Sins of the Daughter
1.Zelda
There was no moon, the surrounding forest was silent, about a dozen leather covered recliners supported the reposed audience out in the middle of a small clearing in the forest. The black silhouettes of several very tall pines seemed to be poking their tops into the millions of stars overhead. The air was cool, and Zelda’s wind break was exactly what she needed to be comfortable. She was impressed by the indigenous young woman, dressed in a traditional tribal outfit standing on the flat bed of the truck that had brought them all out from the hotel to the clearing in the forest.
The young lady introduced herself as Kaseweetin of the Nehiyawak Peoples Nation or also known as the Plains Cree.
She then looked up, raised her arms and in her language seemed to be praying to the stars.
She then introduced her nimosôm or her grandfather that was up on the platform with her.
She said that her, nôhkom, or grandmother had passed away but that her spirit was present.
After a moment of silence, she use her hand to accent her outfit and said she was wearing the outfit that her grandmother had dressed in for special occasions.
She pointed out the wide necklace and the feather in her hair and added that they had been gifts from her grandmother and mother.
She then added that family life and the social fabric were important to the Cree. She pointed out that her people were no different from so many other societies where family and the interaction with other members of the society were the values that held them together.
Then she paused before pointing to a group of stars and described them as the Grand Mother Spider and that just below the grandmother were the seven sisters known as the Pleiades to most civilizations but to her people they are known as Pakone Kisik and surrounded the hole or place where all her people had come from.
She then paused again and then she shared that the stars held bears, thunderbirds, and more. It held all the spirits of past peoples and animals.
She pointed to the Big Dipper and said that it was known to the Cree as Mista Muskwa or the Big Bear.
In the Cree legend, Mista Muskwa was a massive bear that roamed the land doing whatever he wanted. He was a bully who was defeated by the seven brave birds that formed the ring now known as Corona Borealis.
She said that there was also the story of the moose running in circles after being startled. In Cree it is called mooswa acak “moose spirit” because when a moose is startled, it will run in a big, huge circle, and then continue its way. That is what Mars does periodically in the night sky.
She stopped for a moment and put her hand on her Grandfather’s shoulder. She then said that the Cree had The Seven Grandfather Teachings that formed the foundation of the Cree way of life.
The seven teachings were Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth.
These teachings were fundamental and were still practiced by the Cree.
She said that.
The Beaver carried the wisdom,
The Eagle that soared so high bestowed the gift of love.
The Buffalo not only gave the gift of food and clothing but also the gift of respect.
The Bear with all of its many rascally habits gave the gift of courage and bravery.
The Wolf was both a symbol of bravery and of humility.
The Turtle with its hard shell and slow, but stead movement carried truth and bestowed it on all. She added that sometimes it gave truth to those needing to finally finish their journey.
She then explained that the Cree were one of the largest native groups in North America and that the name “Cree” came from “Kristineaux,” or “Kri” for short, a name bestowed by French fur traders.
She explained that the Cree land stretched all the way across Canada and that the current population of Cree was somewhere around two-hundred thousand and that at one time it had been close to a million but disease, when they first met the white man, had devastated them.
Zelda was startled when a hand lightly shook her shoulders. She realized that she had dozed off. She had yet to check in at her hotel that was in Saskatoon.
The hour ride in the back of the truck back was lost in thought as she once again relived the fight with her sister Aada.
Aada had followed her out to Middle Cove Beach and caught her making out with her boyfriend. The boyfriend had immediately fled, and she ended up physically defending herself as her sister beat her with a tree limb. She rushed her sister and pushed. Her sister tripped on a stone and fell backwards.
The loud crack had startled her. She had watched as the blood seemed to flow out and spread like a red velvet blanket as it covered the stones on the beach.
The evening sun’s rays seemed to withdraw and let darkness come across the water and envelop them.
She did not know how long she had stood in silence wondering what to do.
It was hard for her to recall exactly how she had pulled her sister up the hillside to a crevasse where she then dropped her into. The crevasse was at least ten feed deep.
Once Aada’s body was down at the bottom of the crevasse, she had thrown and pushed rocks down to cover her and had collapsed part of the crevasse so that Aada was covered by at least four feet of rock. She took the tree limp that Aada had beaten her with and was able to break loose a large slab of stone that was about ready to fall on its own. She said a prayer and wished Aada good luck in whichever realm she had gone. She threw the limb down on top of the stone.
She remembered driving back and parking Aada’s car in the student parking lot which was its normal location and then she went to her dorm room and fell asleep.
It was several days later before her mother called and asked if she had seen Aada.
