Confession (22 page)

He compared it to the story about the first letter in the book.  “It’s exac
tly the same,” Sam said.  H
e got mad while he recalled that day in his office when he received the taunting letter.

Sam opened up the second letter and looked at it.

“Hey Stupid.  I Killed A Girl In The Woods 3 Miles East of White Falls, Alabama Last Week.  All My Love, October Slayer,” it read in magazine print.

“Bastard!” Sam said while he compared the letter to what was stated in the book.

He opened up the third letter and looked at it.

"Chasing False Leads Dumbass?  All My Love, The October Slayer," it read with magazine print.

“How the hell did the author of this book know about these three letters?” Sam asked himself while he stared at the letters mentioned in the book.

He looked at back of A Killer’s Tale and read the short author’s bio.  “He was an Army CID agent.  That’s interesting,” Sam said while he got up and paced around the den.  This story started eating
away
at him.

In Curtis, Mississippi, Billy paced around his den with a glass of whiskey on the rocks.  He looked those pictures of Allan and himself on the wall. 

He walked up to a picture of them when they were in high school.  “If you were alive right how, I would snap your neck,” he cursed at the picture.

He walked over to his bar.  He freshened up his drink and filled the glass with more whiskey.

His cell phone rang on the bar.  He looked at the viewfinder.  “What do you want?” he answered the call.  Billy paced around the room while he listened to the caller.   “I don't know why Allan wrote it,” he said then paced while he listened to the caller.  “Why the fuck should I give you more money?” he replied pissed off.   “I don't know if Sam Woods is still around.  Can’t you find out?” he said then sipped some whiskey while he listened to the caller.   “He’s probably too old to do anything now days,” he said while he paced and listened to the caller.  “Well find out and call me,” he replied and sipped some more whiskey.   “I’ll think about paying you again,” Billy replied then ended the call.

He walked over to his bar and set his cell phone down.  He looked at it and decided to make one more attempt.

In Kissimmee, Becky was in bed while she read a romantic book called
Only Time
while Marty had his head buried in A Killer’s Tale.

The phone on the bedside table rang.  Becky kept her eyes on her book while she picked up the phone.  “Becky,” she answered while she continued to read her story.

“If you let me go through Allan's house, I'll pay you five thousand dollars and then I’ll remove the lien.  I’ll also stay out of your life forever.  Promise!” Billy quickly blurted out on the phone.

Becky slammed the phone down, which startled Marty. 

“What was that about?”

“Uncle Billy again.  I don't care if I never sell the house and I don’t want his money.  I'll never let him get his way!”

Becky put her book away.  She turned off her light and rolled to her side and closed her eyes. 

Mar
ty looked curiously at his book while thought a about Billy’s persistence with getting into Allan’s house.

S
am got up early this morn
ing and grabbed a cup of coffee from the kitchen. 
 

He rushed into his den with something he had to get started on right away.

He sat down at his desk and
took a drink of coffee.  He set the cup down on the top of his desk then
opened up his middle drawer. 

He removed a small photo album and opened it up.  He flipped through a few pages of photos.

He glanced
at a picture of Gary Gardner, and himself when they were young men back in 1951.  Angie Gardner took the picture of Gary and Sam while they posed at the construction of a new home.  Gary and Sam were best friends in Auburn.  Gary’s father gave the boys summer jobs at his construction site.  This was the first summer Angie met Sam.  She was thirteen years old and took a liking to Sam.  She wanted to marry him
in the worst way
.

He flipped to another page in his photo album.

He saw a picture of Gary, Sam and Angie, with a mole on her upper lip, taken at the beach in Pensacola, Florida in 1954.  It was the summer after
the two guys
graduated from college.  They decided to party a little before Sam started with the FBI and before Gary started work with his father’s construction company.  Angie still liked Sam but decided she did not want to marry him since she had her first boyfriend.

He flipped to another page in his photo album.

I
t was 1959 and Sam married Vicky
Hanson.  Gary took a picture of Sam while he slow danced with Angie, who was ready to graduate from college.

Sam’s eyes welled up while he looked at those pictures.  They brought back so many fond memories.

H
e looked back at the October Slayer case files that
were piled in a stack
on his desk.  He thumbed through them and looked at the file for Angie Gardner.  He hesitated while he stared at the “Angie Gardner – October Slayer Victim #4” label.  This was hard for Sam to do, but he opened up the folder.  

The first item he saw was a picture of Angie, tied naked to a tree and severely beaten with a blunt object. 

