Too Close to Home (The Forensic Files)

by Tressa Messenger

  “It’s okay. We aren’t here to bust you for drinking.”

  “Well, I got kinda drunk and hooked up with Rob. I swear I didn’t intend to, it just happened and afterwards I felt really guilty.”

  “Have ya’ll continued seeing each other?”

  “We didn’t ‘see’ each other, but yeah, we hooked up a few more times after.”

  “If you felt so guilty after the first time, why did you keep hooking up with him?” Harold asked.

  “Look, I never wanted to hurt her. Missy was my best friend and I loved her dearly, but trust me when I tell you that she was far from perfect herself. Almost the whole time she and Rob dated, she was hooking up with other guys. Besides, I was hooking up with Rob before they got together, and she didn’t think that was a problem.”

  “Oh, so because he picked her over you, you wanted to get even?”

  She glared at him, anger beginning to radiate in her big chocolate eyes. “No! It wasn’t like that.”

  Carma cut in to smooth things over. “Did she know about you and Robert?”

  “When? Back then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yep, she knew. Missy and I have been cheerleaders for the past three years, so because of all of the games both home and away and other things like fundraisers, the squad spends a lot of time with the football team. Rob and I had hooked up a few times at that point and because Missy didn’t really know Rob, she used me to get closer to him.”

  “I bet that hurt.”

  “I mean, I guess it did at first, but we weren’t serious or anything so, whatever, I got over it! Besides, Missy always got what she wanted.”

  “Did Melissa know about you and Robert still hooking up?” Carma asked.

  “God, no! She would have freaked.”

  “So unbeknownst to Melissa, you were hooking up with Robert, and unbeknownst to Robert, Melissa was hooking up with several different guys.” Carma looked up at her and asked, “Is that right?”

  “Pretty much,” Kristen told her flatly.

  “Okay, Kristen, who were these guys Melissa was seeing?”

  “I don’t know, she never told me their names.”

  In one swift move, Harold leaned forward and brought his hand down hard on the coffee table, startling Kristen and Carma. “Come on, Kristen! You were her best friend! Best friends tell each other everything, and this is telling me that you are lying to us again,” he told her, giving his best intimidating face.

  “No! Please! I swear I don’t know who they are! I asked Missy dozens of times but no matter how many times I asked, she wouldn’t tell me. All she would tell me about was the dates she would go on and the things they would do. She would also show me the gifts they got her all the time,” Kristen hurriedly explained to them.

  “So she and Robert didn’t have a good relationship?” Carma asked more calmly.

  “They had a typical teenager relationship. She said he got pretty jealous about her talking to other guys. Missy was beautiful and she got a lot of attention and she thrived on it. She wanted to have fun so she didn’t care if he got jealous.”

  “So I take it he didn’t know she was seeing, I mean ‘hooking up’ with, other people as well?”

  “I seriously doubt it. Rob is just as hot on his own. He didn’t need to be with her.”

  “Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t tell Robert about all those other guys she was hooking up with,” Harold said accusingly.

  “No, it wasn’t my business to tell.”

  “Do you think Robert is a jealous person?”

  “Missy tried to say that he is, but I never noticed.”

  Carma pulled the mug shot picture of Ronald Marks out of the folder and held it up to Kristen, “Do you know if she was secretly hooking up with this boy?”

  “Ronnie Marks? Eww…gross. Why would she hook up with him?”

  “I take it you didn’t go to school today?” Harold asked.

  “No. Dad is letting me stay home for the rest of the week. Why?”

  “Kristen, Ronald Marks was found dead at the school this morning,” Harold told her.

  “Oh my God! Like Missy?”

  “No, not exactly, but we are looking into his death as a possible connection,” he added.

  “I’m sorry about my comment before, but I really don’t like him. He’s so creepy,” shivering slightly as she talked about him.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “He used to follow Missy around all the time like some lovesick stalker. She told me she saw him everywhere she went just staring at her and even caught him taking pictures of her a few times. He really freaked her out.”

  “And she never reported it?” Carma asked.

  “No, she just thought he had a little crush, but I knew he was really obsessed with her. Missy was all about being popular so she never tried to stop him, but she did try to keep her distance.”

  “Did she tell anyone else about him stalking her?”

  “Just me and Rob. Missy didn’t tell just anyone about her personal business. She liked to feel like she was mysterious. She thought it added to her persona.”

  “Thanks, Kristen. If you can think of anything else, please do let us know,” Carma said.

  “I will.”

  Kristen stood up and walked them to the door, but before shutting it behind them she said to their descending backs, “Hey, Missy is my best friend. Friends fight and make up all the time. I never wanted her to get hurt. If I could do it all again, I never would have started anything with Rob.”

  “Well, it’s a little late now, don’t you think?” Harold called back.

  “Do you think she’s watching, you know, like from heaven?”

  Harold shrugged.

  “If so, do you think she’ll forgive me?”

  “It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Harold called back before getting in the car.

  “Do you think that it’s possible that Ronald was so obsessed with Melissa that he killed her, then someone found out and killed him?” Carma asked, staring through the front windshield at Kristen’s house.

