Witness Deposition

It was a pretty quiet morning, to be honest. It’s always so quiet in our neighborhood. Or, it was, before all this. I guess it’ll be quiet again, now that this is all over. Sorry, anyway, it was a normal morning, the first time we met him. Dani and I– sorry, Danielle, my roommate– we were on the couch, eating breakfast and watching the news. Dani saw him first. 

“Who’s that?”

Dani stood up from the couch, displacing the pillow I had propped against her side. 

“Hey, woah,” I sat up, pulling the pillow into my lap.

“Oh, my bad.” Dani tossed the apology over her shoulder before pressing her face against the window. “It’s just… who is that?”

I grumbled a bit as I joined her in the window. “I was comfy, you know. I had just gotten comfy.”

“I’m sure you’ll survive. Do you see him?”

I squinted against the sun. The glare of light made it hard to see, but I could vaguely make out a figure on the street in front of our house. He wasn’t moving, and I couldn’t tell where he was looking.

“You’re so nosy,” I sighed, returning to my place on the couch. “He’s probably just some salesman or delivery guy or something.”

Dani frowned and cupped her hands over her eyes, pressing further against the glass. 

“Dude, drop the binoculars. You look creepy.”

“He looks creepy.” 

“He’s just standing there. You, on the other hand, look like a freak.” 

Dani scoffed, but backed away from the window. 

“Well excuse me for being interested in the goings-ons of the neighborhood.”

“Could you be interested in the goings-ons of our fridge and bring me a Coke?” 

“You’ve got legs.”

“But you’re already up.” Dani rolled her eyes as she walked to the kitchen. 

“Head’s up!” The can landed on the cushion next to me just as the doorbell sounded. Dani and I exchanged a glance, and I rose once again to follow her to the window.

“It’s him! It’s the guy!” I strained to see around her head. The creepy man had disappeared from the street, replaced by the nicely dressed man who now stood at the edge of our porch. 

“Should we answer?”

“I guess,” I shrugged, making my way to the front door. “It’s like, two in the afternoon, I doubt he’s here to murder us.” 

Dani trailed a few steps behind as I pulled on the door handle. 

“Hey, neighbor!” The man was chipper, offering a wide smile as he held out his hand. “My name’s Gerome, I just moved into the green house on the corner. My wife and I are going around making introductions, now that we’re settled in.” His handshake was firm, but his grasp didn’t linger, and he returned his hand to his jean pocket. 

“Oh, nice, welcome to the neighborhood,” I glanced back at Dani, who was just barely peeking around my shoulder. I always joked that she was a bit agoraphobic, so her reluctance to speak wasn’t surprising. Still, she balanced her nosiness with her fear of strangers, which left me to lead the conversation while she observed from afar. “I’m Lauren, that’s Dani,” I said, opening the door a bit wider. Dani gave a shy wave.

“Well, nice to meet the both of you! I won’t keep you long,” he reached into a bag I hadn’t noticed sitting next to his feet and pulled out a small plate covered in tin foil. “We just wanted to give you these, from the whole family.”

I took the plate, peeking under the foil at the pile of chocolate chip cookies beneath. “Oh, man, this is awesome, thank you!”

“Well,” he began, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a ‘nice to meet you’ gift mixed with an apology. See,” he coughed awkwardly, “we’ve got a kid with, uh, some special needs. He likes to play outside, but he can be…” he paused, searching for the right words, “pretty loud sometimes, and we had some issues in our old neighborhood. So we just wanted to get ahead of things this time.”

Looking at Gerome’s sheepish face, I felt a pang of sympathy. I tried my best to smile reassuringly. “Hey, don’t stress man. Most people here are super chill. Plus,” I gestured across the street, “they’ve got a crazy loud husky over there. Your kid can’t be louder than that, trust me.”

Gerome chuckled. “So, if I want the scoop on any of the neighbors, I guess I should come to you two?”

“I guess living in the middle of the road has its advantages. We kinda know everyone around here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Gerome said, and I couldn’t tell if he was winking or if his eye had twitched. He rocked back on his heels and patted his hands on his thighs. “Well, I should let you two get to enjoying the cookies. My wife made them, no nuts or anything, just in case.”

I patted the top of the tinfoil tower. “Oh, these won’t last very long here,” I grinned. “Tell your wife thanks from us.”

“I’ll be sure to,” he said, turning towards the steps. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll see you both around.”

“Yeah for sure, man. I hope y’all like the neighborhood.”

