piece told me that all the equipment checked out and that "go" was authorized. We first walked around the house looking for crawling bugs. The only thing we found was two full trash cans. I asked into the hidden microphone in the white mask I was wearing if they wanted that?

"Yes" if we could do it without it being to obvious.

I told then we had some white Tyvek bags in the back of the van. I would simply rebag it before we left making it part of our cleanup trash.

Joe opened the back door with a key and asked if anyone was home several times, with no response. I walked around the first room giving the experts a panoramic view so they could see the obvious. Then I did a more through search. I checked every box, bag, under every couch and chair, and in every nook and cranny. Then I did it to every room downstairs.

Upstairs was all bedrooms and one full bathroom with a huge antique claw foot tub. One room with a double bed was set up as a video room with the window blackened and there still was a heavy rug over it. There were enough big lights in it to give you sunburn.

On a shelf on the wall were twenty five or so homemade DVDs. I sent Joe out to the van to get the laptop so I could copy the DVDs to the hard drive. Under the bed were several boxes of assorted toys that looked like they had been put away dirty. I asked the tech guys if there was a way for me to get DNA from them. They said "sample kits are on the way" and that they would work me thru the process as soon as they arrived.

I started copying the DVDs while I waited. This was going to be a long process, too long I thought. Joe came in carrying the kits in Micky-don food bags.

I asked him if he knew how to copy the DVDs. "No problem," he replied.

The tech guys started me with the sampling process. Put on the latex gloves, open the solution, dip the q tip, swab the object, put the tip in the test tube and seal, then repeat with the next object. The process picked up speed as it went. What I thought would take hours we had done in 45 minutes. After I finished I continued the search.

In another box under the bed there were girl's panties, each was in a zip lock bag with a name and date on them. I lay then out on the bed, and took snapshots of both sides of each bag. Someone was trophy collecting, I guess. None of the names were on the rape victims list. The rest of the upstairs bedrooms gave us nothing except more questions.

The bathroom posed even more questions. There were several major brands of condoms in there. They were boxed by the gross; that was 144 condoms of each brand. Whorehouses were the only places that bought condoms in that quantity, way too many for this kind of place.

There were also several cases of feminine douche products. The attic door had been sealed shut and locked by the homeowner, there was a note there to call a local realtor if access was needed. It was one of the specially keyed types you see at houses for sale.

Joe had finished the DVDs. We were ready to leave but something was bothering me. It just didn't feel right. I did another walkthrough, and then it hit me. All of the other rooms had wall to wall carpet of a matching color. It was in good shape, nearly new. The video room had throw rugs. There were signs that wall to wall carpet had been there but throw rugs covered the floor.