WHERE WAS AL TAKING SERENA?
During our last conversation, Al said he made a mistake leaving Brittany’s body in water beneath a road. I had the impression he still would opt for some kind of submersion. He put Brittany underwater alive. Would he do that again? The Mississippi River runs through the heart of the city of Little Falls. If he was going to dump her in the Mississippi, he would have to do it either north or south of the city, which wouldn’t be convenient for him. I called Dad, and he agreed to get friends to the roads that access the Mississippi. Dad said he would go to Fish Lake, between Little Falls and Pierz.
I would give my life for hers in a heartbeat. I envisioned myself with Serena. She was holding an infant she recently gave birth to. At first, I dismissed it as wishful thinking, then the number 195 flashed in my brain. One-ninety-five could mean straight man with a woman, holding a baby she’d recently given birth to, or it could simply be a road.
With my siren wailing, I cruised through Morrison County. Tony had mentioned off-hand that Al fished Green Lake. It would be an easy spot to dump a body unnoticed, especially at night. There are no houses on Green Lake. It’s a small body of water completely surrounded by farmland, and fewer than two miles from Al Brennan’s home, off of 195th Avenue. That had to be it.
I called the Morrison County sheriff, and he sent the closest deputy to meet me by the dirt road that ran to Green Lake, just off of Highway 27. I asked that the deputy leave his sirens and lights off to give us the element of surprise. I prayed to God I wasn’t wrong about this, and that I wasn’t already too late.