Sheriff John Hammond knocked on the door of the most dilapidated house that he had ever seen. When Curtis Melville answered the door he spoke, “Hi Curtis. I need to ask you a few questions about yesterday.”
Curtis looked Melville up and down. “When I saw you pull up, I knew that it wasn’t a social call.”
“I’m afraid we have some bad new, Curtis.”
“Well, come on in. Believe me the inside doesn’t look any better than the outside. You want some coffee or something?” Curtis led John to the living room and directed him towards a couch that looked more like it belonged to a garbage dump than one of the richest men in The Pier.
“No thanks. It’s been a long time since we spoke.” John said. “Too long.”
Curtis sat down across from John in a recliner that looked even worse than the couch. “I know it’s not the newest furniture, but it suits me just fine. What are you here for John?”
John cleared his throat. They had a long history together and this was not going to be easy. “According to your tab at the department store, you were the last customer of the evening.”
“And…”
“And Sarah Whitman, the cashier, is missing. You were the last person to see her alive. Was anyone else in the store before you left?”
“No, not that I know of, but I can’t be sure. You know I don’t socialize too much.”
“Did she say anything unusual, or suspicious? Anything about running away? Maybe threatening calls?”
“No. She rang me up and then I left.”
“Alright. Is it okay if I ask you a few more questions?”
“Sure.”
“Does the name Endymion mean anything to you?”
Curtis shifted in his chair. “Nope. Why do you ask?”
“A woman in town is being stalked, I’m sure you’ve read about it in the paper?”
“John, you know I don’t read the papers.”
“Right. Well, this woman’s receiving letters from a person calling himself Endymion. He’s killed one woman, and we think that he has Sarah.”
“Who’s this woman, who’s being stalked?”
“Suzanne Collins…”
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Curtis remembered Sue. He and her father were friends for quite some time. Then things changed. Sue used to baby-sit Michael and Judy when he and Tori went out. This was about the time when Tori had started become ill.
The routine had always been: Curtis picks up Sue, Sue watches the kids, and Curtis brings Sue home. Late in Tori’s illness she started to distrust Curtis. She was uptown one night when she overheard Sue talking to one of her friends about Tori’s problems.
All Tori heard was, “And her husband is part of not only the CIA, but the FBI as well.” After that Tori came home, took the kids, and left. She never gave him a chance to explain. He never got to defend himself.
After that, he never forgave Sue for ruining his life.
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“Sorry, John. But, I don’t know anyone by that name.”
John nodded his head. “I guess I don’t have to tell you not to leave town. State police will be here in a few days. They may want to ask you some questions too.”
John stood up and walked himself to the door. “See you around Curtis.”
Curtis acted like he hadn’t heard John’s reply and went into the kitchen. He made himself a can of soup and sat down at the kitchen table. “Little bitch deserves everything she gets.”
————————————————————————
Sue’s family sat at the dining room table for supper. It was an unusually quiet supper.
“Have they found any clues yet?” Mrs. Collins asked.
“No. He didn’t even leave a note this time.” Sue replied.
“Don’t you worry, maybe she’s just run away. Girls her age do it all the time. They get angry at their folks, follow the high school bad boy, get drunk, and wind up crawling back to their parents knocked up.” Mr. Collins said.
“I’m just worried about her safety. If he does have her. I know he’ll kill her. Why is he doing this? Why is he killing innocent people on account of me? What did I do that was so bad?” Sue asked.
“Honey, you didn’t do anything wrong. This is just some sick, twisted man. David, you talked to John, do they have any suspects yet?”
“No. No suspects, no leads, nothing. He said he was going to talk to Melville today since he was the last check out at the store last night.” Mr. Collins said.
“He couldn’t do anything like that. He’s harmless. God, we’ve known him since we were children.” Mrs. Collins said.
The telephone rang. “I’ll get it.” Sue headed into the foyer to answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Sue?” A voice asked.
“Yes, who’s this?” Sue replied.
“It’s Brad Redford.”
Sue remembered Brad. They had been the high school’s cutest couple all four years. Everyone had thought they would be married, but things just didn’t work out. “How are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m back in town for a few days and I heard that you were too, so I decided to call and see if, maybe you wanted to go to town for dinner on Saturday.”
“Yeah that sounds great. I haven’t seen you in so long. Where do you live now?”
“I work at a steel mill in New York.”
“I thought you wanted to be a journalist?”
“I did, but I didn’t have the talent. You’re still in the art field?”
“Yeah, mainly sculpting and photography. But I do sketches and painting occasionally.”
“Shall I pick you up at your parent’s house?”
“How did you know I was staying with my parents?”
Brad paused. “Would you ever stay anywhere else?”
“True, you’ve got a point. Pick me up here.”
“Say, seven o’clock?”
“That sounds great. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Sue hung up the phone. What a coincidence that her high school sweetheart and her could catch up now of all times.
She turned to head back to the dining room when she noticed a piece of paper on the floor by the front door. When she walked over she realized that it was not a piece of paper, but an envelope. She picked it up. It had no addresses on it. Simply the word: SUE
She glanced out the window next to the door, but saw only darkness staring back at her. She swallowed hard and opened up the envelope. She pulled out a lock of hair and set it on the table next to the closet. Then she read:
My dearest Sue,
How have you been? I’ve just had the most wonderful time. Do you want to know what I did? I played with her. I fondled her. Then I beat her. I cut her from her sternum to her naval. You should hear how she screamed. Then I slashed her throat and jammed the knife deep into her chest, just like I did with Misty. It’s a real rush, Sue. You should feel it. Do you want to know where she is Sue? The cops sure will. I’m going to keep killing Sue. I’m going to kill until I can’t hold back any more and then I’ll come after you.
Love Always,
Endymion
P.S. Tell the cops they can find her body in Sun River Creek.
“Daddy!”
To be continued…