Confession

by Gary Whitmore

  Sam walked out of the kitchen. His kitchen phone rang. He walked back into the kitchen.

  “Sam Woods,” he answered the call. All Sam heard was someone breathing very heavily. “Hello. Is there anybody there?” Sam asked. He heard more heavy breathing from the phone.

  “Sam Woods. You better leave well enough alone! If you catch my drift!” the caller said then disconnected his call.

  Sam slammed the phone down just at Cindy entered the kitchen and saw he was upset.

  She yawned. “Who was on the phone?”

  “Wrong number,” Sam said but looked pissed and wondered if that was John Watson.

  “It looks like that wrong number pissed you off.”

  “I was busy researching and didn't want to be bothered,” he said then sipped his coffee and wondered if Joel made the call.

  “That’s too bad. Listen, it's getting late and I better be getting home,” Cindy said and yawned again.

  “Okay,” Sam replied and kissed her on her cheek.

  He set his coffee cup on the counter and walked her out of the kitchen.

  Outside, Billy sat in his Corvette down the street and staked out Sam’s house. He watched while Sam and Cindy walked out of his house and Sam escorted her to her Ford Focus. Sam gave her a quick kiss and opened her car door.

  “Sammy has a girlfriend,” Billy sang out while he watched Cindy get inside her car and while Sam closed her door.

  Cindy backed her Focus out of the driveway.

  Sam waved at her while she drove away.

  Sam walked back inside his house.

  Billy started his Corvette and followed Cindy's car.

  Sam went inside his house and went to his den to conduct some research.

  He sat down at his computer desk and noticed he had an email message. He opened up his email program. His eyes lit up when he saw it was from John Watson. He quickly opened it.

  “Mister Woods, I don’t think I can help you with Allan Stein. I haven’t seen him in over fifty years,” John’s email stated.

  Sam quickly replied. “Mister Watson. I would still like to talk with you. I was the FBI agent in charge of the October Slayer case back in the sixties,” Sam typed out then sent the message.

  Sam got up and walked out of the den. He started to have his doubts that Joel was the harassing caller. But who? He wondered while he freshened up his coffee cup from the kitchen.

  He walked back inside his den with his coffee cup and sat back down. He sipped his coffee while he waited. He hoped John would provide a quick response.

  Sam’s computer rang the gunfire sound when the new email arrived. He saw it was from John so he quickly opened the message.

  “I live in Phoenix. My cell phone number is five, five, five, nine, zero, five, five. When would you like to meet?” John’s message stated.

  “As soon a possible,” Sam typed his response and sent it.

  Sam waited a few seconds then John’s message appeared. Sam opened it.

  “How about tomorrow?” John’s message stated.

  “Perfect,” Sam typed and sent his response.

  “Send me your flight information, and I’ll meet you at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport. We can meet at a restaurant in the terminal,” John’s message stated.

  “You got it and thank you very much,” Sam typed out his response and sent the message.

  Sam then added John’s number into contact list in his cell phone.

  Sam spent the next thirty minutes on the computer searching for a flight from Daytona to Phoenix. He found one but it was an eight-hour Delta flight with a layover in Atlanta. He made his reservations then emailed the information to John. He also made reservations with the Holiday Inn Express at the airport for tomorrow night.

  Five minutes later, he had another email message from John and he quickly opened it up.

  “I’ll meet you at the airport,” John’s message stated.

  Sam looked at his cell phone. “Here’s the hard part,” he said while he punched in a phone number.

  “Sam, why are you calling so late? Are you okay?” Cindy answered the call and sounded concerned.

  “I got in touch with the husband of the last girl murdered. He agreed to meet with me in Phoenix,” Sam said.

  “Phoenix? When are you leaving?” Cindy replied a little upset.

  “At seven in the morning, and I’ll be back the next day.”

  “We have Kristen’s birthday party that night. She’ll be hurt if you don’t show up.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be back in plenty of time.”

