by Zena Jae
“I don’t have your phone number,” he said.
She and Lloyd weren’t longtime friends; they had only gotten to know each other better from the forums and at the two critique meetings, so they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers yet.
But even so, it wasn’t unusual for visitors to drop by unannounced as most folks in Rosiville didn’t bother calling ahead, but with all that had been going on, a warning was in order these days.
As Lloyd descended the steps he said, “Email me your phone number.” He must be in a big hurry not to take a couple of minutes to exchange numbers right there.
At the last step, he turned and added, “Will you keep me informed as to what you, Marcus, or the police find?”
“Sure.” She suspected he was as worried as she was. He was on the perp’s list too, after all.
Lloyd moved to Rosiville two years ago, after his deceased grandfather willed him and his brother Lenny the 5-acre parcel. According to Lloyd, he and Lenny didn’t get along, and his brother just relinquished to him his half of the property. Lenny had his own 3-acres about halfway between Rosiville and Maylor, so he really didn’t need their grandfather’s property anyway.
Although Lloyd joined the critique group, he kept his social circle small. He never invited anyone over to his place and since the drive in from the main road was a good ten minutes, people didn’t feel inclined to visit him anyway—they just weren’t close enough friends to bother. Any mail was delivered to his P.O. Box and packages were held for pickup at a pack and mail store. One could consider him a recluse of sorts—although he did socialize some.
Piper felt honored that Lloyd took the time to check on her. Aside from the forum, she had very few face-to-face interactions with him—the only times being the two critique meetings. It was nice to know he cared about her.
Back in the house, Piper immediately checked the forum, but the troll still hadn’t posted.
She waited another fifteen minutes before she decided that sitting there staring at the screen was ludicrous—the troll could take another hour or more before they even posted again. She wasn’t about to wait any longer, so she flung on her tan blazer that hid her gun well, then scooped up Cotton and left the house.
“I’m taking you somewhere you’ll be safe while I run some errands,” she told Cotton as they headed for the doggie sitters.
Chapter 13
It was 10:15 a.m. by the time Piper got home. She anticipated getting a call from Marcus any time now. After putting the groceries away, she went to check her emails, and of course—the forum.
As she suspected, the troll had posted again. This time, she bypassed his chapter snippet because she didn’t care to read any of his freaking murderous prose ever again—she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. Sure, it might be good writing, but it was loathsome being it came from his real life murderous acts.
She closed her eyes after she caught sight of the one frame pictured on the embedded video behind the large red play button. It was of Saul with his mouth spread open by a metal contraption and his eyes wide with fright. She couldn’t believe it. It looked like it could be a frame from the movie Saw or one of its sequels—it was disturbing as hell.
Piper got up from her chair and headed to the bathroom. She hadn’t even watched the video yet but her gut wrenched and the bile rose to her taste buds. She gagged and hung her head over the toilet, but she could only spit out saliva. After she flushed the toilet, splashed water on her face, she double-checked all the locks on the entry doors.
From viewing that one video frame, she could already assess the horrors that Saul went through. She couldn’t get the image out of her mind and it sickened her.
Her cell phone rang. Marcus’ meeting must’ve let out.
“Marcus,” she said, her voice dry and weak as though she had just awoken after a night of partying and boozing it up, “there’s another video.”
“Did you watch it?” he asked, his voice had a tone of concern from how she answered his call.
“No, but the video icon was enough to make me want to throw up.”
“Hang in there, I’m on my way.”
“I’m okay. It’s just disturbing and it’s hard to get out of my mind.” Piper paced the floor. “This troll, whoever it is, is sick. And I mean, really sick.”
Marcus was silent. His mind didn’t know where to start with imagining what she’d seen.
“Marcus?”
“I’m here.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon then.”
He knew she was trying to stay strong, but her voice gave away the terror she felt.
* * *
The troll had their next victim already picked out. This one would be as easy as the others were.
Amy Chung was a petite Chinese-American woman in her late twenties, married three years to an orthodontist. Three days out of his six-day workweek, Curtis practiced his dentistry in Maylor. The city provided him additional clients that his small town wasn’t able to suffice. But the one-hour commute each way was a grind, especially during peak traffic.
Curtis made enough money that he didn’t want his wife to work. He preferred her to take care of their home and their children, once they had some. For two years the couple had been trying, and today Amy found out she was finally pregnant. With a scrumptious pot roast dinner planned, under candlelight and his favorite Bordeaux, she would set the perfect mood to surprise her husband with the ecstatic news.
But in-between her bouts of excitement, Kerri and Saul haunted her thoughts—she couldn’t put the sad events out of her mind and heart. She grieved for Kerri and prayed they’d find Saul.
Amy looked at the clock. She wanted to get the marketing done before noon since she planned for the roast to slow cook for six hours. Since Curtis worked in Maylor today, he wouldn’t be home until seven, so she had plenty of time.
