The meeting began with introductions. Marisa was the leader, or at least that was what appeared to be the case. She had been the “woman” of the gang leader (who had been shot by Charlene) and had taken it upon herself to keep the colony under control after the revelations of what had happened at Check Point Charlie.
The Old Biker was named Billy Parkins and he was not entirely with the program that this union would be a good idea. It was interesting that he was with the group because he was a Harley guy, and the rest of the gang was rice rocket based.
We later found out that he was the brother of Albert Parkins, the guy in the cell in Peru. He had been on his way to join a group of rider’s who had lived or camped up in the west side of Lake Danbee but he was waylaid by the Biker Gang and for survival purposes joined with them.
The black female (Tanya) and her sister along with their kids had tried to make the run north from Pittsfield. The van had run out of fuel along the way and she had gone back to a gas station that had been passed along the way. When she got back to the van the bikers had already fell upon it, killed the kids, and her sister. This was the video that we had seen. The woman, Tanya, had been taken as a “slave” and over time, at least on the surface, accepted her fate or seemed to. She was a very strong religious woman. For her it had been survival for the Lord first and then vengeance.
The last member of their party was Taylor. Taylor was another member of the flotsam and jetsam that had floated onto the shore of the biker gang’s compound. She just wandered in one day and after a difficult initiation, fell into line. She “belonged” to one of the members we killed (Shitter). But it was not an ownership she liked and her willingness to live by it was solely based upon survival issues.
Marisa and Teckla got down to the business of talking about what options were available. Marisa said that most of her group was in favor of a union of some sort. She and many of the folks that remained alive in the biker camp had been conscripts rather than willing joiners. But there were a few that were old school but she felt that they also wanted to survive and would go with the flow. There would be issues but it sounded encouraging.
After about an hour the group decided that a break for fresh air was a good call. As they went out the door, the first shot rang out. It hit Marisa in the neck and took her down. The second shot was the one that got Lauren. My guess was that the shooters felt she was Teckla who was tackled by the Old Biker at the sound of the first shot. He used his body to protect her. The others raced back into the building.
Matt took a shooter down after the second shot was fired. The other shooter tried to break from cover when the scout team that the Major lead captured him. He was wounded in the capture but that could wait. Matt and Cody went to the building to aid and cover. Margo and Mark held position to keep cover fire positions.
The relief team was on the way and hit town about fine minutes after the first shot was fired. But there was not much we could do. Lauren had been killed instantly. Marisa was bleeding out. They did what they could for her but the carotid was pretty torn up. As she was dying she asked, “Don’t let me come back.”
The chaos that followed that first shot had been unbelievable. We brought Taylor, Tanya and Billy back to Romanica with us, it just seemed to happen. I am sure that they believed that we would kill them.
Billy had done an act that probably saved them all from vengeance and death when he protected Teckla. In retrospect the actions of Tanya and Taylor were also brave and good in dragging the injured back into the building for cover. These demonstrations showed a lot about their character.
We brought the bodies of Lauren and Marisa back with us. The prisoner was killed before we left Hinsdale. I had wanted to get the information of who was in the conspiracy with the shooters but that was not going to happen now. We really did not have any reason to keep him alive beyond a few questions. We could not waste the resources on locking him up, nor could we just let him walk away.
When we got back, sitting down with Nick and Jan was one of the hardest things that Teckla and I ever had to do. I had flash backs of calling Nick when Mom had her stroke, or being there when Dad was told she was still breathing but was not going to wake up, or survive. It was horrible. I could only imagine how I would feel if it had been Anne or Margo. I could not imagine how deep that ocean of sorrow would be.
July 31st
We said good bye to Lauren today. It was hard. I think that most of us were still in shock at the suddenness and brutality that life had dealt us. Nick was lost, he was very much in denial of the circumstances. Jan seemed to be doing better with it, but what is “better with it”.
The biker group wanted to say good bye to Marisa. They were not without feelings and this was a difficult day for both sides. Billy, the old biker had asked if we could have some of the other members of the gang come down to attend the services. It was kind of a shock to have that request. It was kind of unexpected.
There were three people who stepped up and really pushed this forward. The first was Tanya; she made the point every well. The next was Matt, and that was a surprise as he had been the one who had taken out one of the snipers who had done this. But it was also not a surprise since he has become the sort of religious leader for the group. I recall the sniper character in a WWII movie who would pray as he would target his subject.
Teckla also kind of surprised us when she also spoke in favor of the visit. She had been saved by Billy and had faith in the way that the negotiations had been headed when the shit hit the fan. She saw it from a larger picture and put it very simply, “If the roles were reversed and I was laying there, I would want you all to have the chance to say good bye”.
