A Tangled Web

by Leslie Rule

  It had been a long time since Melissa could relax without worrying someone was watching. Craving tranquility, she rented a cute studio apartment on the top floor of a high security building. She would continue to live with her mother on the days she had her son, but now she had a cozy nest she could escape to when Craig was with Dirk. She didn’t tell Dirk about her getaway place for fear he’d inadvertently mention it to Shanna. She got no mail there, and all of her bills were still sent to her mom’s home. “I felt safe there at first.” Then a small package, addressed to her, arrived at the new apartment. The formula company had sent her another sample. Melissa felt queasy. She’d taken extreme measures to keep her address secret. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure she received that package. Her stalker was sending her a message, and that message was frighteningly clear: I know where you are.

  It was the last “gift” from her stalker. Apparently, Shanna lost interest in her sometime after that, though it’s hard to pinpoint when. It was many months before Melissa realized she no longer had to glance over her shoulder to see who might be watching.

  While Melissa Strom and Amy Flora had never met, they had some things in common. Both were wonderful mothers. Both worked hard at their jobs. Both had had a healthy sense of fear when it came to Liz. And both had been chastised for that fear to the point where they were made to feel as if they were foolish and paranoid. The similarities did not end there, for each had a loyal friend with amazing wisdom.

  Melissa had Valerie. Amy had Brandie.

  The stalker targeted Brandie Bates with some odd messages from a Facebook page, identifying herself as Cari Farver. They weren’t insults or threats, but requests. Could Brandie babysit for “Cari’s” child?

  How in the world did “Cari” know that Brandie babysat? She sometimes watched kids, including Dave and Amy’s kids, but that was not public knowledge. She never posted about it on Facebook, and only a small circle of people was aware of it. Not only was it odd that “Cari” had known Brandie babysat, it didn’t make sense that she’d contact her. Brandie had heard that the missing woman’s son was a teenager, way too old for a sitter. She felt the hairs on the nape of her neck prickle to attention as she recalled Dave had once brought Liz along when he picked up his kids. Something clicked. In a solemn voice, she told Amy, “I don’t think this is Cari messaging me. I think it’s Liz. Cari is not alive.”

  The friends pondered the possibility for a moment and then brushed it off. “We decided we’d watched too many Lifetime movies,” says Amy. The Lifetime Network’s slogan is “Lifetime—Television for Women,” and the channel features dramatic films about women in jeopardy. The heroines often find themselves in harrowing and bizarre situations, and while many of the stories are based on real-life events, few viewers expect to find themselves in similar scenarios. Lifetime movies are popcorn-chomping escapes, and the danger vanishes the instant the TV is turned off. Even when the movies are touted as true stories, few believe that such things could happen to them. Not to them. Not to anyone they know. The ninety-minute dramas are carved from the tragedies of women living far, far away—women they have never met and never will meet. But for a sober moment, Amy and Brandie wondered. Could they be living in a world as scary as a made-for-TV-movie? No! The idea was ludicrous! They laughed, but their laughter was leaden, weighed down by an underlying dread.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  GARRET SLOAN REMEMBERS the moment he first suspected his girlfriend was cheating on him. It was the Fourth of July 2012, and he’d taken her and her two kids to watch the fireworks at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs. The park was crowded with spectators. Some had brought lawn chairs, and many had spread out blankets to sit on. It had been hot that day, with the temperature peaking at a sweltering ninety-five degrees. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, and it was cool enough now that people slipped into sweaters and jackets as they watched the spectacular show over the lake.

  Most of the crowd had gathered by the water’s edge to watch the dazzling lights exploding in the black velvet sky, but Liz suggested they sit on a grassy area, halfway between the lake and the car. They could still see the fireworks, had the space all to themselves and could get to the car quickly to avoid the traffic jam when the show was over.

  Garret was accustomed to Liz’s aversion to affection in public, especially around her kids, but that night she was more aloof than usual. “She was texting somebody all night. I could see it. She was trying to be sneaky about it. I asked her about it, and she said, ‘Oh it’s a guy I met, and he’s helping me with my car.’” It was his first hint that David Kroupa had entered their lives, though Garret didn’t yet know his name and was only beginning to suspect that his girlfriend had been unfaithful.

