by J K Franko
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
The whole point of the first meeting with David was to get his alibi info from him. Where had he been on those critical days? The detective’s objective was to find out while giving away as little information as possible. And he felt he’d succeeded.
But Eddie wanted to use the opportunity for a little more. He wanted to take a measure of David Kim. How nervous was he? Did he seem guilty? Could he have done it?
He also wanted to keep David on edge. Hence the scenario—painting a picture of where the case was heading without disclosing any evidence that supported the theory.
As David had told him where Cruise was, there was no point in meeting with Cruise until they had more information. Chasing down Roy Cruise’s alibi took almost two weeks. The Bahamian government was always very cooperative, but they were also slow.
When the Bahamian government finally responded, it confirmed that Roy Cruise and Susie Font arrived in the Bahamas on April 28th. They passed through customs in South Cat Cay. A Sunseeker yacht, a jet ski, a paddleboard. Destination—Resort World Bimini. There was no exit information. None was required.
Eddie checked with the Customs and Border Protection in Miami. Susie and Roy had reported their re-entry to the United States using the CBP’s ROAM app. They were both cleared for re-entry without video interview on May 5th, at 8:27 a.m.
Resort World Bimini was equally cooperative. The Sunseeker had arrived on April 28th. It had stayed for a full week, departing on May 5th. Records were not kept of every entry and exit—so it was possible that the boat had left Bimini, maybe even come back to Miami, during that week.
Eddie obtained a list from the harbormaster’s office of all boats docked in Fisherman’s Village Marina for the full week.
Then began the slow process of contacting them all one by one. He and Rosa split the work, questioning the boat owners about their stay, and about the Cruises’ Sunseeker. Had they seen anything unusual? Had they in fact seen or spoken to Cruise or Font?
They started with the boats docked closest to the Sunseeker, and worked their way outward. Almost immediately, they hit on Roland Obregon. He and his wife had taken a short vacation to Bimini, and had been in the slip right next to the Sunseeker for three days.
While Roland hadn’t seen anything, his wife Toni was a cop’s wet dream. An insomniac, she was the typical next-door neighbor with the proverbial twitching curtains, keeping tabs on everyone.
It was Rosa who initially questioned Toni by phone. Based on the information she’d obtained, they agreed that it would probably be worth Eddie’s time to make a trip to Fort Lauderdale to meet with her.
Eddie wasn’t crazy about travelling so far north. In his mind, there was an imaginary line, but a very real border, up at around NE 167th Street, where you left Miami and entered the United States. He preferred staying in Miami. But from time to time, he “traveled abroad”—mostly for work. Never for leisure.
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
Susie confessed to me that the penis was Deb’s idea. The way Deb explained it to Susie was that Kristy’s version of what happened would always be in doubt. And if, as they hoped, Harlan’s body was never found, then what had happened to him would always be in doubt, as well.
The dick on the door told the world that Harlan was dead, and why. It brought closure to the entire episode and it told the world that Harlan had been in the wrong.
While Susie didn’t fully agree with Deb’s argument, she could see the logic to it. It was twisted, but it was there. And Susie firmly believed that if she was careful—as she had been—there would be no tracing it back to her. No one would be able to except for Roy. She also knew that, once the penis was discovered, Roy would know she’d been involved and would suspect a stronger connection between Susie and Deb than just that chance meeting in Colorado.
I believe that Susie wanted to tell Roy about her history with Deb—at least some of it. She would most likely have wanted him to know that it was Deb who had killed Liam Bareto, and that Camilla, like Kristy, had been avenged. I think that’s why she went along with Deb’s idea regarding Harlan’s penis.
Once the penis was “out,” Susie knew that she would owe Roy some amount of truth about Harlan. If she didn’t offer it, he would most certainly demand it. And to explain Harlan, Susie needed to explain Bareto. To do that, she would need to come clean about her relationship with Deb—but how much should she share? That was a difficult question.
