Haunted in the Night

Chapter Five- Part Two

Physical Description- Shoulder Length Grey Hair, Light Blue Eyes, a Small Brown Mole on her right cheek bone and Thin Lips.
Family- None, Mother- Deceased, Old Age, Father- Deceased, Liver Disease.
Background- Born and raised in Meadows Ville, has received letters written in blood from a stalker, no witnesses or suspects.
Letters have been tested, come back positive as animal blood, deer, no fingerprints.
Has received 1 letter, the night of the 1st letter she disappeared, no traces, no evidence, no suspects.
Case left unsolved.
I Robert (Bob) Tuckerman was having an intimate relationship with this woman.

There it was, written right in front of her, that Bob had been with Helena, and she hoped that he had made her happy but Claire also knew that in a lot of these cases, the significant other is always a suspect until cleared and she hated the feeling she got just thinking it, it made her gut twist and groan, he had been so great to her, and supportive in just the short time she had been here but it did raise suspicious questions and she pulled out her notebook to write them down.

Robert (Bob) Tuckerman a suspect?
Has had relationship with Helena Goldsburgh.
Knew all the victims.
Crimes have not been able to be solved, is it because of lack of evidence or because police chief is actually the Unknown Subject? Covering up his own crimes by being the lead officer on the case?

It made her sick to write that, she literally had to jump off the couch, rush to the bathroom and empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet, not that she had much in her stomach to vomit out.
She groaned as she collapsed onto the cold tile floor, it was refreshing, her whole body felt like it was on fire as she got the sweats.
She had technically known Bob since she was a child, he’d visit her father all the time, he had been the one she had ran to at the police station when her parents had gone missing and he’d done nothing but help her since she got here but deep down she knew, she still had to check, to be careful, she was still only studying criminal profiling, she didn’t know everything to look for just yet, and it could still slip her by.
Once her temperature had cooled and she got her breath back she slowly made her way back to the couch, packing up the case files and laying down, pulling the thin blanket over her as she watched the fire slowly burn away and turn to ash, until finally she fell asleep when she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer.

