Emily and Clyde

By Francis Miller

This mystery involves a young expecting mother who disappears soon after learning that her fiance has been killed in action. John was an Army officer and on deployment. Authorities in the small Midwest city investigated her disappearance with no results. After months, her body was discovered. There were no clues, no DNA. The police began dealing with a Chicago drug family expanding into their area. The case is forgotten for sixteen years.

The city has grown considerably since that time. Sixteen years is a long time to be forgotten. However, this young energetic four-year law student joins the team on an internship. Special Agent Emily Edmunds and Detective Clyde Sorenson team together and renew the investigation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891570245

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Emily and Clyde

Francis Miller

Copyright © 2023 Francis Miller

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-89157-011-5 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-89157-024-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Myself

Chapter 2

2002

Chapter 3

The Event

Chapter 4

Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter 5

The Moment of Truth

Chapter 6

The Interviews Begin

Chapter 7

The Interviews Continue

Chapter 8

It Was a Day in May

Chapter 9

The South Boat Dock

Chapter 10

Detroit Lakes

Chapter 11

Into Thin Air

Chapter 12

What Now?

Chapter 13

New Lives

Chapter 14

Oh! What Do We Have Here?

Chapter 15

Where Are They Today?

Chapter 16

Clyde Goes to NY

Chapter 17

Not So Fast

Chapter 18

Officer Princeton Is Back

Chapter 19

The Team

About the Author

Acknowledgments

There are sacrifices in each of our lives, and it is highly unlikely that any of us make it through life journeys without the help from those people who provide the resources and the knowledge to support fact or fiction listed in this novel.

I could not have written this novel had it not been for the wisdom and knowledge from the woman I love and respect, my wife, Jenifer. Her scholastic aptitude and her understanding of the English language provided me the academic skill, which I had not acquired in my life of education; however, she was an English major.

I would have taken much longer at writing this novel had it not been for an outstanding young friend, Kiana Haug, who coached me through. She cautioned me on what is acceptable and what is not. She had proofread the novel and offered areas of clarity and word choices I had not really considered. She helped me correct autocorrect functions.

I have a special friend and confidant who helped me stay focused named Renae.

My nephew Sheriff Honeywell offered guidance on some law enforcement issues, having to do with officer work environments, the number of officers and staff needed for an X number of area population.

My pastor, Pastor Leer, he gave me the authority to express myself with caution. He encouraged me to complete those projects that I start, to complete them as best I can and with God's help. I really admire Pastor Leer; he has a way of reaching out and touching you.

My children, regardless whether they are my children or my stepchildren, I consider each and every one my child. The world is blessed, and I am blessed to have the quality of my children—Mark M. (Ok M.), Sheri M. (Jeff M.), Kevin S. (deceased), Jeremy T., Mark E. (Kevin R.), Karen E., Rebecca B. (Rick B.), Steven E. (Addy E.), Jeff H. (Kelly M.), Leann J. (Sean J.), and Kimberly O. (Mark O.). All my children gave me the courage necessary to undertake a project so demanding as writing. I would not have attempted without their motivation coupled with the influence from my wife, Jenifer.

My grandchildren—Joshua M., Austin K., Luke K., Emily B., Elizabeth B., Gretchen B., Joshua B., Sophia E., Olivia E., Kindra M., Kelsey M., Kylee M., Dakota M., Cheyanne, Gabriel E., Sam A., Zach H., Quentin H., and William T.

Our great-granddaughter, Vivian M., God's gift.

Countless friends who supported my vision and my efforts.

My copy of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, last copy written in 1973. I am still finding words I have not seen before.

My copy of the new Roget's Thesaurus (in dictionary form), copyright 1961.

My copy of The Pocket Handbook, Kirszner and Mandell, 2003.

My North America Road Atlas, Rand McNally, 2006 limited edition.

My Dell laptop, loaded with Windows 10 and Microsoft Office; however, I did have issues with autocorrect functions and spell-check.

