Chapter 3: An Ordeal of Evidence

As the Cessna 170 was towed into a hangar requisitioned at Girdwood Airport, and disassembled to gather more evidence, a hunter found the burnt out Buick near Soldotna. A team was sent to go over it. As Sgt. Tim Sealy and his senior officer, Lt. Jim Conway arrived at Girdwood Airport the next morning, they was met with the somber face of Trooper Paul Evers who was stationed at Girdwood.

"Collins found this under the seat of the plane we are taking apart," Evers told them, handing Darla's name badge to Jim who handed it to Tim. "I am sorry, Sgt. Sealy. I really am. There is always a chance that she got away, and we will find her. You just have to pray that it will be, and have faith that God delivers her from this monster."

"And delivers him into our hands," Conway said. "Tim, why don't we go to the Office here and fill out the missing persons paperwork? You look like you should sit down. I will call this into Clark and Sellers."

After breakfast, Roxie told Darrell to give Darla his snowmobile suit and helmet and then had Darla get on the back of her machine for the hour or so ride through the maze of trails leading to Girdwood. While the machine was capable of doing sixty MPH over open ground, ten was a good clip through the woods and mountain trails that Roxie followed.

At 10:08, they arrived within a hundred yards of the Trooper Post, and Darla gave Roxie Darrell's helmet and suit back, in addition to the lined mittens she had taken from the other cabin, asking Roxie to return them. Darla asked where she could meet Roxie in three days, weather permitting, and gave her both her work and home phone numbers. Roxie said that she would call, although she admitted aloud that she never expected to see Darla again. Darla admonished her not to spend the money for the payphone on cigarettes. Then she told her to just call collect at home, and her new friend roared back into the woods.

As Darla walked to the post to try to call Tim, she saw someone that looked like him walking with another Trooper towards the entrance. Surely it would not be Tim Sealy in Girdwood. Yet as she got closer, she saw it was he, and called out, "TIM! It is you!"

They ran to each other, and then hugged for several minutes, as Darla cried, and Tim muttered, "Thank you, God," over and over.

"Amen to that, brother," Conway acknowledged. "I don't think you saved us that much paperwork, but you might help us solve a murder."

"Tim," Darla confessed. "I was so stupid. He shined the light in my eyes and I thought he was Airport Security. He knocked me out with ether or something and raped me, Tim. Please don't hate me for it."

"You didn't do anything wrong Darla," Sealy replied. "Did he take you in an airplane? Can you identify it?"

"If you find it I probably can," Darla replied. "From the inside I might be able to. I didn't look at the outside because I was playing dead."

"The one we found your badge in is at the Girdwood Airport in the hangar," Conway said. "Come and verify it and then we will get you to the hospital."

Fifteen minutes later they were on the way to Anchorage with the lights and siren going, and where Darla would spend much of the day being examined and undergoing tests on her for the rape, and treating a slight case of frostbite on her toes from the first evening. Dr. Frazier, her gynecologist would keep her overnight for observation. Satisfied that she was able to, he released her to go home early the next morning.

Instead, Darla spent most of the day looking at mug shots at the ASP Headquarters, answering questions and reliving the moment from the time she got off work until Roxie dropped her off. The Campbell Creek victim had been identified as a dancer from the Great Alaskan Bush Company, and no trace of her was ever found in the plane or the burnt out Buick. Yet, there were hairs that did not match the dark brown of Darla Reynolds from the plane. In fact, there was hair from two other women in the rear of the plane.

During a break in her deposition, Darla asked Tim, "If I can find you someone that knows where another body is near where I was dumped and left for dead, can you help them out with a matter of the snowmobiles they stole in the park last year?"

"Help them, as in how?" Tim asked.

"Some sort of a plea bargain," Darla explained. "Let me pay restitution on the snowmobiles and they can do community service or something."

"Who is 'they'?" Commandant Sellers said from behind her.

"An old hermit woman, and her son," Darla said. "They gave me shelter and she brought me to Girdwood on her snowmobile. I only had twelve dollars to give her for gas. They are barely getting by. Someone poisoned her dog team last winter, and they took the snowmobiles to get even. The woman said I wasn't the first victim to be dumped out there. There was another. She and her son buried her somewhere near the cabin I spent the first night in. If she helps solve a murder, there has to be some way to help her. It has to be the same guy."

"Well, we can use a break," Sellers admitted. "Forensics said that the prints that we have on record for Jack Young don't match any found in the plane or in Young's home, which from the looks of the refrigerator, has not seen him in over five months. My guess is that the real Jack Young will be found among our victims when this is all over."

"Can we help her?" Darla asked. "There is no way that I could ever find my way back to the cabin on those trails, but she is supposed to call me the day after tomorrow at home. When she does, I want to bring them some groceries and some clothes. They probably saved my life. I don't know how long it would have taken me to walk out on those snowshoes."

