Terror on the Beach (8 page)

“She moved here about three years ago and bought the condo and
the shop. She told me she was from Macon.”

“Do you have a key to the condo?”

“Sarah has the key,” Beth said.

“Do you know about Sarah?” Judith asked.

“Of course I do. I watch her sometimes and I play dress-up in her clothes when she’s not there. I don’t think she knows about me though.”

“Do you think Sarah would mind if we went to her condo and let ourselves in?”

She suddenly looked at me and said, “I remember you now. I tried to twoon with you once but Sarah kept getting in the way. I like you. I wanted to be your sweet baby. It made me mad when Sarah took over.

“I love Sarah though so it was okay.
She won’t mind if you go to her condo. You have a key so you don’t have to worry.”

I was beginning to think I was really talking to a small child and I loved her so much more than I already did.
I bent over and kissed her on the cheek, “Thanks Beth.”

CHAPTER 16

I was going to drive us over to the condo but Judith asked if we could walk to clear our heads.
Of course you can get along without owning a car in Monroe Beach so I agreed.

We took the back way along the be
ach instead of the highway. As soon as we got to the sand Judith took off her pumps and jacket and I noticed she was wearing only a lacy sports bra underneath.

“This feels so good,” she said as she stopped to dig her toes in the sand.
“Let’s sit here on this dune for a minute while I explain something to you.

“From what I have been able to determine so far, Sarah doesn’t know anything about any of her other personalities.
She only knows that she sometimes loses time. Of course this is when one of the other personalities takes over.

“Beth knows about Sarah for sure but I don’t know who else she knows about.
I still haven’t met Twoon but, from what your deputy Freddy told me, when he arrested Twoon he tried to blame everything on Sarah.

“The young mute boy, I don’t know much about yet.
I don’t even know his name. I tried to get him to write it but he’s too young and can’t write yet.”

“Have you noticed how Beth puts a ‘th’ in a lot of her words?
I’m wondering, this character Twoon, the tw sound a lot like a th. She called me sherith. I’m wondering how we would pronounce the Twoon character’s name. Do you understand what I’m saying, doc?”

She stared out at the ocean and nodded slowly, “Yeah, I didn’t think of it that way but
, yeah. I can’t come up with anything right now can you?”

I shook my head and stood up and offered her my hand.
I pulled her up and we went to the condo.

As soon as we got inside she s
tarted searching. “What are we looking for?” I asked.

“Anything that will help us but I wanted to se
e if Twoon kept any trophies. A lot of serial killers do.”

I started in the kitchen and she started in the bedroom.
I opened drawers and cabinets but didn’t find anything. Sarah wasn’t much of a cook so she didn’t have much, only a few dishes and pots and pans.

I opened the door where the hot water heater was.
Sarah kept her broom and mop in there. I knew that because I once saw her get the mop to clean up a coke she had spilt, but I had never looked in there myself.

It looked like the edge of a paper bag sticking out from the back of the
hot water heater and I pulled it out. When I opened it I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

Inside the paper bag was several pieces of jewelry, watches, a headband, and a glove.
They all had blood on them. “Uh, doc? I found something.”

She came into the kitchen, “So did I.
There’s stuff everywhere in the bedroom and bath.” We switched bags. Hers was a big black garbage bag. Inside were items of clothing: sweaters, jackets, and jeans. Some of the items I remember wondering why the victims weren’t wearing. There were also a lot of purses.

After looking in both bags she led me to the bathroom and opened the cabinet under the sink.
There was a big bag full of prescriptions. None of the prescriptions had Sarah’s name of them. They were for anything from asthma to heart medication.

I recognized some of the names but some I didn’t know.
We had suspected that several of the victims had been runaways and hadn’t yet identified them. This would help us. There were no driver’s licenses in any of the purses.

I was going to assign the task to Freddy.
He was the best one for computer work. He could use the doctor’s and patient’s names and hopefully identify them.

We double bagged everything in plastic garbage bags and I
called one of my deputies to
come pick them up. Judith and I were quiet walking back and I asked her if she felt like having some lunch or at least a cup of coffee.

There was a crab shack just opened up on the beach on the way and we stopped there and got
a table. She ordered an iced tea and I ordered coffee. The waitress brought some little toast squares with crab meat and melted cheese on top and told us they were a free introductory sample.

The crab
toast was delicious and we finished them. We had gotten a table on the porch and after gazing out to sea for awhile Judith took a deep breath.

“I love the smell of the sea.
Robert, I know a psychiatrist who I believe could help Sarah. Her name is Dr. Anna Stevens but all her patients call her Dr. Anna.

“She did wonders for my twin sister.
She retired last year but I think I can get her to take this case when I tell her about it. I need to get back to Houston tomorrow morning at the latest.

“I’m spreading myself too thin right now and I have one patient in crisis back home.
When I get her stabilized and help her transition into therapy with another therapist I’m going to sell my practice as soon as I can find someone I would trust with my patients.

“I will complete my report for the court today and call Dr. Anna.
I am recommending that Sarah be placed in a private psychiatric hospital. It will be a long time before she will be competent enough to stand trial. How does that sound to you, Robert?”

“It sounds fine and I would like to see Sarah more comfortable in a psychiatric hospital but I don’t
think she has any kind of insurance.”

