Page 12 of Shielding Aubree
Sarah Willows was returning to Colorado from a long weekend away with her childhood best friend when she went missing.
Cameras and eyewitness reports say that there were sightings between Albuquerque and the middle part of the state, but nothing after she reached the midway point. New Mexico State Police and other law enforcement agencies are searching for her. If you happened to see this woman, please call your localpolice force and let them know the location and circumstances of the sighting. Her family is struggling to hold onto hope that she will be found and returned to Colorado.
Folding the paper to focus on the article, he laid it on the corner of his desk.
He could keep it at home.
No one would find it there.
Still, leaving it out might be too obvious.
Opening the center drawer he withdrew a scotch-tape dispenser and a pair of scissors. He cut the article out and tossed the rest of the paper into the trashcan. Then he peeled off four small pieces of transparent tape and attached it to the corners of the article.
Looking around the room, he searched for a place to hide the article, but nowhere seemed to call to him.
When his gaze returned to his desk for the third time, he shrugged and set the article aside. He tugged the right-hand drawer out of the desk and turned it over, dumping all of the contents out of the drawer onto the carpet beneath his feet.
Empty now, he placed the drawer upside down on the desk in front of him.
The bare wooden surface looked awkward and wanting.
Picking up the newspaper article that he'd cut out, he put it in the center of the drawer and smoothed his fingertips over the pieces of tape.
He had other clips that he could put there, but he would wait.
Take care of it one at a time.
He would space it out.
Savor the fun.
He knew exactly which article to add next.
He'd memorized the title of it and heard it repeated in his head several times a day.
NMSP Officer Found Nearly Dead After Roadside Accident
It should have been the first one to add to his hiding place under the drawer, but it was his impetuous nature that had led him to make the decisions that he'd made.
And keeping track of his... adventures in this way was another spur of the moment decision.
He just wanted to do it.
So he did it.
Just like he planned to do with Aubree Cueva.
He'd find her again.
He'd make sure that she wasn't going to tell what she'd seen.
And then he'd kill her anyway.
It was a problem for him.
The first time that he'd killed, he'd been horrified about the rush he'd felt. The elation.
He was sure that he would buckle under the guilt.