She answered that she had not seen her for several days. She smiled at the fact that she had told the truth.
But her mother was not satisfied with not knowing where Aada was and Zelda not knowing either.
Aada’s death triggered an urge in her mind that defied her attempts to control it.
Since Aada’s death she had repeated the ending scene on the beach multiple times.
In those scenes she surprised her victim with various ending scenarios. The victims were always male. She thought she understood why. Aada’s boyfriend had avoided her like she had the plague.
She went out numerous times to the beach as she visualized killing someone with one of the thousands of stones. Just before her graduation she had gone out and was visualizing and acting out how she planned to kill Dillon when her mother asked if this was where she had killed Aada.
She stopped in shock. Her mother was dressed in one of her best dresses, so Zelda knew that she had followed her for a reason.
She smiled and said that yes she had killed her. She asked her mother if she wanted to see where Aada was buried.
Her mother just nodded but did not say a word.
Zelda walked slowly up the hill and took her mother up just above where Aada’s body was located. She knew that the stones there were all very loose and constantly falling into the ravine. She pointed down into the ravine.
Her mother stepped forward to look.
Zelda gave her mother a slight push and watched as the stones under her feet gave way and she slid down into the ravine with her legs buried in stones up to mid-thigh. She push more stones with her feet and watched the stones get up to her mother’s waist.
Her mother cried out and asked if she were crazy.
Zelda nodded and sat down and with the heels of her shoes she pushed with all her might and felt the slab of stone breaking loose and caught a glimpse of her mother raising her arms as if to stop the stone from crushing her.
Zelda remembered laying back and laughing at the stupidity that such an action indicated.
Getting her mother’s car and her car back to the City had taken forever.
She would drive one car a few hundred feet and then run back and take that car past the one in front for a few hundred feet. She had done that all night and had finally gotten her car back to the college parking place then had taken her mother’s car to the apartment building. A few days later she had packed up all her mother’s belongings and put them in her mother’s car and had driven the car out and put it to the bottom of a lake.
That day she had been prepared for the hike back to her campus.
She had graduated the following day. She had watched all the kids signal their parents as they walked across the stage. When it was her turn she smiled and waved just like all the rest.
She had chosen her career based on that urge to duplicate the beach scene. She knew she needed a career that provided the opportunity that would allow her to play out her desire but make it almost impossible to have the act of a missing person be easily connect to her.
She had solved the problem of having a mother she despised for repeatedly making the point of letting her know that she had a name at the end of the alphabet and her sister had one starting with the first letter.
After a few months on the job, she had invited Dillon out for a drink. He was now working as a sales rep for a little company selling fire alarms.
She invited him to her room at a motel near where he had settled. He was still mister, “let me get into your pants.” And she did let him, but she took the top. She hit him on the side of the head with one of the beach stones. She took him out to her car and put him in the trunk. She checked out of the apartment.
She went to his apartment and found that he had little in the way of possessions. They all fit in his car and then she drove to the same lake where her mother’s car was located and pushed it in. She always wondered how close the two cars sat to each other at the bottom of that lake.
She had had decided that she was going to be number one in as many facets of her life as she could figure out. She was sure that she had reached that position when she buried her last border body.
It was body eighty-two by her count. As far as she could determine every additional body was now going to put her that much farther ahead of any other serial killer on record. And she had many more Canada-US crossings to go.
It had taken three years and three assignment changes. Each assignment moved her ever westward along the border.
She was able to maintain a smooth steady planting of bodies at or near each of the border crossings.
She had not been in a hurry. She was steady and smooth. She consistently located her victim from a pool of men similar to Dillon.
After making sure they were estranged from family, she planned the timing, the method, and the date carefully while making sure that everything she did would be seen as “normal.”
The move to her third work assignment had taken a little longer than she had wanted but she was in the Great Lakes region and while she waited she decided to take up fishing to kill some time.
It turned out she liked fishing after all!
She was currently working on her move to the next work assignment that would take her all the way to the West Coast.
A few weeks after her return from her last crossing associated with her current assignment, she was eating lunch in the cafeteria by herself when she overheard two of her co-workers discussing the fact that the department was hiring a detective located in Cincinnati, Ohio, who had the reputation of having solved every case that had been assigned to her.
The RCMP was asking this detective to help them solve what they thought might be the work of a serial killer.
Alarm bells went off in Zelda’s mind. She asked the coworker at the next table, what had made the department ask for the help.
The person that seemed to be in the know replied that the department had a list of missing women and the two bodies that had recently been dug up turned out to be people on that list. She had heard that there were at least twenty women on the missing person’s list and the RCMP and the FBI had made no progress in the past year in finding or resolving any of the cases.
