The Naked and the Dead Ch. 03 - Final

"Do we know about any family members besides the Congressman and his wife?" Russ asked.

"No,' I said. "I guess we ought to talk to them."

"Let's keep the DNA to ourselves for the time-being," Gail said, "If Worth and his wife know we have evidence pointing at a family member, they'll probably talk to whomever they suspect. That will give the perp time to destroy other evidence or flee." Then Gail said the unthinkable: "If the killer is the Congressman or Laura, we've just told our perp that we're on to them when we're not ready to make an arrest." As usual, Gail's assessment was dead on.

We talked with Laura Worth the day Lisa's body was found. We hadn't talked with the Congressman, but he had been busy since his return to Ft. Myers. Multiple times per day, we heard his voice on TV or radio talking about how the tragedy which had befallen his family showed that crime was out of control in this country. We could, he said, no longer coddle criminals. We needed to take preemptive steps to excise killers from society before they killed.

"Who outside the Worth family would know about other family members?" Russ asked.

"What about Lisa's high-school friend in Gainesville, Andrea Cupp?" I asked. "She's known the family for a few years."

"Good idea," Gail said. Given our problems getting contact information for Anne Combs from the local university, Russ volunteered the FBI's resources to locate Ms. Cupp.

Russ was already in when Gail and I arrived the next morning. "Have you seen the News-Press?" he asked. We hadn't. Russ tossed a copy over.

On the paper's front page below the fold was a story that Congressman Worth was going to introduce a bill in Congress that would require every U.S. citizen 16 or older to carry an operable and loaded gun at all times when outside their house. "Lisa didn't like guns," the Congressman was quoted as saying, "but, if she had been required to have one last week, I'm sure she would be alive today."

The three of us just shook our heads. More usefully, the FBI had a phone number for Andrea Cupp. When I reached her that morning and identified myself, she said, "It's about time you called back!"

"What do you mean 'called back?'" I asked.

Andrea said, "I called the Ft. Myers police Monday as soon as I heard about Lisa. The woman I talked to said she didn't know who had the case, but she'd find out and have them call back. I've been waiting."

"I'm sorry," I said. "Ft. Myers PD doesn't have the case. I'm with Lee County Sheriff. Why did you call the police?"

"Lisa sent me a letter last week," Andrea said. "In the letter she asked me to give it to the police if anything happened to her. Do you want me to send it to you?"

"May I come up and get it from you instead?" I asked.

"Sure," Andrea said. She gave me directions to her apartment from I-75. I told Andrea we'd be there around 3:00 p.m.

Gail and I got to Andrea's apartment about 2:30. Andrea gave us two sheets of white 8½ x 11 lined paper stapled together with an 8½ x 11 picture stapled to the back. Andrea had thrown away the envelope. The letter immediately went into a plastic evidence bag. "Do you know Lisa's handwriting?" Gail asked Andrea.

"Yes," Andrea said, "the letter is Lisa's writing."

We couldn't read the letter until the original had been checked for fingerprints. We took prints from Andrea because she had handled the letter. She didn't know if Lisa had other relatives.

We left Andrea around 3:00 p.m. which, absent Friday evening traffic, would put us back in Ft. Myers a bit after 7:00. Gail called her office so a tech would be waiting for us. The tech had a wait because we didn't reach Gail's office until after 8:00. They would lift any prints first thing in the morning. We could have the letter back around noon Saturday. The tech promised to make several copies.

The original of Lisa's letter, in an evidence bag, went into a safe in the FBI office. Gail, Russ, and I each had a copy and sat down to read. Lisa Worth's letter to her friend read as follows:

Andy:

I know I usually e-mail or text, but it may be important to prove that I said what is in this letter. I thought writing it by hand would help that.

You've been a great friend and we've known each other for years. There are some things you don't know about me, Mom, and Dad.

I knew Mom and Dad did some unusual stuff but, when I'd ask them about that, they'd tell me to wait because I was too young. That changed immediately when I turned 18. On my birthday, Mom had me strip off. Dad came into the room naked with a hard on. Dad asked if I was ready for my present. Well, you know I'm not big on taboos and Dad's big dick looked like it would be fun. We fucked. Dad wasn't as good as my boyfriends. He pulled out once he came, but I hadn't yet. Mom told me later than Dad always did that with her too.

