Case of Five Missing Girls (eBook)

Chapter One

Panic

The young boy, nearly naked, feels mud oozing between his toes when he jumps off the old wooden raft and begins to walk up the muddy pond bank, struggling to stay upright. A cool breeze whips across the goose bumps on his shivering arms. A strange sense of dread overcomes him. Is someone watching he wonders?

“JEZZ us CREEPERS, that was something else!”

His buddies, wet and splattered with mud, scramble up the pond bank leaving the raft halfway out of the water.

“That was scary” Ed mumbles.

“It is hard to explain…” Jason breaks off, shaking, as if to rid himself of the uneasiness. “That’s enough wind and rain for one day.”
Jason can’t suppress the fear in his eyes. He is not accustomed to panic or shared unease. Something very different had happened today with the sudden storm rolling in, unexpected and severe.

The sun appears from behind the clouds and the cool air becomes a warm breeze and then ceases. The temperature rises, warming the children and the shivering stops. Across the field, the corn leaves stop rustling and ripples on the muddy pond water flatten out to a smooth surface.

Curtis, youngest of the three boys, begins limping down the pond bank toward the road. “I want to go home. These horseflies are coming at me. My back is sunburned.”

A blond crewcut, wet, and matted against his head makes him look bald. One leg, shorter than the other, is noticeable on his slender frame when he begins to move forward, walking fast or running. Curtis doesn’t let it slow him down.

Ed, one year younger than Jason, took orders from his friend this afternoon. Jason saved them from drowning. He kept them alive with his quick reaction to the rolling raft.

“Jason, what happened on that raft?”

“I wish I knew.” Jason replies sharply.

The two older boys slip and slide down the pond bank, stop at the fence, and take turns holding up the barbwire. Curtis is first up to crawl through.

They begin to make their way down Mill Pond Road, barefooted, trying to avoid the rocks on the dirt road. Unusually quiet, they cannot comprehend what happened on that raft, or have the courage to talk about it. They are in serious trouble. Losing their shoes and clothes will be hard to explain. Drying mud sticks to their bare skin and sweat rolls down their faces. With Jason in the lead, they begin to trot.

It’s five o’clock when they come within sight of the compound where four doublewide mobile homes sit surrounded by two thousand acres of tall stalks of corn, the only visual blocking that flat plain of land. From the road, they see the shadow of a figure on the ground.

Jason hesitates and slows to a stop, turns to Curtis and says, “Is that your dog? Call Mister!”

Curtis whistles for his dog, a German shepherd.

The image does not move. Moving forward they realize it’s a young woman near the steps to Curtis’ house. No one else is around.

Something is wrong and they sense it. Racing ahead, Jason reaches the girl first and slides to a stop. Sweat forming in beads on his face, drip in dirty streams from his back and chest. His outstretched arms wave for balance. Shocked, his focus on the figure blocks out a response.

“It’s Marie,” Curtis cries. “Is she asleep?”

“She looks dead!” Ed says. “Do you see any blood?”

“I can’t tell.” Jason recovering his voice, pokes her arm. She doesn’t respond. Filled with panic, his eyes sweeping the grounds as he turns to Ed, “What do you think happened to her?”

“I don’t know.”

Curtis whistles again for his dog. “Mister, Mister”. Yelling as he looks away from Marie, turning and looking around the big yard. From the corner of his eye he sees movement and opens his mouth to call a warning. The words seem to freeze in his throat. The German shepherd races out of the cornfield, jumps up on Curtis and begins licking his face. The dog’s hair is matted with sticker burs. He is panting hard. The young boy puts his arms around the dog.

“Mister is OK. Stay.” He signals with an open hand, palms facing down. He slips a hand to the shepherd’s flank, running his fingers over him lightly. “What a good dog” he whispers to his friend; a ritual of theirs.

“Where are the girls?” Jason says. They may have been with the dog.

“Julia, Mary, Beth!” They all begin to shout, as they moved to the edge of the field. No sound, other than the buzz of insects, comes from the fields.

Panic begins to fill the boys. They run to their houses, looking and shouting out the girls’ names, racing from room to room, into the backyard and circling around to the front.

