The Hollywood Serial Killers: A Mike Kane Mystery Series

by Sands, Jordan

  Chapter 48

  The pilot stays low, lowering the gears of the Learjet as they arrive at their destination. He banks the plane to enter from the west to land on the Cayman Brac Airport runway. The Cayman Brac Islands are just 90 miles northeast from the better known Grand Cayman and 5 miles east of Little Cayman, across a body of water that is locally known as the “Bogue.” They lie in the Caribbean Sea. Before landing, Mark sees long stretches of white sandy beaches. The airport has only one long strip for a runway that is on the far west side of the island. As he brakes the plane and slows down and comes to the eastern end of the strip, he turns the plane around and taxis back on the tarmac. The pilot heads to the front of the airport terminal, which is just a large parking lot set off from the landing strip. Only one other plane is parked off to the side. A limo is there, waiting for their arrival, and after getting some luggage off the plane, all climb into the limo, including the pilot, co-pilot, and the two stewardesses. They take the north shore road, all the way past North East Bay and at the very end of Spot Bay.

  On the drive across the entire island, the pilot and stewardess are mentioning how great a life they will be having. They mention what a life like this must be, along with drinking some of the best champagne one can buy. Each one is describing what they are going to do with all that money. Bob, the pilot, mentions he is going to retire to Fiji and have two maids, one upstairs and one downstairs, as he laughs and winks at the girls. The co-pilot indicates he was thinking about retiring in the Philippines, as his father had been stationed there while he was in the Air Force, and he liked it. The flight attendants both say they are going to move to Spain and buy a home together, as they both had visited there on several vacations in the past years.

  Owning a large chunk of acreage at the end of the island, Fred had a home built in a Caribbean style, away from any eyes that would like to get a better look. He has three guest houses close to the massive main house. All homes are built on stilts, with interconnecting hanging walkways between the outer houses and the main home. Only the double-wide driveway has been built up to the level of the main house. The chauffeur gets out and opens the doors for Fred and guests to get out.

  “You two each have your private guest house.” He points to the pilots. “I’m sorry, ladies, but you two will need to share if that is all right with you?”

  “Thank you” comes from the co-pilot, as Bob the pilot just walks around the decking to head to one of the houses.

  “That will be fine,” comes the reply from both stewardesses, almost harmonizing.

  “Mark, shall we?” Fred throws out his hand so as to have Mark lead the way.

  “Thank you,” Mark says, as he walks ahead and through the hand-carved double front doors.

  “Fred, this place is beautiful,” Mark adds as he looks up to the large tree trunks that hold the home up, along with the poles that jettison out and the Brazilian lumber that makes up the ceiling. The flooring is all hardwood, with the kitchen being open to the great room which overlooks the forest. The home is built right into the edge of the forest, very secluded. Without the gate at the end of the highway, no one would ever guess there was a home built back here.

  “Glad you like it, make yourself at home,” Fred says, as the chauffeur brings in the luggage.

  “I’m hungry.” As Mark starts towards the kitchen, he walks around the end of the counter space. “Hell-ooo, who the hell are you?”

  “I’m your chef, Jacinta,” said a very attractive, dark-haired, Caribbean young lady, wearing only a T-shirt, no bra and a pair of hot pants that looked like they were spray-painted on. “Anything you want, just ask.”

  “Anything I want?” replied Mark in a very suggestive way.

  “Mark, she meant whatever you want to eat, as she is off limits to you.” Fred corrects his way of thinking. “If you want, you can try one of the stewardesses—that is if the pilots haven’t already taken them.”

  At dinner with everyone at the table, Jacinta prepares a feast that one would die for. Bob is drinking pretty heavily and tries to pick her up, not knowing he is treading on dangerous ground. Mark looks at Fred to see if anything is going to be said, but nothing is. Fred slightly shakes his head to Mark, like he doesn’t need to say anything. Bob finally grabs her around the waist, and soon finds that was a big mistake. She picks him up out of the chair and takes his left hand and bends it back, causing him great pain as he falls to his knees. She puts a lot of pressure on his hand, and he pleads with her to let him go. She throws his hand back and slaps him across the top of the head for good measure. To everyone's astonishment, it was over in just a few seconds. She goes back in, asking if anyone wants anything else, as Bob picks himself up and stumbles back towards his guest house, only looking back and feeling very humiliated.

