The Perfect Scream Read online

  Lynn tried not to smile as the three police officers led Dale away while he was still complaining about his face burning. No one on the dock looked too upset to see the big man leave.

  Now Lynn could focus on her real issues.

  It’d only taken Patty Levine a few hours to track down three different coeds who had attended a Halloween party two years earlier at the Tau Upsilon fraternity house. She worked alone because she wanted the girls to open up to her and having Sparky Taylor with her would’ve been just as bad as bringing along John Stallings even if he hadn’t been taken off the case.

  Sitting in a small sandwich shop on University Boulevard near the University of North Florida, Patty looked across the table at the young lady whose name she had gotten from one of the fraternity brothers in town. The young man had provided a list of as many of the attendees to the Halloween party as he could remember. Not counting the fraternity members, the list had more than seventy names.

  Patty had already established that this girl had had a very similar experience to the first two girls she had spoken to.

  The girl said, “That fraternity is nothing but a bunch of assholes.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I woke up in the bushes after that party. There are girls that found themselves in other cities after that party. We have to have a designated sober girl if we ever go to a Tau Upsilon party. That’s why they’re assholes.”

  “You think someone slipped you a roofie that night?”

  “Who knows? I take responsibility for drinking too much, but the frat boys have so much alcohol on hand. The whole fraternity is known for its wild parties and disappearing the next day.”

  Patty looked at the pretty blond-haired girl and said, “Are they known for anything else?”

  “Just one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Pot.”

  THIRTY-TWO

  As much as he hated to admit it, Tony Mazzetti knew he was looking at a string of killings. After talking with Patty Levine and Sparky Taylor and seeing the mounting evidence, he and Sergeant Zuni had concluded that the chances were remote that all of the deaths of the fraternity members were accidents. He wasn’t absolutely convinced they were all connected. Someone who used drugs on one victim wouldn’t be likely to use a gun at close range on another. Just as it seemed unlikely the same person would burn someone alive. There was no pattern. Mazzetti knew that killers loved patterns and hated change.

  Now he was over at the medical examiner’s office searching previous deaths ruled accidental or otherwise to see if there were others that could be thrown into the mix. They were starting at October from two years earlier to be on the safe side. Mazzetti and Lisa Kurtz sat at a table in the administration building of the medical examiner’s office and carefully looked at each file of any male under the age of thirty who had died in the last two years in Duval County.

  The whole squad came up with a number of variables like male victims, within the last two years, between the ages of eighteen and thirty, with any association to the college. These included the numerous deaths that were attributed to drug overdoses, and even suspicious car accidents.

  Lisa sat next to him and had been nothing but professional the past two hours. He had wondered if it would be awkward working so closely with the young woman he knew was a freak in the bedroom. So far it was not. He was careful not to call her his girlfriend, especially out loud, because he still wasn’t sure how he felt.

  Lisa slid an open file across the table to Mazzetti and said, “Here’s another one.”

  Mazzetti looked at the photos of the young man laid out on the procedure table of the medical examiner’s office and saw the listed cause of death as “a hunting accident.” He placed the file with the other three files they had already pulled for closer examination.

  On the very next file, Lisa said, “Here’s another one. An alcohol poisoning case two days after the party.”

  She slid the file to Mazzetti, who looked down and noticed the victim’s name was Josh Hickam. The file went on the stack with the others.

  Lynn sat at the end of the long table in the lunchroom of the Thomas Brothers supply company. She had takeout from Wendy’s, but had just picked at her spicy chicken sandwich and allowed all of her French fries to go cold.

  Materializing from the side door, Leon slid onto the seat across from her. He had not spoken directly to her about Dale’s arrest since the big man had been carted off, but now he gave her a sly smile and a wink. It made her realize he was younger than she’d originally thought. That weathered skin, the outdoorsy look so many boaters in North Florida developed, made him appear to be fifty when she now thought he was probably not forty.

  After a few moments of silence, without any preface or reason, Leon said, “I did all my time in federal prison.”

  Lynn wondered where this was going and simply said, “Uh-huh.”

  “State time is tough. No rehab, nothing but lock-up and bullshit. But the federal holding center in Atlanta and my last two years at Eglin gave me a chance to take classes and learn from some of the big-time fraud guys. So now I can read people really well.”

  “So what?”

  “So I can tell you have a secret. A big one.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  Leon looked both ways to ensure no one was nearby. “Coming from someone else I might believe you, but knowing your family I’m pretty sure I’m right.”

  Lynn was silent.

  Leon said, “And I can help.”

  “Help with what?”

  “Whatever you’re doing.”

  Lynn just held eye contact but didn’t say anything.

  “Look, I need to do something or I’m gonna go crazy. This lack of excitement is killing me.”

  Without meaning to, Lynn said, “I don’t know.”

  Leon smiled and said, “Trust me. Besides, I never let things go. Now you’re stuck with me.”

  Sergeant Yvonne Zuni felt a hint of claustrophobia with all the blinds drawn and the door closed to her office in the Land That Time Forgot.

