Free Perfect Victim by Carla Norton, Christine McGuire Page A

be the one to prosecute Hooker?”
    Lang, who didn’t feel anyone had been assigned the case yet, didn’t see what she was so perturbed about. “The only reason he’s been looking into it is that he tries the homicides and we’ve been trying to connect Hooker with a 187 charge. But since there isn’t enough evidence for a murder charge, we’ll have to go with the Stan case.”
    He gave her a level gaze and added, with characteristic gruffness, “if you think you can handle it, by god, handle it!”
    Reviewing the evidence and plowing through stacks of police reports, Mcguire tried to parcel this wild amalgamation of information into the legal segments that make a case. The circumstances were so bizarre and the time-span so phenomenal that it was difficult to digest.
    it didn’t make sense that Colleen Stan claimed to have been held against her will, yet had ample opportunity to flee. When she finally went home in August of 1984, she hadn’t even contacted the police! But the most glaring flaw in this case, the incident that made Mcguire cringe, was that inexplicable trip to Riverside in March of 1981. How could she possibly explain that to a jury?
    For that matter, how could she explain it to herself?
    She sighed with frustration. They had big statute of limitations problems, particularly in terms of the kidnap. It had taken such a long time for these crimes to come to light that Hooker could get away with many of them even if he confessed.
    Burdened with a full case load, her regular office duties, and a colicky baby at home, Mcguire scarcely had time to prepare for the preliminary hearing, set for little more than a week away.
    The preliminary hearing would determine exactly what Hooker could be charged with. The judge would hear testimony, then arguments from the prosecution and the defense, and decide whether there was enough evidence to bring Hooker to trial. But before she could present evidence against Hooker, Mcguire had seven years of events to familiarize herself with, and if she overlooked something during the prelim, there would be no second chance to bring it in later.
    Her task was complicated by the fact that she had only barebones summaries, not transcripts, of police interviews with Janice and Colleen that had transpired over several hours. But the good news was that one of her favorite detectives, Al Shamblin, had conducted the interviews.
    In Mcguire’s estimation, Shamblin was one of the most reliable investigative officers on the force. Though you couldn’t tell it from his slow manner, his lame grammar, or his shaggydog looks, Shamblin was no dummy. He got all the details, and he knew how to investigate a case. Mcguire and Shamblin had teamed up on a number of cases, and she knew from experience that she could count on him to get his facts straight.
    Knowing how dependable Shamblin was, Mcguire expected that he would have answers to most of her questions about the crimes Hooker had allegedly committed. What she hadn’t expected was the bombshell of evidence that literally fell into his lap.
    It was a slide, not unlike the hundreds of slides that police had confiscated from Hooker’s mobile home. But rather than being neatly marked, boxed, and stashed, this one had been hidden and forgotten, tucked between the pages of one of Hooker’s sketchbooks. By chance, Shamblin had picked up the sketchbook and thumbed through it, and the slide had dropped out.
    When he showed it to Mcguire, she held it up to the light, squinted, and exclaimed, “Al, we’ve got our first big break!”
    According to Janice Hooker, she and Cameron had destroyed a barrelful of potential evidence, including one particular sheet of paper: the slavery contract. But while Hooker had made sure the original had gone up in smoke, he’d apparently forgotten that, ever the photographer, he’d preserved the contract on celluloid.
    Mcguire’s first meeting with Janice Hooker came on the heels of this exciting discovery, on the