Free Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer by Gary C. King Page B

out the pot of coffee that was brewing
inside his shop.
    Realizing his mistake, Rogers instantly
retracted and explained that he really hadn't gone to the Safeway
store to get coffee, but had only started to go. As he was getting
ready to leave, he had heard the telephone ring. Since he had
already started the truck, he let the engine run while he went back
inside to answer the phone. The phone call, he said, had been from
his wife, informing him that investigators from the sheriff's
office were on their way to talk to him. He seemed to have an
answer for everything.
    "How long did you let the engine run?"
    "Just a few minutes."
    "The valve cover was still hot, not just
warm," responded Turner. "Your story just doesn't make sense."
    "What do you want?" Dayton angrily rebutted.
"I haven't left here all night."
    "Mr. Rogers," said Turner deliberately, "the
incident that we're investigating is a murder, and we believe that
it was your vehicle seen leaving the scene of this murder." Turner
was trying to rattle him now, shake his story loose. But Dayton
remained steadfast.
    "I haven't been anywhere. I've been here all
night." Dayton saw Turner eyeing his right hand. Okay, reasoned
Turner, they could play it Dayton's way, for the time being.
    "What happened to your hand?" asked the
detective. "Cut yourself ?"
    "I cut it with a hacksaw," he stated
matter-of-factly.
    "Are you right-handed or left-handed?"
    "Left-handed."
    "Where were you when you cut it?"
    Dayton pointed to a hacksaw lying on a
toolbox next to the workbench where he had originally been standing
when Turner first saw him while looking through the glass portion
of the overhead door. Turner seized the hacksaw, but detected no
blood anywhere on it.
    "Mind if I take the hacksaw into custody?
I'll give you a receipt for it."
    "No, I don't care."
    Turner changed the subject by asking Dayton
where he had been drinking. Dayton replied that he had bought some
wine at a nearby Safeway supermarket and mixed it together to make
a concoction, the name of which he couldn't recall. He said he
purchased the wine around 11 P.M. and drank it at his shop.
    Hadn't he said earlier that he had been
mixing bourbon with strawberry mixer? Now he was talking
about drinking wine. Turner continued to make mental notes of the
inconsistencies in Dayton's statements. He must have been getting
tired, his mind fatigued from all his activities of the past few
hours. Turner pressed on with his probing, aware that it was harder
for a suspect to keep his story straight when tired and under
tremendous pressure of continued questioning.
    "Where did you put all the empty bottles?"
asked Turner.
    "I bought miniatures at the liquor store," he
replied, trying to avoid the question. Another inconsistency.
Miniature bottles of wine? Or miniature bottles of liquor? As far
as Turner knew, the only miniature bottles containing alcoholic
beverages sold at state-run liquor outlets were the one-shot hard
liquor types, like those served on airlines. He decided not to
press that issue just yet. Besides, regulated by state law, liquor
stores close at 7 P.M. in Oregon and were not open at 11 P.M. That
was inconsistent enough for him. It was clear that Dayton was
lying.
    Turner remained silent. Dayton, however,
continued to talk, saying that he liked to drink but that his wife
didn't approve of it. On the evenings he chose to drink, he said,
he did so at his shop.
    "Where are the bottles, Dayton?" Turner
abruptly asked again. Dayton didn't respond, however. He only
stared at the detective.
    "Do you mind if I look in the trash cans?"
Turner prompted.
    "No. Go ahead. Search the place if you want
to. Search my truck. You want me to go with you? Say so."
    Having obtained Dayton's permission, Turner
checked each of the trash cans inside the shop. All except for the
one in the sink area were completely empty, devoid of any material
whatsoever. But the trash can in the sink area contained several
wrappers from Curad brand adhesive