Page 44 of Justice for Samara

“Well, I was. Until I wasn’t.” He told Carter the whole story, but he didn’t give him names. When he finished, he said, “At the time, I was still working at the home improvement warehouse in Hopkinsville. I went to community college at the same time.”

“Because of that guy?”

“No, because I had a job and I wanted a career. And there’s not that much around here. You know that.”

“True.”

“I graduated from high school when I was sixteen, and when I applied at the store, they didn’t think anything of it. Just assumed I was eighteen. I went to community college too, and I decided to go to the academy when I was twenty.”

“Do the guys know this?”

“No, but that’s why they treat me like I’m a little kid.”

“A fucking smart kid.”

“Yeah, well, thanks. Then twelve years ago, Samara took the job at McCrackenCounty. She worked there for four years. Then she went to KSP.”

“I know that.”

“What you don’t know is that five years into her time there, she was sexually assaulted on the job.”

Carter stopped chewing. “Samara?”

“Yeah. Overpowered her in the back of a cruiser.”

“Did they catch the guy?”

“No. He was a coworker. A state trooper.”

“Seems like a lot of bad troopers,” Carter said and took another bite.

“Yeah. It does. So she finally gets a chance to go elsewhere, and it’s here, after dodging and ducking him for three years.”

“Wait. She didn’t report him?”

“Carter, think for a second what you’re saying. A black female state trooper accuses a white male trooper of raping her, one who’s been on the job a good while. Who are they going to believe? And she knew if she reported him, he’d probably kill her, even if no one believed her.”

“Well, yeah, that’s probably true.”

“Okay. Fast forward to the present. She picks up all of those rape cases and starts to think about them. All of those young women were afraid to name their attacker. Why? Who would they be that afraid of?”

Carter placed his sandwich on the wrapper and sat there, stunned. “A state trooper.” He sat there for a minute before he said, “Why do I get the feeling that this gets worse?”

“Because it does. Guess who showed up at that fire this morning? A state trooper.”

Carter seemed frozen. “Are you saying… Because I think you’re saying… It can’t be…”

“Yep. The guy who cheated with my fiancé, the guy who raped Samara, and the house that burned with a body inside? All the same guy.”

Carter finally took a deep breath and huffed it out. “Holy shit. And if he’s the same one who’s been attacking women in TriggCounty…”

Michael nodded. “Yeah. We have to believe it might be him. So she decided she’d talk to all the victims again and see if she could get them to tell her anything. She’s going to carry a picture of him with her to show to them and then watch for a tell.”

“Oh, if it’s him, she’ll get a tell. At least one of them will probably start to cry.”

“Exactly. But this is Post1. She’s going to call the other counties in the Post1 sector. She’s also going to call the counties on the border of Post1 to see if they have any similar cases.”

“A guy takes your fiancé, rapes Samara, becomes a serial rapist?if he wasn’t one already?and then kills someone and puts them in his house? Did I get all that straight?” Carter asked, still looking a bit stunned.