It pained her to lie to him, to withhold information. It really did. But she had been doing that to some degree since they’d met. So, while she didn’t like doing it, for her it was just a fact of life. As long as she was with Roy, there would always be certain things about her past that she would never be able to share. Certainly not with him. This was her cross to bear and she was willing to live with it.
Now, though, Susie needed to explain to Roy how she knew Deb. How they met. That wasn’t complicated, but the details were the problem. How could she explain the relationship that their early friendship evolved into? Susie’s relationship with Deb was tainted very early on, almost before it began. When they’d met again on the cruise ship, they reconnected like old friends. Things blossomed from there.
For Susie, Deb was the gasoline to her fire. Being with her made her feel things that nobody else ever had or could. She thrilled Susie. She also frightened her. She’d seen the extremes that Deb could go to, and could make her go to. It was because things had gotten so extreme so early on that Susie kept her distance from Deb. Deb was dangerous.
Like a moth to the flame, Susie was drawn to her. She loved Deb. Both physically and mentally. Yet, unlike a moth, Susie knew that if she got too close she would burn. She was afraid of Deb.
There was a cruelty to Deb that Susie thought bordered on the sociopathic. The flipside was that Deb had a moral clarity about her that, ironically, could only come from a complete lack of morality.
Deb knew very clearly what she wanted and whom she loved. These things were “right” in Deb’s version of morality. Anything that got in the way of them or threatened them was an obstacle to be eliminated. Of course, Deb’s approach to the world was very liberating. In Deb’s world, the only thing that mattered was what Deb wanted. Anything that got in the way of that was disposable.
When Susie was with Deb, she felt that same clarity. That certainty. It was powerful, intoxicating. That feeling that anything was possible, anything was acceptable, so long as it got you what you wanted.
And it was extremely useful. When Deb called Susie after Camilla’s death, Susie knew that the deal was done. If Deb said she was going to kill Bareto, she was going to do it. Period. But it wasn’t just that she would do it. Susie knew, even then, that if she had pushed, she could have gotten Roy to do it. It wasn’t about the willingness to commit the act.
To Susie, what was so powerful about Deb was that, for Deb, it was a given that Bareto had to die. That it needed to be done was simply fact. In Deb’s moral balance, Bareto had hurt someone she loved, and therefore he needed to be eliminated. It was that simple.
It was this clarity that was so dangerously addictive to Susie.
Susie felt that same sense of justice, but she didn’t feel the same moral clarity. Susie also thought about Liz Bareto, a mother like her who would also lose her child. Susie took into account the collateral damage killing Bareto would cause. Deb saw none of that.
Susie had to agonize her way through the situation before concluding that Bareto should die. Deb didn’t. That was the difference.
In some ways, Deb reminded Susie of Roy, in the sense that like Roy, she also bent the world around her to her will. But where Roy had very specific ideas about what he wanted, and thought things through and listened to Susie, Deb didn’t. Deb didn’t think things through. She didn’t plan. She simply acted. For Deb, her desires were the only things that mattered. Her “people”
were the only ones of value.
Susie couldn’t share all of this with Roy. But as she worked all this through in her mind, she decided on what she could tell him.
With that in mind, Susie invited Roy into their study.
As he entered, he found her sitting at the desk with a small lockbox in front her.
Roy sat down, arms folded across his chest, body language clearly projecting the barrier that still existed between them. He was still sulking. Angry. He had been since the whole penis thing came to light.
“Roy, you’re right,” Susie began. “I’ve been thinking about everything you said, and you’re right. You deserve better. You deserve so much better than what I have given you.
“So, I want to tell you some things. You’re not going to like them. I wanted to tell you all along. I planned to tell you all along. I just didn’t know exactly when. The timing is always the hard part, you know?” She spread her palms out on the desk in front of her. “So, here’s the thing. You nailed it. Colorado wasn’t an accident. Deb and I met a long time ago. When we were kids. We haven’t really stayed in touch. Life took us in very different directions.