  “Well, I know now not to mess with you,” Mark says this as a matter of fact.

  The girls are still sitting with their mouths open and looking at each other. They start to laugh and clap their hands, “I’m glad someone finally got back at him. He is always coming on and making himself out a pompous ass,” one of them says, still laughing.

  After dinner, everyone goes to their assigned hut, as Jacinta cleans up. Fred and Mark take a seat on the deck outside, with cognac, and light up cigars. After about an hour goes by, Jacinta comes out and sits on Fred’s lap.

  “Where’s mine?” Mark says, half-joking.

  Just then, Jacinta's identical sister, Santane, comes out and sits on his lap. “Holy cow, this is too good to be true.” He is finding this hard to believe.

  “Twins,” Fred says. “Identical twins. These two are my usual stewardesses and also my bodyguards.”

  The four of them stay out on the deck for several hours, as just Fred and Mark talk, drink, and smoke. “Girls” is all Fred says, and they leave. “Time for bed, it’s getting late.” He gets up and heads into the house. “Mark, your room is up that stairway, and mine is up that one.”

  Mark heads up and expects to find the other twin, Santane, already in his bed. But as he enters, no one but himself is in the room. “Oh, damn, wishful thinking on my part.” He takes a shower, brushes his teeth, and gets into bed.

  After he is asleep, he awakens to feel someone crawling into bed with him. He glances up and sees his wish—Santane is next to him. Her golden brown naked body comes close to his, and they enjoy the rest of the early morning together.

  Chapter 49

  Morning comes, and light shines into his room from the skylight above. The birds are almost calling out, waking Mark up after what seems to be a short night's sleep. He rolls over to find the bed empty. Thinking, was that just one hell of a good dream or was it real? As he sniffs the pillows to see if they will reveal any clues. He crawls out of bed, stretches, puts on a pair of shorts and slips on a shirt to wear for the day. While walking downstairs, he sees Fred, Jacinta, and Santane sitting at the breakfast table.

  “Well, hi, sleepyhead,” Santane says as he nears the bottom of the steps.

  “Good morning, Mark. How was your night?” Fred asks.

  “I think it was great, or I had the best damn dream of my life,” is the reply.

  “No dream, Mark.” Santane spoke up, “But I will take that as a compliment.”

  As he sits next to Santane and across from Mr. Tan, Jacinta gets up and gets him his breakfast. “Two slices of toast, two eggs, hash browns, ham, and guava fruit. Is that all right with you?” she asks.

  “Fine, very fine. Oh, and orange juice.” As he starts, Santane finishes placing his cloth napkin on his lap. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Where is everybody? Aren’t they joining up?”

  “They are gone. They won’t be joining us anymore,” Fred mentions, as he looks over the newspaper.

  “I wanted to ask Bob how he felt about having poor little Jacinta demolish him last night,” Mark says with a broad smile on his face.

  “He probably would have used the excuse of h
aving too much to drink. Too bad he didn’t stay around for you to ask,” Fred says, again looking over the paper.

  “How did they go? Fly out. Did they take my plane?” Mark says in an almost joking way.

  “No, Mark, they didn’t. Your plane is still here.”

  “Well, I hope that Bob enjoys his life in retirement in Fiji. I may swing by some day and say hello.” Mark rethinks the tales Bob was telling them on the ride to the compound the day before.

  “You do that, but give him some time to get lost in the community, as you know he is changing his name and doesn’t want to be found.”