“Don’t worry about that.
I’m so intrigued with this case that I will foot the bill on one condition.”

“And what would that be?”

“I want to use her as a case example in my classes. I wouldn’t be using her name, of course. Dr. Anna and I would consult by phone. Well, what do you think?”

“I think it would be perfect.
I’ll need to see a lawyer friend of mine to see how we will handle power of attorney. If she’s not capable of making her own decisions then she will need a guardian appointed. I would like to act as her guardian.”

CHAPTER 17

I was able to get the court to grant me temporary guardianship of Sarah.
Judith finished her report with her recommendation and went back to Houston the next morning, promising to stay in touch.

Dr. Anna Stevens had agreed to take on this one last case and her plane was due to arrive five hours after Judith’s plane took off, so I had time to kill in Savannah.

I always loved Savannah and had planned to take Sarah here for our honeymoon when we got married, if we ever did. I wanted us to stay in the Mulberry Inn. It’s small and beautiful with a cozy atmosphere including a fireplace in the lobby.

Rather than getting my car out of the car park at the airport, I took a cab to the Mulberry Inn and went to the coffee shop and got
a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee.

I read a newspaper I found on the table and then headed over to the library.
I got on one of their computers and went online. I read all about Multiple Personality Disorders and became even more scared for Sarah.

When I got back to the airport I only had to wait about twenty minutes for Dr. Stevens’ plane to arrive.
While I waited I thought about all the relationships I had been in and where they went wrong. I knew I could be controlling at times and the women had all broken up with me because of it.

Sarah was the first woman I had been involved with who had stood up for herself while at the same time remaining in the relationship with me.
But she had never let me get very close and now I understood why.

She had been traumatized by someone, probably her daddy to the point where she had been afraid of relationships.
The fact that she had tried to work on our relationship to the best of her ability made me love her even more.

While I was deep in thought someone tapped me on t
he shoulder and I turned around. An older woman stood in front of me. I must have looked surprised at her appearance. She wasn’t what I expected.

She appeared to be amused by my surprise.
She was smiling. “Yes, I am Dr. Anna Stevens. Everyone calls me Dr. Anna. You are Sheriff Kola, are you not?” She stuck out her hand.

“I’m sorry.
I am Sheriff Kola. I’m sorry I didn’t know you’d be…”

“So old?”
s asked, and laughed. “I am 76 by the way, and I look it. I’ve had a good and rewarding life and wouldn’t change anything about it. Let’s get my luggage and get going. I can’t wait to meet Sarah.”

We didn’t have to wait long for her luggage.
She only had one small suitcase and that worried me. When she saw me looking at it she said, “I travel light but I am prepared to stay awhile to help Sarah. If I need anything else, I’ll go shopping.”

On the way back to Monroe Beach, Dr. Anna asked me some of the
same questions Judith had asked and continued to educate me o MPD. As I watched her, and she became animated about her area of expertise, her whole appearance seemed to change.

She was still an average looking old lady, average height and weight with white thin hair that
she wore in a knot on top of her head, and her skin looked like a wrinkled prune from years in the Florida sun. But she was beautiful.

It was like an inner light shown from her and I could see why she had apparently been so successful.
Her patients would most certainly open up to her and I was glad to have her for Sarah.

She told me she owned a Psychiatric Hospital on the beach in Jacksonville, Florida.
She thought it would be a good place for Sarah.

“It is right on the beach and it has everything, a pool and tennis courts.
She’ll feel like she’s at a country club. But she will be expected to attend both group and individual sessions. I will be her individual therapist and a woman named Anita will be her group therapist.

“You can come see her whenever you want.
In fact, there are cottages on the grounds where the visitors sometimes stay. Judith is footing the bill and told me that you can stay there as much as you want.

“I’ve got
to warn you, Sarah has a rough road ahead of her and there are going to be times when she will want to end it all and will have to be put into isolation, which is like a plush jail cell, with padded walls and a mattress on the floor.

“There are going to be times when she is going to hate you for putting her in there.
But when it’s over, and she gets to the other side of her pain and misery, she will be a happy and healthy woman.

“Do you think you can handle all this upheaval?
I might want to do some couples therapy with both of you. You are going to grow from this too, Robert.”

I felt overwhelmed and drove in silence until she surprised me by asking, “By the way, Robert, have you ever asked
yourself what it is about you that makes you determined to have a woman who isn’t capable of committing to a relationship?”

I opened my mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say.

She laughed. “Don’t worry. You don’t need to answer that. It is something to think about. I can’t help myself. I have to challenge everyone.”

CHAPTER 18

Just like Judith, Dr. Anna had wanted to check in and head over to meet Sarah.
She was staying at Lily’s B&B and the two women hit it off right away.

When we got to Sarah’s cell, she was sitting on the cot with her back against the wall.
She didn’t even look up when we went in. She acted like she didn’t hear us.

Dr. Anna looked at me and put her finger to her lips.
She then tiptoed over to Sarah and, putting her hands close to Sarah’s ear, clapped her hands. Sarah didn’t respond but when Dr. Anna lightly touched Sarah’s arm, she jumped.

Dr. Anna smiled at Sarah and patted her on the arm, then motioned me to the side, “I think we just met the little mute boy but not only can’t he talk, he can’t hear.
I’m not sure he can see either. No eye contact when I smiled at him.”