Rick Mofina - Into the Dark

“I’m taking you to hell with me!”

Big Bear Lake, California

It was just after dark when the call came out of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“Captain says this is a priority, Lee.”

“All right, raise Marv. He’s at Thirty-eight and Pine Oak. Get Duke to send the Marine Unit, so we’re covered from the water and we need air support to stand by. We’re on the way.”

Lee Hespler, a deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, was posted to the Big Bear Sheriff’s Station.

Any thought of a sleepy night shift had just gone out the window.

The urgent request from LACSD came from Joe Tanner. They wanted Big Bear sheriffs to secure a property on Vista Lane, belonging to Robert Bowen of San Marino.

If they were to encounter Bowen, they were to exercise extreme caution, meaning get backup, arrest him and alert the task force.

Warrants were signed.

From what Hespler gathered from the call, guys across L.A. and up in Van Nuys were executing warrants, as well.

As he rolled out of Big Bear and over Stanfield Cutoff, he grabbed his microphone again for his dispatcher.

“Allison, tell Marv and Duke no lights or sirens. We’ll keep this low-key.”

Hespler could get to the address in twenty minutes, but he’d wait until the others were in position, he thought as he sailed along North Shore Drive. It was not long after that, about eleven minutes beyond Stanfield Cutoff, Hespler would later write in his report, that he first saw the flicker of the fire at the Bowen property.

He called for fire and paramedics, then hit his lights and siren.

Don’t this change everything? Hespler thought.

Emergency crews found the cabin fully involved with flames soaring into the night sky.

After rapid work they kept the blaze from igniting the surrounding forest, but the structure was lost.

Paramedics rushed the survivors to Bear Valley Community Hospital.

The Coroner’s Office was alerted to stand by.

One victim with third-degree burns to eighty-percent of their body was airlifted to the Burn Center at USC in Los Angeles.

Big Bear Lake, California

Claire Bowen stared up at the hospital’s blurry ceiling lights flowing by as they wheeled her into the E.R. where emergency staff worked on her.

That was all she remembered.

When she woke the next morning, the horror overwhelmed her like a tidal wave and she cried out.

The nurse in the chair set down her magazine and went to her.

Claire was in a private room with a large window. When she lifted her hand to accept the tissue from the nurse, she felt the hospital wristband over her bandages, the IV tube in her arm.

She was groggy from sedatives.

“Can I get you anything, Claire?”

“Water, please.”

The nurse helped her sip from the cup at her bedside.

“How are you feeling?”

Claire swallowed and nodded her thanks, then finished drinking.

“Amber?”

“She’s stable, heavily sedated, but the doctors say she’ll recover.”

“Julie?”

The nurse blinked several times and Claire knew.

“She’d suffered trauma to her head. It led to bleeding in her brain. She did not survive her injuries. I’m so sorry. Her family in Minnesota’s been contacted. They’re making arrangements.”

Claire covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Then the nurse said, “Robert died at USC in Los Angeles.”

Claire felt nothing for him.

A short time later the nurse allowed Claire a private moment with Amber. She entered her room quietly, rolling her IV pole. She sat in the chair next to her bed. Amber was unconscious. Claire took her hand.

“Please, please forgive me. I’m so sorry.”

She held on to Amber for a very long time.

Back in her room, Claire mourned Julie as she sat by her window, thinking of her friend until more tears came. As she wept she tried to remember Julie’s smile, her laugh. She was lost as she struggled to come to terms with it all until they allowed Martha Berman to visit her.

“I’ll never understand what happened,” Claire said.

“It’s okay. It’s all right. Right now you need rest,” she said. “I’m going to stay with you in San Marino. I’ve been making calls. There are people who want to help you-Kallski at Irvine, and Constance West-Hatcher at USC. And they’re already arranging help here in California for Amber, too. She’s going to need it.”

“I want to help her.”

“You already did, Claire. You saved her life. You’re not in any shape to help her further. Let other experts take it from here.”

Understanding, but not understanding, Claire nodded.

“I’ve been in touch with Alice to take care of things,” Martha said. “We’ll extend your absence while we decide how to deal with your practice. We’ll take care of everything. I’ll be back to see you.”

“Thank you, Martha.”

After Martha left, a doctor checked on Claire while the nurse waited.

“You’ve got some first-degree burns, smoke inhalation and lacerations. We’d like to keep you here for another day or two,” he said. “Taking everything into consideration, you’re doing well.”

About ten minutes later, Detectives Tanner and Zurn visited her.

They spoke with her on the case for nearly an hour. They told her that they’d gone to USC the moment Robert arrived to question him, but he died one hour after his arrival.

Claire had no words for his death and looked away.

Through her tears, she cooperated but was still unable to overcome her guilt.

“It’s because of me that Julie’s dead.”

“No.” Tanner snapped his notebook shut. “It’s because of Leon Elliott, or whoever the hell he was.”

“It’s my fault. I should’ve known. How could I not know?”

“Listen,” Tanner said. “Leon Elliott was a deceiver, that’s how he existed. He fooled air-industry security people, he fooled cops, he fooled a lot of people for a long time, but not you. You stopped him. It was only through your suspicions about him that Julie and Milt Thorsen dug into his past. Julie’s actions saved lives. Your actions saved Amber, remember that.”

Claire appreciated the kindness in what Tanner had said.

Zurn told her how the news of the events concerning the Dark Wind Killer was all over the internet-that press requests for interviews with her were coming to the task force and the hospital.

“Satellite news trucks from L.A. are in the parking lot,” Zurn said, “but you don’t have to talk to them.”

Claire shook her head.

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to answer questions about how I could be married to a monster and not know it, or how it feels to be the idiot psychologist. No one will ever understand.”

“I understand,” Tanner said. “Believe me.”

Claire found warmth in his eyes and the beginnings of her healing.

After the detectives left, Claire called the nurse.

“I need to know something confidential, something important.”

“Anything I can do to help you.”

“Does my chart show that I’m pregnant?”

The nurse cleared her throat.

“You’re not pregnant.”

Claire shut her eyes.

San Marino, California

The Forever in Peace Cemetery was situated on twelve acres of immaculate grounds south of Huntington Drive, west of Del Mar Avenue.

In the time after the funeral, Claire visited nearly every day, placing flowers at the headstone for Julie Dawn Glidden. Each time, she thanked Julie for saving her life, asked forgiveness and whispered a prayer.

It was her way of coming to terms with it all.