Book #7 in my Based-On-True-Crime Series is out. Beyond The Limits is now available in e-format on Amazon, Kobo, and Nook. (February 06, 2021) Here’s the product description (blurb / jacket copy) and the first two chapters.
What really happened to Kita Southern? A vibrant entrepreneur with high ambitions suddenly disappears from a small Vancouver Island city. She seems to have it all. Beauty. Charm. And a passion for channeling the metaphysical. But Kita has a lifestyle most don’t know of, and you never know what goes on in people’s minds. The truth in Kita Southern’s case is beyond the limits of imagination—an incomprehensible tragedy.
Beyond The Limits is Book 7 in the 12-part Based-On-True-Crime series by retired homicide detective and coroner Garry Rodgers. This story comes with a warning: Explicit descriptions of the crime scenes, factual dialogue, real forensic procedures, and actual police investigation, interview and interrogation techniques are portrayed. If you crave graphic realism in crime writing, Beyond The Limits is your book.
Chapter One — Monday, December 21st – 9:00 a.m.
“Kita. Kita Southern.” Kari Lyons dammed back her tears as she said her sister’s name. Gwen Southern, their mother, didn’t. Gwen’s silently flowed. She sat with Kari on the couch in our police interview room adjacent to the Serious Crimes Section office.
“This… is… completely out of character for Kita.” Kari choked. “So, so out of character.”
Now Kari broke down. She pushed her face into her mom’s shoulder and began to bawl. Both ladies were emotional messes.
I gave them composure time. There were tissue boxes in what we called the “soft” interview space we used for victim, witness, and complainant statements. Gwen and Kari took Kleenexes and soaked them.
Kari raised her head. She spoke in hesitant spurts. “She… Kita… she would never be away… this long… without telling someone. Never.”
Gwen, too, said a nearly inaudible, “Never.”
——
Kari Lyons and Gwen Southern came into the Nanaimo police office to report Kita as a missing person. The desk officer took brief details at the front counter but, hearing the alarming circumstances, referred them to a detective. I was the only one in the Serious Crimes Section with a current spare moment, and I was the one who inherited the Kita Southern file.
Nanaimo is a small coastal city of a hundred thousand on the southeastern shore of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It’s straight across the Salish Sea from the City of Vancouver which is one of the most exotic, erotic, and expensive places on the planet. Although much smaller and somewhat cutoff, Nanaimo has a disproportionately large share of hardcore crime intertwined with the black market drug trade.
Drugs. It was always drugs. Drugs were the main source of sorrow.
——
“I need to get some details.” I had my pen out and my notebook open. I also had a video camera and audio recorder running, although Gwen and Kari couldn’t see it. “Can you give me Kita’s full name?”
Kari responded. “It’s Kita Rose Southern. Kita is spelled K-i-t-a. The other two are just as they sound.”
“And how old is Kita?”
“She’s thirty-four.” Kari sniffed. She dabbed her eyes and nose. “Just turned thirty-four on October seventeenth.”
“What’s Kita’s description?”
“She looks exactly like me.”
“Kita and Kari. Are you twins?”
“No. But everyone thinks we are. Kita is a year and a bit younger.” Kari opened her phone and flicked. “Here is a recent photo of Kita… taken on her birthday.”
I looked at a happy image—lusty skin, charcoal mane, turquoise eyes, and crimson lips circling a Hollywood mouth. Kari scrolled again. I saw more pics of Kita. I looked at Kari, then back at Kita. Could be twins. Very attractive women. Curvaceous. Full-figured. Vibrant. If old Hef were alive, they’d have a shot at Playboy’s center. “What’s Kita’s address and contact information?”
Gwen stayed silent but attentive. Kari replied, “She lives at five-twenty-three Park Avenue. The old section of Harewood off Fifth. It’s a gorgeous character home. Her cell number is… here, I’ll write it down for you.”
Kari printed 250 668-8972. She also gave me Kita’s email, kita1@gmail.com, as well as Kita’s social media accounts. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. And a website titled TheTarotLady.net.
“Now, when was Kita last seen? Last heard?”
Kari went teary again. Gwen still was. Kari set her phone on the coffee table between us. She clasped her mother’s hand.
“She… the… from what I can determine… Kita was active until about noon on Saturday. This past Saturday the nineteenth. She went to pick up something from a friend. A close friend who has a store downtown on Commercial Street.”
“Her friend’s name is?”
“Jasmine Koch. They’re extremely close. Since elementary school, and I’d say Jasmine is probably Kita’s closest friend. Jasmine is freaking out. So is everyone else, and a lot of people in this town know Kita. But no one knows anything at all about what’s happened to her. This is so, so out of character.”
“Fill me in about what happened when Kita was last heard from.”
“I haven’t spoken to Jasmine in person. Just on the phone. But Jasmine says Kita came to the store at noon or just after. The group had a Christmas party planned for the evening, and Kita picked up something for it from Jasmine’s store. Then Kita left… she was alone… and that’s the last anyone can say they know…”
Gwen leaned forward and took Kari’s other hand. I thought she was going to crush it.
“Did Jasmine say where Kita was headed next?”
“No. Not specifically. But from what I’ve put together from phoning around… driving around… Kita had a few appointments, and I can’t say for sure if she made them. I didn’t know anything was wrong until yesterday afternoon. Then I tried calling, texting, emailing, messaging her website, but Kita didn’t answer. This is absolutely not like her. Kita has never done this before. She would never just take off and not leave a reason to not be available. She has so many contact forms, and she’s a very busy person. She needs to constantly keep in touch with people. Friends. Clients. Business associates. She would never, ever, up and disappear. It’s just beyond the limits of my imagination.”