Zelda was somewhat relieved that the focus seemed to be on missing young women. That would put the hunters into another area and away from her list of people. She decided that she should do some research on the person whose name she learned was Alex Evercrest.
She wondered what made him so special.
She was soon surprised to learn that it was not a male but a female detective. She became concerned as she began reviewing the news reports on this person. One of the reports had highlighted her as “Cincinnati’s Black Annie Oakley” and that pushed her over the edge.
She decided that she wanted to see this person live.
She was able to use her department’s internal computer to get the address where this detective lived.
She researched the Cincinnati area for tourist attractions and learned there was an amusement park, a botanical garden, several museums, an extensive waterfront park, an aquarium, and some great malls for shopping. She decided to take a vacation and check those places out and as a side see this Alex in person.
She had no intension of having any actual contact, but she wanted to observe and get a feel for the person that might be her enemy.
She decided on a bed and breakfast on the Kentucky side of the river that had a view of the Cincinnati skyline. This seemed to be a way to be on location, be comfortable and be outside of the actual city.
Her boss congratulated her on finally taking some time off and using the vacation days she had been accumulating. She urged her to take several weeks and enjoy herself. She asked where Zelda was planning on vacationing.
Zelda had been prepared for the question, and she held up two brochures. One for a two-week ship cruise in the Bahamas and one to a resort in Cancun.
She did not specify either. It was hard for her to lie but easy to misdirect.
Her boss pointed at the resort brochure and suggested she go there, enjoy the beach, the food, the massages, and the men that frequented the bars.
Zelda nodded and thanked her for helping her make up her mind.
She then went home packed and boarded a flight to Detroit and from there drove to Cincinnati. She felt that by doing so she would not be broadcasting where she had actually gone.
It took her a full day to drive, and she arrived at her rental at the Bluffs of Devou Park late at night.
She ordered breakfast in and spent most of the Saturday morning sitting on the deck enjoying the view.
In the afternoon she took a drive into Cincinnati and stopped at the River Front Park and walked along the river.
She saw only a few black individuals, and most were family groups with several people including children. There was one couple walking and holding hands and one sitting in the swinging seats.
None of the women were Alex.
Zelda had two photos of Alex in her possession so she felt that she would recognize her if she happened to accidently run into her.
Two riders went past along the pathway on high end touring bikes. She was sure that one was Alex but there was no way to know for sure.
It, however, made her more eager to see what Alex looked like in person.
She stopped at the point where she felt she was standing on the spot where the body of the victim of Alex’s first case had been located.
She decided to drive to the apartment address she had for Alex and then drive from there to the police station that had been featured in one of the articles and where Alex’s office was located.
She drove up the street from the park on the street where Alex had been shot by an angry mother and father that blamed her for killing their hoodlum son.
She drove past the apartment building and then went by the public library where Alex had been attacked by a person firing an AK-15 from the back of a pickup. She recalled that Alex had shot and killed the driver of the pickup and the shooter and had fired only two bullets.
She scouted out a place where she could see both the front entrance and the side entrance to the police station. It only had street parking and at least on this Saturday the street parking was open.
She did not want to attract attention and decided that Eden Park was her next destination. She parked and walked around the Mirror Lake and stopped at the location where Alex had found the clue that had solved her first case.
She sat down on the wall of the lake and thought about how dangerous a person like Alex might be. She planned to keep close tabs on how Alex approached her involvement with the RCMP. If necessary she would make sure that Alex never made it through the case.
She figured that she would end her Saturday venture at one of the famous local rib restaurants that had an Ohio Riverside view.
The view and the food were both worth the stop. She thought about the rest of her stay and decided that she would continue to develop her understanding of the person she now knew was a true and deadly hunter, and a potential adversary.
She had no illusions about how dangerous a person like Alex could be.
She had studied Alex’s bodily statistics and in bodily terms Alex seemed frail.
In action she must be a cyclone of action and destruction. From everything that she had been able to learn, if Alex were keeping score of bodies, she would probably best her own current body count.
However, Alex had faced those that she killed when they had weapons.
In her case Zelda recognized that she drugged or surprised her victims and then killed them when they were helpless.
A shiver went down her back when she realized that she had just thought of Alex as a number one.
She decided to call it a day but on the way back to her B&B she stopped and bought two bottles of her favorite wine. She planned to relax and think deeply about what might be ahead for her and how she should prepare for it.
She decided that her Sunday would be spent at the amusement park and then she was going to drive out to where Alex had killed three thugs with only the handle of a broken chair.