That weekend, Mom and Dad took me to a strip club over on the East Coast. You know I've passed for over 21 for years and Dad got me a fake license. It said I was 24 and lived in Stuart. The place was nicer inside than I expected. Mom walked away. I asked where she went. Dad smiled and said she was working.

Dad and I had a couple of beers. A couple of girls came out and danced. I thought it was cool that they took everything off. Then Mom came on stage. She took everything off and danced a couple of songs buck naked. She looked great and everyone was giving her money. I looked at her face. I could tell she was having a blast and was aroused. I wanted to strip like Mom.

Dad had a waitress send a message back to Mom. She came out in a slinky dress I'd never seen before. I told Mom that I wanted to dance like she does. She told me that dancers at that club had to take everything off. I told her that was exactly what I wanted to do. Mom got a manager and I talked to him for several minutes.

I got to strip. You can't imagine how exciting it is to be naked on a stage in front of guys who are there to see your body. And everyone gives you money! You must try it. It is so hot! That night in the hotel, after Mom and I had both danced completely nude, Dad fucked me while Mom sat on my face and I ate her. What a way to celebrate becoming a legal adult!

Dad and I fucked every time he came home from D.C. He also told me that I had to help him and Mom fundraise. The three of us would go to the house of some old rich guy. Sometimes there would be a couple of old rich guys there. Mom and I would take our clothes off and play with each other until the old men got hard. That took time for some of them and Mom and I often got each other off. If the old guys got hard, Mom and I would suck them off and let them come in our mouths. Then, they would give Dad bags or briefcases or satchels full of cash. Dad started taking me fundraising this year without Mom. He said Mom is too old.

I've had fun. But I do think I give a lot for Dad and he gives little in return. You know I wanted to go to college with you at UF. Dad insisted I had to stay home because he didn't want to pay for my housing. All I've got to drive is that old Buick. Dad has tons of money. I know. I get it for him.

I've got a plan. I stopped fucking Peter and Gavin and Mike in July and had my IUD taken out. When Dad came home for August recess, I made sure we fucked during THAT part of my cycle. Dad wants me to fundraise Sunday. Kelly's out of town so I'll probably take him to her apartment and fuck him afterwards. Then I'm going to tell him that I may be pregnant with his kid. If he wants me to get an abortion and not talk to reporters, he needs to do a lot more for me, starting with a new Vette.

Why am I telling you this? I don't think Dad would hurt me. He likes putting his dick in me too much and I get him money. But Dad has a mean streak. You can't live without taking chances. I'm sending you this just in case this one blows up on me. If anything happens to me, please give this letter to the cops.

Love you.

Lisa W.

The last page was a full-length frontal nude of Congressman Worth. He was erect. In the margin below the picture, handwriting said "Happy 20th. Mom and I have your present firmed up. Love. Dad."

Gail, Russ, and I finished the letter at about the same time. We looked at each other, stunned, for a couple of minutes before Gail said, "Jesus Christ! Did her Dad kill her?"

Russ re-framed the question in more relevant terms. "You mean," he said, "did a U.S. Congressman kill her."

That became a busy weekend. Major Bowen looked like he was going to have a heart attack when I gave him the letter and told him about the DNA. The Sheriff, who was a friend of Jim Worth, refused to hear anything about it. Probably wise. Our State's Attorney recused himself. By Monday morning, Tallahassee had assigned a senior assistant State's Attorney from Jacksonville. Wisely, they chose someone from the same Party as Worth.

As the State's Attorney started assembling a grand jury, we brought the Congressman in for an interview. Gail, Russ, and I were all there. After twenty minutes of berating us for not having his daughter's killer in jail, or shot trying to escape, Worth finally let us ask questions.

Worth's story was simple. He and Lisa had gone to meet a major donor on Sanibel that Sunday. Lisa was good at persuading donors to write larger checks. They talked with him for a couple of hours and he wrote a check. Congressman Worth went home because he had an early flight back to D.C. the next morning. Lisa said she was going to a friend's place around the university. The Congressman never saw Lisa alive again. We went over the story a couple of times. The Congressman was consistent and refrained from adding any details.