“I have a feeling we will,” he smiled. I waved from the doorframe as he made his way down the drive, and as I began to close the door he called out. “By the way, you can keep the plate!” I gave him another wave before closing the door.

“Well,” I said, turning back to Dani, “he seemed less than creepy.”

Dani rolled her eyes again and followed me back to the couch. “Okay sure, he seems nice. But you can’t blame me for being a little freaked at some guy stalking our front yard.”

I adjusted the pillow behind my back. I couldn’t argue with her paranoia– she never listened to me anyway. She always said I was too trusting.

“I wonder what’s wrong with the kid.”

“Yeah,” Dani nodded solemnly. “I wonder if they’ll have to install, like, ramps and stuff.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, tossing the balled-up foil from Gerome’s cookies onto the floor. 

“Pick that up, Laur.”

“You’ve got legs.” Dani frowned. “Okay, okay.” I hopped up from the couch. 

“Get me a coke while you’re in there!” 

“Shut up.”

Right, the whole thing with the basement. Well, we noticed the construction stuff pretty immediately. I mean, it was so loud, all day. Although looking back, I guess that was on purpose– keeping the generator on until he could finish… I don’t know, soundproofing? Either way, the construction was hard to miss. It wasn’t that weird– ya know, we figured he would need to do some work on the house for the kid. I guess Dani noticed first, that something was off.

“Hey, hold on a sec!” Gerome waved from his doorway.

We were on our evening walk– a health ritual Dani had seen somewhere on the internet– and we lingered on the sidewalk outside Gerome’s house as he jogged from the front door.

“Hey, neighbors! Glad I caught you!” 

“Hey, Gerome,” I smiled, trying to offset Dani’s deer-in-headlights expression. “What’s up, man?”

“Well, girls,” he held up his gloved hands, still grinning widely. “I’m doing some construction. DIY stuff, for the kid.”

“Wow, that’s awesome!” I tried to match his enthusiasm for home renovation. “What kind of stuff are you putting in?”

“Oh, you know, ramps, some playset stuff in the yard, the works. But, I did want to just let you guys know in advance,” he gestured behind him. “I’ve got this industrial fan generator thing, since we don’t have power in our basement. But it is, well,” he chuckled. “It’s pretty loud.”

“I didn’t know this house had a basement.”

Gerome and I both whipped our heads toward Dani as she spoke. I glanced back at Gerome, and for a moment, he looked stunned. Then, his eye twitched, and his smile returned. 

“Well, it’s not a big one, so the agents had to list it as a crawl space. I don’t think any of the previous owners did anything with it. But, I’m ambitious.” There was a beat of uneasy silence between us, and Gerome clapped his hands lightly.

“I oughta let you girls get back to your stroll. Just wanted to warn you about the noise,” he furrowed his brow. “Again, I guess. But this is the last time, I assure you.”

“No worries man. Good luck with it all. And uh, tell your wife thanks for the cookies. I ate like twenty of them last night.”

“I’ll be sure to let the missus know,” Gerome’s smile widened, and he waved as we made our way down the cracked sidewalk. Neither of us spoke until we made it around the corner. As soon as we were out of sight, Dani shivered dramatically.

“Oh my god, he wasn’t even creepy, Dani.”

“No?” she tapped me on the forehead. “Is this thing on?”

“Hey, watch it.”

“I’m just saying,” she shrugged, “that house for sure doesn’t have a basement.”

She was right. We had known the couple that used to live in the green house– a nice older couple who had liked to host dinner parties for the street. We had been in that house more times than I could count, and we had received a full tour on every visit. Never had anybody mentioned a basement. 

“Ok, you’re right,” I conceded. “That is odd. But I mean what’s the worst he could be doing?”

“He’s probably building an underground sex dungeon.”

“He is not building an underground sex dungeon.”

“He is. And he’s gonna kidnap us and make us his sex slaves.”

“He gave us cookies.”

“To make us trust him!”

“You are actually delusional.”

“I’m intuitive.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re gonna get kidnapped first.” 

“That just means I’m hotter.”

“Oh my god.” We had completed our loop of the street, and Dani took her keys from the clip on her belt loop. “Go in, we’re locking the doors.”

“We lock the doors anyway,” I called after her as I followed into the front house.

Not long after I finished helping Dani check all of the window and door locks, the noise of the generator began. Even from several houses down, the rumble of the machine was loud, and Dani groaned.

“He better not have that thing on all night.”

“There’s no way he’s got enough gas to keep that it running that long.”

“Hopefully.”

