The Backwoods Snatcher

By Douglas Strait

A very resourceful little girl is kidnapped by a serial child killer who resides amid the vast forest that surrounds the tiny town that she lives in. The search to rescue her become dangerous for everyone involved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514436103

Douglas Strait

Writing began while living entirely in Columbus, OH as an elementary school student and continued into adulthood with screenplays. With an interest in demonstrating my stories, they are now being offered in book form.

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Copyright © 2015 by Douglas Strait.

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-5144-3611-0

   eBook   978-1-5144-3610-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/16/2015

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Contents

Chapter 1 The Police Find A Body

Chapter 2 Nikki’s Journey To School

Chapter 3 The Forest

Chapter 4 The Festival

Chapter 5 Beggar’s Night

Chapter 6 The Hunt Begins

Chapter 7 The Chase

Chapter 8 The Farm

Chapter 9 The Rescuers Take Casualties

Chapter 10 Nikki At Her Best

Chapter 11 Succor

Chapter 1

The Police Find A Body

Vision is sketchy at dawn, especially on a morning where a fog gives an additional eerie quality to the area. In the forest, one can never be sure what they are seeing when there is such little light. But on the normally unused rural road that runs through a vast forest of hills, fields and trees, there was no mistake about the dead body that had been found. It was a young girl that had been brutally murdered. There, parked near the shoulder, is a lone ambulance surrounded by police and sheriff cars with flashing lights that cause a small bubble of illumination in vast darkness.

Officer Todd Williams was just a year out of Constable training school. He joined the two-person police force in the small town of Potterville less than one year ago. When he sees the bloody body being wrapped in a body bag and then loaded into the ambulance, he trembles. His training did not prepare him for the gory reality that he saw before him. But, this was what he signed up for and he had to hold it together. Cars and trucks loaded with onlookers are all around, in addition to a remote TV crew setting up for a live broadcast, and it was his job to keep the road clear and the traffic moving.

Near the front of the ring of people watching is Thaddeus Lewis, a beefy man in his mid-fifties. He was the one who noticed the body in the ditch and called the authorities.

Mr. Lewis, sir, thank you for your help, Todd tells him. We have your contact information. If we need anything else, we’ll be in touch.

Thaddeus says nothing as he nods and makes his way through the small crowd towards a line of privately owned vehicles parked on the gravel shoulder of the road. Todd paid little attention to him, only noting that he had a beard. He next had to find his partner, Claudine Garrett, a policewoman who was his superior. He sees her sitting in a police car behind the one that he had arrived in. Todd goes to her.

Did you get a look at the body? Todd asks the question, but realizes that Claudine hasn’t gotten out of the car yet. I’ve never seen so much blood.

That’s why I sit in the car while someone else gathers up the bodies, Claudine tells him.

When I signed up to work out here away from the big city, I did it to get away from all the blood and guts, Todd adds.

Well, get used to it. It doesn’t get better. Claudine busily keys data into a laptop PC next to the driver’s seat. There might be fewer people out here in the sticks, but the crimes are any place you go.

Do you think the body was dumped here? Todd asks with a million ideas running through his mind. Or was she killed somewhere around this area?

I don’t know. Claudine stops to study Todd, puzzled by the naïve questions. Either way, it’s the first break we’ve had. All of the other girls just disappeared. I don’t want to seem morbid, but it’s just what we needed.

I wonder if she was violated.

This draws another amused expression from Claudine, one that exhibits a contemptible snicker.

Why don’t you go look? she asks.

Todd stares at her blankly. During the short time they had worked together, there were times when she became impudent with Todd. Todd held his tongue before, but was slowly reaching a boiling point.

Hey, it’s my first case, alright. Give me a break, huh?

Look, I don’t want to get killed, or maimed, because you’re so green. So, let’s wise up. Claudine realizes that she’s pushing Todd’s buttons.

Claudine is serious, but Todd’s mind is too much on the girl and the murderer that is loose.

Ten to one, the guy’s close, he says. The blood’s too fresh.

We’ve only been here for a couple of hours. We’ll know more after we get the coroner’s report, and then forensics will want to check things out.

Claudine knew the routine. She had been through it all in the past. Unlike, Todd, she did work in a city police department where she became involved in murder investigations. She had seen the bodies, the blood and, even looked into the eyes of killers when they were caught.

What about money? Todd asks. Was she carrying any?

This guy doesn’t kill for money, Claudine replies.

Todd turns to ask Claudine another question and sees tears in her eyes.

We’ll catch him…eventually. But…who knows how many more kids…? Claudine states.

I’ve got the shakes. Todd says this, still unsettled by the whole episode. Todd grips his own hands as they tremble.

Still tearful, Claudine reaches into her pocket and gives Todd a pack of chewing gum.

See if this helps, she suggests as Todd unwraps a stick, puts it in his mouth and chews.

As Claudine gathers herself, the TV news crew approaches her. A well-dressed black woman, Angela Packman, is in front of the cameraman with a microphone. Claudine knows what’s next. She gets out of the car.

Chapter 2

Nikki’s Journey To School

At the same time of the news broadcast, a lone paper boy rides his bike on a residential sidewalk. He expertly tosses newspapers onto the porches and lawns of plain, two-story houses which are on one side of the street. On the other side are open fields and brush with the vast forest stretching into the distance.

As he rides on, one of the front doors in the middle of the row of houses opens and a young father steps out to retrieve the newspaper. He glances at a pink bicycle resting on the lawn. This is Devin Crabbe. He reenters his house and closes the door.

Inside, Devin unrolls the newspaper as he heads for the kitchen. From upstairs, Nikki, an eight-year-old girl, bounds down the steps dressed for school in a colorful array of pinks, greens and yellows.

You left your bike outside, last night…again, Devin warns her. One of these days, you’re going to go out there, and it’ll be gone. Mark my words.

I know, Nikki answers as she heads for the kitchen. I forgot.

Devin stops to listen to Angela on the TV set.

As viewers may surmise, we have a madman on the loose - a madman that kidnaps and murders children. The question is, will our local law enforcement personnel be able to put a stop to this child killer. When will it end? Could it be someone living next door to any one of us. These are questions that we all have to consider.

Devin shuts the TV off as he too heads for the kitchen.

The cops better get on the ball and catch whoever’s doing that, he announces.

Upon entering the kitchen, Nikki and Devin sit down at a dinner table next to three-year-old Stevie, Nikki’s little brother, who is in a high chair.