Remember Kate

Jerry Cole cursed himself for being weak. He had been through court appointed therapy, twice, and was on parole. A picture of a 12 year old girl smiled back at him on the computer screen. She made him think things that he knew he should not be thinking, but as usual, he couldn't control himself

He had been talking to the blonde haired, blue eyed girl, with the chat nickname of Rememberkate, for almost a week. She reminded him of his first girlfriend 22 years ago, when he was 13. He liked the way he felt when she talked to him. She had actually contacted him first, that lessened the guilt that he was feeling. The courts had made it virtually impossible for him to be able to meet girls in public, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, he could do it from the privacy of his home.

Rememberkate wrote: Can I see you?

Alarms went off in Jerry's head. He was intensely aware that it was a real possibility that he was chatting with an undercover cop. If there was one lesson he had learned, it was that the law was smart. He stared at the picture on the screen and smiled.

Jerry wrote: Soon, let me see 5 pics of u.

He sat back in his chair and bit the nail on his finger. He took his thick glasses off and cleaned them before placing them back on his greasy head. He began to worry that she had canceled their conversation. A box opened on his screen, asking him if he wanted to download a file that she had sent him. He clicked "yes" with his cursor.

The screen immediately went blank. He leaned forward and tapped on the glass. The screen suddenly burst to life and flashed every brilliant color in the spectrum. He shielded his face as if the monitor would explode any moment. Jerry unplugged the computer from his wall. If anything, the screen flashed faster than it had before. The calliope of colors settled into a soothing array of passive pastels. In the background, Jerry saw a distorted face. As the image became clearer, he was horrified at the demonic face that stared back at him. The eyes burned with such an intense menace that he felt as though it could look into his soul. The pain and hatred that was etched into the creature's face would forever be carved into his memory. Jerry was disgusted at the picture and was angry that the girl had obviously sent him a virus. He leaned into the monitor to get a closer look. A scaled claw reached out from the screen and gripped his throat so fast, he didn't have time to react. The grip was steel and unyielding. It pulled his head into the monitor, crushing the glass and igniting Jerry's head as electricity surges through his body. When the smoke cleared, Jerry's body twitched twice, and was still.

Detective Max Grim stood outside of a dilapidated trailer at Sterling Estates. He held Jerry Cole's case file in his hand. The lab traced Jerry's final conversation on the computer to this location. Max didn't expect the address to be vacant. He walked inside of the trailer and surveyed the ruined interior. Broken furniture and animal dropping were scattered throughout the living room. He rubbed his bald head and decided that the lab had made a mistake.

He turned to leave when a pudgy middle aged woman opened the door. She sized Max up and immediately knew who he was. She looked around the trailer, as if seeing it for the first time. She shook her head and gave Max a sorrowful smile, "are you back to follow up on this case?"

"What case is that, ma'am?"

"It's been almost three years since little Kate went missing, she was only 12 years old. Her poor mom was so distraught, that she hung herself in this very room."

Unfortunately for Max, he followed up on the land lady's story and verified that she was telling the truth. Kate's mother had filed a missing person's report on her almost three years ago, in fact, three years ago on the day that Jerry was found dead in his house. Kate's mother had hung herself when it was obvious that Kate would not be found alive. The case remained unsolved. It suddenly occurred to him where Kate's body was. He would search the grounds of Jerry's property. He would be right.

Story ID:	3636
Written by:	matt w bridgeforth (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	none
Story type:	Fiction
Location:	Chicago usa
Year:	2007
Person:	Jerry Cole