Midnight Pass

Epilogue

Janice and Kenneth Severtson got a good lawyer, but not good enough. I had a lawyer, Tycinker himself, who cut a deal with the Orlando prosecutor. I testified. I walked with no charges. The Severtsons made a deal and pleaded to conspiracy to commit murder. Kenneth Jr. and Sydney went to Charleston with Janice’s sister.

With Trasker dead and my statement, Viviase didn’t go after Hoffmann. When enough newspapers and mail had piled up at Hoffmann’s gate, a neighbor called the police. They came. Hoffmann couldn’t be found, nothing seemed to be missing except for the baseball collection.

No one in Sarasota has seen or heard from Kevin Hoffmann, wherever or whoever he might be now.

Three months later there was a hotly contested special election to fill the place of the deceased William Trasker on the commission. One of the biggest voter turnouts in Sarasota history. A Hispanic named Gomez who owned a big auto-repair business was elected. There was talk of another vote on Midnight Pass.

I did my stand-up act for Ann Horowitz on a Wednesday morning.

“You’re funny,” she said.

“I’m not trying to be.”

“That is precisely why you are. Comedy, like life much of the time, depends on timing and delivery. In your case, you are afflicted with Cassandra’s curse, doomed to say funny things, which you do not find funny. We’ll work on that.”

Later that morning, after I had discussed it with Ann, I called Sally and told her I’d be Darrell Caton’s Big Brother.

Life went on.