Alive After Friday (Sandy Reid Mystery Series)

by Rod Hoisington

  She saw some movement near the service entrance to the park and tensed up. Then relaxed as she recognized the scrawny kid on the bicycle. He was riding out of the service entrance and coming in her direction. What luck, maybe he saw or heard something. She’d wring his scrawny little neck if he didn’t cooperate. He didn’t notice her parked there in the dark. When he was almost in front of her car, she flipped on the headlights and yelled, “Hey wait. I need to talk with you.”

  He was startled for a moment caught in the headlights. Then he squinted, saw who it was, and yelled, “I didn’t do nothing.” And took off on the bike. He appeared shaken. She noticed something else as well—he was riding a brand new bicycle.

  She took the flashlight from the glove compartment, got out and locked the car. She walked over to the service road; a sign at the corner read: Maintenance Vehicles Only. Although the intersection where the service road left the park was well lighted, she saw only darkness farther up the road. Deserted—no vehicles, no people. She walked on up the curving road into the park casting the flashlight beam from side to side. The road curved again and about fifty feet ahead she saw a narrow side road running over to a large metal equipment shed.

  She walked closer around behind the shed. The kid’s old bicycle was there on the ground. She also noticed a pile of what she thought were old boards—until she stepped closer. Then she saw the body.

  She tried Chip again—still out of service. An emergency call to 911 was a poor option; she needed someone who would immediately accept what she said without a string of questions. The abduction, the money-drop and the dead body would take an hour to explain. She needed to reach someone with the power to make things happen.

  She scrolled down her contact list to Mel Shapiro, the newly elected State Attorney for the judicial district. She met him back when he was an ASA under Larry Moran. They had faced each other both in court and socially. She enjoyed being around him. Over the past year, they’d become special friends; he had told her to call him anytime day or night. She had never abused that privilege. This was official business. When he answered, she said, “Mel, I’ve got a body.”

  “I’ll drink to that.”

  “Seriously, a dead one.”

  “How dead?”

  “As dead as he’ll ever be.” She looked down at the body and slowly shook her head. “I’m in Lagoon Park. Mel, this’ll sound wild. No one else knows any of this. A man and a woman kidnapped me two days ago—”

  “What? Are you safe?”

  “—just listen...took me out in the sticks. They threatened to shoot Chip, if I didn’t pay a lot of money. I made the money-drop tonight at the Lover’s Bridge. Anyway, all that can wait. Now you have a dead guy in the park and the blood’s still wet.”

  He listened in near shock. “Are you okay? Where are you right now?”

  “I was staking out the back service entrance to the park. Then I walked up the back road to the equipment shed and found the body. I’m certain this dead guy is connected to the money-drop.”

  “Stay there. I’ll call the chief. The police will seal off the park, secure the interior scene around Lover’s Bridge and over where you are—the equipment shed. Is that all we need right now?” Mel was fast. He had processed it all instantly.

  “You’ve got it,” she said. “Tell them to hurry. Someone around here murdered this guy, and I’m standing here alone in the dark without a gun.”

  “I understand. Stay back in the shadows until you see flashing lights. You’ll hear the sirens in a minute. And Sandy...don’t take any more action on your own. You’ve done too much already.”

  Was that a crack or a compliment? “Mel, I absolutely must talk to Chip, and his phone is out of service. You know where he is?”

  “Yes, but it’s confidential. I’m not allowed to tell you that he’s on a joint assignment tonight with the FBI down in Fort Pierce. He can’t answer for a while. Now please get off the phone!”

  She put the flashlight beam on the dead guy’s face. His eyes were wide open and blood had dripped down from the corner of his mouth. She didn’t recognize him. She looked down at his shoes—work boots not sneakers. This was not the man with the woman on the path approaching the bridge earlier that night. At least she knew that much about him.