Some were not so willing to go along and I could not blame them. The pain was great and this was in some aspects way too soon. There was a lot of anger and mistrust. My feelings were we should let them visit. But, and with me there will always be a “but”, we need some things to happen.
The biggest thing is that we need to know if there are any more renegades out with the bikers and we need to be certain that when they enter our camp they are weapons free. They can be armed to get from Point A to Point B, but the guns stay in their vehicles. I offered my ideas with The Three and to Billy and Tanya who have become the de facto leaders of the bikers. They understood and although not happy with the restrictions, agreed.
Anne pointed out that we needed to hurry with this process because leaving the bodies out and exposed seemed to be a bad idea. It was unlikely that they would turn or reanimate, but the bugs, which was still something that we were unsure of.
The bikers arrived about 45 minutes later. All but a couple of the remaining members came and paid their respects. What was also nice was that they also paid respects to Lauren. I think it helped Jan and Fred; Nick, I just don’t know.
After the service the bikers all packed up to go back to their camp. Tanya and Billy spoke with The Three and they set a time for a meeting in a few days. It would be increasingly difficult now to work out the future; it was heartening that both sides were still interested in trying.
As the bikers were getting ready to leave Billy asked, “Hey, has anyone seen Alyssa”.
She was a high schooler, kind of a cute kid in the Kelly Clarkson mold. She had come over with the biker group and had been with them for a while. She was a lamb who had been taken by the bikers to serve in certain roles. I am trying to be kind here, but they beat, raped and made her life hell. At first Billy and Chelsea, another of the biker women who was actually a member of the gang and not the victim of it, thought that she may have tried to run away and hide with us.
It was Ron who found her. She was in a little storage shed on the back of the property. She was dead. Her throat had been cut so deeply that it was almost completely severed.
It was a “where do we go from here moment”. We all knew that there was a chance that we would be attacked and killed by Zoms. We had also gotten used to the idea that another band of survivors m
ight come into conflict with us. In both cases we knew that people were going to die.
But this, this was beyond that; one of our own, killing in such a brutal manner. And yet we did not even know for sure it was one of our own. It could have been a member from the other camp, the bikers.
I am back in cop mode, but this case is going to be a bitch because I did not have the support of the modern police equipment or fellow detectives. I had no fingerprinting equipment, or standard crime scene materials and tools. I tasked with doing what I could to figure this out.
Problem one is that we really could not allow the body to sit for too long. I photographed the body and scene the best I could with the little point and shoot camera that I had in my glove box of my truck and hoped that Lance could up-load the images. When we removed the body, Major Barkley did the best he could with an exam but it was really clear that the cause of death was the slashed throat. About all we could tell for certain is that it was a big cutting blade, and a lot of force was used.
Both sides, the bikers and we were pretty much freaked out and each side was looking at the other side as the evil people who had done this. I am sure that rumors and speculation were buzzing around as much as the flies that had settled in on the body. Sorry, sometimes I get a little carried away with the metaphors.
The Three went into council along with Billy and Tanya. They needed to figure out what to do. I needed to sit down and think this through. The big issue was that there were a lot of suspects and a lot of motives for the murder. I only knew that one person was innocent for sure, and that was me. It was not going to be an easy nut to crack.
When I returned for a second look at the shed, it was really too dark to make out much in the way of drag marks and things. That would have to wait until morning. When I returned to the main building where everyone was, the Biker folks were gone. They had left to go back to their camp. I wish I had known I could have at least checked knives and clothing for blood or something. But that horse is out of the barn. Just as well, it is now about 2:00 AM and I am exhausted.
August 1st
I did not sleep well last night; I awoke with that fuzzy feeling I used to get when we would get the late night call out for a major incident. I grabbed a coffee and headed toward the corner of the dining room. I think those in the room realized I was not in a cheery or happy mode and perhaps it was best to leave me alone. It was Anne and Margo who finally came over. At first I was not even aware they were there. Finally Anne asked me if I needed my “Grumpy Hat”. It snapped me out of the fog and I smiled.
The “Grumpy Hat” was one that they had gotten for me years ago when we would vacation together. I was usually a little terse in the morning until I had my coffee. Back then those two were up early and talking away. It reminded me of a flock of chickens, which is what I used to call them.
We talked a little bit. I asked them what they had heard around the camp. I knew that there was a lot of chatter going on about the death of Alyssa. Everyone had a theory as to who did it and why and I knew that sooner or later I would hear almost all of them.
But for right now I needed to look at the scene and confirm it was the prime location. I also needed to look around the area for who knows what but I would need some help. If nothing else, I needed someone to watch my back as I dug into things and focused on the crime. I had two very good candidates right in front of me so I asked them to join me in the walk to the storage shed.
