William Heffernan: The Dead Detective

Tampa, Florida

The mirrored ball rotating above the stage sent small patches of light spiraling about the room, and together with the grinding beat of the music it seemed to accent the faint film of sweat that covered the dancer’s body. She was a beautiful woman, young and lithe and erotically proportioned, and she was dressed in the skimpiest of thongs with a bikini top so small it failed to cover the aureoles of her breasts. Yet none of that staged eroticism found its way to her dancing, and the perspiration on her body came from the heat of the stage lights rather than any degree of exertion.

Darlene Beckett studied the woman and tried to think of a single word that would describe her performance. Somnambulistic was the only one that came to mind, and she wished she could go up on the stage and push the woman aside; show her how to arouse the men who sat staring up at her; show her how to use her body, how to put that little pout in her lips, how to make her eyes call out with an open invitation, how to use all of it until she had them slipping their hands under the table and reaching for themselves.

A faint smile played across Darlene’s lips as she thought of doing just that. But of course she couldn’t. The media would jump on any misstep she made, and the courts would be right behind, just waiting for a chance to slap her down. Darlene had been able to get rid of the ankle monitor she was supposed to wear. That was no longer a problem. She had bedded her probation officer within a month of her sentencing to house arrest, and he had helped her remove it on two conditions. First, that she always wear slacks to hide its absence, and second, that she keep it with her at all times, so she could claim it had just fallen off if she was ever questioned about it. She smiled again. She had ignored that second condition from the very start. The monitor sat atop her bedroom dresser, deactivated, and there it would stay. As far as the courts and the probation department were concerned she was home asleep in her bed.

“Hello, there, pretty lady.”

Darlene turned to the sound of the male voice. It was the man who had been watching her most of the evening, and she had been wondering when he would get up the courage to approach her. She had even asked one of the dancers about him, just to make sure he wasn’t a well-known creep. He was certainly young enough. He was also tall and lean and fairly good looking. He was wearing a cowboy hat, western-style boots, and a wide belt with a large silver buckle to hold up his jeans. There were a great many horse ranches scattered across the nearby counties, but he didn’t carry with him that always lingering smell of horse. Just a barroom cowboy, she decided.

“Hi there,” she said, thinking that despite the costume this one just might do.

“The name’s Clint. You who I think you are?” he asked.

“Who do you think I am?”

“That lady who was on TV all the time a few months back.”

“You have a good memory for faces, Clint. My name’s Darlene in case you forgot that part.”

“I didn’t forget.” He flashed a wide, very white smile. “I just never thought I’d get a chance to meet you.”

Darlene put some sparkle in her eyes and allowed her lips to play with the idea of a smile. “And now you have.”

He gave a long, slow nod of his head. “You like this place?” He raised his chin indicating the room.

“I like to watch the dancers,” Darlene said. “The good ones anyway.” She let her eyes go to the woman on the stage and gave a small shake of her head, letting him know this one wasn’t one she enjoyed.

“I like everything about it.” Clint drew a deep breath. “Place smells like sex.”

Darlene took a long, slow, less obvious breath, filling her lungs with the intermingling odors of stale liquor and cigarettes and sweat. She let her playful smile return. “Hmm, it does,” she said.

The cowboy leaned in close. “You wanna take a little ride? I could pick up whatever you’re drinkin’ and maybe we could head over toward the beach. How’s that sound?”

Darlene’s hands began to tremble. She reached for her purse and squeezed it between them to hide that small display of fear. She drew a long breath; then hit him with the full force of her deep green eyes. “That might be nice,” she said. The smile that followed glittered under the rotating lights.

Clint leaned in even closer. “Darlene, honey, I promise you it’s gonna be very, very nice.”

Harry Doyle sat in his car outside the front gate of the Central Florida Women’s Correctional Facility. He remained nearly motionless except for the occasional rise of one hand to bring a cigarette to his lips. He seemed to be staring ahead at the white brick buildings as if studying them for flaws. The main building was a long, low, sprawling structure with a collection of smaller buildings off to one side, all of it surrounded by eighteen-foot chain-link fences, set in two rows with a twenty-foot no-man’s-land between them. Both rows of fences were topped with three additional feet of razor wire, the edges of which glistened in the bright Florida sun. Escape was possible, of course, as it was from any detention facility. But anyone who made it over those fences would carry the gift of that razor wire, and would leave a blood trail that pursuing dogs would easily follow.

Harry looked beyond the edge of the road where he had parked his car. The prison was set in a patch of Central Florida wilderness. In every direction thick scrub land and swamp met his eye. It would be hard territory to cross, filled with all manner of danger. A game warden had once told him that anyone walking through a patch of Florida wilderness would pass no less than one hundred venomous snakes per mile traveled, and while most would try to get out of the way, sooner or later you would meet one that could not or would not. There would also be countless gators in the deeper swamps, and while the patches of dry open land would hold scorpions and fire ants, the thicker woods would offer up a variety of creatures you wouldn’t care to meet unarmed, even the occasional Florida panther, black bear, or wild boar.

Harry took a long drag on his unfiltered Camel and ground out the butt in an overflowing ashtray. It was his fourth cigarette since he’d arrived. He had given up smoking five years ago, and had only smoked on this one day every year since.

When he looked back at the prison he noticed two guards standing just inside the main gate staring back at him. After a few minutes, the gate opened and one of the guards walked slowly toward Harry’s car. He was a tall, angular man with a large nose and thin, pinched lips. He looked to be about twenty-five and he walked a bit stiffly, as if he were tightly wound and ready to react. His hand was on the butt of his holstered Glock automatic. It was a touch of hoped for intimidation that almost made Harry smile.

Harry lowered the window on the driver’s side. The guard stopped, his eyes scanning what he could see of the car’s interior. They settled on the police radio.

“You a cop?” the guard asked.

Harry raised his shield and credential case. The guard bent over to look at it more closely.

“Pinellas County,” he said, a slight grin coming to his lips. “That don’t carry a lot of weight out here in the boonies.” There was a smirk on his face that Harry didn’t like; an unearned arrogance. Harry was six-one, with enough lean, well-conditioned muscle to fill out a fairly large frame, and he had little compunction about using it. People often misjudged him. He had craggy features that made him seem a bit older than his thirty-one years, wavy brown hair and soft green eyes that made him appear almost docile. It was a misconception that usually disappeared as soon as Harry opened his mouth.