Chapter 21

Gary and Diana were to meet a young couple going by the name of Leon and Dora in an upscale restaurant located in the only large town within half a days drive of where Ed was staying. In fact, it was only about thirty minutes from the cabin. This particular part of the country was a very popular vacation spot that attracted young couples nationwide and locals living within six hours. The downtown area was full of art shops, souvenir stands, clothing stores and restaurants. There was a water park and other tourist attractions that kept the families busy while the young professionals were busy shopping, eating, and drinking.

The evidence was highly suggestive that Leon and Dora were the serial killers John had been tracking. It wasn’t even sure if these were their real names, but something they had told Gary and Diana when they first met. Odds were good that these were false identities used to cover their tracks.

Entering the restaurant, Gary and Diana blended easily with the rest of the young crowd. The host at the door greeted them with a contrived formality. Gary said, “We are expecting to meet Leon and Dora here. Do you know if they’ve arrived?”

The host answered, “You can look around and see if they are here.”

Diana looked around the room and then said, “I don’t see them.”

“Would you like to wait for them at the bar or at a table?” asked the man.

“A table, I think.” Gary looked over at the crowded bar.

“I have a corner table if that would be good.” After a nod from Gary, the host picked up two menus before leading them to a table near the corner of the room.

Donald was pleased to see that Gary and Diana were keeping within their role without identifying him as Gary’s father or as a cop. He seated them with a wink and then handed them the menus. While the place wasn’t exactly busy at that time of day, the table next to theirs was occupied by a young couple. There were actually very few empty tables since the lunch hour was just ending.

It wasn’t too much later that the couple they were expecting entered the restaurant and spotted Gary and Diana in the corner. The young couple pointed to them and followed the host to the table. After handing them a pair of menus Donald went back to his station.

The conversation around the table started a little slow, but after a while it started to flow as Gary and Diana got over their initial fear of the situation. Before long, the four were exchanging stories about college life. The only interruption in the conversation occurred when the waitress came to the table and they were forced to take the time out to order their meals.

After five minutes, the waitress returned to the table carrying a tray of glasses and a pitcher of beer. She passed the glasses around the table and filled each glass with beer before leaving the pitcher on the table. With the kind of fake smile that comes easily to a waitress in an upscale place, she told them their food would be ready soon.

About the time they finished the first round of beers, the couple from the table next to theirs left. The flow of conversation continued. Despite what they had heard about Dora and Leon, it was very hard to believe that these were the serial killers by how they behaved. Leon was charming and attentive while Dora was attractive and flirtatious.

Everyone at the table turned when the host led a man to the table next to theirs. This was the last kind of person that one would expect to see in this kind of establishment. He was a tall man wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, western style shirt, and cowboy hat. A huge belt buckle with a face of cut agate completed the look of a cowboy too far from the range. Sitting down heavily, the man turned to the foursome at the table next to his and said, “Howdy folks. Is the food any good?”

The disdain with which Dora looked at cowboy was unmistakable. She turned her back on him and said, “What they allow in these places.”

Looking insulted, the cowboy said, “Just trying to be neighborly. Don’t have to get your panties in a bind.”

The foursome at the table gave each other looks suggesting that this old timer was definitely in the wrong place. Ed examined the menu, looking over at Dora occasionally as if checking out her well developed chest held back by a tee-shirt that was much too tight. His view was momentarily blocked when the waitress showed to deliver the food to the table.

Ed had felt sick from the moment he entered the restaurant. Sitting next to the foursome was like sitting in an orchestra pit while they tuning up their instruments but with every sound magnified a thousand-fold. The lies told as Gary and Diana played their part was like chalk scratching a blackboard. That was nothing compared to the falsity of Dora and Leon. Their nice facade over a black interior ripped into Ed’s brain like a chainsaw.

When the waitress left, Dora leaned forward and put a hand on Gary. Diana looked at the woman wondering what she was doing. During that moment of distraction, Leon refilled the glasses with beer. Ed saw the truth of what was going on. It was hard to miss as it struck him like the sound of a cannon fired in his ear. He watched Leon slip a pill into Gary’s glass. He understood now that they would get him drugged and help Diana carrying him out to the parking lot where they would nab her.

This was the event for which they had been waiting. Leaning back in his chair, Ed gestured a waitress over and said, “I want a different table.”