  * * *

  “I have never thought that someday my life may be written down on the pages of a book, and if I did, I can certainly tell you I never thought it would be in this capacity,” Garret confides, adding that it’s “not really the thing a person wants to think about in regards to the legacy they will leave and how their story will be told.”

  Garret had indeed found himself written into a real-life script that was more nightmare, heartache, and drama than he could have imagined. Decent folks don’t expect to be swept up into the dark plots of dangerous people, and Garret is about as down-to-earth, honest, and kind as a human being can be. He’d lived three and a half decades of a relatively calm existence before Shanna Elizabeth Golyar stepped into his life and slowly attempted to dismantle it. Her mistake was confusing his kindness with weakness, maybe because kindness was something she did not understand. She had certainly been on the receiving end of kindness many times, but being kind was a foreign concept. It is only in retrospect that these observations can be made, for Garret would have to wander through a baffling maze of deceptions before he could comprehend the depth of her duplicity.

  Garret Sloan’s story began in Council Bluffs, where he was born in 1973 and has lived most of his life. The Sloans were the typical nuclear family, and Garret had a sister, four years older. His parents’ marriage remained intact until long after he was grown. His father’s second marriage would give Garret a beloved little sister, one who is young enough to be his daughter, but he “was the baby of the family” throughout the 1970s and 80s. The kids were smart, college bound from the beginning, his father made a good living, their house was comfortable, and the family went to the Lutheran Church every Sunday.

  Garret achieved “decent grades” with minimal effort, and he spent his time after school hanging out with friends. “It was back in the day when you really didn’t have to worry about kids being abducted,” he notes, describing a quiet, suburban neighborhood where the ranch-style houses were built close together. “When your parents wanted you to come home, they wouldn’t call you on a cell phone or text you. They would walk out onto the deck or the front porch and yell across the neighborhood for you.”

  The family loved dogs and usually shared their home with a four-legged, furry member. Garret fondly remembers two bulldogs, Ginger and Pebbles, and a Boston Terrier named Angel. Up until fifth grade, Garret was thin “as a stick. That’s when the genetics kicked in.” All the Sloan males had a tendency to gain weight in their teens, and he was no exception. He had more padding than he would have liked, but his bigger challenge was dealing with Perthes Disease, a rare childhood condition that affects the hip. “I had to wear braces that made me look and walk bow-legged.” Complications included a slight discrepancy in leg length that resulted in an uneven gait, despite surgery in the ninth grade to slow the growth of the longer leg. That leg experienced another growth spurt after the operation, but he learned to compensate, and now no one notices the difference unless he points it out. It may have been that physical anomaly that sparked his interest in the workings of the body and inspired him to earn his Bachelor of Education in Exercise Science.

  As Garret entered the workforce, computers were becoming ubiquitous, and career o
pportunities in electronics were abundant. Not only was he drawn to computers, he also had the ability to grasp the complexities of Information Technology (IT), and he soon found himself working in that field. Hired by Pottawattamie County in 2006, he has been employed by their IT department ever since.

  For most of his life, Garret has been unattached, and that may have something to do with the fact his weight has yo-yoed over the years. During periods his weight peaked, he felt less comfortable meeting women. In September 2010, he had just dropped fifty pounds but was still a husky 250. He planned to lose more weight, but he was feeling fairly confident when he posted his profile on an online dating site. When it comes to Garret’s most attractive physical qualities, women like the fact he is tall, has a strong chin and warm gray eyes. A nondenominational Christian who is true to his values, he hoped to meet a woman who shared his beliefs. It wasn’t long before he met Liz via the dating site, and they made plans to get together.

