Page 4 of The Fire Went Wild

I plop down on my couch, flip open my laptop, and head over to CrimeSolvers. My breath gets all tight in my chest, the way it always does when I log on there. I know it’s probably not healthy for me to read every idiotic word posted on this site, but I can’t help myself. I grew up in one of those weirdo churches where suffering and aestheticism are supposed to purify you, and I think that’s what I’m doing here. Purifying myself for letting Edie go back to that camp.

There’s a megathread about the “Scott Hensner Case,” as CrimeSolvers calls it, but nothing new has been posted. I still doomscroll through the old comments, though. It’s a compulsion at this point, and one that I find almost possible to break.

EyesOnSasquatch:Scott Hensner was married to EDIE ASTOR? The survivor in the Fat Camp Killings? Why the fuck was she back at the camp? I thought they closed it down.

modell87:They did but someone opened up one of the cabins as an Air B&B a few years ago. Me and my girlfriend stayed there.

EyesOnSasquatch:Fucking weird. And with a copycat around? Do you think she was the copycat?

redlipsticklove:Don’t be a moron. The killer got her, too, just dragged her off. Sawyer Caldwell kept his victim’sbones?—

The word “bones” is highlighted with an annoyingly helpful link to Sawyer Caldwell’s Wikipedia page

—so the copycat probably did that with her. Took her back to wherever he’s hiding.

EyesOnSasquatch:Moron? Really? Why so aggressive?

redlipsticklove:Edie Astor is a victim and you’re accusing her of killing her husband. She’s likely dead. It’s a copycat. I’d stay the fuck away from that AirB&B until they catch him.

repruler420:There’s no evidence of a copycat.

redlipsticklove:No evidence? Are you insane? Read what happened to Sawyer Caldwell’s victims. Now read what happened to Hensner and his hired soldiers. It’s the same fucking shit. At the same fucking location. AND Caldwell’s lone survivor was involved.

repruler420:But, likeEyesOnSasquatchsaid, why was Edie Astor even there? Who goes back to the tourist version of the place where they were almost murdered? If you’ve seen pictures of her, it’s bizarre Scott Hensner would even be married to someone like her. Have you seen a picture of her? Like, a recent picture? She let herself go.

My theory is he wanted a divorce and she wasn’t having it, so she lured him out there to kill him and collect the life insurance money. She made it look like Sawyer Caldwell for the obvious reason?—

I click away from the thread in disgust. I’ve read that particular exchange dozens of times, and it always makes myskin crawl. Because it was the other way around.Shewanted the divorce, andhewasn’t having it.Hetried to killher.

And she didn’t “let herself go.” She went into recovery for fucking anorexia.

I don’t know how Scott wound up dead. I won’t say I’m sad about it. But there’s no way Edie did it. Absolutely no way.

Even if she did tell you she was in Roanoke?—

My face feels hot. My heart rate’s up, pounding in my throat. I’ve got the beginnings of a migraine, something that used to happen when I was younger and only started again after Scott tried to kill Edie. After I swore to myself I was going to fucking protect her.

And here’s the truth of things, what no one on the CrimeSolvers site is willing to admit: No one knows anything about what happened. Scott is rich enough and important enough that the cops are throwing their backs into it—big surprise—but they don’t care about finding Edie. They care about finding Scott’s murderer.

And currently, they have no leads.

I scroll through some of the other threads, massaging my temple. I don’t know why I do this, why I think I might find some kind of connection between Edie’s disappearance and Scott’s death and the dozens of other strange, unsolved murders popping up across the country. But I keep looking. I keep reading.

I read about the disappearance of a couple of hikers up in the Rocky Mountains, vanished without a trace.

I read about three college students who went missing down in Texas on the way back from a spring break along the Mexican border.

I read about a man who was found beheaded behind a fast food dumpster.

Thread after thread of death and misery and terror. And I wonder if that’s what Edie’s feeling right now, if she’s chained up in some maniac’s basement. Or if she’s already dead.

Either way, I’m determined to find her.

I click on a new thread, one that was just posted an hour ago. It catches my eye because of the title:Am I crazy for seeing a connection here?Because that’s what I want to find. A connection.

It’s not about Scott Hensner’s death at all. It’s about a recent murder in Beaumont, Texas. Some drug dealer and his mistress slashed in their beds.

RamblinMan1988:So my cousin works for the Jefferson County sheriff’s department in east Texas. He’s cool with me, he knows I’m interested in this stuff, and he’ll share case details with me that don’t always get released to the public. He’d KILL me if I knew I was posting this on here, but we’re behind a password and it’s too good not to share. I have GOT to know what y’all think about this.

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