Author's Chapter Notes:
This is actually a storyline I would like to see explored on 'Dexter'- that being the clearing of the deceased James Doakes's name.
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Detective Lydia Adams never believed her cousin, Miami Metro Police Sgt. James Doakes, was the ‘Bay Harbor Butcher’. But the massive amount of evidence that seemed to prove that he was, and James’s death, forced her to just live with the fact that most people did indeed believe he was.
But it is when her new partner, Detective Rene Cordero, asks ‘the question’, that Lydia comes to the conclusion that she has to know for her own peace of mind, if the cousin she had loved all of these years, was really such a monster known as the ‘Bay Harbor Butcher’....
****
Lydia’s first thought, was that her former partner, Detective Russell Clarke, had never asked her about it. And he wouldn’t have, if he were still around.
Lydia and Rene had been called to the scene of a convenience store robbery/murder. Just as Lydia finished asking a young man(who had been hiding down an aisle while the clerk took a shotgun blast to the face) for a description of the killer, Rene called her over to compare notes.
He also asked her if it was true, that Miami’s Bay Harbor Butcher had been her first cousin?
Lydia turned and walked out of the store, murder scene be damned! One of the uniforms eyed her, and she knew he probably just thought she was overwhelmed. Rene eased by her side.
“I’m sorry, Lydia. I know it was a stupid thing to bring up. Especially now. I don’t know what got into me.” he said somberly. The two of them were just starting to click, after some initial tension. Lydia’s former partner, Detective Russell Clarke had gotten married and was working at a police station in Florida somewhere. Rene never could quite ascertain if part of Lydia’s resentment towards him, had to do with something personal that had gone down between Detective Clarke and Lydia or what.
Lydia took a deep breath. Something in her suddenly made her decide not to cuss Rene out. Looking around, she began to speak.
“Yes. Jimmy is, was, my cousin. My mother and his mother are sisters.”
“Oh. Look, we don’t have to talk about it.”
“No, we don’t. But I’m going to. Just to get it out of the way.” Lydia said calmly. “My cousin is dead and has been forever branded some kind of monster with a vigilante complex. All of the victims were low lives that no one would miss. I don’t believe for one minute he did anything at all but die needlessly.
Rene raised a brow.
“Meaning? The FBI got involved, didn’t they?”
Lydia folded her arms.
“And? Rene, for Jimmy to have done ALL of that, he would’ve needed regular access to a boat, which as far as anyone in the family knew, he didn’t own! A person that could do that, didn’t JUST become that way. There would’ve been signs, going all the way back to childhood, that would’ve told us that he was crazy! The whole thing just never sat right with me. And my poor aunt and cousins.” Lydia sighed, feeling more distressed by the minute. Rene could see that.
“You know, didn’t Detective Russell transfer to a precinct in Florida? Why don’t you take some time, go to Miami and see what you can find out? It might give you peace of mind.”
Lydia said nothing. What Rene was saying is that she should go to Florida, confirm that her cousin was indeed the Bay Harbor Butcher, come back to California and live in peace???
But honestly, it didn’t sound like a bad idea. Lydia nodded. And she did have vacation time stored up.
“I might just do that.”
****
It was two weeks later that Lydia arrived in Miami, Florida.
That same day, Jimmy’s mother, Theda, insisted she stay with her. And it was not long until Aunt Theda began talking about her only son, and how he just couldn’t have been the Bay Harbor Butcher.
Aunt Theda handed Lydia a bottled water and sat down on the couch next to her.
“Everyone else just wants to forget about it. But I’m going to tell you something, Lydia. The person I always blamed was that heifer that he worked for. That Lieutenant La Guerta.”
Lydia set down her bottle.
“Lieutenant La Guerta?”
“Lieutenant Maria Guerta. James had a thing for her, though he would never admit it. He TRAINED HER trifling ass. Next thing my boy knows, she’s passing him in rank. Everyone said she slept her way into that position.”
“Whoa! Aunt Theda, what do you think Jimmy’s Lieutenant had to do with this?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But a year later, someone else that the woman was close to, a D.A. of all people, turned out to be a killer as well! I just thought it was crazy, that two professional men, that that heifer knew, ‘suddenly’ become killers. I’m telling you, Maria La Guerta is the key.”
Lydia said nothing. She picked up her water and sipped it. It did seem to be a stretch. She didn’t want to promise her aunt anything, so she said nothing about why she was really visiting. But she did decide to contact Russell at his precinct right away. Lydia was going to ask him to get her information out of Miami Metro.
****
“What are you doing, Lydia?”
Detective Russell Clarke, of the Miami Beach Police Department, was sitting with his former partner, at a table in front of a small cafe. Lydia, who had barely touched her food, leaned forward.
“I just have to know for my own peace of mind that my cousin went crazy or...I don’t know. I just never believed he did this.”
Detective Clarke eyed her.
“If you don’t believe all of the overwhelming evidence, then you’re saying what?”
Lydia clamped her lips together, then spoke.
“That the real killer framed him.”
Russell appraised her for a few seconds before speaking.
“I managed to get ahold of that file online using my new access code. One of the reasons your cousin was focused in on, was because the FBI suspected that the killer was someone within the Miami Metro Police Department.”
Lydia shook her head. God...
“And that could STILL be true.” she said. Russell touched her hand.
“Lydia, you’re stepping into something here. I get the feeling that everyone wants to forget all about that shit storm and move on. Like you should. Look, Amy and I would love to have you to dinner.”
Lydia didn’t want to meet Russell’s wife, who he had met on the Internet. She was the reason he had left California and come out here. Lydia had thought he was crazy to just uproot his life like that. But as Lydia peered at him, she could see that Russell was quite happy.
“Maybe. But not tonight. I don’t suppose you could let me see some of the file?”
“It’s in my car. I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”
“I’m asking.” Lydia said wryly.
****
Reading that ‘Bay Harbor Butcher’ file was like reading about another man. Someone that was not Jimmy. Lydia decided to see if she could find out where her cousin was, when some of these victims would’ve met their makers(though from what she could tell, the FBI couldn’t tell approximately when any of the people had perished), that would be a first good step in proving that either the police here were incompetent, or that he was framed.
She would have to play this very carefully. She had no allies within Miami Metro, so unfortunately, the direct approach would have to do. And Lydia had a feeling that would get her nowhere. Her mind went back to that woman’s name Aunt Theda had mentioned--Lieutenant Maria La Guerta. Lydia pulled out her lap top and put her name in a search engine.
She found a recent scandal about some undercover operation that had went very wrong. Lydia was able to discern that La Guerta passed the blame off on one of her detectives, a woman named Debra Morgan. Whether Debra was really at fault, Lydia could not figure out. It looked as if Detective Morgan had been suspended briefly, then reinstated due to a big ongoing case right now.
Lydia shut down the laptop, closed it and began drumming her fingers along the top of it. It wasn’t much. Hell, it wasn’t anything. Not that it mattered at this point. The only choice she had, if she didn’t want this whole trip to be a total waste of time, was to go to Miami Metro and speak to Maria La Guerta, face to face.