While Sam stared at the photo of Angie, bad memories
again
flooded his head.  “How the hell did Allan know
that
I knew Angie?” Sam said quietly to himself.
  “How?” he said out loud.

Sam’s memory of that miserable day in October 1965…

Sam drove his black 1963 black Chevy Bel-Air government car.  He followed a Sheriff’s 1960 Ford Gala
xie car down a two-lane road. 

T
he Sheriff’s car turned right at a Lake Downing sign, which ended up on a dirt road.  They were fifteen miles west from Downing, Tennessee in the middle of nowhere.

Sam, in his standard dark suit, got o
ut of his car with
Joel Nelson his partner.  They followed Sheriff Jay Rollins to a crime scene that was roped off in the wee hours of the dark morning.   Three deputies guarded the area during the whole night.

“Two teenagers were out here necking last night and found her body.  After we saw the number four smeared with grease on her belly, we knew the October Slayer struck again.  We’re saddened to think it happened in our neck of the woods,” Sheriff Rollins told Sam while he escorted him to the scene.

They saw a dead young blonde woman tied naked to a tree.  Her body was severely beaten with a blunt object.  Her forehead was crushed, and her nose was smashed.  Her jaw was smashed, and
both of
her kneecaps were smashed.  Hundreds of flies buzzed around her dead flesh. 

Sam saw the grease-smeared number on Angie’s belly, the signature for the October Slayer. 

Off about fifteen feet from the tree was a huge boulder about four feet high and six feet long.  

Sam and Joel went under the crime scene tape and walked over to the dead woman.  Joel wore his white gloves then he searched the area for any evidence.

Sam wore his white gloves while he checked her out. 

Then his eyes widened with shock with he saw the mole on her upper lip.

“We haven’t identified her since all of her belongings are missing,” Sheriff Rollins told Sam who stared in disbelief at the dead woman.

“Her name is Angie Gardner,” Sam said while his eyes filled with tears.

“How do you know that?” Joel asked while he searched the ground.

“She’s the sister of my best friend from college,” Sam said then he looked sick and turned white as a ghost. 

He ran over to that boulder and vomited behind it.

Sheriff Rollins and his three deputies felt sorry for Sam.

Joel walked over to Sam.  “You okay?”

“I’m going to the car.  Take lots of photos and make fucking sure you find some evidence,” Sam said while he rushed off to their government car.

Joel watched while Sam got behind the wheel of their car where he discreetly sipped on his whiskey flask.  Joel understood Sam’s feeling then he scoured the dirt for some evidence. 

Joel found a front tooth in the dirt, and he picked it up and dropped it in an evidence bag.

Joel walked over to Angie and checked the inside of her mouth and found most of her teeth were missing.  He looked back at their government car and knew Sam was crying. 

He continued to search the dirt and found a few more of Angie’s teeth.

Three days later, Sam drove his government car down from Atlanta down to Mobile, Alabama.  He pulled into the driveway of his friend’s house, Gary Gardner.  He got out of his car. 

The walk to the front door was the longest walk in his life.   He knocked on the door.  A few seconds later, the door opened and Gary appeared.

Gary’s eyes lit up with joy with seeing his old college friend.  “Sam! What a wonderful surprise!” Gary cried out.  Then he noticed Sam’s stone cold serious face. “What’s wrong buddy?”

“It’s Angie,” Sam quietly said then hesitated, as he started to shake inside.  “We need to talk,” he added while he stared at the bottom of the door.

“Angie?  Is she okay?” Gary asked while his stomach got nervous.

Sam’s eyes welled up when he looked at Gary’s eyes.

Gary let Sam in the house and he broke the bad news that Angie was killed.  He watched while his best friend dropped to his knees and sobbed.

“I swear, Gary.  I’m going to catch this scumbag and I don’t care if it takes me the rest of my life.  I promise!” Sam told Gary while he left his house.

Back to reality…

Sam stared at a picture of four of Angie’s teeth Joel found during his search.  These were teeth he remembered that gleamed when she smiled at Sam.  His eyes welled up while he stared at the photo.

Cindy entered his den and walked
over
to Sam.  He turned around when he heard her footsteps. 

She noticed his eyes and sad look.  “What's the matter honey?” she asked while she stroked his cheek.

“This book brought back memories about Angie's death.”

“You shouldn't have read it,” Cindy said with a concerning tone.

“I had to.  I can let it go.  If you knew Angie, you would feel the same,” Sam said while he looked back at her case file.

“It's over Sam.  Too many years have passed to catch the killer now.”