  But was he Dick? Was he the man who had manhandled her into the SUV? The man who had pushed her to her knees, threatened her and most certainly would have molested her, if they had been alone? Was he the one pressing the gun barrel to her neck? “If that was you, then I’m glad you’re dead,” she said aloud without hesitation. “I wished you had died of abject mosquito bites.” Then in a louder voice, she said, “Too bad you can’t hear me.”

  She thought better about going through his pockets; she didn’t want to screw up any evidence. But she couldn’t resist reaching down and feeling his ankle. The body had a normal temperature, not a bit cold. He couldn’t have been dead more than a few minutes. Without moving closer, she cast the light around the pile of boards and beyond. She didn’t see the gym bag. She’d love to search around the area for it, but this was a crime scene. She’d trampled on enough evidence all ready.

  She stepped away from the body and phoned Martin. He answered on the first ring. She said, “I don’t know if everything went okay. I dropped the money okay, but God knows who picked it up. At least I’m safe. Thanks to you.”

  “Good, I can start breathing again. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m glad you’re okay. You must tell me everything. I guessed it was extortion, but I couldn’t figure out the mosquito bites.”

  “Now don’t go all hyperbolic on me. I was abducted and taken to the Everglades. They didn’t harm me much physically, the mosquitoes took care of that part. They extorted me for the four hundred grand. I’ll explain about that part. Geez, I hope I’ve done the right thing. We need to talk but I can’t now. We’ll meet later tonight. Stay by your phone.”

  This dead body was just too close in time and space to not be connected with the money-drop. She wondered how far it was across the park to the Lover’s Bridge. She’d love to run over there. Maybe her four hundred grand was still sitting there on the sidewall of the bridge. Maybe she was looking down at Dick, and he was shot before he could pick up the money. If the money were still on the bridge, it surely wouldn’t stay there long. She’d run over as soon as the police arrived.

  Mel called back, “Chief Stabler requested the murder investigation be separate from your kidnapping and extortion, which the FBI will take charge of. I told him that was okay. To tell the truth, he said he’d rather deal with a murder any time than with the escapades of Sandy Reid.”

  “My escapades included kneeling blindfolded with a gun pressed against the back of my head execution style.”

  “Just the same, the police department will focus on the murder. My office and the FBI will focus on your kidnapping and extortion. Okay? I had Detective Jaworski assigned to me.”

  “Why didn’t you ask for Chip on your team?”

  “Come on, you said he was the target in the extortion scheme. Much too involved. The chief wants to know what his men are looking for. A man and a woman, you say. I realize you were blindfolded, but can you describe the vehicles at all?”

  “Must have been two. The one that stopped in front of me was a dark colored SUV—I don’t know the model they look so much alike. The vehicle behind me...I have no clue. Since the headlights seemed a bit high, might have been a small truck. There were six vehicles in the parking lot a few minutes ago when I left. I have photos of their plates. I also have a description of two strollers I encountered, plus a thieving kid who doubtless knows more about what goes on in the park than the caretakers. Someone might have witnessed something.”

  “Here’s the deal. You can leave when the police show up. Tell them I said okay. They can get your statement later. And I’ll meet you in the chief’s office at ten and we’ll talk about the kidnapping and extortion. Okay?”

  “At
ten? That’s over an hour from now. This is an emergency!”

  “I know, but I’m at a party up in Palm Bay. I’m going out the door right now. I’ll call the FBI on the way. Chip can join us at the meeting, if he gets through with his special assignment. Anything else?”

  “Mel, I know I’ve possibly screwed up the investigation by going ahead with the money-drop.” She again wondered if the money was still sitting on the footbridge. “I’ll run over there as soon as the police get here.”

  “A fait accompli, Sandy. We’ll play the hand we’re dealt. The important thing is you’re safe. You might want Martin at the meeting, as well. Is he available?”

  “Martin is always available. See you at ten.”

