Obsession by Beth Stafford (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

now and then gentle ripples would emerge, prompted by the movement of small amphibians below.
Lawrence parked the car in his usual place, now over-grown with weeds and wild-flowers. In the day this place would be quite beautiful, but in the night like this it seemed ghostly, perhaps haunted by Lawrence's former conquests.
Lawrence grabbed hold of Tanya's bound ankles and dragged her from the car. She landed on the ground with a dull thud, and let out a soft groan from behind her gag. Lawrence dropped to his knees beside her, running an outstretched hand through her hair, now tangled and splayed out around her like a halo. She shuddered against his touch, goose-flesh erupting in its wake. A single tear glittered on her cheek, catching the blue moonbeams cast down from the sky.
Lawrence continued to trace her body with his hand, feeling almost giddy with the very feel of her. He got to his feet again and went to the boot of his car. He withdrew a small black duffel bag, and dumped it down beside her. From within he took out an old polaroid camera, held it close to her face, and took a snapshot. The clearing burst to life momentarily, everything glowing with the camera's white light. Then the shutter fell shut and the forest descended into darkness once more. The camera whirred as it printed out the picture, and Lawrence cast it to the ground. He took another and another, photographing every inch of Tanya's body, her frightened face.
When he deemed the moment utterly captured, he replaced the camera in the bag and took out a nylon cord. Lawrence traced the curve of Tanya's neck with his fingers, feeling a rush of euphoria as he did so. He could feel the surge of a pulse beneath her fragile skin and smiled. He removed the gag from her mouth, and kissed her lightly. She spat at him in return, her eyes glowering with anger and terror all at once.
“My Pappy's going to murder you, you asshole! He's going to cut you open and watch you die!”
“Shh,” Lawrence whispered, placing a finger against her trembling lips. “It won't get to that.”
She hurled a few more curses at him, and he looped the nylon cord over her head and fastened it around her neck.
“Please, wait... No...”
More tears sprang from her eyes, and she arched her back as if that would somehow loosen the cord. Lawrence smiled, before wrapping the two ends of the cord around his hand and pulling them taut.
A single vein popped out on her forehead, her eyes bulged. Her mouth gaped open and shut, desperate for air. Lawrence could feel pure ecstasy rushing around his body, making him feel light-headed. A grin spread across his face as he watched Tanya's life slowly ebb away.
Before long, her struggle for life slackened. Her eyes, once so bright and vivacious, glazed over. Her mouth hung open, as if she had simply been shocked by an unexpected turn of events. Lawrence felt for a pulse and found nothing.
Lawrence got his camera out once more, and took a final picture of her face, already paling with death. He removed a charm bracelet that dangled from her wrist, taking a few moments to examine each charm. A small car, studded with diamantes. A crown. A college degree. A ruby heart.
He placed it with the camera back in the duffel bag. He then scooped Tanya into his arms, and walked toward the lake.
Water lapped against his shoes as he placed Tanya onto the shore, making sure he remembered each detail of her face before gently pushing her beneath the surface. She sank without much difficulty, the white moon of her face the last thing Lawrence saw before it was swallowed into shadow. Lawrence gazed up into the night-sky, breathing it in. He'd never felt so alive in his life, so consumed by Love. Tanya was his now. She'd be his forever.

~~~

By the time he got home, the sky was already blushing with the first hints of dawn. He went down into the cellar, still buzzing with euphoria, and extracted his Box of Secrets. He placed the pictures of Tanya at the front of the box, before the pictures of his last. Her name was Sarah, a pretty blond hitch-hiking to L.A. Before her had been Jodi, a waitress at one of the coffee joints in the next town over. Before her, the drifter with no name who'd had hair as red as flame. Before her was Susan, his neighbour from his previous town, only just turned fourteen. And before her had been his first, a girl named Ally who he'd abducted from the beach. All his Loves, all the residents of his Box of Secrets. He took out each of their pictures, each of their personal effects, and lay them side by side. He flitted from memory to memory, savouring each detail that replayed in his mind. The way Sarah had giggled as she'd hopped into his car, extending a single, olive hand to shake his, announcing herself like a hurricane in summer. She had been truly intoxicating. And when she realised Lawrence wasn't taking her to the highway, she erupted like a fire-cracker. But, Lawrence always did like a little bit of a challenge. Then there was Jodi, so silent and solemn, the complete antithesis of Sarah. She'd barely raised her eyes to meet his when she poured his coffee, and when he'd snatched her from the street as she locked up shop, she'd barely made a noise. The drifter was a smart-ass, Lawrence didn't like her at all. The only thing notable about her had been her hair, and a lock of it still sat in his box, the 'souvenir' he'd taken from her. But she'd helped to tide over those suffocating feelings for a little while, at least. Susan was a sweet girl, the kind of girl who'd bring you chocolate chip cookies because you're new in town, or bring your newspaper to your door when you're not feeling so hot. He'd tried so hard to resist her; he didn't like to take the young ones too often, but she kept taunting him, pressuring him to do it. Every time he saw her walk by to school he could hear her laughing at him, calling him weak. Her last words had been for her mother. And then Ally, darling Ally, the girl in the pink bikini whose car simply wouldn't start. She'd been so grateful for Lawrence's help, and even more so when he offered to tow her car to a mechanic and give her a lift home.
He rifled around in his bag for Tanya's charm bracelet, and lay it tenderly in the second section, amongst all the 'souvenirs' from the other girls.
“Be nice,” he whispered. “I've got a new girl for you.”
He pressed the box to his chest and sighed. For now, he felt calm. For now, he felt whole.

Aftermath

Tanya's disappearance was big news in such a small town. When she'd failed to arrive at her friend's house, the alert would be raised. It simply wasn't like her to not show, especially not when the contents of her last message to her friend read:
Can u pls meet me halfway? i think im being followed.
Reginald Jackson appeared on every local news broadcast, pleading for information about his daughter's disappearance. A certain Mary-Anne Donahue had claimed she had seen Tanya making her way down Main Street, with a, "tall fella with eyes like coal" trailing close behind. Another witness, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he had seen a blue Mazda 2 speeding down Main Street at about 10:30pm, with a girl in the back-seat kicking at the windows.
Lawrence didn't pay the hype much attention. It was the usual jamboree that followed one of his kills, and if anything, he found it all a bit amusing to hear what these people had to say. They had seen it happening, and done nothing. He felt invincible.
The county sheriff, with intense scrutiny put on him by Reginald Jackson, looked into each witness statement as if it had been from the Holy Ghost. The information about the Mazda 2 was particularly helpful. Only three people in the entire town had a blue Mazda 2; Sunny Hyland, Monica Nonscrete, and Lawrence Cudrow.

