Thus began the most intense investigation of my career. As I delved deeper and deeper into this man and began to turn up evidence that pointed to the fact he may have been a serial killer I discovered I was heading into a world where nothing made sense.
Except my love for Lydia. Was this the second chance for us I’d been hoping for?
Only time would tell…
* * *
CHAPTER 1
“Wow, you are even prettier than your profile picture,” Dallas Waters said with that boyish grin he had that made him look just the right amount of sweet and just the right amount of ornery. It was an irresistible combination and I had to admit it had my heart fluttering a mile a minute.
“Thanks,” I replied. “I bet you say that to all of the girls. Have you done the online dating thing much?”
Dallas laughed. “No, you are my first,” he said. He sounded almost like he was Canadian, but he had never mentioned anything about not being from the area. Although in Washington State some people did tend to sound Canadian, but they were from farther north and not the southern part of the state.
“Oh, so you are an online dating virgin!” I joked nervously. I wished to hell I hadn’t said that. He must have been thinking that I was fourteen, not twenty-two. It is bad enough I look like a teenager, but when I get nervous then I start saying childish things one after the other and I can’t stop.
Dallas Waters and I had met on Facebook of all places. Somehow I was suggested to him by his friend list and he IM’d me out of the blue one day. I usually don’t respond to such things from people I don’t know from Adam, but for whatever reason I checked out his profile. He was really cute and sweet looking. He had a lot of great pictures and friends and just seemed like a genuine down to earth fun guy to get to know.
So I responded and we began to talk online almost every day. It had taken us about three weeks of chatting to get to phone calls and then another two weeks of phone calls to get to our first date. I've always been shy and nervous about meeting new people as well as being a little paranoid about meeting a total stranger. I've always had a bit of a leery feeling about people I don't know and it takes me a long time to open up and really trust someone. I'm not sure why, but I've always felt that way.
A big part of it is having to go through life in almost complete darkness. I’ve been legally blind since I can remember. I suffer from Stargardt’s Disease, which gave me eyesight issues from the beginning. It's been a struggle, but I've done my best to not let it rule my life. But it does make meeting people more difficult and it has given me my share of trust issues.
But this night I decided to take a leap of faith.
I think I was also nervous because this was the first time I had ever snuck out of the house for any reason. I still lived with my parents. I needed every extra penny to pay for school and I didn’t make that much at the Credit Union. My parents were so overprotective that it felt like I was smothering a lot of the time. They meant well and I know they love me dearly, but due to my condition they always felt like they had to hold me back from the world. By the age of twenty-two, I was way past being sick of it.
“I guess I am,” Dallas replied, “but I’m glad I decided to give it a try.”
I finished my Cobb salad and pushed myself back from the plate. I felt full as a tick.
“Yea, they give you great big portions here don’t they?” Dallas remarked as he finished the last few pieces of his medium rare steak. I am not sure how anyone stands to put meat in their mouth that is barely cooked. It looks all read and bloody with no flavor. It’s kind of gross, but I chose not to let it bother me. So far I really liked Dallas. He was sweet, kind, and very down to earth.
“So, you are a car salesman? I’d love to hear more about that,” I said trying to keep the conversation going. I’ve never been very good at talking about myself, so I try to ask a lot of questions and let the other person talk.
“Yea, I’ve been a telemarketer for about two years, ever since I graduated high school,” Dallas said.
Dallas was two years younger than me, but somehow he seemed more mature than most twenty-year-olds I've met. He didn't have that restlessness about him like there was something pulling him away to do something really stupid. He seemed fairly well put together.
“Well, that sounds like it could be fun. You must get to meet a lot of interesting people,” I said.
“Oh, yeah. Sometimes we get some real weirdos in their too. How about you? I understand you are a student, right?”
“Yea, I’m going part time online to Tacoma.”
“Great. What are you studying?”
“I’m currently studying business administration,” I replied.
“Well, Lydia what type of business do you see yourself in?”
"I'm not quite sure yet," I replied. Truth is, I was toying with going to Law School one day or opening my own business, but I did not really have the faintest idea what yet. I was still floundering out there trying to find out what I wanted to be when I grew up.
We chatted a bit more over a delicious, large piece of chocolate pie that we shared and then decided to head home. I had actually walked to the restaurant, but I was feeling really tired all of a sudden towards the end of dinner and Dallas said he would drive me home. I normally would not have gotten into a man’s car that I did not know well, but I relented because I was just suddenly so exhausted. It almost felt like I was coming down with the flu and it just hit me. But I had stayed up half the night working on some homework assignments after I got home from my day job at the credit union.
The drive back was pretty peaceful. Dallas talked quite a bit about anything and everything. He seemed to have an endless amount of energy and zest for life that bordered on the annoying side, especially because I was starting to feel really sick. I felt so weak I could hardly move and I started to feel very dizzy. I was beginning to think that I was going to have to get out and vomit, but I was hoping to hold it together. My house was only a five-minute drive.
