Dead River (2 page)

The slippery moss-covered bank of Cherry Creek was where the naked teenager’s body was found the next morning. No one could immediately identify her. She was face down, her hands tied behind her back with a piece of thin nylon rope, and her short blond hair was matted with mud. A similar length of blood-drenched nylon rope was cinched so tightly around her neck it was buried halfway into her flesh.

“Look here, Carl Ray,” said deputy sheriff Darrell Stebbins, squatting beside the body.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Take a look at this.”

The other Simpson County deputy, Carl Ray Boudine, carefully joined Stebbins beside the body, now face-up. “What the hell’s that?” Boudine asked, scratching his bald head.

“Don’t know. But it’s been freshly carved, probably with a knife.”

“I knew it, goddamn it, I knew something like this would happen.”

Stebbins removed a crumpled white handkerchief from his back pocket and dipped it into the creek. He gently wiped the dried blood from the girl’s forehead revealing three letters carved deep into her skin.

“CXJ.”

 2 

IT WAS ALMOST CERTAIN she would be voted the best-looking senior girl in the class of ’02 at Roosevelt High School in Cocoa Beach next year. At least Sara Ann Riley’s boyfriend, Brad Richards, thought so. In his first love letter to her, he had described her blue eyes as penetrating and her long blond hair as framing the face of an angel. It was this letter, written during Brad’s history class in their junior year, which won Sara Ann’s heart. She never expected something like that from him, not from Brad the Jock. To her, he was adorable, something only she could understand most of the time. Now they were inseparable.

Late Saturday morning, Sara Ann stood on the sidelines at Brad’s soccer game, dressed in powder-blue shorts and a white Lycra top. The grass was soggy from an early-morning rain and her black open-toe shoes were sprinkled with wet grass clippings. She shimmied with excitement as she followed Brad’s movements on the field. He drove the ball down the field and soared past his opponents as if they were standing still. With an assist from Brad, a teammate scored the winning goal with two seconds remaining.

“You looked great today,” Sara Ann said.

“I know, I’m the greatest,” Brad teased, still breathing heavily.

She twisted her shoulders coyly from side to side, her hands on her hips. Her blond pigtails swung in synchronous rhythm across her wide smile and soft dimples.

“Oh sure, you’ll be playing pro soccer after college.”

“Only if you come watch me.”

Sara Ann knew Brad would be satisfied just to receive a letter of acceptance from Florida State. She planned to go there after graduation. She was assured of acceptance plus scholarship. Why wouldn’t she be? She was an honor student.

“What I want is to see you on campus at FSU next year.”

Brad reached out with both hands and stopped her twisting. Her smile disappeared, the dimples vanished, and her nose wrinkled.

“What if you don’t get accepted?” Sara Ann asked.

She watched as Brad moved closer, his face now only inches from hers. Her Tommy Girl perfume permeated the air around her in a luxuriant aura.

“Then I’ll go to community college for a year or two,” he retorted, sensing her rich perfume.

Brad’s attempt at a kiss was denied with a hand to the top of his head. His hands broke loose from her shoulders. Sara Ann felt his sweaty hair and retreated. He shook his head and beads of sweat shot from his jet-black hair. Brad’s indifference concerning his future was sometimes too much for her. “Gross,” she said, wiping her face with her right arm.

Brad again rested his hands on her shoulders, and this time she didn’t resist the quick kiss to her red-frosted lips. Sara Ann wrapped her arms around him and lowered her head on his shoulder.

“I want you to go to FSU,” she whispered, “it wouldn’t seem right without you there.”

“I know. I want to go too, but my GPA really dropped last year.”

Sara Ann pushed back and folded her arms. Her lips pursed with disapproval. “That’s because you didn’t study.”

“I studied.”

“Yeah right, you studied really hard last year.”

Brad kicked the wet grass. “Maybe not as much as you, Miss soon-to-be attorney, defender of the people, but I did.”

“Look, you can bring your GPA up this year if you try harder. That’s all I’m saying.”

“I will. You’ll see.”

“I hope so.”

Brad cocked his head to the side and kicked at the grass again. “I said I would.”

“I’ve got to go now. I told my father I’d be home to eat lunch with him.”

“So you’d rather go home and eat lunch with your father than be with me? Wow, what’s that all about?”

“It’s about eating lunch with my father.”

Brad’s eyes widened as he stepped toward Sara Ann. She unraveled her arms and held them out for him. This time their kiss was much longer, but it was still time to go. She retrieved her waist pack from the grass beside her feet and secured it around her midriff.

She walked toward her car and glanced back at Brad one more time, wondering if he would ever be able to improve his grades. A sudden sadness swept over her as she thought of him attending classes at Brevard Community College instead of FSU.

As she approached her car, fatigue overwhelmed her body, her mouth suddenly parched. She slumped into the seat and pulled a prepared syringe from her waist pack. Lifting the bottom of her shirt, she thrust the thin needle into the soft, tan skin of her stomach, and it was over. She rested her head on the steering wheel as the weakness gradually lifted from her body. She hated doing this. She hated her diabetes.

Adam Riley glanced up from the front page of the Orlando Sentinel and checked the wall clock in his upstairs study. Sara Ann was ten minutes late for their lunch date. He tossed the newspaper on his desk, reached for the phone, and punched in her cell phone number.

“Hello, Daddy. Why are you calling me? Is it because I’m ten minutes late?” she teased.

“Yes, princess. Where are you?”

