Sarah Hall "The Evidence Party" Page 11
The Evidence Party
Rose stood in a state of shock as the arresting officer handcuffed her.
"Come on, sweetie. Down to the booking station you go."
Rose rode in the back of the cop car not comprehending how a simple misunderstanding got to this level especially since all the times before it had worked out so well for her. The night had started several hours earlier around dinner time. Rose always had an upbeat personality mixed In with a lot of never met a stranger complex which she used to her advantage drastically. In the past she used it to get free drinks and dinner. More recently she had up the game to gaining more luxurious items. The more items she was able to play the more able she was to play the part. She started a few hours earlier by walking into a restaurant with a bar facing the side of the building. She severed the room to see which table had the most people drinking and dining. She approached the table which she believed to fit her only qualification. The table consisted of ten dinners a good mix of female and male college students.
"There she is Nicole. You made it."
"Yes of course, I wouldn't miss this. Sorry I am so late. The traffic is horrible at this hour."
"What will you be drinking?"
"Whatever, you are having." Rose pulled up a chair from a nearby empty table seating her between the man who believed she was Nicole and a female companion of his. The man waved the waitress over.
"Another round of drinks for the table and anything my friend wants."
"How did you like the concert?"
"Wonderful." The group had confused Rose for another woman they had met at a previous concert the weekend before. Rose thought for a moment and realized the fake name Nicole would fit her. The waitress brought more food and drinks. As the conversation went around the table Rose was able to add more to it appearing more and more like Nicole along with appearing she belonged in this group of strangers. After a couple of hours the group decided it was time to move on to another establishment. Rose waited for the rest of the group to file out before getting up.
"I need to use the restroom. I will meet you all outside." Rose watched and made sure the group was outside before getting up from the table. Rose walked right past the waitress headed to the farthest exit to where her car was parked around back.
"Excuse me." The waitress stopped her.
"Yes."
"Aren't you going to pay?"
"What?"
"The food and drinks."
"My friends took care of that."
"I don't believe so. Every one split the check. You didn't leave a card to pick up for your tab."
Rose looked outside and realized the group had already driven off. The waitress called for a manager.
"Ma'am you have a seventy five dollar tab."
"I don't understand."
"No one paid for your tab."
"I guess everyone thought the other person would be paying for it." Rose had pulled this stunt in the past but she had never been hung out dry like this before.
"I have the cash in my wallet. I can walk out to my car and get it."
"No you're not dipping out. I am calling the cops." Rose realized once the cops were called she was out of lady luck cards. Rose did have a wallet and a car just not the amount she needed. Rose was smart enough to carry extra cash in case a guy didn't pay for a last minute drink but that was always a small amount not this large. The cops arrived and handcuffed her. At first she gave the cops the fake Nicole name but once no one came back by that name she realized she couldn't pin this on anyone real or fake. She went through the booking process and sat around in a cell for a few hours until a court date was assigned.
"Rose. You can go." The cell door opened.
"Where is my car?"
"Impound along with your other belongings."
"Great."
"Here's your paperwork. Court date is in a month. Call the county when you get home they can tell you where the car is located."
"Would you like to stay here until daylight?"
"No. I think I am better off out there."
"Alright."
The officer led here around to a back exit.
"Which way back to town?"
"Walk straight down the dirt road and make a right."
"Straight. Right. Got it."
The officer opened the back exit for her.
"Good luck to you."
"Sure."
When she heard the heavy door shut behind her she looked straight ahead into pitch black darkness down a deserted dirt road. She walked a mile before coming to a stop sign. She took the paperwork the officer had given her and tore it into tiny pieces letting them drop to the ground. She could walk back into town and try pulling another rouse except that wasn't her town just like the car and wallet weren't either. She wouldn't be going back for the car or the court date. She didn't turn right. She took a left. She walked a few feet before a car full of partygoers pulled over. This car had four young guys and one girl. Rose would have been concerned except they weren't very old. She knew she would be the oldest and probably with the most street smarts of anyone in that car.
