What Was Taken?
We had to do our work by the numbers, so it was imperative that we looked at the possibility that this was a break-in, despite the way the whole case began—with the odd lead from San Francisco. To help with the situation, Conroe PD was already checking out the break-in angle.
Hemphill said there was about sixty thousand dollars in jewelry missing, not much according to him, but I saw it differently. There were more than enough meth heads who would cut out a person’s tongue for half that much.
We got a brief description from the Hemphills—they had the jewelry insured—and began making contacts with the known fences. I also asked for the insurance company to send us a more detailed description of each piece. Hemphill had alerted them, so they’d be working it from that angle
