The Floater In The Kill

Detective Sergeant Andrew Sutton squatted on the sand at water’s edge pondering his predicament. The world was full of “ifs” and he suddenly found himself with a bucketful - if only he hadn’t taken Jackie Ryan’s call - if only the body hadn’t been in the water for a week - if only the body had been found at the scene - if only some trace of evidence had been found – fingerprints, a weapon, witnesses, anything. Sure, sure, and if the dog hadn’t stopped to sniff the air, he’d have caught the rabbit. But it wasn’t long after that he began to piece together the circumstances and events that put him at the shore of the Arthur Kill, that body of water that runs between Staten Island, New York and Union County, New Jersey and rises and ebbs with the tides of the Atlantic Ocean. For it was here the plastic - wrapped nude and unidentifiable body of Benjamin Chusinsky floated, rose and fell, in the changing tides. And it was here Sutton first met Tux. When the body is identified through fingerprints and a peculiar finger ring, the case appears near resolution. An autopsy has determined the cause and manner of death and the crime scene is established as having been in a sleazy topless dance joint run by Al Dalton, a greedy hophead whose drug abuses fried his brains and turned him into a vicious, violent killer. Witness interviews produce the victim’s profile as a casual drug dealer with a decided lack of entrepreneurial skills. But Sutton and his partner Eddy Nolan found themselves clutching the air when the dance joint is sold and the suspect gone to Florida. Sutton’s pursuit of justice and truth later finds him in the New York City apartment and bed of the sensuous Medical Examiner and subsequently in Lieutenant Traxel’s serious disfavor - a situation complicated by a snooping Police Commissioner. To ease his frustrations and to assuage his Lieutenant’s reprimands, Sutton takes his vacation. A mysterious phone call sends Sutton to a clandestine meeting with a retired New York City detective. In a near fatal confrontation he learns his paramour had been an innocent, and a latter-day willing participant, in a so-called charitable trust fund that funneled drug proceeds to the cartels in Colombia. On a planned romantic cruise, he confronts her and she confesses her involvement through bitter tears ending the liaison; but not before he extracts a promise from her – a promise that will prove to be the down fall of a big time drug trafficker and his associates and a close call for the detective. In jail after her arrest, and in fearful remorse, she attempts suicide and fails. Where she failed, the cartel succeeds and she dies in the Federal lock-up. But the cartel is not finished and puts out a contract on Sutton while his department searches impatiently for the elusive detective. But luck has not deserted him. A department secretary, with a not-too-secret passion for him, assists him in his concealment, and his loyal partner brings him news that will bring resolution to the investigation - all the while being driven by the anguished soul of the victim and his subconscious desire to bring closure to a grieving mother. Eddy Nolan’s mystifying note takes Sutton to a small beach town in Florida where a retired police narcotics squad captain gives him the startling news that Dalton is a small time trafficker operating in his town. The two, with the aid of the captain’s wife, contrive a plan to lure Dalton into the big time. Dalton takes the bait and walks the last mile to its ultimate and ironic end. Only coincidence and luck bring resolution to the case with the death of a greedy murderer whose demise is greeted with cheers from Tux.