"Hey. Get in." The driver spoke to Rose.
"Where are you going?"
"We got invited to a party at a house in the hills. We were told to bring as many people as possible. We have been picking up people along the way."
"Got any room left for me?"
"Sure do." The driver pulled the car over. A guy got out of the back passenger seat. The girl scooted over and sat on one of the guy's laps making seat for Rose. Rose got in. The guy got back into the car and shut the door. The driver pulled back out onto the highway.
"I guess we are packed to full capacity."
"Yes we are. We won't be picking up any more people."
"How far is it left to the hills?"
"About thirty more minutes left to go." Rose looked to the guy seated on her right.
"What is your name?"
"Mike."
"I am Nicole."
"Nice to meet you." Rose shook Mike's hand.
"I am Christy and this is my boyfriend John." The couple sitting next to Rose informed her.
"I'm Kylie." The driver called out.
"Jackson." The front passenger concluded the name game.
"Does everyone know each other or are we all strangers?"
"Strangers except, for the couple."
'How did everyone get picked up? You all know my story. Side of the road."
"Well what does that road lead to?"
"The jail."
"What did you do?"
"Got busted trying to walk out on a tab at a restaurant."
"At least it's nothing serious."
"Sorry to disappoint everyone no axe murderer here." Everyone laughed.
"That's ok. Don't have to worry about paying for a tab where we are going."
"No doubt."
The driver started his story first.
"We'll actually I got an email notifying me about a party. The invite was very specific. They won't let you in unless you bring a minimum of five other people with you. I went to a social networking site and posted if anyone would like to go with me."
"That's how I came. I saw the posting and responded. It turns out we live in the same town so I got Kylie to meet me so we can go together." Jackson filled out both their stories.
"Why not just take your friends? Why ask strangers?"
"Invites say so. I am under the impression it might be more of a meet and mingle."
"Makes sense if everyone knows each no one will socialize with new people if they have their clique hanging around."
The couple started their story next.
"Our car broke down at the gas station. Kylie offered to get us a tow truck. He started telling us about the party he was headed towards. We figure why waste the night. We are headed to a party now."
Mike concluded with his story.
"I was actually in the gas station on a beer run from another party when Christy started talking to me about another party. Now I am headed to another hopefully bigger party than where I was earlier tonight. "
"Sounds like my typical Friday night. Where is the bear you bought?" Rose responded.
"In the trunk."
The car approached a long winding driveway up a series of hills. We approached a gate with two men guarding it. One of the guards tapped on the driver side window. The driver rolled it down.
"Invite." The driver reached up and took the invite down from the visor. He handed it to the guard.
"Brought my required amount of people." The guard looked into the car looking at each person.
"We brought beer." The guard smiled and the tension eased up.
"Proceed."
The gates opened leading a paved driveway up to a huge three story house with a large pool outside. Vehicles filled the yard. The driver parked behind a huge water decoration of an angel statue pouring water out of a jug. The strangers pilled out of the vehicle.
"Thanks for the ride up here."
"You're welcome."
"I'm going to go mingle. Enjoy the party."
"I plan on it."
In true Rose fashion she ditched the group she arrived with. She worked her way from room to room, person to person, floor to floor, drink to drink, and drug to drug. It had appeared everyone had followed the five person rule. There were more people than vehicles in the yard. As she encountered each person no one knew anyone who was there. That sounded like the perfect set up for Rose easier to lie and con. Later in early morning Rose passed out on a couch. She woke up several hours later realizing it was Saturday and really late in the morning. The first party night having been on a Friday held the first wave of people coming and going through the house. When Rose woke up she realized the party was meant to continue throughout the weekend. More food and liquor had been brought into the house for the people who had stayed. Some people left Saturday morning due to other weekend obligations. Saturday during the day turned into a barbecue and pool party where Rose was able to get to know the people who had stayed a little bit better. Rose met a girl a couple of years younger than herself who informed Rose her mom would be picking her from the house Sunday morning and offered Rose a ride when she left. Rose accepted securing herself a way out of the house and the hills. Saturday night turned into an even larger party for every person who left that morning three more people replaced them that night. The girl and Rose mingled throughout Saturday night with other people while making sure never to wander off from the other person. Rose hitched a ride with the girl and her mother as planned early Sunday morning. Even though Rose pretended to be Nicole and other people on the weekends she kept a full time job a jewelry vendor traveling from mall to mall from fair to fair. During the week this allowed her to meet new people. Rose arrived at her job two towns over from the hills Monday morning on time. Rose chatted with potential customers all morning. At noon, two detectives approached Rose.
