The Cheating Zone 05: Linda

He spotted what looked like an old road, and turned. It was actually two old wagon ruts surrounded by high grass, causing him to drive very slowly. He pulled in front of the barn and made a note of the license plate on the car.

Looking it up on his computer, he observed that it was registered to a Linda Wilcox. He also noticed the name had been flagged. A few keystrokes showed Mrs. Wilcox had been reported as missing by her husband earlier that day. According to the report he read, the woman had apparently been missing for two days.

He got out of his car and investigated. Touching the Camry's hood, he could tell it had been sitting here for a while. He also noticed coolant pooling under the engine. He walked into the barn and looked around.

"Mrs. Wilcox?" he yelled. He called her name again, but got no answer. Walking in the barn, he found a woman's dress in one of the old stalls. Perhaps she came here with a lover for sex, he thought.

He looked around more and went to an old cabin that was mostly burned out. He carefully looked inside. He was careful where he went as these old buildings could easily fall in. An old dirty table was in the middle of the burned out room and there on the table on top of all the debris, was a woman's purse and a smartphone.

He picked up the smartphone and turned it on to find that the battery still had half of its charge. It was locked, so he couldn't look any further. He put the phone in the purse and took it with him as he left. He walked around the property to see what he could find.

He spotted a pond about 50 yards away and thought he saw someone leaning over the bank. He walked toward the pond and realized what he saw as he got closer - a woman wearing only a thong and a bra was bent over the water with her head submerged. Her hands were behind her back, but they weren't tied. He ran to her and quickly pulled her head out of the water.

Laying her on her back, he saw a distinct red "A" that looked to have been burned into her chest. He immediately thought about recent stories of a sex cult that branded their victims and wondered if this was something similar.

He felt her neck and her wrist and found a slight pulse. Keying his microphone, he called for a tow truck, an ambulance and backup, since he didn't know if the person or persons who tried to kill her was still in the area. He looked around and didn't see anyone, but the place still gave him the creeps.

He set his concerns aside and immediately began performing CPR on the woman. He continued working through his exhaustion until the woman began coughing water out of her lungs. He rolled her on her side so she could expel the remaining water.

When he knew she could breathe on her own, he let her sit up and handed the dress to her. She managed to get the garment on just as an ambulance and two more state cruisers came into view.

Weak, frightened and exhausted, the woman sat on the ground, sobbing. He comforted her as best he could.

"It's going to be alright, Mrs. Wilcox," he said. "The ambulance is here. Can you tell me anything about what happened?" She looked around, clearly scared of something.

"They're all gone," she said weakly. "Everything's gone. They were going to drown me or burn me for witchcraft. But they're all gone now." Jake looked around, confused. As far as he knew, no one had lived here since the mid-1700s and most locals avoided the place like the plague. He handed her his business card.

"Please call me if you remember anything that'll help, okay, Mrs. Wilcox?" She nodded. "I'll make sure your husband knows."

The paramedics took over, placing her on a gurney. They covered her up and placed her in the ambulance, telling Jake she would be transported to St. Michael's Medical Center. He nodded and called it in.

By then, two other state troopers joined him. He briefed them on the situation and they looked around some more, but found nothing. A tow truck arrived and took the broken-down Camry to the police impound yard.

Gathered back at their vehicles, they looked around the area.

"What do you think?" one of the other troopers asked Jake. He shook his head.

"Beats the hell outta me," he said. "I didn't see anything to indicate there were other people here, did you?"

"Nope," the other trooper said. The third officer agreed.

"Let's get outta here," Jake said. "This place gives me the willies." Local historians claimed the community was burned down by French-led natives during the early stages of the French and Indian War. It wasn't known if there were any survivors, but the locals claimed the place was haunted and it was said that when the wind was just right, a woman could be heard screaming at night.

"I'm with you on that," the second trooper said, heading back to his car. After the backup had left, Jake sat in his cruiser, writing up his report. Looking out his window at the barn, he thought he saw a shadow flitting out of the old door. Nerves, he thought as he shook off the feeling. He headed out to meet Linda's husband at the hospital so he could make sure her things were handed back.

