Needle Work: Battery Acid, Heroin, and Double Murder(5)

Edwards flashed the tin and asked the bartender where the manager was. The bartender motioned to a back office, where they found Eddie Grant.

“Yes, I’m the manager. How can I help you?” said Grant.

“You have an employee named Nancy Billiter,” asked Edwards.

“Yes. She’s been out the last two nights.”

“What does she look like?”

“Well, she’s about forty-five, about five three, one hundred thirty pounds or so.”

“Hair and eyes?”

“Sort of reddish blond and blue eyes. Hey, you the cops who called?”

None of the cops answered yet. They needed more.

“What about her work uniform? Could you describe it, please?” Shanlian asked easily.

“Uh, it’s a pullover shirt that comes in three colors—green, tan or burgundy.”

“Pants?”

“Black jeans.”

“And the last time you saw her?” said Melki.

According to Grant, Billiter had volunteered to come into work on her day off, Wednesday, but she did not show up. He called her house several times to see what was going on but got no response. When he thought about it, Grant realized he actually hadn’t seen her since she left work on Tuesday night. Shanlian asked if he had her time card handy. Grant quickly came up with it and handed it over.

Gazing at the machine-printed notations, Shanlian saw that Billiter had punched out of work on Tuesday, November 11, at 9:09 P.M., after working the second shift.

“Actually, the time clock is off by an hour,” Grant added, “so Nancy actually worked until nine after ten.”

Shanlian knew that sometime after that and before this afternoon, someone killed her. The detective reached inside the breast pocket of his sport jacket and came out with a picture.

“Mr. Grant, that’s a death scene photograph of a victim in our county we are trying to identify.”

He handed it over.

“Would you look at it, please?”

Grant took a deep breath and held it in his hands like some valuable relic. He gazed at the picture of the bloody face wrapped up in the flowered blanket and then looked up. He had a confused, shocked expression on his face.

“That’s Nancy,” he said simply.

“Nancy Billiter?” Shanlian asked.

“Yes.”

Had anyone been calling and asking for her recently? Shanlian wondered.

“Nancy’s friend, Carol, had called a little while ago. She said she hadn’t seen Nancy since Tuesday and she was worried,” Grant replied.

“You have Carol’s address?”

“Yeah.”

He looked in a filing cabinet and came out with Billiter’s file, which had her phone number and her address. She had lived only a few miles from the restaurant. He copied it onto a sheet of white paper that he gave to Shanlian.

“She lived with her mother. Look, I should also tell you,” Grant said reluctantly, “that Nancy was using cocaine. She was a good waitress and everything, but she had a problem with the drug.”

“Anyone else here who Nancy knew or was close with?”

“Yeah, she was friends with Kip Selbach, one of the waiters. I’ll get him for you.”

A few minutes later, Grant came back with Selbach, a tall, good-looking man in his early thirties. He said that he’d known Billiter for a few years and they’d become friends. Shanlian showed him the crime scene photograph and Selbach identified Billiter immediately.

Shanlian asked him what was she wearing the last time he saw her. He was trying to determine if she had time to go home and change. Or, did the murder take place before she got home?

Selbach was certain that the last time he saw her, Billiter was wearing her burgundy work shirt, black jeans, jeans jacket and black tennis shoes. That was an exact match to the clothing the “Jane Doe” had been found in.

“Nancy had waited at the restaurant for about an hour after punching out on Tuesday. Four of the regulars had offered her a ride home, but she turned them all down.”

“Who drove her then?” chimed in Edwards.

“I don’t know.”

“What time did she finally leave?” asked Edwards again.

“Around eleven P.M.”

They had just cut two hours off the time frame, from 9:00 to 11:00 P.M. Two hours less to figure out what had happened before Nancy Billiter died. But they needed to get even more specific.

Shanlian wondered if there was anyone else she was friendly with, and Selbach recalled she was friendly with Yvonne Craig, the receptionist. A few minutes later, Grant brought in a petite blonde with a knockout figure.

“I only knew Nancy a couple of months. I met her here at work,” said Yvonne somewhat defensively.

“She used cocaine?” Shanlian asked.

“Yeah, I guess; yeah, she had a cocaine problem.”

“When’d you see her last?”

“Around ten o’clock on Tuesday, when Bill Bernhard drove her home.” Bernhard was a regular at the restaurant. “I loaned him my car to drive her home. He came back around eleven and gave me the keys and then Bill stayed until closing time.”

Craig figured closing time for about one o’clock. She didn’t know Bernhard well, only from the restaurant. She had no idea where he lived.