by Joe Conlan
It was a longstanding Florida tradition to wait until dark to commence trick or treating. There was still an hour before nightfall, so Daniel offered to take Deborah and the boys for a quick meal. He wasn’t aware Deborah had prepared eggplant parmigiana for dinner, one of his favorites. In spite of the children’s complaints for having to wait for the night’s festivities, the Falcone family sat down to their first home cooked meal together in months. It gave Daniel a warm feeling inside and even more reason to be optimistic about the future.
After dinner, he helped Deborah clear the table and do the dishes. It was just like old times. Daniel washed and Deborah dried. They had always refused to have a dishwasher in their home. They enjoyed their time in the kitchen together after a meal, Deborah more than Daniel. Simply placing the dishes in a dishwasher diminished the experience for her. By the time she put the last dish in the china cabinet, the light from the sun had almost completely disappeared. Since the boys were bouncing off the walls by then, they decided it was time to hit the streets. Daniel grabbed his windbreaker while Deborah pulled a giant-size umbrella from the hall closet and they were on their way. The boys were trick or treating at their first house when Deborah decided to take advantage of the opportunity to speak in private.
“Daniel, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the cruise Annie offered us. I think I was being petty. I’m feeling like it’s the right time for us to do something like that. Go on a vacation together. What do you think?”
“That would be great, honey. Do you mean you want to accept her offer or do you want to do something else?”
“I mean let’s go on the cruise. I really don’t think Annie was expecting anything out of this. If I’m going to forgive you, I should consider forgiving her too. At least, my therapist thinks it would be a good exercise for me. Besides, cruises are the best.”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been on one. But, if you’re willing, so am I. Maybe your parents can take care of the kids. That way it could be just the two of us.”
“Actually, since you mentioned them, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if they came along instead of the boys. I was nervous about the kids being on a big ship in the middle of the ocean. We’ll still be able to have quality time together. I’ll just feel much more comfortable if my parents were there.”
“I understand completely, babe. I would love to have them along. So, when would you like to do it and who’s gonna talk to Annie? I’d prefer you do it.”
“Well, since the gift was offered to me, I should be the one to accept. I’ll send her an email. I’ll take care of all the details. Let’s do the Caribbean. It’s the perfect time of year. If you can work it out with your job, I’d like to go within the next month or so.”
“The serial murderer is our most pressing case right now. My role is more support than anything else. Leland is more than capable of handling things. I think they’ll be fine without me for a week. Just give me a couple of weeks notice.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’m really excited about this, Daniel. I don’t want you to go packing your bags yet to come home, but I’m really starting to feel good about things, again.”
“You don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say that, honey. So am I.” As the boys joined them in the street to head for the next house on the block, the first drops of rain began to fall from the sky.
The night was his play time. Darkness energized him. Shem’s most creative work was conceived and produced after midnight. His grandfather clock chimed the hour of one o’clock in the morning while he surfed the net in complete obscurity. There wasn’t a light on in the apartment. The glow from the computer monitor reflected off his expressionless face resembling that of a demonic, candle-lit jack-o-lantern. This was a very exciting time for him. As he suspected, the wife decided to accept Annie’s generous gift. Since he overheard the conversation at Dave and Buster’s, he had been hacking into the King Cruise Line website on a daily basis. Just three days ago, he discovered the Falcones booked a cabin on the King Joy of the Seas for the week of November 28th. That was just two weeks away. He had already worked hard on the preparations for the execution of his masterpiece plan. Still, much work remained. He was going to be a busy man.
This particular night, he was checking the crew list of the Joy of the Seas. Many cruise line employees were transferred from ship to ship when they signed a new contract. There was a great chance there were at least a few who were currently working on the Joy who worked with Damien Drysdale on the Diamond. While on the Joy of the Seas, it would be essential to avoid those people even though he had plans to totally alter his appearance. He found that several boutique employees and a couple of the entertainment staff were on the Diamond during his tenure. They didn’t have much contact with him at the time and he doubted they would recognize him. The only potential problem was that Ken O’Brien was now working security on the Joy of the Seas. Depending on his role, he could have access to the surveillance monitors. Even if he wasn’t working the monitors, he would, no doubt, be patrolling the ship. Shem couldn’t risk being recognized by his former colleague. This was going to cause him some extra work, nothing he couldn’t handle with relative ease.
Another interesting discovery Shem had made was that the agent’s in-laws would be onboard as opposed to the children. His plans for the Falcone family would have to be changed meaning the pleasure quotient would be drastically diminished. It was a disappointment he would have to get over. He blamed the wife. The pathetic bitch couldn’t lift a finger without consulting or involving her parents. The weakness of her character disgusted him and made the disappointment that much harder to swallow. Her lack of maturity and independence was pitiful. He couldn’t imagine what good purpose parents would serve anyway. If he had known he was going to witness an incident the very next day that would make his ultimate job easier, he wouldn’t have wasted as much negative energy.