She was really impressed with this person that was referred to as “Cincinnati’s Black Annie Oakley.” Her initial impression and take was one of admiration.
She thought about it for a moment and thought that she should be honest and add that she also had an initial feeling that she should be very afraid of her.
2 Unnoticed
The weekend had been a pleasant one. She and Matt had one of their more pleasant weekends. Matt’s EMT members had joined them for the first time for a ride from the Ohio river front and on to the Loveland trail. They had started the ride at the River Front Park and biked all the way to Loveland where they had stopped. Alex treated them all to coffee and a muffin at her favorite coffee shop.
The sky was clear, the temperature perfect and there was only a light breeze which would be at their back on the way back. She got to know the team much better, and she got to thank them in a more personal way for having them save her when the angry mother and father had shot her.
The bike ride had been great, but she ended up with a nagging feeling that she was being watched. She kept returning to the beginning of the ride.
As they were taking off, they had gone past the point where the body of the person on her very first case had been found.
She was startled to see a woman standing on the edge of the path in the very same spot that she had stood on that early morning, which seemed like only yesterday but had been several years ago.
It sent a shiver up her back, and it reminded her that she had not recently connected with Samantha, the wife of Paul Langley, the victim in her first case. She put calling her on her to do list.
What bothered her was that as she approached the woman seemed to stare at her and when she looked into her helmet bike mirror she saw the woman staring after her.
She thought of going back but she was with Matt and his team.
She had returned from the bike ride, and the thought of the woman came to her again.
Sunday she and Matt went to the park for a picnic and a sat through a concert. They then watched a movie at her apartment and later had a Chinese dinner they had ordered in and then they sat together on the couch and spent the evening reading.
On Monday she and Johnnie followed their normal routine and bicycled in together.
Alex knew that the last several cases had weighed heavily on her and on all of the team. She looked around and watched each of the team members and was relieved to see that they seemed to be well into recovery.
Bill had a cup of coffee and was listening to one of Travis’s many tales as they both ate their morning donuts.
Johnnie had biked in with her and was probably the most relaxed of the team. He was a Vietnam veteran that seemed to have nerves of steel. His morning talks and ride in with her had helped her immensely.
She was very aware of her own vulnerabilities but getting regular counseling was of great help. Her very personal and close relationship with Matt put her on solid footing.
The fundamental bed rock that kept her sane was what her parents had always taught her; “Stand on the fundamental principles of honesty, integrity, and treating others the way you wish to be treated.” That guidance allowed her to tackle the most extreme cases and come through with only what she considered “flesh wounds,” which, over time, healed.
The last series of cases had touched her mind, and she had experienced the effects of PTSD and had a new appreciation of what Trey had gone through after his return from Iraq. The counseling and the support they team gave each other made a significant difference.
She was more worried about her partner, Trey, who was war hardened but who carried his heart on his sleeve. The last few cases had been extremely hard on him.
In one case, he had almost been physically beaten to death, then in the next case his heroics had gotten him so bruised by a shower of bullets hitting his protective gear that the doctor was worried about internal organ damage.
He had a tough exterior and as the doctor noted he also had a tough interior. He had also overcome his PTSD and had coached the rest of the team based on his personal experience.
Alex had suggested that he take several weeks off and go on a real vacation. Today was his first day back from three weeks in Cancun where he had taken Lindsay and Nolan.
Trey walked in with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bear claw roll in his other. He was smiling and was sporting a golden tan. He sat down and asked if she wanted half of the bear claw.
Alex had never seen Trey looking so good and so relaxed. She nodded to indicate she was for half of the bear claw and said that she was looking forward to it, but she needed to go and get a second cup of coffee to go with it.
As she walked to the coffee pot, the Chief came to the door to his office and asked her to come to his office after having her coffee and roll.
The look on his face let her know that he was about to assign a case to her and by the looks it was going to be another one of the different cases. She knew that nothing was happening in Cincinnati, so it had to be a request from some other police jurisdiction.
She was aware that each of the recent different cases had given the department a significant boost to the budget and the politics were now positive and supportive of “hiring” out their detectives.
Alex decided to take her time and enjoy the bear claw and cup of coffee and not worry about going to the Chief’s office.
Johnnie was the first to ask what she thought she was going to hear from the Chief.
Then Travis threw out one of his wild theories that a body had been found in the Himalayas that verified that Big Foot ate humans, and the Tibetans were asking for Alex to come and capture it.
Bill commented that he thought that counseling had been helping Travis, but it was apparent that he was still as crazy as ever.
Trey shook his head and commented that they should check Travis’s desk to see where he kept his bottle.