"I will talk to the DA and the Judge this afternoon," Sellers vowed. "I am sure we can get some lenience. They might have to turn in the snowmobiles though but I think we can get her some more dogs. Heck, if the new DB leads to one of our other missing women, there could be some serious reward money coming out of this."

"Your boyfriend here started a reward fund for information leading to your safe return with $2500.00," Conway admitted. "By the time the shift was over, it was over $5000.00.

Commander, I doubt any of us would have a problem helping the person that returned her safely, do you?"

"Not if they help us close a case or two," Sellers answered. "By the way, I'll tell Clark to release her car now that they are done with it. Sergeant, I do owe you an apology. It turned out that you were right. You have the instincts to make a great CI, Son."

Conway gave Sealy the rest of the week off to help Darla get her life in order. True to her word, Roxie called, albeit collect the following day. Sellers had a deal in place with the DA that if she and Darrell surrendered the two snowmobiles, no questions about them would be asked, and no charges filed in exchange for her showing where the other woman was buried.

"Then what do we do, walk?" Roxie asked.

"Actually," Darla answered, "There is a reward for my safe return. It should buy two snowmobiles for you and Darrell."

"That's cool," Roxie replied. "No charges?"

"No charges," Darla said, "we got it in writing. All you need to do is show them where the other girl is buried."

"We need to talk some about that," Roxie answered. "We buried her next to old Clyde that I told you about."

"You are worried about getting in trouble for burying them," Darla concluded. "Roxie, can I come and pick you up? Let Tim and I be your friends. Give us a chance to help you and Darrell get ahead."

"Well," Roxie answered, "I did tell Junior I might not be back until the weekend if you were on the level. Come get me. I will be outside the Birdhouse."

"We will be there in an hour," said Darla. "Tim is going to be with me, so don't freak out on me. All we ask is for you to trust us."

A half-hour later, as Darla and Tim sat in the front of Tim's Suburban, Tim commented, "I don't see how you are dealing with this. Most women are a total wreck."

"I guess because the first time I was totally out of it," Darla explained. "I didn't know what happened to me or where I was until I woke up in the plane the next afternoon, and felt his mess dripping out of me. I think he must have used the ether on me more than once. When we landed, I just played dead."

"Well, you are one lucky girl," Tim commented. "You are pretty special too."

A tapping on Darla's window interrupted their little moment. Tim looked at Darla, who nodded, and then he unlocked the door. Roxie climbed in and spread a newspaper across the back seat to sit on. Tim told her that the seat was vinyl, and getting wet wouldn't hurt it.

"Yeah, but I stink," Roxie argued. "I haven't washed since September."

"Roxie, you are welcome to use my bath when we get home," Darla offered. "You can even use the garden tub and my bubble bath. Whatever you are comfortable with."

"Then put on my dirty clothes?" Roxie asked. "Can I borrow a few dollars to get me some new ones to put on after?"

"Roxie," Tim said, "We already bought you some similar to what you wear. Tomorrow we will get you access to the reward for bringing Darla back to me."

"Yeah, Darla mentioned that," Roxie noted. "We gotta turn in the other two snowmobiles first though?"

"In a few days," Tim answered. "Let's get you some keepers first. A couple that you can call your own."

"What about a job?" Roxie asked. "If I can, I would like to move out of the cabin, but I know that staying there will take a steady job."

"We have an opening for a baggage handler," Darla said, "I told Sanderson I had someone in need of work. We can go by in the morning. Do you think you can lift a hundred pounds?"

"I used to," Roxie answered. "I'd be just as happy cleaning or working in a food joint. Junior can do the lifting. I have no ID. At least I can get Darrell's Birth Certificate and Social Security Card."

"I'll help you get yours," Tim offered. "Hopefully you had a driver's license somewhere before you came here?"

"I had one here for a couple of years," Roxie recalled, "Not since around '79 or '80."

"I've got you a manual, in the glove box," Tim said. "I'll be able to pull up your information by tomorrow, so you can get your documents replaced. That is as long as you are who you tell us."

"Well my picture won't have the scar," Roxie said. "That is why I never got another one. The Brothers burned off a mole on my left cheek. It will be there in the picture."

"That will help with identification," Tim assured her. "Here we are, Darla's place. I'll go pick us up a pizza while Roxie gets changed. Just keep the door locked. I don't want him coming around and finding out you didn't die. I still think that you and Colleen should move."

The man going by Larry Duncan was not about to show his face in Anchorage until things settled down. By the weekend, the DMV database matched a set of the prints in the airplane with a new driver's license thumbprint belonging to Larry Duncan originally from Chicago. The photo was distributed to every ASP post in the state with a BOLO (be on the lookout).

Tim hurried back with the pizza, and found Darla and Roxie at the kitchen table talking about when Roxie and Darrell found the other girl. Tim asked to record it so she would not need to repeat it so often. She would have to give it all over as a sworn statement the next day. Colleen briefly came by to tell Darla that she was moving out over the fear that her rapist might return to get her.