I looked in the car mirror and tried unsuccessfully to tame my hair. This was my first face to face with Frank. I was trying to impress. I needed him to take me as a serious investigator not just someone with a true-crime hobby.
Frank was a bigger guy, bigger than I had imagined. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His deep voice matched the man in front of me. Frank looked a bit like Luke, if Luke gained about fifty pounds of muscle. I was pretty sure Frank, if he wanted to, could bench press me. All the worry I had about impressing him was out the window, because as soon as I got close enough, Frank wrapped me in a huge bear hug.
“I’m glad you got me off the couch and back working. This case has been haunting me every day of retirement.” Frank squeezed me an extra second and then let me go. “My wife thanks you, too. She was tired of my brooding.”
I stepped back, a bit overwhelmed by his affection. Definitely not the norm for homicide detectives. With Frank’s thick southern drawl, he came across as completely genuine. He had an infectious smile.
Jack explained that he met with Frank early that morning and compared notes on their cases. They were both shocked by the similarities. I would have been offended for not being invited, but I figured they needed to have a talk cop to cop.
“You ever been in here?” Jack asked. He looked at the gate and back at me.
“A couple of times in high school like every other kid around here,” I admitted cautiously. Jack had been a cop when I was in high school. I’m pretty sure he already knew I had been in here. I recalled more than once Jack was among the cops that showed up to shoo us off property and break up a kegger in the woods.
“Does your mother know?” The corners of his mouth curled into a smile.
I leveled him with a look. “You can date my mother, but you can’t rat me out. Got it?”
Frank laughed and slapped Jack on the back. “You’re dating her mother! You old dog.”
Jack laughed and admitted, “It only took me nearly fifty years to ask her on a date. I’ve wanted to since we were fifteen.”
“Small towns,” Frank said. Then he got serious. He asked with apprehension in his voice, “Now what’s the deal with this cemetery? My case in Williamsburg, the victim was found in a cemetery but not one that looked like this.”
Jack briefly explained the history of the “haunted” cemetery and the lore that went along with it. Frank, for all his muscle and brawn, looked a bit nervous. His eyes darted over the overgrown landscape.
“Are you afraid?” I asked.
Frank ran a hand down his face. “Not afraid. I just don’t mess around with the supernatural. Give me a perp I can get my hands on any day of the week. This haunted crap is for someone else.”
“It’s not really haunted,” I countered. “It’s just a local legend.”
“Well, that legend comes from someplace.” Frank shuddered.
It amused me to see such a big man spooked, but in all fairness, I wasn’t looking forward to it either. Not that I believed all the lore myself, but it was creepy nonetheless.
The front entrance was locked so the three of us piled in Jack’s truck. We headed down the road and turned into the long driveway that led into the Troy Country Club. Once a good distance up club’s main road, we pulled over to the side.
We walked into the cemetery from the wooded side. Jack and I took the lead with Frank right behind us. We stepped carefully as we walked. Almost immediately we came upon broken headstones. Some were broken and laying on the ground, others were left with jagged stone poking out above the high grass.
Farther in, we hit the point where wide sections of stone and brick dotted the ground. It was the spot of the original road. Still, there was no clear walking path. There were areas of tall grass and then other areas that had been more matted down over the years from people walking. Some areas had nothing but dirt.
The leaves had already turned their vibrant fall colors and had fallen to the ground. Sticks and dead leaves littered the ground. Most of the monument statues were missing their heads and other limbs. The cemetery had long ago been vandalized, but no one was ever really sure where the heads and missing limbs had gone or if they had ever been there in the first place. The lore of the place had more fully cemented in people’s memories than the historical record so sorting fact from fiction was a challenge.
I knew we were coming close to where Amanda’s body had been found. While it had been years since I had been in the cemetery, it left a lasting impression. Up ahead the tall grass cleared to a spot that was just dirt. There were several large monuments, but the tallest and most prominent, or honestly, the most terrifying, was the headless, armless angel. She sat atop her stone three-tiered base. A shiver ran down my spine when I took sight of her.
The image was terrifying, but I had to remind myself this was someone’s final resting place. The grave marker was for the Hollister family. Around the large headless angel were smaller markers for members of the family. I said a quick silent prayer as I encroached on the family.
Frank caught up to us. He looked at me and back at the angel. “Why does it look like she’s bleeding from the neck?”
That had been another bit of cemetery lore – that statues were bleeding. It certainly looked that way, but there was a more plausible explanation.
Jack, who didn’t seem to be afraid of anything, responded, “It’s not blood, I assure you. It’s a red moss that when wet can look like blood. Trust me, there’s nothing haunted here.”
As if the dead wanted to test Jack’s resolve, a large branch or something fell at that very moment. The loud crash against the eerie quiet made us all jump.
CHAPTER 46
I spun around, looking for anything that could have made the noise, but there was nothing. Just wooded silence again. The trees on all sides made it impossible to see too far into the dense woods. The noise had sounded like a tree splitting and a large limb crashing to the ground, but there was nothing within sight.