Unfortunately for us, Gerome had no shortage of gas, and the generator was on full power for two days before another neighbor told Gerome to knock it off. Er, he was nicer than that– Gerome was just a dad doing his best. But the rest of us needed that thing off. According to our next-door neighbor Patty, Gerome agreed to turn off the generator by eight every night, which wasn’t perfect, but we figured his construction wouldn’t last much longer. So that evening, Dani and I decided to go for our evening walk at eight-thirty. 

“I’m so excited to be able to hear myself think again.”

“Eh,” I shrugged, pulling on my sneakers. “It was kinda just white noise to me.” 

“You confuse me.”

“Come on,” I cracked the front door open. “Wow, it’s so quiet out here now.”

“It had better be,” Dani smiled, and I followed her outside. We walked in silence, enjoying the stillness of the evening air. Honestly, the sound had been annoying, but I was still trying to counter Dani’s distrust of our new neighbor. 

Suddenly, the silence was shattered.

The first one was sharp, and we barely had time to process it before it had stopped. Then, it happened again. It was an unmistakable sound– the guttural scream of a child, piercing through the sunset. The second scream lingered, echoing in our ears even after the street had gone silent again. 

“Woah,” I muttered after a few moments. 

“What the hell was that? Was it coming from Gerome’s house?”

“I guess. Maybe that was his kid? I mean, he did say he would be loud.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think he-” We both jumped as another wail sounded. This one was longer than the previous two, and it was silenced abruptly. Dani put a finger to her lips, and we both waited for another scream, but it was quiet. 

“That’s kinda terrifying.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, shaking my head. “I mean, I guess he warned us, but still. Woah.”

“I hope the kid is ok,” Dani frowned.

“I’m sure he is. I mean, it sounded like it came from outside. Maybe he’s just playing?”

Dani hummed a bit, then picked up her pace. 

“Yo, Dani don’t run,” I was jogging to keep up with her. “Oh, god, Dani, you are not-” I lowered my voice as we approached Gerome’s fenced backyard. “Do not go in there!”

Dani shushed me. “I’m not. I’m just looking.”

“You’re a stalker.”

“It’s not stalking to walk by your neighbor’s fence, Lauren.”

“Yeah, it’s not. But- hey, woah,” I grabbed Dani’s arm, pulling her back from the wooden fence. “It might be stalking to stick your whole face into their fence to look into their yard.”

“I’m not– let me go, Laur,” she shook my grip off of her arm. “I’ll be quick, I promise. I just want a look.”

I tossed my hands into the air and sighed. There was no talking her out of this.

“Okay, just… hurry up. I don’t wanna be those creepy neighbors that get caught snooping and posted on Facebook, dude.”

“Seriously, it’s fine, I’m just…” Dani trailed off, then suddenly gripped my arm firmly, digging her pink press-on nails into my bicep. “Holy shit.”

“What? Bro, what?” I pressed my face into the slot in the fence. Peering with one eye, I didn’t see much at first. 

The entire yard was scattered with construction equipment– planks of wood, saws, drills– pretty much everything you would expect to see in someone’s yard during a renovation. In the middle was a pole, like a tetherball pole without the ball. It was already surrounded by an even circle of worn-down grass and dirt. In the far corner of the yard was a large shed with an enormous padlock. Wooden boards covered the windows, and there were a few blocks of concrete placed in front of the door. Next to the back door of the house was a wheelbarrow, propped against a pile of bricks, and beside that sat the now-still generator. Honestly, I didn’t see anything suspicious, but Dani still had her nails in my arm. 

“Dani, What-”

“Look at the pole,” she whispered. I squinted. In the place where the ball should’ve hung, something else was swinging slightly in the evening breeze.

“What is that?”

“I think it’s handcuffs.”

“Handcuffs? There’s no…” my voice faltered. Even in the dimming light, I could now make it out. A pair of metal handcuffs clanged against the rusted pole. 

“What the fuck? Like why would those be there?” Dani’s voice started to rise, and I shushed her.

“I mean, could it be like, a sex thing?”

“Outside?”

I shrugged uneasily. “Maybe? It’s no sex dungeon, but people are into weird shit these days.”

Suddenly, the back door slammed open, snapping us both back to reality. 

“I knew this guy was bad news,” Dani gasped as we crouched behind the shrubs. “I could tell. I told you.”

“You are being so far from helpful right now, Dani,” I hissed.

