Page 1 of Unchained
CHAPTER ONE
I locked the office door and went outside to join the Miami evening heat. I was tired of my job and all the shit that came with it. There seemed to be criminals around every corner and from every walk of life. As the Miami district attorney, I prosecuted the worst of the worst. Drug dealers, killers, pedophiles, and everything in between. But no more. They were someone else’s problem.
Ever since losing Suzanne five years ago, I’d lost my edge. I went from a 99% prosecution rate to just under 80%. People were beginning to question my abilities. They said my heart wasn’t in it anymore, but they understood why. Having your wife disappear off the Miami coast, never to be seen again, did things to a man. It made you question everything you ever thought and made you question every move you made.
So I gave it all up to do the one thing that had held my attention since Suzanne’s disappearance . . . find out what happened.
I climbed into my white Lexus and sat in the empty parking lot, taking a deep breath, accepting I’d just left a great job and great people despite the shitty clientele. But hopes and dreams are enjoyed most when shared with someone special. Whatever destroyed Suzanne also destroyed those hopes and dreams.
Investigators had run into one roadblock after another. People were never too keen on providing information to the D.A. regardless of the situation. Of course, I knew there was a possibility that some criminal element I’d prosecuted could have had a hand in her disappearance. That, of course, would mean her disappearance was my fault. Maybe that was the hardest to deal with. Even the possibility was leading me to drink.
I dialed Roger Corman, and he picked up immediately. Roger was a private investigator I used on most of the cases I prosecuted. He was the one man I knew I could trust. “Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
Roger covered the phone and mumbled to someone in the background. He was into mailorder Ukrainian women and almost always had one around when he was at home. He’d been married eleven times, each one of his brides from Eastern Europe. “Just sitting down for a late dinner. You calling about the Coast Guard lead?”
Someone had recently remembered seeing a Coast Guard ship in the area the night Suzanne’s boat went missing. She’d gone out with a couple of her girlfriends to celebrate a new business they had just opened. Suzanne and I had both been through extensive boat training, so I never worried about her going out with her friends even after dark.
I’d spoken to her just before they left the dock. There was nothing in her voice to suggest she had anything to worry about. Nothing in the way she acted that day suggested there were problems between us. And then, along with her two best friends, she was gone.
“The Coast Guard had no distress calls that night. They did log an unusual number of calls, mostly drunk couples fighting. Nobody recalled a boat with three females.”
I let the information settle in once again. It still didn’t make sense the boat, and all three women just disappearing. I suppose that’s why I’ve never quit looking. That, and the love for my soul mate.
“Thanks, Roger, I appreciate it.”
“Can I say something, Deacon?”
I knew what was coming. Everyone tells me the same thing. But until you have a loved one disappear, you just don’t, you just can’t, understand. “Yeah, what’s up?”
Roger cleared his throat, covered the phone, and mumbled again to his new bride. He uncovered the phone, and I waited for my lecture. “It’s been five years, Deacon. Suzanne would want you to move on and live your life. And not the way you have been living it. You’ve been fucking around with the wrong people. I know why, but I’m just saying she wouldn’t like it. She wouldn’t like you quitting your job either.”
He was only trying to help. His lectures didn’t piss me off, but they also didn’t change my mind. As far as messing with the wrong elements in the city, it was a necessary evil. Someone shady played a roll his Suzanne’s disappearance. I hadn’t told Roger yet, but I felt like I was getting closer. He reminded me that Bruce Wayne and Batman were fictional characters. That I had neither a bat cave nor a bat suit.
“I feel like I’m close, Roger.” I paused and stared out at the ocean and at the twinkling lights of boats on the water. “I’ll be fine. You go take care of that new bride.”
“I’m here, Deacon.”
“Thanks, I know.” I ended the call and pulled from the parking lot, heading toward South Beach, delaying the inevitable—going home to be alone in an empty house.
I’d spent most of my life as a D.A. telling people to wait and let the process find justice. Most people wanted to take things into their own hands. I discouraged those thoughts. I discouraged people from exacting revenge. I no longer felt that way. Whoever harmed Suzanne, I wanted to put my hands around their neck and squeeze.
I reached under the seat to make sure the Glock was still in place. The steel felt cold against my fingers.
“Shit.” I looked at the face glowing on my cell phone.
“What’s up, sis?”
“I’m sitting in your driveway, and you’re not here.”
“I’m on my way to meet someone, Heather. You kept telling me to go out, and that’s what I’m doing.” It was a lie, of course. I never went out on dates. I never got attached to anyone. I never mislead anyone. I did what I needed to do and went on about my business.
“You know I don’t believe you.”
“Come on, sis quit busting my chops. I’m heading to South Beach to grab a drink.”
“And pussy for the night?”
I sighed and slowed at the next light. “I’ll give you a call in the morning. We can meet up for breakfast at Castanza’s if you want.”
