Missing

Missing,
A short story
by Lisa Noe

“I once had a case so frightening for  the parents of a missing college student, and I will never forget it.” Said Marsall, a police officer in the city of Lexington, Kentucky. He began to tell the story of this case.

It was early morning in Harlan and Kimberly Hawkins was getting ready for her first
day of college she would be off to the city in Lexington to attend UK.

“Mom, I’m ready to go”. 

Kim kissed her little dog on the head and picked up her duffel bag and followed her mom
To the car. 

“Oh Kim I’m really going to miss you, I wish we had a college here in town so you could
go and stay at home.” Her mother tearfully said.

“I know mom but I will be home every few weekends, it’s not that far just a four hour drive from Lexington to Harlan.” Said Kim

The two of them arrived in Lexington at UK about four hours later.  Kim and her mother, Della, went in and found her room in the dorm.  They unpacked Kim’s things and then Della said her farewell to Kim and kissed her on the cheek, and left the room crying.
Meanwhile Kim met her new roommate, Stacy.

“Hi I’m Stacy Wells, what is your name roomy?”

I’m Kimberly Hawkins, it’s nice to meet you. I hope you don’t mind but I took the bed nearest the restroom.”

“That’s fine, I don’t care where I sleep as long as I sleep. So where are you from Kimberly?”

“I’m from Harlan, and you?”

“I’m from Lexington, I’ve lived here all my life.  So where is Harlan located?”

“It’s in Eastern Kentucky, do you know where Corbin is?”

“Yes”.

“Well it’s about an hour and a half to the east of Corbin.”

“I thought you had that kind of accent, I guess UK is like a shock to you, it is so large you will probably have a hard time finding your way around it.  Have you ever been here before?

No, but I think I’ll manage just fine, just because I’m from the east don’t mean I don’t know how to find my way around.” She angrily said.

Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that you were dumb I just thought you sounded different than people here.

At that, the two girls changed to their nightclothes and went to bed.
When they awoke the next morning, they dressed and the two girls headed for the cafeteria located in another building two buildings away from their dorm.
After eating they went to the bookstore to buy their books.  The store was located across the busy highway. 

“Stacy, what are you majoring in?”

“Education, What about you”.

I’m going to be a doctor, I studied medicine at my junior college back home in Harlan,
I went to South East Community college for two years and took all medical classes along with my core classes. So I’ve got a good start on it.  I want to finish my medical training and then go back home to practice.”

“Wow Lody DA! Medicine ay. Are you that smart?

“Yeah, I’ve got a photographic memory.”

The girls got their books, Stacy got hers first and said goodbye to Kim, leaving her by herself in the bookstore.  Kim was to start her first class at 10:00 am. She got her books and left the store with about eight large books and a couple of workbooks.

Time ticked on and soon 10:00 was here and in Kim’s class, Anatomy 2, The Professor Doctor Bart Lynway, called roll, when he got to Kim’s name there was no answer, again he called her name and again no answer.

Later in the day her roommate was getting worried because the two of them had a couple of classes together and Kim was not in either of those classes. Soon it was dark and there was no sign of Kimberly.  Stacy was upset by the disappearance of her roommate, she had’nt known her very long but she liked her .  She reported this to the dean of students,
Who was immediately concerned. He called her mother to see if perhaps she had gotten home sick or had forgotten something and went back home.  Her Mother was immediately concerned and told the dean she was going to come to Lexington to help look for her daughter. 

Bob Hawkins, Kim’s father, persuaded his wife to wait until morning to make the long trip. Della, started crying, worrying about her daughter.
“Where could she be Bob?  I know she would never run away it doesn’t make any since.”

“No, I know my daughter better than that, she has no boy friend to meet up with, she has always studied hard and never messed with the boys she only concentrated on her work.
She would never leave there, she worked too hard to get there,” Said Bob.

The next morning they arrived at UK and met with Mr. Staples, the dean of students.
They informed campus security of the missing girl and they all began a search for her
They searched the school over and there was no sign of her.  It had now been 28 hours since she had been seen by anyone. Della called the police to report her missing. They sent two officers out to the school to take a report. 

“I want to report my daughter missing, no one saw her since sometime yesterday,” said Bob. 

“What was your daughter wearing the last time she was seen?”

“You will have to ask her roommate about that.”

Who’s her room-mate?

“I am said Stacy, she was wearing jeans and a blue blouse, we went to the bookstore across the street and I left her there buying her books, I thought she would be right behind me.”

The officers went across the street as did Kim’s parents. They questioned the clerk, who said she left there with a man she met in the store, he said he would carry her books for her, I think he was a student also at UK, because he bought some books.

“What did the man look like?” said an officer.

“He was about 5’9, 189 lbs. He had brown hair and he appeared to be around 22 or 23 something like that,” The clerk described.

The officers called in to their precinct to have a search dog and trainer to come out to their location.  It took all of about 20 minutes for them to show up.  They took the dog up to Kim’s room and let it get her scent from some of her clothing. They then went through the dorms one by one searching for her.  The dog started pulling the trainer towards a room at the end of the hall. They entered the room and the dog began barking and scratching at the mattress.  The trainer, took the blankets off the bed revealing a little bit of blood. They cut the fabric from the mattress where the blood was and took it for evidence.  They questioned the bystanders asking who’s room this was.

“It belongs to Jim Stevens and Chris Nolan,” said a boy.

“Do you know where he is right now,” asked the officer.

“He is in psychology, it is in the third building over, class number 195.” The boy said.

