The Night Monster

CHAPTER 29

The victims’ names were Victoria Seppi and Karen Kingman.

Seppi was from Chatham, a small town thirty miles due west of Daytona Beach. She had been studying nursing at a Daytona community college when she’d gone missing from her dorm room in the fall of 1999. Tall and athletic, Seppi had swum competitively in high school and played water polo at the YWCA. She was so similar to the other victims it was unnerving.

Because Seppi had been living in Daytona at the time of her disappearance, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office had handled the investigation. At first, the cops had focused on Seppi’s boyfriend, a biker with a string of arrests for selling speed on Daytona Beach. When the biker had come up with an airtight alibi, the case had gone cold, and the investigation had been put on the back burner, where it had remained until now.

I found myself shaking my head as I read the Seppi report. Back when I’d run Missing Persons, I’d made it my business to be familiar with every “open” missing person case in Florida, but I had never heard of Victoria Seppi. That was because the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office hadn’t classified her as missing, but had simply left the case open. I didn’t know what their thinking was, and probably never would.

I went to the next report. Karen Kingman had been a nursing student at Pensacola Junior College when she disappeared in the summer of ‘04. A native of the nearby town of Brent, Kingman had played tennis in high school and gone to the state championships in singles twice. The photo in her report showed an athletic young woman with dimples in her cheeks, shoulder-length blond hair, and a radiant smile.

Kingman’s abduction had occurred over the Fourth of July weekend, when her apartment complex was nearly empty. While there had been no witnesses, the evidence at the scene had indicated that Kingman had not gone quietly. Her blood had been found throughout her apartment, along with several torn pieces of clothing that had been identified as hers.

Pensacola is in Escambia County, and the local sheriff’s department had handled the investigation. They had launched a massive search that had included the police from neighboring Alabama and Mississippi. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI had also gotten involved. Hundreds of law enforcement officers and volunteers had looked high and low for the missing girl, and found nothing.

I had followed the Kingman case closely at the time. What I remembered most was how little information the Escambia police had given to the media. Withholding information was common with active investigations, but not when cases went cold. I would have to call the Escambia police, and ask them if they would now be willing to share the information they had.

I spread the photos already lying on the table, and placed Victoria Seppi’s photo between Naomi Dunn and Cindee Hartman’s. Then, I inserted Karen Kingman’s photo between Hartman’s and Sara Long’s.

“I need a map of Florida,” I said.

Webster found a road map of Florida. I placed it on the table next to the five victims’ photos. Using a red Magic Marker, I circled the five cities where the victims had disappeared, and below the circles, wrote the dates of each disappearance. Then I took a step back.

“There’s been one abduction every four to five years,” Webster said. “What do you think they’re doing with them?”

It was obvious to me what was going on here: These young women were fulfilling a need, with each one replacing the last. Sara Long was the latest victim, and would later be replaced by another college student studying nursing.

“They’re keeping them until they stop being useful,” I said.

“God,” Webster muttered under her breath.

I continued to stare at the map. Something important was right in front of me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

My eyes settled on Naomi Dunn’s photograph. She was smiling in it. I had looked at that photograph so many times I felt as if I knew her.

Then I saw what I’d been missing. Naomi was first.

My hand slapped the table in anger. I had missed clues before, but never one this obvious.

“What’s wrong?” Webster asked.

I pointed at the circle on the map I’d drawn to signify Dunn’s abduction.

“Serial abductors are like serial killers,” I said. “They start out timid and weak, and grow strong. Their first abduction is always committed near where they live.”

“A safe zone.”

“That’s right. Fort Lauderdale was these guys’ safe zone. They were living here when they abducted Naomi Dunn.”

I took the stairs to Burrell’s office with my footsteps ringing in my ears. Her door was wide open, and I stuck my head in.

“Are you busy?” I asked.

Burrell sat at her desk facing her computer, her face illuminated by the faint images on the screen.

“I’m watching Howdy Doody,” Burrell replied.

