themselves. The two of them had been eating a late lunch at Bret’s Restaurant when they got the call. The sheriff said he always kept his skiff tied up at Charley Smith’s Seafood House on Front Street.
Other members of the Sheriff’s Office, Fernandina Beach City Police, the coroner, and homicide and crime scene detectives arrived sporadically on the island forty-five minutes to two hours later. They put the yellow crime scene tape around the site of the buried body and began the excavation process making sure they carefully preserved all DNA and ID evidence. From what they observed, the detectives said the body was female, age approximately 20-25. The body was about twenty percent decomposed, but it was still clothed.
John, Mary, Lucy, and Logan stood around and watched the excavation process and noticed that the perpetrator forgot to take off a gold Timex watch, a thin silver necklace with half of a heart-shape design engraved with a bird’s wing, as well as a silver toe ring on the right foot of the victim. There wasn’t any I.D., money, or credit cards on the victim, but from what they observed, investigators did not think robbery was the killer’s motive. Rape, however, was still in question. Even though the body was badly decomposed, the clothes- dirty and disheveled, but somewhat intact- were still on the body. Oddly, there didn’t appear to be any blood on the victim. Hopefully, the investigators would get lucky and be able to find out who did this to this young adult.
Since the coroner, who was affiliated with Oxley-Heard Funeral Home, pronounced the body “dead” at the scene, the body was carefully placed in a plastic body-bag and transported by the Fernandina Police boat to the docks in front of Bret’s Restaurant. From there, the body was transported to the basement morgue of the Nassau Baptist Hospital in Fernandina Beach, Florida. A pathologist on the staff at the Nassau Baptist Hospital would be conducting an autopsy of the corpse.
Chapter Eight
Nassau County, Florida Sheriff’s Department
The sheriff and sergeant in the skiff, followed by John’s boat, arrived at the Fernandina Beach city dock around six o’clock that Sunday. John, Mary, Lucy, Logan, and Prince piled into the sheriff’s car and were immediately driven to the Sheriff’s Office.
At the Sheriff’s Office, located in Yulee, Florida about eleven miles from Fernandina Beach in Nassau County, Sergeant Joe Haddock, who constantly blew smoke-rings from a pack of unfiltered Camels, quizzed John, Mary, Lucy, and Logan individually. Prince found a cool place to lie down in the waiting area. John went first for the inquisition, followed by Mary, Lucy, and Logan, respectively. Each of them gave verbal and written statements in a small room with no windows. A long worn-out fold-up table containing two ashtrays full of cigarette butts, and four fold-up chairs were situated haphazardly around the table. The three of them were asked the same questions. Why were they on the island? What did they do while on the island? How did they discover the buried body? Their answers were the same, and after about forty minutes or so with each of them, Sergeant Haddock seemed satisfied that they were telling the truth. Sergeant Haddock told them all to sit in the waiting area while he talked to the Sheriff.
Sergeant Haddock went inside the sheriff’s office without knocking, and closed the door behind him. Moments later, both Sheriff Earl Benson and Sergeant Haddock came out together.
The Sheriff spoke in an authoritative and gruff manner. “At the moment, you are not suspects, but I hope that none of you will discuss this with anyone. We wouldn’t want to get things spread that there is a killer somewhere in Nassau County who is preying on young women. Anyhow, the press will get the word out on what was found soon enough. You probably will be sought by the press for information, but all of you have to promise me, for your own protection, as well as for finding justice for that poor woman, that you will not make any statements or have anything “leak-out” that could prevent them from solving this murder. Is this an agreement?”
Reality was starting to set in, and all four of them knew that what the sheriff said made sense. They agreed they would not talk to anyone, other than themselves, about what they discovered on Tiger Island, Florida.
It was around eleven o’clock that evening when the four of them, and Prince, got back to Fernandina Beach. Needless to say, they were totally exhausted and shaken up by their experience. The Sheriff’s Office had everyone’s cell phone numbers, as well as their home phone numbers and contact information, so they promised them that they would call them if anything developed, or if they needed any additional information.
Chapter Nine
Surf Restaurant, Fernandina Beach, Florida
John, Mary, Lucy, and Logan decided they needed to go home, take a shower, drink a beer, and then hopefully, go to sleep, in that order. They wanted to remain isolated for the next week, but they would meet up again at the Surf Restaurant around eight o’clock the next Saturday night since there was a live band playing, and they would need to get out in the public again and act like two normal couples out to enjoy themselves.
John picked up Mary around seven forty-five that Saturday evening. They arrived at the Surf Restaurant before Lucy and Logan, and found an isolated table for four on the back deck of the restaurant. Lucy and Logan arrived around eight and John ordered beer for all of them.
Lucy spoke to Mary in a soft voice, “Just think. If we had not gotten up with John at the Le Clos Restaurant, we wouldn’t have been on that boat ride or that island exploring”.
Mary’s voice matched Lucy’s, “Yeah, and if John had not had an old map he’d found in his uncle’s attic, and if all of us had not agreed to explore Tiger Island, the body of that poor woman might not have been discovered.”
Logan replied as he guzzled down another large swig of his beer. “It’s kind of creepy in a way. I guess it was providence that led us to the body.”
John got up out of his chair and gesturing a knightly bow towards Mary said, “Hey, I hear the band’s pretty good. Would you care to dance?”
Mary replied, “I thought Sir Lancelot would never ask.”
Lucy and Logan followed John and Mary to the dance floor. Everyone seemed to have a good time, swaying and dancing to the lead singer crooning out Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” when flashes from a camera began illuminating their silhouettes on the dance floor. Logan looked straight at the camera the last time the flash went off. Even though he was momentarily blinded by the light, he immediately recognized the press had found them. Logan yelled to the other three, “We’ve got to get out of here or this fellow will be letting his other colleagues know we are ‘fish bait’ for the taking.”
All four of them started darting towards the exit area when John spoke quickly to Logan, “Let’s all get in your jeep and park it in the parking lot behind Bret’s Restaurant. My boat has enough provisions to last us a few days, and by then these vultures will get tired of ‘buzzing around.’”
They ran quickly, got in Logan’s jeep, and drove quickly towards Front Street. Finding an empty parking spot beside the souvenir shop, they got out of the vehicle and hurried towards John’s boat, which was tied to the dock’s pilings outlined beautifully by the moonlight.
Chapter Ten
John Fielding’s Yacht
They untied the ropes, and after they had shoved off from the dock, John announced, “I think I will head south and follow the coastline until we get to Port St. Lucy. There we can refuel, get more provisions, and decide if we want to continue travelling southward or head back north to Fernandina Beach.”
