Page 32 of The Girl in the Mist

“Next year’s swimsuit weather. He figures he needs the time,” Isay.

“Probably a safe bet.” He comes the rest of the way into the room and looks at the papers on the table. “What are youdoing?”

“Looking over some stuff from the 1964 massacre,” I tell him. “I called Detective Garrison and let him know we probably wouldn’t be back until this evening and asked for copies of the reports and files from the first case so I can review them. He said that was fine. They are spending the rest of the afternoon interviewing the people who left the station this morning and canvassing the surrounding neighbors. They also have to do a death notification to the next of kin for theBennetts.”

“The Bennetts,” Sam says. “The couple who were murdered in thehouse.”

I nod. “Cynthia and Vernon. At least, that’s the assumption. They haven’t conclusively identified them yet, but they’re waiting for dental records. The injuries were too extensive to identify them by looking at them. It was their house, though, and they were found in their bedroom, so it would only make sense that it wasthem.”

That stops me and I sift through the papers on the table in front of me, pulling oneout.

“What is it?” Sam asks.

“I had Garrison fax me what he could of the case file so far. He included notes from the responding officers when they went into the house and found the Bennetts. They were in regular clothes, not pajamas. And the blood around them had congealed. It was late when Lisa got there. Far later than most people would be up in their regular clothes and shoes. They were killed well before anything started happening at thecamp.”

“So, they were the origin point,” Sam notes. “They were the firstvictims.”

“Yes. Which means we need to be asking the neighbors about people who were around that area in the afternoon or early evening, not at night,” I say. “We need to find out if the Barretts were at work yesterday and what time they usually get off. That will help to narrow down thetimeframe.”

“Great,” Sam nods. “I’ll call Garrison.” He looks at the papers again. “What’s the rest ofthat?”

“I reached out to the newspaper to ask if they have archival copies of issues from twenty years ago so I could read articles about the massacre when it first happened. They were able to fax me copies of a few of them, but said my best bet will be to go to the library. They keep all the back issues on microfilm. I’ll be able to find anything that any of the local newspapers printed on it. I’m planning on seeing if I can get my hands on medical records, but that’s going to beharder.”

“I thought you said you didn’t think we should be focusing on the past,” Sam says. “That we need to look at this case as a separate entity and not get wrapped up in the details from twenty years ago because it could lead us down the wrongpath.”

“That is what I said. And I still think that’s the right way to approach it. I don’t want to take assumptions or conclusions from the past case and apply them unilaterally across this one,” I admit. “But, like you always like to say, there’s no such thing as coincidences. These two events have to have some kind of connection. It can’t just be that two masked killers happened to commit mass murder at the same summer camp exactly twenty years apart. There are copycats and there are killers who are inspired by others, but both of those mean there is a connection between the two. Even if it’s as tenuous as the second killer liking the methodology of the first.

There’s something that made this person go after the campnow. Maybe it’s just that it’s the twentieth anniversary of the first killings and they knew it would get a lot of attention and notoriety. But maybe it’s something more than that. The more I read through the notes from the survivors and some of the legends that go around about the last murders, the more I want to know what really happened. Do you realize nobody seems to know the actual story of those murders?”

“What do you mean?” heasks.

“I had never even heard of the camp or the murders until I heard the women talking in the diner the other day. So I asked Sarah about it. Later, I asked you about it. What I heard from the women, Sarah, and you were all different. Then the campers and the counselors and even Mike all had their own little variations and versions of what happened. Not even Garrison or any of the other detectives who were around back then mentioned what really happened twenty years ago. It’s like it’s so horrible they don’t want to tell the truth. It’s easier to have stories they know aren’t real.

“Or, these legends are so important to the culture of the town nobody wants to contradict them. That happens so often. People are brought together by mysteries and stories of their area and they cling to them, even when they know the details aren’t true. Even history textbooks are full of stories that sound really good and are impressive, but that no one has any idea if they are actually true or not. But it doesn’t really matter because hanging onto those keeps us all connected. We like sharing the stories. We like feeling like we’re a part of something. It’s just humannature.”

“But it sure as hell puts a crimp in solving murders,” Samsays.

“To put it mildly,” I agree. “Everything from the number of victims to the killer changes in the stories. The one thing that stays consistent is that one girl, Mary Ellen Conner, disappeared from thecamp.”

“Like Miranda,” Samsays.

“Exactly. Most of the stories I heard say that her body was never found and the killer is still roaming the woods. They believe Mary Ellen’s ghost haunts the camp and the woods around it, waiting for someone to come and find her body so she can rest. Her boyfriend was also killed and his class ring was missing, so there are also stories that his ghost is wandering around trying to find hisring.”

“I think her priorities are a little more pressing,” hesays.

“Well, I think the point is that they were supposedly sneaking off into the woods so that he could give her his ring, which was a pretty big deal back in those days. He was killed before he was able to give it to her. So he wants to be able to find it and presumably give it to her spirit,” Isay.

“If they believe her body was never found, how do they know she doesn’t have his ring?” Sam asks. “He could have given it to her and then she was killed and she’s still wearingit.”

“That’s a good point,” I admit, looking through the articles again. “The only articles they sent me were from right after. Like the next day and then for a couple of days after that. There’s not very much to go on. There’s some discrepancy among the papers about how many deaths there actually were. One says thirteen. Another says ten. One says ‘nearly a dozen or so,’ which is veryconfusing.”

“You would think there would be a bit more accuracy in reporting something like that,” Sammutters.

“I would think there would be a memorial around somewhere. I can understand the different numbers. The victims were from different towns and it’s possible a couple were still alive when the police got to the scene, but then died in their respective towns and weren’t necessarily reported to the media right at that time. It just seems to me that something like this would be recognized somewhere. There would be a plaque or a memorial bench orsomething.”

“Maybe nobody wants to remember it,” he says.

I nod. “Maybe it shouldn’t havebeen.”

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