Chapter 36

Juxtaposition

Wednesday early AM October 31th 2012

Dexter's condo 10b

Debra Morgan sat in the darkness of Dexter's apartment, her tears mixed with her sweat. She had arrived here several hours ago and used her key to get in. The air was stifling but she refused to open the windows or turn on the air conditioning. Somehow it seemed disrespectful to do so, as if her own comfort somehow diminished what her brother might be going through.

His computer was password protected, but she spent some time trying to guess it even though she knew if it was one of his normal passwords she never would. He was paranoid about such things and it would only be something simple if he wanted it to be cracked.

"Damn it Dexter, what the Hell is going on?" she fumed. She drained the last sip of the now room temperature beer, then sat back on the sofa and her eyes fluttered shut.

Deb had a dream that she was at Dexter's wake. She was in a large room standing in front of the casket, looking down on her brother. His face had been placed in a wry, almost knowing smile. It was a smile he so often had in life, as though he always knew something the rest of the world didn't. For most of her life she hadn't known what that grin was for either, but she did now. She noticed for the first time that Dexter as a ten year old child was standing next to her holding her hand. Looking to her right, her father Harry was holding her other hand. Looking around she saw that they alone were there to grieve for him.

"Here Aunt Debra," she realized the young Dexter was really an older Harrison, Dexter's biological son. He put something in her hand, two silver coins, "for the boatman."

"But Dexter doesn't believe in the afterlife," she said, as she looked at the two silver coins they turned to gold.

"But it believes in him and that's good enough," her father said in a soothing voice. She had forgotten how soothing her father's voice was; he took the two coins from her and placed them on Dexter's eyes. Harry reached up and slowly closed the casket, she sobbed as Dexter's face disappeared from view. She realized she was suddenly alone, Harry and Harrison were gone. As she stared at the coffin she heard a light scratching noise from the inside, barely audible. My God he was alive! She jerked the coffin open only to find it now empty. She lowered it again, and the scratching resumed… the sound of fingernails clawing at metal made her snap awake.

Her neck was sore, she had drifted off to sleep sitting up, head hanging to one side. She heard a scratching sound again; it was coming from the door. Someone was outside the door; she reached for her holster that was on the coffee table just as the door opened. A small hooded figure slipped inside, shutting the door behind them. She saw the intruder look out the window, then pull the hood down; a blond ponytail shimmered in the light from the windows. It was a woman. She let the blinds down and Deb took aim with her Glock. The intruder let out a slight chuckle, more of a sad wry laugh really. Deb slowly pulled the hammer back, CLICK. The figure froze in place, obviously recognizing the sound. 'She's running through scenarios, typical perp. Fight or flight? They almost always run, unless cornered like this person' thought Deb, 'I can hear her breathing heavy, or is that my breathing?'

"Hello Deb," the female voice cracked as though she hadn't spoken to another soul in a decade.

She knew it wasn't Jamie Batista or Astor, but other than that she was drawing a blank. "Hands up bitch," Deb said in a cool firm tone. The woman complied. Deb stood up and turned on the lamp; it was bright and blinded her for a moment.

The intruder was a slim blond, 5'8 or so. She was wearing black spandex bottoms, a thin green hooded shirt, sneakers, and black gloves. Besides the gloves, she could be on the way to the gym.

"Turn around slowly…" she turned in a smooth circle, almost in a mocking way in that Deb half expected her to curtsey.

She saw the flat profile as the woman spun and was stunned; it was that hussy of a 'tenant' from Rita's house…What was her silly ass name again? "LUMEN? Fuck me sideways! What the fuck are you doing here where is Dexter?"

"Lt Debra Morgan, as elegant and demure as always," Lumen Pierce said sarcastically. "I have no idea where he is. I lost my phone today. Last I saw of him he got a call around midnight from some hot Asian woman that he picked up at a hotel, something about a break in the Báthory case…"

"That would be FBI Special Agent Eyelashes…Yeah that's the last I heard from him too… Wait a second! You're the mystery woman? You're the Hot Pretzel Girl? Fuck! I thought the Báthory killer was the mystery women, trying to get close to him…"

Lumen could swear that Deb sounded extremely jealous. "Hot Pretzel Girl…? I haven't the foggiest... Can I put my hands down now?" Deb was still pointing the gun at her.

