Deathnet : Bayview Beach Book 1

by P. S. Chandler

  Ace glanced at the picture again. "Jeez. It looks like he almost tore her arm off."

  "And whoever did this clonked her good on the back of the head; fractured her skull in at least two places. Those hooks, though, are pretty serious. It sounds horrible to say, but if they have been looking any closer to the surface, they might not have found her. The guy who caught her is in bad shape; so much for a tranquil fishing trip.

  "I would be too if I were him," said Ace, turning his back to the Chief. He glanced outside of his office. "I thought you said you called Jacobs in on this, too?"

  Ace didn't justify the comment with a response, though he rolled his eyes when he knew his boss turned away. Lauren appeared in the middle of the hallway. She dropped her keys and giant ice coffee on the desk.

  "Hey, Ace, Chief. I would say good morning, but that doesn't sound right, does it?"

  You’re right," he said. He showed her the photo in his hand.

  "Oh. You weren't kidding; this is messed up. Do we have an ID on the body yet?"

  Maloney shook his head, "Not yet. She's still down in the morgue, but they haven't cut her open yet. We'll be lucky to find prints; at first guess, she's been in the water about three days, but we’ll certainly try. Let’s not forget to check in with dental"

  The gruesome photos haunted Lauren. She was determined to find the monster who committed this horrific act. “What about the guys who hauled her up? Are we talking to them?" she asked.

  Maloney grunted, "The unfortunate youth who hooked her works at the casino." He flipped through sheets of paper on his desk. "Uh, a Max Loman, young guy, twenty-six. He was out with some older guys and with the owner of the boat. It was his first fishing trip."

  "Probably be his last, too," quipped Ace. Lauren gave him a poisonous look.

  "Assuming Mr. Loman shows up to work today, you want us to bring him back or talk to him there?" she asked. She fiddled with a loose strand of hair.

  "As you said, I'd be surprised if he's there tonight, after what he's been through, but I would check, just the same. We'll pull the other guys in later, said Maloney.

  Lauren shot him a thumbs up, already halfway out of the office. “Alright, Chief, call us if you get any ID while we're out. I wouldn't be surprised if the kid's not up to talking for a few days." She elbowed Ace, whose mind had wandered somewhere outside of the office.

  "C'mon, weirdo. Let's go see a man about a fish."

  Ace frowned at Lauren's remark. "Really? Weren't you the one talking about sensitivity? This is about a woman, Laur, not somebody's prize catch."

  "Lighten Up, Ace," she muttered as she grabbed her 20-ounce coffee cup, holster, and keys. "Your turn to drive. I'm gonna need to gulp this baby down if we're going into a place like the Sunset."

  Ace could only shake his head. He wondered how she managed to avoid having a heart attack after drinking several buckets of coffee a day. But then, she'd done so for years. He followed Lauren to the elevator, and once inside, grudgingly held her coffee while she strapped on her gun.

  Chapter 4

  "Remind me never to take up gambling," Lauren whispered.

  "What, you don't like the place?" Ace grinned at her and shook his head. Though the Sunset was only a few miles from his house and closer still to Lauren's, he couldn't imagine either of them coming here on purpose. The Sunset felt like rows of chairs, screens, and the art-deco nightmare of the patterned carpet stretched into infinity. Right in the center of the main room was an enormous stained-glass chandelier, the deep reds, pale blues, and golf-course greens in its glass reminiscent of a Las Vegas chapel.

  "It was the world's biggest arcade," Lauren shouted over the clicks, dings, beeps, and cheers coming from all the machines, every single one of which had someone seated in front of it. There were at least 100 people or more standing in front of her.

  "Head towards the back! Max should be back there!" Ace yelled. He drew curious looks from the few people seated close to where he stood. Lauren did as he said and made her way to the back of the casino. Tucked back into one corner was a single narrow door. Lauren marched right up to it and knocked.

  The door swung open, and on quick inspection, Ace spotted two men. The one who answered the door appeared to be in his mid-sixties, with a monk's crown of dull brown hair on the sides of his head and none on top.