  Earlier that morning, after Mark and Santane had finished their second bout in the sheets, he had drifted off to sleep. She got up and met her sister who had been waiting for her downstairs. The two of them walked across the walkway to the two men’s huts. As Jacinta slipped into bed with Bob, he woke up and said, “Oh, I guess you did like my advances. I’m glad you changed your mind, as I am going to make you feel the best you ever felt, a lot better than old Mr. Tan could ever.” He felt her climb on top of him only to have a soft hand cover his mouth as a knife entered his jugular and he died from choking on his own blood. He tried to fight and get her off of him, but couldn’t move her, as she had his arms pinned with her legs. He didn’t struggle very long. “I should tell you, old Mr. Tan is very good in bed.” His body went limp, and she got off, walking over to the co-pilot's hut, only to hear them having sex together. Not long after she heard some struggling and a gurgling sound, then silence. Santane came out of the hut and said, “Don’t you think they should have some fun before they leave this world?”

  They walked over to the girls' hut, entered and found them lying next to each other, cuddled together, even though there were two double beds in the room. Jacinta and Santane went to opposite sides of the bed, across from each other, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Together and at the same time, they put their hands over their mouths and slit the girls’ throats.

  Only some quivering came from both women, as they knew nothing of what had just hit them. Soon both were lifeless. Jacinta and Santane looked at each other with smiles on their faces, rose from the bed, and headed back to the main house. The early morning sun was just rising above the forest tree canopy.

  “Want anything to eat?” Jacinta asked her sister, as Fred was just waking up.

  “I feel like a couple of eggs with lots of ketchup.”

  “Do you think Mr. Tan will ever do that to us?”

  “No, I don’t think he will, as we already have our money in an account, and he doesn’t know where it is.”

  Chapter 50

  “Mike, I’ve got some bad news,” Paul says as I walk through the door to the office. Paul is working on the computers we brought back from Mark’s home. “They’ve been scrubbed, nothing on them, thoroughly clean.”

  “Paul, I thought there was always a way to bring information back from the dead with these computers,” I point out.

  “Well normally it is difficult for someone who does it on their on, but it takes a super scrubber to erase these disks as thorough as these have been. These are clean, real clean. I can’t get anything off of them.”

  “How long would it take for someone to scrub it that clean?”

  “Not long, but this looks like it has been scrubbed more than once. Whoever did this went through the system a couple of times, just to make sure it was really clean of any information.”

  “Sharon, do you think Mark would have had time to do that and get away before we arrived?”

  “He could have done it the night before,” Sharon says.

  “I don’t think so, as I think he did it right before he was leaving. I don’t think he knew for sure he was leaving until just before we got there.”

  “But you don’t just order a plane to pick you up and fly away. Doesn’t that take some time to set up?” Sharon asks.

  “Usually, but if you’re not sure if or when you would be leaving, you won't clean your computer drive. Unless you knew for sure, you were leaving.” I look to Paul for confirmation.

  “That might be true unless he downloads all his information to some files with the idea of leaving and taking them with him.”

  “Let’s go back one more time, and see if we can find anything we might have missed.”

  We drive over one more time. Martha greets us at the door and allows us to search once again, but not without some pointed comments. Sharon goes upstairs and takes a closer look. I search downstairs. After searching thoroughly, I go upstairs to assist Sharon. “Are you through looking, or do you need some help?”

  “Can always use some help.”

  I can hear Martha coming up the steps, so I motion for Sharon to close the door. She does so just as Martha arrives and tries to look in to see what we might have found. I get down on my hands and knees and look under the table that had held the computer. I notice something wedged in the corner; I take my pen and try to work it loose. It’s a thumb drive. I’m sure it belongs to Mark. All we can do is hope there is something on it that will help us crack this case and convict the people that are involved.

  As we walk out the door, Martha looks up at us and says, “Find anything?” as she follows us down the stairs. “I told you, you wouldn’t find anything. Don’t come back, here again. Don’t come back to my house.” She opens the door to assist us out.

  “Oh, ma’am, I’m sure we will be back.” We walk out the door and get into our car.

