Read Body Hunter for Free Online Page B

wondered how Ellen could be so smart and yet so blind to the kinds of people she accepted rides with.
    A hard worker, Ellen left Bennigan’s to take a better job at the Subs ’N Suds on Burkburnett Road near Sheppard Air Force Base on the outskirts of town. She had also been able to buy a new Volkswagen Rabbit convertible.
    On the night of September 20, 1985, Ellen Blau locked the doors of the casual dining establishment about ten-thirty P.M. She shared a drink with a coworker, and the restaurant manager, at the Pizza Inn next door. Ellen’s boyfriend, a Navy diver temporarily stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base, accompanied them.
    An argument broke out between the coworker and Ellen’s boyfriend. To keep the peace, Ellen decided it was time to take him back to his base dormitory. They said good night; then she returned to the Pizza Inn. At midnight, when the restaurant closed, the trio of Subs ’N Suds workers stood talking in the parking lot for another twenty minutes.
    â€œI’m going home,” Blau told her friends. She was expected to re-open the restaurant at nine the following morning. Never one to shirk her duty, Ellen planned to be there early. She pulled out of the parking lot and headed south on Burkburnett Road, back toward Wichita Falls.
    Ten minutes later, Blau’s Volkswagen Rabbit was seen circling the parking lot at the Country Store on Burkburnett Road. She stopped at the convenience store briefly.
    As Ellen turned the key in the door of her green Volkswagen Rabbit, a familiar man approached. She was congenial, but cool.
    â€œI’d like to talk to you,” he said.
    â€œI really need to get home. I have to be back early in the morning,” Ellen said with nervousness in her voice. She shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.
    â€œBut I need to talk!” the man said more forcefully. His eyes were glazed and his balance unsteady.
    Blau fumbled with the keys, then quickly unlocked the driver-side door of her new car. But before she could put the key into the ignition, the man had forced his way into the seat beside her.
    â€œI just want you to listen to me,” he said, taking a sip from the beer bottle he carried. Then his tone turned demanding and he shouted, “Drive!”
    As Ellen steered her car toward the city limits of Wichita Falls, the man began telling her his problems: his troubles with his family, his drug and alcohol addictions, and his feelings of anger that had tormented him since childhood.
    â€œMy parents never listened to what I had to say,” he told Blau. “I’d tell them I was sad, cried all the time, but they always said it was a phase I’d grow out of.”
    Ellen stared straight ahead, not saying a word.
    â€œBut I never grew out of it. I started using drugs and alcohol to cover it up, but it doesn’t help,” he said, his speech slurred.
    Blau fidgeted with the steering wheel, twisting her hands around the leather wrap, tapping her fingers on the wheel.
    â€œListen to me!” he demanded. “You aren’t listening to me!”
    Shouting directions at Ellen, the man directed her to drive down East Road to a secluded field in rural Wichita County. As soon as Ellen cut the engine of the Rabbit, the intruder was on her, raging out of control.
    He grabbed her by her long, naturally curly, dark-brown hair and jerked her toward him. He slapped her, punched her, then took a knife from his pocket and stabbed her.
    Ellen battled to get away. With the pain of the burning knife wound driving her, she grabbed for the door handle. She frantically fled the car with the tall, slender man not far behind.
    The attacker caught up with Blau by the wall of a stock pond, near a cluster of mesquite trees. He snatched her by her bloodstained cotton T-shirt and jerked her backward. His long fingers dug into her slim arms. He squeezed her tight, screaming obscenities.
    Ellen fought the best she could, but her attacker