“No!  It’s never too late to catch a killer.  This book has clues.  Now that Peter's been transferred to the Tampa office, I'll going to pay him a visit.  Maybe he can get the bureau to reopen the case,” Sam said and looked confident Peter would get that in work ASAP. 

“If that makes you feel better, then you should,” she said then gave him a kiss on his cheek.  “I’ll give you a call tomorrow,” she added.

Sam watched while she walked out of the room. 

He quickly returned to the book and the case files.  He jotted down some notes for his meeting with Peter.

Sam spent the next three hours jotting down notes. His eyelids started to slowly droop.  He yawned then he got up and got ready for bed.

Fifteen minutes later, Sam was sound asleep, but thoughts about Allan’s book and the October Slayer case files ran through his mind.  He started tossed and turned in bed while his nightmare started.

In Sam’s nightmare…

Sam prowled through some woods at night in the Deep South.  There was another full Moon and that provided light to navigate without bumping into a tree.  But Sam still used a flashlight while he searched the woods.  He looked worried to death while he illuminated the trees.

His flashlight found a horrible sight. 

Tied to a tree was his best friend’s sister, Angie.  She was naked and her head slumped down.  She was dead and had been there for a week.  Flies buzzed around her smelly rotting flesh.  He looked at her gray clammy lifeless body.

Sam’s eyes welled up the second he saw her.  He slowly walked up to her and kept her body illuminated with his flashlight.   His eyes welled up when he saw her beaten body.  “I’m sorry, Angie!” Sam told her while he reached out and touched her cold cheek. 

Angie’s eyes suddenly opened.  She gave Sam a blank zombie stare.  “Why Sam?” Angie asked in a sad tone.

“Please forgive me!” Sam called out while he grieved her death.

She gave Sam a warm toothless smile.  Then she gave him
a blank lifeless stare.  S
he screamed a blood-curdling scream that echoed throughout the woods.

Sam jumped back scared to death and waited for her next move. 

Her eyes fill with tears.  “Why didn't you catch him Sam?   It hurt so very much.  I can't rest until you catch him.  You have to get my killer.  You owe me!  You promised Gary you would catch my killer,” Angie cried out then she sobbed.  She immediately stopped and stared like a zombie at Sam.  Her head dropped down and she remained
motionless.  H
er skin slowly dissolve
d along with her organs.  H
e was nothing but a skeleton tied to the tree.

Back to reality
…

Sam bolted up from the bed in a sweat.  “I’m so sorry Angie!” he screamed.  He looked around his bedroom in a daze.  

He sat up on the edge of his bed and ran his hands
through his hair in frustration.
  He reached over at the bedside table and went to grab something.  He was on autopilot when he went to reach for a whiskey bottle.  But one has not been on his bedside table since he left Phoenix.

Sam lay back on the bed and silently prayed his nightmare wouldn’t return.

It was the next morning through out America.

In Curtis, Mississippi, Billy sat in his kitchen while he drank he morning coffee.  He stared at A Killer’s Tale and pondered his next move.  He started to look concerned. 
He grabbed his pack of Marlboro cigarettes, removed one and lit it.  Billy smoked while he pondered the situation Allan’s book now created.

His phone in the kitchen rang.  It startled him and he jumped a mile.  

He walked over and grabbed the phone.  “Hello,” he answered.  He listened to the caller.  “Daytona Beach, Florida?” he asked.  H
e listened to the caller.  “Great
, he hasn’t moved,” he said then he listened to the caller.  “Okay, come to my office and I’ll pay you,” Billy said then hung up his phone.

He walked over and sat back down.  He looked at his information and wondered if Sam would be a real threat.

In Daytona Beach, Sam got up early.  He got ready for his trip to Tampa.

He went into his den and opened up his address book.  He found the number he needed then made a call with his cell phone.

“Special Agent Peter Bronson.  How may I help you?” Peter answered the call.

“Hey Peter, it’s me, Sam Woods.”

“Hey Sam!  What’s it been?  Five years?”

“Yeah, I believe it has.”

“Are you calling me to do some fishing again?”

“Actually, I wanted to come by your office to have a chat,” Sam said.

“I would love that.  When?” Peter replied excited to see his old friend again.

“I was thinking of driving over now,” Sam replied.

“Today?  I don’t see why not.  I have a light schedule.
  No meetings.
”

“Good, I should be there in a couple of hours.”

“What’s so important that you need to come right away?” Peter asked a little concerned.

“You’ll have to wait.  So I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” Sam replied.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting.”

In Kissimmee, Becky, Marty and the kids sat at the kitchen table while they ate breakfast.