The Night Stalker

by James Swain

  “You know Ray?” he squeaked.

  “We met yesterday,” I said.

  The blood drained from Lowman’s face. Before my eyes, a metamorphosis took place, and the respectable citizen that Lowman was pretending to be disappeared, while the monster lurking below surfaced. His pretty eyes shrunk into slits, and his nostrils flared. A guttural sound came out of his throat that reminded me of a dog choking on a bone. He shoved me, and spun around in his chair.

  A laptop computer sat next to the console. Lowman began to type a command into the laptop’s keyboard, his fingers a blur.

  “No, you don’t,” I said.

  I came around Lowman’s chair, and tried to pin his arms to his sides. He wrestled with me while cursing under his breath. I looked to Cheeks for help.

  “You want to participate?” I asked.

  Cheeks was moving in slow motion, looking like he was going to be sick. I thought I knew what was wrong. His theory about the Grimes abduction had just gone up in flames, and he didn’t know what to do.

  “Come on,” I urged him.

  Cheeks drew his gun from his shoulder harness, and pointed it at Lowman.

  “You’re under arrest,” he said.

  Lowman’s fingers continued to pound the keyboard. I dragged him out of his chair, and shoved him into the wall.

  “Calm down,” I said.

  Finally, Lowman settled down. I made him put his hands against the wall, and frisked him. He was clean, and I looked at Cheeks.

  “I want to see what’s on his computer,” I said. “You need to watch him.”

  “Okay,” Cheeks said.

  I sat in Lowman’s chair. His laptop computer was plugged into the console, and I clicked the mouse and accessed his e-mail. He’d sent over a hundred e-mails out today. I clicked on one, expecting the worst.

  A film of a young girl losing her bathing suit in the swimming pool appeared on the laptop’s screen. It was set to raunchy music, the film slowing down as her suit came off. Lowman was editing surveillance tapes, then e-mailing them to other perverts. The children he was supposed to be protecting, he was instead exploiting.

  I stood. “There’s enough evidence on this computer to put you in jail for the rest of your life. Do you want that?”

  Slumped against the console, Lowman shook his head.

  “Then help us find Sampson Grimes,” I said.

  “What will I get in return?”

  “We’ll tell the judge you cooperated.”

  “Like you did with Vonell Cook this morning?” he asked.

  The question caught me off guard.

  “Who told you about Vonell?” I asked.

  “His lawyer.”

  I looked at Cheeks and saw him shake his head. Lowman seized the moment, and stuck his hand beneath the console. There was a loud ripping sound. His hand reappeared clutching a dark object.

  “Gun!” I shouted.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I lunged across the trailer as Lowman fired his weapon.

  The bullet whistled by my head, and ricocheted inside the trailer. More cops die from ricochets than by criminals shooting at them. I dove to the floor, as did Cheeks. Lowman kicked open the trailer door.

  “Screw your deal!” he said, and ran out.

  Cheeks was lying on top of me, and I had to shove him to get up. The trailer door had shut itself, and I stared at the monitors covering the wall. Instead of running toward the park’s entrance, Lowman was running toward the rear. He’d had his escape route all planned out.

  Cheeks was having a hard time getting up. I offered my hand and he refused it.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Get the bastard,” he wheezed.

  I ran outside. Lowman was tall, and easy to spot in the crowd. He had circled the swimming pool, and was now headed toward a gate with an “Employees Only” sign hanging on it. I wasn’t going to catch him unless I did something drastic.

  Cheeks staggered out of the trailer. I took out my Colt, and tossed it to him.

  “Hold this,” I said.

  My sandals came off next, and I leaped into the pool. The water was highly chlorinated and stung my eyes. I swam competitively as a kid, and might have broken a couple of records had I not discovered girls. Flying across the water, I lifted my head. Lowman waited for me on the other side.

  I dove straight down as he fired. A bullet whizzed silently past, and went right between a little boy’s legs in the shallow end. Some people will tell you there is no God, but I’ve seen enough things like this to tell you there is.