  Sergeant Zuni had briefed Lieutenant Hester on all the information they had concerning the death of the fraternity brothers. But as she looked across her desk at Lieutenant Hester, crammed into a simple wooden chair, Sergeant Zuni had a sickening feeling in the base of her stomach that the lieutenant was looking at political issues as much as investigative issues.

  The lieutenant said, “You understand that the city has worked very hard to attract young people to the universities and events like our growing spring break.”

  “I’m not sure I see why that’s relevant to this investigation.”

  “Let’s just assume that all the information you have is accurate. Let’s assume that these deaths were intentional. And that’s a big assumption. One death occurred in Atlanta and another in Daytona.”

  “The victim in Daytona isn’t dead. He is in a coma.”

  “Regardless, the killer, if there really is one, could just as easily live in Atlanta or Daytona or anywhere in between. I’m not sure there’s a reason to bring media scrutiny just on Jacksonville. I’d like to see your detectives work on this as quietly as possible.”

  Before Sergeant Zuni could express her true feelings, which was what she was about to do, there was a rap on her office door.

  The sergeant called out, “Come in.”

  The door swung open and John Stallings stood in the doorway, surprised to see the lieutenant sitting inside the small office.

  The lieutenant glared at him and said, “C’mon, Stall, spit it out.”

  “I, um, I just needed to speak to the sergeant for a moment.”

  The lieutenant said, “Go ahead, speak to her.”

  The sergeant looked between the two former partners and saw neither was going to give ground in this standoff.

  Stallings nodded and said, “I have some news.”

  It was the lieutenant said, “On what?”

  T
he way Stallings glanced at the sergeant told her the news was about Zach Halston. He was weighing the dangers of revealing his continued investigation after the lieutenant had taken him off the case.

  Sergeant Zuni said, “I let John work on the missing fraternity brother because he’s the best there is at finding people. I take full responsibility for putting him on the assignment.” She held the lieutenant’s stare, not wanting to back down. This was one of the most important jobs a sergeant had.

  Lieutenant Hester was silent for a moment as her eyes shifted back to Stallings.

  He said, “One of my snitches says Zach was alive just a few days ago.”

  Sergeant Zuni said, “What else did he say?”

  “Zach had been in a business hassle with a couple of other pot dealers. One of them was someone dealing to the college crowd.”

  “You think that’s why he’s laying low?”

  “It’s a reasonable assumption.”

  The lieutenant’s poker face made Sergeant Zuni uneasy. The lieutenant didn’t mind sitting in silence either. That made everyone uncomfortable.

  Finally Stallings said, “C’mon, Rita, put me back on this thing. I’ll find Zach Halston and maybe he can shed some light on all this other bullshit.”

  Now Sergeant Zuni understood just how close Stallings and Lieutenant Hester were. She had never heard anyone talk to the lieutenant like that before. Sergeant Zuni also recognized the lieutenant hadn’t gotten to where she was by sitting back. She got results and knew who could get results for her.

  After almost thirty seconds, the lieutenant said in a very even voice, “Will you give me your word you won’t look for Jeanie while you’re on this case?”

  Now it was Stallings’s turn to hesitate. He said, “No, I can’t do that.”

  Sergeant Zuni said, “John.”

  He just shrugged and mumbled, “Sorry, I’m not a liar.”

  Then the lieutenant said, “Fuck.” She shook her head, then stood to face Stallings. “I’ll have to take my chances with you. There’s too much potential for all of this to blow up in our faces if we don’t get a handle on it now.”

  A slight smile broke across Stallings’s face.

  The lieutenant said, “Don’t count on me changing my mind too many times. I know what the girl means to you. It broke my heart too when she disappeared. But I’ve already given the photograph to other detectives and I expect you to pass on anything you find out about her to them.”

  Stallings just nodded.

  Patty Levine sat on a bench in a large common area of the University of North Florida. The campus was one of the nicest in the South and the school had a reputation for looking after its students. On the bench next to her was a junior majoring in business administration and a former girlfriend of Zach Halston’s. Patty had found the girl through other students who had been at the Halloween party two years before. That’s how most police investigations evolved; one interview led to more and more.

  The pretty young woman had a wistful smile when she recalled meeting Zach at the party. “He was down because some girl had just dumped him. You know how it is, a guy who needs fixing is hard to resist.”

  Patty didn’t quite share those sentiments, but she nodded anyway to keep the girl talking.

  “Anyway, he was busy during the party keeping everyone happy and the beer flowing. I mean it got wild. Then we started talking and he seemed really sweet.”

  “Did you see anything unusual? Was anyone getting out of hand or girls upset?”

  “Not anything more than usual at a Tau Upsilon party. Zach was also pissed off at one of his brothers, but I don’t know why. A couple of them kept telling him to let it go and relax.”

  Patty kept scribbling notes and asked about potential female partygoers who felt violated after the party. But the girl didn’t know anything. Then Patty asked, “Did you know which brother he was mad at?”

  “No, but Zach said he was going to have to ‘go gangsta’ on him. You know how men act tough, but it never works out. I figured it was all talk.”

  Patty said, “Is there any chance you can recall the name of the girl who had just dumped Zach?”