A little more than an hour in, we had staff bring the Congressman a can of Coke and a straw. He drank the Coke without saying thanks. He was so used to people fawning over him that it obviously didn't occur to him that we had an ulterior motive. We could get his DNA from the straw and his prints from the can. When he finished, he crushed the can with his hand. The Congressman had big, strong hands. He also had two places on his face that were obviously covered by make-up.

We finally showed Congressman Worth a copy of the letter Lisa had sent to Andrea Cupp. He was enraged. The letter was false and not even Lisa's writing. Andrea Cupp was being paid by his enemies. He was insulted that we hadn't thrown the letter away immediately. We were obviously more interested in smearing him than catching his daughter's killer. He'd see that we were all removed from the case. The Congressman stood, ripped the letter into pieces, and walked out of the interview room.

The can and straw went to FDLE's lab as fast as we could get them there. While Congressman Worth called Gail, Russ, and me out by name in the press, we waited. FDLE got back to us a few days later. Worth's DNA matched the DNA in the semen in Lisa's vagina and in the skin under her fingernails. His prints were all over the Buick including the steering wheel. In places, Worth's prints were on top of his daughter's, indicating he had driven the car after she last did.

At Russ's suggestion, all the DNA samples were sent to the Armed Forces lab in Delaware for a second analysis. They had probably the most sophisticated DNA lab in the country. They confirmed what FDLE had found.

Congressman Worth was arrested and indicted for his daughter's murder. The make-up covered deep gouges in his face. The State's Attorney didn't think we could prove a death penalty spec and thought asking for death would make a conviction less likely. Congressman Worth was released on bond. Despite the charges, he still had to represent our District in Congress. He hired outstanding counsel and launched a massive public relations campaign. The charges were a hoax. The investigators, Gail, Russ, and me, were liberal-communist operatives who worked for China and were part of the "Deep State." It got so bad that the State asked for and was granted a change of venue from Lee County to Miami-Dade. The thinking was this was not as big news in Miami. Worth declared that the judge was also a liberal-communist-Chinese tool.

A jury convicted Jim Worth. He got a life sentence with possibility of parole after twenty years. He continued to declare that he was an innocent victim of a liberal conspiracy. His supporters bought that completely.

Gail and I made a stupid mistake after Congressman Worth's conviction. Our dear friend Samantha Stone was trained as a journalist and had been a TV news reporter before becoming Harry's second wife. Since her move to Florida, Samantha had done video pieces on nude recreation for a website called Nude Frontiers. We let Samantha talk us into being in one of her videos. All Samantha really had to do was ask.

The event was a nude pageant being held by a resort north of Tampa/St. Pete. Samantha had also learned a lot of the history of nudism. She said that many resorts had pageants back in the 1960s and 1970s. Pageants died out because they are contrary to the concept of body acceptance that holds that everyone should be free to enjoy social nudism regardless of what they look like. Pageants were also seen as objectifying women, and many resorts which ran pageants found their only contestants were professional strippers.

Samantha said this resort hadn't fully recovered from the pandemic. They were doing the pageant as a calculated risk to promote the resort. Even bad publicity was better than no publicity. The resort hoped to avoid charges of sexism by having competitions for men and women. The resort would expel any contestant it decided was a professional stripper.

Samantha thought the pageant was "retro" enough to be interesting. She called the resort and they offered unfettered access. Samantha decided that, to report it properly, she had to be a contestant. She wanted Gail to compete with her, and she wanted me to enter the men's competition. Harry would video the event, the interviews, and Samantha's narration.

Gail and I discussed Samantha's request between ourselves. On one hand, being nude onstage in a setting where being seen isn't incidental but is the reason you are there sounded like fun. On the other hand, we would likely both be in trouble at work if our bosses found out. We discounted the risk that someone who knew us as officers would attend the pageant and admit to it later. Samantha would post video online that included us, but who among our colleagues went to legitimate nudist websites? Cops wanted hardcore porn. The deciding factor was that Samantha wanted us to do it. She and Harry were two of our most special friends.

Worth had been arrested in early October, a couple weeks after Lisa's body was found. Worth and his lawyers pushed for a speedy trial and the jury had convicted Worth the following May. The pageant was Memorial Day Sunday a couple of weeks later.

We couldn't get a room at the resort. They were sold out. So were nearby hotels. We shared a room in a hotel in Tampa and drove to the resort the morning of the pageant. Fortunately, Samantha had a media pass so we could park on the grounds.