  "Yeah?"

  "Max Loman?" Ace replied in an authoritative voice.

  The guy jabbed a finger at his chest and pointed to a barely legible plastic nametag. Ace stared at the man's head; it reminded him of an oblong disfigured pear. "You guys illiterate? I'm Kerry, with a K, but people call me Kip. I’m one of the handy mans for the casino.”

  Ace opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Lauren pushed past him into the room. "Nice to meetcha, Kip. Lauren Jacobs, I'm a detective with the Broward County police, and my partner and I are looking for a guy named Max. You know him?"

  "That's me. "A young man entered the room from a small bathroom. Ace's stomach fell somewhere in the vicinity of his knees. He looked like he’s 12, he thought, at least ten years younger than the number the Chief gave.

  "Hey Max, I'm Detective Lauren Jacobs. This is my partner, Ace. We want to talk to you about what happened on your fishing trip this morning. Are you up to that?" Her voice took on a soft, motherly tone.

  Kip walked past Lauren to a card table pushed up against the opposite wall from Max. From his pocket appeared a ball of tinfoil. Without a thought for anyone else in the room, he unwrapped it with his fingers, which revealed a sad-looking sandwich.

  Before taking a bite, he waved the sandwich at Max. "Go ahead, kid, tell 'em your horror story. Get it off your chest, " he muttered sarcastically.

  Max led the detectives out of the tiny office. His shoulders slumped, his feet barely lifted off the ground. They followed him down a narrow hallway by two lit restroom signs. Lauren and Ace drew in close to Max so no one could hear. "Okay, Max, we're not going do the whole thing here, but we wanted to ask you some questions about the woman you found this morning. Can you handle that?" asked Lauren. She bent down close to Max's bowed head.

  "I don't know anything about her, I swear. And I didn't mean—I-I saw the hole I made, th-that my hook, made I mean, and I didn't m-mean to do that! I didn't! I don't even like to fish!" This last statement came out in a wail, and it drew the brief attention of three young women who walked towards the bathroom. They stared at Max, fish-eyed until Lauren made eye contact with the one in the middle. "C'mon girls, go do your business; this isn't about you." When they disappeared behind the door, she turned back to Max, her expression softened.

  "Did you want to do this at the station, Max? It'd be a lot quieter and more private."

  "I'm not in trouble, am I? I swear I don’t know anything about it. I didn't even see her after Jerry helped put her on the deck."

  “Why is that? asked Detective Jacobs.” Max’s face was like a ghost. His words were barely audible.

  “Cause I threw up, then fainted" Max mumbled.

  Ace gently squeezed his shoulder. "Hey man, that's normal. I would have done the same thing, I promise you, and I've seen plenty of b—" He cut himself off as Lauren’s eyes scowled at him.

  "Here, sweetie, let's take you somewhere a little less chaotic. You can talk to us as much as you want, okay? You're not in trouble, I promise."

  Max seemed to concede. He drew himself out of a slouch and rubbed his face vigorously with both hands. "Okay. Okay, I'll go. But let's be fast, alright? I don't want too many people seeing me with you guys. I'll lose my job for sure."

  Lauren let Max move a little bit ahead of her. Ace was concerned. He'd never known her to get attached to any of the kids they interrogated. And, she'd never flipped so quickly into 'Mom-mode' as she was doing now. And this one was a grown man, though he sure didn't look joke one.

  Halfway across the lobby, Max froze; Ace followed his stare. A dramatically obese man in a shiny sapphire-blue suit leaned over a short, stout mid
dle-aged woman. The lady danced her fingers across the machine's buttons in front of her as if it were a typewriter.

  "Who is that, Max?" Ace noted how the young man began rocking back and forth.

  His voice shook, "That's Bennie. He's a-- a whatchamacallit, um, a l-loan shark. He does pretty good around here."

  "You know him?" Lauren didn't hide her expression of disgust as she watched Bennie, now fully guiding the woman's hands over certain parts of the machine.

