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Chapter Thirteen
As soon aswe are back to my room, Jay and I laid out a timeline of the events of Sam’s night that have been confirmed by the reports included in the case file.
The pub was slow, so she was sent home early since she was on overtime after picking up my shift. With all the college students on break, Sam was working extra hours. Not that she minded. She was saving her money for a car and she knew even with a slow week, the extra shifts would bring in the last little bit of cash she needed.
She left the bar at roughly ten o’clock. This was confirmed by her timecard, showing she clocked out at one minute after the hour, and again by a patron who saw her walk into the park around quarter after ten as he was getting out of his vehicle that was parked in front of Riley’s.
There were four text exchanges after she clocked out. Sam sent the first one to me at ten-ten asking if I’d made it back to town yet. According to the log the police obtained from her cell provider, I replied twenty-nine minutes later.
I remember reading her text that night and replying before I walked in the door of my apartment. That means I was driving past the park around ten-thirty as I made my way home.
The second text Sam sent was at ten-twenty-one to Jay, asking if he wanted to come straight to her house when he got back to town. Jay didn’t respond to her text until close to midnight saying he was still almost an hour away and was going home to bed.
There are witness statements from a couple that was making out in the park that night until it started to rain. Neither of them saw or heard anything. They entered around ten-thirty and left close to eleven o’clock, coming and going close to where Sam was attacked, using the east entrance.
Summer called the police to report Sam missing a little after eight o’clock the next morning when she didn’t show up for work or answer her phone. She found Sam’s bed still made, as if she hadn’t slept in it the night before, so she called Jay to see if Sam was with him, but he was asleep. By the time she called me, I was already in class and I had to send her to voicemail.
Sam’s body was found at eight-thirty in the morning by a neighbor as she was walking her dog. The dog started to go crazy and pulled the elderly lady into the alcove where Sam’s body was hidden behind a line of bushes.
The police determined Sam died between ten-thirty and eleven o’clock at night. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head which caused her to bleed out.
Her walk home from Riley’s was less than a mile. It usually only took her twenty minutes, which was why she didn’t mind walking when it was nice outside. She said it helped her relax. I get it. After a long shift it often took me hours to find sleep if I didn’t unwind with a glass of wine or a book.
After looking at the timeline we spent most of the night piecing together, Jay and I began to speculate what may have happened between the time she sent her last text to Jay at ten-twenty-one and eleven o’clock. If she entered the park at quarter after, she would have arrived home no later than ten thirty-five, give or take a few minutes.
If she was looking at her phone, texting, she could have been caught off guard.
When I pointed out that fact, I immediately notice the change in Jay’s demeanor.
She was attacked immediately following her last text on the sidewalk where blood spatter was found. The assailant then carried Sam into the alcove, covered her mouth with tape, and tied her up to keep her silent. He already had her hidden when the couple entered the park but may have reconsidered carrying out the rest of his plan when they didn’t leave immediately, instead ducking out of the park at an unknown time more than likely with a plan to return later that night.
No one saw or heard anything when she was attacked.
No one saw or heard anyone on the streets that night that appeared unusual or out of place.
In fact, it was a quiet night in Great Falls with all the college students either recovering from spring break or still out of town. I don’t remember seeing anyone out and about as I made my way through town.
“So, what now?” he asks, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor near the foot of the bed.
“We know what happened, when, and how. We need to figure out the who since they’re the only one who can tell us why.” My words come out slowly as I take in every naked inch of his chest. Rock hard abs, defined muscles. His tattoo swirling around his shoulder blade, dipping toward his chest but stopping short.
I want to trace it with my finger. Every intricate detail. The black ink against his bronzed skin -
“What do we know about him?” Jay snaps his fingers in front of my face to get my attention. When I lift my eyes to his, he’s smiling at me, reading my mind like I’m an open book.
Every dirty thought.
Ideas of what I’d like to do to him.
What I’d like him to do to me.
Focus, girl.
“You would never suspect him,” I state, averting my eyes down to the list of people the police interviewed in the days following Sam’s murder. “He’s everyone’s best friend but knows how to blend into a crowd. People know of him but don’t know him. Not on a personal level. He keeps his feelings to himself. Doesn’t allow people to get close to him. This is generally a sign of verbal abuse from his childhood. More than likely from a father figure, but his relationship with his mother would have been strong. She is who he compares all women to. Which is a big part of why he’s often single, unable to maintain a healthy relationship for a long period of time.”
Closing my eyes, I try to focus on the facts, on what I’ve learned over the years. On the murderers I’ve studied, interviewed. I’ve gotten in their heads. I’ve been able to decipher things about them they didn’t even know. Why they killed. How they chose their victims. When it all started, the urges to take a life.
Most don’t give it much thought. They are the way they are. They feel the need to kill so they follow through with the action. It empowers them. It’s the high they’re seeking. To keep them from going insane.