“What was that?” Frank asked.
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted, his voice not quite as confident as before. “Let’s just take a look at the spot and get out of here. While I don’t believe in ghosts, let’s not test it.”
“Where did you find Amanda?” I asked, hoping to just get on with this as Jack said.
Jack pointed to the base of the front of the angel. “Amanda was propped up right here. Her head was slumped forward. She had one hand in her lap and the other tossed off to the side. She wasn’t dirty. It didn’t look like she had struggled. This didn’t look like the place she had been killed.”
“What made you think that?” I looked around at the base of the monument.
Jack paused and seemed to bring himself back to the memory of seeing her body. He explained, “There was no blood here. With a chest wound like Amanda had, there would have been blood. The area also wasn’t disturbed like there had been a struggle. She had simply looked placed, propped.”
“That’s the same in my case,” Frank interjected. “The victim had been propped up against a gravestone. Nothing quite as large or terrifying as this one, but still the same. She looked staged like the killer wanted us to think she had simply passed out next to the gravestone. You really couldn’t tell until you were right up next to her that she was dead. It was like he wanted to terrorize whoever found her.”
“Frank, in your case, do you think the killer wanted the victim found?” I asked.
“Found without question,” Frank said definitively. “He left her in a historic churchyard cemetery. Tourists are in and out of the place every day. He had to have known the victim would be found and quickly.”
Jack shook his head. “I can’t say the same here. Look at this place. We are lucky someone found her at all. My biggest question was always how he knew about this place if he wasn’t from around here.”
“It’s not exactly a secret, Jack,” I countered gently. “It’s on the internet. Ghost hunting sites reference the spot. There are
even YouTube videos of people wandering around here. The headless angel always makes an appearance. But I will say, he had to have walked back here before he left the body. I can’t see someone finding this on the first try.”
“Good point,” Jack said.
“That’s what he did in Little Rock,” I added. “He left the body in a wooded area across from Luke’s parents’ house. The cops there don’t think it was his first time in the area either. It seems he scouts the location ahead of time.”
“He’d have to. There’s no way this was random,” Frank agreed. “Just imagine how dark this place is at night. Where would he have parked?”
“Definitely not at the front gates. The houses across the way are quick to call the cops. There are some back entrances and then there is the way we came in,” Jack explained.
“Is through the country club property the easiest way in, Jack?” I struggled to remember how we had come in when I was a kid. There was a back way but I couldn’t quite place where it connected or how accessible it might be.
“We decided at the time that the killer probably came in through the country club, probably not far from where we parked. Given he was carrying a body, that would be the easiest and most efficient way. There are drop-offs in the back and hills that would make it not only inaccessible for him but dangerous. I don’t think he’d risk falling or getting hurt while carrying a body.”
“Is the country club closed at night?” Frank asked.
“Yes,” Jack said. “The killer could have easily pulled up the same road we did, navigate over to the side, park more off the shoulder than even we did, cut his lights and head into the woods. It’s so dark up here that he could go unnoticed, especially if it was in the middle of the night.”
I looked around the cemetery. I wondered if Amanda had been killed someplace nearby. It was certainly desolate enough and back far enough into the cemetery no one would have heard her scream if she did. Killing her at the cemetery seemed more likely than any other place. The rest of Troy is fairly residential. Given the proximity of where she was last seen to the cemetery, I couldn’t imagine another place unless the killer lived in Troy, and he killed her at home.
I moved around to the other side of the monument. There was nothing out of the ordinary. “Jack,” I called. “Did you ever find where Amanda had been killed?”
“No, we never did,” Jack lamented. “We had a spot we thought and there was some evidence, but nothing to say with one hundred percent certainty.”
“Did you give any thought that she might have been killed someplace here, just in a different location?”
“We had. In fact, we turned over the whole cemetery as best we could. We did find some blood farther into the woods that did test positive for Amanda, but there wasn’t enough that would have indicated a kill spot. It had rained between when we think she was killed and when she was found. It could have washed the evidence away.”
“Can you show me?”
Jack led us back farther into the cemetery. The farther back we went, the darker it became. Jack seemed to take note of certain trees as markers because he’d touch one, pause and realign direction. Finally, we reached the spot. There were several small graves and an area that was mostly dirt. The graves were so old, I couldn’t read the names or information.
“We think he might have killed her here,” Jack indicated. “There was blood all around this area. It wasn’t just in one spot.”
Frank asked, “Did you have a theory of how he got her here?”
“We think he picked her up near the party. Either he snatched her off the street or convinced her to get into his car. There were a few of us who thought the killer might be someone Amanda knew so she went willingly since we never heard reports of a struggle anywhere along her path.”
Jack paused. His face looked pained.
The case had clearly taken its toll on him. My sister had strongly suggested that it had affected the entire community in a way that I hadn’t remembered. I hated making Jack relive these moments.