  My head broke the water’s surface, and I swam to the pool’s edge. Lowman had given up trying to kill me, and was running toward the gate. He was going to escape.

  I stared into the faces of the crowd. Several guys my age were giving me curious looks. They knew something wasn’t right; they just didn’t know what. Cupping my hands over my mouth, I yelled, “Stop that guy! He molested my daughter!”

  “Him?” a guy yelled back.

  The guy was huge, and had two kids with him. He was standing a few feet from Lowman. I yelled, “Yes. Watch out, he’s got a gun.”

  The guy let go of his kids, and brought his forearm down on Lowman’s shoulder. Lowman’s knees buckled, and his gun fell out of his hand.

  “Pervert,” the guy said.

  Several other guys in the crowd began to pummel Lowman as well. Lowman twisted like an animal caught in a trap, but could not break free. Cops had a special name for when crowds got angry enough to tear someone apart. They called it a feeding frenzy.

  I pushed my way through the mob with Cheeks behind me. In a loud voice, Cheeks announced that he was a cop, and Lowman’s attackers backed away.

  Lowman lay sprawled on the ground. His shirt was a memory and blood poured from his nose and mouth.

  “Don’t let them kill me,” he begged.

  I don’t like being shot at. I dragged Lowman to the edge of the pool, and dunked his head into the water. The crowd erupted in cheers.

  “Drown him!” someone yelled.

  “I’ll help you hold him down,” another offered.

  I waited a few moments before pulling Lowman’s head out of the pool. He spit out a mouthful of water, and looked fearfully at me. “Tell me what you know about Sampson Grimes’s kidnapping, or I’ll let them have you,” I said.

  The words hit Lowman harder than any punch. He grabbed my shirt with both his hands, and held me like he was never going to let go.

  “I’ll do whatever you want,” he said.

  Cheeks drove us to Lowman’s house in his Suburban. I sat in the backseat beside Lowman and watched his hands, which were handcuffed behind his back. He had closed his eyes, and was breathing heavily. Lowman lived in a subdivision in Pembroke Pines on the curve of a cul-de-sac, an attractive one-story with a terra-cotta roof. As Cheeks parked in the driveway, I spied a hammock in the side yard moving back and forth in the wind.

  At the front door Lowman offered up his house keys, which were resting in his pocket. Cheeks unlocked the front door, and we entered the chilly interior. The shades were drawn on every window, and the place felt like a tomb.

  I flipped on the lights. The furnishings were sparse. Hanging from the walls were blowups of young girls with their swimming suits falling off. They were everywhere I looked. Cheeks had Lowman sit in a leather chair in the living room.

  “Do not move,” Cheeks ordered.

  I pulled Cheeks aside. He was breathing hard, and looked like hell.

  “Do you want me to search the place?” I asked.

  “I’ll do it,” Cheeks said.

  “You sure you’re up for it?”

  Searching a predator’s house meant banging on every ceiling and wall, and checking every loose floorboard. If you didn’t, you might miss a hidden crawl space where a child could be held prisoner.

  “Just watch him,” Cheeks said, going into the back of the house.

  I stood in front of Lowman’s chair. His face was
caked with dried blood and covered with ugly purple bruises.

  “Start talking,” I said.

  Lowman stared at the floor. A long moment passed.

  “I changed my mind,” he said.

  Behind where I stood was a wall unit lined with DVDs. In anger, I started pulling the DVDs out, and throwing them at Lowman’s head. One DVD caught my eye, and I stopped long enough to read what was written on the box.

  CONFESSION

  I waved the DVD in front of Lowman’s face. “What’s this?”

  “You have no right to look at that!” he protested.

  A computer sat in the corner of the living room. I powered it up, and popped the DVD in. The computer’s screen flickered to life, and a film of Lowman appeared. I listened to him recite every crime he’d ever committed in his life.

  “Wow,” I said. “You made a confession.”

  “I thought I was dying of colon cancer a few years ago,” he said.