“No one is in my house”, Jason yells, returning to the yard. “Help me look under the houses, Ed. Curtis, you go in the twins’ house.”

Jason races around to the back and pulls out a small board covering the crawl space opening and crawls under the house searching.

Curtis tries the door to the twins’ house. “It’s unlocked.”

He opens it and calls out. “Barbara, Bennie, anybody here?”

The hall light is on. He races down the hallway, flinging open doors. The house is empty. The girls are gone.

When he returns to join Jason and Ed in the yard, he says, “Where could they be?”

Breathing hard, Ed rationalizes, “Maybe they are with our Moms.”

“Or, they went to find a doctor for Marie.” Jason says, in a voice that can barely be heard. “We should call 911.” He races back into his house, grabs the phone and dials.

The operator answers. “911. What is the emergency?”

“Come quick, our babysitter looks dead!”

“Calm down and tell me where you are. I need your location.”

Jason takes a breath and swallows. He tries to sound grown up as he begins to direct the operator to Highway 910, then to Mill Pond Road and then two miles to his house.

Before she has a chance to tell him to stay on the line, Jason hangs up and dials his Dad’s cellphone number.

On the second ring, James touches a button and speaks into the phone. “What is it, Jason? You know I am at work.” He turns and starts walking across the busy yard to his truck. A call at work from his son meant trouble. That much he knew already.

Jason stammers with panic. “The babysitter is dead!!!”

“Hold on Son, calm down! How do you know Marie is dead?”

“She is on the ground by the steps. She is not moving.”

“Where are the girls?”

“I don’t know. We looked all over the place for them.”

“Did you call the police?”

“Yes, I called 911.”

James tall, athletic, in work clothes and wearing a baseball cap, lifts himself into an old Dodge truck and slams the door. His voice is calm. He will not give into fear when he speaks to his son.

“I am on my way home. Call your Mother, the work number is on the list on the wall next to the phone. Ask her where the girls are? I want you to stay calm. Help Marie if you can. Go back outside and wait for the police. I have to hang up, I‘m entering the highway.”

James throws the phone on the seat, puts both hands on the steering wheel, guns the truck into high, and turns left on the main highway. He is not the type of person to panic. Something in the tone of his son’s voice told him evil had happened. Whatever it was, brought dread into his heart.

Following his Dad’s instructions, Jason dials his Mother’s work number and gets a busy signal. He turns to the other boys standing nearby.

“Curtis, go get a glass of water. Ed, you go wait at the end of the driveway for the police.”

He takes a deep breath and feels better. “Dad would be here soon.”

He walks outside, leans over, and carefully rolls Marie over on her back. Curtis hands him the water. Using his hand Jason sprays drops of water on Marie’s face. She doesn’t blink. A soft low wailing moan, moving only her lips and lasting only a few seconds, rocks the boys backward with surprise.

Jason and Curtis look at each other. “She’s alive!”

“I hear the ambulance.” Ed calls out from the road.

A cloud of dust appears on the dirt road. A siren becomes louder as it approaches their driveway.

“There’s a police car too!” Ed screams!

As the vehicles stop, three people jump out, one cop and two men from the ambulance each carrying a big black bag. The medics, ignoring the boys, run to the girl and begin opening their bags and pulling out equipment.

“Is this your mother?” The cop asks.

They all shake their head.

“She is the babysitter for our sisters. Her name is Marie.” Jason responds.

“My Mom should be here soon, coming in from work.” We can’t find the girls, my sister and her four friends should be here. I phoned my Dad at work after I called 911. He is on his way here.”

Looking around and speaking to Curtis and Ed, the cop says. “Where are your folks?”

They both shake their head. Ed says, “Our parents usually get here around six o’clock.”

The medics attaching an IV, ask, “How long has she been lying here?”

“I don’t know. Jason called 911 when we got home about twenty minutes ago and found her.” Ed says.

“Where have you been in your underwear?” The cop asks.

Looking embarrassed and uneasy, Jason replies, “We went swimming and lost our clothes and sneakers in the...