"Oh, yeah… I guess. You're the one that sent him the picture today?"

"Sent him the picture…?" it took Lumen a minute for it to register. "Oh my God, he showed you? That is so… sick. That is the most disturbing, the vilest…" Lumen looked around and ran to the sink feeling like she would vomit. So, he had taking one of the most special moments of her life and she hoped his as well, which had been exploited by some creep and Dexter had shown it to his sister? It was one of the most perverse things she had ever heard.

"No, he didn't show me fucktard. I was holding his phone when you sent it."

"Oh…" the wave of nausea ebbed."God, the way you were acting I thought you had some kind of perverse 'Flowers in the Attic' stuff going on…" she said with her head still over the sink.

Deb was visibility rocked by this, but Lumen wasn't looking at her, "Well first of all he isn't my actual brother, he was adopted." She steered the conversation back to the present, "Why are you breaking in here? Or are you going to lie and say you're his tenant again? What is he, subletting the place now?"

"Because I didn't have my key on me, he has no issues with my being here."

"Uh huh, you have a key? Yeah right. Rita never even had a key to his apartment, neither did I until I moved in here after he was married. How is it that you can pick locks?"

"I am a Surety Agent."

"You are a bounty hunter?" she scoffed.

Lumen let out an irritated sigh, "You know it's illegal for me to call myself that in Florida, you're testing me Detective. Listen… put some coffee on while I grab a shower. That's why I'm here. I'll be out in a second."

"It's Lieutenant now."

"Whatever…" she said flippantly as she kicked her shoes off in the kitchen.

Deb wasn't pointing her weapon at her anymore, but at the ground, although she did still have both hands on it and the safety was still off. "So… you aren't going to ask what happened here? Police tape, blood and bullet holes everywhere…"

"I heard you on the news…"

"Cody killed a man here tonight. Astor was kidnapped. You aren't concerned about that?"

"Of course I am, although I've never even met Cody and I saw the Amber Alert for Astor, who hated me until this week. But, yes I'm concerned. That's why I'm here."

"I thought you were here for a shower?" Deb retorted waspishly.

"Okay Will Scarlet, I am so over this shit… Let me put this in simple words you'll understand Debra. I am fucking the brains out of your adopted brother, which is none of your God damn business. We are basically married for fucks sake." Debs head recoiled like a cobra ready to strike, "we are married in every way but paper and he asked if I wanted to do that yesterday. So, why don't you pull your fucking long giraffe neck from out of my ass, and start treating me like a human being, because FYI, I am not going anywhere!" she practically screamed. "If you keep this up the family barbeques are going to be really awkward. You have despised me since we first met for no reason!"

The two women glared at each other for a long minute until Deb finally broke the Chinese standoff and put her gun away, "Look, the first time we met, you were both lying through your teeth the whole time, people lie to me all day long so don't try to tell me otherwise. Then this time I catch you breaking into his place after someone kidnapped his kids. I'm a cop for fucks sake, cut me some slack too! Christ on a fucking cross." She sighed nervously, "You want some coffee?"

Lumen smirked, "I'd love some…"

Deb poured the coffee as Lumen turned on the AC. Standing on her tip toes, looking through the vents Lumen could see Dexter's rosewood box hidden in the unit, it contained his blood slides, one for each of his kills… some of which were their kills. Lumen almost called them victims, but they were far from it. You see, she and Dexter both hunted the Most Dangerous Game: man. Dexter was a serial killer of other serial killers. Lumen was more of an equal opportunity hunter. She didn't limit herself to murders, but included rapists, pedophiles, and those that inflicted their power and wills upon others. She also didn't always kill like Dexter, she often preferred to expose their crimes to the world and watch their world crash down around them.

"Has this place been dusted already?"

"Yeah, not that there was much to find, you weren't the only one wearing gloves."

Lumen pulled off her gloves and sat them on the AC to dry. She took off her sweat shirt and hung it on a chair. "What the fuck is that?" Dec demanded pointing at the web gear Lumen was wearing under her shirt.

"A tac harness…"

"Thanks, I know what a tac harness is… Why do you have one?"

