Broken Doll by Burl Barer Page A

Velvet at this time,” Hawkins acknowledged, “and that’s about all.”
    The detectives returned Iffrig and D’alexander to Iffrig’s residence. “Tim was understandably an emotional wreck, as any father would be. He was terribly distraught over the disappearance of his little girl. Of course, everyone at his house was very emotional. Gail Doll, completely drained and exhausted, was out cold on the couch.”
    On their way back to the police station, Detectives Kiser and Herndon learned that Richard Clark and his aunt Vicki Smith drove to the police station in Everett, where they spoke briefly with Lieutenant Peter Hegge.
    â€œBefore going to the police station, Richard drove Jimmy Miller and his girlfriend, Lisa, back to the house,” said Vicki. “I went in the house, but then I said to Richard that I wanted to go into town with him. All my stuff and Tim’s stuff was still in the van.”
    â€œVicki Smith was heavily intoxicated at that time,” recalled Lieutenant Hegge. “She smelled of alcohol; her eyes were watery; she had trouble walking, and also had the odor of wood smoke, which I attributed to the camping experience. Clark did not seem to be intoxicated.”
    Hegge told Clark and Smith that detectives were at the Doll-Iffrig residence interviewing everyone who might have information relevant to the search for Doll. He asked Smith and Clark to go to the Doll-Iffrig house and talk to the detectives. Clark agreed to drive Smith and himself there.
    Clark drove by the Doll-Iffrig house, but he didn’t stop. Vicki Smith personally didn’t want to go there. “I figured I would just be in the way,” she said. “When Richard saw all the cops there, he just kept driving.” Richard Mathew Clark never arrived at the Iffrig residence. After leaving the police station, Richard drove his alcoholically altered aunt Vicki to Carol’s house on Lombard. Vicki Smith and he stayed, she said, about four hours.
    Vicki told detectives that Richard Clark later gave her a ride to Aaron’s Restaurant in Everett. “He just left me there in the cocktail lounge. I don’t know where he went or what he did after he left me at Aaron’s,” said Vicki. “I walked to my daughter’s house after the bar closed, and I didn’t see Richard again until Sunday.”
    â€œI think the next time Gail Doll saw Richard Clark,” commented Detective Herndon, “was when he was on trial for murdering her child.”

Chapter 5
    Vicki Smith’s recollections of April 1 are both somewhat accurate and moderately befogged. It is true that she and Richard stayed at Aunt Carol’s until late in the evening, but prior to attending Aaron’s, the slightly sloshed Smith/Clark duo’s destination was the Sports Center. It was there that Clark and his aunt Vicki encountered Richard’s longtime associate and occasional criminal cohort, Michael Jaaskela.
    â€œRichard Clark and I are old pals,” Jaaskela said. Years of friendly association with Richard Clark provided Jaaskela with a plethora of pleasant memories. “We’ve done crime together; we’ve drank together; we’ve done drugs together. And without getting myself in trouble, we robbed a rental place out in Marysville, and we took a cherry picker and a bunch of tools and other shit.
    â€œWe done lots of crime,” he said, “lots of bad stuff, lots of drugs, lots of drinking, yes. We partied together many of years—many a times. As for Richard being a big drinker, he’s a real hard-core alcoholic. He also does cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, LSD, and basically about everything.
    â€œI seen him the night after the abduction of Roxanne Doll,” he recalled. “Yes, I seen him at the Sports Center, downtown Everett. I know it was Saturday night, April first, because my lady has the receipt that we got money. I loaned him money that night