Sam Kincaid 01 - The Commission

halfway through, Sue Ann asked me to stop the tape and back it up a little. I had no sooner hit the play button when she said, “Hold it. That’s him. That’s the guy I did the three-way with.”
    I backed it up and ran it forward once more. “Are you sure?”
    “Absolutely. That’s the dude Levi brought with him to the motel. The two things I distinctly recall about him were the tattoo I told you about and what a little dick he had. I mean, at full attention, we’re talking about something the size of your little pinkie. I remember thinking later that any woman deserved more than that.”
    I excused myself momentarily and hustled over to my office, where I picked up a current copy of the Utah Department of Corrections Annual Report. I brought it back to the conference room and flipped through it until I found the page I was looking for. It was a section of the report devoted to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. This particular page included individual head-and-shoulder shots of each member of the board. The photographs were significantly larger than the video images she had just viewed to make the identification. I set it down in front of her and asked her to make the identification again. She didn’t hesitate, pointing immediately to the picture of William Allred.
    “Wow. So this Allred dude is a member of the parole board just like Levi was?” she asked. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Do you think he’s mixed up in Levi’s murder?”
    “That’s a very good question, Sue Ann, and the answer is, I just don’t know.”
    ***
    I took Sue Ann Winkler back to the Satin & Lace Club, then I headed to my office at the prison. I called ahead to Terry, who was waiting for me when I arrived. I told him what I’d learned from Sue Ann. I said, “I want Bill Allred placed under visual surveillance. Call the Board of Pardons and find out discreetly Allred’s hearing schedule for the next several days. Then we can assign some of our staff to track his movements.
    “I want to know where this guy goes and who he sees when he’s not conducting parole hearings. That means getting him up in the morning, following him to work, following him if he leaves for lunch, and then following him home in the evening. Once he’s safely tucked in for the night, then it’s okay to discontinue the surveillance. But somebody has to be back on him early the next morning.”
    “That’s really going to stretch our resources,” said Burnham. “I think I can free up two investigators, and I’m available to help. We’ll have to work solo, which will be tough if he’s on the move very much. If this goes on very long, we’ll need additional personnel.”
    “I’ll see if I can convince McConnell to provide some help. She’s been less than enthused about this line of pursuit. But maybe the current revelation from Sue Ann will change her mind. In the meantime, we’re still trying to identify the guy who wrote the forged suicide note.”
    “You want his phone records?”
    “Absolutely,” I said. “Find out which company provides cell phone service for the Board of Pardons. All the board members carry a cell. Let’s get both his home and cell phone records for the past six months. Who knows, the phone records may turn out to be more useful than all the time-consuming visual surveillance. And also have somebody snatch his garbage can and sort through the trash—never can tell what might turn up in the garbage.”
    “You must really think Allred’s involved.”
    “Hell, I wish I knew, Terry. It’s a calculated gamble, that’s for sure. When I interviewed him, he acted kind of funny when I asked about his friendship with Levi. At least now we know why. I’ve got to trust my instincts, and right now, my instincts are telling me somehow Bill Allred’s involved. I’ve been wrong before. It wouldn’t be the first time. But over the years, I’ve guessed right a lot more often than I’ve been wrong. We’ll know soon enough.”

Chapter Thirty-six
    I turned to the task of identifying current inmates who might have been responsible for creating the forged suicide note. So far, nobody had come forward seeking protection, although the likelihood of that happening was always a long shot.
    Using the Department’s automated offender database, I searched for inmates currently serving sentences on forgery charges or with prior felony convictions for forgery. I ended up with a sizable group of one hundred eighty