  “It’s a stretch, but I guess it is possible.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing I found that diary then,” she said, looking at him now, smiling. “I’m getting pretty anxious to read it.”

  ***

  As soon as Kristen closed the door, her cell phone began to ring. She ran and picked it up off the couch and looked at the name staring back at her. She chewed on her fingernails as she answered the phone, “Hello?”

  “Hey, Kris! How are you?” She smiled at the pet name he gave her when they were kids. She never even let anyone else call her that, only him. Okay, so maybe her feelings did run deeper than she let on. It’s not like she asked for it.

  “Hey, Rob. I’m okay. The detectives just left.”

  “Really? They came back to talk to you? What did they want?”

  “Just to talk about Missy and us, apparently. Oh, my God! You know that creepy kid Ronnie Marks?”

  “What did that loser do now?”

  “He was found dead at the school this morning!”

  “Wow, no. I haven’t left the house today. Do they think it’s connected to Missy’s murder?”

  “Yeah. Isn’t that crazy?”

  Rob went silent.

  “Rob, are you still there?”

  She heard him breathing heavily on the other end. “Yeah, I’m here. Kris, can we talk?”

  “Of course.”

  “No, not on the phone. Can we meet?”

  She swallowed the hard lump in her throat before answering. “Where?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Kristen drove her Honda Civic down the bumpy dirt path through the dark dirt road to the Bluffs. She wasn’t surprised Rob wanted to meet there considering it was a well-known party and make-out spot surrounded by trees and water, with a maze of little dirt paths leading to three different parts of the Bluffs. Due to land erosion in the lower and higher parts of the Bluffs, the middle h
ad become the favorite spot for all.

  She and Missy got matching cars for their sixteenth birthdays due to months of begging and pleading with their parents. Kristen had never taken her beloved car through the rough roads to the Bluffs before and never wanted to, but Rob needed her. It was so dark out even her high beam headlights weren’t bright enough to illuminate her surroundings. Thankfully, the trees opened up at the end of the path in front of the water and she was able to come to a stop. Looking around the clearing, she noticed that the clearing seemed especially dark that night, but she was able to spot Rob’s truck tucked in the side of the far end of the clearing by the tree line.

  Everything seemed so still and quiet that it began to creep her out. She cut off her car and was able to see exactly just how dark it was outside as she looked around through every window. The Bluffs had always been a place she considered to be one of her favorite places to hang out because it was peaceful and remote. She no longer felt comfortable and safe there. She was feeling seriously paranoid which was causing her to grip her steering wheel so tight her knuckles began to turn white. One thing she knew for absolute certain was that she had no desire to get out of the security of her car, so she hoped Rob would have the sense to come to her.

  As the seconds passed, images of the villain, Jason Voorhees, from the Friday the 13th movies started to flash around in her mind. She swore she could actually see him wearing his hockey mask, armed with a machete, walking out of the river toward her car to kill her, and even though she knew she was having a type of daydream, it felt real enough to cause chills to run down her spine.

  “Where the hell are you, Rob?” she asked impatiently.

  Turning back toward her side window, she saw a face staring back at her, causing her to scream out, but then she threw open her car door and jumped out. “Jesus Christ, Rob! You scared the shit out of me!”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” he slurred.

  She narrowed her eyes at him and studied him in the dark. “Have you been drinking?”

  “Maybe just a little bit,” he said, pinching his thumb and forefingers together to gesture just how little. “You want some?” he asked, pushing a bottle of beer at her.

  She took it just to get it away from him because he had clearly had enough. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, now. I feel great!”

  “Well, what was wrong with you before you got all great feeling?”

  Rob’s playful smile turned into a frown and he shrugged his shoulders. “What do you think?”

  “I figured. I miss her, too.”

  Rob began to smile again. “No! Not now, now I feel great and that is enough,” he said, snatching his beer back and pressing it to his lips.

  “It was weird when those detectives came back to talk to me today. It kinda freaked me out,” Kristen said solemnly, still not ready to let it go yet.

  Rob rolled his eyes and looked back at her. “Why do you say that?”

  “I told you. That kid, Ronnie Marks, was found dead at the school this morning. They think it has something to do with Missy’s death.”

  Rob looked at Kristen and asked, “So what did they want with you?”

  “Someone told them about us hooking up,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him.

  Staring off into the dark he smiled again. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to let it slip.”

  “Whatever, it’s no biggie. It just caught me off guard,” she said, uncrossing her arms and acting as if she didn’t notice his smile. “Then they were asking me all these questions about a connection between Missy and Ronnie. I told them there is no way, that Ronnie is a creepy stalker. You remember her saying she caught him following her around and taking pictures of her?”

  Rob grits his teeth. “Yeah, I remember.”

  “They seemed pretty interested in that bit of information.”

  “What would they care about some stalker’s pictures?”

  “I don’t know, maybe he caught something they want to see.”

  Rob continued to stare off.

