The Castaway - Chapter 10

I woke up to the alarm clock at 6am. The two-hour time difference was like a lead weight tied around my waist. Or maybe it was just my age. I started the coffee maker and gradually made my way to the shower. 45 minutes later I was out the door with my complimentary Continental Breakfast (a cold bagel) and on the road back to Pine Bluff.

I arrived at the Pierson's and parked on the gravel driveway. A big 18-wheeler was parked across the front lawn. Charles was home. After hearing Valerie's story yesterday I wasn't as anxious to talk to Charles. He was no longer on my radar as a suspect but I needed to interview him anyway, just to cover all the bases.

Valerie invited me in and poured me a cup of coffee. Charles was sitting at the kitchen table and he greeted me with a warm smile and a firm handshake. For the most part, Charles had nothing else to add to the story. I sensed a little bit of guilt in his voice when he explained how Valerie's obsession with Becky's search caused him to move away. Now that he knew Becky was dead, he probably wished he had been a little more supportive.

"I figured she'd just run off." He explained. "That's what teenagers do. They don't think, they just act. Becky always talked about finding her mother and helping her mom get cleaned up and off the streets. I figured that's what she was off trying to do. I just figured she'd show up eventually."

Charles stared down at the kitchen table and Valerie came over and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Charles looked up at her and they shared an understanding smile. I could tell there had already been many conversations about his leaving and all was forgiven between them.

Valerie informed me that Kelly was unable to make the two hour drive down from Bentonville. There was an issue with child care and getting the time off work. I wished I had known that last night, I would have made the drive up to Bentonville early this morning. I looked at my watch and realized there was no way for me to make a 4 hour round trip to Bentonville and still catch my flight back home.

I decided to call Kelly and interview her over the telephone. It wasn't ideal, but it was the best I could do for now.

I talked to Kelly for nearly an hour on the phone. She told me about the night she and Becky went to a party. Kelly told me she heard about the party from another friend and it was at an apartment a few blocks from their house. Kelly said Becky had never been to a party before and really wanted to go, so the two walked there together after dinner. Kelly told me that Becky had never done any drugs or drank any alcohol before this night. Becky was very much against the things that destroyed her mother.

Kelly told me that a black man in his late twenties or early thirties was the primary resident of the apartment, but she couldn't remember his name. Kelly had never met the man before and she thought it was a little strange that he was hosting a party for high school kids. Kelly said there were about a dozen kids at the party and everyone was drinking alcohol that was supplied by the black man. Kelly said some kids were also snorting drugs.

Kelly said she was drinking alcohol but Becky was not. Kelly told me that Becky kept asking Kelly if she should have a drink and Kelly told her, "No." Kelly said that about an hour into the party she noticed Becky taking sips off other people's drinks. She said about two hours into the party Becky had her own drink and she appeared to be having a really good time.

Kelly told me that one of the boys took a liking to Becky and he spent a lot of time with her that night. Kelly recognized the boy from school but she didn't know him. She said the boy was refilling Becky's drinks.

Kelly said somebody approached her a little while later and told her that Becky was pretty drunk. Kelly found Becky outside sitting on the front steps. She went outside and sat down with Becky for a few minutes and asked her if she was going to throw up. Becky said she was fine and started apologizing to Kelly for drinking.

Kelly said the boy who was paying so much attention to Becky came outside and asked if he could help. Kelly asked him to keep on eye on Becky and Kelly went back inside to the party. Kelly said Becky came back into the house a few minutes later and asked for some water. Kelly gave her a glass of water and assumed Becky would be okay.

Kelly told me that a few minutes later Becky was passed out on the living room floor. When Kelly went to her side, Becky asked Kelly to take her home. Kelly asked Becky if she could walk because there was no way she could carry her all the way home. Becky said she didn't think she could walk.

According to Kelly, that's when the same boy approached and offered to drive Becky home in his car. Kelly said the boy told her he knew where they lived and he mentioned their house a few blocks away. Kelly wanted Becky to get home as soon as possible, so she agreed to let the boy take Becky. Kelly told me he seemed like he was genuinely concerned for Becky and Kelly trusted his intentions.

Kelly said she watched as the boy carried Becky to his car parked outside. She said he loaded Becky into the car and drove away. That was the last time Kelly ever saw her friend Becky.

Kelly paused several times while telling me the story and began to cry. She had undoubtedly carried a great deal of guilt on her shoulders for the past twenty-one years. Even more now that she learned what really happened to Becky that night.

Kelly told me that she stayed at the party for a couple more hours until after midnight. She said she returned home and quietly went to her bedroom without turning on any lights because she didn't want her parents to find out she had been drinking. Kelly said she didn't even know Becky wasn't in her bed until the following morning.

Kelly said she frantically helped her mother search for Becky the following day. She said the police refused to take the report or do anything to help. Kelly said they went to the apartment and spoke to the black man but he didn't know anything more than Kelly did. He told them that the boy never returned to the apartment after taking Becky home.

Kelly said it was summer vacation so she couldn't search for the boy at school, but she asked around the neighborhood for anybody who knew him. Kelly said she saw the boy about two weeks after Becky's disappearance. Kelly said he was walking down the sidewalk near the same apartment building and she ran up to him.

Kelly shouted at him, "Where's Becky you asshole?!" The boy was startled at the confrontation and he looked confused. He proceeded to tell Kelly that Becky started to get sick in his car right after they left the party. He told Kelly that he pulled over in the Circle K parking lot and told Becky to get out and throw up on the ground.

According to Kelly, the boy told her that Becky finished throwing up and then started walking away. He said he tried to get Becky back into the car but Becky wouldn't listen. The boy told Kelly that he just gave up and drove away. He said the last time he saw Becky she was walking down Hill Street.

Kelly said that was the last time she ever saw or spoke to that boy. She said she never believed the boy's story but she often thought about Becky wandering down Hill Street drunk and alone. She thought about who might have picked her up and what could have happened to a 13-year-old drunk girl getting into the wrong car.

Kelly's information was the best break I'd had in this case in five years, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Kelly couldn't remember the name of the boy who took Becky from the party, but she remembered that he was friends with another boy named Angel. Kelly told me that if I could find Angel, he would be able to tell me the name of the other boy. Unfortunately Kelly didn't know anything about Angel, other than he was a Puerto Rican with a Hispanic last name who looked Hawaiian.

Kelly remembered the boy's car that Becky left in. She said it was a really clean little hatch-back, like a Honda or Toyota, with a new paint job (baby blue) and shiny chrome rims.

I asked Kelly what street the apartment was on, where the party took place. She couldn't remember and neither could her mother Valerie. They both told me they could probably find the apartment again if they walked or drove the route from their old house on Nevada Street. Kelly told me she knew the name of the black man back in 1986, but she had long since forgotten it.

After my telephone interview with Kelly, I said my good-byes to the Piersons. Valerie gave me a long, meaningful hug and thanked me for being the first person to listen to her after all these years.

"Becky deserved a better life than what she got." Valerie said. "She saw things that a child should never have to see and her parents completely failed her. But still, she had so many dreams and so much spirit. She was determined to have a better life than her mother. You could just tell when you talked to her that she wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of her dreams. She deserved better than this."

A few hours later I was on an airplane back to California. I was anxious to take what information I had and make something out of it. I had to identify Angel. I had to find that apartment and identify the black man. Somewhere in all of this was the name of Becky's killer.

The puzzle was slowly coming together one piece at a time.