Of Guilt and Innocence (7 page)

To keep that from happening any time soon, Louis quite regularly instituted new restrictions upon himself when he felt he was being too careless. He had decided after either a successful or unsuccessful abduction attempt he would not return to the area from which the attempt was made for at least one year, under any circumstances. He also decided that once he was successful and carried out his plan, he would lay low for as long as he could hold out, which at first was extremely difficult. Holding back on acting out was hard for Louis, but over time he disciplined himself and could go six months or more before his demons took over. Thus, in the ten years since his prison release his victims only numbered seven.

But now he had his eighth victim, and she was already in his apartment. The hard part was over. Louis reflected for a moment on how the actual kidnapping wasn't really that hard this time. Things just seemed to play out and open up in his favor. After he pulled out of his parking space at the mall he was able to follow his target with only two cars in between them, and to his good fortune, he was able to remain that way right to the main gate of the complex in which she lived. Again, as luck would have it, there was no security guard at the front gate, and he was able to piggyback his way into the complex.

Once inside, he saw his target make a quick right turn, while the cars between them kept going straight. Louis turned right just as his target was pulling into a driveway on his right hand side. He slowly crept past the house and watched as the car pulled into the garage. He made a U-turn and parked on the opposite side of the street, about four houses down, and watched. He wasn't sure if the opportunity would arise, and he had already accepted the fact that this mission may have to be aborted, when he saw the little girl skip out to the mailbox in front of the house.

When he drove past the house he had seen an empty space in the garage next to where the SUV had pulled in. He made the assumption that another vehicle was generally parked there and was now gone; possibly the girl's father was the driver of the missing vehicle, which would render him absent from the home. As the little girl reached the mailbox the garage door shut. His pulse quickened, his eyes sharpened. He watched the little girl open the mailbox and reach inside and still did not observe her chaperone from the mall anywhere. He also did not see anyone else on the street, though he knew he would have no way of knowing if anyone was watching through a window. He made his move, pulling up next her, where the family's property and the road met.

“Hi, do you remember me?” He said with a smile in a pleasant tone. The little girl turned from the mailbox leaving the small stack of flyers and envelopes inside it.  She looked startled, but then she smiled back and nodded her head. “I was wondering if you could help me, I am so lost. What street is this?”

“Palmetto Avenue,” Ashley replied in her soft, innocent voice.

“I'm sorry, honey, I can't hear you, I'm an old man. Can you come up to the car and tell me again?” He knew he needed to hurry. Like a viper he was poised, ready to strike.

He could see she had no idea what was in store, she had no way of knowing. She looked at him with familiarity.  He knew he had her, if time permitted.  She moved up to the car and put her little hands on the open window frame of the driver's side front door. It was over in an instant. Before she even realized what was happening, Louis reached out the window with both hands, adrenaline pumping, grabbed the little girl under the armpits and pulled her into his car, then rolled up the window.

He threw her into the passenger seat and drove purposefully to the community gate. No squealing tires, no revving of the engine, but no dallying either. While he waited for the gate to open and allow him to make his escape, he reached with his right hand and grabbed the shaking girl's shoulder and forced her onto the floorboard in front of the passenger seat. He reached into the backseat of the car and grabbed a large quilt and threw it on top of her.

“Stay there, covered up and I will let you go. I have a gun, if you move, if you make a sound, I will shoot you, then I will go back to your house and shoot your mommy and daddy.” His lie subdued the girl and with that the gates opened and he was heading back to Davie.

He reached under his seat and pulled out his old police scanner. The cord had been plugged into an adapter that allowed him to use the car's cigarette lighter to power it. He listened intently, waiting for something to be broadcast about what he had just done. He knew how it all worked by now. The Amber Alerts, the Be-On-The-Lookouts.   

He knew where to abandon State Road 441 and how to navigate the lesser traveled roads. Though the demons in his soul were screaming at him to hurry, he meandered slowly, until he made it back safe.  

