Belonging

“Hi, Brittany Gill?” Kate approached the brunette; her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and was fizzing at her hairline, her eyes were bloodshot, and there were large bags under her eyes. The girl eyed her and nodded her head. Kate pulled out her credentials and showed them to her. “I’m Kate Sullivan, I’m with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about Ashlee?”

“Yeah, uh sure.” The girls walked over to the first row of chairs and sat down towards the middle. Kate glanced over her shoulder and saw Morgan and Leslie on the left hand side of the auditorium, also in the front row. “Have you guys caught him yet?”

Kate shook her head. “No, we haven’t. I know this is a tough time, but we need to know everything about Ashlee. All the information we can gather on her will help us find this guy.” Ashlee nodded, she understood, or at least acted as if she did. “What can you tell me about her?”

“She was a great student, very involved in school. If she were alive right now, she’d probably head the committee putting this on,” Brittany sniffled and let out a small chuckle. “She cared very much about everyone, even if she didn’t know them. That’s why she got into nursing.”

“What about her social life? Did she have any friends outside of school or any boyfriends?”

“As far as I know, she only hung out with the kids in the nursing program, or maybe a few from other programs on campus. She didn’t have a boyfriend; she thought they were too distracting. Her focus was school and her friends.”

“So she didn’t talk about any guys?” Brittany shook her head.

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“The day before she was discovered. She went to all her classes, her day ended early, said she was going to her sister’s for dinner or something. The next day she wasn’t in class and wasn’t answering her cell phone. Her mom discovered her that night.” Kate made a mental note to get in touch with the sister to corroborate the dinner story. Her gut, though, told her it was a cover for whatever secret life Ashlee was hiding from her friends and family. She hoped that Reid could pull something from Nicole Benton’s computer. They needed to find out what secrets these girls were keeping and fast.

--

Maddie Paulson walked into the University of Toledo auditorium. There were several students and citizens working to set up the fundraiser for the murdered girls. Maddie hadn’t met any of them, but had seen them around campus. They were what she and her friends referred to as “nerds.” Really, all that meant was that they were studious and kept out of trouble. The opposite of her group; they were known as the “party girls,” more interested in where the next good time could be found than studying and doing homework. They all managed to get by though.

She wasn’t here to volunteer herself; no, she had places to go and people to see. She was here to drop off some baked goods her mom had made for the concessions. Onstage, spouting out orders to the volunteers, she spotted the snobby blonde who was running the whole thing, the one she needed to drop off her mom’s donations to. With an eye roll and a sigh, she walked over to her and handed her the box. She got no thanks, just an exasperated sigh telling her to get lost and stop taking up precious time.

Her eyes moved around the room as she stepped down off the stage. There were friends of the victims on either side, each talking to some FBI agent. Students spread out all over, making signs and discussing ticket prices. Town citizens were helping out and setting up sound equipment. Along the back wall, there was a group of digital arts students making flyers to print up and pass out. Then she spotted him.

He was tall, slender but muscular, and wore pants tighter than hers. Most men wouldn’t be able to pull that off, but somehow, he could. He was beautiful. His eyes met hers. He smiled seductively. Maddie’s feet began moving in his direction. She stopped directly in front of him.

“What are you doing later?” he asked.

--

This was perfect, he thought. He hadn’t expected to run into Maddie, or Madeline as he called her, here. He had no idea she knew these girls. Then again, he hardly knew them, though they would never know that. To them, he was flawlessly attentive. He was part of their “perfect world” where they controlled everything, called the shots.

But he knew better. They were wildly out of control. Their lives were turning upside down, and he was the one with the power. They were naïve, too trusting, and he abused that power. In society, they were the ones that “had it all,” but they threw it away carelessly. Their once bright future vanished once they met him. He got what he wanted, then showed them exactly what they meant to him.

Madeline fancied herself different. She was the party girl, she wasn’t putting on a show, wasn’t pretending. Or so she liked to convince herself and her friends. What they didn’t know was where she came from or who she was. Her parents were smart, professors. They passed those genes onto her daughter, who squandered her gifts and moved in with her aunt and uncle to attend a less prestigious college. She didn’t want to be seen as the smart girl, but the hot party girl. How did he know this? Madeline was overly talkative when drunk. She spilled all her secrets to him in less than an hour of knowing him.

She was exactly like the other girls. Unhappy with herself, convinced she could be someone else and convinced she could manipulate others into believing her lies. He saw right through the act. Instead of the confident girls that everyone else saw, the ones who had it all, he saw them for what they really were: insecure.

It was wrong for him to abuse his power over those weaker girls, but he felt no remorse. It was a game, a game he was winning, and a game he enjoyed playing.