Kim’s Parents were distraught over the findings, her mother sobbed uncontrollably.
They followed the police to the second floor to class 195.  One of the officers went into the room and asked the professor to point out Jim Stevens.  Jim was immediately frightened by the cops coming to his class and asking to speak with him.

“Mr. Stevens, we are looking for a girl…”

At that time Della, reached the police a picture of Kim.

“Have you see this girl.” they showed him the picture.

“No I’ve never seen her before! What’s this all about is something wrong?”

“She is missing and a man matching your description was seen walking her out of the book store across the street,” said the officer.

“We found blood on the mattress in your dorm room it was on your bed. Can you explain that?”

“No, it could have been there before I came to this university!”

The other officer had gone to the math class to question the other roommate.  When they saw him they figured it was not him, he was short, about 5’6 with blond hair. He did not match the description told to them by the store clerk. But nevertheless they questioned him about where he was yesterday and last evening. 

“I didn’t arrive from London Ky. until this morning, I was late because I had to attend a funeral for a cousin.”

“OK you are free to go we’ll check your story to assure your alibi is correct.”

They left and joined the other officers who were still questioning Jim.

“Where were you yesterday at about 8:45 a.m.?”

“I can’t remember, I was probably asleep in my dorm.”

“Can anyone verify that”.

“No I didn’t see anyone around perhaps it was just too early for everyone.”

They had sent an officer with the evidence, the blood stained fabric from the mattress.
The officer took the evidence to the crime lab to test the blood to see if it belonged to Kimberly. This would take a day or so. In the meantime the parents along with Stacy and the officers on the case would all be searching for her.

The next day the results came back and it was positive for Kim’s blood.  They went back to the dorms to re-question Jim Stevens.  They ask him to stand in a line up with six other men of similar appearance. They had the store clerk to come in and view them
He took only a minute to pick Jim out of the line up.

“What did you do with her?” Said the lead officer.

“I didn’t do anything with her that guy is crazy I never saw her!”

“How do you explain her blood being on your mattress.”

“I can’t!”

“Did you kill Kimberly Hawkins?”

“No how can I kill her if I’ve never seen her before?”

“Be a man and confess, we’ve got you red handed there is no way out, so at least tell her parents what you did with her so they can give her a Christian burial.”

“I have the right to remain silent and I am taking that right! So if you are finished I’ll be on my way, you have nothing to arrest me for.”

“Oh but we do, we have an eye witness who saw you with her before she went missing.
We also have her blood on your mattress. It maybe circumstantial but we have enough to make the arrest so just sit there and tell us what you did with her body.”

“I don’t know anything man.”

“Take him to the lock up.”

“Oh you, you son of a bitch, what did you do with my baby, she was my only daughter!”

Della was crying heavily when her husband took a punch at the kid knocking him out of his chair. The police immediately grabbed Bob and held him back, they told Kim’s parents they would have to leave, they would be contacting them about a trial.
They put Bob in a holding cell after giving him a strip search and stripping him naked they then gave him an orange jumpsuit to put on. They slammed the door behind him.
He had one man in the cell with him who had been arrested for DUI.

“Hey man what’s the name?”

“Scott, what you in here for?

Aah, I’m in for murder.”

Scott was a little taken back by the blunt answer of murder. He was apprehensive.

“I tell you this little oh hillbilly girl from the mountains left willingly with me and we went to my dorm room so I could show her around.  Actually the only thing I wanted to show her was me.”

“Really, what was her name?”

“Who cares, I just wanted to see what she had under those clothes.”

“Did she willingly let you?”

“Hell no, I had to push her down on the bed and show her who was boss, you know most woman want that, a man who knows what he wants and then takes it.  I gave it to her good.”

“Did she like it man?”

“No she cried, and then threatened to call the police, I couldn’t let that little bitch ruin my chances on the ball field. I made it here on a football scholarship and I’m not going to let some little hillbilly from Harlan County take that away from me.
I have her still, so I can make love to her any time I want.  She is hidden away in an old storage container.  I put air holes in it but the trunk she is in is locked so she can’t get out.”
The men lay down on the floor to get some sleep when an officer came and told Scott that he made bail.

“Hey, I’m no snitch but that guy has that girl and he raped her, he told me all about it.”

“Did he tell you where she is?”

He said he put her behind one of the buildings on UK campus in an old trunk.  I don’t know which one though, he said he threw a lot of branches and leaves over the trunk.”

The officers went to the school and searched and searched using the cadaver dog. They found her behind his dorm building.  They opened the trunk with cutters, and there she lay crying and bound hand and foot and her mouth was taped shut . 

The officers helped her out of the trunk after removing the ropes from her. 

“Oh my God thank you for rescuing me, that man hurt me and then threw me in this trunk and left me.  I don’t know if he planned to kill  me or not.  But I was scared.”
She said tearfully.

“You are ok now, don’t worry we have him in custody he can’t hurt you any more.”
Said an officer.
“We will get you home with your parents they were worried about you what do you say , shall we go call them with the good news that you are still alive.” The officer continued.

“ Thank you I don’t think I could ever repay you for rescuing me.”

“Don’t even mention it, it is my job and I’m glad to do it.”

Her parents came to the school and saw there daughter.  Della did not want her to stay but she said she wanted to finish school there.  Her mother hugged her as did her father.
She felt safe and loved now.  The next day she started anew in her anatomy class, she was happy that she was at UK and she wanted to stay until it was time for her to graduate.  Despite the incident that took place she still loved her school.