All in His Past is a murder mystery, detective and suspense story with elements of horror added in. A young man protects himself and his family from unknown psychopathic killers.
Excerpt
All in His Past is a murder mystery, detective and suspense story with elements of horror added in. A young man protects himself and his family from unknown killers. However, Roy Bullard is an unusual man who is not frightened as most persons would be, giving back to his mysterious, unknown tormentors as good as he gets. The story begins in the fall of 1989 and is set in Fairdale, TX, (there is a Fairdale Texas, but in All in His Past it is fictionalized). This is a grim tale, but also an uplifting one as we see how Roy grows as a human being while dealing with very dark and dangerous circumstances.
Saturday, November 11. It had been two weeks and two days since the black rose had arrived with the morning newspaper. Although the past sixteen days had been uneventful, Roy knew that he would hear again from whomever it was that left the “calling cards.” He and Linda had not discussed it again since that Thursday night two weeks ago, and the girls, who had received instructions to be careful and tell Mommy or Daddy about anything unusual, were getting along well. This pleased Roy, as he did not want them unduly scared. He had a feeling that this did not concern them, anyway.Saturday morning was spent doing the usual things. The mail man usually brought the mail on Saturdays between two and three o’clock. Linda went to the curb to check the box that afternoon. When she opened the mailbox lid and looked inside, she got the shock of her life. The head of a Tom cat had been placed inside the box, on top of the mail, so that the bills and flyers were stained red with cat blood. Linda, always good in the clutch, composed herself and quietly closed the lid of the mailbox. She went inside to get Roy, keeping her eye on the mailbox in the unlikely event that Jen or Tricia would walk up to it and check for the mail.
Roy and Linda quickly and quietly cleaned the mess out of the box. The head was placed in a plastic trash can liner and the mail was placed in another, smaller plastic bag. The cat’s head did not look familiar. Roy supposed that he was glad about that; on the other hand, if he had recognized the animal as one from nearby, it might be easier to find the person who did this.
The girls were out playing. Roy and Linda stood in the kitchen trying to regain their composure.
Roy said, “I knew something like this would happen. I’m shocked but not surprised.”
“Any ideas as to who did this?”
“No.” Roy felt pretty helpless right now. He commented to his wife that he had a hunch that this did not involve Jen or Tricia, but he would like to go find them and make sure.
“Should we tell them about this?” asked Roy.
Linda thought about that one for a moment. The girls are so young, but she thought that they should know. They would naturally wonder about repeated warnings to be careful if there was no reason given to do so. She would explain to them what she had found and would also promise them that she and Daddy were going to call the police.
After getting Roy’s approval, Linda rounded the corner to the Miller’s house and retrieved the girls. Annie Miller was a good friend of Jen’s. A perky ten year old who talked all of the time, she cheerfully allowed Mrs. Bullard to take her daughters home, but not before she made her promise to not keep them long. Linda promised.
Linda spent the next hour explaining to them the incident with the cat’s head and how she and Daddy thought that this and the nail in Lady’s paw were the work of the same person. Linda hated putting this kind of burden on the girls, but she wanted them to be aware of things around them until she and Roy could get a better handle on this situation.
The girls returned to Annie’s house after their talk with Linda. They took what she had to say pretty well, but both girls were in a quiet, somber mood when they rang the Miller’s doorbell.
Patrolman Johnny Cole of the Fairdale, TX Police Department arrived at the Bullard home a few minutes before 5:00 P.M. Roy explained to him in detail the events of two weeks ago and how he thought that they were related to today’s surprise in the mailbox. Cole listened patiently to him, with an occasional comment from Linda. Cole knew the Bullards, as he had patrolled this neighborhood for the last three years. He did not mention to Roy that, two weeks ago, Dr. Powers had informed the department about a possible animal abuse case involving the Bullards. Johnny Cole did not then, nor did he now, believe that Roy or Linda Bullard would be guilty of harming an animal. He simply did not think that nice, quiet people like the Bullards would be involved in something like that, particularly when it involved their own family pet. Although he had spent his brief career on the Fairdale Police Force, Johnny had enough training to know that this kind of mutilation meant that the person responsible had serious mental health problems. He was not sure that he thought the first two incidences Roy described were related to each other. Of course, they could be, but the cat’s head worried him. There was no doubt that this was the work of someone severely disturbed. He also wondered, why the Bullards? Heck, none of them would ever harm a flea. He figured that the most mischievous thing Bullard would ever do would be to kiss Linda with the lights out. He thought lustily to himself that he knew of at least twice this happened. His face did not change expression.
“I guess no one saw anyone at the mailbox, or saw any strangers in the neighborhood?” asked Cole.
“We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary today. We don’t know about the neighbors. We haven’t told anyone on the block about it yet,” said Linda.
“We have talked to the girls. We told them that it is very important not to discuss this with the kids at school.” This statement embarrassed Roy a little bit, as he realized that Linda had the floor and that this was not the current topic of discussion. But Johnny understood. Roy was worried.