  “Sam, please be careful. After all, you don’t carry a gun like you did in the FBI days,” Cindy said with an air of concern.

  “I’ll be fine. We’re meeting in a restaurant in the airport terminal,” Sam replied to make her feel at ease.

  “Okay. I hope you get some more leads.”

  “Me too. I’ll call you tomorrow,” Sam said then disconnected his call.

  Sam went back to his den where he sat back down at his computer. He thought about his next move then had an idea. He conducted some searches and found one that looked promising. It was the “Find Your Old Military Buddies” website.

  He clicked on Georgia on the map of the United States. He clicked on Fort Benning.

  He clicked on the CID Battalion. A long listing of names of men who where station in this Battalion at Fort Benning and was sorted by years. He found eight names of men listed during the years of 1960 – 1970 and six names of men listed during the years of 1970 - 1980.

  “My name is Sam Woods and I’m a retired FBI agent. It’s extremely important that I talk with anybody who was stationed with Allan Stein at Fort Benning. I was the FBI agent in charge of the October Slayer case during the nineteen sixties. Please email me if interested in meeting or call my cell phone at five, five, five, eighteen, oh four. Thank you for your consideration, Sam Woods,” he typed out as an email message and saved it.

  Then one by one, Sam sent that email to all of the fourteen names of men who could have been stationed with Allan.

  He turned off his computer and left the den.

  He went to his bedroom and packed some overnight clothes for his trip.

  Meanwhile, Billy raced his Corvette north on I-95, and was getting closer to Jacksonville.

  The flight to Phoenix during the next day was long with the three hour layover in Atlanta. During the flight, Sam had plenty of time to figure out what questions he could ask John.

  The jet landed at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport.

  Sam exited the security area with his overnight bag in hand. He soon saw a man with a gray crew cut and a red golf shirt with the Marine Corp emblem on it. The man held up a “Sam Woods” homemade sign.

  Sam walked up to him. “I’m Sam Woods. Are you John Watson?”

  “Yes I am and it’s a pleasure to meet you. Now, can I see some identification?” John said with a serious tone.

  Sam removed his wallet and showed John his retired FBI identification card and Florida driver’s license. John looked at it and was satisfied Sam was not some crackpot.

  “If you want, we can talk at one of the restaurants here in the airport?” John said while they walked away.

  “That would be nice,” said Sam then he looked around the terminal. “I retired from the FBI here in Phoenix ten years ago,” Sam said while they walked through the terminal.

  “Interesting, I moved here ten years ago. I was living in Virginia to be close to my sister, after I got tired of the snow and cold weather.”

  John walked Sam over to a restaurant where they were soon seated.

  A waitress walked over with two menus. John ordered a beer and Sam ordered some ice tea. After the drinks arrived, they ordered their meals.

  “What’s so important that you needed to see me about Allan Stein?” John asked then sipped his beer.

  “Like I stated in my email, I was the FBI agent in charge of the October Slayer case,”
he said while he removed his notepad from his overnight bag.

  “I haven’t thought about that case in years,” John said while he looked sad. “A day doesn't go by without me thinking of Annette.”

  Sam felt sorry for him. “I was extremely frustrated with that case. The girl that was murdered before Annette was the sister of my best friend in college. That caused me to do some heavy drinking. So I was taken off the case and reassigned to Phoenix,” Sam said while he looked sad.

  John felt sorry for Sam. “I’m sorry.”

  “Anyway, then this book called A Killer’s Tale comes out written by Allan Stein.”

  “I never heard of it,” John added.

  “So I read it and learned it’s about the October Slayer case. But he rearranged the names a little. But I then discovered that Allan wrote about some events that only the killer and myself knew,” Sam said then he took a drink of his tea.

  The waitress brought their meals then left. They ate while they talked.

  “What kind of events?” John curiously asked.

