by David Archer
“How did her other friends feel about him? Did you ever hear anything bad?”
Lola laughed. “The worst thing I ever heard about Dexter was that Carolyn, another of Bree’s friends, tried her best to seduce him one night and never could. I guess he told her she wouldn’t be able to handle him if he took his clothes off, and she got so mad she actually tried to tell Bree that he took her up on it. The problem was that she forgot that we were all there the night she tried, and she was the only one who got completely wasted that night. It actually caused a little problem between her and Bree, but they got over it a few days later.”
“Okay, and what about Raymond Francis? Did you know him?”
Lola’s eyes suddenly went dark. “Oh, yeah, I knew that son of a bitch. You want to know the truth? I personally think the reason they both disappeared is because Ray either kidnapped her or killed her. I’ve seen some bad guys in my life, and he would fit right in with them.”
Cassie regarded her with renewed interest. “Did you ever express that opinion to the police?”
“Oh, hell, yeah,” Lola said bitterly. “Didn’t do any good, though. They just said that unless I could produce any evidence to back up my theory, I should be careful about saying it out loud. They acted like it was no big deal if a girl disappeared, as long as some guy disappeared with her.”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been told they didn’t seem to really pay attention to this case. What about Sabrina herself? Have you heard anything or had any kind of contact with her or anybody who might know what happened to her?”
Lola shrugged and shook her head. “No, not a bit,” she said. “The last time I talked to Bree was about six o’clock on a Wednesday night, and the police think she and Ray took off together on Friday. That was the last day both of them were at work, anyway, or so I was told.”
Cassie grimaced. “How well did you actually know Ray?”
“Not very well, and that was still better than I wanted to. Like I said, he just gave off a bad vibe. He showed up at Applebee’s one night, when Bree and I were having dinner together. He started telling her how he knew they were going to be getting married, and that it was okay to pretend otherwise until they got close to the wedding date. She turned around and looked at him and told him to go you know what, and for just a moment I thought he was going to go ballistic on us right there. I mean, his face got dark and I halfway expected him to pull out a gun, or something. But then, all of a sudden, he just smiled and patted her on the shoulder—she flinched, by the way—and then he walked out the door like it was no big deal. That was about a month before they disappeared.”
“Did she never tell anyone what he was doing?”
“Of course she did,” Lola said. “She got a restraining order against him, but it didn’t do any good. Even when he broke it, the cops wouldn’t bother to pick him up. It was worthless.”
“That’s strange,” Cassie said. “I work with abused women, and I often help them get restraining orders. In my experience, the police are pretty quick to act on one if it’s violated. Any idea why he seemed to get a free pass on it?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Lola said, “but Carol told me he was a snitch, that he was involved in telling the cops about what other people were doing. Drug dealers, that kind of stuff.”
Cassie’s eyebrow lowered. “He was a police informant?”
“So I was told, but I don’t know for sure. That’s just what I heard.”
“Okay, and I appreciate it. Listen, I’ve got one more question. Did you happen to know a woman who was often seen with Ray Francis? All I know is that she had dark brown hair, but if you’ve seen her since then, they say she’s got a white streak in her hair now.”
Lola suddenly sat forward and looked at her questioningly. “A white streak in her hair?” she asked. “Ms. McGraw, that’s Carolyn. Carolyn Stern, she was Sabrina’s best friend ever since the second grade.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Cassie looked at her. “Any idea why her friend Carolyn would be hanging out with Ray?”
“Well, only the obvious one,” Lola said. “Ray was a dick, but he was a good looking SOB. Carolyn, she’s kind of mousey and always had a problem getting a guy to pay attention to her. I think she would’ve dated a serial killer, as long as the guy treated her halfway decent. If she was hanging out with Ray, it was because she was hoping he’d decide he wanted her instead of Sabrina.”
Cassie thought this over for a moment, then thanked Lola and gave her a business card. “If you think of anything,” she said, “please give me a call.”
Lola agreed and Cassie walked out the front door. She got back into her car and picked up the file and started flipping through it again.
One of Sabrina’s best friends was listed as Carolyn Stern. Carolyn’s address was provided, so Cassie put it into her GPS and followed the directions it gave. Twenty-five minutes later, she pulled up in front of an apartment building and got out of the car.
Carolyn lived in apartment 4G, and Cassie found her name next to a button. She pressed it, and a moment later a woman’s voice came through an intercom.
“Yes?”
“My name is Cassie McGraw, and I’m looking for Carolyn Stern. Would she be in?”
“What’s this about?”
“Ms. Stern, I’m looking into the disappearance of Sabrina Moss. I’m hoping you might be able to give me some kind of idea about what might’ve happened to her.”
There was hesitation for a moment, and then the voice came back. “I haven’t heard from Sabrina in a long time. Why are you looking for her now?”
“Because somebody has to,” Cassie said. “Because nobody else is.”