~~~

It was 2:59pm on a Sunday afternoon when the sheriff knocked at Lawrence's door. He'd already checked out the other two suspects, and just couldn't picture them as girl-snatching folk. For one, Sunny only had one arm, and had been that way since an accident at the saw-mill in his twenties. And Monica was a sixty-year-old woman, the church reverend's wife no less. If this witness statement about the blue Mazda 2 held any truth, Lawrence was a pretty good bet.
Lawrence wasn't in the least bit surprised when he saw Bill Hodge standing at his door, thumbs hooked in his belt, his sheriff's cap low over his eyes. He'd been interviewed before, about Jodi and about Susan. And he'd known this one was coming.
"Come on in," Lawrence grinned, opening the door wide. He'd spent many a drunken night with Bill at the Turtle-Dove, and knew Bill was rather fond of him. He'd be looking for any excuse to rule Lawrence off the suspect list.
Bill forced a smile and walked in, his boots echoing down the hallway. It was devoid of any decoration, not even a single family portrait. Bill wondered if Lawrence even had a family.
They sat at the kitchen table, awkwardness immediately descending upon the room.
"Fancy a coffee?" Lawrence asked. "Beer? Water?"
"Now that you mention it, a coffee would be damn fine."
It had been a long day for Bill Hodge. There had only been one other missing person's case in his career, and that had largely been handled by his superiors. He wasn't used to doing such rigorous police work.
The tea-pot screamed to life in the kitchen, and Lawrence poured two cups of his best coffee. He placed the cups on the table, and Bill eyed him with suspicion.
"How'd you get that there wound on your hand? Looks pretty nasty."
Lawrence felt his face pale. He covered the crescent-shaped bite mark with his free hand and took a seat.
"I had a raccoon going through my garbage last night, and the thing bit me when I tried to shoo it away."
Bill nodded, taking a tentative sip of his coffee. Lawrence made a mental note to bandage his hand once the nosy cop left.
"So as you must know, R.J's daughter's gone missin'. She was last heard from Thursday night, around 10:15pm."
"Yes, I heard. Such a shame for R.J. I know how close they were."
"If you don't mind my asking, where were you on Thursday night? I don't remember seeing you at the Turtle-Dove."
"Food poisoning," Lawrence responded without skipping a beat. "I was on the toilet all night, worst case I ever had of it."
"And I'm sure your doctor can verify that alibi, then?"
Lawrence hesitated. "I didn't call the doctor, actually. Too damn sick."
"You seem fine now."
"Must have been one of those twenty-four hour things, y'know?"
Bill frowned. "Well, if you have any information about Tanya's disappearance, be sure to let me know."
"Will do," Lawrence smiled, eyes bright.
"And thanks for the coffee."

~~~

Based on what he'd seen at Lawrence's house, most notably the bite-mark on his hand which, if you asked Bill's opinion on the matter, was the strangest-looking raccoon bite he'd ever seen. He set up a Search Warrant, something he'd never had to do on his own before, and arranged a team