Love Letters to a Serial Killer

by Tasha Coryell

Verne,”

“Please be careful, Hannah.” “I’m being careful.” “William is a complicated person. He can be dangerous,” Bentley said.

Though Cindy had nothing to worry about from me, I would soon learn that she was right to be suspicious of Mark.

“Mr. Thompson and I are getting coffee today after the trial,” Lauren said like it was nothing at all.

Uh oh

Her name was Alexis Hutchington and she was a longtime friend of William and the Thompson family.

“I think that boomer men have an especially difficult time expressing their emotions,” I said.

Lol

In times of tragedy, there were always some people who immediately turned to arts and crafts.

Lol

Kelsey Jenkins.

5th woman found in the ravine

Before she was murdered, Kelsey Jenkins was a bartender.

I always struggled with endings, never accepting that something was over until it was really over, and this occasion was no different.

I’d gotten William the lover, but where was William the killer? Maybe I’d been misinterpreting my dreams all along. It was possible that I’d always wanted violence and not love.

In my notebook, I jotted down the names of the other women who had written him. Lily, Cara, Jessie, Stacey, Allison.

epistolary

Relating to letters literary work in the form of letters

Underneath the letters, I found a key.

Wonder what the key is for

There was a gym card, a hair tie, a half-empty pack of cigarettes that had been crushed by the weight of the gun, and a worn paper bookmark.

Possible trophies?

cigarettes

Kimberly?

bookmark.

Emma?

hair tie.

Anna Leigh?

I returned the box to the drawer without locking it and slipped the key back into the other box in the bedroom.

If only William knew that my dreams revolved around fantasies of him attempting to murder me. A fantasy I justified by telling myself that it would allow me to finally know the whole truth about what had happened to the women.

That's so dark

I didn’t tell them that I’d loved William since the first time I saw Anna Leigh’s face.

Sometimes I think to myself, god Gracie, you’re so dumb.

Hmm I wonder who Gracie is

I noticed a bowl of matchbooks sitting on the bar behind her.

Oh the matchbook! It was the trophy for Kelsey. But how would William be able to murder her if he was in jail?

“Why does your dad have all these guns?” I asked, gesturing at the wall. “Does he hunt or something?” “Something like that,” Bentley said.

Hmmm

Bentley stopped his pacing to look at me, his face momentarily dropping its jovial veneer.

I'm worried Bentley is the real killer, and is trying to fram William.

“My brother, he has this need to be the center of attention. What were the two of you talking about in the office, anyway?”

Bentley smiled. “Relax. I’ve made this drive a million times.”

“It is. It’s why you sought him out. Don’t deny it. It’s why you keep investigating even after he was acquitted. You don’t care about those women. They’re just abstractions to you. You have no idea what it feels like to lose someone close to you like that. Do you even want to marry him or are you just hoping that he kills you first?”

This sounds like the person that Hannah is talking to when she is tied up in that dark room. Bentley is my #1 suspect

“You and William really don’t know each other, do you? Did he ever tell you about Gracie?”

“Gracie was my girlfriend,” he says. “William killed her.”

“We’re both bored and looking for meaning. You get off on thinking you’re about to be murdered and I get off on murdering. It’s not that different.”