The intercom was silent for almost a full minute, but then the door buzzed open. Cassie grabbed it before the buzzing stopped, and hurried inside. There was an elevator right in front of her, and she stepped into it and pressed the button for the fourth floor.
When it opened, Cassie found herself looking directly at the door for apartment 4G, and it was partially open. A woman was peeking around the door at her, and the one eye she could see went wide at the sight of Cassie’s face.
“Ms. Stern? I’m Cassie McGraw. Could I come in and talk with you?”
The door closed, but then Cassie heard a chain being removed and it opened again. Carolyn Stern, a thin, frightened-looking woman, motioned for her to step inside and then shut the door behind her. She locked the door with a dead bolt, then hooked the safety chain back on.
“You can’t be too careful,” she said. “Come on in the kitchen. Would you like some coffee? I just made it.”
“Sure, that would be great,” Cassie said. She had learned never to turn down an offer of hospitality, because it could put the other person on the defensive. She followed Carolyn into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, and accepted the cup of coffee when it was poured a moment later.
“You want sugar or cream?”
“No, this is fine,” Cassie said. She took a big sip from the coffee, smiled, and set it on the table. “Now, you said you haven’t heard from Sabrina in a long time. Can I ask how long?”
“It’s been a while, a long while,” Carolyn said. She seemed to hesitate a moment before going on. “Is Sabrina in some kind of trouble?”
“Not from me,” Cassie replied. “I’m actually worried that she might be in some trouble wherever she is. Would you have any idea where she might be?”
Carolyn picked up her own cup in shaking hands and took a sip, then looked over it at Cassie. “How much do you know about when she disappeared?”
Interesting, Cassie thought. She’s the one interviewing me. “I know that she was having a problem with an ex-boyfriend, Raymond Francis. I know that he disappeared around the same time, too. According to people who knew him, he was telling all his friends that he and Sabrina were about to get married, but she was apparently trying to make him go away. Does that sound about right?”
“Are you with the police?” Caro
lyn asked. “Or one of those private detectives?”
“No. I’m actually just a private citizen who’s been asked to help out a friend who’s worried about her.”
“So, if you find her, what are you going to do about it?”
Cassie took another sip of her coffee, then held it while she looked at Carolyn. “That depends. If she’s safe and happy, then all I’ll do is let her friend know that. If she’s not safe, if she’s in some kind of trouble or danger, then I’ll do whatever I have to do to help her get out of it.”
“But you won’t involve the police?”
Cassie’s one eye narrowed. “Is there some reason I might need to?”
“Are you like a lawyer or something, where you can keep a secret no matter what I tell you?”
A chill went down Cassie’s spine. “I’m not legally bound to keep a secret, no,” she said. “But I will give you my word. Anything you tell me will stay between the two of us.”
“No matter what it is? What if, like, I tell you something that means Sabrina might have done something against the law?”
“If I find that to be the case, and if I ever feel I have to do something about it, I will never reveal anything you tell me. No one will ever know that you gave me any information.”
Carolyn suddenly started trembling. “And what if you find out I did something against the law?”
The chill got colder. Cassie sat and stared at the woman for several seconds, and then she set her coffee down on the table. “Don’t tell me anything,” she said. “I’m going to speculate about something, out loud. If what I’m speculating about sounds like it might be close to the truth, I’d like you to just nod your head. If I’m wrong, just shake it. Okay?”
Carolyn nodded.
Cassie took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said slowly, “right now, I’m thinking that maybe I’ve been looking at this all wrong. You see, I was thinking maybe Raymond killed Sabrina, then disappeared to avoid getting caught. Is that somewhere near what happened?”
Carolyn shook her head from side to side, very slowly.
“Okay. So, now that I’m thinking differently, I’m wondering if Sabrina got so tired of Raymond’s advances that she might have done something to get rid of him. Am I getting warmer?”
A single nod.
“Raymond is dead, and Sabrina killed him.”
Another nod.
“If Sabrina killed him, then I’m going to go on the assumption that she felt she had no choice.”
Another nod.
“But Sabrina, she didn’t know what to do afterward. She was afraid to turn herself in, but there was no blood or body in her apartment or his, so she killed him somewhere else.”
Carolyn nodded once more.
“And then she called her best friend, who had to help her get rid of the body and figure out how to help her disappear.”
Carolyn’s eyes bored into her single one for several seconds, and then tears began to flow down her cheeks as she nodded one more time.
Cassie sat still and stared at her. On one hand, she might be looking at an accomplice to murder. On the other hand, it was quite possible that Sabrina really did kill Raymond in self-defense, and only fled because she didn’t know how to prove it.
“Okay, here’s the deal. I need to know all the details, but I will never reveal your part in them to anyone. If Sabrina killed Raymond in self-defense, then I’ll help her prove it if I can.”