She hit the remote to unlock her car door. As she was about to open it, a figure stepped out of the trees. Hearing the sound of twigs crunching under their feet, Amy turned to look behind her.
“God, you scared me,” she said, putting her hand to her chest.
Before she could say another word to the unexpected visitor, they pulled their hand out from behind their back. Her eyes went to the gun. She felt the sting.
Her mind reeled—she couldn’t believe this was happening. She knew this person. Why would they do this?
It didn’t take long for the drug to affect Amy. She crumpled onto the ground like a marionette having its strings cut. Her world went black.
Curtis Chung would never hear his wife’s wonderful news.
Chapter 14
“Oh my God!” Piper exclaimed through her hands that cupped over her nose and mouth.
“That is one sick son of a bitch.” Marcus couldn’t believe what he just saw. Who in Rosiville would be capable of such sadistic acts?
“Piper, you shouldn’t be monitoring this anymore. I’ll have somebody from the station take over for you.”
“I have to post to them. That’s the only way we’ll find out more about them. Hopefully they’ll reveal something we can get a handle on.”
She was right. The perp wasn’t leaving any clues at the abduction sites, so the only way to get any leads was through interaction. But he still didn’t want her to have to do it.
“They can post as you.”
“The troll will know. If they’ve been reading the forum long enough, they’d know my style, how I converse in posts.”
She was probably right about that too. But damn it, he hated subjecting her to this sicko’s sadistic shit.
“It’s okay, Marcus. I’ll be okay. I need to help you with this case.”
He let out a sigh. “Even so, create me a user and password to get into that forum topic so we can monitor it directly from the station. We’ll let you do the postings, but at least we have access on our side.”
She nodded. That was a good idea.
With a few taps of her keyboard, she
finished the task, sending the member signup info to Marcus’ email addy.
“After you confirm your email addy and login, set your profile to ‘invisible’ before you access the forum thread. That way, your username won’t show up.’”
“Okay, will do.”
“Also, if you want me to post anything in particular to the troll, you can PM me.”
“I probably won’t be the one monitoring the forum, but I’ll relay your instructions to whoever is assigned.”
“Okay.” She turned her attention to her monitor. “Should we post something? We need to get some clues.”
“Tell them you’re impressed with their writing and ask if they’ve published any books. We need to appeal to their ego. That’s where many serial killers slip up. They love to brag and show how smart and talented they are.”
“I’d better show my contempt for what they’ve done first though, don’t you think? Otherwise, they’ll think something’s up.”
“They already know something’s up. They know the police are involved and probably reading this forum. But still, I agree, that’s a good idea.”
She typed out...
Piper: ‘Why are you doing this? Saul was a good man. He didn’t deserve what you did to him. Neither did Kerri. Please help me understand your motive. Since I assume you’re a writer, and a good one I might add, your villains normally have a motive, right? I know mine always do. I am inclined to believe that yours do too. But you can prove me wrong...have you published anything where your villain didn’t have a motive?’
“If he’s not online, it can take a while,” she said.
“We’ll wait fifteen minutes. If they don’t respond by then, we’ll go ahead and head over to Kerri’s.”
“I can access the forum through my cell phone, so we can go now.”
And with that, they left for Kerri’s.
* * *
Unfortunately, like the police’s sweep results, they didn’t find anything useful—the perp was careful, they didn’t leave a clue.
“I wonder how many kidnaps and murders go unsolved,” Piper said as she gave Marcus a look of hopelessness. Of course she knew what his answer would be, but her frustrations caused her to ask it anyway.
“Unfortunately, a lot. We just don’t hear about all of them. I sure never thought it would happen to us, but being a small town, we might have better luck. The perp will make a mistake and that’s when we’ll get ‘em.”
He was definitely an optimist.
“Marcus, are you guys running a check to see if something similar has happened elsewhere?”
“Yup. So far, there are only cases of underground snuff films of random victims—nothing methodical and targeted like this case.”
There had to be something they could piece together from what they knew.
So what did they know?
Well, the perp was a writer—and a prolific one at that. They were probably male because if they drugged Kerry and Saul, they would’ve had to move them to wherever they parked. And since there wasn’t any indication of someone dragging their bodies along the ground, one could conclude they carried them out. It would have to be a man or a very beefy woman.
And who would fit the beefy woman description? Nobody they could think of. Sure, there were some large women living in the town, but not in the way of muscular prowess, and even Mrs. Abigail Carson’s post-menopausal mustache wouldn’t include her in the beefy group.
So the conclusion was...the perp had to be a man. Now they could exclude 60% of Rosiville’s population from their suspect list. Still not an easy task by any means because they couldn’t exclude any male, well except maybe those under twelve and over eighty years old, but even members of the police force and fire department weren’t exempt.
“Let’s go. There’s nothing to find here,” Marcus said.
They stopped off to pick up Cotton then headed to Piper’s so Marcus could drop them off. They were surprised that the troll still hadn’t responded to Piper’s last post. They were expecting a snarky reply but even after three hours, nothing.
