I was sentenced to twenty years without parole for armed robbery, assault, and a bunch of other shit I didn't do. But because I had a record it was an easy conviction. There were a few clemency hearings along the way but because I refused to say that I had done these things they denied clemency and I did my time.
In one of those ironies of the universe the guy who actually did do the shit I went to prison for finally got caught for something else and then a pretty decent detective dug into his story and found out that I was innocent. Despite the DA and the police chief trying to stop him the detective went to my attorney and showed him everything.
The long and short of it is I ended up with three million dollars for my time and trouble. It was enough for me to find someplace to live out my days in peace. I had no delusions about starting my life when I was almost forty and my best years were behind me. I just wanted to move on.
Leaving the state was my first obvious decision. My defense attorney told me straight up that the cops would be looking to put me back in the joint just to prove themselves right about me. Where I'd already been stopped a couple times after the lawsuits were settled I took this as sage advice and I hit the road.
I ended up finding a modest place on a modest island in one of the Great Lakes. It was far enough from shore in the summer that I was left alone and in the winter it was easy enough to cross the ice to get to the store and things like that. It also helped that where I was living was a summer resort area and in the winter it was always a solitary existence for me. Which was something I was used to.
I lived there a couple years and kept a low profile. I had no desire to attract attention in any way. I was just the quiet guy who lived alone in the little place out on one of the islands.
A couple years into my peace and quiet there was one hell of a series of winter storms and the lake ice was all broke up so I had to use my fishing boat to get to shore and pick up the supplies that had been left for me at the dock.
It was late in the day and the sun was setting. I got my boat loaded up and was about to start the motor for the trip home when I heard something. I strained my ears and heard a high pitched voice off in the distance.
I could see a figure running towards me but that's about it. I'd left my glasses on the boat and after twenty years in a six-by-eight cell I was quite nearsighted.
"PLEASE WAIT!!" I could hear her yelling.
I got back on the dock and stood there as she came towards me.
"Please help me! He's back there...please take me with you!" she begged. She was frantic. She was also barefoot and dressed only in pajama bottoms and a tank top. In ten degree weather.
Whatever was going on she was scared shitless and the vibe was all about danger. Now I wanted to get the fuck out of there too.
"Get in." I told her. She jumped into my boat and I had her go forward into the small cabin at the bow. I told her to get some blankets on and warm up.
Thirty minutes later I pulled the boat into my boat house. I got the young woman into my house and sat her by the wood stove to warm up. She was still scared that "he" was going to come get her and I assured her there were no other boats coming our way. With that I went to unload my supplies before they froze up and then I had to get my boat lifted up out of the water.
It ended up being another thirty minutes or so when I came into the house and found the girl by the stove.
"Do you have a phone? I gotta call the police! He kidnapped me and I got away and they...they..." she stopped there and started crying. Tears of relief from what I could tell.
"You're safe here. Trust me. There's a storm coming up and it'll kill anyone stupid enough to come out on the lake. You're safe."
She was still terrified and mumbling on and most of it was incoherent.
I poured her a half tumbler of Texas bourbon and handed it to her. "Drink this. It'll settle you down."
She gulped it down and gently set the glass down beside her. She didn't even react to the alcohol and this shit was 130 proof!
I left her alone for a while and put my supplies away.
When I came back the alcohol was having a visible effect on her and she seemed much calmer.
"Okay, you want to try telling me what's going on here?" I said.
She looked up at me and I found her vaguely familiar for some reason.
Now I'm not going to write down exactly what she said and how she said it because she just spat out chunks of information, there was nothing coherent about what she was saying and I ended up taking notes to keep it all straight.
From what I gathered this guy had kidnapped her almost five years ago when she was in high school and then he just kept her at his place like some sort of pet. He never hurt her but then he didn't let her go, either. I kind of remembered the case because it was about the time I got out of prison and it was in the news.
Her family wasn't wealthy and there was never a ransom demand. Nearby fields and forests were searched and nothing was ever found. After a month she was given up for dead and the news media moved on to the next story. But that explained why she was familiar to me.
She hadn't grown much over the past half-decade and now she was nineteen or maybe even twenty. However her hair was much longer than I remembered from her pictures.
Somewhere along in the conversation she asked about calling for help. I told her there was no cell phone reception out here but I chose to keep quiet about the radio I kept in the boat for emergencies. I told her she'd have to wait out the storm and then we'd figure it out. And the weather was supposed to be one storm after another for the next couple weeks. She was going to be with me for a while.
About this time I decided her clothes were kind of stinky. I asked her about this and she said she rarely washed her clothes. I believed this and I got her a pair of my lounge shorts and one of my t-shirts. It was all a little big for her but it would have to do.
I sent her to the bathroom to shower and then told her to put on the clean clothes.
She was gone most of an hour.
When she came out she looked a lot better. I hadn't noticed the dirt on her face until it was gone. Her hair was combed out and the nicks on her legs told me she'd shaved them.