  “The killer sent me taunting letters word for word as what was in Allan’s book. Then one night, when I was drunk at a bar, the killer came up to me and chatted. He dropped two Army Warrant officer’s bars in my suit pocket. But his book stated they were sergeant stripes.”

  “That’s interesting. But I don’t know how I can help you since I haven’t seen Allan since I graduated from high school. Annette and myself left Curtis right after we graduated.”

  “What can you tell me about him?”

  “I remember him having a crush on Annette. So, I didn't get along with him at all. In fact, I hated him.”

  “His book started out in nineteen forty-eight where the killer, Jimmy Nalla, beat a redneck to death because he was going to kill Jimmy’s brother, Ricky. The story had Ricky seeing the redneck killing a young black girl he just raped”.

  John thought for a few seconds then his eyes lit up when he remembered. “I recall a story when I was around twelve years old. There was a black man hung for killing a white man in retaliation for raping a young black girl.”

  “The book stated Jimmy blamed it on the father of a young boy who saw him run out of the woods with a bloody baseball bat. The KKK hung the man,” Sam said.

  John sipped his beer while he tried to recall those days. “That’s possible. I believe that man killed was a member of a KKK chapter in a neighboring county. Allan’s father was a devoted KKK member and many people feared him,” John said when took a sip of beer. “Mississippi was heavily involved with the KKK back then and they were extremely violent.”

  “I know. I remember what happened in Philadelphia, Mississippi,” Sam replied then he sipped his tea.

  John nodded in agreement then sipped his beer.

  “His book also mentioned a joke played on the killer when he was a teenager. A joke where the girl, Fran, tricked Jimmy into thinking they were going to make out at a lake. She talked him into getting naked then some other boys came out of the woods laughing. They took his clothes and left him stranded naked in the woods. He was able to get home but his father beat him for letting a girl get the best of him,” Sam said.

  John recalled his high school days. “I remember that day. But it was under the bleachers after a football game. It was my idea and Annette and a few of the other football players agreed to the joke. Then Allan charged at me and I quickly reacted by kicking him in his balls,” John said then took a drink of his beer. “But looking back now, we were just a bunch of stupid kids and I now feel bad for playing such a mean trick,” John said with sincerity in his eyes.

  “I guess we were all young and dumb once,” Sam said.

  Then John looked sad. “I was stationed in Hawaii from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen sixty-six. We came to stay with her mother in Garrison, Arkansas, since my next duty was Vietnam. I was in Vietnam for a month when I got the news Annette was killed. I heard that she was taken from the parking lot of a grocery store. Then while I was home on emergency leave, someone broke into my house at night and kidnapped my baby girl. I was drinking heavily to cope with Annette's death, so I didn't hear that happen,” John said while his eyes welled up.

  Sam jotted down some notes. Then his ears perked up curiously when he realized what John said.

  “Kidnapped? Who was kidnapped?” Sam said while he sat on the edge of his seat.

  “My daughter Rachael. The FBI was informed at the time. She was only eight months old,” John said.

  “I’m so sorry to hear about that. I got reassigned to Phoenix because the killer set me up to arrest an innocent man. I beat the crap out of the poor soul thinking he was the October Slayer,” Sam said and looked ashamed.

  “Anyway, Rachael was never found and I was kind of hoping that that’s why you wanted to see me. I hoped you had some good information about my missing daughter,” John said with a disappointed look.

  “I’m sorry. But I don’t have any good news for you.”

  “That’s okay. It happened so long ago, I accepted the fact that I may never see Rachael again,” John said while his eyes welled up some more.

  John reached to his back pocket and removed his wallet. He opened it up and removed an old and faded black and white picture of Rachael when she was five months old.

  Sam really felt bad for John while he looked at Rachael’s photo. He noticed part of a stork bite birthmark on the back of her neck. He jotted down that information.

  “So after that, I continued to drink and was on the verge of getting kicked out of the Marines,” John said and looked ashamed.