The waitress stood there confused by his actions, not knowing this was the cue for Diana to leave the table. While Ed made increasingly loud demands at the waitress, Diana leaned forward and said, “I have to go to the little girls room.”

With the argument behind her and Diana wanting to leave the table, things looked out of control from Dora’s perspective. She wished that stupid cowboy would just leave so that she could concentrate on taking their next victim. After shooting a dark look at Ed, she decided that if things didn’t get back in control soon that she would call it off. She asked, “Would you like me to go with you?”

Smiling, Diana answered, “No, please eat. I’ll be right back.”

As Diana passed by Ed on her way to the ladies room, she looked at him with concern. Ed looked very ill. He was pale, sweating, and his hands were trembling. The host came over to the table where Ed was seated. He took up a position right behind Dora. Dismissing the waitress, Donald looked at Ed and realized that he looked very ill. He asked, “What’s the problem here?”

Feeling sick to his stomach, Ed was having difficulty playing his role. Thinking that the sooner things were over, the sooner he would recover, he said, “I want another table.”

Responding to the call to arms by Ed, Kip and Wayne entered the restaurant the first time he asked for a new table. Now they walked over to the table and stood in a position that blocked exit from the corner of the room. They had just reached their position when Donald asked, “Why?”

As planned Ed was supposed to stand up behind Leon and make sure the man couldn’t get up. Unfortunately, Ed couldn’t stand and he knew that he had to make the truth known so that the lies wouldn’t affect him so strongly. In a voice loud enough to be heard around the restaurant, he answered, “Because those two are serial killers, and they’ve just drugged the drink of that guy over there.”

Everyone was surprised at Ed’s announcement. It was a major deviation from the script. At the shocked looks on the faces of Dora and Leon, Ed smiled as the discordant sounds started to fade and he felt that he could function again. He said, “Those two men are FBI and they are here to arrest you.”

Dora tried to get out of her chair, but Don’s hand on her shoulder held her in place. Surprising everyone, Leon spun out of the chair with a knife in his hand. Before Ed even had a chance to react, a long slice appeared across his chest. The sudden action and surprise that it generated almost allowed the couple to escape. Leon pushed Donald into Kip and dashed towards the door. This freed Dora to stand up and flee.

Wounded, Ed threw himself on Dora before she had a chance to take two steps. A knife seemed to appear in her hand from nowhere. Screaming like a wild woman, she tried to stab Ed while he wrestled with her. Gary, realizing the danger Ed was in, jumped on her and wrested the knife away from her. Despite his prompt action, he was too late to prevent her from cutting Ed along his back. Once the knife was gone, she started scratching and biting. Her strength was incredible. Struggling frantically, Ed finally was able to flip her onto her stomach where he could grab her arms and gain control.

When Kip staggered backwards as a result of Donald falling into him, Leon made it past the two FBI agents and raced to the front door. Once blood had been shed, other customers in the restaurant started screaming and stood in an effort to flee what appeared to be a dangerous development. Wayne had drawn his pistol but was unable to shoot because of the crowd of people.

When Leon opened the door to leave the restaurant, there was a loud thump as John hit him across the stomach with his walking stick. That was the end for Leon as he doubled up and fell to the ground. In seconds, Wayne was present to snap the handcuffs on him.

In the main room, Kip put the handcuffs on Dora so that Ed could roll off her. As soon as the pressure of Ed was off her back, she started struggling to escape. She was giving forth spooky animal-like screams that sent chills up and down the spines of everyone in the restaurant.

As the nausea induced by such a concentration of lies slowly passed, Ed climbed off the floor and stood. Blood trickled down his chest and back as he rocked from side to side feeling faint. Shaking his head, he couldn’t believe how hard that woman had fought. His face had been scratched and he had bite marks on his arm.

Gary and Donald went to Ed and led him to a chair. His breathing calmed and the din in his ears faded when the FBI agents took Dora and Leon to the car. After taking a sip of his water, he sat back only then beginning to feel cuts. Donald had taken two cloth napkins and was using them to press on the knife wounds on the front and back of Ed. The wounds didn’t appear to be deep, but they bled freely when pressure wasn’t applied.

When Ed was more composed, he winked at Gary and Donald as he said, “John is really in trouble now. I’d hate to be him.”

Looking over to see what was the matter with John, neither man could see any problem. Worried that he was missing something, Donald said, “He looks okay.”

