by Willow Rose
"Uh. We have a visitor?" she said and approached her, almost tripping over a chair on her way. "So, who do we have here? I don't believe we’ve met."
The woman reached out her hand, and they shook.
"I'm…I'm Diane."
"Diane? Oh, DIANE," she squealed. "So, you're Diane…I see, well isn't this…nice, you're all sitting there…my kids…my family and…Diane."
Jack approached her. He got very close. It felt uncomfortable, and Shannon took a step back, almost falling.
"Aren't you happy to see me, not even an eensy teensy bit?
Shannon showed a little bit with her fingers, then giggled at her own joke. She was seriously working on making it something people said. She figured if she said it enough times, it would eventually catch on.
"What's wrong, Jack?" she said. "You look weird. What's wrong with your nostrils?"
"What's wrong with me?" Jack said. "What's wrong with me?"
He pulled off her sunglasses and looked closely at her eyes. Then he let out an angry scoff.
"You're high. You think a life in the force hasn't taught me what it looks like when someone's high? What the heck is going on with you, Shannon? You're getting high now?"
She rubbed her own arms anxiously. "I thought…I thought you'd be happy."
He took her purse. "What are you on?"
Jack searched inside her bag, then grabbed a bottle of pills. He looked up at her, and that awful look of disappointment was in his eyes. Shannon tried to blink, but it didn't go away. None of it would go away.
"These are opioids, Shannon," he said. "Are you insane? With your history of alcohol abuse? How did you even get these?"
"A…a doctor," she said. "My doctor."
"What kind of a doctor would give you these?"
"My old doctor from Tennessee."
"Dr. Stanton gave you these? I can't believe him. He knows you’re an alcoholic."
"But my hand was hurting, Jack…I couldn't play…they made the pain go away…"
Jack stared at her, then let out a deep sigh. "I can't even…I can't even look at you right now."
Jack reached out his arms with a loud groan, and without another word, he took off.
Chapter 57
August 2018
I walked down to the beach and began to run. I had no clue where I was going, but I knew I just had to get away from there, away from all the craziness, away from all my anger. I was trying to run it out of my system, but about two miles down the beach, I realized it wasn't helping, and I stopped.
I had reached downtown and the restaurant Coconuts on the Beach, which was the only restaurant located directly on the beach in our little town. There was music playing from up there, so I went up on the porch and ordered myself a beer.
"Keep the tab open," I told the bartender.
I knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but if Shannon could just give up on everything, then why couldn't I?
I sat by the railing facing the ocean and drank my Shock Top. While trying to digest all that was happening, I stared at the pills that were still in my hand with Shannon's name on the side of the bottle. I felt such deep anger rise inside of me. I couldn't believe her. How long had she been on these pills? Why on earth did she take them in the first place? She knew her own history. She knew she would never be able to control it and, worst of all, so did the people around her. Bruce, Dr. Stanton, Sarah? Even Sarah should have known better. Why hadn't she stopped her? Were they all so hung up on making money they didn't care about her health? It was like she was some puppet.
I was sipping my beer while looking out over the ocean when my phone rang. It was my mom.
"You done running from your problems yet?" she asked.
I took in a deep breath. "In a few minutes."
"Good, 'cause you're needed here. Shannon has passed out on the couch in the common room, and the kids need to get to bed. It's way past their bedtime. Diane has taken them back to your place. Your dad and I are exhausted, to be honest."
Hearing my mother's voice made me lose it. Suddenly, tears were spilling down my cheeks, and I couldn't stop them.
"I'm…I don't know what to do, Mom."
She exhaled. "I know, son. But you won’t find your answer at the bottom of a beer, let me tell you that. Come home. Let Shannon sleep it off and then figure out what to do. But come home. The kids need their dad. They’ve just seen their mom and stepmom completely lose it, and they're scared, Jack. They need your stability, your strength. I know it’s tough to have to pick up the broken pieces over and over again, but that's what parents do. Heck, I still do it for you."
"I know, Mom. I know."
"Good, now be a man and come take care of your family. There’s no time to sit and feel sorry for yourself. You can do that when the kids leave for college, and the house is empty."
My mom hung up, and I wiped my tears away. I lifted my glass with the intention of finishing the beer but then decided that wasn't doing anyone any good and put it back down.
Part IV
Chapter 58
August 2018
I felt like I was drowning. Literally. Piles of files, new and old ones were occupying my desk among old coffee cups and leftover sandwiches. Meanwhile, I was trying to focus on reading everything, going through every detail of the old cases, looking for anything that might tell me more about this Monday Morning Killer and his ways, maybe even find a little mistake or a detail I hadn't focused on before. And, so far, I had found one. In his last kill, before he cooled down for thirty-four years—as far as we know—he had been seen walking into the victim's house by a neighbor. The neighbor had assumed he was visiting since he walked straight in without even knocking and didn’t think any more of it, not until he saw all the police cars in the street later in the day when returning from work. He had then told the police that the man he saw walk inside the house was wearing a uniform. What kind of uniform, he couldn't tell. He only had sight in one of his eyes since the right one was lazy and he only had like eighty percent vision in the good one, but the uniform had an emblem on the shoulder, he had said.
