Worth More Dead

black primer coat.
    “He’s headed for Highway 18 and probably in your direction,” Reichert advised.
    Four minutes later, the newly painted Dodge pulled into the driveway of Scribner’s residence. Hicks and La Moria contacted the radio operator and asked that a call be placed to Scribner so that he would be on the phone and therefore less likely to grab a weapon when the two detectives knocked on his door. Minutes later, Hicks, La Moria, Hursh, and Reichert went to the door and arrested William Scribner without incident.
    He was advised of his rights and informed that he was under arrest for suspicion of murder and rape. When the detectives looked at the black car, it was obvious that it had recently been yellow. A relative of the suspect appeared to ask what the county sheriff’s cars were doing there. When he was told about the charges, he was cooperative, revealing that Scribner had painted his car black only a week before. This put the sloppy paint job within a week of the rape and abduction of Jodi Lukens.
    Scribner was booked into the King County Jail. He declined to give any statements without the presence of his attorney.
    On October 12, Detective Sergeant Harlan Bollinger contacted William Scribner’s estranged wife. She told him that her husband had changed cars frequently over the summer. In late May, when Jackie Plante vanished, he drove a red Pontiac Le Mans. He sold that car, and the investigators tracked the new owner through the Department of Motor Vehicles. The new owner gave them permission to process the Le Mans but he said he had cleaned it thoroughly when he took possession. If there had been any evidence of Jackie La Plante’s murder there, it had long since disappeared.
    Scribner’s second car that summer was a white-over-maroon Dodge Dart; he traded the Le Mans for it. La Moria and Hicks processed the Dart, vacuuming up several hairs from the trunk area. These proved to be microscopically alike in class and characteristics to April Collins’s hair. They were probably left there when she was held captive on August 18. But this wasn’t absolute physical evidence; it was only “highly probable.” If it had been ten years later and if the hairs had been yanked from April’s scalp, they would have had “tags”—roots—on them, sufficient for DNA comparison. But it was still a decade too early for that kind of DNA analysis.
    The yellow Dodge used in the abduction of Jodi Lukens also gave up hair samples. These matched Jodi’s. Moreover, Jodi’s descri pt ion of the Dodge’s interior was as accurate as if she had had a camera to photograph it. Scribner’s hurried paint job on the exterior had accomplished virtually nothing to throw the detectives off track.
    Deputy Leo Hursh drove April Collins and her brother to the Timberlane area to see if she could pinpoint the spot where her attacker raped her and held her down as he attempted to cut her throat. Hursh was careful not to give her any body language signals that might let her know where Jackie Plante’s body or the strip of cloth from April’s jacket were found. In truth, he was chosen for this trip because he didn’t know the exact spot, either; he knew only the general region. Still, as they drove north on 199th then turned onto a gravel road at SE 259th and up a steep hill, April tensed. She was sure they were now very close to where she had been assaulted.
    April cried out, “That’s the hill! I know it is.”
    Hursh crept along in low gear, turning at her direction onto a road to the left. There were two large mud puddles ahead.
    April was pale as she said softly, “That’s the exact place. I remember it perfectly.”
    She had to be right on target. The Explorer Search and Rescue Scouts who had searched the area had left small colored flags to mark where Jackie had lain. But April wasn’t looking at those. She seemed to be reliving the attack she had suffered.
    “After he took me out of the car,” April remembered, “he cut that strip off my shirt. When he freed my hands, I saw him throw the piece of cloth on the road. I wonder if they found it.”
    Of course, they had found it. And that single strip of cloth was one of the most vital pieces of physical evidence the prosecutors planned to use in William Scribner’s trial.
    The sun was setting as Hursh drove April and her brother away from the isolated region. April sighed and looked back. Her voice conveyed tremendous stress as she said quietly, “It’s