  “I know the feeling,” Sam said feeling ashamed.

  “Then I met Laura and she straightened my ass out. We got married in sixty-nine. Our son Jason was born in seventy and daughter Suzie was born in seventy-two. I stayed with the Marines for a thirty-year career. I retired as a full bird Colonel,” John said.

  “I had a forty-year career with the FBI. My drinking caused a divorce and I never remarried.”

  John’s eyes lit up when he remembered something. “Wait, I don’t know if this is important, but there was something strange that happened back in, oh, around seventy,” John said.

  “What's that?”

  “Someone planted a bunch of flowers all around Annette's headstone.”

  “Flowers? Do you know who?” Sam curiously asked.

  “I never found out. But they died shortly there after and nobody replaced them,” John said.

  Sam found that interesting while he wrote it down.

  They finished their meal and the waitress brought over two checks. “I got the meal since you’ve been so kind to meet with me,” Sam said while he grabbed John’s check off the table.

  “Thank you Sam,” John said. Then he looked curious. “Do you think Allan might be the October Slayer?”

  Sam thought for a few seconds. “No, but I think he knew who the killer was and protected him until he wrote his book.”

  “Have you talked with him?”

  “He died just before his book got published,” Sam said.

  John thought about his comment for a second. “Sounds like he wrote a confession for someone.”

  Sam thought about his statement. “It sure does.”

  Fifteen minutes later, they shook hands outside the restaurant. “Email me if you can think of some more questions,” John said.

  “I will and thank you for your time,” Sam said then got out of the car and walked to the hotel.

  Sam walked off in the direction of ground transportation.

  John walked off in the direction of the parking garage.

  Sam spent a quiet evening in his hotel room. He thought about his meeting with John while he watched Another Thin Man movie on the Turner Classic Movie channel.

  “John can’t be the killer since he was in Hawaii or maybe that’s what he wants me to believe,” Sam said while he looked at his notes. “He could have killed those girls. Maybe Annette found out and he killed her to save his a
ss,” Sam said to himself as a possible scenario. But he had a good hunch about John. But still decided to do his trust but verify belief.

  His eyelids got heavy and he soon fell fast asleep.

  Chapter 21

  Sam got up before the sun rose and got ready for his trip back to Florida.

  His flight to Atlanta for his connecting flight to Florida was smooth and that gave Sam time to plan his next moves.

  Sam had two hours to kill in the Atlanta airport, so he walked around.

  He saw a lounge and walked up to the doorway. He stared at all the booze bottles on the shelves behind the bar. The bottles of booze started to call his name to come party with them.

  Sam inched his way into the lounge as he had a strong urge for a drink of liquor. He turned around and rushed away fighting off those evil urges. He saw a Starbucks down the terminal and headed in that direction.

  After he got a cup of coffee from Starbucks he sat down at a table. While he sipped his coffee, his cell phone rang. He opened it up and looked curious when he saw the caller in the viewfinder. He did not recognize the name.

  “Sam Woods,” he answered the call.

  “Sam, my name is Joe Vaughn. You sent an email wanting to know if I was stationed with Allan Stein in Fort Benning. It was during the sixties. How can I help you?” Joe replied from Sam’s cell phone.

  “Like my email stated, I’m a retired FBI agent and it’s extremely important that I talk with you about Allan’s book called A Killer’s Tale.”

  There was a few seconds of silence. “Are you that FBI agent that was on the real October Slayer case?” Joe curiously replied.

  Sam hesitated. “Yes I was.”

  “I live in Birmingham, Alabama. But, I’m leaving for a European vacation to Germany and Italy in a couple of days. So you better get up here quick,” Joe said.

  “I can be there tomorrow evening.”

  “That’s good. Please call me as soon as you get into town. I’ll provide directions to where we can meet at a restaurant.”

  “I will,” Sam replied then disconnected the call and saved Joe’s phone number.