Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 05 - Monroe Beach (6 page)

“Did you have a bad dream too?” I asked when she got close.

“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s walk back down to the beach so we can talk without waking the other two.”

Neither
of us had shared our dream of the night before because Dr. Anna’s revelation had wiped us out. Now as we sat down on the sand dune, she began.

“This was the worst dream so far and I could almost make out the killer’s face.
I think his hair is white and he is very thin. There was a light behind him and it made his hair appear to be filled with static electricity. There was nothing else in the dream, just this man standing there with both of his arms out.”

I tho
ught about the dream that had woke me up. I related it to her. “For years I had a dream that led me to discover my family. John helped me with it, through hypnosis. My dream turned out to be real. It was a memory from when Julia and I were three years old.

“We were kidnapped and our
parents murdered. In the dream I saw the whole thing but didn’t know, for years, that the two little girls were Julia and me. Tonight, I had the same dream after not having it for many years. But this time there was a man watching from the background. I couldn’t make out what he looked like but I had the same dream last night. In this second one, he was holding his hands out to me just like he was to you.”

Sarah glanced over her shoulder and then said, “Dr. Anna dreamed about
her son but never got around to telling what the dream was about. We all got so freaked out, after hearing her story about her husband and son that we had to take a time out from the dream stuff. Judith, do you think Dr. Anna’s son could be the same person we’re dreaming about?”

“I don’t know and I don’t understand any of this.
It’s as if this man is invading all of our dreams and I don’t see how that’s possible. I’ve read about a lot of cases over the years about different phenomena involving dreams, but I have never read anything about this. I think we need to get Delilah’s input and also see what she’s dreamed about this guy.”

We continued to discuss this until the sun started coming up over the Atlantic.
It looked like a big orange beach ball and we didn’t feel the need to speak. It was so beautiful it made me want to cry.

“What you girls doin out here so ear
ly?” It was Delilah speaking as she walked down barefoot on the beach. She sat down on the sand dune next to me and put her arm around me. “That so is purdy. Almost as purdy as the sun coming up over the bayou down in Louisiana where I grew up. I loved it, me.”

Without another word, she stood and started walking off, saying over her shoulder, “Breakfast be ready in a little while.”

We followed her up to the cabin, expecting to see Dr. Anna on the porch where she usually sat waiting for everyone else to get up. She was still in bed. Sarah sat down at the table and started talking to Delilah and I tiptoed into Dr. Ann’s room and peaked in.

She was just laying there gazing up at the ceiling.
But, when she saw me, she motioned me to come in. We arranged the pillows against the headboard and stretched out.

I could hear the other two in the kitchen and was glad they were laughing.
When Dr. Anna finally spoke, she was talking so low I couldn’t make out what she was saying, “What did you say, Dr. Anna?”

“I said I’ve been thinking a lot about my son and wondering whatever happened to him.
I dreamed about him again last might. There must be a reason why I’ve suddenly started dreaming about him. In the dream, he told me he was in trouble and needed my help. He held out his hands to me and asked me to forgive him.”

“Dr. Anna, something really strange is happening here, and we need to figure out what it is
, because it seems dangerous. First, Sarah started dreaming about this man and then I did, and now you’re dreaming about your son. I’m wondering if he is the man in our dreams. Delilah said yesterday she also dreamed about a man that was in shadow. The man I’ve dreamed about the last two nights was just a shadow.

“Sarah and I were just talking about this on the beach.
The man in her dreams became clearer in her dream last night. She said he had white hair and was very thin. Does that sound like your son?”

Dr. Anna got up from the bed and p
ut on her robe. “Breakfast is probably ready now. Let’s eat and then get everyone out on the porch to continue this discussion. I don’t want us developing an eating disorder by associating all this with food.”

CHAPTER 11

After breakfast we all helped clean up the dishes and kitchen and then headed off to the showers.
Dr. Anna, Delilah and I were sitting on the porch and I was brushing my hair, wet from the shower, when Sarah came running out in a panic.

“I saw myself in the mirror,” she said.

Delilah said, Well, yeah, baby, we all see ourselves in the mirror…that’s not what you mean is it?”

“The women I’ve been seeing in the mirror, behind me, all turn up de
ad. And now I’ve seen myself behind me. It was just like the others. I was wearing clothes but I was soaking wet. I just called Robert and he wants me to come home so he can protect me and I’m telling you right now, I don’t resent him telling me what to do in this case.”

The next fli
ght out of JAX wasn’t until 7:37 that night but Sarah, Delilah, and I packed in a hurry. Dr. Anna said she wasn’t going and had other plans. I was disappointed. I wanted to spend more time with her and to find out more about her son. I was also puzzled about what plans she had.

After we were all packed
, we still had plenty of time so we gathered on the porch and cornered Dr. Anna.

“First of all, Kenneth doesn’t sound like the man in y’all’s dreams,” she began.
“I know it’s been awhile since I last saw him but he was a large man like his father. He was very tall with wide shoulders and very handsome also like his father. His hair was dark brown.

“My dreams about him have probably been brought on by stress from all this other
stuff and the fact I haven’t had a vacation in forever. I need to get some help for myself. I can’t go on like this anymore. It’s probably a good sign, you know Judith, like when a patient has gone into crisis and is forced to get help.

