X marks the spot

“We know. We always know. Anyone who tells you they don’t is a liar.”

Those words scared me half to death. The truth straight from the killer’s mouth, a serial killer to boot. I was interviewing the man on death row. Out of all the reporters and journalists and everyone else in between, he chose my podcast! He didn’t want the first hand interview to be done by the ‘big wigs’ or the 'pigs' but by ‘the people’ otherwise he refused to talk. The investigators finally relented, realising that the families would be better off knowing where their loved ones were, this was one of his conditions, to pick his own interviewers. The man then pulled the name of my podcast from his head, to which I found out during the interview, that he was actually an avid listener.

I looked across at my friend, Ginger, the other cohost of my podcast. It had taken a bit of convincing for her to agree to this, not just from myself but from the investigators. We were allowed to have a recording device, we took one each. The only other person he allowed into the room was one of the prison guards that he got along with, by the name of Officer Norris, but the guard had to stay at the door. His hand didn’t move from the stun gun on his hip. While he had an amicable relationship with the prisoner, he wasn’t an idiot; he was on high alert for anything that the man may try to do.

“So you do know where you buried all of your victims?” I prompted, offering a small smile, even with how evil this man was, he was still quite charming, the perfect psychopath. “Even though you told investigators that you didn’t, how do we know this isn’t a ruse?”

"That is a very good question Sharon. Obviously I lied before, but considering how I am in here for the rest of my life, I may as well get something interesting out of it, which is the two of you. I have listened to all of your podcasts, and quite enjoyed the episode you did of me. You only know of the four whose bodies have been found but there were many more. Seventeen more to be exact."

"Twenty one?"

"Yes," He sighed. "I was aiming for twenty three but unfortunately I got too complacent and lazy." He was silent a moment. "Anyway, I hope you brought what I asked for, it will make it much easier to explain." I nodded and unfolded the map in front of him. He ran his fingers along the roads and into the bushland. "And the red and blue pens?" These two items were thoroughly inspected and pulled apart before being put back together and given back to me. We were told to place them on the table and slide them to the prisoner. He picked up the blue and his finger traced the map again.

"So you were convicted of four murders, which were all yours?" He nodded at Ginger. "But then you were suspected of five disappearances to which the bodies have never been found. How many of those five did you kill?"

He laughed. "As much as the families want me to say all five, it's only two from that group. The other three are someone else's handiwork." He told her, his eyes never leaving the map in front of him. He drew his first blue cross on the map. "Diana. She was the first, the trial, if you will. And, of course, the first to be found. I didn't even know how to hide the body at that stage. I learnt a lot from her." Three more blue crosses were added to the map indicating the three other bodies that had been found. Then he picked up the red pen. I could see Officer Norris craning his neck to see the map, he had taken a step into the room, closer to the table.

"And what did you learn?" I asked him staring at the map as he slowly ran his fingers over it. From what I could tell the blue marks were pretty spot on for where the bodies were found, I had studied this case for a long time, and studied it even deeper when this opportunity arose because of the circumstances Ginger and I were given some of the police reports to read as well as a map showing the locations of the bodies in relation to each other.

"How to hide the body better," he stated. The red pen was poised over a section of map. He closed his eyes as though he were remembering the events. "This one is Stacy." My heart was thumping in my chest, this was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. "She has this beautiful strawberry blonde hair, worn out with just a headband to keep the hair out of her face, it almost reaches her backside. She's still in her school uniform, a burgundy skirt and white polo top. She's about four feet down, next to an old gum with an almost right angle bend in it."

All the noise from outside the room seemed to disappear. I wasn't sure if it was because I was so engrossed in this man telling me his horrible deeds or if everyone was crammed into the viewing room adjacent to hear what he was telling us. He stared into my eyes as he explained what he had done. "Norris, back to your post, or I stop here." He said without taking his eyes off me. I heard the officer quickly shuffle back towards the door and another cross was drawn on the map. "Omala, she has lovely caramel skin, black hair plaited. She's in blue jeans and a yellow singlet."

"They are so close together." Ginger said looking at the two crosses.

"Yes, the bent tree is an easy landmark to go by. I know how many paces to each girl from that tree. I would sit on the bend and look out at my girls, remembering our time together. In the warmer months I would lay out a sleeping bag on top of my girls and sleep. Those were always such sweet dreams."

"So the reason the last three girls were found was because it was too cold for you to place them with the others?" I asked him, looking at the blue crosses which were in a completely different area of the map. The red ones were all in the same vicinity as each other like the blue ones were.

"Yes, like I said, I got lazy. I didn't want to take the trek into the bushland. And it wasn't until Alicia was found that Meghan and Sun were as well."

"There's only twenty crosses, didn't you say there were twenty one?" Ginger asked him, looking at the map again, I could see her counting, and I did too.

"Very observant Ginger, you are right. I didn't lie, there are twenty one, but she is not in this area. She is buried in my grandparents vegetable garden. I visited them for three weeks a year ago. I was driving back home after dinner with a couple friends when I saw Laura. It was dark and she was walking, well limping. She had been jogging but didn't see a hole and she twisted her ankle. I picked her up. Her blonde hair is in a ponytail and she's wearing black leggings with a teal stripe down the side with the matching teal tank."

"You must have buried her deep if your grandparents have never found her."

"I did. I put her at the bottom, with about a foot of dirt then a layer of stones so my grandfather would hit them and not dig further. As far as I know he never has. He knows I'm in here for life so if he had found her he would have asked me by now." He turned to the glass window. "You got all of that? Do not upset my grandparents when you search their garden. Laura is in the back corner against the fence. She is the only one you will find that isn't on this map."

My head was spinning, I could hear the general buzz of chatter again. Twenty one girls had lost their lives to this madman. I looked at the sixteen red crosses on the map. Two of those were in the group that he had been suspected of all along. But then I couldn't help but wonder about the other three that he claims he had nothing to do with. Would they ever be found or would they remain unsolved? Someone tapped on the glass and Officer Norris approached the table, he took the pens and map from the surface and indicated for Ginger and I to stand.

"Thank you ladies, I had a wonderful time reminiscing with you both. I look forward to your next episode about me." He winked and smiled. We were escorted out the door and were met with a dozen people, all asking us questions. A couple officers walked past us into the interrogation room to collect the serial killer who would become even more famous than he already was. And Ginger and I held the rights to his story.

***

PS: This prompt fell perfectly into a kind of fan fiction. I love watching and listening to true crime. There is a podcast that I absolutely adore right now called My Favorite Murder. The girls in it are hilarious and I wanted to pay them tribute for their awesome work.