While we walked I told them what I had figured so for. The killer was probably known to Alyssa or at least someone who she felt comfortable enough with to follow them to the kill site, but where we found the body might not have been the original kill site. I figured that whoever did this was angry, very angry but was that anger aimed at Alyssa or was it anger over the death of Marisa/Lauren. If the anger was specific to Alyssa then the killer could be from either camp but if it was over the death of Marisa/Lauren was more likely from our camp.
The weapon used would help, but that appears to have walked away with the killer. So that is not a lot of help in figuring out who did it. We all carry a K-bar or hunting knife so there are lots of weapons that could have been used. I should have probably check everyone’s knives for blood, but even that may not help much because many of us hunt and fish regularly using the weapons as tools to gut our kills. I could have also checked the clothing but it would be just a cursory exam and at this point even if I did find blood it would be dried and could be from anywhere. But these are all thoughts for the future as we missed the chances this time.
Before we got too far Anne suggested that we stop at her lab and pick up some protective gear, gloves and masks and such. Really that was a good idea since she shared the building with Lance we could stop and have him download my pictures from yesterday.
While we were uploading and printing I asked if he had his camera system up and running. He did have parts of it for the compound but not the area where Alyssa was found.
We got to the tool shed about 9:30. We had pretty much trampled down the ground in front of the shed yesterday after we found her. But I backed up a little and looked around the site a little more. I really did not see anything like a blood trail or scuff marks to show that the body had been dragged from another site. Off to the right and behind the shed was a little path that leads into the woods. I remembered it from when we were doing the fencing. We took a walk down that path a little bit.
About 25 feet into the woods we saw a pile of clothes; actually it was worker’s coveralls. I had never seen anyone wearing anything like them before but that really does not mean much. When we looked at them more closely it was clear that they had been worn during the homicide. They were covered with blood. I started to reach for them and got an “Ahem” from Anne, she was right; I had not put on gloves. I was thinking that I could not contaminate the evidence because we had no DNA testing or anything like that but I didn’t consider that the coveralls could contaminate me.
A cursory look showed that there were nothing in the pockets and there was an embroidered logo on the left chest pocket that said “Camp Romaca Maintainer” so that means that they were already here and that the killer did not bring them. If there was an upside, it was that the coveralls were a size Large. That eliminated big people as the murderer which removed a number of people from the suspect list. Matt, Mark, Billy, Nick, Ron, Henry, Teckla, The Major, Joseph and Armand could be taken off the list.
One might argue that the small people like Jan, Margo, Anne and others could be taken off the list also, but I am not inclined at this point to do that. A small person could wear an oversized garment but the reverse is not likely to happen, kind of along the lines of not being able to put ten pounds of poop in a five pound bag.
I took my K-Bar out of my belt and tossed it as hard as I could. It covered about forty feet in the air; that was our search radius. Actually I added another 20 or so feet to the radius. My thought was that when the murderer ditched the clothing he might have also gotten rid of the knife or tool that was used. So starting where the coveralls were found we held hands and began to spiral out from there walking side by side looking for the weapon.
We would have to break contact on occasion for a tree or bush but would keep within a couple of feet of each other. We found old cans, bottles, broken glass and some other items that showed human activities of various natures, but no knife. That did not mean that the murderer had not tossed the weapon, it just seemed to show that it was not dropped or tossed here.
I received a walkie call from Lance who said that my pictures were ready and that he had noticed a couple of things that might be important. We decided that we had pretty much covered this area of the coverall and were comfortable with the shed being the scene so we bagged up the coverall and headed back.
Lunch was pretty good. Anne’s Mom and Grace had picked up the slack while Nick works on dealing with Lauren’s death. It was boiled corn and grilled bunny although the rabbit was on the bland side, it lacked the spi
ces and flavors that Nick was able to find and add to the meals.
We met with Lance just after lunch. He had the photos printed. But he also had some photos set up on the computer. He started to click thought them. The first photo was one that showed Alyssa’s position on the floor. She was fully clothed so it was likely that we could remove sexual assault from the equation.
She was not just killed and left there. She had been posed. Her position was that of a crucified individual. Her arms were extended and one foot was placed on top on the other. This would have been done in the old Roman days to save on the nails as well as add to the discomfort of the victim.
There seemed to be no indication of other wounds beyond the gaping wound to her throat. There were no defensive wounds on her hands so that would seem to show that the attack took place from behind and was a surprise. It may have in fact been a case where she did not know her attacker but then why would she have gone to this bizarre location just on her own.
The Event Trilogy (Book 1): Life After the Meteor Page 24