The Oakland Hills Vodou Murders
Murder in the Oakland Hills
by
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Prologue
She exhaled softly now, barely feeling the viscous onslaught of her attacker. No longer could she sense the warmth of her tears as they involuntarily rolled down her cheeks. She had begun her ascent. Still she could hear the increasingly fading sound of her assailant’s methodical attack. And now, hovering above her nearly lifeless body, she saw her assailant, an ominous figure wearing a wolf’s head! She watched from her new vantage point, the disgorging of feathers by this ‘wolf’ over that which was once her. A strange bloody object was caressed ever so reverently in the wolf being’s hand. It mattered little now…there was a welcoming peace washing over her, a surrendering as her life force flowed ever so gracefully from her limp and battered body...
…On a warm summer morning three months ago, the lifeless body of Hillary Chatham Dillard, was discovered against a tapestry of huge oak trees and stoic weeping willows at a prestigious college located in the affluent hills of Oakland, California. A security guard had stumbled upon her body at precisely 3:27 A.M. while patrolling the North Campus. A twenty-year old junior English and French major, Hillary, was the youngest child of a distinguished attorney who had quietly become an institution. She had been brutally raped, hacked repeatedly with a large sharp instrument and covered with feathers. The severed head of a majestic drake protruded from her mouth, presenting the illusion of a grotesque B-rated horror movie mannequin.
The head campus patrol guard immediately notified the Oakland Police Department. The guard, Edward Ramirez, was interrogated. Preliminary results virtually eliminated Ramirez as the perpetrator. All incriminating evidence pointed elsewhere. Still, Edward Ramirez remained a suspect simply because he had found the body.
Campus resident Woodrow Taft, the University’s Sports Director, confirmed the victim’s identification. School security knew Taft well, a twenty-five year popular faculty member deeply involved in campus life.
Campus security barricaded the crime scene and waited for police instructions. Media scrutiny would be intense. The victim’s philanthropic family held formidable political clout. Franklin Sr., the family scion, headed the Dillard dynasty, an influential legal machine. The investigation therefore required thoroughness, a complete clinical scrubbing.
Hillary, the youngest of four children, two boys and two girls, had been the delight of Franklin Sr. and Heather, her interracial parents. Possessing her father’s academic inclinations and her mother’s grace and regal statue, Hillary had captured the hearts of all who knew her.
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About the Book
The novel is about the murder of Hillary Chatham Dillard, an interracial co-ed at an affluent college campus in
The main character, retired Detective Bill Lincoln, entered the case after a three-month unsuccessful police investigation. Detective Lincoln, a ‘straight shooter,’ never discloses his political and social allegiances. He clings to the high road, but under relentless grinding pressure, will bend the rules back… whereby they may snap! He’s a realist…knowing that true idealism can have you night swimming in the
Detective
The affluent Dillard family demand to know their daughter’s murderer. They have three remaining children: the eldest, Franklin Jr., is running for high political office; Monique, a design engineer, is stunning and; Radcliffe, the youngest, is a ladies man with neither career ambitions nor job supporting his lavish lifestyle.
The landscape is the beautiful hills of
About the Author
This is a first novel. The author is an analyst with a California Central Valley city where a real life murder had recently rocked the national headlines and where several years earlier yet another high profile case had consumed the national airwaves linking a US congressman with an intern. The author has an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a MBA. Mr. Carrington is on several boards in his community, an avid tennis player, golfer, wine maker, chess player, and a general conversationalist. Born and raised in Peekskill, NY, the author has been living in California since 1981.
An avid editorial reader, the novel started as an intellectual exercise after reading the backcover of a now famous author. That author also had no formal history in writing. Another story about Detective Lincoln is almost finished and will be published soon.