  Chapter 51

  Mark steps out onto the deck, glances down and sees the chauffeur walking towards the compound carrying a shovel and muddy boots while whistling a familiar Disney tune from Snow White. He calls out, “What, planting something?”

  The chauffeur glances up and nods his head and says, “Tomatoes.”

  “I always like it when the help is happy,” Mark says, glancing over to Fred.

  Fred looks up from his paper. “I do, too.”

  Santane brings him a drink and sits on his lap. “What would you like to do today?” she asks, wondering what his interest might be.

  “We could go diving if you want to,” is the reply as he looks at her plunging neckline.

  “Sounds good to me. I’ll get the equipment ready,” she says with a smile.

  They take a four-wheel-drive all-terrain vehicle and drive to the beach. They strip down to their swimsuits and prepare for the dive. Mark cannot believe how good she looked in the small bikini she almost wasn’t wearing. They put on their tanks, enter the waters, and head for a shipwreck she knows about. They stay submerged for about a half hour, exploring all areas around it, searching for any treasure they might find. He notices a glint of a reflection of the bow of what remains from the beams of the long-ago sunken pirate ship. He motions to her to join him, and they head towards the possible treasure. They reach the object, and he picks it up, and to his astonishment, it's a gold coin. His eyes widen as he looks at her along with an ear to ear smile. He starts moving his hands, waving them around, trying to move the sediment to uncover any others that might be nearby. For about five minutes, he works feverishly looking for more until she gets his attention and points to her dive watch showing time to go up. He shakes his head no until she grabs his hair and gets his total attention. They come to the surface, and he pulls off his mask. “What the hell are you doing? We still have a few minutes left.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t like running out of air, as I'm kind of not wanting to suck ocean water. So let’s get back to the shore.”

  “But look what I found.” He shows her again.

  “I saw it, but it’s not worth dying for.” They swim back towards shore, climb out of the water and walk to the vehicle.

  “We have got to come back here tomorrow.”

  “It’s up to you, but I think Mr. Tan has something for you to get taken care of.”

  “Do you know what he wants me to do?”

  “That’s for you and him to talk about, it’s no
t for me to say.” She loads the scuba tanks into the back of the ATV.

  They drive up the beach, and she points out other dive sights and other sunken ships she is aware of. “Sometimes I just walk the beach and bring the metal detector. I’ve found several gold and silver coins just along the beach. They get washed up sometimes after a storm. The swells carry them closer to the water’s edge.” She turns around and heads back the way they had come. “I’ll show you when we get back. My sister has found two uncut rubies and an emerald.”

  Chapter 52

  “Since everyone is gone or dead except David Brenner, I think we should find him and pick him up for questioning.” I look over to Sharon.

  “Where do we look for him? We don’t have an address.”

  “I have a good idea of where we can find him. Let’s go.” We head out the door.

  We drive back to Mark’s mansion. Again, we are not met with the most congenial welcome. Martha asks us, “What do you want now? Did you forget his toothbrush?”

  I start laughing. “No, the toothpaste,” I say, as we walk through the house and out the veranda doors and toward the guest house. Sharon goes in first.

  David reaches down and pulls out a gun from the end table by his bed and swings it towards her. She does a cross kick and knocks the gun out of his hand. He plunges towards her, as she pulls his head down and places her knee into his face, breaking his nose.

  “Damn you, girl, you broke my fucking nose.” As he pulls back and is just about to come again, she does a roundhouse knocking him off his feet. She goes over, turns him over, and places handcuffs on him.

  Sharon puts her hands on the back of his shoulder, and, after helping him up, walks him around the pool and back through the house. Martha yells out, “What right did you have in checking in the pool house?”

  “Read the warrant; it says, 'and attached buildings.'” We walk out the front door.

  Sharon escorts David to the car and places him in the back seat. I walk back into the house to hear Martha making a call. I stick my head around the corner, as she turns and sees me. She immediately hangs up and gives me a cold stare.