“I’m almost to the Minutemen Causeway.”

“Great. Will you turn your radio down? I can barely hear you.”

“Sorry.” Sara Ann snapped the stereo knob, and Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle” was reduced to a faint murmur.

“Thanks. Will you get the mail before you come in?”

“I will.”

“See you in a few minutes.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

Adam went back to his newspaper. He rustled and snapped it into place and continued the sports article he had started. Staring at the printed letters on the page he had just finished, his thoughts drifted to his running schedule. Tomorrow was one of the four days he ran each week. The years of fitness showed. His six-foot frame resembled an Olympic swimmer’s, and he appeared many years younger than his age of forty-seven. The sparse gray streaks in his otherwise dark brown hair provided a hint to his actual age. Only two months ago he had been told by one of his fellow engineers at work: “I overheard Lucy Brinley in the coffee room. She said you looked like a young Sean Connery.”

Heavy rolling thunder could be heard in the distance. The central Florida sky threatened a thunderstorm, something all too common for that time of the year. The thunder broke the silence, and Adam glanced at the wall clock again. Sara Ann should have breezed her way through the front door by now. He peered out the window. Her red Ford Escort was parked in the driveway by the brick mailbox, with the driver’s door open, but she was nowhere in sight. Maybe she’d seen our neighbor Jessica and stopped to chat.

Adam went back to his newspaper and rifled through it until he found the business section. He started to read the lead article but then suddenly pitched the paper on the desk and leaned to the side in his chair to see down the hallway. There was only silence. Where is she?

The distant growl in the sky warned of the approaching storm. He jumped up from the soft seat of the black executive chair and walked to the window. Her car was still in the driveway with the door hanging open, the vehicle apparently empty.

Adam slipped on a pair of deck shoes and bounded down the stairs to the front door. Once outside, he could hear Sara Ann’s car running, but she was nowhere in sight. When he leaned in to turn off the engine, he noticed her cell phone lying abandoned in the passenger seat. He slammed the door, rocking the small car.

“Sara Ann!” he called.

Only the sound of the wind in the treetops answered.

He strode down the driveway, glancing from side to side into the woods of dense pines and soaring palms, their trunks pushing up through thick underbrush. He turned and came back past the parked car.

“Sara Ann!”

Nothing.

Maybe she’s in the house. He continued up the driveway toward the two-story house. Theirs was the only one on the block that didn’t have a heady Mediterranean styling. Valerie wanted a traditional house. Shingles topped the roof instead of curved red tile, and the exterior was brick instead of whitewashed stucco. It rose out of the dense woods like a majestic country estate.

He burst through the heavy front door and stepped into the spacious foyer.

“Sara Ann! Are you here?”

No answer.

Adam searched every room, calling her name. The silence was deafening. Convinced she was not in the house, he went back out, walking the perimeter of the house. The backyard was deserted except for two blue jays dancing on the pool deck, bobbing their heads in a mating ritual.

Maybe at the neighbors. Sara Ann had taken a liking to Mrs. Cleveland when she was eight. She would spend hours at the neighbor’s house, helping Mrs. Cleveland in the garden and caring for her dog, Mr. Ruggles.

After the second attempt with the doorbell, Jessica Cleveland swung the door open and gave Adam one of her classic ear-to-ear smiles.

“Hi, Adam. How are you?”

“I’m fine. You haven’t seen Sara Ann have you?”

“Not since Thursday.”

“No, I mean today—I mean like within the last few minutes.”

“Well, no. Like I said, I saw her last Thursday, with her boyfriend. It was almost dark outside. I was taking Mr. Ruggles for a walk, you know he only likes to be outside in the summer when there’s no sun. So anyway, I looked up and saw Sara Ann in a car with that boy she sees, and I waved to her. Then I—”

“Thanks, Jessica. I’m going to check at the Alcott’s.”

Adam rushed down the sidewalk, past his driveway, and then turned up the Alcott’s driveway. Robert Alcott answered the door after the first ring.

The two shook hands. “What’s up, Adam? How’re you and Valerie doin’?”

“We’re fine, Robert. Say, have you seen Sara Ann?”

“No, sure haven’t.”

“Is Nancy home?”

“Naw, she’s at her Red Hat Club get-together somewhere. Say, are you all right? You look all fussed up.”

“I can’t find Sara Ann.”

“What do you mean?”

“She left her car running in the driveway with the driver’s door wide open, but I can’t find her anywhere.”

“If you want, I’ll help you look.”

“No, that’s all right, Robert. Thanks anyway.”

“Okay, but let me know if I can help.”

“Thanks, I will.”

Adam ran up the driveway past the empty car. If Sara Ann injected herself with too much insulin she could become disoriented or possibly go into shock. Since the diagnosis of diabetes when she was only ten, Adam had worried about it constantly. He could never forget her cries as he stuck her with a lance to draw blood and all those painful insulin shots.

He scrambled down a slight embankment on the north side of the driveway and pushed into the thick underbrush. His heart was in overdrive, his chest throbbing with every beat.

“Sara Ann!” he yelled.

The woods were silent.

Again he shouted her name, but only a mockingbird responded. His heart continued to pound in his chest.

He forced his way through the almost-impenetrable bramble. The thorny vines that choked the bushes carved long red streaks on his arms and legs, and chiggers gnawed on his bare ankles. The air was heavy with humidity and sweat pasted his polo shirt to his heaving chest. It was no use. She couldn’t have come this way. He turned back toward the driveway.