SACRIFICES (41 page)

              The country needed a fall guy and he was the one. I’m glad Mr. Jostler. He’s a liar. And if you wonder how I know well the reason I know is simple. You’ve probably wondered for a long time how I know so much about this case and what the husbands did. I know so much because the teeth, bone fragments and blood they found were mine. I use to be, Beth Townsend. Those scumbags punched me so much in the face that I no longer have my own teeth. I underwent a year of reconstructive surgery on my face before I actually looked like a person again.  They hit me so hard with their fist and the gun that I actually lost part of my jaw bone, those big football stars got a kick out of beating me, a young woman, with branches, bottles and their fist for hours. I don’t know to this day how I survived. I guess God was with me that night.

              The version of the rape you heard probably made you feel sick. You’re a good man; it probably made you sad how some poor innocent girl was put through such a horrific ordeal. Now think about this. The version you heard was only partially correct. The other three didn’t want to rape me, at first, but it didn’t stop them from sodomizing me or forcing their penises down my throat, and then taking turns using me a receptacle for their semen as they tried to beat me to death with their fist a bottle and branches they found lying around. My body was so tore up it’s a miracle I survived. What do you think now Mr. Jostler?

              Because of my family keeping it under wraps and my dad’s money, I was able to move on with my life as someone else. Troy was dead but I wasn’t. The only real mistake those guys made was they didn’t kill me before they buried me. The hole was so shallow I didn‘t have a hard time getting out after they left. If they weren’t so high on drugs and drunk, maybe they could have seen it was that shallow.

When they decided to shoot the gun into the hole for some sick target practice I stopped crying. I knew when I heard them talking about it that it was my only hope. I tried to act like they hit me and killed me. If I hadn’t then they would have made sure I was dead before they left. When they looked into the hole to see if I was still breathing I held my breath and my blood covered face made them think I was shot in the head. If they had thrown me in after Troy instead of first, I would be dead. His bullet-spattered corpse saved my life that night. One day in heaven I’ll thank him, that is if God finds it his heart to let me in, after what I‘ve done.

I want you too imagine lying on your back just a few feet away from five guys shooting bullets toward your head, a dead body on top of you and seeing shovels full of dirt thrown in your face. Trying not to cry and holding your breath with the weight of Troy’s body on me and every one of my ribs broken. I don’t know how I did that. Now close your eyes and think about that nightmare happening, that’s my alarm clock every morning. That is the vision that wakes me up every single day, and has for the past sixteen years.

              As you can see I had no choice but to pay them back. Don’t try to find me you never will. I have been waiting for sixteen years to settle this debt. Thanks to you it’s settled. If you try to get the allusion that you can find me please think about this; I was tortured and raped for hours, and left for dead, I was buried alive. I escaped and changed my identity. I only changed my identity because if I hadn’t those guys with their rich families and political connections would have got to me sooner or later. When you’re fighting for your life you are capable of things you never thought you could do. You won’t relieve the family of Troy or I by telling them what happened. Our families are now gone. I’m the last surviving member in either family. They were able to know before they died and it did give them some comfort. Troy’s family accepted that he was dead and they knew were he was because I told them. I waited until all of my family was deceased before I paid those scumbags back. They went through enough seeing me go through my recovery, both physical and mental, although it’s safe to assume I’ll never get over that part. I didn’t want my family or his to live through anything else if I had got caught and sent to jail.

              That’s the answer to the big question isn’t it? Why wait so long? Well there’s your answer.  The other question I’m sure you had, why not turn them in for what they did. That’s a big one. The answer for that is with the kinds of connections those lowlifes had with government officials as well as in the police department how long do you think they could have, or would have protected me if I went public. If they knew I was alive then I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have made if for more than a day or two. They wouldn’t let some young girl whose all beat up and tortured send those boys up the river. No, so I had no choice but to wait. It was not only my best option, it was my
only
option.

              You’re a good person, so rest a little easier tonight. Besides the public not knowing the truth, our families did. They always had that piece of mind that was important for you to give them. It’s ok, they had it, so don’t think by showing the media this letter you’d accomplish anything whatsoever. The only thing you might accomplish is affecting the outcome of Mr. Howard’s trial. You don’t want to do that, let it go. He has a better chance of survival in prison. Because if they let him out, I’ll be there waiting...then he‘ll have no chance for survival.

              Your son is safe now as well as his friends. Bring them back from Texas and have them enjoy the rest of their summer here where they belong.  I
swear
to you they’ll never be in danger from me or neither will any of your co-workers. And I do apologize about making the threat toward that pretty red head. But with you thinking your son was safe, she was my last ace in the hole to get you moving to put this case to rest. 

              You see Mr. Jostler I’m envious of you. You enjoyed life with a spouse and a child. I was never able to have either. Because of the way I felt about my appearance and how I felt about myself I was never able to be in a relationship, and because of that I was never able to enjoy the wonder of motherhood. Not that a relationship would have changed that because I will never be able to have children, ever. So be thankful that you had a wonderful wife and you have the privilege of raising a child.

              I’m not proud of what I did to their wives. They didn’t deserve it. But your mind doesn’t work to well after you’ve been raped for hours by a bunch of drunken college guys who try to fuck you to death. The truth is, their wives were never raped or penetrated. After I rendered them unconscious I placed a little lubricant around their vagina. That’s all that happened. With me holding them down and putting them in that position they thought they were raped. Now that this ordeal is over I would love for them to know the truth, unfortunately I won’t be able to tell them, I will be on a beach somewhere in another country. 

