Chapter 2: Ten Years Later

The old man died nine years ago. Scarlett finished high school, married her high school sweetheart and they have a beautiful eight-year-old daughter who looks like her mother. Scarlett works at the Sheriff’s office as the Sheriff’s secretary/receptionist. Her husband works at the factory in town and they live in the old man’s house on the edge of the National Forest with Scarlett’s mother.

It was a slow day, as usual. Scarlett was sitting at her desk reading an article in a magazine as she mindlessly twirled an un-sharpened pencil through the fingers of her right hand. The same deputy who had visited her house years ago, but was now the Sheriff, walked into the office with a state parole officer. She listened as they talked but kept her head down like she was reading.

“We need to find this guy. He should never have been paroled in the first place, but due to overcrowding he was. He missed his required weekly check-in with me. I called his mother, and she says she has not seen him for a few days. She says that since he is not allowed to own a firearm anymore, he likes to take pictures of wildlife.”

“That pervert raped three little girls before they caught him. Now he’s back on the street and missing. I don’t believe that ‘wildlife photographer story for a minute. That asshole is hunting his next victim. A county employee found his car up in the northern part of the county. We’ll start the search there.”

Scarlett never looked up from the article she was reading in ‘Archery Today’ as she said, “Don’t waste your time. You’ll never find his body.”

Both men looked at her as she continued reading.

Author’s note---Chapter 1 was based on a true story. But to be perfectly honest, there were no night vision goggles, no bow and arrow, no 4-wheeler with a trailer and no quicksand. I made all that shit up. There was a 16-gauge pump shotgun, one 00 buckshot round, a step-side Ford pickup and a shovel in the real story the Gunny (a decorated veteran of WWII and Korea) told the young Deputy (Me!) that day. We never bothered looking for the pervert. We left him as a missing person. I imagine nobody really missed him.