Howdy Doody was cop speak for hardcore porn. It was not the kind of stuff that I expected Burrell to watch, and I came around her desk. Playing on her computer was a grainy video of a heterosexual couple having sex, the woman bouncing atop a man on a bed. The woman had bleached blond hair and enormous breasts that defied gravity. Her partner was a huge guy, his upper torso covered in garish tattoos.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“The guy is Tyrone Biggs, Sara Long’s boyfriend,” Burrell replied. “The bimbo is named Sky. She’s an exotic dancer at a strip club called Showstoppers. Sky tried to sell this video to the TV stations. The stations thought it was too sleazy, and turned it down, so Sky sold it to a tabloid news show. Deborah Bodden at Fox sent it to me as a favor.”

“Why is this tape important?”

“Take a look at what’s playing in the background.”

I brought my face up to the computer screen. A boxy TV sat on a dresser behind the bed. A women’s basketball game was playing on it.

“It’s the Lady Seminole’s game from two nights ago,” Burrell explained. “Sky had sex with Biggs while he watched his girlfriend play basketball. The tape lasts for about an hour, and proves that Biggs didn’t abduct Sara Long.”

Burrell shut off her computer. The screen went blank, and for a long moment she did not speak. I put my hand on her chair, and stared at her profile.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No, I’m not okay,” Burrell said. “I sent the mayor this tape, and now he’s claiming he never told me to arrest Biggs. Chief Moody has shut himself in his office, and won’t talk to me. They’re playing politics with a poor girl’s life.”

“That’s how they’ve lasted so long.”

Burrell laughed without smiling. It was a dead sound. Her eyes, which were normally dancing, were equally dead. She’d been running Missing Persons for six months, and she was already being thrown under the bus. It was the nature of the beast, and there were times when I wondered how I’d lasted as long as I had.

“Come with me,” I said. “I want to show you something.”

– – We went upstairs to the War Room. The photos of the five victims lay on the table with the map of Florida beside them. Burrell studied the photos and map with a look of disbelief on her face. I gave her a moment to absorb everything before speaking.

“Sara Long was taken from her motel room by a pair of serial abductors,” I said. “These are the rest of their victims.”

Burrell glanced into the faces of the other five detectives from Missing Persons, who stood silently on the other side of the table. “You in agreement on this?” she asked.

The other detectives nodded in unison. Burrell turned to me.

“Should I call the mayor?” she asked.

“Fuck the mayor,” I said.

The other detectives burst into laughter. Burrell was in no mood for games, and shot them a murderous look. The sound quickly died.

“So what exactly are you suggesting I do?” Burrell asked.

“Call Deborah Bodden at Fox News, and tell her what you’ve found,” I said. “Tell her that a pair of serial abductors have been abducting young women in Florida for the past eighteen years, and the detectives in your unit uncovered them.”

The other detectives broke into smiles. They were going to be heroes when this was all over. Burrell wasn’t sold, and continued to press me.

“What about Sky’s sex tape?” she said.

“What about it?”

“The tape proves that we arrested the wrong guy. I’m still screwed.”

“You’re spinning it wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“If Sky had handed over the tape to the police two days ago, you never would have arrested Tyrone Biggs. Right?”

Burrell considered what I was saying, then nodded.

“Sky withheld evidence that crippled your investigation,” I went on. “Because of her, you made a false arrest. Let Biggs go, and throw Sky in the county lockup.”

“You’re saying I should make Sky the bad guy.”

“Sky is the bad guy. She deserves whatever she gets.”

“That doesn’t seem right somehow.”

“You want to take the fall, be my guest.”

Burrell gave me a funny look. I could tell that she didn’t like what I was saying. Burrell was one of those cops who wanted to do her job well, and for people to like her. I had never had that problem.

Burrell shook her head. “I don’t know, Jack.”

“Just do it. You’ll thank me later.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, Candy, I do.”

Burrell started to reply, then looked down at her side. Buster stood by her leg, wanting to be petted. Burrell scratched the top of his head.

“What do you think, boy?” she asked my dog.

Buster wagged his tail enthusiastically. It brought a smile to Burrell’s face, and I realized that it had been awhile since I’d seen her do that.

“I guess it’s worth a shot,” Burrell said.