Hothouse Orchid

41

Detective Jimmy Weathers was at his desk early, as usual. He had been there only a moment when his phone rang.

“Detective Weathers.”

“Jimmy, it’s Lauren Cade.”

“Good morning, Lauren.”

“We have another one.”

“Where?”

“On the Orchid Island golf course, north of Vero Beach, specifically, in a sand bunker beside the fourth fairway.”

“I’m on my way,” Jimmy said. He got his coat on and walked toward the back door, passing the desk of Chief Bruno’s secretary. “When the chief comes in, will you tell him that we’ve had another woman murdered, and I’m at the crime scene? I’ll call him when I’m done there and let him know the details.”

“Oh, God, not another one,” the woman replied. “I’ll tell him. He has an interview here at nine with a candidate for the deputy chief’s job.”

Jimmy got into his car and drove out to the Orchid Island Club, a beautiful gated community out past the Disney Resort. He showed his badge at the gate and was waved through. He had played golf here once with Bruno, who was a nonresident member, and he remembered that he could drive nearly all the way to the fourth tee without getting on the grass. He parked near the tee and walked the rest of the way toward a group standing around a bunker on the left-hand side of the fairway.

“Good morning,” he said as he walked up to Lauren.

“Not so good,” she said, nodding toward the naked corpse, posed in a kneeling position in the sand.

Jimmy held his position, not wanting to interfere with the forensics people and the ME, who were already in the bunker. “Looks a lot like the last one, only without the car.”

“Yeah, and we haven’t found her car yet. They’ve mostly been left in or near their cars. I can’t figure out how he got the body onto the golf course. He would have had to drive through the main gate, wouldn’t he?”

“No, there’s a second gate off Route five ten that members can enter with a pass card.” He paused for a moment. “Bruno is a member here.”

“Ahh,” she said.

There was a stand of tall evergreen trees behind the bunker, and a car could be seen passing behind them. “But that’s not how he got the body here,” Jimmy said, pointing. “There’s a road behind the trees there that runs alongside the golf course of the Windsor development, which is right next door. There’s a fence, but I guess he could get over that.”

“That would account for some cuts and scrapes on the body,” Lauren said.

“I guess it would,” Jimmy replied.

The ME stood up from his work and came over to where they stood. “Death by strangulation, probably around midnight last night. Raped anally and vaginally, like the others. I’m supposing she was doped first, like the others.”

Lauren nodded. “You find anything that might help us?” she asked one of the crime lab people.

“Not a thing,” the man said. He pointed to a rake. “There’s a rake in every bunker he could use to smooth over the whole area around the body and, of course, his tracks as he left.”

“Shit,” Lauren said.

Jimmy spent an hour with Lauren, walking the area around the bunker and checking along the fence behind the trees, but they found nothing else.

Jimmy was walking with Lauren back to where the cars were parked when his cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”

It was Bruno’s secretary. “Jimmy, the chief hasn’t shown up for his interview, and he’s an hour late. That’s unlike him, and he’s not answering either his home phone or his cell phone, and he always has that cell phone with him. I’m worried that he might have had a heart attack or something. Would you swing by his house and see if he’s there?”

“Sure, I will,” Jimmy replied. “See you later, Lauren; I’ve got to check by Bruno’s house and see if he’s all right; he’s late for a meeting, and he can’t be found.”

“Well, we can always hope, can’t we? If you find him, question him about his whereabouts last night, and see if he has an alibi.”

“Will do,” Jimmy replied. He got into his car and headed for Bruno’s neighborhood.

Bruno’s car was in the driveway, so why wasn’t he answering his phones? Jimmy got out of his car and rang the doorbell. He waited a moment, then tried the knob. The door was unlocked; he pushed it open and stuck his head inside. “Chief Bruno?” he called out. “It’s Jimmy.” He yelled again, but got no response, so he let himself into the house.

He walked down the central hall a few paces and called out again, then he looked into the study and saw a note on the desk. He walked over and read it without touching it. “Uh, oh,” he said aloud.

He left the room as he found it and walked down the hall to the rear bedroom. Bruno was lying peacefully in bed, and there was a Glock on the floor beside him. Jimmy walked over to Bruno and looked into his face. “My God,” he said.

He turned and walked out of the house and to his car. Once there he got out his cell phone and called Lauren Cade.

“Sergeant Cade.”

“This is Jimmy, Lauren. Bruno is dead in his house. Would you do me a favor and call the ME and the criminalist and bring them over here?” He gave her the address. “Maybe Hurd might like to be here, too.”

“Will do, Jimmy, and I’m on my way.”

Jimmy hung up and opened the trunk of his car. He lifted the lid over the spare tire and removed a paper bag, then closed the lid again. He took a roll of yellow crime scene tape from the trunk and walked back to the house. He went inside and walked down the hall to Bruno’s bedroom, then stood and looked around for a moment. He went to a closet and opened the sliding door. Bruno’s uniforms and some civilian clothes hung neatly inside. On the top shelf was a shoe box.

Jimmy put on some latex gloves and took down the shoe box, which was half full of some old photographs, some showing Bruno in army uniform. Jimmy opened the paper bag he had brought and shook the contents into the shoe box, then he put the top on, replaced it on the shelf and put the wadded paper bag in his pocket.

He went back outside and taped the entrance to the house, then he ran some more tape across the driveway between two trees. He went around to the rear of the house and taped the rear entrance as well, depositing the paper bag in his pocket in a garbage can by the door, under some beer cans. Then he walked carefully around the backyard, checking the ground.

He returned to the front yard in time to greet Lauren, who was followed shortly by the ME and the criminalist.

“Hurd’s on his way,” Lauren said.

Jimmy told them of his arrival at the house and the discovery of the body. “I didn’t touch anything,” he said, “so we’ve got a good crime scene here. Come inside, and I’ll walk you through where I was.”

He led them to the study and pointed out the note on the desk, next to the typewriter. “Read that,” he said, then waited while they did. “The bedroom is down the hall to your left. I walked inside, looked at the body and walked around the bedroom. There’s a Glock on the floor beside the bed and a shell casing on the floor between the bed and the chest of drawers. I’ll wait here while you do your work.”

Lauren looked into the room from the door but did not enter. “He ate his gun?”

“Looks that way,” Jimmy said. “Come on, let’s have a seat in the living room while they do their thing.”

As they sat down, Hurd Wallace entered the house, and Lauren briefed him while Jimmy called police headquarters and told the secretary what had happened.

“I guess you’re in charge, then, Jimmy,” she said. “Chief Bruno never got around to hiring a deputy chief, and you’re the senior officer. You better call the city council people and let them know what’s happened.”

“All right, I will.”

Hurd spoke up. “We don’t need a search warrant now, so let’s go through this place thoroughly.”

“What are we looking for, Hurd?” Jimmy asked.

“Any evidence that might connect Bruno to these murders. Jimmy, you take the kitchen; Lauren, you take the bedroom.”

“I don’t want to go in there, Hurd,” Lauren said. “I’ll take the study and the second guest room.”

“All right,” Hurd said, “I’ll take Bruno’s bedroom as soon as the body is out of there.”