Mysterious Night Visitor

By G. L. Didaleusky

A retired CSI investigator, Todd Watson and his wife, Dana, a retired pathologist assistant, seeks out answers behind the unexplained disappearance of an elderly couple in their Florida retirement community leaving in the middle of the night with a person wearing a hoodie and driving a dark blue van. The couple had sold all their worldly possessions giving the money to a daughter in Maine. The couple told no one, including their daughter, where they were going or why they left. The two sleuths recruit Lewis Emerick, a computer forensic specialist for the Marion County Sheriff's Office Forensic Crime Scene Evidence Division. His computer wizardry assists in investigating the mysterious disappearance of the couple. The determined sleuths are taken into unpredictable scenarios hoping to solve this mystery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9781624207730

Book preview

Mysterious Night Visitor

G.L. Didaleusky

Published by Rogue Phoenix Press, LLP for Smashwords

Copyright © 2024

ISBN: 978-1-62420-773-0

Electronic rights reserved by Rogue Phoenix Press, LLP. The reproduction or other use of any part of this publication without the prior written consent of the rights holder is an infringement of the copyright law. This is a work of fiction. People and locations, even those with real names, have been fictionalized for the purposes of this story.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To Holly, my wife, whose opinion is important to me, and for her support and encouragement toward my writing.

Chapter One

The Autumn sky is clear except for a few wispy cirrus clouds. The eight o’clock morning temperature is in the mid-sixties, as the pure-white, ten-story space rocket, with a bright red infinity symbol several feet from the attached cone-shaped capsule, stands majestically on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center. The privately owned rocket will be making its tenth voyage into the weightless orbit around the Earth, carrying three space travelers, stated a female TV news reporter from a seventy-inch, flat screen television in the living room of Todd and Dana Watson.

Todd peered up from his morning newspaper as he sat in a recliner lounge chair across from the TV. A cup holder to his right held a cup of dark-roasted black coffee. He read an article in the newspaper about the disturbing and unexplained disappearance of honeybees, and frogs being born with deformities. There have been reports of whales and porpoises losing their innate navigational systems, causing their beaching throughout the world. Scientists can’t agree upon the cause of these ominous events. He glanced to his right toward his wife, Dana, who sat on the couch peering at the TV. The coffee tastes good this morning.

She smirked. You say that almost every morning, Todd. She chuckled. I use the same type of coffee every morning for the past…anyway. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

A brilliant bolt of lightning struck the nose of the space capsule, causing a large crowd of spectators standing with the TV news reporter to shout out with harrowing cries. My God. Where did this lightning come from? There isn’t a rain cloud in sight. It can’t be heat lightning under these weather conditions. I hope the people inside the capsule are okay.

The capsule is insulated from lightning strikes, announced a male reporter. But it doesn’t mean the lightning didn’t do any damage to the capsule. A short pause. Got word from mission control. The three astronauts are okay. Unfortunately, there won’t be a launch today until the capsule’s checked out for any damage.

Can you believe what happened? Dana questioned. What a quirk of Mother Nature. She muted the TV.

Definitely was unexpected. Todd then told her what he had read in the newspaper a moment ago.

Unbelievable, Dana responded. The lightning bolt sounded like another act of Mother Nature sending us a message.

Not sure about Mother Nature. But I’d say bizarre happenings are occurring around the world. Although from everything I’ve read and seen on the Discovery and History Channels the Earth goes through cyclical changes. Global warming changed to global changes for political reasons. Thank God the government realized the Covid-19 coronavirus would never completely disappear but be controlled with common sense like any other seasonal flu and common cold cases. Todd’s cell phone rang. He reached to his right and picked it up from the end table next to his recliner. He glanced at the caller’s ID. It was Richard Pierce, his next-door neighbor. Hey, Richard, what’s up? He rarely called this time of the morning, since he and his wife, Judy usually don’t get up until around nine-thirty.

I got a phone call from Steve and Penny McCullough’s daughter, Lori. She tried to call them last night, but their cell phone provider stated the phone number is no longer in use. She figured they may have bought a new phone with a new number. Since the daughter lives in Maine, she asked me to check up on them and have them call her. I went next door and saw their car was under the carport. I knocked on their front and side door. No one answered. And no lights on in the house.

Maybe someone picked the McCullough’s up yesterday and they stayed the night at their house?

I guess that’s possible. But since you know how to pick a lock, can you check and make sure they’re not in the house.

I can check to see if they’re not home, or if they’re lying in bed dead. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. He laid the phone down on the end table.

Who might be dead?

Todd told her what Richard had said. It’ll be a wellness check. I’d appreciate it if you went with me in case we find something…you know.

Sure. Dana retired from Division Five Coroner’s Office as a Coroner Assistant.

Todd retired as a Crime Scene Investigator for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office last year. He also trained as a locksmith with CSI and picked locked doors at crime scenes. He still had his locksmith tools to pick open door locks.