Alex smiled and said it was good to see that everyone was doing well, and she was going to go in and see just what the Chief had that would give them all some purpose other than to exchange meaningless libretti.
Travis called out after her and said he did not know what libretti meant and he didn’t have a dictionary.
Alex put up both hands and hunched her shoulder as she walked into the Chief’s office.
She could hear Johnnie explain what the word meant as she closed the door.
The Chief asked if she needed anything to drink.
Alex walked over to his coffee pot and refilled her cup and then sat down.
The Chief held up a file and said that the request for help had come from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police or as they were now called, the RCMP, via the FBI.
He said that he had gotten a call from their friend Harold Zimmerman of the DEA who had connect him with the FBI Canadian’s liaison.
He added that Harold had given him warning that the case was unusual in that it seemed to be a case that encompassed most of the Canadian to US border.
The Chief then then described the conversation he had with a Denton Tremaine of the FBI. Denton highlighted that the case had made no progress since the discover of two bodies along the Canadian US border.
Now after close to a year of joint investigation of more than twenty cases of missing women they were reaching out to see if they could find a way to break the case.
The Chief looked at her and said that Denton said that he had followed several of her cases and was wondering what it would take to get her assigned to the case they were calling the Canadian Stalker Case.
I told him that money talked but he did not assign the cases and told him that you made the call. I agreed give you the details and he would have to personally talk with the two of us before a decision would be reached.
Alex reached out for the case file and suggested a meeting in Cincinnati. She and the team would prepare for the meeting, and it would be a team decision about taking the case.
She pointed out that she had taken all of what she considered her team through a series of very trying cases and she wanted them to be part of the decision making.
The Chief nodded and agreed that it would be a good idea. He asked what she thought of how each of the team was doing.
Alex replied that it seemed that things were back to normal. Each of them was attending individual sessions with their analyst and they were all still having a group session once a month.
He asked her how she was doing.
Alex replied that her life had also returned to normal, and she had enjoyed the quiet and boring few weeks since her return from Hawaii but was already thinking about when she would be going back to her new home there.
The Chief replied that he had rented a week at her new home in Hawaii. Rose was very excited to go and had said that he should take it easy on her favorite detective.
Alex smiled and told him to tell her that he always took it easy on Trey.
He shook his head and said that he would do nothing of the kind. His home life was good, and he was going to keep it that way.
He gave the file folder to her.
Alex thanked him and let him know that she was taking the team into a huddle room to go over the material together in preparation for meeting with Denton.
As Alex reached her desk, Travis commented that he knew a few big words as well, but he did not want to embarrass her so he would just keep them to himself.
Alex held up the file and commented that she had a humdinger of a case that they could swot. But they would need to be able to grasp the basics of construing.
Johnnie started laughing.
Bill shook his head and commented that Travis was causing them all to listen to spoken English that he could not understand.
Trey was also laughing and said he knew the basics of construing.
Travis shook his head put his hands up and said, “I give.”
Alex smiled and suggested they all go to a huddle room and review a case that was coming to them from the RCMP via the FBI.
Travis replied that he understood what she had just said except he wondered who the RCMP were. He added that he was now getting bored and missed the noise of gunfire.
Alex led the way to the huddle room and after everyone was seated she pulled out the contents of the envelope. She suggested that she take a picture of each page, one at a time and send it to Johnnie who could post it on the big screen, and they could study the report together.
Bill commented that it would be great because then his partner would be able to understand what the case was about.
Alex ignored the comment and took a picture of the first page and sent it to Johnnie. Once the document was on the screen, Alex pointed out the title.
Trey read the title, “The Canadian Stalker Case.” He asked what was being stalked.
Alex sent the picture of the next page to Johnnie. She then sent pictures of all the pages before sitting down.
Johnnie put up the next page which was a summary of what the case was about. It highlighted the possibility that up to twenty-three women were the victims of a serial killer. Two bodies had been found but they were so deteriorated that they had yet to be identified. It seemed that the bodies had been brutally bludgeoned to death. The bodies had only been found because the perpetrator must have been rushed or interrupted while covering the bodies and that some animal had dug them up. The bodies were in remote locations. The Mounted Police had only found them when two different Mounted Police had investigated the areas because of vultures flying overhead.
Alex let out a groan. She shook her head and said that the case was going to be a heart breaker. To solve the case, they were going to have to find many bodies and figure out the pattern the killer was using to find the victims and how often and how he had kept the disappearance of twenty women unnoticeable for the length of time he had.
Trey added that they would most likely be slogging through countless miles of woods trying to find bodies.
Thank you for reading this far – Hope you enjoyed