Chapter 1

Myself

My name is Clyde Sorenson. I am fifty-two years old. I am married and have two children. My wife and I will have been married seventeen years next week. My wife's name is Rebecca, and she is beautiful—brown eyes, sandy hair, and this awesome smile that can warm your heart instantly. Our children, Vivian and Kevin, are both still in school. The eldest, Vivian, now fifteen, is in high school, and Kevin, twelve, is in middle school. A couple more years and Vivian would be on her way to college. She really does not know what career path she will take yet, but I am almost sure her friends will choose. She had at one time suggested being a police officer, like Dad; however, that is not what I had visioned for her. The job is dangerous, and the pay is not great, but a police officer generally does it for the greater good.

I am a nineteen-year veteran on the local police force. My start date was the first week in December of 2001, and here it is, May of 2019, and I am looking at retiring in the near future, but for the time being, I am a lead detective. I have been attached to the homicide division for about nine years; prior to that I was on patrol. Regardless of my assignment, I have seen many changes come to our city, and some of those changes have not been good. At one time not too long ago, if we had one homicide a year, it was something to talk about, but now it seems to become a more common conversation.

Our city now has one hundred and sixty-two police officers. Fifteen years ago, the population was only about 55,000 and only required about eighty-seven officers plus supporting staff. Times change, maybe a little too quickly for most of us. At one time the thought was to have two precincts, but that would have required additional staffing, and now we may move the law enforcement complex to a central location. There is some land available where Walmart planned to build but changed their mind, but for right now, we will stay where we are at.

For the most part, I have enjoyed my career in spite of current events. A couple of months ago, our lieutenant picked up a law student intern who was eager for an opportunity to intern with our precinct. She is in her fourth year of law at the University of North Dakota. Her name is Emily Edmunds. She is twenty-five years old, brown eyed, sandy-colored hair, smart, and seems to be a natural leader. She is not in a relationship; she is Christian, and I've heard that she can cook. Her first task would be to clean and archive our files. Her second task would be to separate the closed cases from the open active and the open inactive; however, she had no authority to look beyond the red, green, and yellow markers indicating whether they were open (active/inactive) or closed. This was a little quirky, and our precinct chief, Captain Sean Beckerman, and the chief of police wanted to bring the system up to the twenty-first century. It did not take Emily long to liven things up for us in homicide division.

Lieutenant Dunford (my boss of investigations) summoned me to his office last week. I had been working on two separate new homicides, one an elderly gentleman and that of a young black male and wife. I was waiting on DNA results (sent to an off-site location for analysis), completing witness interviews, and organizing my notes. I had also been monkeying with some desk-cleaning attempts. I was not having a lot of luck because I just kept moving stuff from here to there and back. I was actually glad to get away from desk detail, but to my surprise, he did not want to talk about his upcoming fishing trip to some lake in the Canadian Rockies. Lieutenant Dunford looked at me with concern, and there was an uneasiness in his voice as he said he had made the decision to take me off my current assignments, but my cases were important for our department.

Lieutenant Dunford took a file from the top of a pile of about six or seven. Dunford said to me, I want you to be the lead detective on the Jacobson case.

The Jacobson case? What about the two that I am working on?

Lieutenant Dunford suggested, The Daniels team will take those. I need you on this cold case.

I asked who would be included in the team.

The lieutenant said, I can give you Karen Princeton. She will be good to work with, and she needs some investigative experience.

I remembered bits and pieces of the case and how little physical evidence there was at the time. We did not have the technology that we had today. We had DNA now, but from the evidence locker, we might not have tissue or fluids to test as this happened fifteen or sixteen years ago. This case had been open but inactive for fourteen years next month. Lieutenant, do we have any new evidence to warrant opening this case now? I asked.

Lieutenant Dunford said, Not really, but we have to get some of these cases cleaned up, and this one beckoned me to do something with it. Lieutenant Dunford explained, The family needs closure detective.