But then I suddenly noticed we were not going anywhere near my house. In fact, we were heading out of town. It was dark and tough to see but we appeared to be heading in the direction of Veto Lake.
“Where are we going? My house is on Fifth Street,” I said.
Dallas who had been chatting endlessly suddenly started to laugh. “Well, the night is young so I thought we would have a bit of fun first.”
The fear gripped me when I realized that I was at this man’s mercy and I was not sure what he had in mind to do to me. But I knew it was bad.
“Please take me home,” I said. My voice creaked out in a meek whimper. I was trying not to cry but I had never been that scared in my entire life.
“Oh, relax. I’m going to take real good care of you,” Dallas said.
He suddenly swerved the car into a small embankment clearing. I pawed at the door trying to open it but it was locked as Dallas grabbed me and pulled me close.
“It’s ok, just relax. This is going to be fun,” Dallas growled.
The fear and the anger collided within me suddenly and I reared back my hand and slapped him hard in the ear.
He cried out in pain and his grip loosened just enough for me to jerk out of it and unlock the door. He leaped at me but I was falling out of the door already and the second my feet were on the ground I started running.
It was so dark and I could not see a foot in front of my face. I tried to focus trying to see the shapes and what was in front of me. Suddenly my foot snagged on a root sticking up out of the ground and I slammed into the dirt face first.
Dallas was on me in an instant. He grabbed my wrist and flipped me over pinning my wrist to the ground above my head with one of his grimy paws.
“No!No! Help!” I screamed as loud as I could.
Dallas just laughed. He knew we were too far out for anyone to hear us.
His weight was on top of me as he began to fumble with my blouse trying to get at my breasts. This was reall
y going to happen. What was I going to do? I thought of my family and wondered if I was ever going to see them again. Was he going to stop at rape or was he going to kill me too? If he was capable of one then he was capable of the other in my opinion. The man was a psycho.
I struggled to free my hands from his grasp, but he was just too damn strong. I could not move.
I felt that all hope was lost until I saw a small opening of opportunity.
Dallas shifted his body weight as he lifted my skirt and ripped my panties off, tearing them violently against my thigh.
Then Dallas started to fumble with his own pants to get himself free and ready to complete his horrific crime.
The tears were streaming down my face and the darkness was engulfing me completely. I could hardly see Dallas on top of me, but I could hear the joy in his face as he breathed and occasionally chuckled to himself, the bastard.
But suddenly I saw my chance.
As he shifted his weight he rose up off me just enough. I brought both my knees up as hard as I could, hitting him directly in the testicles.
Dallas instantly let out a breathless gurgling sound as he bent over. His grip on my wrists went semi-limp. I jerked as hard as I could freeing myself and used both hands to hit him on the side of the head. His body was off balance and dealing with the pain of the blow to his manhood. He toppled over beside me.
I got to my feet and took off running as fast as I could. I was frantic, but I still reminded myself that I had to keep clear headed enough to watch where I was going so I didn’t run head first into a tree or trip over another damn root. I needed trees and cover where I would not be seen.
“Get back here! I’ll kill you!” Dallas roared. “NO ONE HITS ME!”
I could hear his roars getting closer to me as I made my way out of the clearing and through the woods. Sharp twigs and sticks scratched at my arms and my face as I tried to protect myself. I had to keep moving. I had to keep going. I had to find a way out of here.
But I knew it was hopeless. It was too dark and I was only mildly familiar with this area. I had not been to this lake since I was ten and my dad took me fishing. I despise fishing and I vowed never to go back.
“I’m going to get you! Do you hear me you bitch?” Dallas screamed.
From what I could tell he was straight behind me but I didn’t think he could see me through the brush, but he was faster and enraged. He would have caught me eventually. I knew I had to hide.
I veered left and began to move quietly through the brush as swiftly as I could without making a sound. I figured eventually he would pass me and then have no idea where I went. The woods surrounding the lake are very dense and besides the few small trails that have been paved for people to walk down to the lake for fishing there is nothing but brush. Without a good machete it is almost impossible to get through.
After about ten minutes of moving, I finally stopped. I could barely hear Dallas off in the distance. He was still searching, but it sounded like his voice was getting farther away.
If I could just stay there till morning without him finding me then I could find a way around and make it back to the road. I could flag down a ride and get some help.
I just had to stay calm… I just had to stay calm
CHAPTER 2
I pulled off the side of the road quickly, nearly spilling my cup of coffee out of the cup holder as I brought the police car to a quick stop. A truck riding behind me honked the horn as it drove past and I silently apologized for almost causing an accident, but this might have been my only chance to find Lydia alive.
My name is Troy Mathews. At this time I’d been a cop for six years. I went right into the academy after high school and I had not looked back since. Even though I worked in a boring, small town where nothing major ever really happened, I loved being a cop and it was all I had ever dreamed of being.