  She heard the sirens immediately and waited by the body for the police. Within five minutes, a sergeant arrived and took charge. She didn’t remember his name, but he seemed to know who she was. He accepted what she said without question and carefully listened as she explained what probably happened.

  She then took off running straight across the park to the footbridge. As she got nearer, she could see that the bag and tray were gone. Anyone could have picked it up in the last half-hour. Since it was another crime scene, she held back and stood on the path. Why was the tray gone? If the strolling couple picked up the bag, why would they take the tray? Within another ten minutes, the police arrived at the bridge. After explaining the situation, there was nothing for her to do; she’d be speaking with CSI later.

  She phoned Martin, “We have a meeting in the chief’s office in less than an hour. You think the mosquitoes beat up on me, wait until the police and FBI do a job on me.”

  Chapter Seven

  Sandy and Martin were the first to arrive at the police chief’s office in the Park Beach police station for the hastily scheduled ten o’clock meeting. They took a seat on the small leather bench along the wall beside his desk. Police Chief Stabler and Detective Eddy Jaworski walked in together. Two other sergeants and a detective entered the office right behind them. Sandy knew them all by name. Jaworski took the seat beside her, making her a bit more comfortable. She put her hand on his arm and leaned over. “Eddy, I ran over to the bridge after the police arrived, but the gym bag was gone. How did the crooks pick up that money so fast? It was less than a minute between the time I set the bag down and that couple walked onto the bridge. It had to be the couple. The damn couple took my money and I let them. Eddy, you must find that couple.”

  “Sorry, buddy, I got out of bed to come over here. I heard you found a body, but beyond that I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “In that case, you’ve a few surprises coming.”

  Mel Shapiro came in and immediately took charge. He was tall and slender with noticeably thinning hair. She had always considered him attractive especially so at that particular moment as he still wore his black and white formal evening clothes from the party complete with black bow tie. A skilled courtroom prosecutor, defense attorneys dreaded finding themselves up against him. Although a fierce and verbal competitor in the courtroom, he tended toward the quiet side socially.

  Mel said, “The FBI is sending a man up from Jensen Beach. I don’t know his schedule. Sandy, please start in with the background. You can fill in the FBI later, as they’ll want a written statement from you anyway.”

  She began the sorrowful tale, “By now you’re aware that you have abduction and murder. You’re starting out with almost nothing on the abduction, but the FBI has primary responsibility there. I’m sure you can handle the murder. Although, I believe it’s related to the abduction.”

  The chief said, “We have the murder scene at the park equipment building secured and floodlights set up. CSI has started looking around. Of course, they’re limited until daybreak. Who and what are we looking for. Give us that up front so we can get it out to the field.”

  “Let her talk,” Mel said.

  She gave them a fast explanation of the encounter with Dick and Jane from the kidnapping through to her release. She skipped the part about trying to memorize sounds and voices, and just admitted she could identify neither the perpetrators nor their vehicles. She also skipped being terrified before they released her almost two hours later.

  “At which point,” the chief interrupted. “You should have notified us, so, along with the FBI, we could initiate the time-tested procedures for which we are trained. Such as, marked bills, special chemicals sprayed on the money, GPS hidden in the bag of money and so forth. Did you consider of any of that?”

  “All of those so called confidential police tricks are well-known and thoroughly explained on the Internet. Just Google howtokidnap dot com, all your secrets are listed there. As I just said, I thought of Chip being killed.”

  “Very emotional. Except, we could have had surveillance in place around the park,” the chief pushed on, “Hidden cameras on the footbridge. We could have shadowed the perpetrators until we were certain Detective Goddard wasn’t in danger. Did you think of that?”

  Martin sat biting his lip. He wanted to take her side, but didn’t know enough about the situation to jump in.

  “Some of that might have worked. With luck, all of it might have.” The chief wasn’t there; he had no idea what she’d been through. No idea how she had agonized over her decision. She looked at him fiercely. “I’d have taken the chance with your life but not with Chip’s.”