This case had a history of frustration and sadness for the victim, a victim who needed justice and the victim's family who needed closure.

I asked Lieutenant Dunford if Karen was to be on temporary assignment as detective or as my partner. The lieutenant answered, Just your partner, and she is to wear her uniform. Our budget does not allow another detective slot.

I said, Great, I will leave a note for Karen to see me in the morning. I get to work by seven thirty, and we'll start reviewing the file as today's shift is nearly over.

Seven thirty seemed to show up like a horse ready for a race. Where did the night get to so fast? I had just sat down at my desk and was about to pour myself a cup of coffee when a voice said, Did you bring enough for two?

I was not counting on sharing, but in rebuttal, I said, Sure, black I hope.

The voice said, That will be fine.

Good morning, Officer. I hope you are ready for a challenging case.

Why do you say that? she asked.

Well, when this case happened, I was still a patrol officer, and I was not really involved with the investigation. The detectives at the time were given very little evidence and a body that showed up months after the fact and no leads.

Officer Princeton said, Let's see what we do have and go from there.

I opened the file, and on top, we found the death certificate, which read the decedent's name, age, residence, father and mother's name, buried or cremated, cause of death, if female, manner of death, date, time, place, and location of injury. The time of death was unknown as a result of body condition at the time of discovery; the date of discovery was April 22, 2003. The cause of death was apparent blunt force trauma to the right-side parietal bone just above the occipital bone on the right side. The injury was crescent shaped approximately six centimeters in length and diagonal from left to right rising. The crescent arch was down and approximately nineteen millimeters deep. The victim was pregnant at the time of death. The death certificate contained much more information, which might or might not be of importance to our investigation.

I said, What does the file contain regarding interviews?

Officer Princeton looked at the original detective's notes. Looks like Detective Mark Newton was the lead investigator. Do you remember him? asked Officer Princeton.

I do, but so little. He wound up moving to New York as a result of threats against his life. The case was turned over to drug enforcement and then went inactive. I heard that he blamed himself and felt he had not done a thorough job of investigating. I do remember there was a lack of evidence or seemed to be.

What do we have so far?

Well, Ms. Jacobson worked for a company called New Age Marketing LLC, run by a guy named William Shift and her boss, a gal named Mrs. Jenifer MacAfee. The company employed about sixty-one employees. This Jessie gal had a fiancé named John Chambers. Says here he was killed while on deployment to the Middle East.

Did she have any enemies? How about problems at work, problems with ex-boyfriends? Did she like girls as well as guys?

No, not that showed up.

There has to be something here.

We should start with Detective Mark Newton.

Well, he has moved away, and last I heard, he was in Western New York.

What about his partner? Who was that person?

That was Officer Renae Lambert.

Well, we'll have to talk to her, Officer Princeton said, should I find out where she is now.

Okay, that will be great.

Who did Detective Newton interview? asked Officer Princeton.

The team interviewed Katie Pfeiffer (Jessie's mom). There is an older sister, Greta, but she lives in Cincinnati and was not interviewed. Also interviewed were several of her friends, a woman by the name of Gretchen Greenberg, a Sophie Steiner, an Olivia Murphy, Valerie Newhope (regional food market supervisor), Jacquelyn Whiteshield (regional food market checkout clerk), Jenifer MacAfee (Jessie's boss), and Allyson Cartwright (another friend), replied Detective Sorenson.

What about Jessie's father? asked Officer Princeton.

Nope, he died before he could be interviewed, replied Detective Sorenson. There were several odd interviews also. They had interviewed a Fred Bergstrom, a George Lockhart, a Sean Berg, a Peter O'Toole, all of whom were coworkers. Former classmates were also interviewed, an Austin Schneider, a Gabe Peterson, her family doctor, a Graham Harrison, and her pediatrician, Dr. Liz Andrews. The investigative team also interviewed Mr. William Shift (New Age Marketing CEO), a Grace Connors (coworker), and Jane Jorgensen, also known as JJ (she was the Howard Johnson supervisor).

