LITMIR.BIZ

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The usually picture-perfectsunny enclaves are harbingers for fog and cold weather in the wintertime and make for a chilly environment all around. Dressed only in black jeans and a dark blue silk shirt, Rachel was very cold. She was also nearly two miles away from her comfortable white wooden house located on the dead-end Gerda Street.

      Rachel took a left onto Higuera Street and walked another half mile. At this time of night, it was not crowded. Had she walked out an hour earlier, she would have encountered severalstragglers from the weekly farmers’ market. The market is a gathering of hundreds of revelers who enjoy shopping for fruits and vegetables, reading informative brochures from political-mindedorganizations and several nonprofits groups, eating barbecue ribs and brisket sandwiches from an outdoor smoker, catching a live puppet show, and dancing to the strains of a new musical group every week. The internationallyknown gathering takes over this area of downtown for the evening and keeps it well populated. By the time Rachel left the Flats, the market had already dispersed. The streets were almost empty.

      Rachel passed the Downtown Centre, the local minimall. She eventually came to Osos Street, where she took a right and headed east. Rachel walked along the sidewalk past severalwell-kept Victorian-style homes and past a few apartment complexes. She headed toward familiar territory—the JenniferStreet Bridge, an intriguing structure that had only gone up earlier that year. Its intentional rust-colored exterior loomed over the local train tracks like some kind of manic erector set, but it served a useful purpose—especially for Rachel. The bridge crossed over the railroad tracks in front of the restored Amtrak station and allowed pedestrians and bicycliststo cross over into the Jennifer Street neighborhood.

      Rachel’s neighborhood.

      Rachel had no reason to be scared as she walked home. She was almost to the halfway point to her three-bedroom house nestled in the southeastern section of the neighborhood.There was only one semilarge task for Rachel.

      Crossing the Jennifer Street Bridge.

      The Jennifer Street Bridge is an ominous structure, even in the daylight, with its hulking, rusted exterior and a maze of stairs, handicap ramps, and railings. Not to mention the poor lighting. When you climb the fifty-eight stairs to reach the height of a three-story building, you are thrust out onto the crossover that is encased with a firm crisscross wire system in every direction—on both sides and overhead. The encasing allowsone to see the underlit train station, which is located approximately fifty yards to the northwest. The bridge itself, however, maintains a slight hovering glow due to the sporadic lights festooned along the lower portion of the railing.

      Rachel turned off Osos Street and onto Jennifer Street, a cul-de-sacof sorts that provides access for automobiles to park in the train station waiting area. It also provides space for patrons of several popular hangouts, including Café Roma and a corner convenience store. It was a heavily populated area.

      She felt safe.

      Rachel grasped the rust-colored handrail and thought about heading up the stairs. Instead, she walked a little farther and shuffled up the winding handicapped-access ramp. The shadowsplayed tricks on her eyes as they cast a shimmering maroon shadow through the rails. The combination of shadowsand an inebriated mental state caused Rachel to move at a slow, deliberate pace.

      Rachel’s actions had drawn the attention of a man in the parking lot facing the bridge. He had been sitting in his 1993 blue Ford Ranger pickup truck. He could comfortably hide underneaththe shadows inside his huge vehicle. The man watched as the young woman staggered toward the bridge. He assessed the situation laid out before him and decided to take action. He grabbed something from the front seat of the truck and headed up the stairs. He hustled up the poorly lit concrete-and-metalstaircase before she arrived at the bridge. She had no idea what waited for her up top. Besides, her focus was on one task and nothing else.

      Getting home.

      Instead of waiting for her at the top of the staircase, he stepped onto the crosswalk portion of the bridge. He liked the darkness of his perch. The wire seemed to remind him of something, but he could not quite conjure up its importance. He stealthily glided one-quarter of the way up the bridge and turned around. The girl was only now about to reach the head of the staircase. He looked down at the item he grabbed from the front seat of his truck and chuckled under his breath. He then pulled it over his head.

      He peered through the eyes of a skull mask left over from a recent Halloween party. It was the perfect addition to an increasinglyfrightening scenario. As he looked through the eyeholes, he saw the beautiful girl. She was petite, but large-breasted.She had gorgeous shoulder-length blond hair. She was breathing heavily.

      And she did not even notice him.

      Maybe she just acts like I don’t exist.

      Just like the others.

      The excitement began to course through his body. He was aroused and angered. He knew what he had to do.

      Rachel Newhouse was on the bridge and she knew she was almost home. She tried to ignore the other person. She just wanted to get home. Once she made it to the other side of the Jennifer Street Bridge, she would spot something special—a street sign for Rachel Street. It always brought a smile to her face when she saw it.

      As soon as that glimmer of hope popped into her mind, she finally glanced at the other person on the bridge. Something seemed odd about the man. At 5’7”, he seemed to be near her height. He was much broader, however, and his face seemed unusual. She could not really make out why he looked so strange, due to the poor lighting. To make matters worse, the man wasn’t walking across the bridge. He had stopped and was actually facing her. Rachel tried to blow it off and keep on towardher final destination. She walked within three feet of the man when she looked up into the face of horror.

      All she saw was a huge skull. At the same time she heard a loud thwack! as something hard smashed up against her temple.

      Rachel Newhouse would never see Rachel Street again.

      TWO

      At 8:30 A.M., Friday the 13th, Cal Poly student Theresa Audino crossed the Jennifer Street Bridge to retrieve her car, which she parked downtown. She and her boyfriend had spent the previous evening at the farmers’ market, where she purchased her weekly supply of vegetables. She decidedto walk home and left her car downtown. She crossed the Jennifer Street Bridge at 11:30 P.M. on Thursday night. She did not notice anything unusual.

      This morning, however, she definitely saw something that scared her.

      A pool of blood, at least a foot across, lay conspicuously near the staircase at the top of the bridge. The blood still seemed thick and fresh. It was still wet.

      Audino noticed several drops of blood, about the size of her thumb, on the stairs. She decided to see how far they stretched. As she slowly descended the fifty-eight steps, she noted that the blood drops went all the way to the bottom stair. She followed the blood to the right of the stairs, onto the sidewalk, and then left to the train station parking lot. Suddenly,the drops disappeared. They stopped right at a tree planter located next to the first parking spot.

      Audino contacted the police. They informed her that they had already heard about the blood.

      San Luis Obispo police officer Christopher Staley, who worked the day shift from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., reported to the Jennifer Street Bridge. He noticed the large pool of blood on the top of the stairs. He proceeded to obtain a blood swab in case it might be helpful in the future. Later that morning, he did something inexplicable. He asked the city cleaning crew to wash the blood off the bridge.

      They did.

      “Have you heard from Rachel today?” asked Kirk Williams, an assistant manager of the SLO Brewing Company,where Rachel worked as a hostess. He was speaking to one of Rachel’s three roommates, Nichole Tylenda.

      It was 6:00 P.M.

      “She was supposed to come in to work this afternoon,” Williams continued.

      “I actually haven’t heard from her all day. Apparently, she didn’t show up for her class and she didn’t

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