It happened on a Friday night. Daniel and Deborah had gone out to dinner for their first date of the weekend. Deborah dropped the boys off at her parents’ place earlier in the day. Not long after, Shem decided he was going to pay the Tylers a visit, hopeful to get some idea of who these people were, their behaviors, their tendencies. When he first arrived mid-afternoon, two undercover agents were parked in a van across the street from the in-laws’ house. Shem caught sight of their vehicle before he turned onto the Tylers’ street forcing him to abandon his mission. Lack of persistence was never one of Shem’s character traits. He couldn’t imagine the agents were there to watch the old people. Either the kids or the wife must have been there. Under that premise, he returned later in the evening. He wasn’t above or opposed to peeping in windows to gather the information he was seeking. His decision to persevere rendered better results than he ever expected. Shem arrived for the second time that day almost at the same time the agent stopped by the Tyler house to pick up his children. It was his weekend for visitation. Since Daniel had just dismissed his undercover agents responsible for keeping an eye on the children from further duty, they had left the neighborhood. Seeing no surveillance truck, Shem parked across from the house and approximately twenty-five yards up the road. Once settled, he pulled a pair of binoculars from his bag and watched as Falcone was having an intense discussion with his father-in-law. The light of the day had faded significantly, but with his high-tech equipment, Shem was able to observe the entire event with no problem. It was acutely obvious the agent was agitated, though focused on his mission. Sensing what was to follow could have some value; he turned his night-vision camcorder on and pointed it in the direction of the Tyler house.
Never once during the entire taping did the agent look in Shem’s direction. From Shem’s perspective, it appeared that the father-in-law wouldn’t let the agent in the house and was evidently refusing to hand over the children. A heated argument between the two men ensued on the front lawn drawing neighbors out of their homes. Before the riff ended, the father-in-law raised his fist as if to strike
the agent. Shem was disappointed the fight didn’t escalate to the point of blows. At the time, he wasn’t aware the video would become a valuable piece of evidence at the agent’s trial.
Chapter 16
To make up for lost time, Daniel was working on the serial murder case late the night before his cruise was scheduled to set sail from Port Everglades, Florida. He had just returned from a trip to Washington D.C. where he was presented with the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award for his previous contributions to the War on Drugs. Though he was honored to receive recognition for his work from the President, the event took him away from the serial murder case longer than he would have preferred. He was hoping to have some kind of breakthrough before he left for his vacation. That didn’t leave him much time and his chances were getting slimmer by the second. He had even refrained from having his normal three or four evening beers to keep his head clear.
As it turned out, the time constraints were exactly what he needed. He did some of his best thinking under extreme pressure whether self-inflicted or real. Following his routine of reviewing the updates of the case in his studio apartment before he retired for the night, the light bulb finally switched on bringing long-anticipated, brilliant clarity to the key that had eluded him for too long. For the past several weeks, he was working on what was known in law enforcement as geographical profiling. Computer software has the ability to map out the separate murder sites of a serial killer and through a series of calculations, provide information as to his probable home base. The European cities where the murders took place were plugged into the program and it was originally suggested that the killer’s domicile was most likely somewhere in Central to Southern Italy between Rome and Naples.
Both the European authorities and FBI personnel searched the part of Italy recommended by the program, visiting small villages and big cities alike. They went into neighborhoods and showed the composite drawing of the suspect to the inhabitants in hope that someone would recognize him. From the onset, Daniel felt they were missing something in their mapping analysis. It was while repeating to himself the names of the cities where the killings occurred that he finally happened upon the missing piece of the puzzle. Everyone, including the software, was assuming there was only one central home base. Perhaps, that wasn’t the case. It was never considered that the killer could have been moving with each murder.
Excited by the idea, he hurriedly flipped through the papers in his briefcase to pull out the map of Europe where he charted the cities in question. Staring at the map, he realized the answer that had been so illusory to that point was beautiful in its simplicity. Each killing occurred within a few hours’ drive of a major port city. Keeping in mind that Annie was somehow involved, he went to the King Cruise Line website to research their European itineraries at the time of the murders. What he found made him want to shout out in celebration. Over the five months the murders were committed, the King Diamond was docked in each of the corresponding ports within driving distance of the murder sites. It was probable the killer’s home was a cruise ship owned by Annie’s company. Daniel immediately picked up the phone to call Leland. He answered after four rings.
“I’m sorry to wake you up, Robert, but I think I may have come across something that could be huge.”
“No, not at all. I couldn’t find the phone. What’s up?”
“There was something about the geographical profiling that’s been bugging the hell out of me, but I couldn’t figure out why. I knew we were missing something. It finally hit me tonight. We were focusing on a central home base for the killer instead of considering he might be moving.” Daniel went on to explain his theory that it was likely the killer was a member of the crew or possibly a passenger on the King Diamond, though the latter was improbable due to the time period over which the murders occurred. That particular ship had special significance for Leland who was the lead investigator on the Paul Anderson case.
