Page 35 of Stay Away from Him

Hope you’re wrong but there are women like that. Lots of sick people in this world.

We shouldn’t assume.

I think I might recognize this woman. Hard to tell, but this looks a little like a woman who moved into my neighbor’s basement. They’re friends of Thomas Danver, people who think he’s innocent, so it makes total sense that they’d set her up with this wife-killer.

God I hate these people. Just look at all the evidence! They’re setting up another woman to get abused and murdered by this evil man. They’re as guilty as he is. We really need to help her. Can you get her name?

I’ll ask around.

Ok I think I found her.Melissa Burkeis this you?

Below this last comment, Kelli had posted a reply:

Thank you for finding her! I just tagged her in the photo so hopefully she sees this.Melissa Burkeplease contact us! You are dating a murderer! Just look at the pinned post for this group. My DMs are always open.

Kelli’s DMs were more than justopen, apparently, because just as Melissa read her comment, she got a message from her, popping up in the bottom corner of her screen.

Hey! Maybe you’ve seen the posts on our Justice for Rose group. I’d love to get in touch with you to talk.

Maybe Melissa should have listened to what Kelli had to say, but in the moment, all she could feel was a blind fury. The women in the Justice for Rose Danver group—they all seemed to be women—might have thought they were helping Melissa, but everything she’d seen on the page so far was an invasion of privacy.Herprivacy. They wanted to convince her that Thomas was a killer, but right then it was Kelli Walker she felt most violated by, Kelli Walker who’d committed what felt like a crime against her. Wasn’t it against the law to take someone’s picture without their consent, to post it online, to let a group of strangers loose on identifying you? Maybe not, but it should have been. Breaking and entering was certainly illegal, at least—and as she looked at the messages laid out in front of her, the comments on the photo and the direct message, Melissa was seized by the sudden certainty that Kelli Walker was the one who’d snuck into her apartment, who’d left a hastily scrawled message of warning on her dining room table.

Melissa thought of calling the cops on Kelli—but what good would that do? She only had suspicion, no proof. A cop would shrug, ask her to call back when she had more.

Melissa put her cursor in the reply box.

Please stay away from me.

Kelli’s response came immediately.

Just look at what we have. The evidence we’ve gathered.

Melissa shook her head and let out a disbelieving gasp. The gall of this woman.

There are currently no charges against Thomas for anything. You’rethe one who’s breaking the law, by harassing me. Leave me alone or you will be receiving a visit from the police.

The status on the message went toRead. Melissa waited, but no additional message came. Finally, Kelli was getting the hint.

Melissa slapped the laptop closed and started walking around the apartment, feeling the need to move. But it was a small apartment; there was nowhere to go. She went to the sliding door and gave it an angry pull, stepped onto the patio, let her feet carry her through the trees to the lake. Melissa was still furious, feeling the violation of privacy on her body, a kind of film lying atop her skin. She was hoping the lake would soothe her, the light lap of the waves carrying these feelings away, but it didn’t. She ground the heels of her hands against her eyes, wishing for this angry energy to crest and break. Wishing herself to cry, to let it out. But the tears didn’t come, and when she let her hands fall back to her sides, she realized it wasn’t just anger at Kelli she was feeling. There was curiosity there too, and dread.

Curiosity at the evidence Kelli and the Justice for Rose Danver Facebook group claimed to have. Dread at what it might be. Whether it would change the way she looked at Thomas.

“Goddammit,” she said aloud, resignation in her voice. “Goddamn you.”

She turned and walked back to the house. Back to her laptop.

And back to the Facebook group, where she scrolled to the top of the feed. To the long pinned post drafted by—who else?—Kelli Walker.

Welcome to Justice for Rose Danver. Rose was a close friend of mine, which is why I started this group. I and most of the group members here firmly believe that Rose’s husband, Thomas Danver, is responsible for her disappearance. Thomas Danver is a murderer.We call on the county prosecutor to reinstate the charges against him immediately and bring this dangerous criminal to trial.

Before she disappeared, Rose told me she was afraid of her husband. Thomas tormented her mentally and emotionally. He undermined her, demeaned her, and gaslit her until she could no longer trust her own mind. He sowed paranoia, self-hatred, depression, and substance abuse in her—then used these things to portray her as crazy. He turned her own children against her. And at the end—maybe all along, without my knowing—he was physically violent toward her. I personally sat next to an emergency room bed with Rose, her face lacerated and bruised from what he did to her. I called the police and tried to convince her to press charges against him. But she refused. She was too afraid. Afraid he’d kill her.

I have shared what I know with the police. But still the county prosecutor refuses to bring this case to trial. Why? What does Thomas Danver have on you?

This group has obtained more evidence. The prosecutor’s office has tried to withhold it from us, claiming that the investigation into Rose’s disappearance and presumed murder is still active. But a source who was involved in the investigation into Thomas Danver has leaked information to us. Here is what we know.

Aside from her murderer, I was the last person to seeRose Danver. We met for lunch. On that day, she told me that she’d made an important decision, that she was going to leave Thomas, that she was going to the police to take out a restraining order against him. I told her she was making the right decision.

That was the last time anyone saw her alive.

---