  “I wonder if someone is going to find those pictures of her, like under his mattress or something with his sleazy Playboys,” Kristen wondered aloud to Rob. “So creepy.”

  After a long silence he turned to her, wrapping his massive arms around her shoulders and started to sway back and forth as if dancing. Grabbing her hand, he spun her out and away from him and then spun her again, bringing her back to him and when she stopped, her back was pressed against his chest. Wrapping his arms tightly around her and leaning down to the back of her neck so that he could feel her soft hair against his face, he inhaled the sweet smell of her coconut shampoo.

  “Rob.”

  “What?” he asked, spinning her back out until she was at arm’s length again, but when he tried to spin her back in toward him he lost his balance and caused them to fall to the sandy ground laughing.

  “Oh my God, Robert Lee! You are so wasted!” She laughed even harder.

  Rob rolled off his back and on top of her and began to kiss her soft full lips. At first she kissed him back, but then stopped. “Rob, stop. What are you doing?”

  “What do you think?” he asked, continuing to kiss her.

  “But we can’t,” she said, pushing him off her and sitting up.

  “Why not?”

  “Because of Missy.”

  “Missy never stopped you before. How can you want to stop because of her now, when she’s no longer an obstacle?”

  “Because things are different now,” Kristen told him.

  “Kris, Missy is gone and her death is an unexpected and horrific tragedy, but it isn’t healthy to dwell on it. We all need to move on.” Rob sat up and turned Kristen’s chin to look in her eyes. “There is something I want to tell you, Kris. I want you to know that even if Missy were still alive, I would have left her.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I was planning on leaving her. She was always jealous of you, and I guess she had a good reason to be. She was jealous of you because you were the girl I wanted.”

  “Rob, are you for real?”

  “Of course, I am. Now we can be together freely and openly without any drama from Missy,” he said, grabbing her chin and pulling her in and softly brushing his lips against hers again. “I have always regretted what happened between us back in the day,” he said into her lips.

  That time when their lips met, she didn’t stop him, but invited him in with a stroke of her tongue against his. They held eyes as their tongues intertwined together. He ever so softly and lovingly laid her gently down on her back, making sure he placed her in a comfortable spot. Once he had managed to comfortably lay her down, he carefully shifted his body over the top of her, gently pushing her legs open with his knee. At that point all he could think about was how wonderfully warm it felt being inside her. The thought of being with her had him so excited, he began to eagerly fumble with the button on her pants as if he were an amateur. He gently began to slide his hand into her pants and he instantly felt her body begin to quiver in anticipation of his touch. In that very moment, he knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  Images of Jason Voorhees with his big bloody machete flashed through her mind again, bringing her back to reality. “Wait! Stop, not out here.”

  “My truck?”

  “Yeah,” she moaned with delight.

  After opening the door for her, he helped her into the cab of his truck. As he stared into the poorly lit cab of his truck, he effortlessly removed his shirt, then his pants, all while he had a flirty smile playing on his lips. Averting his gaze from her to the starry night sky, a wide smile began to appear across his face. He looked as though he had seen something especially amusing, and just before he climbed into the truck to join a patiently waiting Kristen, he blew a kiss to the dark heavens.

  Even though she was unable to see his face from her angle, Kristen stared at him anyway, being flooded with an assortment of emotions that inc
luded both guilt and excitement. She had wanted him for so long and now that he was finally all hers, she knew she should be celebrating, but instead she found herself hoping and praying on every star in the entire night sky for Missy to forgive her.

  ***

  Carma taped up a picture of Robert Lee and Kristen Jenkins under Melissa’s picture on the dry erase board and looked back and forth between Melissa, Robert, Kristen and Ronald.

  “So we had Melissa who was dating Robert, and Ronald who was obsessed with Melissa, and Robert who was sleeping with Kristen, and Melissa who was seeing other guys. Don’t you think Melissa would have confided in her boyfriend about the fact that Ronald’s obsession of her had turned into a severe form of stalking?” she asked Harold, never taking her eyes off the kids’ photos.

  “I would think so.”

  “I would have thought so, too. I would also think that our Mr. Popular, also known as number one Quarterback, wouldn’t have been thrilled at the idea of some guy, especially one who was so far beneath his social status like Ronald, was not only stalking his girl but snapping pictures of her, too.”

  “I know I would have been pissed,” Harold said without a second thought.

  “Pissed enough to want to fight?” Carma asked him.

  “Quite possible.”

  “Pissed enough to kill?”

  “No way. As a man, I would want to defend my girl’s honor and my ego, but as a human I could never kill someone in cold blood.”

  “Me either. Do you believe that she didn’t have anything to do with Ronald?” Carma wondered aloud.

  “Honestly, yeah. I can’t imagine she would give a guy like him, who was creeping her out, the time of day.”

  “So I guess we can rule out a love triangle there. But, according to Kristen, she was hooking up with other guys outside of her relationship.” Carma pried her eyes off the board and looked at Harold. “There’s no telling who and how many other guys she was seeing or hooking up with though. It’s kind of sickening to think about. I mean, where the hell were her parents?”