My victim sounded like an adventurous one. Her parents referred to her as “free spirited.” There wasn’t much information from them, which wasn’t surprising considering a field office in Cleveland had conducted the interview. The parents kept up on Piper’s travels through her blog, which I pulled up. Her postings were infrequent and general in the sense that she put up a few pictures and talked a little about what she did that day. Her parents seemed like genuinely nice people, and I didn’t get the impression that Piper had any problems with them.
I knew a couple of agents in the Oakland office, one pretty welclass="underline" Agent Tracy House. We’d crossed paths a few times and had hit it off. Lucky for me, she was one of the two agents handling the arsenic investigation and was also the one who had stumbled across the young woman.
In her report, she wrote that she discovered the body in a small, hidden clearing. There were no equipment or signs that any camping or picnicking had taken place. The victim’s personal belongings consisted of a small backpack that included bottled water, a map of SF, some cosmetics, a small wallet, and a bag of chips. A short day hike. She could have easily been by herself or with someone she met along the way. Her wallet, passport and money were still intact as well. I can cross off robbery as a motive. I saw no mention of a camera. I thought it odd being she was a tourist. Also, I found no mention of a cell phone. Did the killer take these items?
Agent House wrote that there were no immediate signs of sexual abuse, but I figured I’d leave that up the medical examiner to decide. Her parents had confirmed she was staying at a small hostel on Sacramento, between Kearny and Montgomery. That’s right next to Chinatown. From what I could tell, no one had talked to anyone at the hostel. I wondered if management knew one of their guests had already checked out.
I had intended my next move to be to the coroner’s office but decided the hostel had a better chance of telling me more about Piper than her dead body could at the moment.
After a twenty-minute drive, I stood in front of a wooden door adorned with bright red wrought iron. Above it was a tiny sign with Asian font lettering that identified it as the Lucky Buddha Hostel. I rang the doorbell and, a few seconds later, was buzzed in.
Eighteen wooden steps up a narrow and creaky stairwell dumped me into a lobby where two mismatched love seats, separated by an end table, greeted me. Above, written on the wall in white chalk, was a list of hostel FAQs and other information. Against the other wall was a pair of bookshelves stocked with travel books and brochures. A computer touting free Internet access sat on a desk next to it.
As I walked through the lobby, I passed a large bulletin board that had been tacked to death by a plethora of tour advertisements. One promoted a day trip to Muir Woods. Why didn’t Piper sign up for that tour? Not far past that, I noticed a young woman sitting behind a Dutch door.
“Hello.” She brushed her chestnut hair out of her eyes. “Welcome to Lucky Buddha. Do you have a reservation?”
“Sorry, I’m not here to stay.” I flashed my identification. “I’m Agent Abby Kane with the FBI. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Her smile flipped upside down and her posture deflated. “What’s wrong? Are you here to arrest someone?”
“No. I need information. May I have your name, please?”
“My name is Katerina Yezhov,” she said, straightening up in her chair.
The name matched the accent. “Are you the owner?”
“No. I work part time, and the owner lets me stay for free.”
“How long have you been working here?”
She tilted her head towards the side as she gathered her thoughts. “Maybe three or four weeks. In two weeks, I leave for Los Angeles and meet up with some friends.”
“So you travel alone?”
“Yes, for almost one year now.”
“Isn’t it dangerous for a young woman to travel by herself?”
She shook her head, and her hair followed. “No, it’s fine. One only needs to be responsible and use common sense.”
Gee, which one was Piper lacking? “You have a guest staying here, Piper Taylor.”
“Yes, Piper. I know her. She’s great fun. She’s been here for four days.” The receptionist tapped a few keys on the laptop next to her. “She’s scheduled to be with us for another two days. Is everything okay?”
“When did you last see her?”
“Saturday morning. She had plans to see the redwood trees in Muir Woods. I tried to sign her up for one of our tours, but she is very independent. She said tours are silly and limiting.”
“Did she tell you anything else? Was she planning to meet anyone or travel there with another guest in the hostel?”
Katerina took another moment to think. “No,” she said as she shook her head. “She was going alone. It’s not that difficult. She planned to take the ferry to Sausalito and visit the town as well — you know, kill two birds with one stick.”
“Stone.”
“Huh?”
“The saying is, ‘kill two birds with one stone.’”
“Ooh. I always mess up these American idioms,” she said, her cheeks flushed red. “Agent Abby, all these questions… Did something happen to Piper? Is she hurt?”
No sense beating around the bush. Now she has me saying them. “We found Piper’s body near a hiking trail on Mount Tamalpais.”
The girl inhaled before slapping her hand across her mouth. “No. It can’t be. I just saw her. Are you sure you have the right person?”
I took out my cell phone and pulled up a picture of the victim’s face. “Is this the Piper that is staying at your hotel?”
“Yes, that’s her.”
“I’m assuming her belongings are still in her room.”
Katerina still had her eyes locked on the picture when she nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ll take you to it right now.” She groped around the desk, searching, until she finally opened a drawer beneath and pulled out a ring of keys.
She led me down the short hall and up two more flights of wooden stairs until we reached a large room with eight bunk beds.
“This is the women’s dormitory. Over there,” she pointed. “I assigned the lower bunk to Piper.”
Under the bed was a built-in locker. “Is her stuff in here?”
“Yes, but that is her lock. We don’t have a key.”
“What do you do when the occasional person loses their key?”
“I’ll be right back.”
While she was gone, I poked around. A blue towel had been draped over the framing of the bunk. Other than that, nothing else signified Piper’s presence.
A few seconds later, Katerina returned with bolt cutters. “I’m not sure how these work. I’ve never had to use them before.”
I took the cutters from her hand, and in one snip, the lock fell to the floor. “It’s that simple.”
Inside the locker was a large backpack. I rummaged through it and found no surprises: clothes, toothbrush, a few travel books. Nothing out of the ordinary — except I didn’t see a camera or a mobile phone. I did, however, find a laptop.
“Katerina, do you know if Piper had a camera or a cell phone?”
“Yes, she had an iPhone. It was doubling as her camera. You know, two birds.”
“Got it. I’ll be taking the laptop right now.” I wanted to get one of the Information Analysts started on it. “Another agent will stop by to collect the rest of her belongings. Until then, keep them in a safe place. Do you know when the owner will be in?”
“Oh, he almost never comes to the hostel. He talks to the staff by phone. He totally trusts us to run this place. Crazy, huh?”