After I spoke to Linda, I called Lana‘s cell phone. It went to voicemail. “Lana, this is Deputy Wild with Coconut County. I need you to return my call as soon as possible.” I left my number and ended the call. I didn’t expect to hear back from her.
After lunch, JD and I drove by her house and knocked on the door.
There was no answer.
She could have been inside and just didn’t come to the door.
My phone buzzed with a call from Brenda as we walked back to the van. "You're not going to believe this."
"The way things are around here, I think I might believe just about anything.”
25
“Iran Ray’s prints through the database,” Brenda said. “It came back with a double hit. Two matches. Two different socials.”
“Some kind of glitch?”
“It’s the same guy. Ray Coleman is just an older version of Ray Corbin, who’s been deceased for 15 years.”
“Maybe Ray was in WITSEC, and a system update caused a glitch,” I suggested.
“I don’t think Ray Corbin was in WITSEC. He was a person of interest in a string of serial murders.”
That hung there for a moment.
"That would be unusual," I said.
"From what I can tell, the serial murders stopped after Ray Corbin's death, and the investigation went cold. It's officially closed as of now. I don't know about you, but I'm thinkingRay Corbin faked his death, then lived out his life as Ray Coleman."
"I think you might be right," I said. "Where did the original murders take place?”
"Pineapple Bay.”
"I'll look into this. Kind of frightening to think this guy has been living right under our noses this whole time.”
“15 years is a long time not to reoffend. I bet there are a few unsolved murders we might be able to attribute to him. You might want to have another look at the most recent one.”
“Abigail?”
“From what I can tell, all the girls murdered in Pineapple Bay were strangled. Of the remains that were found, that is. Their hands were folded, and a cloth or T-shirt was placed over their faces. Sound familiar? They were all killed in their homes or apartments. It’s anybody’s guess about the four unrecovered girls. They might have been attacked and murdered out in the wild.”
I grimaced. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep you posted.”
I ended the call and filled JD in on the situation. He was as astonished as I was.
We hopped into the van and headed back to theAvventura. On the boat, I got on my laptop, logged into the county portal, and started looking into the serial murders in Pineapple Bay.
I read the case reports and didn't have to dig too far online to find a plethora of articles written at the time.
Jack huddled around the computer.
"Get this," I said. “Seven girls went missing in one year. They discovered three bodies, and the other four are still missing. At this point, they’re presumed dead. Another girl was attacked but managed to escape. She picked Ray out of a lineup, but it looks like they didn't have anything else to corroborate her story. Ray died in a car accident before they could make a case. Investigation was essentially closed.”
Jack's face wrinkled with confusion. "Did they confirm his identity in the car crash?”
"According to this," I said, reading from the screen, "the body was burned beyond recognition, but they were able to match dental records.”
Skepticism wrinkled Jack's face. "This is definitely kind of wonky. You think he had help getting another ID?”
