12/12/12

December 12, 2021, I had just gotten home from a two week vacation when my phone rang at 9 pm. “Detective Wiliker, you need to get down here immediately”.

I arose out of my bed and put my uniform on and rushed to the address the dispatch had given me. I remembered this address very well, it was to the old dirt road that led up to gum swamp, a place from my younger years. As I arrived at the scene. The thick fog from the swamp waters covered the hair line of a skeletal figure tied around a tree. The victim looked as if it was a male in his early 40s. There was not much of him I could tell , there was not much left as the ants were feasting on the rest of the entirety of the decomposing body …. I touched his face as I noticed a sticky substance attached to his jawbone. “Honey” hmmm? ……” This guy ticked somebody off pretty bad.” This is a homicide investigation people, I want evidence, scatter out, look for clues, let's find out who this guy is and what is the motive behind this! Just as I said those words, I looked into his eye socket I could see the engravings in the tree behind his head reading 121212 …

These numbers have played over in my head for 9 long years now. It was a significant date to me. December 12 ,2012….. my best friend Victoria and I were just turning 24 together. Once again, another drunken birthday celebration. We just left the liquor store, we loaded up on Vodka, Brandy, and gin. We were going to hang out with some of the fellas Terry and Ryan down the old dirt road at gum swamp.

We were having yourself a good ol time …. We had lit ourselves a bonfire and had the country music blasted. Victoria was just dancing twirling her pretty blonde hair around with her finger, being so flirtatious with Terry …. Terry was her lover….. they we like water and grease …. They began to pick and play fight splashing water on each other …. Ryan and I were sitting by the water dangling our feet off the edge of the pier ….. Ryan was playing with my long brown hair and poking me in the side like he always does … making me giggle. Ryan was one of my next best friends…. I would laugh at him and he'd keep poking at me making fun of my wart on my knee.

Suddenly Terry began cursing at Victoria as he threw her into the swamp …. “Terry Nooooo, what is your problem? “I exclaimed….. I began to call out for Victoria but there was no response ….. “What did you do to her?” I yelled at what looked like to be a monster in a man's body…. “Terry !!!!, Answer me !!!!”

Just in that moment I turned and looked at Ryan and back at Terry … there he stood with a pistol up to my head. “Get in the car!” “Ryan!!!! “I said ….. Ryan responded … you heard what the man said “.

As I got in the back seat of Terry's old Toyota Camry, all I could think about is what had just happened. No word from Victoria not a sound. Here I am with two guys that supposed to be our friends but instead they seem like two strangers to me …. I was listening to their conversation as Terry expressed to Ryan that Victoria had it coming, I finally did it …. As he said those words my heart began to race, he looked at me through the rear-view mirror and said, “You haven't seen nothing, you haven't heard nothing, you got it !!!!”. I just shook my head in disbelief of what had just happened. I looked around out of the window I had no clue where we were anymore, we were no longer on the dirt road, there was nothing but pitch-black darkness everywhere. The car stopped and Terry told me to get out. So I did.

There I was in the middle of nowhere with no phone, no clue as to where I am at and I think I just witnessed my best friend being murdered in gum swamp … But that was the part I was puzzled about. I was unsure, it all happened so fast. I knew somehow I had just escaped what could have been my fatal demise as well, so I best just keep my mouth shut. I never saw or heard of Terry or Ryan again. Victoria's disappearance remains an unsolved mystery.

So here I am 9 years later, looking into the eye socket of a male victim who has the imprint of the exact date of Victoria's missing, marked on the tree behind his dead …..” Detective Wiliker” says Officer Lucas, how was your vacation?

I responded, I ran into an old friend and I finally did it ….

Did what? Officer Lucas asked

With a smile and a chuckle, I responded

“Bag him up boys, there's no evidence here “.