Why her? asked Officer Princeton.

That is the location of the company training site she hosted prior to her disappearance, said Detective Sorenson.

What about neighbors? asked Officer Princeton, then continued by saying, Well, the team had listed the neighbors across the street, the Millers, and the neighbors to each side, Mr. and Mrs. Summers and Mr. Hornby.

Jessie's car was found at the regional food market, locked and no purse, no key, no prints, no nothing, said Detective Sorenson.

Did any of her personal belongings, credit cards, purse, etc. ever show up? asked Detective Sorenson.

Does not look like it, said Officer Princeton.

Were there any other regional food market employees interviewed? asked Officer Princeton.

Was there a surveillance tape available?

If there were, it would or should still be in evidence locker, remarked Detective Sorenson.

We have a lot of work to do, said Officer Princeton.

Yes, we do, we will reinterview all the listed folks we can find. Realize, however, some of these folks may not be around, or they may be deceased. We will take a look at Jessie's stuff in the evidence locker also, replied Detective Sorenson.

Maybe the lieutenant will give us Emily, and she could check for people and addresses for us.

Good thinking. I'll find out.

It is almost lunchtime, so why don't we have lunch while looking through the evidence locker? You like pizza. I'll order some. What, pepperoni okay?

I walked. Well, I couldn't very well dance to Lieutenant Dunford's office; wouldn't look very professional. He was in working on files and signing off on work competed. I knocked, and the lieutenant said, What is it? Oh! Come in, Detective. What can I help you with?

I replied, saying, Would our team be able to use Emily make some phone calls to find out whether those interviewed were still around and what their addresses might be?

I don't know. Have you asked her if she would be able to do that?

No, sir, we have not.

Well, you had better do that. She is in the file room.

Thanks, Lieutenant. I turned and walked to the open door and looked back in the direction of the lieutenant. He had returned to his tasks, and I walked down the hallway, thinking, What just happened? The lieutenant did not say a word of objection. Odd.

I entered the file room and said, Emily, this is Detective Sorenson. Are you in here?

Yes, back here.

I walked to the back corner and asked, Can we ask a favor of you?

What kind of favor are you looking for? she asked.

Well, Officer Princeton and I would like you to make some phone inquiries verifying if past interviewees are still around and if their addresses are still valid.

I can, she said, but I have never done that kind of work before.

Well, after lunch, come to my office, and Officer Princeton will explain to you.

I did not bring lunch today, sir, so I can finish what I am doing and then come to your office.

We are ordering pizza. You are welcome to join us.

Maybe I will, she said.

Sounds great. And I went to order the pizza.

Thank you, said Emily, for sharing your pizza. It was very good.

You are welcome, Emily.

The pizza is from a place not too far from here. It's called Plato's Pizzeria.

Officer Princeton, said Emily, Detective Sorenson said that you would teach me how to make the interviewee inquiries.

Yes, said Officer Princeton, this is how you do it, and these are the people you need contact. They are going to ask what this is in regard to. Just tell them new evidence has surfaced and that we are following the evidence.

Okay, Emily said and headed toward her assigned workstation.

Detective Sorenson said, Karen, let's take a road trip. I'll get the car and meet you in front.

Shortly, Detective Sorenson pulled up in front of the Law Enforcement Center with the unmarked police cruiser, and Officer Princeton got in and fastened her seat belt. Where are we going, Detective?

"I thought we would go to the regional food market where Ms. Jacobson's car was discovered, then to the landfill where her body was discovered, then I think we should start on the interviews and give some thought to how Jessie's lifestyle intertwined with others. She had to have crossed paths with someone that took offense. Oh sure she could have gotten out of the car, slipped, fell, and hit her head, someone accidentally ran her over, panicked, disposed of the body, and so on,