 

And now he was home, his victim trembling with fear. They were sealed off from the world; she had no avenue of escape. He just sat without speaking, listening to the police scanner. He worried that during the brief time it took him to move it the alert had come out and he had missed it. He sat patiently waiting for it to come, hoping he hadn't.

It had now been over an hour since he had taken the girl. He needed to know what the police knew; he needed to prepare the cover up for what he had done and what he planned to do. But he couldn't wait much longer. His demons wouldn't allow it. That's when he heard a female voice chirp over the radio.

“ATTENTION ALL UNITS. COPY AN AMBER ALERT OUT OF BOCA RATON, PALM BEACH COUNTY. WHITE FEMALE, FIVE YEARS OF AGE, APPROXIMATELY THREE FEET SIX INCHES TALL WITH STRAWBERRY BLONDE HAIR. TAKEN FROM HER HOME IN BOCA RATON AT APPROXIMATELY THIRTEEN-THIRTY HOURS. LAST SEEN WEARING BLUE JEANS, WHITE SHORT SLEEVED SHIRT, AND WHITE SHOES. LAST KNOWN DIRECTION OF TRAVEL WITH SUSPECT WAS SOUTHBOUND ON STATE ROAD 441. NO SUSPECT OR VEHICLE INFORMATION AT THIS TIME. END OF TRANSMISSION.”

Louis smiled.

 

 

CHAPTER 6

 

 

Carlos emerged from his office and proceeded to the living room where Julia sat on a leather couch watching television. “I am off,” he said softly as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. Without looking away from the television, she told him to have a good night, and he, in fact, was off.

Julia knew it would be late when Carlos returned, if he even returned at all, which on occasion he did not. He regularly went for late night check-ins with hospital patients or to review files at his office. At least that's what he told her and part of her believed that it was true. She knew him to be a perfectionist and to love his work. She had even brought it up at a Christmas party to the doctor who ran the practice where Carlos worked, Dr. Morris. He confirmed that he routinely found Carlos at the office when he arrived in the morning, fast asleep at his desk with files spread out as if he'd been there all night.

But she also assumed he was having an affair, if not several. He was a very handsome man, always well dressed and very charismatic. He was flirtatious in nature, as well as a highly paid doctor, and so she just assumed at least half of the instances in which he left and was gone all night he was cheating. She never asked him about it though, not once. The truth was she was never really in love with Carlos--only his money and status as a respected surgeon. The more he was gone or secluded in his home office the better. Their sex life was nonexistent, had been that way for years, which was all the more reason she believed him to be having affairs.

Carlos had done well to compartmentalize his life. So had she; she had begun having affairs long ago. It never really mattered to her that she had no solid proof he was doing the same. It never really mattered to her if he was truly having an affair at all, she still would have behaved the same. When he was gone she went out to dance clubs or bars to socialize and have a good time. She would either meet men along the way or, quite often, would go on dates with men she had already met. If, by chance, Carlos came home and she was not there, she would simply say she had been too drunk to drive home and had slept at a girlfriend's house, which he always accepted.

Over the years she had several steady boyfriends, all of whom knew she was married. The sneaking around became an enjoyable part of it for her. She felt covert and intellectually superior to Carlos by doing it. She marveled at how she could outsmart such a well-educated surgeon.   

 

Unlike Julia, however, Carlos was genuinely in love. The only guilt or remorse he ever felt by his actions was that they caused him to be a nonexistent, inattentive husband. He was fully aware of their lack of sexual activity, and even though he found Julia to be extremely attractive and sexy, he simply had no desire to have sex with her. He had no desire to have sex with anyone for that matter. His new release, the only thing that would satisfy him, was killing.

Sexual assault was never a part of Carlos's crimes, however; the sense of control and power he got from taking a life and getting away with it was all the gratification he needed. Nonetheless, he knew his wife needed gratification as well and felt guilty he could not provide it for her. He knew full well that someday his crime spree would end, and when it did and he was exposed for who he truly was it would bring her a great burden to bear.