“Sure sounds like something’s seriously wrong.” I spoke my thoughts, and it wasn’t good. Kari and Gwen went nearly hysterical.
Kari hugged her mother who was full-on vibrating. I gave them a few minutes. Then I asked a question that had to be asked. “Do you have any suspicions?”
Chapter Two — Monday, December 21st – 9:15 a.m.
Did Gwen Southern and Kari Lyons have any suspicions? Yes, they did. And to their admission, those suspicions made no sense. Looking back, they made no sense to me either. However, I’d learn as I investigated the Kita Southern file that a lot of things didn’t make a lot of sense. Especially things that went on in other people’s minds.
I’d been a detective for a long time. Probably too long, and I was nearing retirement. I’d seen a lot of things, and something I learned was never to assume things are as they first appear. I let Kari and Gwen tell me what they suspected.
——
“I don’t know how to say this.” Kari looked towards a taupe wall with non-descript artwork in the softly-lit room. “It’s Dan. He is acting… strange. Not himself. At all.”
“And who is Dan?”
Kari turned back to me. “Dan is Kita’s other. Kita’s life partner. They’re not officially married, but they’ve been together for nearly ten years. I… I can’t imagine Dan doing anything to harm Kita… but… there’s something wrong with the way he’s acting. Really wrong.”
“Dan’s last name is?”
“Porter. Dan… Daniel Porter.”
“So how is Dan acting that raises suspicions?”
Kari paused. She glanced at Gwen who nodded a go-ahead sign. “He… he seems worried on one hand. Like almost sick with worry. On the other, he says there’s no problem. He says Kita has just taken some soul time for herself, and everything is just fine. Well, it’s not fine…” Kari started to cry again which set Gwen off.
I let them vent. They were nearly cried out, and that could be a good thing. Venting helps a person focus once they’re all vented out.
Kari continued. “When I first couldn’t contact Kita, I phoned Dan. He didn’t answer, so I left a voice message then a few texts. I also phoned a few of Kita’s friends, and that set the alarm off. People called other people. It was obvious something was seriously wrong. Kita didn’t keep appointments. She didn’t respond to anyone else. She… she… vanished.”
“So did Dan contact you?”
“He did. After maybe two hours and then others were calling him, too.”
“And what did Dan say?”
“Dan said Kita was fine. Not to worry. That was yesterday afternoon. Maybe four or so. He said Kita needed time to herself and she was fine. I didn’t believe it.”
“Did Dan say where Kita was?”
“No. I asked him specifically. He said Kita didn’t want anyone contacting her for a while. I asked him how long. He was… evasive. He said he could pass messages on to her, but she didn’t want to talk to anyone or see anyone at the moment.”
“Did Dan say why she wanted… what did you call it? Soul time?”
“No. I tried to get him to explain, but he walled-up and told me not to worry. ‘Everything was fine,’ he said. I can’t believe that.”
“Has this happened before?”
Kari shook her head. “Never. This is absolutely not like her. Kita would never do anything like go away without telling anyone. She would know people… family… friends… clients… everyone would be really concerned without a good explanation. It makes no sense at all. Excuse my language, but it’s bullshit. Dan knows something. He’s not telling the truth.”
Gwen Southern spoke for the first time. She had an unusual voice. She reminded me of my mother, who was highly educated and articulate but with a peculiar way of pronouncing certain words like sawmon for salmon and toe-matt-toe for tomato.
“I have to say I can’t believe Daniel would ever do anything to harm Kita.” Gwen sat up. She leaned forward and into my space. “Something has happened between the two that I cannot remotely fathom. There has never been any conflict or discontent in their relationship. Daniel is a son to me.”
“Have you spoken to Daniel, Gwen?” I set down my pen and put my hand forward.
Gwen instinctively took it. “I have. Daniel gave me a story that Kita took a hideaway to finish a book. Kita is a writer, among the many things she does. Daniel told me… and he’s never spoken mistruth to me… that Kita had a deadline change and a manuscript rush to complete and be published before year’s end. There is truth to that. But there is no truth to Kita’s intentional lack of contact. Kita would not cut off communication with her family and friends.”
“Did Daniel tell you where Kita was?”
Gwen released her grasp. She reached for another Kleenex. “No. I asked him. He was… evasive. He told me not to worry. That Kita was under pressure. That Kita was fine. That she’d be home in a few days. Well before Christmas which is our main family event. This is the first time I’ve had reason to disbelieve Daniel. However, I have to say Daniel seems very worried himself.”
Kari offered something else. “Dan told Anita Jancovic a different story. He said Kita went on a vision quest. Dan told Anita that Kita had a card reading telling her to take an immediate break from life stress. Kita said… Dan said Kita said she needed to do a vision quest and excommunicate herself.”
“Anita Jancovic? Who’s she?”
“Another of Kita’s close friends. Anita was holding the Christmas party.”
I was getting confused. Soul time? Vision quest? Card reading? Writing deadline? Excommunicate herself? I paused to write the phrases in my notebook.
“So it seems there are two conflicting accounts coming from Dan—” I was going to paraphrase, but Kari cut me off.
“Three. Dan told me Kita wanted soul time. He told Anita that Kita had a troubling card read and went on a vision quest. He told Mom that Kita suddenly dropped everything to go and finish a book. I don’t buy any of it.”
“Okay.” I numbered my phrases with one, two, three, and four.”
“On the other hand… while this is completely out of normal for Kita… it’s also completely abnormal for Dan to act like this. Like I said, what’s happened is beyond the limits of my imagination.”
I leaned forward. “I’d like you folks to tell me more about Kita and Dan. What is going on in their lives and in their minds?”
What I was about to find out was beyond the limits of my imagination too.
——
Download Beyond The Limits — Book 7 in the Based-On-True-Crime Series by Garry Rodgers.