  She thought about it for a few seconds, then said, “I think it was Kelly.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  John Stallings was surprised he felt so nervous, fidgeting by the front door of his former residence, but that was the nature of his relationship with his estranged wife. He hadn’t called to give her notice he was coming over and he knew both of the kids were out. Lauren had gone to the movies with two friends, and Charlie was at a birthday party for one of his soccer teammates. Stallings figured he had at least two hours of quiet with Maria. Something told him now was a good time to sit down and work out the problems in the relationship. He still wasn’t going to tell her about the photograph of Jeanie, even if it would make her look at him in a different light. It just wasn’t right to play with her emotions like that.

  He knocked on the door instead of ringing the bell and for some reason felt hopeful. He thought she might view this as a romantic gesture as he looked down at the bouquet of assorted flowers he had bought at Publix for $13.99. For a moment he thought he heard voices; then he clearly heard footsteps on the hard wooden floor of the downstairs.

  The knob turned and the door opened inward. He plastered on the best smile he could muster and held up the flowers, but before he could say, “Surprise,” he felt shock ripple through his system. He stood there silently, staring at the man who cheerfully said, “Hello there, come on in.”

  Stallings dropped the flowers to the porch but kept his eyes on Brother Frank Ellis.

  Patty Levine liked the upscale restaurant where Ken had taken her to sample Spanish delicacies in the form of tapas. The outdoor balcony looking down on a walkway bordering the St. Johns River only added to the romantic atmosphere. But there was something bothering Patty about her new boyfriend. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but looking across at him now didn’t fill her with the same sort of excitement she felt when she looked across at Tony Mazzetti when they had been dating. Ken was handsome and refined and everything else a girl would want in a boyfriend. That only added to her feelings of frustration.

  She’d already learned to tune him out when he started to blab about upgrading from his BMW to a Mercedes or the expensive speakers he had added to his home entertainment system. Somewhere in the back of her head she heard her name called three times and snapped back to reality.

  Ken said, “I lost you there for a minute.”

  “I’m sorry. Guess I’m just a little distracted.”

  Ken was about to continue when he looked toward the river and said, “You know that cop down there?”

  Patty glanced over the railing to see a young uniformed officer talking to two drunken men. Both were dressed like construction workers and both were larger than the cop. Patty waited until the patrolman turned and she could see him in profile. He had a round face with a wide flat nose, and she had never seen him before.

  She looked at Ken and shook her head, saying, “He doesn’t look familiar. We have so many patrolman and detectives that I don’t always recognize them, especially down here in the southern part of the county.”

  Ken made an odd face and said, “I just assumed every cop working for the same department would know each other.”

  “It’s a big agency.”

  Patty glanced back over the railing and saw that the cop was now only speaking to one of the men. The other had walked away. But the body language told Patty that the encounter was escalating from a simple discussion to something more serious. The cop wrapped his hand around the larger man’s upper arm in an attempt to guide him away from the water. The man jerked his arm away from the cop and took a step back. Without hesitation the cop did a classic fake with one hand, then drove his knee into the man’s opposite leg. Patty had used the move a dozen times herself. The man dropped to his knees and the cop had him cuffed with no more scuffle.

 
; Ken scooted back his chair and said, “Did you see that? That cop just kicked that guy for no reason.”

  Patty was surprised by her boyfriend’s outrage. Had he not seen the same thing? Patty said, “I thought he handled it very well. The guy jerked his arm away from him when the cop tried to direct him where to go. The poor patrolman can’t wait for this guy to punch him in the face and run away. He was obviously trying to make an arrest.”

  “It looked to me like he wanted to kick that guy.”

  “What would you have the cop do, Ken? You can’t just let people decide when they’re going to be arrested.”

  “You don’t have to act like a Nazi either.”

  “Nazi! Now you’re just talking from ignorance.”

  “How can you say I’m ignorant? I’m a doctor, for Christ’s sake.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re a podiatrist.”

  Lynn sat at the bar of the Wildside. For most of the year it was a large but tired sports bar, but during spring break you couldn’t get into the giant bar that had big-screen TVs tacked all across the walls. The owner had gotten smart in the last few years and closed off half of the bar when things got slow. It saved on electricity and the place didn’t look empty all the time. She’d been carefully watching a table where five members of the Tau Upsilon fraternity were sharing two pitchers of beer and watching a Miami Heat and Orlando Magic basketball game. She was having a hard time putting a name to a face and wanted to make sure she made no mistake.

  That made her think about her uncomfortable and painful conversation with one of the fraternity members about two years ago. She had run into the young man by accident and he’d already been drinking, but once she’d sat down and really listened to what he had to say, it had changed her profoundly. He’d explained in great detail the horrific event and who had been involved and how it had gotten out of control.

  The entire conversation had left her considering the options still available. Should she go to the police? The young man had said no one would talk, including him. Should she tell her parents? They would be devastated and there was nothing they could do about it. The problem ate at her for days until she saw a news story about a University of North Florida student who had committed suicide on campus by hanging himself in a communal bathroom. The young man who had committed suicide was the same young man who had explained to her the details and secrets that were tearing the fraternity apart.