Chapter 41 Section five

A signpost indicated Casper, Wyoming, two hundred and fifty miles ahead.I have auto speed control set up to make sure I don't go over the speed limit.As the sun went down, I turned on my headlights, and among the thousands of lights, I felt even more inconspicuous.I passed Cheyenne, Wyoming, and it was hard to distinguish it from any other place except for the scattered low buildings.Then, four hours after leaving Denver, I saw Casper's lights.After driving this far, all I could feel was flat earth in the unaccustomed darkness around me.Now the shadow of a mountain looms huge to my left, blocking the starlight.

A few miles north of town, I saw a sign for a rest area.Vehicles were sparse and most of them drove into Casper.An arrow points to the exit ramp in the direction to exit the interstate.I approached two low houses, and the spotlights in front of the houses revealed three pick-up trucks and a small delivery truck. But Patty needed something more secluded, so I turned from the road to the rest area onto a gravel road to the right.The spotlights on the house cast a distant view of the picnic table and the stunted tree behind the house.I was satisfied that no one came out of the break room to see my seemingly unusual behavior.

I dimmed the headlights and turned on the parking lights, bright enough to see a red wooden fence behind a pile of stuff. I pulled over to the back of that big pile, turned off the parking lights, and went up to the fence to make sure no one was there, in case the state troopers or something noticed what I was doing and came to investigate.Convinced I had hidden it well, I opened the trunk. My imagination knocked me down.There Kate and Jason were, writhing, their mouths taped tight, their hands tied behind their backs, their knees bent, their eyes wide open in terror, their moans half fear, half pleading .The trunk stank of excrement, carbon dioxide, sweat, and fear.

Patty would take out the gags in their mouths and let them gasp for breath while he warned them not to shout.They were too frightened and groggy from the gas in the trunk to shout.One by one he had to undress them and let them relax.That unpleasant intimacy tested his obligations to his new family, and his commitment was only just beginning to be fulfilled.They must be thirsty, for example, had he planned to find a fast food place in Casper for some soft drinks and some fritters and hamburgers?Did he comfort them when he gagged them again and put them back in the trunk? "I love you."

I closed the trunk and stared at the car parked in front of the lounge in the shadow of the pile.I walked in that direction, my feet crunching on the cobblestones.The searchlights on both houses made me feel naked as I approached.At that time, many cars were driven away, leaving only a van.I went into the men's bathroom and found it was empty.I come out.Swarms of insects swirled in the lights. A woman came out of another house, took the keys out of her bag, and walked to the van.She wasn't looking my way.I pictured Patty rushing toward her, seeing lights flashing by on the interstate, and stopping.There were not many cars, but there were no interruptions. If a man attacked a woman, someone would definitely see it.

Patty waited for his next opportunity and went into the women's room, where he overpowered the victim.He stared at the road, waiting for the light to pass enough of a gap for him to carry the unconscious woman closer to the darkness.Behind the bulk, he ties her up and gags her.He then went back to the lounge and used the woman's keys to start her car (a Chevrolet, the police told me). He turned off the headlights and drove into the darkness over the fence, where he cut an air vent in the back seat of the Chevrolet that led to the trunk with a knife and moved Kate and Jason inside. And when he put the driver in the trunk, didn't he worry that there would be too little air for three people?Why did he risk suffocating Kate and Jason by putting that woman with them?The truth is, the woman later died.Why didn't he kill her and hide the body in that big pile?If so, no one will find her for a while.I felt Kate's and Jason's fears all over again, the tape-covered woman struggling to breathe during an asthma attack, her frantic movements, choked up voices gradually calming down, her bladder relaxing, possibly her large bowel. Also relax.As the Chevrolet sped down the interstate, Kate and Jason were surrounded by a sense of dread that if it happened to that woman, it could happen to them.

The question stuck with me: why didn't Patty kill the woman and just hide her in that big pile?To me, the only answer that made sense was that no matter how indifferent Patty was to the woman, he didn't want her to die.Killing me is another matter.For Patty, he just wants me to die for ruining his life.This woman just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.This was the first time I noticed his personality traits.This gave me hope to save Kate and Jason. He could leave the Volvo behind that big pile, and it might not be discovered for days.He didn't, however, and he went to the trouble of moving the Volvo to the front of the lounge, where it was unobstructed.Because he wanted people to discover it quickly.He wanted it to point north, like dropping a Chevrolet outside Billings, Montana, as if he was headed for Bute.He kept thinking with astonishing control.