Lumen reached up and pulled down a Velcro flap revealing her badge and laminat, "I told you already. I am a Surety Agent."

Deb's eyes narrowed looking at it, "Fuck, you're serious…" she said as Lumen stripped off the harness too and hung it on a chair.

"I'll be back in a minute," Lumen said over her shoulder as she left to shower. She was thankful that she had pulled over to change clothes and dump a couple of gallons of water over herself. She had tried to go back to her condo but saw all the police cars and thought better of walking through the lobby looking like she had just come back from swimming in the everglades. She had parked her in the garage and taken her boat across the bay and docked next to his apartment.

Debra Morgan never could stop being a cop, thinking like a cop, talking like a cop, and acting like a cop. As she sat on Dexter's kitchen stool she glanced at Lumens shoes and stared at the bottom of one that was laying sideways. The tread on the bottom looked familiar. She picked up the shoes to look at it and got some kind of slime on her hands. "Ew, gross!" she dropped the shoe unceremoniously. She washed her hands and made herself leave the kitchen, which just made her nosiness worse when she saw the tactical harness on the back of the chair. "Fuck it," she swore. She looked at the badge and laminated ID, "Dora Jones? What the fuck?" She pulled the gun out to check the serial number and saw the barrel was covered in slime, "Was that bitch a contestant on Double Dare?" She took pictures with her phone of the serial numbers, her ID, and the bottom of her shoes.

Lumen showered longer than she usually did, which was truly saying something. By the time she got out of the shower she had to step into the bedroom to breathe and cool off. She dug through his dresser, looking for boxers, an under shirt and socks. She found the shirts in his top drawer and got one out and under it she saw a photo of herself. She recognized it immediately; it was from her first day on Fiji, before she became depressed. That was from after she left Dexter, she picked it up thinking that he had found it online somehow, and then she saw her phone that she had forgotten so long ago and understood. He had kept it, probably waiting for her to call it.

She was still looking at the picture and holding the phone when Deb opened the door; Lumen instinctively whirled toward Deb and tried to cover her chest with the picture and her groin with the phone. "Oh, sorry... Figured you'd be dressed by now," Deb was a Detective and a damn good one in fact. "Looks like you found your phone. You do know that most people turn away from people when they are caught naked? What are the scars from?"

"Do you mind turning around? Thanks…" Lumen could smell the coffee in her hand and realized the purpose behind her entry; it was to bring her a cup.

"So, how did you get the scars?" she tried to sound casual but couldn't even fool herself into thinking that.

"I heard you the first time; I was just giving you a chance to not be rude." Lumen cursed herself and gave her well practiced lie, "I was sitting on a balcony railing and fell backward through the conservatory ceiling…"

"The conservatory…?" Deb laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, it's sort of like a green house and a Florida room combined…"

"I know what it is. Did you kill Mr. Body there with the butcher knife? Wait, you mean as in your conservatory?"

Just for a second there was a flash to Lumen's eyes and a slightly sly grin as Deb said 'with the butcher knife'. Then Lumen's eyes narrowed. "Not mine my parents and you're so clever, no one else has ever made that comparison and before you ask, yes they are rich."

Lumen sighed slightly and changed the subject, "So, how long were you able to hold out from digging through my stuff?" she asked as she walked by with her old phone, having put on boxer shorts and thin under shirt.

Lumen didn't see Deb blush behind her, but the silence was deafening. "It's okay; I left it there knowing you would dig for through it. You can't help it. It's your nature." Lumen walked past the desk and opened the sliding glass door next to the AC unit where Dexter hides his slides. She opened the curtains and then the door. She picked up an olive green backpack she had deposited there. She put it on the desk and started digging through it, "I'll never leave anything near you unattended that I didn't expect to be molested. Did you run my sheet yet?"

Deb glowered at the backpack and the implication that there were secrets inside as she handed Lumen a cup coffee befitting a barista, which still surprised Lumen a little. She figured it would taste like turpentine, you see Deb wasn't exactly Suzie Homemaker, but all those stakeouts were apparently good for something. Deb snapped, "No, I haven't run it yet. So, you knew I was in here?"

"No. I just didn't know what I would find and didn't want to be encumbered."

