Chapter 3

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"911, what is your emergency?" 

"This is Jenn Hunter and I need help!" 

"What's the problem, ma'am?" 

"I'm out at Scots farm and a man handcuffed me to a post and left me out here. Please help me. It's freezing." 

The sound of the dispatcher typing is audible. "You said you're handcuffed to a post?" 

"Yes, Jesus, it's ridiculous, right? I met him out here, and he did this to me." 

"Try to stay warm, we'll send someone out there." 

Jenn's voice goes to whisper, "I think I hear someone in the woods. Someone's coming." A few seconds goes by. "I hear somebody behind me." 

"Ma'am, I 've sent a police officer to your location. He'll be there shortly. Can you pull yourself from the fence post?" 

There's no response but the sound of Jenn trying to pry herself free. "The person in the woods. They're getting closer!" 

"Ma'am?" a few seconds go by and then the operator says, "Ma'am can you hear me? Are you okay?" 

Jenn whispers into the phone. "I can hear the person, but I don't think they can see me." A few more seconds goes by. "Oh my God, someone's coming." 

"Ma'am?" 

Jenn yells, "Please no, don't, please. No, God, no please." She screams and then the phone goes dead. 

I stop the tape recorder and look at the woman sitting across from me and Josh at a table of the Corner Bar and Grill. She's a short Asian woman, who's twenty years old but already has deep wrinkles that make her look like she's going on forty. She attempts to light a cigarette, but her hands are shaking so badly she can't get it to light.  

"Kim, do you want to end up like that?" I ask. 

She doesn't respond but keeps on trying to light a match. I grab the matches from her hand and dump them on the table. "Who was Jenn with last night?" 

She grabs the matches from the table and lights her cigarette. "I don't know." Her voice is a deep gravel that has come from too much booze and smoking. She blows the smoke from her mouth. 

"Bullshit, look, I know you don't want to give up the men you two have been seeing but I have to know. You have to tell me. I have to make sure this doesn't happen to you." 

She shrugs her shoulders. 

I bang my hand on the table. "Tell me who she went to see," I shout. 

She yells back. "I don't know. Okay? She didn't tell me. She just said that she's meeting some guy after work. That's it." 

"Was she meeting him on a date or was he paying for sex?" Josh asks. 

Again she shrugs her shoulders and looks out the window. 

"Answer the question," I say. 

"I don't know."  

"Do you know what time it was when she left?" 

"It was late. Probably after two in the morning." 

I look down at my note pad. "Before you said one thirty. Now it's two?" 

"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it was one-forty-five." 

"I need an exact time line. Do you remember the time?" I ask. 

"Two," she says. 

"And she told you she was going to meet someone, but she didn't say where?" I review my notes.  

"Yes, yes, yes. You've asked me the same question a hundred times. I've only been here for two weeks. I barely knew her. We worked the last shift, we had a few drinks and she said she was going to meet some guy. She didn't tell me who it was or where they were going to meet. That's all I know." 

I flip to the previous page. "We talked to another girl, Casey, and she said that you and Jenn were fighting. That you were moving in on her book of business. Is that accurate?" 

"That's bullshit. Casey was fighting with Jenn not me." 

Great, each person we talk to contradicts the other. I can't get a straight story from anyone. 

"Do you know if she's ever met anyone else out at Scott's farm?" Josh asks. 

"I didn't know she was going there last night, and I didn't know she ever went out there." She picks up her phone, looks at the time and puts it back on the table. "Can I go now?" 

I put my hand up as I review the notes, "Hold on." 

She rolls her eyes. 

Josh breaks in. "How did you find these customers? Were they from The Corner or did you post ads on the internet?" 

"A bunch of different ways." 

Josh presses on. "Any of these men she was seeing, did any of them have animals?" 

She leans back in her seat. "Gross. Wouldn't you like to know?" 

"I'm not asking about sex with animals. I'm asking if any of them have any dangerous animals like a Rottweiler or a Pit bull." 

"How the hell would I know?" She jams her cigarette into the ashtray. "I don't have time for any more of this bullshit. I have to go pick up my daughter. She gets up, slams the chair into the table and storms out. 

"Nice lady. Bet she's a great mom," Josh says. 

I nod to the owner, John, who is behind the bar on the other side of the restaurant cleaning out glasses. He's been in town forever running a line of businesses that all flame out. He's had a diner, a sub shop and now this dump. He's an old hippie with long gray hair pulled back into a pony tail.  

"I need your surveillance videos from last night," I say. 

He fidgets. "I called my attorney this morning and he said you need a court order to get those." 

"Come on, John. I'm not after you. If I was I could have run your ass in months ago. I need those tapes to solve this case," I say as Josh and I stand up and walk over to him 

He holds his hands up, "Look man, I didn't go to law school. I'm just doing what he told me. Besides, I watched the tape. All you see is her and Kim talking and then she gets in her car and makes a left out of the parking lot. That's it." 

"John, you don't give me those tapes then maybe I will start snooping around this place more."  

"Shit man, I'm going to follow my lawyer on this one. Sorry dude." 

"John, Jenn's dead. Someone killed her. Aren't you concerned about that? Don't you want to help catch this person?" 

He thinks about it for a second. "Yeah, man, she was cool but I just can't take a chance. What if one of my employees was doing something they shouldn't and it comes back on me. I don't want to risk it."  

"We're going to get that search warrant. If you change your mind, here's my card." I hand it to him and we walk out. 

Josh shakes his head. "These people aren't making it any easier for us." 

"That's for sure, but we're just getting started. We still need to go through her car, phone and computer. You go to the court house and get that warrant. I'll go over to her apartment and ask around. Let me know when you get that tape from him. Once we get those tapes, we'll focus on them. Hopefully there's something on them of value." We get in our cars and drive away.

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