DAILY ENTRY 19
Who's The Daddy?
Josh Barty is taken aback when Ann asks for a cigarette. He’s never known her to smoke - but, then again, he’s never known her to plunge a knife into anyone’s throat before either. Sometimes people are just full of surprises.
“Start from the beginning,” Josh says, as Ann lights up. “Tell me what happened to you a year ago.”
Ann doesn’t meet his gaze. Instead she stares off into space, her eyes drained of light, as colourless as the smoke drifting about her brown hair like a halo. Eventually, she speaks.
“It was November,” she murmurs. “I don’t remember the exact date, but it was a slow day at the hospital. I got a call from Mary. She sounded distressed. She said that one of her students, Anastasia Lee, was at her house and asked if I could come over. When I got there I found Ana in tears, with her face and shoulders covered in scratches. She told me that she had been attacked, by three men… Walt Dakota, Conrad Masterson and Ted Rosenberger.”
Josh’s blood runs cold. All three? “Go on,” he breathes, his pulse rushing with fear and excitement as he realises that he is on the verge of unravelling the mystery that has plagued him.
“Ana said that she had woken up in a basement, with Masterson and Rosenberger standing over her. She couldn’t recall how she had got there - the last thing she remembered was arriving for work at Masterson’s department store. From the way her pupils were still dilated, I suspected that she had been drugged. Rohypnol, ketamine, GHB… GHB is used to treat narcolepsy and would have been most likely. But whatever it was, they hadn’t administered a high enough dose and Ana had woken.
“When they realised, Masterson and Rosenberger pulled on black masks to disguise their identities, then ordered a third man with a video camera - Dakota - to start filming. Ana can’t remember exactly how she escaped, but told me there had been some kind of argument between Masterson and Dakota and that during this she’d managed to get out of the basement - which belonged to Masterson’s house - and find her way to Mary.”
Ann stubs out her cigarette and Josh immediately lights another for her.
“We knew we couldn’t come to the police,” Ann continues. “Not with Dakota involved - and Masterson practically runs this town anyway, with his connections to the mayor. We didn’t know what to do. I went home, thought about calling Orville… but then Rosenberger came to my house. He made me take something, probably the same drug they’d used on Ana, but before it took effect he told me that she hadn’t been the first - not by a long way. They’d been doing this to young girls for twenty years. They usually worked outside the Ridge, abducting girls from other towns and other states, then drugging them, raping them and filming them, before dumping them back where they’d found them. These girls would know that they’d been attacked, but would have no idea of the circumstances. The tapes would then be sold, through the internet and the black market. They made a fortune out of depravity and misery. And Rosenberger loved boasting about it.”
Josh leans back in his seat, scarcely able to breathe.
“Rosenberger said that they’d almost been caught once, back at the beginning before they perfected their nasty little scheme,” Ann says. “Someone else took the fall for them, someone completely innocent. Rosenberger found this funny. Then he said I was going to be the star of their next production, and that the drug he’d given me would wear off in time for me to ‘enjoy’ it. He was right. The next thing I knew, I was awake and being raped - by Dakota, with Rosenberger behind the camera.”
Josh buries his face in his hands. This is all too much.
“You never said anything?” he asks, quietly. “Not even to Mary? Orville Hayward?”
Ann half-smiles, but her eyes are cold and bitter. “I didn’t remember,” she whispers. “After the attack, Rosenberger started giving me other drugs to suppress my memories. He’s kept me that way for a year. I had no idea what he was doing, or that he was even doing it… until the night someone broke into Mary’s house. Rosenberger was there, and something about him - an expression, maybe the way he was lurking on my stairs like a spider at one point - triggered something in my head. I began to get flashes, of Dakota, and what Rosenberger had said. Then, Rosenberger was killed. He couldn’t drug me anymore. And tonight, I started to remember everything.”
“Anastasia died just after the incident you described,” Josh says. “Did these men kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
“She was pregnant. Was one of them the father?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry. This past year… I may as well have been in a coma.”
The interview is over. Josh scowls in frustration as Brooks leads Ann back to her cell. So close…
Most of the pieces have now fitted together. Twenty years ago, Dakota, Masterson and Rosenberger were making and distributing pornographic tapes depicting the drugged rape, perhaps worse, of girls abducted from Cougar Ridge and beyond. When their operation was compromised, they pinned the blame on an innocent man, William Dale. Dale was sent to prison, but is now free and back in the Ridge. He doesn’t know who set him up, so he’s systematically murdering everyone he thinks was involved.
Meanwhile, what of Ana Lee and Shannon McKenzie? Was Shannon a victim too? Was she drugged and raped? The two girls were both pregnant by the same man. Shannon wrote letters to Cedar, but he wasn’t the father, just a friend wanting to help out. In contrast, Ana received letters - completely unconnected to those written by Shannon, but far more important. Josh has these letters in his possession. He and Pearl have read them. They’re obviously from the father, and their content is horrifyingly clear.
The letters tell Ana that she must kill her unborn child. The father’s intent is abortion, but perhaps Ana took the instructions to heart. Perhaps she killed her baby by killing herself. Or perhaps she refused, so the father dealt with the matter with a length of rope. If this is the case, then there is only one mystery left to solve - the same mystery it all started with. Who was the father of the children, and who brought about the death of Ana Lee?
Josh knows that he’s on the brink. He leaves the police station and heads outside to stand in the rain, hoping it will clear his head. He wishes that he could speak to Pearl about this but he’s been trying to contact her all evening, with no success. He’s tired, so very tired…
…and then he hears footsteps, and turns. When he recognises young Johnny Dakota, his heart leaps. Then it leaps some more when he sees the gun in Johnny’s hand.
“Oh man,” Josh groans. “Johnny. This is about your dad, right? Listen, John - I know you don’t want to hear it, but you can’t do this. Coming after your dad’s murderer isn’t going to bring him back. He - ”
“You think I’m here for Crazy Ann?” Johnny sneers, raising the gun. “Man, that psycho bitch did me a favour. I know what my old man was up to, the sick fuck. He deserved a knife in the neck a long time before now.”
Josh pales. Johnny smiles. Suddenly, the last piece slots into place.
“You know, dude,” Johnny breathes, “I really, really wanted that music box. More than Cedar did. Because I knew those letters in it were mine. Man, I almost had them too, but Leon flaked out. Now, if I want to destroy all the evidence linking me to Ana, I’m going to have to take out you and your hippie chippie to get those letters back…”
“Pearl?” Josh croaks.
“That’s her, dude. She’s all trussed up and waiting for you. So come along quietly, Deputy Dawg, if you know what’s good for you - and her...”