Carolyn sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “He showed up that evening as she was getting off work,” she said slowly. “She said he was all excited, he said he had something important to show her and that it was going to make her happy, but she didn’t want to go with him. She told him to leave her alone, that she didn’t want anything to do with him, and she said that’s when he got angry. He grabbed her and forced her into his car and drove off out in the country. He drove her up to this house and told her that he was going to buy it for her when they got married, but she started screaming at him that she was never going to marry him.” She swallowed and took another sip of coffee before she continued. “He pulled out a gun. She said he told her that he wasn’t going to play her game anymore, and that she had to stop running around with other guys and that they had to get married pretty soon. She said she got scared, so she told him that would be fine, she’d marry him, but she wanted him to put the gun down.”
“This was at this house in the country?” Cassie asked.
Carolyn nodded. “Yeah. She told him that she was ready to stop playing around, and that she loved him, and then she said she reached over to put her arms around him, but he pushed her away and yelled at her that she was lying. He pointed the gun at her again, but she kept crying and telling him no, she really loved him and wanted to marry him, and she said then he started crying. He put the gun down in his lap and reached for her, and she started to lean toward him, and then she grabbed the gun…” Carolyn took a shuddering breath. “And she shot him.”
A sob escaped Carolyn, and she wiped her nose again. “She shot him like four times, and then she didn’t know what to do, so she called me. She didn’t tell me what happened at first, just that I had to come out there and get her. She told me how to get there, and I got in my car and took off. This was like almost seven o’clock at night, and it was dark out there, so it took me a little while to find the place.” She shuddered and then took a deep breath. “And then I got there and found out what had happened. She was just sitting on the hood of the car, and she opened the door to make the light come on and I saw him.”
“And what happened then?” Cassie prompted her.
“Sabrina said she had to run away, because she said nobody would believe her if she told them it was self-defense, because she shot him so many times. She said they’d say it was murder because she didn’t just shoot him once, so she’d come up with this idea about how to get rid of his body. The only problem was she needed help, and she wanted me to help her.”
“Where is the body now?” Cassie asked.
“Bottom of Keystone Lake. The old Highway 51 bridge goes right over the deepest part of the lake, and there’s a little dirt road that goes down to the edge of the water right underneath it. We dragged him over into the passenger seat, and Sabrina drove his car while I followed. She drove it right down beside the bridge and under it, and then she put a rock on the gas pedal and threw it in gear and let it go. It went off the edge and hit the water, and it floated for a little while. Went right out under the bridge, right where it’s deepest, and then it sank. I brought her back to town, and she packed up her stuff; then I gave her some money and took her over to Oklahoma City. She said there was somebody over there that could help her start over someplace else, and that was that.”
Cassie sat there and looked at Carolyn for a moment, and realized that Carolyn was looking right back at her. “Okay,” she said. “But where is Sabrina? You said you hadn’t heard from her in a long time, but you didn’t say two years. You know something, don’t you, Carolyn?”
Carolyn started crying again, and then she got up and walked into another room. Cassie braced herself for a problem, slipping her right hand behind her back just in case she had to go for her gun, but when Carolyn returned to the kitchen, she was only holding an envelope.
TWENTY-FIVE
“I got this about a year ago,” she said. She held the envelope out, and Cassie reached out to take it. She opened it up to find a single page inside, written in a very neat cursive.
My Dearest Friend,
I wish I had never involved you in this mess. I knew you were having a rough time of your own right around then, but I didn’t know who else to call. You were a good friend, and you came running when I needed you, but I wasn’t a good friend to you.
I’m writing to let you know that I’ve
finally found a way to come to grips with what I’ve done, and I hope it will help you to forgive yourself for the things I made you do. I know you, Carolyn, so I know your h
abit of beating yourself up. You’ve got to remember that this was my fault, not yours, and the only thing you did was try to help me.
After you dropped me off, I got hold of my friend here in Oklahoma City, and she helped me set up a whole new identity. I’m not going to tell you who I am, now, so nobody can ever make you give it up, but I want you to know that I’ve become a much better person. I found Jesus, and He has helped me to forgive myself and put my past behind me.
I managed to get a job and a place to live, and then I started helping out with the homeless here. It makes me feel good when I can make a difference in someone’s life, and I’ve actually helped a few people get off the street. Well, that caught the attention of the bishop, and he’s actually set me up to run a shelter. It’s a great job, and I actually love it. My shelter is especially for families, so I get to help get children off the street and I think that’s the most important job I could ever want to do.
I realize that I might get found out, someday, but I have put that into the hands of the Lord. If that is His Will for me, then I willingly accept it. The only thing I will promise you is that I will never, ever tell anyone about what you did for me.
Maybe someday, if you get the chance, you might let my mother know that you heard from me and I’m doing well. I wish I could write to her, but I don’t dare. If anyone is looking for me, I’m sure they’d be watching her mail just in case I ever did.
Carolyn, I pray every day that you will forgive me for what I did to you, and I pray that you can forgive yourself. Remember that it was not you, it was me that actually did wrong. Don’t let my stupidity and failure keep you from living a full and happy life.
