Visitor Information Center

Visitor Information Center is a location in Season Five of the Showtime series DEXTER.

It’s an abandoned Welcome Center in a remote area near Miami. It’s where Dexter Morgan originally plans to kill Boyd Fowler. Instead, he holds a witness, Lumen Pierce, captive there for a short time.

Location
County Road 5, near Mile Marker 31

A sign reads:

"Colonel Halston Leroy Visitor Information Center Open Sunrise to Sunset Keep Florida Clean"

Season Five

 * “Practically Perfect”

Planning to kill Boyd Fowler, Dexter finds an abandoned building on Boyd’s patrol route. It’s a now closed visitors welcome center, surrounded by a high chain link fence and No Trespassing signs. “Not very welcoming now,” Dexter muses. He scales the fence and, once inside, he looks around, commenting, “Totally isolated. Then you, City of Miami.” He considers the risk of killing Boyd in daylight, but decides he really needs this kill to put his life back in order. In building his kill room, he moves furniture, hangs plastic sheeting, and sets out photos of Boyd’s victims that he found in barrels.

The next morning, Dexter phones in a fake report of an alligator to lure Boyd out to where the welcome center is located. However, when he injects Boyd with M99, Boyd quickly turns around and fires a tranquilizer dart into Dexter's midsection. Both of them pass out and wake up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. They don't stay long, though.

Later that night, Dexter breaks into Boyd’s house where he kills him, instead of at the visitor center. Unfortunately, Dexter discovers that he was being watched through a window in a door. He opens it to find a frightened woman in ragged clothing. She tries to escape, but collapses i his arms.


 * “Beauty and the Beast”

Not knowing what to do with the woman, Dexter keeps her locked in the vacant tourist center. While she’s sleeping, he cleans the woman’s wounds and ponders whether to let her live or kill her since the first rule of the Code of Harry is “Don’t get caught.”

When the woman wakes up, she is terrified and tries to escape, struggling violently with Dexter until he injects her with M99. While she’s passed out, he takes her fingerprints later and learns that her name is Lumen Pierce, from Minneapolis, MN.

Dexter returns to the center and finds Lumen extremely wary of him. She refuses to take the medicine he brought and lies that her name is “Rachel.” He tries to convince her that he won’t hurt her but, because she saw what he did to Boyd, he can’t let her go. Confused, Lumen asks Dexter if he is going to sell her and he assures her that he will not. Suddenly, she runs to the door but he catches her. He then leaves, padlocking the door as Lumen is heard screaming.

During an online search of Lumen’s name, he discovers that she rented a room at the Towne House Motel. Pretending to be her husband, Dexter is able to retrieve the belongings she left behind. Among them is a letter from Lumen’s mother begging her to come home. Dexter leaves her stuff at the center and, upon reading the letter, Lumen bursts into tears.

Dexter returns the next day and finds Lumen lying on floor, apparently unconscious. When he bends down to check on her, she hits him over the head with an object. She immediately runs out the door and locks it with the padlock. However, Dexter's strength prevails and he bursts through the door, giving chase. Lumen almost escapes but she hesitates to get into a car with young men, and Dexter captures her again.

Dexter takes Lumen by force to Boyd’s marsh and shows her the barrels of dead girls. This finally convinces her that he saved her from the same fate, and she begins to trust him.


 * "First Blood"

Dexter captures Robert Brunner under the Julia Tuttle Causeway and brings him to the information center. It's the same place where he had intended to kill Boyd Fowler before killing him in Boyd's house. Dexter sets out pictures of Boyd's victims, believing that Brunner was involved in the attacks on Lumen Pierce. However, when Dexter cuts the leg of Brunner's pants, he discovers an ankle bracelet and he drops his blade. He can't believe that he almost made the mistake of killing the wrong man. Dexter takes Brunner (still unconscious) back to the bridge area and dumps him out of his car.

Related Pages

 * Barrel Girls Case
 * Boyd Fowler
 * Boyd's Marsh
 * Kill Room
 * Lumen Pierce
 * M99
 * Robert Brunner
 * Towne House Motel