“I’m glad they know the score,” said Cole. “No reason to keep them in the dark. They should be able to tell you about anything out of the ordinary now.” He sensed that Roy had doubts about involving his daughters. Roy appreciated his reply.
Johnny Cole left with the cat’s head and the bloody mail. He told them that he would probably have the mail back to them in few days after the labs guys checked it out. He didn’t have to tell them that they should not have moved the cat’s head and mail out of the mailbox. They had been rattled and were afraid that their daughters would see the gruesome sight.
As he was driving away, Patrolman Johnny Cole, 28 years old and a five year veteran of law enforcement, did not feel good about this case. He had enough experience to be able to tell when a tough case was developing. Johnny had a sharp intellect and a good cop’s intuition. He knew that one day soon he would come in contact with a psycho and things in this little bedroom community 40 miles from Dallas may get dangerous in the meantime.
Any doubts the Bullards or Patrolman Cole had about the three incidences being related were permanently removed Sunday morning. On a dry, sunshiny November morning, Roy found, tucked inside the rubber band around the newspaper, a single black rose.
This time, Roy wasted no time in calling Johnny Cole. Luckily, he was working both weekend days this week and he arrived at the Bullard home within minutes. Roy showed Johnny the black rose. Johnny put it in a small plastic bag and told the Bullards that it would be checked for fingerprints, dust, etc. He also told Roy and Linda that he wanted the fingerprints of all four of them on file for comparison purposes. He reminded them that, so far, only the cat mutilation could definitely be considered a crime.
“What do we do?” asked Linda.
“Be careful and keep an eye on the girls,” said Johnny, “and now may be the time to tell the school principal about all this, just so he’ll know. We don’t know what to expect next.” Roy winced at this, but knew that the policeman was correct.
“We will talk to Mr. Parks Monday. We’ll tell him it’s an emergency and we have to talk to him,” Linda replied.
Perhaps in a larger city, such as Dallas, the two animal incidences, followed by the delivery of the black roses, would not have aroused as much attention as they did in small town Fairdale. In Fairdale, however, Roy was fortunate that what had transpired so far did get the full attention of the police department. Roy and Linda were wise not to write these incidences off as cruel pranks. They say that forewarned is forearmed and, if anything good was happening right now, it was the fact that both the Bullards and the police department were taking these events seriously but discreetly.
The Bullards and Johnny Cole spent the rest of the morning discussing what to do and how to be careful. Johnny would tell his sergeant about this tomorrow, who would most likely inform the chief. At least, in a small community, there were not many layers of red tape and long chains of command to contend with. Everyone on the Fairdale force would be aware of this situation by middle of the day tomorrow. Patrolmen would drive by the Bullard home several times a day. Jeannie and the mailman would be observed from afar, just to be sure of their non-involvement. The nail taken from Lady’s paw (given to the department by Dr. Powers) would be examined by a forensic specialist. Johnny would arrange for the girls to be watched closely at all times, either by a police officer or school official. But, the unspoken fear was that no one knew who or what they were up against. All anyone could do was wait and react to the next incident.
The incident came two days later. Poor Linda, for the third time in a row, walked into an unpleasant surprise involving an animal. Arriving home from work around 2:30, she found the headless body of a partially decomposed cat on the porch by the front door. More than likely the same cat whose head she found Saturday afternoon. The smell of the animal nauseated her. Even though it was mid-November, there were several flies hovering around the cat as she hurried into the house quickly so as not to let them in. She immediately called the police, and, once again, Johnny Cole arrived in minutes. She was just hanging up from talking to Roy when he rang the doorbell.
Linda did not want Jen and Tricia to see this gruesome sight, and told him so. But this time, Johnny wanted to call a detective in to inspect the area for footprints, fingerprints, and other evidence. This case was now bigger and greater than his authority.
He wanted to interview people on the block to see if anyone had seen any strangers or anything else out of the ordinary this day. He told her to pick the girls up from school and keep them away from here for awhile.
“Roy will be home in a minute,” said Linda.
“OK. We’ll go over everything with him. Stay gone as long as you wish,” Cole told her.
Roy arrived before the detective (a Detective Landers) and his technicians. He and Cole did not say much. When Detective Landers and his people arrived and introductions were made, the detective slipped on his rubber gloves and reached down to move the dead animal. Underneath the body and out of sight until the body was moved, was an envelope, sealed, with a piece of paper inside of it. There was no marking on the envelope. Just to be safe, Detective Landers suggested that this envelope be opened in the Police lab. Roy readily agreed. Another patrolman was summoned to the Bullard home, given the envelope, and ordered to take it to the lab and bring it back to Landers after it had been examined and opened.
While the patrolman was gone, Roy and Landers looked around, visited, and got to know each other. After the patrolman had accomplished his mission and Landers again possessed the envelope, this time opened and in his hand, he and Roy sat down at the kitchen table to review the contents together. Detective Landers slipped the note out of the envelope, unfolded it and showed it to Roy. It was printed on computer paper, the message printed in capital letters. It said:
ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?
Roy and the detective said nothing to each other.
Copyright 2010 Tom Fowler. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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