A False Dawn

FIFTY-FOUR

At eight o’clock I called the Blue Heron to cancel the dinner reservation. I was told that I wouldn’t need reservations after nine and they served until ten p.m.

I tried Leslie’s cell for the third time in two hours. The first two times I got her voice-mail. The last try there was a clicking noise like the phone had been disconnected.

I locked Jupiter and started walking to my Jeep. The tiki bar was filled with people and song. As I walked by, I could see the sole entertainer, dressed in white island cottons and wearing a hat that looked like a mix between a fedora and an Australian bush hat. He was crooning the Jack Johnson song, “Crying Shame.”

Nick was at the bar with a woman. He got off his stool and waved me inside. “Sean, this is Margarita.”

She smiled and said, “Nice to meet you.” She looked like she was imported from Colombia. Exotic. Dark skin, high cheekbones, and full lips.

“Good to meet you, too.”

“Sean, I drank all your beer today. Let me repay you.” He turned towards a bartender. “Corona for my friend.”

“Nick, I can’t stay. I want to give you a number.” I wrote a phone number down on a bar napkin. “Call him if I don’t make it back tonight. His name’s Dan Gant. He’s a detective with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.”

“Man, you need some help? What’s going on?”

“If my Jeep’s gone all night. Call him. Tell him I went to Leslie’s house, I left at 10:30 tonight, and tell him to go there.”

As I walked toward the door, Dave Collins entered. He grinned and said, “Care to join me for coffee? I’ve been thinking about your predicament, your quest, perhaps.”

“I’m meeting Leslie for diner.”

“It’s getting a little late for dinner.”

“I know. She’s not answering her cell, which is not like her.”

“I’ve been thinking,” Dave’s voice had a sense of urgency I hadn’t heard in a while. “If the same guy is now killing people for organs, maybe this is part of a larger, much more frightening enterprise that is far beyond the scope of your average serial killer, beyond your talk-show tabloid murderer. He’s got issues that will add a chapter to criminal psychology books.”

“Maybe we’re coming to the same conclusion.”

“What would poison a human mind so much it would make a man rape, kill, and then butcher?”

I said nothing, thinking about Leslie.

Dave continued. “Someone is having his way with a frightened group of people with little or no voice, but it seems deeper than that, like he’s flaunting these killings in someone’s face. Why? If Richard Brennen is a serial killer is it because he hates a larger-than-life domineering father so much he’s killing their workers.”

“You’re giving me something to think about as I hunt for Leslie.”

“I’m sure she’s fine.”

I wanted very much to believe him.

I drove up AIA, past Daytona Beach Shores and the high-rise condos. My Jeep was engulfed in a roar of a dozen bikers passing me on both sides. I turned left on Main Street, drove past Boothill Saloon and a dozen other biker bars and strip joints. As I passed the Club Platinum, I thought about what Robin Eastman’s mother had told Leslie, ‘she was my happy baby.’

Driving west towards Leslie’s subdivision, half dozen emergency vehicles passed me, including two Volusia County sheriff’s cars, a Daytona Beach police cruiser, a fire department EMT ambulance, and another county ambulance. I was hoping I wouldn’t drive up into the chaos of a multi-car accident scattered across an intersection.

I was still a couple of miles away from Leslie’s house when an uneasy feeling hit my stomach, like I’d gone over a hill too fast. What if she was in a car accident?

Maybe she’d left the ME’s office, stopped by her office, and left her phone in the car. What if the emergency vehicles were rushing to her house?

I tried her cell again. Nothing but a disconnect sound. It was the most desolate sound I’d heard in a long time. I drove faster. Sped in the direction of sirens. It was the direction that sounded alarm bells in my head. It congealed fear in my heart, knocking on the door of a dark place I was afraid to open again.