Lumen walked to Dexter's room and looked in the closet for something that would remotely fit her and saw her first actual kit suit hanging in the very back right before his suits. She slipped into it as Deb halfway watched. "Your shoes are ruined; they have gak all over them. What size are you?"

"Eight. Gak?"

Deb laughed, "Yeah, the slime on that old kid's game show Double Dare. I'm an eight too. We should have bonded over shoes… I have some sneakers in there; you're welcome to them…"

Lumen raised an eyebrow as she put them on, Deb explained pointing at the treadmill, "I like to run sometimes when I baby sit."

"Thanks… Maybe we should run sometime, I'm kind of overboard with it though…"

Deb smiled, "Yeah, me too…"

"Where did the slime come from?"

"The swamp," Lumen said curtly.

Lumen walked out of the bedroom and sat down on the business side of his desk, which was always the position of power. She knew the real police interrogation was about to start, the coffee and the shoes were to loosen her up. Deb sat down across from her as Lumen opened his Lap top. "Don't bother its password protected, and we tried the normal stuff already." Lumen ignored her and plugged in a USB cord for her phone to charge the long dead battery. "Oh…" Deb mumbled.

"You thought there might be something on here that would help?" she opened the lap top and she started trying passwords, skipping to things Deb wouldn't have guessed: LUMEN, the screen flashed incorrect password. LUMEN_PIERCE, the screen flashed incorrect password again.

"Maybe… I don't know. I am grasping at straws here. So, what the fuck are you really doing here?"

"Looking for Dexter, he's in trouble, or he's going to be…" She tried THE_CODE incorrect, HARRYS_CODE, nope not it either.

She closed the computer and pushed it to the side for a moment. She saw a large candle on the self beside her, the book self she loved so much, which had been constructed around the W shaped support beams in the middle of the room. She had never thought to ask him if he had made it himself, now she might never know. She put it on the desk between them, where the computer had been and pulled on an ancient Zippo from her bag and lit the candle. She sat the lighter face up on the desk with a MACV SOG logo showing. It was a trophy from her second solo victim and yes she was flaunting her prize in front of one of Miami's finest... but that's another story.

"It doesn't explain why you showed up out of the blue after two fucking years, breaking into his place, wearing 'You Must Acquit gloves' and Rosie the Riveter commando garb. I mean really, a long sleeved sweatshirt and gloves in FUCKIN Miami?" She said this all very quickly and left her mouth hanging open, Lumen kept waiting for another paragraph to fall out of her gaping maw. She swore she could cramp a pumpkin in there and couldn't decide what she reminded her of more, Canadians on South Park or Wade Phillips during a Cowboys blow out.

"He never told you how we met," Lumen said as she looked down at the candle. Deb shook her head; Lumen thought snidely, 'it was a rhetorical question sweetheart, are you sure you're a detective?' Then she realized that Debra Morgan had almost caught them both and knew she must respect Deb as an adversary. "Let's just say he earned my body and my soul, I would throw myself face first into a volcano if he asked me to. I really mean that."

She cocked her head and pulled it back a little, she is so long and slender that it reminded Lumen of a cobra getting ready to strike. Then the look in Deb's eyes and the expression on her face suddenly softened and her eyes twinkled in admiration. "Just my luck, I am related to the greatest man ever. All the good ones are already at the family barbeques. Maybe I should throw myself off the volcano," they both forced fake laughs.

"I didn't leave because I wanted to; I left because I had to. We both had serious issues we were dealing with and we weren't ready for how intense things got. We both know everything about the other…" to which Deb scoffed. "Everything…" Lumen reiterated.

Deb looked at the sly smile on her face and still wasn't sure if she really knew, but knowing whether or not someone is a serial killer is a pretty difficult topic to vet.

Lumen continued, "What do you know about the people that broke in here?"

Deb ground her teeth, weighing the situation. "Not much. They appear to be a well financed hit team or something. They were all dressed the same and drove fleet vehicles rented to a dummy corporation, black Yukon's…"

Lumen thought for a minute, "Well if…" Lumen's head snapped up "Wait! Yukon's are GMC's right?"

Deb failed to see the relevance, "yeah."

