Robert Walker - Darkest Instinct

Samernow and Quince had first found Marilee’s trail when they were pointed toward relatives in Georgia, where the girl had gone to recuperate, heal and forget after her alleged attack by the Night Crawler. But in the interim, she had returned to Florida, moving in with other relatives in Lower Matecumbe Key, where friends and relatives had urged her to get in contact with authorities, which she had done through the 800 number flashed across America. She was now reportedly working as a maid in a motel called Nomad’s Pillow in Lower Matecumbe Key.

Eriq had only come by to inform Jessica that he was returning to FBI Headquarters in Quantico and shutting down the operation here in Florida, and that he expected her to follow in a day or so. They once again were in Coudriet’s lab when she informed him that they had nailed the whereabouts of Marilee, the other witness. “But Jess, what can we possibly learn from this woman that we don’t already know?” asked Eriq, frustrated as they all were by the dead ends.

Still Jessica argued, “I think we need to follow up on this one, Eriq.”

But Santiva was not listening. “Besides, I’ve already told Coudriet and the MPD thanks for the use of the space, and that we’re moving out.”

“ I think we owe it to Allison Norris, Tammy Sheppard, Kathy Harmon and all the others to at least-”

‘ ‘ Jess-Jess-Jess!’’

“- meet with the Monroe girl, learn what we can from her,” Jessica said over Eriq’s objections while Santiva paced the very laboratory he had moments before suggested they begin to vacate, so as to turn back over to the Miami authorities and Coudriet that which was theirs, with the heartfelt thanks of the FBI.

Santiva replied, “Some cases don’t get solved, Jessica.”

“ Not my cases,” she countered.

“ Although, by God, it’s never happened to me before, it’s… well, it’s time we accepted the facts of the matter.”

She relented a moment, going to him, forcing him to stop pacing, positioning him eye to eye with her. She knew that, in his mind, he had already closed the file on the case. “Give me one more week here, Eriq. Just one more week.”

“ Too much time and money’s already gone down the tubes here, Jess.”

“ Then I’ll move out of the Fontainebleau, damnit.”

“ Too much time has elapsed since the last killings and communication from the killer.” Jessica stood in his face, daring his next move. He blinked first. “All right, you want to drive or fly down to the Keys again, talk to this girl, be my guest. You do that. I’m on the next flight north. You can follow after you learn no more than we already know. It’s finished here, Jess, over…” She breathed in a long, shaky breath of air and pushed her hair from her eyes. “I take full responsibility for what’s happened here, Eriq. I think you’re going to need a fall guy when you get back to D.C., so here I am.”

“ Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get out of this so easy; no martyr or dumb-shit stuff, okay, my medical friend?”

From the tenor of his voice, she realized that he had already taken the full brunt of the heat over the matter, and that he hadn’t sold her out or short.

“ I’ve got a plane waiting, and as much as I hate to fly, adios, amiga. And for what it’s worth, good luck with the Monroe girl, although-”

“ Don’t say it, Eriq. Let’s part friends, shall we?”

“ Now that’s something I’ll agree to.”

They exchanged a warm smile and a hug. He said in her ear, “That Parry guy is one lucky SOB, you know it?”

“ I think so.”

Eriq was on his way down the corridor and eventually to the airport when she saw from the lab window that he had been stopped in his tracks by Samernow, who was displaying more emotion than she’d ever seen from the man before. No doubt he wanted Eriq to stay long enough to talk with Aeriel M. L. Monroe. After all, he had put in a lot of investigative hours pursuing her at Eriq’s specific request, and now Eriq was walking out on the investigation. She saw Eriq mouth the words It’s over several times. But then suddenly Eriq glanced up from a slip of paper Samernow had pusheid into his hands and his eyes fixed on Jessica’s. Jessica could see from the intensity of his stare that he was going to miss that plane.

Quincey had joined the group, and all three men came barreling toward the lab and Jessica like a small squad, each intent on her.

Jessica stripped away her gloves and lab coat and met them in the office which had been provided for her adjacent to Coudriet’s. Lately, Coudriet had been absent from the place. He had fallen in love, she was given to understand. More power to him, she thought with a pang of remorse about the absence of love in her life, despite Jim’s having called her now repeatedly to profess his love for her.

“ What’s going on?” she asked of the men who piled into her temporary office, making the little cubicle feel like a telephone booth.

“ This was received by the Naples Constitution early this morning,” said Samernow, handing Jessica a flimsy fax machine copy of a handwritten note. She gasped uncontrollably, repeating, “It’s him,” while staring at the note, which appeared to be in the killer’s hand. It read:

“ He couldn’t help himself. He had to show himself,” she said after reading the ugly words.

Samernow said to the floor, “A Sanibel Island girl matching the victim description has disappeared and remains unaccounted for. He’s on the west coast now!”

“ He’s definitely back,” Quincey immediately agreed.

Eriq vehemently shook his head. “We don’t know that, not for certain.”

“ It’s the third installment of the e. j. hellering poem,” Jessica countered. “It’s got to be him. Who else?”

“ You forget, the damned Miami Herald printed the first two installments, not to mention a background story by that Eddings guy on hellering. Don’t you see, any number of nutcases out there might’ve decided to reinvent the killer, and so this shows up clear across the state. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to reserve judgment.”

“ But you’re the expert on handwriting!” Samernow exploded. “And you said the handwriting appeared the same.”

“ The key word is appears, Samernow. With the killer’s handwriting out there for any and everyone to see, hell, anybody could forge it now.” Quincey quietly reminded Eriq of the missing Sanibel Island teen.

The Herald had disappointed Santiva. The FBI and Santiva had disappointed the Herald. As for the newspaper, who could blame it? The FBI hadn’t kept its bargain, after all, and was pulling up stakes, now, so Merrick hadn’t seen any need to withhold on the whole story once it was given to America’s Most Wanted, especially now that it appeared the Night Crawler had disappeared from the vicinity. The entire fiasco seemed a catch-22.

“ We don’t know that it’s the killer’s handwriting, not for a fact,” repeated Santiva. “We really need to get the original, put our documents experts to work on it.”

Samernow was instantly in Eriq’s face. “You said it was the same handwriting!” Jessica wondered what had fired Mark Samernow up so.

“ I said on first appearance, it might be the same, but it will take much closer scrutiny than I can give it in a hallway.”

Quincey raised his considerable hands to quell the two other men and said, “Mark’s got a daughter about the age of the victims-”

“ Shut up, Quince!”

“- and the divorce took her to Naples.”

“ Is that why you’re so interested in establishing the authenticity of this letter?” asked Eriq. Samernow stammered, “I’ve been torn up over this whole damnable business from day one, the way this creep does them. My little girl… I haven’t seen her in six months, but she could pass for Allison Norris. And here I thought with her in Naples, at least she was out of harm’s way, but now… now this