  “Trying to cleanse your soul?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Too bad it didn’t work. What do you want me to do with it?”

  Lowman’s head snapped. “What did you say?”

  “You heard me. Would you like me to destroy it?”

  “Yes—yes!”

  “Will you play ball then?”

  “Yes!”

  “How do I know you’re not lying?”

  “There’s an e-mail stored in my computer that Sampson’s kidnapper sent me,” Lowman said. “I will explain what it is. It will help you find the boy.”

  Lowman gave me the password to his e-mail account. Using the mouse on his computer, I entered his e-mail account, opened it using his password, and went into his Saved box. An e-mail from someone calling himself Big Daddy jumped out at me. I clicked on it, and found myself staring at a photograph of a little boy sitting in a dog crate. It was Sampson. I ejected the DVD of Lowman’s confession from the computer, and broke it in half.

  “Start talking,” I said.

  “Burn it,” Lowman said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “A broken DVD can be restored and played. Burn it.”

  You learn something new every day. I put the DVD into an ashtray on the coffee table. Lowman directed me to a drawer containing a collection of restaurant matchbooks. I lit a book, and dropped it in. We watched the DVD catch fire and melt.

  “Now tell me what this photo means,” I said.

  “Sampson is giving his kidnapper problems,” Lowman said. “The boy fights and screams and tries to escape whenever he can. His kidnapper couldn’t handle him, so he turned the boy over to a pair of drug enforcers. These men are used by drug dealers to collect money. Sometimes they take children into their possession as collateral.”

  “That’s who has Sampson now?”

  “Yes.”

  “And they’re keeping him in a dog crate?”

  “That’s right.”

  Sampson’s photo was still on the computer screen. Instead of being scared, the kid looked fighting mad. I didn’t know this little boy, yet I admired the hell out of him.

  “Did the kidnapper say where they were keeping him?” I asked.

  “In a hotel in Fort Lauderdale,” Lowman said.

  “Is that where this photo was taken?”

  “Yes.”

  I brought my face inches from the computer screen. The photo said a lot. Along with the dog crate, it contained a night table, a worn patch of carpet, and wallpaper with a logo embedded in the design. There were cops around the country who were experts in identifying hotel room interiors, and I felt certain one of them would be able to tell me in which chain Sampson was being held prisoner. Knowing that, and the fact that he was in Fort Lauderdale, would make it easy to track him down.

  I printed the photograph on Lowman’s laser printer. It was sharp and clear. I held it in my hand, and felt my heart race.

  I was one step closer to finding him.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  From another part of the house I heard a door open. Then Cheeks staggered into the living room. He’d pulled off his sports jacket, and his chest was heaving.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Cheeks didn’t reply, and fell heavily against the wall. I rushed to his side. The look in his eyes bordered on helpless, and it appeared that he couldn’t breathe. I punched 911 into my cell phone without taking my eyes off Lowman.

  “Tell me your address,” I said.

  Lowman gave me the address, which I relayed to the 911 dispatcher. Hanging up, I made Cheeks lie down on the living room floor, and elevated his legs with a pillow.

  “Where’s the aspirin?” I asked.

  Lowman led me to the medicine cabinet in the master bathroom.

  “Unlock these handcuffs, and I’ll help you,” he said.

  If a snake could talk, I imagined it would have sounded like the reptile standing in front of me. I escorted Lowman back to the living room and fed two aspirin to Cheeks. I saw Lowman inching toward the front door.

  “Sit down,” I said.

  Lowman returned to his chair.

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked Cheeks.

  “Take him in, and book him,” he said.

  “That will be a pleasure,” I said.

  Within minutes an ambulance came and two medics entered the house, tied Cheeks to a gurney, and loaded him into the back. I stood in the doorway and watched, while keeping one eye on Lowman. Cheeks was not my friend, but he was still a cop, and I did what I always did when a cop went down, and said a silent prayer.

  The ambulance backed out of the driveway. I made Lowman get up and pulled him outside. Cheeks’s car was in the driveway, the keys still in his pocket, while my Legend was parked at police headquarters.