Todd and Dana met Richard at McCullough’s side door. Todd opened the storm door. Richard held the door open for him. He brought out a small leather case and unzipped it, revealing a variety of metal picks. He removed two picks, then handed the case to Dana. Several seconds later, a click emanated from the deadbolt lock. Success. He slowly opened the door while taking a deep sniff. No odor of death. He had encountered the odor of human decomposition many times during his thirty plus years as a CSI agent.

Dana had also taken a deep breath through her nose, then said, I don’t smell anything bad.

Hello. Steve…Penny. It’s Todd. Are you home? His deep baritone voice projected loudly into the house. No answer. The three of them walked into the kitchen. The house was eerily silent. No ticking clocks, humming noise from the refrigerator or sound from the furnace blowing warm air through the floor vents. Todd reached to his left and flicked the wall switch to turn the kitchen light on. No light from the ceiling’s glass globe. No electricity. Maybe the house’s circuit breaker clicked off. Plenty of morning light shined through the kitchen and living room windows for them to see everything around them.

Dana opened the refrigerator. The light didn’t come on. The refrig’ is empty.

The three of them checked the cupboards. No food items or condiments, only dishes, cups, bowls, and non-edible items were in the cupboards. Todd sighed. They apparently knew they were leaving the house for an extended period of time…or forever.

The power company probably shut off the electricity to the house. I’ll check the circuit breaker box. Since there wasn’t a basement in the house, which would be normal for homes in Florida due to high water tables throughout the state. It’s a well-known geological fact, most of Florida’s land mass is floating on an aquifer system of underground seas. A small utility room was off the kitchen. Todd opened the cover to the electrical box. All the breakers were on, including the main breaker. He walked back into the kitchen. Duke Energy turned off the power to the house.

Look what’s on the kitchen table, Dana said.

Laying on top of the table was a wallet, a purse, and a set of keys. Todd put on a pair of blue, rubber examination gloves and walked over to the table and opened the wallet. He and Dana brought gloves in case they had to touch anything inside the McCullough’s house. If it was a crime scene, they didn’t want to cover up existing fingerprints or leave their fingerprints on anything they picked up or touched. He peered down at a driver’s license inside the wallet. It’s Steve’s wallet. The wallet also contained his social security card, Medicare card, insurance card and forty-six dollars. Todd then looked in the purse and removed a woman’s wallet. It’s Penny’s with all her ID information as her husband’s.

Richard stared down at the keys. This is their car and house keys. Why would they leave these things on the kitchen table in plain sight for someone to easily find? What am I going to tell their daughter?

Nothing, until we check out the rest of the house, Todd answered, as he began walking toward the living room. Especially the bedrooms. They both could’ve died and are lying in bed. The house is cool, probably in the low to mid-sixties which would slow down human decomposition.

I agree, Dana said as they walked down the hallway leading to two bedrooms. She and Todd had been in the McCullough’s house a few times over the past year and knew the layout.

Todd opened a door to his left, leading into the guest bedroom. No foul odor permeated the air. A bedspread covered a twin-size bed. An end table and dresser completed the unoccupied room. The guest bathroom next to the bedroom was empty. They next approached the master bedroom at the end of the hallway. A closed bedroom door faced them. A moment later, Todd turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. No odoriferous scent passed through his nose. An unoccupied queen-size bed stood to his left with the headboard against the wall. Todd noticed the queen-size bed spread lay undisturbed. A jewelry box sat on one dresser and the other dresser top had normal bedroom items. Two end tables with lamps completed the room’s décor. He then walked over to the closed closet door and opened it. Clothes were hanging on hangers. No large gaps were present. If they left the house, they didn’t take any significant amount of clothes.

Where could Steve and Penny have gone? Richard asked as he looked around.

That’s the mystery. No way to know right now.

Dana had opened several dresser drawers. There aren’t any empty drawers.

I’ll check the bathroom, Todd said as he walked into the bathroom. Two toothbrushes stood in a ceramic carrier with a tube of toothpaste next to it. The medicine cabinet held three different prescription vials half filled with pills. Two vials prescribed for Steve, one vial had diabetic pills and the other contained high blood pressure pills. The third prescription vial contained Penny’s heart medication.

Dana grabbed the diabetic pill vial, peered at the label, then opened the twist-top cap. She stared inside, then poured the pills into the palm of her hand. She counted the white, oval pills, then put them back into the vial. Dana did the same for the hypertension pills. A moment later, she announced, I looked at each of the prescription date and how many pills the pharmacist dispensed. Steve last took his diabetic and high blood pressure pill yesterday. She then did the same procedure on Penny’s vial. The results are the same. Penny McCullough last took her prescription medication yesterday. She put the vials back into the medicine cabinet. Why would they stop taking their medications?

