Two more coming up in just a few minutes...
From the moment we arrived, I knew the night was going to be special. There was an electrified vibe running throughout the entire school, starting even in the parking lot. The school had hired a valet service so as we pulled up and Owen handed the keys over, I felt like some sort of royalty. Then, the moment we stepped inside, there were photographers there to capture our arrival and then we were ushered to two different photo props for photos that could be purchased.Owen wanted the photos so he had me fill out the forms while he paid after we carefully selected the package and options that we wanted with our photos. No expense was spared as he wanted the best so he ended up spending over a hundred dollars just on our photos.The gym was decorated with streamers and balloons in such large quantities that it literally looked like a party store had thrown up in there. There was a cover band on the stage playing a fast song when we walked in. The dancing was set in the area directly in
Per tradition at Wood Haven, only the Junior Varsity had a game on the night of the Homecoming dance. The varsity game was held on Saturday. Throughout the evening into the night, a tournament was held that Wood Haven was infamous for. For over fifty years, the same trophy had been passed around to the winning school and that school held bragging rights for the next year. Right now, we were holding onto it and had for the last two years.The tournament pitted Wood Haven, Mecan, Broken Falls and Manauwa against each other. Those four teams have always had a regional rivalry that was unlike any other. That was one of the reasons the tournament was created and to make it even more special, it was created to correspond with Homecoming so that there could be the big dance and celebration the night before.We were not only celebrating the annual Homecoming event, we were celebrating the last night we held the trophy for this year and celebrating in anticipation of bringing it home again for
And just like that, all activity related to the killer stopped. Without any suspects, there was nothing to go on. The TBI came back with a solid imprint of the shoes found outside my apartment. Size twelve wide belonging to a Nike brand that was a very common running shoe. Nothing that stood out, whatsoever. Agent Flemings was disappointed to find my flaws in the shoes, either.We went on with our regular routine the entire month of September with no indication that there had ever even been a killer in Wood Haven. There wasn't even a sense of foreboding or impending doom right now. It didn’t take long before the state officials had to pull out, needing to focus on other cases. A week after they left with a promise to return if anything happened, Chief Harding informed us that he could no longer keep so much manpower focused on just patrol and security so the patrol cars were pulled from the diner and the house. It made everyone nervous that first week but then we just gradually accepte
John had left not long after we finished that conversation in the kitchen. He needed to go help Barb finish the shift at the diner. Darcy and Melinda had both agreed to stay on until he returned. They were the waitresses while Barb ran the grill. Owen and I both were absolutely exhausted and more than ready to just forget everything around us and crawl into bed but given the circumstances, it was well after dark and almost midnight before the police allowed that to happen.It was frustrating to know that after the attempted break-in, there was nothing to go on but a cast of some shoe impressions in the dirt but it was better than nothing, I guess. Agent Flemings seemed happy with this evidence but I had my doubts.We were finally able to go inside and call it a night right at midnight. A fresh patrol had been assigned for the night and part of their duties now included getting out of the vehicle from time to time and making sweeps on the grounds, just in case.Owen and I took a shower
By the time we arrived at the house, the yard was swarming with police officers. We had to weave our way through the cop cars, marked and unmarked, as we pulled in alongside them. As we climbed out, Chief Harding made his way toward us with Detective Clements and Special Agent Flemings, that we had met earlier in the week for our additional interview.“Miss Butler, Mr. Marshall,” Chief Harding greeted us with a handshake. “You both remember Special Agent Flemings? He is here to assist tonight to help us determine if this is related to the murder investigations or if this was just an unrelated event.”“And what have you found so far?” Owen asked before I had the chance to, as we shook hands with the other two.“We don’t know a whole lot, actually.” Agent Flemings answered. “I wish I had a better answer but I don’t. Whoever it was, he either didn’t know about the patrol or didn’t expect the patrol to be this early in arriving. Not knowing about the patrol would suggest a stupid criminal,
The next week passed in a literal blur. Barb worked hard during the time she was home to make sure all of the boxes were sorted and gave us Thursday evening off to load the trailor that John would haul into town bright and early Saturday morning. We loaded it fully, tarped it over and secured it in multiple places with tie downs before dark and then reported to work to finish our shift.The new hours took effect and so far, it was working out well. We were lucky that September first fell on a Monday so that everyone could ease into the new hours without a drastic change, since we were closed Sunday anyhow.With the new work hours, the threat hanging over my head and the busyness life in general had thrown at us, there had been very little time to work on the apartment. Boxes were still stacked, painting still had to be finished in the main rooms and Owen had yet to install the security system he was adamant be in place before I spent the first night there.I was hoping after the yard s