Character Sketch

Chapter 3 - Connection

“Katie wake-up.”  Elizabeth stood over her.  “Hey, no more late nights for you at the library.”


“I’m up, I’m up.”


“I’m serious Kaitlin.  Another girl was attacked last night.  She’s in the hospital in critical condition.  She was studying at the library.  Someone attacked her as she was going back to her dorm.”


“How did you hear about it?”  Katie was now fully awake.


“Mitch from campus security came in for breakfast. He was on duty last night when they found her.”


“What time did they find her?”


“About 11:30pm, they figured she was attacked sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.”


“Hey, what time is it now.”


“9:30”


“Oh man, I over slept. I’ve got a 10am class.”





Five minute shower, five minutes to get dressed, ten minutes to partially dry hair, grab a bagel for breakfast, ten minute bike ride to campus, lock up bike, get into building, still 10 minutes late to class.


“Miss Moore, we could set our clocks by you.”


“Sorry Professor.”


Subject 3: 1-6-03                              January 26, 2003, 10:10am


Male: original profile on above date.  Suspicions confirmed the man only has one tie and two shirts.


Known subject: Professor Eastman. Trig instructor


Question:  How after only two weeks of instruction does he know my name out of 150 students? Maybe because I’m chronically late to this class


Quote for the day?  “Miss Moore, we could set our clocks by you.”





“Jake, Brian’s on the phone. He sounds upset.” Calvin pushed himself up on one elbow from the couch and held the phone out to Jake. Calvin slept on the couch more often than his own bed staying up late playing video games.


“We have practice this morning can’t he just talk to me at the practice field,” Jake answered from the bathroom.


“Leaving out the expletives he said to get you on the phone now.”


Jake walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He grabbed the portable phone from Calvin.


“What’s so important? We’re both going to be late and get docked points,” Jake said into the phone.


“Police, what do they want with you?” Jake asked.


“I’ll be right over.” Jake pushed the button to end the call.





“Calvin, get dressed now, the police are questioning Brian about some girl that got beat up last night.” Jake emphasized his point by poking the phone at Calvin’s chest.


Jake called over to the practice field to let them know they were going to be late for practice. The trip to Brian’s took three minutes.  Two campus police waited in Brian’s living room.  Two more came out of the bedroom.


“It’s clean in there we didn’t find anything,” one of the cops said as they exited the bedroom.


“Are you Jake Perry?” a tall blonde policeman in his 40’s asked.


“Yes, sir.”


“I’ve watched a lot of your games.  You’re a good pitcher.”


“Thank-you, sir.”


“I’m Sergeant Yeargin; we need to ask you a few questions about a girl that was attacked last night.”


“Yes, sir.”


“We have some witnesses that say they saw your friend Brian talking to Melissa Connors last night at the library.  He says he was talking to her on your behalf.”


“I’m sorry sir; I don’t know anyone named Melissa Connors.”


“The curly headed brunette at the table across from ours, remember you specifically asked me to get her name and number,” Brian interjected.


“Oh, the freshman.” Jake remembered the paper Calvin had given him last night.  What had he done with it?  He couldn’t remember. “Is she alright?”


“She’s in the hospital in critical condition.” Sergeant Yeargin flipped open his notepad.





“No, way!  We just saw her last night.  What happened?”


“We found her badly beaten up last night at about 11:30pm. Jake we need to know your whereabouts last night between 9:30 and 11:30pm.” Sergeant Yeargin pulled a pen out of his pocket


Jake’s mouth slid open. This couldn’t be real. How could they think he was involved?  How was he going to explain he was harmlessly stalking another girl?


“Before we get started I’d like to send these officers over to your apartment to do a little search if you don’t mind.”


“Don’t you need a warrant?”


“If you insist we can get one.”


“No, it’s okay. Do you need me to go with you?”


“Actually we’d like to ask you a few more questions.”


“Calvin’s my roommate he can show you where the apartment is and let you in.”


As they left, Jake’s mind raced. How could he make his little espionage last night sound as innocent as it was?


“I tried to pick a girl up last night at the library.”


“A different girl?”


“Yes, sir.”


“And?”


“She kinda shut me down.”


“What do you mean kinda?”


“Alright there was no kinda about it.”


“Did you get a name?”





“Yes, sir. Kaitlin Moore. She left the library and I followed her to give it one more try, you know?”


“No, I don’t know, how about you tell me.”


“I was going to walk her home or something.”


“What time was that?”


“I think she left the library about 9:15.”


“So did you walk her home?”


“Well . . now . . see. . . she seemed mad at me in the library and she had her bike.  So I got it in my head just to follow her.  Get her address look up her phone number and call her later.”


“Did you follow her?”


“Yes, sir.”


“Did she see you?”


“I don’t think so sir.”


“Not much of an alibi if she didn’t see you.”


“Alibi? Are you saying I need an alibi?”


“We just want to account for everybody’s where abouts so we can piece this together. So Miss Moore didn’t see you.”


“No sir, I parked across the street from her house.  Wait! Someone may have seen my jeep.  I thought I saw someone in one of the neighbor’s yards.”


“Can you describe them?”


“It was pretty dark all I saw was a figure run down the alley.”


“What was your impression, male or female?”


“I’d say male.”


“Could you see what he was wearing?”


“Sweats, maybe. I was parked under a streetlamp and he was in the shadows.”


         “How long did you stay there?”


“I sat there for a little while arguing with myself.  I probably left a little before ten.  I drove back to the library to see if my roommate’s car was still in the parking lot and when I didn’t see it I headed home. I got home probably about 10:15 or so.  Watched a movie with my roommate until midnight and then went to bed.”





“He’ll confirm this?”


“Yes, sir.”


The two other police officers returned with Calvin.


“We found this waded up on the floor of the apartment.”  They handed Sergeant Yeargin a scrap of paper.


“We’re going to need the three of you to come down to the station to make a formal statement.”


“Three of us? What did I do?”  Calvin moaned.


“Just to corroborate his statement.”


“Oh great! So shoot the messenger.”


“Shut up Calvin,” Jake snapped.


The three boys sat in the back of the police car as they drove to campus.  They stopped along the way at Maple Drive, where Sergeant Yeargin got out of the car and looked around the yards of the neighbor’s homes across from Kaitlin’s apartment.  When he got back in the car he made a call.


“I want somebody from the lab to come make a plaster mold of some foot prints behind a bush in the front yard of 1409 Maple Drive.  Looks like someone spent a little time standing around behind it. Get a couple of officers over here to question the people in the houses around 1412 Maple Drive and find me Kaitlin Moore.”