“Sorry,” she whispered, “I just-” she froze, and I heard grass crunching underneath swift, heavy steps. We stared at each other with wide eyes, holding our breath as the footsteps began to walk the perimeter of the yard. Through the wooden slats, I could barely make out a pair of dark boots following the path of the fence, directly towards us. The boots paused a few feet from us and lingered for a few moments, or minutes, or hours– I couldn’t tell. Dani held her hand tightly over her mouth, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t think Gerome was some kind of sex creep, but still, I didn’t want to be caught snooping outside my neighbor’s fence. My knees were shaking, and just when I thought they would give out, the footsteps continued down the line of sturdy wooden planks. He circled the entirety of the yard before returning inside, and Dani and I remained crouched behind the bushes for another few minutes before we dared to brush ourselves off and hurry back to the road. 

Halfway down the sidewalk, Dani finally spoke. “Do you think we should call the cops? I mean, that was weird, right?”

“Yeah, it was weird,” I hesitated. “But I mean really, what would we even say to the cops? For all we know it could still be a sex thing,” I joked, but I was shaken. Normally, I could dismiss something like this– Dani was notorious for creating conspiracy theories about people we barely knew. Usually, they were harmless, if a bit far-fetched, but this felt different. Still, I wasn’t sure about calling the police. We had no idea what was going on in this house, and they had only moved in a few days ago. 

“Maybe we should wait, and if something else weird happens, then we call.”

Dani scrunched her eyebrows. “I guess you’re right. It’s just so…”

“Weird?”

“Yeah. Weird.”

So obviously, that had spooked us quite a bit. Poor Dani was shaking the whole way home. To be honest, so was I. We just couldn’t make sense of it. Every other time, I’d found a way to rationalize it, but this time, I was lost. And, well, it was the same night that we first saw the boy. I think we had only been home for about an hour when we heard it again. 

“Was that another scream?”

I scrambled for the remote, pressing the mute button while Dani took her sentry post at the window. 

“I couldn’t really hear. It could’ve been-” Another scream cut me off. It was loud, but seemed almost muffled, as if someone was screaming into a pillow. 

“Should we-” another scream. Then another. They were short and quick now, but still muffled. Dani stomped towards the backdoor, and I trailed behind her, stumbling as I tried to slip my shoes on. 

“Wait, Dani, hold up!” I called as she flew out the backdoor. I saw the faces of our next-door neighbors pressed against their windows as I chased Dani down the sidewalk. I couldn’t catch up to her until she was already at Gerome’s fence, kneeling silently before a crack. I crouched down and put my head underneath hers, peering into the darkness. 

Gerome was dragging something behind him. I thought it was a sack until it began to flail. Dani gasped.

“Is that-”

“It must be.” 

His son. It was difficult to make out his appearance in the darkness, but he looked small– probably no more than four or five years old. Up close, we could still hear him screaming, but it sounded like his mouth had covered. Gerome was holding him by the back of his shirt and pulling him towards the shed, and the boy flailed helplessly against his father’s grasp. Finally, Gerome threw the boy into the shed, then closed the door behind the both of them. 

Silence. Dani and I sprinted wordlessly back to our house.  

So obviously, after that, we called the police. We didn’t really know what we were reporting– I think we told them we thought a child was being abused. We gave them the address, and the sirens were outside about half an hour later. Dani and I stood on the front porch to watch as much as we could, but we couldn’t see much, so when they left a bit later without arresting Gerome, we assumed they must’ve seen the kid and that everything was fine. Dani saw another van pull up to Gerome’s house the next afternoon, and she said a lady with a clipboard got out. I guess that was CPS. So when she left and everything was normal, I felt pretty bad. I mean, we called the police on him even after he told us his kid was loud. It wasn’t his fault. Of course, that’s when he showed up outside our door again. 

“Oh hell no.”

The doorbell was ringing. I looked at Dani. She stared back at me with wide eyes.

I stood, cautiously approaching the door. 

“Tell me you are not about to open that, Laur.”

I peeked through the peephole in the door.

“Laur.”

I pulled the door open, and Dani let out a squeak as she squeezed herself into the couch cushions. Gerome was smiling, standing on our front porch with his hands in his pockets. He looked the same as he had on his first visit, save for the dark look in his eyes. I stood in the doorway, shifting from one foot to the other as Gerome began to speak.

“Hey, neighbor!” His voice was friendly, but also tinged with something I couldn’t recognize. He didn’t seem angry– rather, he was almost too happy.

“Hey, Gerome, how are ya?”

“Oh,” he shrugged, chuckling. “I’ve been better.”

“Oh?”