J.D. Wilcox was wearing a replica Revolutionary War uniform as he sat in the hospital lobby waiting for Jake. He was taking part in a re-enactment of a battle fought in the area years before, something that always attracted tourists and history buffs alike. J.D. stood as the trooper handed Linda's things back to him and briefed him on the situation.

After the trooper left, he went to the admissions office and gave them her insurance information. While they were preparing the paperwork, he pulled out his wife's cell phone. Unlocking it, he went through her texts, emails and pictures. He already knew about her cheating, having hired a PI to watch her. In a few days, she would be served with divorce papers, but he wanted to wait until she was out of the hospital first.

Looking at the pictures, he saw several Linda had just recently taken. They appeared to show people wearing period dress in an old cabin. He smiled as he zoomed in and carefully examined one of the pictures she had taken.

He left the hospital after being told she would be held for a couple of days for observation, got her car out of impound and took it to a garage, where the broken serpentine belt was replaced. The next day, he drove it to the hospital and went to her room, still wearing the uniform from the day's re-enactment. She looked at him and smiled, noticing the book and folder he was carrying.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better now that you're here," she said weakly. He noticed the "A" burned into her chest.

"That looks pretty bad," he said. "How did that happen?" She shook her head.

"It was a nightmare," she said. "They accused me of being an adulterous whore and were going to kill me for being a witch after they did this to me." He nodded his head and sat back down. He looked at her hard before continuing.

"Let me tell you a little story, Linda. You know my family has lived in this area for hundreds of years, right?" She nodded her head. "That's why I like to participate in re-enactments here. It helps me connect the present to the past.

"You and your car was found at the site of an old religious community that was first established in the late 1600s. It was attacked and burned by natives led by the French during the French and Indian War in 1755. It's generally thought that everyone at the settlement were killed. Most were - men, women and children were all killed. But there were two survivors.

"Daniel Willcots and his fiance Prudence were in the woods when the attack took place. They hid until everything was over. Afterward, they fled the settlement and ended up in Boston. He changed his name to Wilcox and the two were married. They had four children and he served for a time in the Continental Army. He died in 1805 and she followed him a year later. He wrote a diary of those days. Let me read one entry to you. You may find this interesting," he said, opening the old book carefully.

"One night, a strange woman appeared at our home," he began. "Her attire was unlike anything I had ever seen, and revealed much more than a good woman of God would show. Her conveyance was unlike anything I had ever seen, a horseless carriage she called a camrie. She said her carriage was broken but we were unable to ascertain the problem.

"We extended our hospitality to her, let her sleep in our barn and fed her from our table. She attempted to seduce me with her adulterous ways, but thanks to the grace of God, I was able to resist and remained true to my Prudence.

"The next day, we called the council of Elders who, along with my mother, decided she should be branded for her adulterous behavior and tested to determine if she was a witch sent to us from the Pit."

"The entry ends there," he said, looking at Linda. "Rather interesting, wouldn't you say? Especially since the entry doesn't say whether or not she survived the test."

"J.D., seriously, that's all very interesting, but what does that have to do with me?" she asked nervously. Granted, the entry sounded just like her experience from the other night, but how could that possibly be? Couldn't it all just be a coincidence? He pulled her phone from his pocket and opened up her photo gallery. He pulled up a picture she took during the council meeting and showed it to her.

"Where did you take this picture?" he asked. Her eyes grew wide as she saw the picture she had taken of Daniel and the woman who slapped her. She shook her head. "Look carefully at the man in that photo," he added. She complied. He put the phone down and opened the book again, turning to a page with two pictures, one of a man in a blue officer's uniform and another of a woman in an elegant dress. He showed them to her. Her face turned white as she recognized who she was looking at.

"These portraits of Prudence and Daniel Wilcox were painted just after the Revolutionary War," J.D. said. "Granted, they don't have the resolution of a photo taken on your smartphone, but surely you can see the resemblance."