“But when Camilla died, she called me out of the blue. It was right in the middle of my whole breakdown. When I was pushing for us to kill Bareto.”
Susie raised the lid on her lockbox then placed a small, white plastic strip on the table in front of Roy.
Liam Bareto
PT 06730574RM# 472
AD 03/30/2015AB-
M 18YDOB 11/27/96
A hospital patient’s ID bracelet.
“Where did you get this?” Roy asked.
“Deb.”
“She’s the lady-finger?”
“Yep.”
“And you have this why?” Roy raised his voice. “You need to shred this thing!”
He shook his head, eyes narrowed, jaw muscles flexing. Then he stood up.
“For fuck’s sake, Suze! If they show up with a warrant looking for Harlan stuff and they find this, do you know what would happen?” He began pacing, looking at the bracelet and then at his wife.
“I do. We’ll shred it now. I just kept it to show to you. I could have just told you she did it, but I wanted to show you. This is why we had to kill Harlan. For Camilla, too. But also—we owed it to Deb. Do you understand?”
Roy stopped pacing and gawked at her. Then, through gritted teeth, he said, “I understand that you manipulated me. I understand that you faked the meeting in Colorado, and what... was Tom in on it, or was Deb lying to him, too? Getting him to ask me to kill Harlan?”
Roy’s voice was getting progressively louder. “What the fuck, Suze? I mean, this is really twisted. Why couldn’t you just be honest with me? Why all of this manipulation? Now, you’re telling me that we didn’t kill Harlan for Camilla, but we did it as a favor for one of your old buddies? An old buddy who killed Bareto for us? And then gave you fucking evidence as a souvenir that you’ve kept in our home. All, this, this, Strangers on a Train bullshit can still get us caught, Suze!
“I mean, is this traceable? Your contact with Deb? How often do you talk? You realize that, if the cops make the connection, we’re screwed, right? As in jail screwed? As in death penalty fucking screwed!”
Now Roy was yelling. Susie responded in kind.
“Goddammit, Roy, you’re not listening. In the last ten years—longer, probably—I’ve spoken to Deb twice. That’s it! There’s no connection to make.” Susie was lying, of course. As she continued, she lowered her voice, hoping to bring his tension down, as well. “There’s nothing there. I promise. I swear it.”
Roy was pacing again, shaking his head as he struggled to process everything he had just learned. This changed everything. All of his planning... for what?
Eventually, he stopped and leaned against the desk. “You have nothing linking you to her? No contact in your phone? No address? No letters, email?”
Susie reached into the box and handed Roy a small photo—a 3x5. It was a picture of Deb and Susie when they were very young. At camp. On the back of the photo was written, Deb and Susie – 4 ever.
He stared at the photo silently. Finally, Susie broke the silence. “That’s all there is,” she said softly. “And we can shred it, too.”
Roy didn’t acknowledge her. Instead he asked, “You look so young. How old?”
“Thirteen.”
“I didn’t know you went to camp.”
“Just one year.”
After angling her head so that she could see her husband’s face, Susie noticed that his eyes were glistening with tears. He was in pain.
She mistakenly surmised it was pain caused by her lies.
She reached out and took his hand.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why what?”
“Why just one year?”
“A girl died. My parents didn’t think it was safe.”
Seconds drifted by. Outside, a sports car rumbled by.
“Susie, we have to shred this. All of this. It isn’t safe.”
“Let’s do it right now,” she agreed.
* * *
Roy’s head was spinning. They shredded the ID bracelet, and the photo. The photo made his belly sink.
4 ever
4 Kristy
Deb had killed Bareto.
He and Susie had killed Harlan.
And the bracelet and the photo put it all together. At least now they were gone. The evidence destroyed.
But so was his trust in his wife. Well, maybe not destroyed, but severely damaged?