  "Hey, listen, you guys gotta get out of here. Bennie won't be happy if he sees cops, okay, he'll freak out for sure!" A desperate whine snuck into Max's voice. He trembled in between Ace and Lauren, his eyes the size of ten-dollar tokens while locked on the man in the blue suit.

  "Okay, okay, kid, don't panic. We're leaving. Max led the detectives through a narrow hallway to a black corroded side door exit at the back of the casino. He dug frantically in his pocket, and pulled out an old-tarnished matchbook. Max’s hand shook uncontrollably. "Uhh..... here's my cell. You can call me later if you need me to come- Uhh to the station. But, like I said earlier, I know nothing about this woman."

  "Now, please, I don't want any trouble."

  Ace gave a nod of approval. "We believe you, kid. Take a deep breath. We're on our way back to the station now".

  "Sweetheart, if you need a listening ear feel free to call me at the station. What you've experienced is very traumatic," comforted Detective Lauren.

  For the love of Pete, thought Ace. Whatever happened to professional boundaries! And, he's NO kid! He's legal; his pack of Marlboro lights bears witness to that! Ace rolled his eyes and followed behind Laur. His nose celebrated the aroma of clean, smoke-free air.

  Chapter 5

  Back at the station, Ace found Laur hunched over her desk as she examined the disturbing photos of Lane. While she continued to work, she feasted on another gallon of ice coffee. It was only 2 pm, and Lauren looked haggard. She briefly saw Ace as he walked by her office. He waved and made a funny fish face while she talked on the phone.

  "I'm not accusing you of anything, Mrs. Carpenter. We're still just trying to put facts together at this point. "N-no, ma'am, I can't tell you that. No. All I can say is we're speaking to you primarily because someone told us you're a frequent customer at the casino, and—no ma'am, there is nothing illegal about a little bit of gambling, at least not in this state, but that's not—"

  Lauren pulled the phone away from her mouth and pretended to scream as Lorraine ranted over the phone. Ace entered the room.

  "Mrs. Carpenter, at this point, I can't force you to come in and talk to us, but the person we spoke to earlier told us you're in the casino a lot and that you might know a gentleman named Bennie? Not sure of his last name, but you were seen speaking to him a couple of days ago by an employee, and we just wanted— yes, ma'am. We can arrange for you to be picked up and brought here by one of our officers, and we can be very discreet. I'll have an unmarked car pick you up at home. Are you going to be there this evening? Great. Great, okay, thank you, Mrs. Carpenter, we appreciate your cooperation in this—." Lorraine ended the call before Lauren could finish.

  Lauren slapped the phone, "Are we allowed to put somebody in cuffs if they hang up on us? I feel like that should be a thing."

  Ace grinned at her. "Nah, we don't have the tax dollars. Besides, according to the information I've been able to pull on the Carpenters, her husband's loaded. If she turned up with so much of a bruise, we'd be operating out of a cardboard box by August."

  Lauren stood up from the desk and stretched, "Well, supposedly, she'll be here around seven tonight, so I'll start pulling together some notes and see if we can hit her with anything. Like maybe a chair," she said sarcastically.

  Ace laughed. "Hey, that's an old woman you're talking about. Be kind. She may be able to help us with the case."

  She waved her hand and threw a pencil at him as he left her office.

  Mrs. Carpenter arrived shortly before seven o'clock that evening. She appeared a whole lot less exhausted than Lauren. She looked like a woman who owned a villa near the beach: icy pearls hanging from her ears and around her neck, two gold rings on her left hand, one inset with a diamond which Lauren thought large enough to be irresponsible to wear out in public. The two women sat in one of the station's dreary interview rooms; Lauren's back was to the one-way glass, where Ace and Maloney watched the interview.

  "Thank you so much for coming Mrs. Carpenter. Like I said on the phone, we aren't accusing you of anything. We just want to get some information from you. Do you, um, do you go to the Sunset casino a lot?"

  Mrs. Carpenter bristled. "I wouldn't say a lot, no. I might visit once or twice a week, three times if my luck has been particularly good. But that's on very rare occasions."