"Like the one a security guard wears," I mumbled to myself and thought about Jim Reynolds. He was old enough to fit the description. Plus, he had a pretty good motive for wanting Amber Reynolds dead. I just wasn't so sure that this killer needed a motive. His kills weren't random; they were carefully planned out, but it didn't seem like he was getting revenge with each and every victim, more like with someone else that he couldn't kill or already had killed.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. I rubbed my forehead. I couldn't really concentrate. My thoughts kept returning to Shannon and her behavior the night before.
My mom had put her in one of her rooms for the night, and I had gotten up this morning and sent the kids off to school and day-care without even checking in on her.
Maybe I should have; I don't know. I wasn't really ready to face her yet. So, instead, I buried myself in my work, even though I was only doing so halfheartedly. I knew my mom would make sure Shannon—and the puppy—were well taken care of and that I'd have to face her later in the day.
I just didn't know what to say.
I felt so angry it was like I was about to explode, and then I was heartbroken at the same time. I wanted to yell at her, scold her for being so stupid, and then hug her and hold her tight, and tell her it was going to be all right. All at the same time. I loved the woman, dang it. I just wasn't sure how much more of this I could bear. How much the kids could take. They had seen her, how she acted yesterday. I couldn't hide it from them. They knew something was wrong, especially Angela, who had grown up while watching her mother drink herself half to death. The girl had to be devastated.
"I never should have let her go," I mumbled to myself. "I knew it was a bad idea as soon as she told me about the tour. I felt it, deep inside."
"What's that?"
I lifted my head and met Joe Hall's eyes above the stacks of files.
"O
h, hey, man. I didn't see you there. What's up?"
"I have something you need to see. At the Reynolds' house."
I rose to my feet. "You found something?"
"Well, it was actually the crime scene techs, but I was there, and so they told me to go get you."
I grabbed my phone along with my gun and badge and left the desk, feeling quite relieved to get away for a little while. I needed it. I felt stuck.
Chapter 59
August 2018
"I’ve messed up everything. How is that even possible in so short of an amount of time?"
Diane looked at herself in the rearview mirror. She hadn't slept at all last night. She had kept wondering about Jack and Shannon and how she felt like she had come between them. It was the last thing she ever wanted to do. She cared for Jack, yes, she had to admit she did. And maybe even a little more than as a friend. And that wasn't healthy.
"Why did I even come here?" she said, then backed out of the parking lot behind the motel. Jack had been so nice as to pick up her car the afternoon before and, luckily, it had been able to start once he tried and it did so again this morning, much to Diane's relief.
She had gathered all her things—which wasn't much—that she had brought to the motel and put it in the trunk. She hadn't even said goodbye to Sherri and Albert, and she wasn't going to. They would only try and convince her to stay and ask her where she would go, and she couldn't deal with that right now. All she knew was that she had to get away, as far away from Cocoa Beach as possible.
"It was a mistake to come here. It was a huge mistake," she told herself as she rushed down A1A. "Why are you so stupid, Diane? Why?"
She shook her head and slammed her hand against the steering wheel. She couldn't blame Shannon for being upset. She really couldn't. Had she felt satisfied and at home with Jack's family? Yes, that's exactly how she had felt sitting there on the porch at the motel, enjoying Sherri's wonderful cooking and seeing all those smiling faces. She had felt at home, and she had so desperately wished it was. For just a second, she had allowed herself to dream that she was the one who had married Jack and was living on the beach with him, that she was the mother of his many children and that he loved her still. For just one unforgiving second, she had dreamt it. Just like she used to dream that she was a real part of his family when growing up, when her dad came home drunk and started throwing things, and she sought shelter at Jack's house. Back then, she had prayed to God that he would make her a part of their family. This was the only place she had ever felt at home. With them.
But it was all a lie, and now she was facing the consequences. There was no way she could ever have what they had. It just wasn't in her cards.
Misty made a sound from the back seat, and Diane looked at her in the rearview mirror.
"I know," she said and drove through downtown, toward the north side of town. "I wanted to stay too. But we can't destroy Jack's life. He has a good thing going there, and we can't get in the way of that. He loves his wife and he should. I just hope she knows how to appreciate him, appreciate the life she has with him."
Diane drove off A1A and into Suwannee Lane, then up toward her house. She would just get her things for now, the little she had brought with her when she came. Later, she would contact Mary Hass, the real estate agent, and ask her to sell the house for her again. Maybe there was still one sucker left out there who didn't know the story of the murder house.
Chapter 60
August 2018
I parked the car in the driveway, and we got out. A crime scene tech approached us.
"It's in the back," he said.
We walked around the house, following him closely.