  On their first date, Garret and Liz watched a movie at his Omaha apartment. “We were intimate, but we didn’t have sex,” he remembers. Liz had made the first move, and after she went home, she texted him and implied he wasn’t interested in her. It was his body language that had tipped her off, she told him. His body language spoke louder than words, and it had practically shouted that he did not find her appealing. He couldn’t understand how she’d gotten that impression. He was actually very attracted to her, so he figured she must be insecure to need so much reassurance. “I had to convince her I liked her.”

  Maybe Liz felt rejected because she’d expected him to be more sexually aggressive, but he was looking for a relationship, not a one-night stand. It was their first date, and he wasn’t the kind of guy to take advantage of a woman. Soon they were seeing each other regularly, and he was flattered that the slender, lovely lady wanted to be with him. He was thirty-seven, had not had many relationships, and it had been a couple of years since his last one had ended. Liz seemed to be into him, and he was pleased with “the attention she was giving me.” Oddly, she pulled away from him in public, but he admits, “I was just enjoying any kind of affection, even if it seemed like it was being hidden.”

  Though they saw each other just a couple times most weeks, he knew he was on her mind, because she texted him so often. It made him smile to see her constant messages pop up in his phone, and unless he was working, he dropped whatever he was doing to answer her. After two years alone, it felt good to be the focus of an attractive woman’s attention. They soon became sexually intimate, but Garret didn’t find her to be particularly passionate, and, in fact, describes her as “a robotic” lover. Was she self-conscious because of her strict upbringing? Liz had described a stifling childhood, raised by adoptive parents who gave her no freedom. She told him that her family was extremely religious, but he wasn’t clear on their beliefs. Had she been shamed for her sexuality? Maybe she would become less inhibited as time went on.

  It seemed to Garret that Liz had had a very hard life. She confided that she was disillusioned by relationships because every man she’d ever been with had mistreated and used her. He vowed to be different. “I was determined to be the guy who didn’t use her.” After everything she’d been through, it was understandable she had some insecurities, and she definitely had her jealous moments. Once, early on in the relationship, Garret had been talking on the phone to his sister when Liz became suspicious. He quickly put her fears to rest. “That was my sister,” he told her and assured her that he had no interest in pursuing other women.

  He saw her jealousy as a sign she cared about him—cared so much that she was afraid of losing him. Was he going to cheat on her like the others had? He didn’t want Liz to worry, and she calmed down as he reassured her. Garret was honest and loyal, not the type to stray. He believed in monogamy, and as he points out now, “I never gave Liz any reason to be jealous.” He also believed that trust was important in a relationship and that it should go both ways.

  Something unsettling occurred about two months after he met Liz, before they were officially exclusive. It was Garret’s understanding that she was single and free to date, but he was in for a shock when he got a text from Allen Motts. “Allen contacted me through Yahoo Messenger. Somehow he had broken into her account and gotten my name.”

  According to Allen, Liz was his girlfriend. Not only that, they were living together. Stunned by the news, Garret confronted Liz, but he soon felt like the world’s biggest shmuck. She vehemently denied she was still involved with Allen. How dare Garret accuse her of such a thing? Didn’t he trust her? What was wrong with him, anyway? He had found himself apologizing for insulting her. “It was her typical fashion to put it back on me—to attack me, and somehow make it my fault. It was really weird. But somehow, she convinced me that he was her ex.”

  He tried not to think about the fact he’d never been to her place, never seen for himself that she lived alone with her children. “It was a long time before she invited me over.” She had been so indignant at Garret’s accusation, that he figured Allen had to be lying. Liz convinced him that Allen was nothing more than a jealous ex-boyfriend who was trying to make trouble. A few weeks after his email exchange with Allen, Liz sent Garret a text, announcing that she couldn’t see him anymore because Allen was moving back in with her. While Garret was not exactly heartbroken, he was disappointed and admittedly a little sad when Liz dumped him. He was sorry to see her go, but he accepted that it was over.