  "You're very rarely lucky, you mean? Do you lose a lot of money?"

  "That's not what I meant, dear. I mean, I try not to make a habit of going there too frequently. It would be disrespectful to Phillip; the poor man's worked so hard for us."

  She was still sitting stiffly in the hard plastic chair; hands folded one over the other as if she expected her portrait to be painted while the two of them spoke.

  Lauren peeked at her notes. "Mrs. Carpenter, I asked you earlier today if you knew anyone named Bennie who might work at the casino. You never really answered me. Is the name at all familiar to you?"

  Mrs. Carpenter bottom lip trembled. She blinked once slowly. "I'm not sure what I said at the time, Detective, but I don't know anyone by that name. Who told you I did?"

  "As I said, ma'am, I can't disclose that information to you. The man I am asking about is either working for the Sunset or a frequent customer like yourself, so I was just trying to figure this out." Detective Jacobs held the woman's gaze for a long moment, then asked her next question. "Are you and your husband experiencing any financial trouble at the moment, Mrs. Carpenter?"

  Mrs. Carpenter shook her head, her pearl earrings shimmering in the low amber light. "No, dear. We recently spoke to our estate lawyer about the status of some of my husband's assets, as well as our adjoining life insurance, but it wasn't for any nefarious reason.

  "We are getting old, Detective, and my husband is a practical man. His health is not as good as mine, so he wants to make sure somebody will take care of me if something unfortunate should happen."

  "Does your husband or your lawyer keep records of these meetings?” Lauren asked. She kept her eyes focused on Lorraine's lips. Mrs. Carpenter twitched her neck and placed both hands flat on the tabletop. She then pushed herself slowly up out of her seat.

  "I'm certain he does. As I said, Phillip is an extremely meticulous man. Now, if you excuse me, Detective, it's getting rather late, and I'm useless in the morning if I don't get to bed early."

  Lauren checked her phone. It was a few minutes after eight. "Of course, Mrs. Carpenter. And thank you for your cooperation. I'll have one of our men to take you home."

  She rose from her chair and offered an arm to the older woman, who refused it but waited for Lauren to open the door for her. Mrs. Carpenter stood patiently in the narrow hallway for Officer Martinez to escort her home. Lauren rubbed her eyes and yawned.

  "What a terrible problem to struggle with," she muttered. Lauren couldn't get the image of the older woman's quivered lip out of her head.

  Chapter 6

  Chief Maloney raised his head from his hands. "Ace, I thought that was you. Lane Mason was that the woman found at sea by the fishermen last week."

  Ace nodded and leaned in the doorway of his boss's office. He was exhausted. “I know, Chief, dental records confirmed it. I pawned, contacting the family off on some of the rookies. A crappy thing to do, but—"

  Maloney waved him off, sitting up straight in his chair. "It's the best way to learn, Stone. One of the toughest parts of the job. Now that we have an ID, the front lawn of the station will be crawling with reporters. Make sure whoever it is, does it soon.

  Lauren sat at her desk. She
used her mouse and flipped through pictures of the victim. This was a bad habit of hers, and she knew it. It never helped to look at the photos of them. It didn't make them more human, more real like she thought it would. It only made her angrier. As she waited for Lane Mason's ex-fiancé to show up, Lauren thought about how different her life would be had she followed her dream of owning a veterinarian hospital.

  “You're beautiful, Lane. I like your hair." She addressed the screen in a small voice. "I'm sorry it took us so long to find you." Ms. Mason looked like a suburban mom. Short brown bobbed haircut, perfect skin but the beginnings of crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and a touch of grey at her temples. Lauren carefully read Lane’s file. Who would want to kill such a talented woman, she wondered. Ms. Mason practiced law for the past fifteen years with an exceptional record.

  Detective Jacobs dragged her fingers through her tangled mass of hair. She needed to focus and stay alert for this. "I'm going do right by you, Lane. I promise." She reached out and tapped the screen with one finger, right in the middle of Lane's left cheek.