Linda agreed. The people in the paintings were clearly older and more refined, but she could easily see they were two of those who punished her that night, and Prudence was clearly the woman who slapped her.

"Let me show you something else," he said, pulling out his folder. He opened it and placed it in front of her. She looked at the boxes and lines with names on them but didn't understand what she was looking at.

"You know my family has always been interested in our genealogy," he said. "Look at the two names on the top of this paper." She did and recognized the names - Daniel and Prudence Wilcox. "Now look at the names on the bottom," he added.

She looked and saw four lines with the names of her husband and his three siblings.

"Do you know what that means?" he asked. She shook her head, confused. "There's no other explanation. You tried to seduce my ancestor," he said. "Granted, you didn't know it at the time, but can you imagine what that would have done to our family tree?"

"But that's impossible," she said. "You said yourself he died in 1805. How could I possibly have been there. That was over 200 years ago." J.D. shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know," he said. "Stranger things have happened, you know. Speaking of which, I have some other interesting photos here. I have videos as well, but I didn't bring those." He pulled an envelope from the folder and took out a stack of pictures. He handed them to Linda, who gasped as she looked at them. Some showed her in the same short skirt entering a hotel with an older man, who kept one hand on her ass. Others showed her naked on a bed, the same man pumping between her legs.

She looked through the stack of photos, all of which showed her in various positions, sometimes with the same man, while other photos showed her with other men. More than one showed her with multiple men at the same time. All of the photos had a date/time stamp on the lower corner. She put the pictures down and looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, J.D., I never wanted to hurt you," she said. He looked at her hard before nodding.

"Right, it was just sex, it didn't mean anything, you still love me, blah, blah, blah, right?" he asked. She cried even harder.

"Honest, J.D., we can get past this, right? I promise I'll be the best wife to you from now on," she cried. He laughed.

"Maybe after the divorce is final and you can find a way to get unfucked," he said. "You know how I feel about this sort of thing."

"But I don't want a divorce," she said, tears falling down her cheek.

"Well, I don't want a cheating adulterous slut for a wife, either. Guess we can't always get what we want," he said. "Look, I'm hurt and angry, more than you know, but I'm not heartless. I've already got the papers done, but I'll hold off serving them until you get a clean bill of health. I definitely think you need counseling, especially after what you just went through. But make no mistake, we're finished. I loved you exclusively, gave you all the space you needed, watched over you, provided and cared for you, and this is how you repay me. I hope you have a good life. I know I will," he said, standing. He turned back to her before he left the room.

"I won't be coming back until I hear that you're ready to be released from the hospital," he said. "They tell me you'll be here one more night. Once I hear that you're ready to go, I'll come by and drop you off at Julie's place."

Julie was her half-sister, the daughter of Linda's mother, who gave birth to her during a previous marriage. They had always gotten along well and she made it clear that if he wasn't married to Linda she would make a play for him. Like him, she was a history buff and supposedly had local family ties that went back about as far as his.

"I've already arranged for your things to be taken over there. Tomorrow's the last day of our re-enactment, but I can leave early if need be. Goodbye, Linda." He walked out as she wailed for him to come back.

"Please, no," she cried. "I'm sorry! I really do love you."

...

That same morning, Jake prepared to head out to his new route, which included the strip of road where he found Linda as another trooper came over to his window. Jake rolled down the window and acknowledged his colleague.

"What's up, George?" he asked.

"Jake, you got a minute?" the other trooper asked. "I've got something I want to show you." Jake knew George wouldn't do this unless it was important, so he put the vehicle in park and got out.

He followed George to his office and pulled up a chair in front of his computer.

"Take a look at this," George said. "I was going over the dash cam footage on your car and spotted something I thought you might want to see." Jake watched as George pulled up the footage from his stop at the old settlement.

"The really interesting part is at the end, when you're doing your paperwork," George said. Jake watched as he saw a shadow flit out of the barn door and quickly move to the left. He shrugged his shoulders.

"So, what?" Jake asked. "That could be from a bird or a branch. What's interesting about that?"