“Daniel, that’s the ship Paul Anderson disappeared from.”
“Shit, that can’t be coincidence.”
“Motherfucker, I knew I was right. I’ve always suspected the security guard, Damien Drysdale, had something to do with Anderson’s disappearance. You know he quit his job without warning anyone. He disappeared off the face of the earth just like Paul Anderson.”
“Unbelievable. The answer was right there under our fuck’n noses. It sucks I’m gonna be gone for the next week. We’ve got to run with this. We need to get in touch with Annie Bryan ASAP and see what we can get on this guy. I’m sure they have an employee file for him. We need to get a hold of it. It would be great if they had a picture of him.”
“I have a picture of him in the Anderson file. I requested it from Annie a long time ago. She wouldn’t give me the entire employee file. I convinced her to give me a copy of the picture and any information they had about his residence. I was thinking about getting a court order to get her to turn it over, but I was getting all kinds of pressure to close the case.”
“You were obviously on the right track. We should’ve trusted your instincts. Tomorrow morning we need to enter the photo into VICAP to see if we get any matches. You’ll want to run it through the facial recognition software and databanks for driver’s licenses and passports too. We could get a match if he actually applied for any of his identification documents...There’s a good chance Annie knows him. She’s the Vice President over security for King and this guy was a security officer. If she does, we’ll want her to take another look at those surveillance tapes from Fort Lauderdale and LaGuardia. If you remember, she said there was something familiar about the suspect.”
“I’ll get right on it. It’s a little late to call her tonight. I’ll do it first thing in the morning. I’ll call the office right now and get one of the night guys to enter that photo into system right away.” Leland was peeved that Daniel was treating him as if he were a rookie though he was trying his best not to show his anger. The excitement of the possibility of having a real lead helped. Unaware of Leland’s issue, Daniel continued to spout off instructions.
“I hope we’re able to connect this guy to the killings. Otherwise, we have a lot of work ahead of us. We’ll have to go through all the passenger lists for every cruise over the five months the murders took place and interview all crew members and guests on the ship. There might be a witness among them who saw something suspicious that could turn into an important lead. For potential suspects, we’ll need to look at any passengers taking an extended vacation on the Diamond. If it doesn’t turn out to be Damien Drysdale, you need to get a team set up right away to get all that information together.”
Leland’s attempts to maintain his composure had reached their limit. He barked, “Daniel, take it easy. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know what I’m doing.”
“Robert, I know you know what you’re doing. I’m stoked we finally have something to work with. Sorry, if I offended you. I do have a personal stake in this.”
In a feeble attempt to backtrack, Leland responded, “No, no I’m fine, Daniel. You know I’ll take care of everything.”
“Alright, well I’m gonna have my cell phone with me on the cruise. If you need anything, you can call me anytime. Definitely give me a call if you can confirm it was the security guard. I’m anxious to hear how that turns out.”
“Will do. Have a great time on your cruise and I’ll see you when you get back.”
It was nine days before Daniel Falcone, his wife, and in-laws were scheduled to set sail for the Caribbean that Shem Chassar commenced the detailed preparations for his most complex mission to date. Late that Friday night, he drove his Acura Integra south on Interstate 95 to Overtown in Miami. Located just northwest of downtown, Overtown was considered one of the most dangerous communities in the nation. It had a higher murder per capita rate than the entire city of Detroit. Many of the murders were drug related due to the high amount of trafficking competition that took place on its streets.
His objective that evenin
g was to obtain two hundred fifty grams of heroin. It should cost him approximately ten thousand dollars, though he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to pay for it. He would make his final decision at the time of the transaction. If necessary, he had the cash on hand. Holstered in a shoulder harness just inside his blue denim jacket was an automatic Colt 1911 A1 pistol with silencer, if and when he chose the second option.
He merged off of I95 at NW 14th Street. It was 2:00am and the roads were deserted of vehicles. While waiting at a red light on the exit ramp, he removed the holster with the pistol and placed it underneath the driver’s seat. When the light turned green, he slowly proceeded underneath the interstate’s overpass with his driver’s side window lowered halfway. Three emaciated figures emerged from the shadows cast by the streetlights below the bridge and approached the Acura.
“I’m looking to score some smack,” Shem said.
A tall, lanky African American man with bloodshot eyes and yellowed sclera stooped down to the window level and inquired, “How much you lookin for?”
“About two hundred fifty grams.”
“Fuck, man. You don’t come drivin' down these streets for that much dope.” Not wanting to lose such a potential lucrative transaction, the drug dealer thought quickly on his feet. He could walk away with at least 500 bucks. That could support his cocaine habit for almost a month. His ex-brother-in-law probably had that much heroin on hand. It was worth a shot to make a call. That is if the dumb ass cracker realized how much it cost and actually had the money. “Shit, I can probably get it, but not here.”
“I need it now.”
“I can get it for you, but you’ll have to give me a ride. It’s gonna cost you.”