However, little did they know that the troll was preoccupied with something much more thrilling and worthy of the troll’s complete attention.
Whistling the tune Heigh-Ho from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the troll diligently prepared Amy for her very own snuff video debut.
Chapter 15
Just as Marcus reached for the door, ready to call it a day (or rather ‘evening’ since it was already 7:45 p.m.), Officer Phil Dougan hung up the phone and called out, “Marcus!”
Marcus turned to look at the slim, clean-cut redheaded officer in his early thirties.
“Curtis Chung just called in a missing persons on his wife.”
For a few seconds, Marcus just stared at Officer Dougan. He couldn’t believe it. How could the perp carry out another kidnapping so freaking fast?
Marcus walked over to Dougan’s desk and took the sheet from his hand. “Was that him you just hung up with?”
“Yup, he said when he got home around 7:00, he couldn’t find his wife. He searched his property but she was nowhere to be found. What scared him was her car was still at home and her car remote was on the ground by the driver’s side door.” Dougan observed Marcus’ drawn face. “You want me to assign this to someone on nightshift?”
“No, I’ll take care of it. I’ll head out there on my way home. If there’s need, I’ll call it in and you can dispatch a team.”
“You think this is related to the others?”
Marcus gave him a look of concern. “I don’t think it is...unfortunately, I know it is.”
Dougan shook his head. “Damn. We’ve gotta nail this guy.”
Marcus looked him in the eyes. “Tell me about it.”
* * *
The perp left nothing behind that Marcus could get a lead on, but it was dark out there, so he called in to the station to send out a team with adequate searchlights to sweep the place more thoroughly.
It was 10:20 p.m. by the time he and the search team left the Chung residence.
Marcus called Piper. “I’ll be coming by. I’m gonna stop and get a takeout burger for dinner first.”
“Are you just getting off work now?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she added, “Forget the burger, I have enough leftover meatloaf for you.”
That sounded good. He preferred her home-cooked meatloaf any day.
“I had to make a stop at Curtis Chung’s place.”
There was silence. He could guess what she was thinking. He didn’t wait for her to ask the question, he blurted out, “Amy’s missing.”
“Oh, no!” Tears stung her eyes.
“When did you last hear from Amy?” he asked.
“Yesterday, after I had PM’d the group that Saul was missing.” Her voice cracked; her emotions for Amy choked her up.
He stopped for a red light. “This perp is getting to his victims quickly. We’re going to need to call in some outside help.”
She assumed he meant the Maylor police.
He got the green again. “The FBI should be able to provide us the help we need.”
The Feds would definitely be the better call.
“Marcus, at this point it’s clear this is no publicity stunt, so we have to make what the troll has done public. From the news, the community only knows Kerri and Saul are missing, but they need to know exactly what’s going on so everyone can keep their eyes out for anything suspicious going on with anybody they encounter.”
Marcus knew the reporters would be all over this with questions about what was really going on after they find out about Amy Chung’s disappearance.
“Have you heard back from the perp?” he asked.
“No, he still hasn’t posted.” She had the sick feeling he was doing terrible things to Amy at this very moment. Oh God, she didn’t want to think about it.
“If we can find out why he’s targeting members of your group specifically, we might get
a lead back to him. He must have a reason.”
“As I said before...I’ve been racking my brains on that one.”
“Was there anyone who wanted to join and denied membership?” he asked.
“No, we don’t screen anybody from joining. Anyone can participate in the critique group meetings.”
“What the hell could this perp have against your group then? It makes no sense.”
“I don’t understand it either. He did say that to write a convincing murder scene was to do it in real life then write about it from the experience. It seems he’s picked our group to prove that point.”
“He’s also not wasting any time. Three kidnaps back-to-back in such a short time is unbelievable. The perp’s obviously planned this out meticulously,” Marcus said.
That crossed Piper’s mind as well. At the rate the troll was going, they’d be through all of them within a week.
“He certainly knows us well or has been studying us for a while. He grabbed Saul, Kerri, and Amy at times he knew they’d be alone. With Saul, it was after dinner. Kerri could’ve been late at night or before dawn. From her unmade bed, her bedside lamp lit, and the unlocked front door, we can deduce she had abruptly gotten up to either answer the door or to go outside. The perp took Amy before Curtis came home from work.”
“Seems they were easy targets.”
“We have to warn the rest of the group, Marcus. If your department can’t provide protection, they’ll need to protect themselves in whatever way they can. Not being alone is one way.”
“Are you willing to take your own advice?” He got her on that one.
“You almost here yet?” She ignored his question.
“Almost.”
“Okay, see you soon then. Bye.”
Without waiting for a reply, she hung up.
Chapter 16
Amy tried to scream but her mouth wouldn’t open. Her nostrils flared as her lungs rapidly inhaled stale oxygen. The room had no windows, so there was no fresh air flowing into the dank area, and only a ceiling-mounted fluorescent fixture lit up the room.