His head ached.
He didn’t believe his wife. He couldn’t believe her. Sure, she had come clean—sort of. She had tried to dispel his concerns. Tried to make things right. But he just knew, he felt in his gut, that something was missing. She was holding back. What exactly? He didn’t know.
But he knew how to find out.
Not yet though. The timing wasn’t right. They had other things to worry about right now. But if this whole Harlan thing blew over, if they got away with it, he swore to himself that he would get to the bottom of it all. He would get to the truth.
CHAPTER FORTY SIX
“Go for Art.”
“Very funny,” Eddie said.
“Hey, caller ID—I knew it was you.” Travers was having a good day. It was sunny in Austin. Clear but cool. The full heat of summer hadn’t yet arrived.
“So, you ready to talk?” Eddie asked.
“Yep. What you got?”
Eddie ran Travers through everything they had uncovered. As he did, Travers updated his timeline.
The last piece of new information he shared was the Toni Obregon interview. Toni had seen Cruise and Font come and go from their boat multiple times, and she confirmed that the boat never left the slip while they’d been there.
She had a very clear memory of the day of Harlan’s disappearance because it was their last day in Bimini. Font was up early that day and left the Sunseeker at around 4:00 a.m. Obregon hadn’t seen her come back during the day, but emphasized that she’d been out and about during the day and well into the evening, playing poker.
Late that night, Mrs. Obregon had smoked a cigarette with Susie Font. This was the night of Harlan’s disappearance, before the morning meeting he’d never showed up for. According to Obregon, Roy Cruise had been suffering from food poisoning most of the day—that was what Susie Font told her that night. Obregon didn’t recall seeing Roy the whole day. But, again, she had been out.
Finally, one last tidbit. She’d offered that, on the morning they’d left for Fort Lauderdale, when she’d been casting off, she’d said goodbye to Susie. As they’d been leaving, she’d noticed that the jet ski they’d had tied up next to their boat was gone. She’d thought it odd that Mr. Cruise would be up so soon after being so unw
ell, and out on a jet ski. But, she’d also been quick to point out that the jet ski could have simply been tied up on the other side of the boat. She hadn’t bothered to look.
Travers’ team hadn’t been idle in Austin. Based on Rosa’s insight, Travers had followed up on the Harlan Sr. angle. After a few awkward moments, the senator admitted that his alibi was his secretary, Meg. He’d spent the night at her apartment in flagrante delicto. Travers had spoken with Meg and she validated the senator’s story.
“The senator and his secretary, huh? That’s original.” Eddie scoffed.
“Yep. Now that I’m looking at him, I suppose if he wanted to eliminate the kid, it would make sense to get him out of Austin—do it somewhere far away,” Travers admitted. “But that’s pure speculation. No evidence.”
“Yeah,” Eddie sighed. “We’re running up on a bunch of dead-ends. Alibis everywhere. If we’re thinking contract killing, then we could look to the Wises and McCall, and maybe the dad. They’ve all got motives. But there’s no evidence that this was a contract hit.”
“Eddie, there’s no evidence of shit! It’s been almost a month since the kid disappeared and all we’ve got is a dick with an extra hole in it.” Travers sighed.
“What if it’s someone we’re not even looking at?” Eddie mused. “Someone who’s dropping little clues out there in front of us to cover something else? What about LM?”
“Huh?” Travers asked.
“Lust murderer. Dr. Van der Put’s theory. You got the psych profile I emailed you?”
“Oh, yeah,” Travers responded. “Interesting read. Puts a completely different spin on this thing. What did you think of it?”
“There are definitely parts that fit. I mean, we got no body, no crime scene, and a traveling dick. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make that happen. Smart. A planner. Careful. A lot of it makes sense,” Eddie said.
“It helps with the profile, but if we’re looking at LM, and not someone who knew Harlan, it’s ‘needle in the haystack’ time.”