Grinning at the blood on his hands, Ed said, “The wives are going to skin him alive for letting me get hurt.”

Father and son grinned with identical smiles at the joke. John walked over and looked at Ed. Shaking his head at all of the blood, he said, “I’m really in trouble now.”

Gary laughed and said, “That’s what Ed just said.”

Now that the action was over, Diana came out of the restroom. She felt guilty at having left the scene. However, she had done as Gary requested and took comfort that she hadn’t been in the way. When she saw Ed, she paled and nearly fainted. Surprising her, Ed smiled and winked at her as though nothing was wrong. She came over to the table to see if she could help. Ed looked at her and said, “You did everything exactly right. You did what we had planned.”

The local police entered the restaurant and started taking statements from the other customers. They had been told that a major arrest was going to be made in the restaurant, but that they should wait at the end of the street with the other FBI agents until called in to establish control. The additional FBI agents took charge of the crime scene. The glasses of beer were collected as evidence. They would be analyzed to identify what had been put in the drinks. The purse that belonged to Dora was bagged and taken away.

Standing next to Ed, John tried to figure out why Ed had deviated from the script. Unable to come up with a reasonable explanation, he asked, “What happened?”

Shaking his head in disgust at his own weakness, Ed said, “The plan was perfect except I shouldn’t have been the one at the next table. I didn’t think that my truth sense would practically cripple me like that. I held on until he slipped the pills in the drink and then I just had to expose the truth.”

Hitting his head with his palm, John said, “I should have know that. You must have been in horrible pain. I’m so sorry.”

Ed shook his head and replied, “Hey, I helped plan this mess. I should have been the host and Donald should have been the customer.”

Diana, surprised to see the men talking so calmly with Ed bleeding, said, “Speaking of pain, why aren’t you taking him to the hospital?”

John answered, “The ambulance is outside. They’ll be here in a minute and will take him to the hospital where they will sew him up as good as new.”

Winking at Diana, Ed said, “They’ll haul me off to the hospital where some pretty nurse will not tolerate my poor attempts to seduce her. As a result, they’ll get out their favorite rusty needle and sew me up. Then after tetanus shot, and possibly a full rabies treatment, they’ll release me. Unless I really angered the nurse. In that case, they’ll probably lock me up for psychiatric observation.”

Diana was dismayed to see them take the injury that lightly. She asked, “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Only when I’m asked about it and I can get a little sympathy from a cute young lady,” replied Ed with a wink to indicate that he wasn’t serious.

Kip came over to Ed and looked at where Donald was still pressing the two cloth napkins against the wound. Shaking his head, he asked, “You were cut twice and still caught her?”

Ed said, “There was no way I was going to let her get out of here.”

“Damn, that’s impressive,” replied Kip.

The EMS personnel finally arrived to take care of the cuts. After a quick look, they replaced the blood soaked cloth napkins with sterile pads and taped them in place. Ed walked out to the ambulance with them, knowing that John would have to stay behind to finish the investigation. To his surprise, Donald, Diana, and Gary followed behind the ambulance in their car.

At the hospital, they had to wait for the dermatologist to arrive. Surprised that they had called in a dermatologist, Ed asked, “Why can’t you stitch me up?”

Shrugging, the nurse said, “We get a lot of rich folks up here and they don’t like scars. It’s standard practice to call in the dermatologist to sew people up. We’d use a plastic surgeon, but we don’t have one anywhere around here.”

Donald and Gary stood there watching while Diana went to get some coffee for everyone. Ed looked over at Gary and said, “Gary, you did a good job getting the knife from her. She’d have probably buried it in me if you hadn’t been there.”

“Yes, he did,” said Donald as he patted his son on the shoulder. Pulling him close, he said, “I’m very proud you son. You handled yourself like a pro in a very nasty situation.”

Gary looked at his father, pleased to hear praise from him. He answered, “Thanks, Dad. That means a lot coming from you.”

The dermatologist arrived, shuffling into the room looking over his glasses at the people gathered there. He was a short man about as round as he was tall. A year short of seventy, he had retired to this area for the summers and in Florida for the winters.

He paused to examine the cuts and then went to wash his hands. After he returned to the patient, the nurse held out a tray with two syringes filled with a local anesthetic. Shaking his head, he poked the needle into several places around the wounds. When one syringe was empty, he grabbed the other. As he worked, he asked, “So how did you get cut?”