A False Dawn Read Free Page B

folded his notepad, looked out across the river.  “You move up here from Miami, left a place where you investigated killings, and now you find one not far from your house.  I guess you’re pretty unlucky, huh?”
    “Detective Moore just said the vic’s in surgery.  So, at this moment, it’s not a murder.  As far as I could tell, the young woman was raped, stabbed and left for dead.”
    “How’d you know she was raped?” he asked.
    “It was obvious.”
    Detective Moore interrupted.  “Mr. O’Brien, when you spoke with this man,” she paused and looked at her notes, “this Joe Billie…with your background, did you sense anything suspicious about him?”
    “I was intrigued that he’d been walking in the river.  Not many people do that.”
    “What's your occupation now?”
    “I don’t have one.”
            “Does it get boring sitting home all day after a career with Miami PD?”
    “I don’t sit home all day.  I’m remolding the old place.”
    She smiled.  “We appreciate your cooperation.  I just like to know where we might be able to locate you if you’re not home.”
    “You have my cell.”
    “Sometimes people forget their cell phones.”
    “I spend time working on an old sport fishing boat I have at Ponce Marina.”
    “You in the charter fishing business?” Detective Grant asked
    “Thinking about it.”
     The detective who had been sitting in the car approached.  His shaved head glistened in the sun.  He stepped in front of the other two detectives and came a little too close to my personal space.  I could smell his after-shave and perspiration soaking into his starched collar.  A blood vessel moved beneath the skin near his left forehead and pulsated like a worm crawling under his scalp.
    “I’m Detective Slater.  We appreciate your cooperation here, Mr. O’Brien.  In your excitement, and it happens to lots of folks who stumble upon a crime scene, you didn’t compromise anything, right?  You know, pick up any possible evidence.” 
    I looked at my reflection in his sunglasses and saw myself grin like I was just asked how long I’d been potty trained.  “I tried to save a young woman’s life.” 
    He glanced down at my hands.  “How’d you get those cuts?” 
    “I’m restoring an old house.  Replacing wood.  House looks better than me.”
    “I guess the scratch on your chin came from the dock.”
    “That’s right.”
    “You never saw the victim before today?”
    “That’s correct.”
    “You saw nobody around?  Just happened to walk up on a dying woman?”
    “While you were on your cell phone, I explained to these detectives why I was here.  Prior to that, I gave a full report to the officers.”
    “You told the deputies that a man approached your dock.”  He paused for effect.  “Let me get this story straight…you said he walked out of the river?” 
    “He seemed as serious as the guys with the metal detectors.  But he was looking for arrowheads.  Had a sack full of them.” 
    “How’d he get in the river?”  Slater asked. 
    “I suppose he walked.” 
    “According to your statement, the man docked his canoe a half mile from your home and walked into the river hunting arrowheads.”  
    “That’s what he told me.”
    “Kinda risky.  Gators are mating and building nests.  They get very territorial.”
    “The man’s probably native Seminole.  They’ve dodged gators for centuries.”
    “Why were you looking for him?
    “He’d offered to help me repair my dock.  But I didn’t get his number before he left.  The man wasn’t acting like someone who’d raped and beaten a woman.”
    “How’d you know she was raped?”
    “It was evident—blood, a lot of it.”
    Detective Slater took out a handkerchief and wiped his bald head.  He carefully folded the handkerchief and tucked it into his pocket.  “Mr. O’Brien, you’re using a lot of supposition.  We assume the victim was raped, but we haven’t