He had decided about a month prior to this most recent endeavor he was about to engage in to take out an additional life insurance policy on himself. He named her as the sole beneficiary, and in the event of his death she would be set to inherit five million dollars, an amount that would increase by double if he met a violent end. That, of course, was his plan. He decided that if he were ever faced with being arrested and being put on trial he would provoke a “suicide by cop,” allowing Julia to collect the insurance money. He had read over his policy several times and, as he understood it, this type of situation would not nullify her payout.  

This decision was not an easy one for Carlos to make, in actuality. His legacy was now the body count he left behind. He loved the notoriety he received as the South Florida Strangler. He had studied the most infamous serial killers and wanted to be known as one of them someday when it was all said and done. He knew being unable to give interviews from a prison cell and not having every detail of his horrific criminal activity spelled out in court would hurt that legacy. But he loved Julia so much that he would make the ultimate sacrifice. He was willing to trade the only thing he wanted for his future, the legacy he so desperately craved, for her future. For her forgiveness.  However, Carlos had no plans on giving up or getting caught anytime soon.

 

He drove to a grocery store just inside the Broward County line and parked his car. There was a bus stop outside the store parking lot and he waited with the handful of people to catch the next bus. The store was in a nice area that he regularly drove through to get to work each day and he had no concerns with leaving his car there for as long as he needed to.  

He had to dress as he normally would in order to maintain the illusion with Julia that he was going to work, and so he wore tan cotton slacks and a white button down shirt with a floral pattern on it. He had on a nice pair of leather shoes and a three hundred dollar watch, which was his most modest timepiece. Even if he had dressed as casually as possible, he was a neat man to begin with. He knew where he was going to be walking around his attire could make him a potential target. He had been in the area on one occasion--dropping his target off after a consultation. His luxury car had garnered the attention of what seemed like the entire neighborhood then.    

The bus dropped him off about two blocks from where he intended to go and he began walking. The streets were dimly lit, and by now darkness had come. He was able to stay on the main road for a fair stretch, which itself was not the safest of streets, but it had higher vehicular traffic and was slightly better lit than the side streets he passed.  Finally, he made a right turn onto J Street.

J Street wasn't the worst street in Davie, but it was one of them. It was run by drug dealers and gang members; twenty four hours a day they sat on dilapidated front porches and ruled their court. Sure enough, as Carlos passed by one such front porch, he could hear comments being made by its occupants. He walked faster.

He had done internet searches on J Street and found numerous periodical articles about crimes committed there, however, none of them were homicides, which he found slightly comforting and sort of amusing. He knew this didn't mean none had ever occurred there, just that none had been reported on recently. And he knew if he was successful, which he intended to be, that the most recent such crime to be reported on would have been committed by someone from an upscale, relatively crime-free neighborhood.  

Finally, he stood across the street from his soon to be playing field. He used the shadows to his advantage now in case his intended target was to exit the house or look out the window. He noticed no lights on in the main house and checked his watch. The time was only nine o'clock. He knew he would arrive earlier on his “big night” and when he left that evening he would be sure to turn the lights off.

He looked in the driveway and noticed an old blue car pulled so close to the garage door it almost looked as if it had driven right into it from where he was standing. He had not seen this car when he had been there before, but he knew Anne's son lived above the garage and that he had primary use of it. In all his planning and all the planning to come, the son was the biggest wildcard.

It was a situation he had never been in before. He knew it was a huge risk, striking with another resident on the property, but he felt strangely at ease with taking it. All the stories he had heard about this son made him seem like a non-threat.  Carlos had confidence that he could complete his task so smoothly that no one would ever be the wiser that he was even in the house until they made the grisly discovery when he was long gone. And if the son did, by chance, enter the main house and discover him there, he would have no choice but to take his life as well.