              If you see it fit in your heart to look for me, so be it. You’ll only be wasting taxpayer money and your time, besides that, this world is two big for you to find a woman that doesn’t exist on paper. The murders I committed are over now. It’s a shame this all had to happen. But I never started it,
I just finished it
.

              Have a good life and feel good that you were able to solve this case. You can thank me for that. It helped get you to your new position in the police force. You’re welcome.

P.S.  In case you wondered, I did know about the surveillance camera in the parking lot. Watch it and you’ll understand.  If you look under the front passenger seat of Chief Carlin’s car you’ll have a souvenir. The gun that I used to kill those men was the same gun they used to kill Troy and they thought they killed me with. I thought it would be a little poetic justice to end their lives with
that
gun.  Don’t bother checking for prints on the gun...I’m not going to carry this out as far as I have and finally give you a set of prints.

                                                                                    Good bye Mr. Jostler

                                                                                    Now I must vanish.

                            Live long and be happy, and I hope you can wish me the same.

            
 
Brad sits down the pages of the letter and starts to look around. He sighs. Todd leans up. “What’d this one say?”

Brad stands up and begins pacing, still not answering. Todd persists. “What’s wrong?” Brad walks to the door and turns to Todd. He holds up his hand and starts to move his mouth. But nothing comes out. Todd stands up and exclaims in an elevated voice.
“Would you talk to me?”

              Brad lets out a long exhale. “Why, why don’t you read it? Um, yeah,” Brad closes his eyes and then opens them.

“Yeah...go ahead and read it and I’ll be right back. I’m going to go see Lyle.”

              Todd sits down and reaches for the letter and starts to read it. He takes a sip of his coffee and lights a cigarette and kicks up his feet. “Alright.” He exhales a cloud of smoke and begins to read.

              Brad’s all ready half way to Lyle’s office. He doesn’t know what to think right now. The letter gave him feelings he didn’t realize he had. He continues to charge down the hall until he arrives at the lab and walks past Stacey the lab assistant. He doesn’t respond when she says ‘Hi’. His mind is somewhere else. He opens Lyle’s door and walks over to a chair in front of his desk without even knocking first.

              Lyle looks up. “How you doing Brad?”

              Brad nods his head and shrugs his shoulders. “Not to bad. And you?”

              Lyle leans back and places his hands behind his bald head interlocking his fingers. “Ok. So what do I owe the privilege of your visit to the dungeon?” The dungeon is what everyone refers to the lab. It’s in the basement and there are no windows anywhere just a couple steel exit doors with no windows; to only be used in case of emergency.

              Brad acts fidgety by leaning up and moving a few paperweights around not talking. He looks around every so often. He acts like he’s too nervous to talk.

              Lyle moves his chair forward and whispers in a deep voice. “Are you sure you’re all right Brad?” Lyle asks again feeling like Brads bothered by something.

              Brad finally gets up the nerve to ask what he’s been wondering. “How’d the letter check out?”

              Lyle places his elbows onto his desk. He reaches over with his massive hand and takes out a piece of taffy from his candy dish and casually responds. “Same as the rest,”

He pulls the paper back from his taffy and places it into his mouth. “The ink and printer appears to be the same, it was an IBM TRI-STAR for sure. It seems to be sent by the same person. Of course there were no prints.” Lyle bites into his taffy and leans back maintaining eye contact.

              Brad clears his throat. “Did you read it?” He also maintains eye contact as he asks.

              Lyle looks away and nods his head. “Nope, it’s not my job to read evidence,
that’s your job
, I just check for prints. I don’t get involved in the other stuff.” Lyle tilts his head looking toward his desk.

              Brad leans over and takes a piece of taffy and opens it. He smiles. “Who else had possession of that letter besides you? I know you did of course. But was it possible for anyone else to read it besides you? Even though you didn‘t read it.” Brad looks up slightly with his eyes only, keeping his head down.

              Lyle takes a deep breath. “When it was brought to me the letter was still sealed. I ran my test. Put it back into the same envelope and when I was about to send Stacey up with it, Todd got here first,” Lyle chews his taffy. “No one besides me saw anything. You have my word on that.”

              Brad looks down and then places his wrapper on the desk in a ball. “So it would appear that no one besides you, Todd and me ever laid eyes on what was typed on those pages.”

              “It appears.” Lyle rocks back and forth slowly chewing on his salt-water taffy he purchased at Six Flags when he was there with his six-year-old daughter during a recent day off.

              Brad looks at the picture on his desk of Lyle holding his daughter standing next to bugs bunny and daffy duck in front of the fountain at Six Flags. “Then no one knows what’s said in that letter.” Brad leans back. “Are you sure you didn’t catch anything on the letter? I mean by accident of course.”

              Lyle smiles again starting from the corner of his mouth, finally realizing what Brad wants to hear. “Well it depends on who’s asking?”

              Brad smirks with a slight trace of nervousness in his voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

              Lyle leans up and signals with his finger for Brad to move closer. Brad leans up and listens. “Between you, me and that plant in the corner, if I were asked about the letter I’d say I have no idea what it said,” Lyle talks softly. “It’s
‘not’
my job to read what’s there. Just find prints.”

              Brad remains close. He nods. “So let’s just say that if you were ever potentially questioned about the contents of that letter you’d say...” Brad tilts his head to the side waiting for a response.

              Lyle smiles, “I didn’t read it. If you by chance made a request, I could say that the letter some how got destroyed by I don’t know, maybe some kind of spill. I could say that the letter had nothing inside at all, I could say it was an empty envelope.”