  “Do you have any money?” I asked.

  “About forty dollars. Why?” Lowman asked.

  “Because you’re paying for the cab to take us to the police station.”

  The fare to the Broward County Sheriff’s Department headquarters came to $26. I pulled two crisp twenties out of Lowman’s wallet and told the driver to keep the change.

  The booking area was in the rear of the building. As I escorted Lowman through the front doors, I took a step back in time. The smells were the same—strong coffee, foul body odors, forbidden cigarettes—and so were the faces, including several silver-haired deputies I’d known since the day I’d started.

  There was a long line at the intake booking area. For safety’s sake, each perp had his wrists handcuffed behind his back, and stood three feet away from the suspect in front of him. I pushed Lowman to the front of the line, and rapped my knuckles on the desk. “I’d like to make a citizen’s arrest,” I announced.

  Captain Mike lifted his eyes from a stack of forms. His job was to process perps and bag their personal belongings. A smile lit up his face.

  “Jack Attack,” he said.

  “Hello, Captain Mike,” I said. “How’s the family?”

  “Everyone’s well. Who’s this clown?”

  “A child molester who was running security at a local theme park. I helped Ron Cheeks bust him.”

  “Where’s Cheeks? Dunkin’ Donuts?”

  “He went to the hospital. He wasn’t feeling too well.”

  Captain Mike filled out a processing form for Lowman. I helped by removing Lowman’s watch, wallet, belt, rings, and shoelaces, which Captain Mike bagged, tagged, and inventoried. When we were done, Lowman edged up beside me.

  “You’ll never find the Grimes boy,” Lowman said.

  “Is that a fact?” I said.

  “I’d put money on it,” he said.

  Taking a Sharpie from Captain Mike’s desk, I wrote PERVERT on the back of Lowman’s shirt, then handed him off to a pair of deputies, who led him to a holding pen yelling his head off.

  “Does the brass know Cheeks went to the hospital?” Captain Mike asked.

  I shook my head. I hadn’t bothered to call anyone, having assumed it wo
uld be taken care of when Cheeks was admitted to ER.

  “I need to tell them,” Captain Mike said. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  I took a chair in the waiting area. There was red tape on the floor to signify that the section was for visitors, and not people in custody. I had always found the tape comical, considering the crimes most of these guys were in for. A man dressed in a tailored suit materialized beside me.

  “Your friend looks like he needs some help,” the man said.

  “Are you a lawyer?” I asked.

  He said yes, and reached for his business card.

  “Do you represent child molesters?” I asked.

  “All the time,” he said.

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  Captain Mike called me back to his desk. “I just spoke with the chief. He wants to see you in his office.”

  “All hail the chief,” I said.

  Captain Mike cleared me through the booking area, and I walked down a long hall to a bank of elevators. A minute later, I was sitting across from Sheriff Lester Moody, the man who’d ousted me from my job nine months ago. Moody was a big man with a mane of silver hair and a face like a slab of granite. Since getting the top job, he’d started wearing ill-fitting suits and bright neckties, and looked like a used-car salesman.

  “I spoke with Cheeks,” Moody said. “The doctors are keeping him for a few days at Memorial Hospital. Giving him aspirin was a smart call.”

  “Cheeks needs to lose some weight. You, too,” I said.

  “Can’t anyone have a civil conversation with you?”

  “Want me to leave?”

  “Not until I finish what I have to say.”

  “Then say it. I have a little boy to find.”

  Moody’s cheeks burned. He drummed his desk while glaring at me. He was accustomed to talking down to people. I wasn’t letting him do that.

  “I want to find Sampson Grimes, too,” Moody said. “Unfortunately, Cheeks didn’t bring anyone into the loop regarding the investigation. From what I can gather, you know as much as he does.”

  “More,” I said.

  “All right, you know more. I’d like to offer you a deal.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’m putting another detective in charge of finding Sampson Grimes. I need you to bring that detective up to speed. In exchange, I’ll pay you for your time.”