No Regrets

of would-be bouncers. If they were big, tough, and mean, they would meet the job qualifications of the Exotica.
    “The only names we have for management there are Kit Mitchell,* Al Rauch,* and Roger Pomarleau,” an undercover vice detective said. When Lamphere and Nordlund checked police files for these three “managers,” they found that none of their physical descriptions meshed with that of the elusive and deadly “George.”
    Lamphere searched records to see if Arden Lee’s name was there. She found only one prior for Arden—an arrest for “offering and agreeing to an act of prostitution.” That was pretty small potatoes. There was no conviction indicated. Arden appeared to be more of a hanger-on than a working prostitute. It didn’t really matter what Arden did for a living; in this case she was the victim of a devastating attack, and nobody should have had to undergo the torture she had endured.
    After leaving a message for the Third Watch crew, Nordlund and Lamphere signed out for the day. They requested another attempt to contact George at the Exotica during the evening. But after their early afternoon visit, the doors of the dance studio were closed and locked.Stakeouts watching the studio reported that the doors remained locked all night. When the heat was on over any of the activities at the Exotica, the place was known to close down until things lightened up.
    When Lamphere and Nordlund returned to work on June 2, they learned that Officers Burke and Zuray had arrested a suspect near the Exotica who fit the description given by Arden Lee exactly.
    He was a Native American male, five feet, nine inches tall, and his front teeth were missing. His last name was George, and he even had a ring with a key attached on his hand! The detectives were elated; it sounded as though Arden Lee’s attacker had been caught only twenty-four hours after he’d raped her.
    “We arrested him in the 500 block of East Howell. He was so drunk he walked into a tree,” Zuray said.
    Pat Lamphere interviewed Delroy George,* who was considerably sobered up now, and advised him of his rights. The suspect had extensive bruising on his hands and knees which could have occurred during the attack on Arden Lee.
    But Delroy George insisted that he’d just come back to Seattle from Canada. “I took the Greyhound, and I know I got in at two in the morning,” he said weakly. “Ask my aunt. She’ll be able to tell you. I came in on a bus from Vancouver.”
    Lamphere asked him about the ring he wore with a key attached, and he insisted that he owned the ring. “That’s so I won’t lose my house key.”
    “Do you go to the Korea Tavern?” she asked.
    “Sure. I drink there sometimes, but I wasn’t there this month because I was up in Canada.”
    Photos of the numerous abrasions and bruises on DelroyGeorge’s knees and hands were taken, and he was booked into the King County Jail. He looked good for the crime. Right name. Right neighborhood. Finger ring with a key. Everything seemed to fit.
    Sergeant Noreen Skagen, head of the Sexual Assault Unit, agreed. She and Lamphere headed to Harborview Hospital to see if Arden Lee might be able to identify Delroy George. But if anything, she looked worse than the day before. Her condition was listed as extremely critical.
    “We can’t risk trying to reduce her jaw fractures until her condition stabilizes,” the trauma attending doctor said. “But she wants to try to talk to you. Just don’t stay too long.”
    Arden whispered that she remembered more about her assailant. “Most of what I said was right, but I think he was taller than I said yesterday. He’s probably more like six feet tall.
    “And I remember now that it was that George from the dance studio.”
    “Are you sure he worked there?” Lamphere asked.
    “Yes. Absolutely. Kim introduced him to me in a back room at the Korea Tavern a couple of weeks ago. He said he was a bouncer at the Exotica.”
    Lamphere showed Arden the ring they’d taken from Delroy George.
    “That’s not mine,” Arden said faintly. “Mine was a ring made out of a spoon—”
    Incredibly—but luckily for Delroy George—they had found information that let him off the hook. Detectives are all too aware of the fact that there are many instances where a suspect who seems to be perfect for a crime turns out to have no connection at all; only coincidence.
    A very relieved Delroy George was released, swearing to give up drinking.
    Skagen and