Afoot. Brutal, and violence, and chaotic, they are vicious killers. It was a horrible betrayal. This wasnt supposed to happen ever. It was a chilly december morning, 2020. The high desert outside of los angeles. In there, behind barbed wire and secure blocks of thick concrete, a prisoner was placed in front of a camera. It was a parole hearing, for a life or who was not supposed to be set free. 50 miles away, nervous and worried, the sisters of the mans victim listen to a live broadcast. With her, historic l. A. Homicide detective, now retired. And rick jackson. Powerless to intervene, they waited for the boards decision. And it all came flooded back. As if decades had vanished. And the strange, terrible events had only just occurred. I worked homicide, but by the end of my career what it was 20 years. And you also think that you have seen everything, and this is one of those cases that, that just did not make any sense. No, it did not. Still does not. And maybe never well. It was just
utah, resort town, ski mecca, until he got busted on the highway for that fake passport, the new hideout for fugitive duncan martinez, a prime suspect in the murder of his good friend ron baker. park city was just the next convenient place to disappear, until that inconvenient traffic stop followed by his arrest on passport fraud charges. that changed things. so duncan came up with a new plan, we get a call from duncan martinez s attorney. informing us that duncan was willing to talk to us about what happened on the night of the murder, out of the clear blue sky. so, the detectives, and duncan s attorney and the da office agreed on some ground rules, he would tell the story all right, but only in exchange for some sort of limited immunity from prosecution, otherwise no story, no dice. we worked out a deal where he could talk to us freely, we couldn t use anything he told us against him. there is a term for the deal they made, they call it king for a day. fancy. he
Nathan inside the tunnel with the knife in his hands. one possibility, would the guy who had ratted on him help him some more? we had established a relationship with dunkin , he knew where we were coming for, we wanted to get run baker s killer, he told us, and we told him, you will help us, and what you are eager to help throw nathan under the bus, the recorded phone call was set up through the jail, and nathan and duncan spoke for the first time in almost two years. what are you doing? everywhere, i ended up in boston for a while. you have been in a lot of trouble. it was like old times, as
Was, wearing a wire. you have to understand his personality, to him this is hollywood stuff here. i could really pull this off. screaming my name to help him out, dude i thought i was going to die. then, 19 went to work, to try and draw nathan out by claiming he had left behind his blood on the walls of the tunnel. on the wall. he played it, downplayed it down that was good, but detectives in the da s office still wanted a little bit more evidence before indicting him for murder, and dunkin , thanks
Practicing dark arts, even harming children and others at a brief, unfortunate resurges around that time. so the idea that occultists may actually have sacrificed a man in a tunnel that was decorated with the signs of devil worship? the media fixation was hardly a surprise. i wrote some of these stories, i think we wrote them with reserve. saying this is what the police have on their plate. as one of the things that they re looking at. but they re probably looking at many other things as well. but i know enough now, as a novelist, to know that certain words can really fire up the imagination of the reader. so i think these stories did that. in a big way. this whole occult story came out, and that was the dominant narrative for a long time. where those in ucla and this