Gerome leaned back against the railing, crossing his arms. “I just had a visit from CPS.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I hesitated before replying. “Oh, that’s, uh,-”

“Don’t worry,” he cut me off. “They didn’t tell me who called. But, it’s all good. Actually,” he reached behind him, pulling out another bag I hadn’t noticed him holding. “I wanted to say thank you. You know, to whoever it was,” he winked.

“Oh, um-”

“Now,” he cut me off again, holding out a tinfoil-wrapped plate as he spoke. “Normally, I chat to the police when I move, to let them know about my son’s situation, but I hadn’t had time yet. So really, the house call saved me the trouble.”

“Oh, well that’s-”

“Yeah! Pretty convenient!” For a moment, he raised his voice, and his eyes darkened. Then, he cleared his throat, and his smile returned. “Plus, it’s good to know we live in a neighborhood where people care. It makes me feel better to know that if something was wrong, there’s at least one house on this street that would really try to help.”

I swallowed, and Gerome motioned towards the plate in his hand. “So, anyway, here’s a little, I guess, thank you gift. For keeping an eye out.”

I took the plate. “Thank you. Uh, sorry about… all that.”

“Don’t mention it!” he grinned, slowly making his way down the porch stairs. I returned his parting wave, and he headed back towards his house. I closed the door slowly, then turned back to Dani. 

“There is zero chance of me even getting near those.”

“Oh, come on. We called CPS on the man and he’s bringing us cookies. He’s being nice.”

“Too nice.”

“No, just nice. Normal nice,” I popped a cookie into my mouth, and Dani cringed.

“Well, enjoy your creepy man cookies,” Dani rolled her eyes. “Don’t come crying to me when they’re full of arsenic.”

“Ha ha,” I shook my head, grabbing another cookie and returning to the couch. 

Honestly, I probably had four or five of them. They were good! Listen, I know I shouldn’t have eaten them. Dani has told me a million times, trust me. But I felt so bad about calling the police on him, and he was trying so hard to be nice to us, even after what we had done. Plus, I mean, they were cookies, and either I ate them or they went to waste. Looking back, sure, I wouldn’t eat them again, but how was I supposed to know? It all happened pretty quick.

“I’m going to bed.”

“Tired, detective Dani?”

“Shut up,” Dani hit me on the head with her pillow, and I fell back into the couch. She laughed. “I’m showering, then the bathroom’ll be free. Night night, Laur.” 

I watched Dani round the corner, and I shouted for her to lock her bedroom door. Except, I didn’t. My mouth wouldn’t form around the words properly, and I ended up opening and closing my mouth a few times before giving up. 

Then, the living room started to melt away. I tried to sit up, but the couch swallowed me whole, gulping me down harder the more I tried to move. I fell into the cushions, deeper and deeper, and everything was dark. I was becoming loose change, a rogue receipt, another piece of junk stuck between the cracks.

Paralyzed, I gazed up at the ceiling. The plaster was spinning wildly, creating a vortex centered around the ceiling light. I couldn’t tear my gaze from the blinding cyclone above my head, and I had no concept of time or space as I watched the roof dance and spin. My brain was floating outside of my body in the air next to me, but I couldn’t reach out to grab it. Oh, well, I thought, I’ll get it in the morning. 

I was trying to force my eyes shut when something moved in the corner of my blurry vision. I could barely tell if the lights were on anymore, and everything around me was distorted– both too small and too big at the same time. Suddenly, there was something dark hovering above my face. Another face? A distorted, devilish smile floated miles above me, its fang-like teeth dripping with blood. I couldn’t move as he reached down into the pillows, pulling me up from the couch by my hair. I felt like a magician's handkerchief, being pulled and pulled and pulled for hours. He was speaking, but I couldn’t understand.

Then, a crash. I fell back into the cavernous sofa, unable to grapple for a handhold. Lights flashed against my closed eyelids, and I pried my eyes open. Was that some sort of bird? Yes, a dove, dripping in pristine white feathers. It was swooping wildly, jabbing the devilish face with its beak. The sound was muddy, but I could hear slams and thuds. 

Then, I was floating, sailing through the air. The dove had scooped me up in her beak, flapping her wings wildly. It was whispering to me, telling me I would be okay. There was light everywhere, and I let my eyes roll into the back of my head. 

So, yeah, that wasn’t super fun. I don’t remember it super well, and I was so confused when I finally woke up. Dani had to explain everything. 

The first thing I heard was an incessant beeping. I tried to roll over, but something poked my arm sharply. 