If someone abducted them for whatever reason this may explain why their medication remained in the medicine cabinet, my love. There can be two logical possibilities of them leaving their house last night. They willingly left with someone voluntarily or left the house under duress. What puzzled him was the three important items left on the kitchen table, the electric power to their house shut off, and now their vital prescription pills remained behind. These three scenarios fit both reasons for Steve and Penny McCullough’s disappearance.

Should we call the sheriff’s department and report them missing? Richard asked as the three of them walked out of the bedroom.

Not yet, Todd answered. There isn’t any sign of a struggle or foul play inside the house. We already know none of the residences have surveillance cameras from our Homeowners Association meetings, except for surveillance cameras in the clubhouse. I know all the cars and who owns them in our small community. Maybe someone on our street saw Steve and Penny riding in an unfamiliar vehicle in the past twenty-four hours. Or they saw them walking down the street.

When they reached the kitchen, Dana picked up the McCullough’s cell phone on the kitchen counter. There’s no service. She opened the back of the phone. The SIM card is missing. Like what their daughter mentioned, her parents cancelled the cell phone carrier. No way to know if they got a different provider. No way to check their cell phone to see who they’ve been talking with recently or retrieve their caller directory for phone numbers.

It sounds more like the McCullough’s purposely disappeared. Although, there’s still the possibility someone abducted them. Let’s go back to our house and call the neighbors. He glanced down at his watch, then removed his rubber gloves, as did Dana. It’s eight forty-five. We’ll call the neighbors we know will be up right now. Some of the neighbors don’t get up until later in the morning. As far as the McCullough’s daughter, he turned to Richard, tell her the truth. We didn’t find them at home. And we’re not sure where they are but will try to find out by talking with neighbors.

Should I mention about the wallet, purse, keys, and cell phone left in the kitchen?

No. I think we should wait until we talked with neighbors. If no one saw them, then we should call the sheriff’s office and report them missing.

The three of them went to Todd and Dana’s house. Todd reached into a kitchen drawer and removed the community’s phone and address directory. Richard, why don’t you call the McCullough’s daughter. After you’re done talking with the daughter, we’ll start making phone calls.

Sure. He called the daughter, who of course was worried about her parents not being home, with their car under the carport. Richard reassured her as soon as he got a hold of them, he’d have them call her back. He then called neighbors along with Todd and Dana.

Todd talked with the last person on the list who would be up and about. No one they talked with had seen the McCullough’s for the past twenty-four hours. I was hoping one of the residents saw them drive away with someone or they stayed overnight with a friend in the neighborhood. We have a few more people to call…the late sleepers. He glanced down at his watch. We’ll call the late sleepers in about an hour. Richard, I appreciate you involving us with the disappearance of the McCullough’s. As soon as we find something out, I’ll give you a call.

I assume you’ll call the sheriff department if the late sleepers are a dead end?

Yes. That’s our plan. Hopefully, they’ll show up at their house in the next couple of hours. And all our worrying will be all for naught.

Richard left the house.

What do you really feel about the McCullough’s disappearing? Dana asked as she put a coffee pod inside a coffee maker sitting on the kitchen counter. Do you want another cup of coffee?

Sure, sounds good. He sat down at the kitchen table. To answer your question about Steve and Penny, I have a gut feeling they’re not coming back for whatever reason. If someone abducted the McCullough’s for a ransom, the daughter would’ve heard something from the kidnappers by now. There isn’t much more we can do as private citizens. If either of us were still employed, me with the CSI department and you with the medical examiner, we could get access to their bank accounts and see if there were any withdrawals or any other activity.

That’s true. she agreed as she placed a grey, porcelain mug underneath the coffee maker’s spout and pushed the 12-once button on the coffee machine. The coffee began spurting through the nozzle. We’re already doing a law enforcement investigation by searching their house and talking with neighbors. We haven’t infringed upon any illegal activity.

So far, we haven’t. It’s hard to believe we’ve been retired for over a year. Sometimes I still wake up in the morning thinking I need to get up, get dressed, and go to work.

I once in a while think the same thing, Dana removed the filled mug and set it next to Todd. As we know, it’s a normal reaction after retirement. She walked back to the coffee maker and placed a coffee pod into a circular holder, then put three teaspoons of sugar into her mug before placing the mug underneath the nozzle.

Todd sipped his black, sugarless coffee, then chuckled. Our retirement day will always be easy to remember, even when we get into our nineties and have a tough time remembering what we had for supper the previous day or the name of the person we met at the clubhouse a couple of days ago. One thing is for sure, we’ll never forget the day we retired.

Halloween day, October thirty-first. We may forget the year, but the month and day we’ll always remember.

After drinking their coffee, Todd picked up his cell phone and called Frank and Jean Spelling regarding seeing Steve and Penny McCullough yesterday. He put the cell phone on speaker, so Dana could