“My life was beginning to spiral down into the gutter. Not only do I have the worry of what happened to you, but now everyone thinks I’m guilty. Even my parents were no longer as supportive as they had been. Of course in my state of mind I may have imagined that, but I knew I had to find out what happened to you. And the only place to do that was back where I last saw you.”

“So later that night I sneaked out and wearing that hat from Bakersfield that was always too big for me, I was able to sneak to the bus stop before anyone recognized me. I took the bus downtown and made it to the building on Commercial. A cop was stationed in the lobby. I waited until he was distracted by another person then hurried over to the elevator and got in. The door closed before he had a chance to see me. I got off on the twenty third floor and went down to room 2334.”

“The doorway was covered in that yellow police tape. I didn’t really expect to find anything there, after all the police had gone through with a fine tooth comb and they didn’t come up with anything. But I knew I had to do this. Removing the tape, I opened the door and stepped within.”

“That’s when I was hit from behind and fell to the floor. I turned and saw Seth’s dad standing there. ‘I thought you might come back here. The killer always returns to the scene of the crime,’ he said. I then told him, ‘I did not kill anyone!’ But he didn’t believe me.”

“He came at me and I scooted away, knocking over a table in my attempt to escape. He kept yelling at me to tell him what happened to Seth and the others all the while trying to reach me. I scrambled away, finally got back to my feet.”

“I saw the blow coming and tried to block it but it connected with my jaw and actually knocked me back off my feet. I crashed into the wall and fell onto one of those small tables that were there and knocked it over. Books and magazines went flying. I felt a static shock from something before he grabbed me and threw me across the room.”