“Hey,” said a voice beside my head. Dani. Slowly, I pried my eyes open, blinking a few times before my vision focussed. Dani was sitting sideways in an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair. She wore a large bandage just above her eye, and I scanned her bruised arms before turning my gaze to the room around us. A hospital room.

“What…” my sentence trailed off, and I grabbed my mouth. Dani scrambled to place a large bucket into my lap, and I retched into it.

“They said you might feel a little sick, don’t worry.”

“Bro,” I wheezed between coughs, “what’s going on?”

Dani let out a choked laugh, then contorted her face as tears began to fall. She reached towards me and took my hand, and I noticed her press-ons were missing. 

“Sorry, sorry, I just-” she laughed again, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “It’s just crazy. I mean, like movie crazy.”

“What happened, Dani?” 

“Well,” she took a deep breath. “First things first, those cookies you ate?” I nodded slowly. “Drugged.”

“Drugged?”

“Mhm,” she nodded. “Hella drugged.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah. So, I guess you must’ve fallen asleep on the couch. I was in my room, I didn’t…” Dani’s voice started to break. “I didn’t notice. I went to bed early.”

“It’s okay, Dani.”

“Well, it isn’t really. Cause that sicko Gerome decided to break in.”

My head was spinning. “He… what? Gerome?”

“Well, I guess he figured you’d eat the cookies. So around one, I had my headphones in, but I heard something really loud, and I thought maybe you had fallen or something. So I went to check your room, but you weren’t there. So I was gonna leave it, 'cause I figured you were just fucking around in the kitchen or something. But…” she swallowed. “Then I heard another sound. So I looked into the living room, and I saw…” she swallowed again, and her eyes welled with tears. 

“It’s ok, man, keep going.”

“Gerome was in our house. He had cut the screen out of the window and climbed in. I guess that’s what I heard. But he didn’t see me, so I went back to my room and got my old baseball bat.”

“You always told me that would come in handy.”

Dani laughed weakly. Then, she squeezed my hand tightly.

“I think I killed him, Laur,” she was barely whispering. Nobody will tell me anything, but I’m pretty certain. I just panicked. He was trying to take you and-” her voice grew more frantic. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“Hey, hey, Dani, you saved me. He was gonna take me to his sex dungeon, and you saved me.” 

Our conversation was cut short by a nurse’s light knock on the door. Dani slipped out of the room while a doctor asked me to follow a light with my eyes. I was discharged the next night, and the next few days were a blur of police interviews and follow-up visits. Dani was informed that Gerome had survived, and I had never seen her cry harder. She was so relieved, and so was I. The bat was handed in as evidence, and we asked the police not to give it back. 

Eventually, our neighborhood’s story ended up on the news.

We both threw up after watching the story. I mean, it was so horrible. And I guess I was almost a victim too. It’s so surreal. 

According to the police, Gerome was actually Ryan, and he was from Idaho. He had married a beautiful woman, and they moved to Arizona to be further from her family. The picture of his wife that flashed on the screen made us cry. She was so young and beautiful. 

Once his wife had their first child, Ryan became violent, and he had already been arrested before he and his wife moved again to Nevada. There, he had trapped his wife and son inside and tortured them. Eventually, after a bad day at work, Ryan decided to shoot his wife. She didn’t have any friends or family to miss her, so nobody found out. The reporter said that police still didn’t have a motive. Dani says it was pure evil. The police eventually dug up her body, buried behind the shrubs at the front of the house. 

After that, Ryan decided to move again, to our neighborhood. Apparently, he was going for a hiding-in-plain-sight approach, hoping that his family-man demeanor would keep him from being discovered. Dani and I wondered how he was planning to keep up the fake wife thing. He introduced himself to all the neighbors, baking cookies while his son was tied up in the shed. Then, at night, he would dig further into his crawlspace, and police say he was making a tiny, soundproof cell for his seven-year-old son. I thought he was way younger. I guess he was malnourished. 

The son was taken in by the wife’s family in Idaho. I don’t even want to think about what he was doing to that kid. I mean, I don’t have to tell you. A statement from the family was released, and they begged for kindness and privacy for their family. Once the buzz surrounding the story died down, their wishes were respected for the most part. 

And I guess that’s where we are. They’re tearing the house down to build a little playground. Dani says it’s creepy, but I think it’s sweet– to turn such a horrible place into something so innocent. Beauty from destruction and all that. I don’t know.

Oh, is that all you need from me? Ok, perfect, thanks.