"Shit! I thought that a guy was following me yesterday when I was running; I followed him past my place to a Black GMC SUV," Lumen thought out loud.

Deb gawked, "were you at home tonight after midnight?"

"No…"

"Good thing, since it sounds like they know where you live. It sounds like they were looking to raid your place too… Maybe they were sloppy or… Shit, those guys could still be waiting at your place! Lucky you weren't home… We should get over there and check it out. Let me fucking piss and we'll go… damn coffee…"

Lumen thought about the police cars and vans that she saw out front, she had thought they were there about the missing guard, but… "Oh fuck!" She grabbed her charging phone then saw it had no service, it was disconnected. She looked around frantically, "Where is his home phone?"

"He turned it off…"

"Give me your phone!" she shrieked. Deb looked at her like she was crazy, "I wasn't there, but someone else was!" Deb handed over her cell and Lumen dialed it with shaky hands "Tom if your there pick up! Tom…!" She hung up and sent a text to his cell before dialing, pick up, it's Lu… She then dialed his cell with no luck.

"Okay, sixty seconds and I'll have us there in a flash…" she darted in the next room to pee and out of instinct Lumen grabbed the laptop and stuffed it in her bag and out of instinct she ripped the grill of the AC unit off and carefully took the cherry wood box out and gently placed it in her bag. She thought about his knives and then remembered that he had never returned home to put them up. She grabbed the web gear and gloves but left the shoes; they were gross. She left without putting the grill back and left the door open. As she left she couldn't overcome the feeling that she was being watched. She placed the bag in her boat and undid the mooring lines and pushed off.

Deb came out of the bathroom and saw the AC grill off, "Hey, why'd you…" and then saw the door open."Fuck!" She ran out the door and down the stairs, following in Cody's bloody footprints, and turned toward the parking lot when she heard the boat start behind her. She ran for it and considered jumping for it as Lumen's boat pulled away. Deb screamed after her, "Reload your gun, it got wet!" Lumen either didn't hear her or ignored her.

Deb saw the name of the boat, the Piercing Light and 13a for the slip but couldn't make out the boat yard. She saw her blonde hair in the breaking dawn and saw the number 13 again and something clicked. "Thirteen… Oh, fuck me Dex! She's 13?" She mumbled aloud to herself, "She didn't have furniture or a place to stay, the scars, shoe prints, the way she abruptly left, the way they acted like a couple but said they weren't… They were partners… Jesus, Dexter. You promised that you told me about all the people that… you killed…" she said catching on at the end. "You dick," she fumed.

Then she thought about the damaged disc, no thirteenth lock of hair that would've given them Lumen's DNA, and the Dan Mendel murder scene and how he must have sabotaged everything. She recalled how she had told Dex about how much she wanted those assholes dead, but he never included her. Maybe that was Lumen's choice, either way it hurt.

Her mouth was agape still when her phone rang and before she could get her stunned mouth to form words a cold male voice said, "Lumen Pierce?"

Every hair on her body stood on end and she knew this wasn't whoever Lumen had called. This was the voice of a killer. "Yeah…?" she tried to say in a husker voice.

"Your friend Thomas and I have been having a long talk and we think you should join us for a little heart to heart…"

"Who is this…?"

"A friend of a friend… We are really anxious to meet you," he said in a voice that gave her shivers. "Center of the football field, old Beach High School at noon, we have people watching it now. Anything weird and we'll be serving your Iron Chef chum up as chum. Got it?"

"Where is Dexter?"

There was a cold laugh, "Oh…he's the entrée, but we are just starting the appetizer."

"Put them on…"

She heard the sound of duct tape being ripped off then a male voice screamed, "Dora don't do it, they'll kill us both!" That was followed by a buzzing sound and then the highest pitch scream she had ever heard and the line went dead.

"Jesus," she breathed as her shaking hands turned the phone off. She looked at the rising sun and wondered why they had given her so much time… She even had time to get her hair done…

Lots of things coming together, so it took a long time to write and went through several revisions and was condensed to half the original size, but I think everything synced up well and makes sense. If something is jiggy let me know. Lots of time spent on this chapter, please let me know what you think, I'm totally pumped up about this chapter. :)

(BTW I know Lumen's hair was never taken, but Deb doesn't…)