Jack finally continued. “We think he might have convinced her to drive out here with him. Maybe he teased her about going to a ‘haunted’ cemetery or maybe it was just a good lovers’ lane kind of spot along the country club road. Either way, we think he convinced her to take a walk into the cemetery and killed her or he killed her near the car and carried her body in, but that wouldn’t account for the blood we found unless he was walking around looking for a place to put her.”
I took in what Jack said, thinking over the step by step of the killer and what would have made sense. My head snapped up at the sound of a low persistent growl. I spun around, but there was nothing there.
Jack and I shared a knowing look. Hearing growling was one of the phenomena known to the cemetery. I had never heard it before and by the look on Jack’s face neither had he.
Frank looked at both of us. “Let’s get out of here.” He didn’t wait for us. He was yards ahead of us before Jack and I got our feet in motion.
CHAPTER 47
Luke was back at his desk, going over every shred of evidence when the unit secretary dropped another letter on his desk. She gave him a sympathetic smile and walked away. The secretary had been told to watch for any new letters and not to open them. Basically, any mail for Luke was to be directed to his desk immediately.
“We knew it was coming,” Tyler said, standing over Luke’s desk waiting for him to open it. “This guy can’t seem to do anything but gloat. Where is this one postmarked from?”
With gloved hands, Luke picked up the envelope to appraise the postmark. It was from Atlanta this time. Luke told Tyler and then he carefully opened the letter. Setting the envelope aside, he read aloud. The killer dropped the formality with this one.
Lucas,
I had hoped that you would have been more of a challenge, but I think I might have cheated. It was a good test for you. You went where I told you and found the evidence that I left for you. I know you are angry that I presented your father a little gift. You both, I’m sure, have had so many questions about how your sweet sister died. I was giving you the show up close and personal. Did you like it? Did it answer any questions for you? I’m sure you are left with many more questions, but I gave you enough to start the chase. You know about the dark web now. You know how I catch my helpers. The breadcrumbs have been dropped. Get following.
The Professor.
Luke slammed the letter back down on the desk and pounded his fist on top of it. “I’m going to kill this scumbag.”
Tyler sat down. “I get it, Luke. Read the letter again though.”
“Why?” Luke asked.
“Just clear your head and read it again.”
Luke read it again. It pissed him off as much the second time as it did the first. He looked up at Tyler completely frustrated. “What am I missing?”
Tyler walked over and took the letter out of Luke’s hand. “He told us he uses helpers. The case in Little Rock wasn’t the first time. What do these helpers do? And look at what he doesn’t mention. He doesn’t indicate we know about his car rental or that we got a photo of him or that there was a witness.”
Luke sat back in his desk chair. Tyler was right. The Professor had called himself by the name he had used on the dark web. Luke wondered if he was, in fact, a professor. The killer easily took college freshmen.
Luke mulled over how often he had helpers and what exactly they did for him. Luke immediately thought of Aaron Roberts and how he had driven off with Lily. Had he been one of the helpers, too? Or had he been the killer? Luke didn’t know if Aaron was involved at all, but it was the first thought that crossed his mind.
Tyler was right. There was a lot The Professor wasn’t saying regarding the evidence Luke did have. “Do you think he knows about the witness or catching him on camera?”
“I don’t,” Tyler responded, sitting on the edge of Luke’s desk. “He alludes to the evidence we found in Fayetteville, but he doesn’t say anything
about evidence in Little Rock other than leaving the body in a place where he knew you’d find her. The rest he doesn’t mention at all, and I think he would.”
“Do you think we should put the photo out yet?” Luke asked.
“No, I think we keep it close to the vest for now. We need to make sure Riley and Cooper have a copy, but we don’t go wide with the news yet. We have the upper hand or at least I think we do right now.”
Luke stood and stretched. “Let’s head to the campus and talk to some of the victim’s friends and see what exactly went down on Friday night. Maybe they will tell us more than they initially said in their statements.”
Det. Tyler went to his desk and gathered his things while Luke waited. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a file. Tyler held it up and indicated, “I have their statements here. We had some initial reports that they were downtown, but they weren’t, they were at a bar in the Riverdale area.”
“Where did they go?”
Tyler flipped open the file. “They went to The Fold for dinner. Then they went to another bar around the corner – literally named Around the Corner – and spent the rest of the night drinking and meeting up with people. Most people in the area just call it the bar, since it’s the only one.”
“Was the victim drinking? She was only eighteen,” Luke asked. They walked down the stairs and out into the parking lot. They got in Luke’s car.
Tyler laughed. “Do you remember college? Did you drink when you were eighteen?”
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Luke lamented. “I feel like an old man.” He navigated out of the police station and headed towards the university.
Tyler and Luke drove the rest of the way in silence. Luke kept replaying the letter and thinking about what they could be missing. He still didn’t have enough pieces of the puzzle to start to make anything fit.
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