Crime Scene

Some days I get far more adventure than I wanted.

It was time for me to leave Wickham Park in Melbourne to begin my re-positioning cruise. That's sailor lingo for seasonally moving your ship to operate in different waters.

First I planned to visit friends in Orlando for a few days. They invited me to park in their garden. These are the same friends that a few years ago convinced me to get a puppy dog with a tear-jerking story. Yepper, that's how Harley Dawg entered my life. Ironically, Harley was 5 months old when I adopted the little starving waif and my friends had an older dog plus a 5 month old puppy. Whenever these two see each other, they go nuts romping around like puppies again. It's so super cute.

Two of my friends live together and one I have known since I was about 14 years old. If you met each of us separately you would probably never figure out what we have in common. I was thinking about this recently. I believe it's our similar outlook on day to day life. What ever we are doing at any point and time in our life, it's the VERY BEST time of our lives right then and there.

We've seen each other through the ups and downs. We've both had a roller coaster life of fabulous highs and a few rocky lows. But I think each of us always thought our lows were our highs and our highs were nirvana.

We're happy people and life is good!

But as I approached her neighborhood, which is a typical Orlando preplanned suburbia there were helicopters overhead, cops cars on the streets and news agencies every where. I turned onto her street to see more cop cars and a few people in handcuffs. It is still unclear whether those arrests had anything to do with the murders.

I was so shocked and gawking at the spectacle, that I made a wrong turn into a cul-de-sac and had to back out into the main road again, making a huge mess of traffic in my motorhome but the cops and everyone else simply ignored my gaffe. (Daggum tourist!)

Yes. I said the murders.

It took about an hour or more before we found out that all the excitement and attention was due to a triple homicide less than 100 yards from from my friends' home. Meanwhile the usually sedate neighborhood was abuzz with multiple helicopters. Three people had been murdered presumably Monday night. Other neighbors had reported gunshots that night but when the powers to be were summoned they looked around with flashlights for a few minutes then left. Tuesday morning a dog walker went to check on his friends whom he found shot to death. As I write this, the news agencies do not report any arrests in the case. Perhaps the folks I saw in handcuffs when I made my wrong turn, were coincidentally being arrested on something else.

This is a respectable neighborhood of upscale homes, many with professionally landscaped gardens. During the morning a parade of maids and gardeners are seen arriving for work at many abodes.

One, two, three murders? Here? No suspects?

It's just shocking all around. I knew one of the victims, my friend knew all three. It feels creepy to be so close to the scene of the crime and know that a murderer is lurking about. For the first 24 hours or so,  I could feel the evil in the air, I contemplated driving far far away but frankly, I was too exhausted. A day later the evil feeling left (perhaps the murderer has relocated?)

So when I heard a thump on my RV door late last night, well actually the night before (I've had internet wars trying to get online!) I about had a heart attack.

Had the killer come for me?

It was my friend who was going to walk her dog and wanted me to join her. For some ridiculous reason I did, then about half way around the large block, I said "This is insane! We're out walking our dogs at 10:30 at night and they haven't caught the killer. Let's go back."

My friend said "This neighborhood is safe."

I said "It WAS safe, but we just had three murders!"

I climbed inside my motorhome, locked the door, said my prayers then slipped back to sleep.

Another knock at my door. This time it was my friend's housemate. My friend had not returned home yet with the dog yet we came back an hour ago. She left to go look for her while I flailed around to put on street clothes again.

Now there was yet another knock at my door, this time the brother of my friend who happened to fly in the day before on a prearranged visit. He wanted to know where everybody went.

My jaw fell, as I scrambled to find my shoes, but at that moment, the other two and the dog came walking up the sidewalk.

We all went back to bed. This time Harley dog snuggled up close to me all night, something he hasn't done in quite a while. I think he sensed my restless spirit. I was up and down all night, sleeping fitfully.

As of this writing, the police have no leads or if they do, it's top secret.

I have some things to take of first, then I will hopefully be back on the road again. We are all trying to have a fun relaxed visit in spite of the calamity.