  The chief’s face flushed red. He needed a minute to continue scowling at her. “So you walked around the murder scene, then for good measure you say you walked around the money-drop scene.”

  “Wrong. I didn’t walk around either. As I got nearer to the footbridge, I could see that the gym bag was gone. I could also see that your men still weren’t there. I stood where I was and waited to keep people away until the police showed, then I went back to my car and came over here.”

  “So I guess the point of this meeting is for all of us to realize that thanks to Miss Reid we have no real starting point.” He smirked. “Well, I’ll get prepared to forget about ever catching the perps, and you can get prepared to kiss four hundred grand goodbye.”

  She was glad Chip wasn’t hearing all this, although she’d need to explain it all to him soon enough tomorrow, or whenever he got off his special assignment. Everyone was looking at her waiting for her reaction. In spite of everything she’d worked for, when the word got out she’d given away the money she would be just another lawyer joke.

  Then all eyes went to the office door as a young man, thirty-something, in a dark business suit entered. “Sorry I’m late. Agent Conrad Hastings.” He pulled a chair over from against the wall and sat. “I was in Jensen Beach headed back to West Palm, when I got the call...a long day. I guess a long day for many of you also.” He let out an extended sigh. “I wasn’t given much information on this. Now as I understand it the kidnap victim was released unharmed. No notes, no phone calls. They just released her.”

  He paused and glanced around the room. No one was correcting him. His eyes went to Sandy and stayed on her, obviously she was the victim. He examined his notes and then looked back up at her. “Miss Reid, I believe.”

  She nodded.

  He went on, “Not only released her but released her without any ransom being paid. How nice of the captors to be so trusting that they would get their money. Isn’t it great that people are finally trusting each other in this country? And apparently, the victim was so appreciative she later paid the kidnappers the ransom demanded even though at that point she was free and could tell them to go to hell and contact the authorities. How nice of the victim to pay the ransom although already set free. Do I have that about right?”

  Sandy was the one who answered, “It sounds dumb and ugly the way you’ve stated it.”

  “And now you’re going to try to pretty it up by putting lipstick on the pig.”

  “No, that’s about the way I’d have said it, except I wouldn’t have used all that unnecessary sarcasm. Now technically, the k
idnapping was more like abduction, since they didn’t hold me for ransom. And the ransom was actually extortion, since I’d already been released. So, we could call it abduction and extortion rather than kidnapping and ransom.”

  She had scored a couple of points against him. He didn’t look pleased. “Yet, you went ahead and met their demands. Whether you call it ransom or extortion, you paid off. And now what’s left?” the agent said, throwing his hands in the air. “I could have read about this in the newspapers. Does anyone here have any information on what happened, other than what Miss Reid might have told them?”

  There was no response. He pointed a finger at Sandy. “I need to talk with you right now. Chief, can I borrow an interrogation room?”

  Martin said, “Can’t it wait until morning? She’s been through quite a bit today.”

  “I suspect she has little information to offer, it won’t take long.”

  As the meeting broke up Mel came over. “You going to be okay?”

  She made a face and nodded.

  “We need to get moving on this. I want you to give a statement about the abduction and the money-drop to Jaworski at eight tomorrow morning in his cubicle. Then meet with the chief at ten about the guy you found murdered at the park equipment shed. Can you make those appointments? Is tomorrow too soon for you?”

  “Let me grab a couple of hours sleep and we can start tonight.”

  “First thing tomorrow is fine.”

  Sandy and Martin followed agent Hastings down the hall to one of the interrogation rooms. The FBI guy motioned for her to sit on the side usually occupied by suspects; the side facing the mirror, which everyone above the age of three knows is in fact a window into the adjoining room. She tried to get comfortable in the wooden chair. As Martin started to take the chair next to her, the agent said, “Are you her attorney?”

  “No.”

  “Then please leave.”

  “Okay, then I am her attorney,” Martin said and sat down.