In the Blink of An Eye by Jerry Baggett (ebook reader for surface pro TXT) 📕

He dreamed his cell phone was ringing. No, it wasn’t a dream. Grant looked at the red numerals on the cable box. His eyes were dry and blurry. He rubbed his eyes. Three fifteen a.m. The damn phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

“This is Maria. I hope you don’t mind me calling and waking you like this. Please don’t take this wrong. You’re a nice man and I don’t want you in trouble with people at the club.”

He attempted to clear his throat. “No! Maria, it’s OK. Are you all right?”

“I saw you talking to the doorman. He’s the bouncer, among other things. They caught me talking to you at the bar. They even knew we talked a lot the night before. I can’t talk to you anymore unless you buy time with me at the club.”

He was silent for a moment. “Can you talk freely, now, on the phone?”

“Yes, I think so. This is my private cell phone. I’m afraid to make personal calls on the phone they gave me.”

“OK, I feel better about talking with you. Don’t let them know you have a phone of your own. Are you in trouble at the club?”

“That depends on what you mean. I can’t talk about things there, you know, things that are dangerous for me. It’s probably best that you not get too involved. You would be in trouble too.”

“What can I do to help you? I can afford to buy time with you, if that would help.”

“You don’t have to do that unless you really want to. It might lead to trouble. I have to be friendly with customers but can’t spend much time with any one person unless they are buying the extra time after my shift. I won’t feel comfortable talking to you at the club any more. I hate it, and wouldn’t be there if I had a choice. You’d better forget about me and watch out for yourself.”

“What about something like a regular date. You know, go to a movie or something like that?”

“You’re a nice man. I would like that, but it isn’t possible. All my time is taken up by the club. Mr. Marino demands it.”

“If I buy an hour of your private time, away from the club, how would that work?”

“I have a little boy at home and can’t take clients there. You could rent a motel room and call the club number from there. Tell them how long you want to pay for and they’ll call me. That’s how it works.”

Chapter 10

“What do we have here, Sam?” The sheriff’s deputy, Jonathan Bennett, looked at Samantha first, then at Dick. He stooped down, briefly, to look at the body on the sand.

Dick extended his hand. “I’m US Navy Lieutenant Commander Dick McGowin, a friend of Samantha.”

Samantha said, “Hi, Jonathan, that was a quick response. We only placed the call about eight minutes ago. Did the operator explain how we found the body?”

“Briefly. Is the body just as you found it?”

“No! We dragged it up onto the beach by the arms. That’s the only time it’s been touched,” Dick said. “We looked the body over as best we could in the moonlight. It seemed intact, with no evident sign of damage. Rigor has been lost.”

Jonathan shined a light on the naked female body. “I’m going to share something with you. DEA has been investigating the bodies of young addicts in the area for some time. Agent Kevin Hunt is in charge of the special unit looking into these deaths. He’s been called and he asked that both of you stick around here, or nearby, until he arrives.”

Sam looked at Dick. “We can do that. Is he on his way?”

“I believe so, Sam, with his team of investigators. I have to stay with the body until he arrives. The coroner’s been called. You live only a stone’s throw down the beach, don’t you? If you’d like to wait there, I can give you a call.”

“We’re in no rush, might as well wait.”

Dick said, “Shine your light on the left ear again, that looked like an ear full of dried blood.” All three leaned down to look at the dead woman’s ear. Dick said, “An icepick may have been jammed into her ear. Have there been reports of death from an icepick connected to the bodies?”

Jonathan glared at Dick, then looked from one to the other. “I can’t confirm or deny that, Commander McGowin.”

The deputy’s light illuminated the female body from head to toe. She’s unusually attractive, Dick thought. She must have been caught up in the drug culture early in life.

Sam reacted to loud talking and turned toward the service road. “That looks like the Pharaoh’s Army’s charging the hill.”

“I’m Special Agent Kevin Hunt, with DEA. You must be Samantha Brooks and Lieutenant Commander Dick McGowin.”

“Yes, I’m Samantha and this is Dick McGowin.”

“Tell me how you came about finding the body at this time of night.”

Dick shaded his eyes against the flood lights. “It was sometime earlier. We were playing in the waves back from the surf line. Samantha first felt something brush against her backside, commented, and we looked around to see a dark object drifting toward shore. We moved in to check it out. I lifted what looked like a woman’s long hair, enough to identify the face of a woman. We pulled the body onto the beach, each holding an arm. It was obvious she had been dead for some time. Rigor had been lost. That’s when Samantha called the local authorities.”

Agent Hunt backed away several yards. “Let’s stand back and let the coroner and the CSI people do their work. Did either of you recognize the deceased? The body is that of a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties. There’s been way too many deaths