"May I help you?"
"Nice jewelry."
"Thank you. Feel free to ask about anything you see."
"Actually we need to ask you about a few things." One of the detectives pulled a picture from his jacket.
"Do you know him?"
"Nope." Rose lied recognizing it as the driver of the car.
"We have interviewed other people we know you were at that party."
"Lots of people were at that party."
"You are very right about that. The boy has been reported missing." Rose recanted the story about the boy giving her a ride to the party Friday night.
"After that I never saw him again nor any of the people in the car."
"You mean these people." The detective pulled more photos from his jacket.
"Some of those people I saw at the party. Some of them I have never seen."
"Can you pick out which ones you did?" Rose went through the stack pulling out the ones she recognized. The majority of them were not in that car with her.
"Remember any names?"
"Nope. Sorry a party is a party. Drinking and drugs for three days straight."
"Glad to see you're not missing."
"Right here at work. I don't care how good a party is I still need to be here Monday morning."
"Any one drugged your drink or hand you any unusual drugs?"
"Not that I am aware of. I didn't pass out for an unusually long period of time only for a few hours. I didn't wake up in too strange of a place."
"Anyone get angry towards you or tried stopping you when you went to leave the house?"
"Nobody tried to stop me although I made certain I secured a ride out before it dwindled down too few of people. As far as angry a couple of guys were getting frustrated let's say when I wasn't passing out after only a few drinks. That isn't anything new for me though. Most men think they can give a girl a few drinks and he will get lucky and for the most part it is true. That just doesn't work with me. I know how to pace myself matched with a high tolerance for drugs and liquor.
"I suggest you don't go back to that house again. There have been too many disappearances coming from there. "
"Sure." The detectives left. Throughout the summer Rose meets customers who had been to the notorious party house and all of them were strangers. Rose did get invited back several times and went once with a completely different group of people than the first time. Once the summer ended so did the house parties along with the multitude of strangers. Several months went by when one Monday morning arriving to work a newspaper laid on top of the cash register with one of the detective's card staple to the front page. The card had a handwritten note
"Thought you should know the truth."
Rose sat in horror reading the paper realizing everything came full circle. All the people in that car who gave Rose a ride that night to the party were dead along with plenty of other people. The bodies were discovered on a hill side. An unknown person was sending out mass email invites to the parties as well as posting them on social networking sites. All the accounts were false. The first party was a selection party where one group of strangers would work the party choosing potential victims throughout the night when people would try to leave is when the victims would be taken to another room in the house and killed. The following party would be the evidence party ensuring party goers left plenty of fingerprints, footprints, and other fluids behind it destroyed an evidence of any murder actually happening. The parties stopped at the end of the summer because the actual owners came home from a summer vacation. Several of these parties have occurred in many different states and in many different houses mostly abandoned or vacation rentals ensuring the actual owners would be gone along with having no interruptions. None of the murders have ever been solved. The strangers have never been caught. It is believed the parties have moved onto another country. Rose realized she had attended a murder party and an evidence party. Rose wondered even though the arrest ended her up at this party if it also didn't save her from a grisly end. Who would mess with the woman who just got out of a cell herself probably not the best victim candidate? According to the detectives if you are not dead then you are not an innocent victim. Rose realized she will never be able to prove how innocent she really is nor how guilty and involved people were in the evidence parties. She turned the card around.
"You still have that court date to go to. I got it rescheduled."