“I have given this a lot of thought and I’ve gotten a permanent replacement for myself at Oce
an Sands. He’s been with me for years. His name is Dr. Banner and I know I can trust him, just like you trust Dr. Alvarez, Judith. I’ve decided to go see Vera. I’m going to invite myself and I’m going to see Dr. Alvarez.”

“Mimi will be glad to have you, Dr. Anna.
And Dr. Alvarez is a very good Psychologist or I wouldn’t have trusted him with my former patients. When are you leaving?”

“Not until tomorrow.”

CHAPTER 12

We took a cab to JAX and got tickets to Savannah, Georgia. We had said a tearful goodbye to Dr. Anna. I was worried about her. Spending time with Mimi would be good for her though. Mimi could cheer anyone up. I laughed to myself as I thought about how Mimi would probably drag Dr. Anna to the Galleria for shopping. My grandmother loved to shop.

I returned the rental car that I had been using since John went back to New Orleans.
It had been rented under his name so I had a little trouble turning it back in.

# # #

Robert was waiting for us. When he saw Sarah, he picked her up and swung her around. “I thought you’d never get here,” He said. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again until we catch this bastard.”

I got tears in my eyes
, thinking about Ben and how he would never meet me at any airport ever again. We walked down to baggage claim and Robert had his arm around Sarah the whole time, Delilah and I following behind.

“He be a good man,”
Delilah said, nodding toward Robert. “You one day find one like him.”

I laughed, “You don’t like Wade,
Delilah?”

“I like him just fine,” she said and then clamped her jaw tight.

“I know how much you loved Ben, Delilah, and he can never be replaced. But give Wade a chance. I think he’s a good person.”

“Well, we’ll see,” she said.

# # #

We were standing there waiting for our
luggage. Robert had just reached for Sarah’s bag and turned around to hand it to her when we noticed, at the same time, that she wasn’t there.

I spotted her running down the
concourse and I went after her, with the other two right behind me. When we reached her, she stopped and turned around and started looking all around her.

“Did you see him
?” she said. She had a wild look in her eyes.

“Sarah?” I said and she laughed almost hysterically.

“I’m still Sarah, but the man in the dream is here. Didn’t you see him? He was standing right next to you, Judith. He must have seen recognition in my eyes because he took off running.”

Robert got
on his cell phone and called his deputies. While we waited, I ran out the front and saw a very thin man with shoulder-length, white wispy hair get into a white Toyota Corolla with a red headed woman at the wheel. I wrote down the license plate number and ran back inside.

When I told Robert, he got back on his cell phone with his contact and they put out an APB.
The car was found abandoned on Tybee Island, later that day.

CHAPTER 13

The trip back to Monroe Beach seemed to take forever.
Robert couldn’t take his hands off Sarah. It was as if he wanted to make sure she was still all right.

“Robert, why don’t you drop
Delilah and me off at the hotel? That is if it’s all right with you, Delilah. I’m really tired and I’d like to get room service and turn in early.” I turned to Delilah, “Is that all right with you?”

She winked at me.
“I think that’s a good idea. I think these two needs some time alone, anyways.”

The hotel was called The Mulberry Inn and it was more of a bed and breakfast than a hotel.
I had checked out of the suite at the Hyatt when John left. Delilah and I shared a room at The Mulberry Inn with two double beds. We got comfortable and ordered room service. We both ordered steak, baked potato, salad, and red wine.

After we ate and brushed our teeth we stretched out on the beds and
Delilah took the pins out of her hair and started brushing it. I had never seen her with her hair down. In fact I had never seen it without a scarf tied around it. It was black, thick, and shiny.

She stared off into space while she brushed.

“Why don’t you wear your hair down, Delilah? It’s beautiful. I’ve always thought you were pretty, but you are truly beautiful”

She laughed.
“Honey, I be too ol to wear it down.”

“How old are you anyway, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I be fifty five. I done a lot of living, me. Never was marrit, but had lotsa men, me. Had a baby, was stilt born. Thas how I was able to be a wet nurse for Dave. My milk still came even though I had no baby.”

“I’m so sorry,
Delilah,” I said.

She winked at
me. “I had lots a white men an ole Dave’s papa was one of them. Course I would never tell Dave, but my baby woulda been his half brother.”

I sat there with
my mouth open and she continued. “It happened a lot back then.”

We continued talking until almost 2am.
I told her about Jupiter killing Ben, about me getting shot and about meeting Wade Russell. I started talking about Julia and how she was so happy. I paused when I heard Delilah snoring.

I set my
little travel alarm for eight am, covered Delilah with a blanket, and turned out the lights. It seemed as if I had just dozed off when the alarm went off.

# # #

We met Sarah, Simon, and Robert the next morning at the local diner for breakfast. Robert recommended the pancakes and Delilah said they were almost as good as hers, which was quite a compliment.

“I’m going to tell y’all everything we know so far about the case,” Robert said between mouthfuls.

“From Judith’s psychological profile, the suspect is between the ages of twenty five and forty, most probably a male. Right, Judith?”

When I nodded he said, “Why don’t you take over from here, Judith?”

“Okay, he was probably sexually abused by his mother, maybe both his mother and father. He could have even grown up in some kind of cult. The reason I’m saying this is that there seems to be a ritualistic component to the way he kills and what he does with the bodies.”

Simon spoke up.
“Yeah, he rapes them first and then takes them out into the water and we think it’s some kind of baptism, or some kind of cleansing. He dresses them in a long white robe before taking them into the water.