The sun hadn’t even risen yet before Claire awoke, her sleep had been restless, every slight noise would wake her, and she could had sworn that around midnight she heard what sounded like a twig snapping under the weight of somebody’s foot, and a shadow, a shadow had befallen upon the window next to the front door, Claire had frozen in fear, trying her hardest to keep her eyes open, they didn’t want to comply, she was too exhausted.
The shadow had remained there for a few moments before disappearing, Claire however had still been too afraid to leave the couch to go peek out the window, it was like her whole body had been paralysed by fear, so she waited, five minutes, ten minutes, nothing happened, nothing came back and before she knew it she was waking up again at around 4:30am.
She wasn’t sure if it had been a dream or real, she wasn’t entirely keen that she wanted to know, however when she had gotten dressed and stepped out the front once the sun had just begun to rise she gaped in fear.
Footprints, right by her window, evidence that someone had been at her window last night, her knees nearly collapsed underneath her and she scrambled through her handbag for her phone, clumsily typing in Bob’s contact number, pressing multiple wrong buttons before finally getting it right, hitting the dial button and putting it to her ear.
It was only after that when she realized just how early it is and hoped that she wasn’t waking him, but she couldn’t hang up, the fear was overwhelming and she needed him, she needed someone to talk to.
“Hello Claire, you’re awake early, is everything alright?” his voice didn’t sound groggy, he sounded wide awake and she felt some relief in that.
“Bob did you come here last night? Up to my cabin window?” she knew it was a stupid question, that the answer would be one that she didn’t want to hear but she had to ask, they hope was too overwhelming.
“No, why? What happened?” he sounded even more alert now, hearing the fear and panic in her voice.
“I need you to get here right away" she barely managed to gasp it out, her voice shaking, tears entering her eyes from so much fear, her mind was swimming and she knew that if she didn’t calm down that she would be hit with a panic attack.
“Honey I’ll be right there" she hung up, she felt much relieved after hearing those words from him, knowing he would get to her as fast as he possibly could, especially only being in a cabin of his own a short drive down the road.
She sat down, on a little wooden fold out chair that was by the door to her left, away from the window, she couldn’t look at the footprints, doing so only upset her more, they sent shivers through her veins, made her skin feel cold and she wondered, what is haunting her in the night?
“Claire are you alright?” Bob asked as soon as he had pulled up and rushed out of his car to her.
“Someone was here last night, I thought it might just have been a nightmare, I was so exhausted, I hoped it was but I came out today and the footprints were there, right where it stood, at midnight last night" Claire barely managed to sob out as he knelt in front of her.
She pointed over to the window when he looked at her questionably, and he stood back up straight and carefully went over to take a look.
“Did you tell anybody that I am staying here?” she gasped out, trying to make some sort of sense of it, of anything, too many questions were swimming around in her head and she needed some answers, any answers, just to make it a little bit more bearable.
“No I didn’t but you know what this town is like, it’s nearly impossible to keep anything private" he replied with a frown and he walked back to his car, grabbed a couple of things then made his way back.
“I need to take pictures and samples" he stated as he used the camera that he had hung around his neck to take pictures of the footprints.
“I’ll get Peter to find out what shoes have this pattern of tread on them and what stores sell them, also I’ll send the soil samples to the lab and see where else this person could have been” he told her as he took out a pair of gloves and put them on before taking soil samples and he also measured the boot tracks, writing down the sizing on a pad.
“Come on let’s get you to the station, I’ll write down a statement of what you told me, it may help the case with this evidence of boot tracks" he said as she slowly stood up and he led her to his car.
“Do you want to come stay with me at my cabin? That way I can keep an eye out for you" he asked her and she was about to say yes until she remembered last night, writing down those questions about him, suspicions and suddenly it didn’t feel right.
“It’s alright, I prefer being alone, besides I didn’t get a note or anything so for all we know it may not even be connected to the case" she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more, him or herself.
“I finished reading the case files last night, your right, we do have very little to go on" she said after a few seconds of silence.
“Well I’m hoping to catch a break today, Peter has been digging into Katherine’s bank statements and personal information, I’m hoping we find something in there that gives us a clue" he did sound hopeful and Claire found herself suspecting that maybe she was wrong, maybe he wasn’t a suspect, I mean if he was the kidnapper why would he be trying so hard to solve the case, but then again he could be trying to lead her down dead ends on purpose, it was all so confusing and hard to tell, especially because of how personal this case is to her, it just made it that much harder.
Once at the police station Bob sent off the soil samples to the lab in an overnight package, and gave Peter the list of boot measurements and pictures so he can find out the tread.
“I’ll get right on it, by the way here is that stuff you wanted on Katherine Pearl" Peter said as he handed over the case file to Bob who then handed it to Claire, obviously wanting her to read it over.
“It’s information not stuff Peter" Bob reminded him on his choice of words and Peter flushed with embarrassment before nodding that he understood.

Katherine Pearl.
Bank Statement.
$250 spent at Meadows Ville Supermarket on 11/04/19.
$50 spent at The Coffee House on 13/04/19.
$25 spent at The Meadows Ville Jewellers on 13/04/19.
$100 spent at Meadows Ville Cabins.

“Most of these purchases were made just a few days ago, we’re the 17th of April now, the second month of Autumn, but I don’t understand something, does Katherine live in a cabin as well?” Claire asked curiously looking up at the two men in front of her, Peter sitting behind the counter and Bob leaning up next to it.
“No, she lives in her parents house, they willed it to her” Bob replied looking at her inquiring her to explain why she had asked.
“Oh because she rented one out for $100 on the 13th of this month" Claire said and she quickly started going through all of the bank statements that had been in that few pages worth and noticed a pattern.
“On the 13th of every month she rents one out for the night for the pass 3 months she’s been doing this, and Lucy had said that lately she had been dressing up even more, leaving work early, I think she may have been seeing someone in secret, she obviously didn’t want Lucy to know and if she was her best friend she would have been the one she would have told if she was going on dates" Claire stated and quickly scribbled down in her notebook.

Katherine Pearl dating someone secretly?

“I want to get to these cabins, find out if the owner knows anything" Bob said as he quickly grabbed his keys.
“I’ll send over the results of the boot treads as soon as I find out what they are" Peter said before Bob and Claire rushed out to the car.
She had continued to read through Katherine Pearl’s case file as Bob drove and found out a few interesting facts.
“So she spends a bit of money but turns out she is struggling quite a bit, her parents left her quite a bit, one hundred thousand to be quite exact but she has managed to dwindle that down very fast, and now she’s in a bit of debt, owes two thousand to her electric bill, five hundred on water bill, she needs to pay back a seven thousand dollar loan, did anybody know about this?” Claire asked Bob.
“No, I don’t even think Lucy knew, she would have mentioned it, sounds like Katherine was quite the secret keeper in a town that lives for secret telling" Bob commented.