"We were almost done in the house when we saw it. I guess we didn't think of going inside until now, maybe because we assumed it was just for surfboards. But I’m glad we did," he said and turned to look at me. "I don't know if it is important, but I thought you should see it."
I nodded and followed him to a slim surf shed in the backyard. He opened the door and held it for me.
"It's in here."
I stepped inside. There wasn't much to see, but what I saw was enough.
"It looks like someone has been sleeping in here," the tech said and pointed at the mattress on the ground. It was all very dirty, and bugs were crawling on the floors and walls.
There wasn't much else in there but the mattress on the floor and some clothing on a chair in the corner.
"It's like a sauna in here," Joe Hall said and untucked the shirt of his uniform. "There's no AC?"
The tech shook his head.
"How on earth has anyone been sleeping in here without AC?" Joe asked.
I looked around at the dirty shed and felt the sweat springing to my forehead. I grabbed a shirt from the chair and looked at it.
"The question we need to ask is why," I said. I turned to look at Joe Hall. "Why would anyone sleep out here?"
I knelt next to the bed and felt it. There wasn't even a sheet on it. It was stained and dirty.
"Could it have been a homeless person?" Joe asked.
I reached under the pillow and pulled out an old notebook, then smiled while waving it in the air.
"That's what we're about to find out."
Chapter 61
August 2018
Diane parked the car in front of her house and got out. She took Misty with her, so the cat wouldn't die of heat stroke in the car while she gathered her things. She didn't know how long it would take, but she hoped it wouldn’t be too long.
She just needed to get out of here. And fast.
Mr. Fogerty came out on his porch when she walked up. He was wearing his dogcatcher uniform, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. His eyes watched her as they always did, and she smiled in greeting, yet couldn't help feeling a chill run down her spine as his eyes continued to stare. The man didn't smile back, and Diane rushed to her front door. She grabbed the handle and unlocked the door, thinking she couldn't wait to get away from this place and its creepy neighbors.
Inside the house, she felt the unease come over her as she always did, and she hurried up the stairs, putting Misty down so he could roam while she packed up her clothes. She only had about two suitcases to pack. It shouldn't take long.
After that, she'd get the few plates she had brought, the ones she had inherited from her aunt. She wouldn't want to leave them here. Where she was going, she would surely have a use for those.
Wherever she was going.
You need a plan. You can't just take off.
Diane didn't have a plan. She had no idea if she would drive north or south, east or west. Where could she possibly hide? It'd have to be in a place Frank would never think of looking for her. She didn't even know if her car could get her anywhere. It was old and not very reliable.
Take it one day at a time. That’s all you can do right now.
Diane nodded as she reached the end of the stairs. There really wasn't more to it than that, taking it day-by-day, hour-by-hour. Something would turn up; something always did along the way. She just had to focus on what she was doing right now and nothing else.
Diane walked down the hallway and reached the door to her bedroom, then opened it. As she saw what—or rather who—waited for her on the other side, sitting on top of her bed, she almost instantly stopped breathing.
Chapter 62
August 2018
I was pulling my hair while reading the notebook. I had gone back to my office and moved a couple of files to make room for it on my desk, then grabbed a cup of coffee and started reading. But what I found in there made me so sick to my stomach I couldn't even finish the coffee.
"Anything useful?" Joe asked as he approached me.
I looked up.
"You look a little pale," Joe said. "You okay?"
I swallowed. "I…I don't think so."
"You don't think you're all right or you don't think you found anything useful?" he asked.
"Maybe both," I said. "I don't real
ly know what to say to this."
Joe sipped his cup, still standing and looking down at me. "What is it? What's written in it?"
"I…I’m not too sure…yet," I said and looked out the window at the traffic on A1A rushing by. My thoughts were running wild as I thought about what I had read, what I was holding between my hands. There was something I seemed to be missing about this case, something about this book and the mattress in the shed and the way Mrs. Reynolds was decapitated when none of the other victims were.
"So, you don't think we can use it to crack the case, then?" Joe asked.
I turned and looked at him again. "No, I think that's exactly what we can use it for."
Joe gave me a puzzled look. "You're not making much sense here, Jack. You sure you don't need to go home and rest? You don't look too well, to be perfectly honest."
I shook my head as another piece of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. "I think…"
I stopped then and looked up at Joe. I stood to my feet, still holding the notebook in my hand.
"Come with me."
"Come with me, please," Joe corrected me with a grin, but I ignored him. As I rushed out of the building housing the station, my heart was racing so loudly in my ears that it drowned out everything else. If I was right in my theory, then there was no time to waste.
Chapter 63
August 2018
"Frank?"
Diane's heart sank as she looked at her ex-husband sitting on her bed. He was looking at her, smiling from ear to ear.
"W-what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" he asked. "What am I doing here? I think I’m the one who should ask you that question. What on earth are you doing in this God-forsaken place? In this…house? I don't even know if I should call it that. What is this place?"
