A False Dawn

FIFTY-NINE

The next morning, Dan Gant met me at the Boston Coffeehouse in DeLand. I said, “Davis was still breathing when I left and called 911. Gomez and his cousin, Hector Ortega, weren’t anywhere to be seen. I don’t know if the fire did any damage to the interior cargo area of the van.”

“I checked with the ER. Davis is alive. Bullet grazed his shoulder. The force of the crash knocked him out cold. You saved his sorry-ass life.”

I reached in my pocket and handed him the leaf in the Ziploc bag. “This, most likely, will be an exact genetic match with the other leaves I gave you. Match the plant DNA and you’ll place their van at the crime scene where the last body was dumped. Use liminol inside the van. If the fire didn’t engulf the cargo floor, you’ll probably find traces of blood there. And I’ll bet you that it matches the blood from the last victim.”

“We’ll test the van for a blood match,” he said, sipping the coffee.

“Speaking of blood, I’ll give you directions to a place. A cinderblock building, about 1200 square feet that sits close to the St. Johns River.”

“Now why would I want to go there?”

“You wouldn’t. Meet me there. Bring some of your best forensics guys. Keep it from Slater.” I sipped my coffee.

“Okay, why am I going there?”

“The place has been used for years as a tanning house. It’s got a cooler, running water and drains. A licensed gator hunter, guy by the name of Floyd Powell, told me he sold it. He sold it and six adjoining acres for top dollar to a consortium, a group of fishermen, to use as a retreat. Floyd kept gators he killed in there until he had time to skin and dress them. Leslie said the ME found alligator blood on the last vic’s hair. The property isn’t that far from the wildlife refuge.”

“You think these freaks are using a former gator processing shop to remove the organs from these women?”

“It might not be only women victims, and that’s exactly what I think.” I drew on the back of a napkin. “Here’s a rough map to the place. When can you get there?”

Dan looked at his watch. “Give me a few hours to pull everyone together. Let’s meet at 2:30. I can’t imagine what we’ll find.”

“I can.”