"Well, considering the time and the placement of the sun, it just doesn't add up," George said. "Plus, look at what happens when we watch this frame by frame." George reversed the video and slowed it down so that only one frame showed at a time. Jake's eyes widened as he watched.

He saw the shadow appear to come out of the barn door. The next frame showed the shadow making a hard turn to his left. The top of the shadow looked very odd. The next frame showed the shadow in relief. It appeared to be the shadow of the top half of a man wearing a Revolutionary War-era tri-corner hat and a uniform coat with long tails. The shadow moved further to the left in the next frame and was suddenly gone in the final frame. Jake looked at George.

"What the hell was that?" he asked his friend. George shook his head.

"Beats me," he said. "But it certainly wasn't a bird."

"Have you shown this to the old man yet?" Jake asked. George shook his head.

"Not yet. I wanted you to see it first and give you a chance to explain it," George said. "But you know I have to show it to the Captain."

"I understand," Jake said. "To tell you the truth, I felt like I was being watched the whole time I was out there. That place is creepy."

"I've heard that before," George said. "Don't worry about this. I'm sure the boss will keep it quiet. Just be careful out there, okay?"

"Yeah, I will," Jake said. "Thanks for showing that to me."

He headed out and finished his shift, but looked carefully at the old building as he drove by.

...

The next day, Linda prepared to leave the hospital and was waiting for the nurse to put her in a wheelchair for the ride to the patient pick-up area. She didn't see her husband, but the discharge nurse said he had already checked in downstairs and would see her when she was taken to her car.

Her bags packed, and her discharge instructions in her hands, she rode downstairs and was wheeled to the double doors leading to the pickup area. She saw her car by the sidewalk in front of the door and a man wearing a replica Revolutionary War hat. Apparently, her husband left the event early to pick her up. Maybe, she thought, there might be a chance to make things right.

The nurse opened the passenger door and the man looked out his window as Linda got in the car and buckled herself in. She looked at the nurse.

"Thank you for everything," she said. The nurse nodded her head.

"You take care of yourself now, okay?" the nurse asked, smiling. She closed the door and the car moved forward, making its way to the highway.

Linda looked at her husband and tried to make small talk, but he stared out the windshield, his face grim. Apparently, he hadn't bothered to even wash up before coming to pick her up, she thought, looking at the dirt on his face and clothing. She also detected the acrid smell of gunpowder, which clung to his uniform.

"Thank you for coming to pick me up," she said.

"Uh huh," he said.

"Really, it means a lot to me," she added.

"M'kay," he grunted.

Okay, Linda thought to herself. He's still upset and doesn't want to talk. She understood and simply looked out the window as her husband drove down the highway. She thought about the events of the last few days and really didn't pay any attention to the scenery.

...

Jonathan Daniel Wilcox, "J.D." to everyone else, was busy participating in the re-enactment and thought he should have heard from either the hospital or his wife by now. He waited until there was a break in the action and walked to the staging area, where he grabbed his phone and checked for messages.

Nothing. He contemplated calling the hospital, but changed his mind after looking at the time. He knew it sometimes took several hours for everything to get finalized, so he decided to wait a bit longer, perhaps an hour.

He put his phone away, and went back to the field, where his "soldiers" were giving the tourists a demonstration of Revolutionary War battle tactics, complete with volleys of musket fire.

...

Linda wasn't paying much attention to what was happening as her mind was going over the events of the last few months. Sure, she had cheated on her husband, but surely he wouldn't really divorce her. Otherwise, why would he be nice enough to leave his re-enactment early to take her home.

The car slowed down and took an exit. Soon, they were outside the city limits on a two-lane road headed away from Centerville. Linda looked at the man driving her car, his hard, calloused hands tightly gripping the wheel.

Wait a minute, she thought. J.D.'s hands were neither calloused nor hard. He worked in an office all day, even though he worked out to stay fit and trim. But this guy behind the wheel looked just like her husband and even sounded like him. What's going on, she asked herself.