  “Just after New Year, I got a text from her, wanting to know if we could meet for lunch and talk.” They met near Garret’s apartment, at the Red Robin Restaurant. Liz told him she’d fought with Allen, kicked the guy out, and this time it was over for good. Garret was happy to hear she missed him and wanted to try again. At the time, he didn’t question anything she told him. He wanted to trust her, and he didn’t think he had jealous tendencies, but Liz implied that he could be quite irrational and paranoid. She never let him forget his accusations about Allen Motts. Garret was sorry he had been so quick to believe the guy when he’d claimed Liz was two-timing them. The last thing Garret wanted was to come off as an insecure jerk. But another questionable situation arose about nine months into their relationship in the early summer of 2011 when he was still living in his Omaha apartment.

  Though he’d never met any of Liz’s friends, she sometimes brought her sister, Marcy, along to swim in the pool. While her kids swam and splashed about in the water, Liz stretched out on a chaise lounge. She wore sunglasses to protect her eyes, but she let her skin bake until her tan turned brown. The bikini she wore testified to the fact she was in great shape. It was fun to have Liz and her kids there, and it never occurred to him that they came for the pool. Liz was his girlfriend, and she was there to visit him. Why shouldn’t she enjoy the pool when she came to see him?

  Then one afternoon he was alone when he decided to take a dip. He rounded the corner with his towel rolled up under his arm and stopped short. He had hoped there wouldn’t be many people using the pool, and he certainly did not expect to see this one. It was Marcy, relaxing in the sun, drying off after a swim. She seemed surprised to see him and a little flustered as she explained that Liz had gone to pick up fast food at a nearby restaurant.

  Garret was irritated when he realized that his girlfriend had come to use his pool but hadn’t even bothered to say hello to him. “I was pissed while I was sitting there, waiting for her to get back.” Liz soon returned, but she was not alone. Garret was shocked to see she had a guy with her. “At that point, I felt sick to my stomach.” Liz didn’t appear embarrassed that Garret had caught them. She didn’t apologize or bother to introduce him to the man she’d invited to swim. She chatted and laughed with the guy, ignoring Garret. “She never paid any attention to me. It was like I was invisible.”

  Anyone observing the group would have assumed that Liz and Garret were strangers to each other. The interlopers proceeded to picnic by the pool as if they were in a public place. Liz didn’t off
er food to Garret. The scent of the greasy takeout fare mingled with the sharp odor of chlorine, and Garret no longer felt like swimming. He said he wasn’t feeling well and excused himself, but they didn’t seem to care. Liz barely glanced up as he got up to leave.

  The next time he talked to Liz, he attempted to express his hurt feelings, but she suggested he had a problem. Why couldn’t she talk to a guy without him getting jealous? The dude was a friend, and she never dreamed Garret would mind if she brought someone over to swim on a hot day. If she was going to cheat on him, why would she do it right under his nose? Garret ended up feeling guilty for jumping to conclusions. “She was very good at making you doubt what you’d seen.” He didn’t want to dwell on negativity and concluded it was a misunderstanding. He decided to put the incident behind him. He knew couples didn’t always agree, and he made an effort to look at the world from her perspective. But sometimes she criticized him for things that made no sense. “She tried to make it seem like I had memory problems. If I ever forgot something, she’d say, ‘Well, you do that all the time.’”

  Garret knew that wasn’t true. He prided himself on his excellent memory. Sure, he forgot something once in a while. Everyone did that. Why was Liz so set on convincing him that he was becoming feeble-minded? It wasn’t worth worrying about, and he tossed it off as a personality quirk. No relationship was perfect, and he tried to look at the bright side.

  In June 2012, Garret bought his first house. It had belonged to his grandmother, and when she moved into a nursing home, it was offered to him at slightly below market value. He liked the quiet neighborhood in Council Bluffs and was glad to live closer to both his family and work. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home with a daylight basement had enough space for a roommate, so his longtime buddy, Gabe, moved in.

  Garret and Liz were coming up on the two-year anniversary of the day they’d met, and overall, he thought things were pretty good between them. He didn’t mind that she leaned on him, and he helped her out whenever he could, sometimes giving her money to pay her bills. It felt good to save the day—to be the guy who stepped up to pay the electric bill she’d been anguishing over.