When Samantha, Gail, and I tried to register for the competitions, we were told that heavy demand for tickets had caused the pageant to be moved off the resort grounds. The resort had rented an empty field a "short walk" to the north. A stage, facilities, and concessions had been set up. Three was also a chain-link fence surrounding the site and professional security guards.

We walked to the pageant site, Harry carrying a bag with his compact video camera/audio recorder and extra batteries. It was a hot walk. When we got there, the gates had not yet opened. Thankfully, our names were on the list of contestants and Harry was listed media. We were let in.

My first surprise was that Harry was not the only media. There were newspaper and radio people and a Tampa TV station crew. The attractive young woman who was the TV reporter said that, if it ran at all, the station would have to pixilate all the good parts. One of the radio guys apparently knew the reporter and teasingly asked if she was competing.

Gail and I were both worried the pageant was too high visibility, but Samantha assuaged our fears. Of course, Samantha's sensitivities were different. She made her living appearing nude in videos about people doing things nude. Gail and I were cops.

The second surprise was that contestants had to complete a detailed questionnaire including name, address, phone number, occupation, employer, and whether you had any arrests. This made Gail and me more nervous. However, we were told that we couldn't participate if we didn't answer the questions completely. In hindsight, we should have given false information. How would they have checked in the short time before we went on stage? Gail and I don't think like that. We both answered truthfully.

In return for our completed questionnaires, Samantha, Gail, and I were given heavy rubber bands with numbered disks to wear on our arm or thigh. During the competition, we'd only be identified by our number. We were also given garbage bags for our clothes. We were to be completely nude on stage without even jewelry. We were told to undress, put our things in the garbage bag, and give the bag to one of the security guards standing in front of a trash dumpster. There was a huge padlock securing the dumpster lid. A guard took our bags, unlocked the lid, and tossed our bags inside. I hoped that there wasn't a garbage pick- up before the pageant ended.

I suppose because of the site change, there was no tent or awning set up for the competitors. There were just twenty-five nude men and twenty nude women standing under a mid-day sun. Samantha, Gail, and I were among them. There were staffers circulating with bottles of water and sunscreen. Both were essential. I had the pleasure of putting sunscreen on Gail's and Samantha's backs and butts. The women shared me, with Gail taking care of my butt. A girl with sunscreen and water told us that the resort had cut the crowd off at 20,000. That seemed high.

The area for the competitors was just a roped-off piece of bare ground. Several competitors stood nude along the rope talking with clothed friends on the other side. A few got beers or other drinks from their friends. I wondered where you'd go to take a leak. Since we were barefoot, the obvious answer was not comforting.

We were gathered beside a wooden platform that would serve as the stage. It was about ten feet high. The front had some sort of cover running down to the ground. From the side, I could see the supports underneath. I don't think the resort used professional carpenters. A set of wood steps went from the ground to the platform.

It seemed like we'd been standing naked in the sun for hours. Harry, the only clothed person among us, had been videoing throughout. A young woman wearing shorts and a tee shirt that said "STAFF" walked into our enclosure and yelled, "May I have your attention?" After everyone quieted down, she said, "we'll be starting in a moment. The men will go first. Line up in order of your numbers. One is first, twenty-five is last. When your number is called, go up on stage. Stand by the person with the mike while she introduces you. Then walk the length of the stage. Make sure the audience sees all of you, but nothing lewd and, guys, no erections. When you come off stage, line up again behind the person with the number one lower than yours. Once everyone has been onstage alone, you will all go up together. You'll stand for a few minutes facing the audience so everyone gets a good look at you. Ladies, your competition will be second. The procedure is the same for you."

The guys slowly lined up. When we were done, the young woman in charge looked up at the stage and nodded to a woman there. The woman onstage walked out of my sight. I heard a female voice over a PA say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the first Paradise Run Memorial Day Nude Pageant." I heard applause. The woman on the PA resumed. "To start our festivities, it is our pleasure to present the twenty-five most handsome naked men in Florida!" We heard a few screams, from women, I think. The announcer called for Number One and an obvious bodybuilder went up on stage. He was given a very vague introduction, "fitness instructor from the Bay Area." I assume he walked the stage. A couple of minutes later, he was back down the steps and Number Two went up.