I had been out canvassing the area for the past two hours starting with the town and then branching to the outlying roads. I was starting to get really discouraged until I saw the tire tracks in the mud that skidded off into the embankment by the side of the road.
It might have been absolutely nothing (and most likely was) but my police instincts began to kick in and I had trouble ignoring them once that happened. I hopped out of my car and checked out the tire tracks. It appeared to be from some type of truck most likely, but I couldn’t be sure exactly until we had one of our forensics guys look at it.
That was when I noticed the clearing off to the side. There was unmistakably a path that was made by someone running through there of trampled branches, tall grass, and broken branches. As I got closer I could see a few small pieces of light fabric that looked like they belonged to a woman’s dress were hanging on a few of the broken branches.
I grabbed my intercom off the dash and called it into the station. “It might be nothing, but I’ll keep you all posted.”
I quickly dove into the brush, following the path. It was a tight fit, but then again most things are for my six foot two, two hundred pound frame. The twigs, branches, and sharp leaves scraped and scudded along my skin. And the bugs were, of course, having a field day on the little cuts and scratches I was developing.
I just hoped to hell that if Lydia had come this way then she’d made it to a clearing somewhere. But the likelihood was very remote.
Her parents had come into the station that morning frantic and worried sick about their daughter. They said they had gone to wake her up that morning so she wouldn't be late for work, but her bed had not even been slept in. She had apparently snuck out of the house, which was not like her and they had no idea where she had gone. They called all of her girlfriends and none of them knew anything either, unless they were covering for her.
Lydia Thomas and I had a bit of a history as well. We had known each other since we were kids. I was two years older than her, but that didn’t stop me from falling head over heels in love with her when I was a senior in high school. We were young and I guess it is safe to say she was my first love and I was hers, but we eventually had to call it quits. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I had a feeling her parents had a lot to do with it. They were always so overbearing with her and they did not approve of her dating me since I was two years older than she was.
So eventually we drifted apart because Lydia felt she was disappointing her parents, or maybe she just got sick of dealing with their constant interference. But one day she just told me that we should date other people. I was crushed. And even all those years later while I was looking for her in the woods, I was still crushed over that day.
I was also terrified. When her parents told me she was missing my heart felt like it was stopping and I had to struggle to hold it together. I still had real feelings for her, even though we had not been together for a long time. We were still friends on Facebook and hung out occasionally, much to her parent's chagrin. But they weren't too bad about it as long as we weren't a couple. Besides Lydia was a twenty-two years old now; she was a grown woman. We weren't kids anymore.
The path suddenly veered off to the left. It was obvious someone had come through here and suddenly changed directions. I continued to follow the path for about a hundred yards. I was really starting to wonder how much longer this path was going to continue when I heard the gasping and the whimpers. They were high pitched, like something in pain.
I hurried forward ignoring the sharp branches and leaves.
There she was. Lydia was lying on the ground, curled up in a little ball in torn dress. Shards of dried blood lined her bare arms, scabs from her battle with the trees to make it out there.
She was shivering in the cold autumn morning.
“Lydia!” I called as I rushed to her side.
It took her a few seconds to comprehend that someone was there and that I was there to help. And it was a few more seconds before she realized it was me.
Her eyes suddenly went wide and she wrapped her arms around me tightly releasing a floodgate of tears
onto my shoulder.
“It’s ok,” I said holding her and rubbing her cold arms. I knew if she’d been out there a few more hours she would have died of exposure. No doubt about it.
A half hour later she was at the station wrapped in a couple of blankets, sipping a hot cup of coffee, and eating a hot bowl of soup. She was finally starting to regain some color in her face and her shivering was calming down.
But she was still near hysterics. She was now shaking only out of fear and the terror that she had experienced. No matter what she did she could not stop sobbing. My comforts were falling on deaf ears it seemed.
Her parents arrived fifteen minutes after I called them to let them know she was ok.
The second they rushed into the room they both wrapped their arms around her and held their daughter tightly. I was happy and proud that my friend was ok and that I did not have to deliver any devastating news to them that day.
“Honey, who did this to you?” her father Harold asked as he stroked his daughter's forehead gently. “Who?”
Lydia told us about the date she’d had. We pulled up the profile and did some investigating with our forensic/computer wizard (we only have three guys who do forensics in our little town of Hunters Mills) but we couldn’t find out anything. The picture on the profile was most obviously a fake and everything else about the profile was too. When we messaged a few people from the friends list they all said that they did not actually know this person, but he had messaged them out of the blue and was showing up on their suggested friends list.
The man was a ghost. And the victim of this crime was nearly blind and could not give an accurate description to a sketch artist.
"I would know his voice, though," Lydia said. "If I heard him speak, I would know his voice anywhere."
I sighed. We couldn’t go searching the town for a voice which may or may not have been somewhat disguised.
While Lydia’s parents went to get some fresh coffee I had a moment to speak with her alone.
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