Robert Walker - Scalpers

"Yes?"

"I think we struck pay dirt."

"Hold on, I want Sid Corman in on this ... Sid, pick up on line 3."

Sid did so as Kelso held off his information. “Seems, Dino, that there was a guy by the name of Ian Benjamin, a shrink. Anyway, this Dr. Benjamin was practicing psychiatry in Saugatuk, Michigan during the years when a number of scalping deaths occurred up that way, in and around Park's town of Seneca."

Dean swallowed hard, “Benjamin? You're sure?"

"You think it could be our Montana boy?” Sid asked Dean.

"What's that?” asked Ken.

"Go on, Ken,” said Dean. “What about this guy Benjamin?"

"Well, Seneca's a little town, so they called in Benjamin, and he worked on the cases on an ad hoc basis. And I was looking at this list you sent Carl Prather through Sybil, and it hits me that the name Benjamin Hamel and Benjamin, well, they're not so far apart, you know. And then I see he's not just another doctor, but a shrink, and I figure if Park is chasing somebody as far across the country as he has, then maybe he's onto someone in particular, someone like this guy Benjamin."

"If that were the case, why didn't he tell someone? What was he waiting for?"

"Who knows, blackmail, maybe. Didn't have the goods quite together yet? Building a solid case?"

"Or maybe he wanted both the killers, since we proved there were two men working in tandem."

"Christ,” moaned Sid, “you don't suppose Park was trying his level best to finger me as the second killer, do you?” asked Sid.

"Could be ... a lot of red herrings leading to your doorstep, Sid, some planted in the minds of quite a few people hereabouts by Hamel."

"Hamel ... Jesus ... I can't believe it ... he acts so, so queasy about the stiffs, and coming in here."

"Guilty conscience, maybe."

"Any way to identify this guy Benjamin so we know we're accurate—that it is Hamel, Ken?"

"Damned force in Seneca's kinda short on protocol."

"Meaning?"

"Usually you call in someone to help out on a case, like a shrink, or even a psychic. Well, you get their prints on record, at least. Seneca doesn't have an ink pad, it appears, much less a photo of the guy, and even if they did, they'd have to take the U.S. mail route to get the picture to us—no FAX machines or anything."

"Then all we've got is the similarity between the two names,” said Sid.

"We're in personnel records now,” explained Dean, “and we'll see what we can find out about Dr. Hamel."

"Good procedure, happy hunting.” Kelso said his goodbyes and rang off.

"I don't get it, Dean, about Park and Benjamin. I mean, he must've known the shrink had changed his name and that it couldn't have been just coincidence that where he goes the Scalpers follow, right? What was Park's game?"

"Ken may've been right, since Park had to carefully build his case against his killer. He had to because he himself had served time for just such a killing."

"Right."

"And the second killer entering the picture, Seneca authorities never knew it! It came as a total surprise to Park, and he may've thought he couldn't fully avenge himself on Hamel until he got the other man, too, the guy we know only as a dwarf."

"It's all too bizarre, Dean...."

"Truth is stranger than fiction."

"But if Park, I mean ... wouldn't Park have confided in Dyer, at least?

"My guess is that Park tried to convince Hamel that he was no threat to him, that he was called in by Hodges as a result of a chance remark made by Hamel himself, perhaps."

"As a matter of fact, that's how the Chief put it to me once,” said Sid, trying to follow Dean's meanderings.

"Hamel tells the Chief that he worked with police in Michigan on a similar case, which boosts Hamel into high-profile status with Hodges. Hamel draws up his profile of the killers, refuting your original findings in the process—or rather, drawing attention to the oversights which he knew to be there in the first place. Meanwhile, Hodges makes contact with Michigan and enters Park. Hamel gives Park a phony reason for the name change, creditors, or an old girl friend he's trying to lose, something.... Meanwhile, Park sees evidence pointing in other directions, and for the first time he learns there are, indeed, two killers instead of one. He then reassesses his original theory and it's all the time Hamel needs to get to him and frame Park himself as the Scalper."

"It almost makes sense ... Park done in by Hamel, if—and it's a big if—Ben Hamel and Benjamin are one and the same man."

"Take it a step further, Sid."

"What?"

"If Hamel and Benjamin and Benjamin— the boy —are one and the same...."

Sid's eyes widened at the prospect. “It's just too pat, Dean. Can't be that lucky, can we?"

"Let's find out."

Sid asked the personnel manager for the file on Ben Hamel. Dean half-expected the file to have been lifted, but in a moment it was delivered to them, no questions asked, the lady merely saying, “All information is to be held in strictest confidence, Sid, do you understand?"

"Terry, we're after a murderer here, we're not concerned about credit references or wife beatings."

The woman turned a bit crimson as Dean rifled through the papers. They looked very official and were quite clean of any connection with either Michigan or Montana. Dean cursed under his breath. It seemed that everywhere they turned there was a dead end, another useless waste of time.

Sid took the file from Dean, repeating the gesture of going through the transcript which told him Hamel was a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, that he practiced for a time in that city, and that he relocated to Florida, where he began a practice in connection with Mercy Hospital. His work there brought him to the attention of Chief Hodges, who was in the market for a man of his expertise. Sid, too, thought it a dead-end nothing.

"Sid, is it at all possible that Tom Warner could have snatched your keys at any time, made duplicates, and returned them?"

"I think not, but I couldn't swear to it."

"The other night he let Peggy Carson into the slab room to view the Jane Doe. I didn't tell you at the time because—

"Christ, Dean, he did have a duplicate set of keys made. He had no clearance from me to come and go at will. He punches a clock, for Chrissake!"

"I think we need to find and corner Mr. Warner. If he was working for Hamel..."

"Creeps ... we're surrounded by creeps."

"But first, I have a call to make. Can I use your phone to call L.A.?” Dean asked the personnel lady.

Sid flashed his eyes at her, and pleaded, “Terry? We're talking important, here, we're talking police business."

"Guess we're all on the same team, but when time comes for me to send in my phone requisition, you, Dr. Corman, are going to be billed."

Dean allowed the sparring to go on around him until he got through to his connection with the University of California at Los Angeles. He then asked for the Registrar's Office. “Going to verify or deny the transcript of one Dr. Benjamin Hamel,” he told Sid.

Dean got through to a parrot-voiced woman in charge of transcripts. If she looked as she sounded, Dean was sure he was in for an argument. He identified himself and said his interest was in hiring a man named Benjamin Hamel for the Chicago Police Crime Division as a psychiatrist. He wished to verify his having graduated at the university. “Benjamin I. Hamel,” Dean finished.

"But sir, I can't give you information over the phone anyway, and since there is no—"

"I simply wish to verify if he did or did not graduate. You can tell me that. He may be a fraud, and I do not wish to hire a fraud."

Annoyed, the woman said, “Please hold.” And Dean did hold until he became annoyed.