I can't believe I am actually going to sit down here and write this story out after I have lived it so closely for so long. I know that there will be those among you who will hate to hear it and there will be those who love it. So be it.
John David Martin is my name and I am a cop. No, that isn't exactly correct. I am more than a cop. I am an investigator for the Tyler County Texas Crime Task Force. My title is Special Agent J.D. Martin. I am good at what I do and I rarely fail to solve the cases that are assigned to me. I know I sound egotistical and in some ways I am but I also am just stating the facts. I was on a case. It was a hot ticket case; the rape of two young girls and the abduction of one of them. It made the news and it would continue to be forefront in peoples' minds for years to come.
Everyone who knows me calls me JD including my beautiful wife Allison (Allie). We have been married five years and we have no children. I think our marriage is pretty normal and in most ways I would call it special. Allie is in fact very pretty and sweet. We grew up together and were always good friends and it just blossomed into love and ultimately engagement and then marriage. She was always the best thing to happen to me and I have had a lot of good things happen to me.
Bill Jacobs is the Director of our Task Force and years ago he took a liking to me and the work I did. Because of that I have had every opportunity to advance and I haven't wasted any of them. I am 32 years old and second in command of the task force. I know it had a lot to do with Bill's support but I also earned it by doing a great job.
A year ago Bill called me into his office and told me that there had been a double rape and that one of the girls was in the hospital and the other had been abducted. The girls were sisters, Mary and Janis Shindler. Mary was 16 and Janis was 17. According to Mary their uncle Josh Shindler picked them up from school and drove to his place out in the desert. She said he and his friend Garvey Smithson had repeatedly raped the two girls. Mary was in pretty bad shape emotionally and physically and the two men decided to drop her off at the hospital and take off with Janis. Both of the men were always a bit unstable but hadn't ever done anything like this before. Bill knew he didn't have to ask me to take the case but he did. He told me that he believed if anyone could locate Janis and bring in Josh and Garvey it would be me.
I was sickened by the facts just like everyone else and agreed to take the case. I took Gina Darling, one of our female officers who partners with me most of the time and went to the hospital to meet with Mary. Gina does a fantastic job and I trust her with my life. I knew she would be invaluable in talking with Mary. Mary had been stabilized and was ready to give a statement with all the details she could recall. We (well mostly Gina) gently walked her through the entire ordeal getting as much information as possible without upsetting the young girl more than she already was. She was unbelievably brave and was able to tell us everything. When we were finished I told Mary that we would do everything we could to find Janis and bring her uncle and his friend to justice. I never promise because you never know for sure what you can do but I wanted to make a promise to that girl. I think she knew I would give it my all.
Gina and I worked the case relentlessly. We worked eighteen hours a day for three days straight. In a word I was "obsessed" with the case and so was Gina.
I am sure that is where the cracks started in my relationship with Allie. She complained to me that I was working too much. She complained that I was spending too much time with Gina. I looked at her while she was chewing me out and couldn't believe it was my sweet wife. I told her that out there was a scared and abused 17 year old girl who was counting on me to find her before they destroyed her and I would be damned if I was going to slack off until I found her. I guess I pretty much told Allie to suck it up and stop being so selfish.
Well, on day four we caught a break. Someone spotted Garvey in Crayton, a small town at the far eastern boundary of our county. He had gone into a grocery store to buy some supplies and had been seen by someone who recognized him. There had been some pictures of Josh and Garvey in the papers but not everyone had seen them yet. We were lucky that this guy had seen the news. Several carloads of officers converged on Crayton but when we got there Garvey was nowhere to be found. Supposedly he had just left town and driven south.
I knew that part of the county pretty well and formulated a plan on how we could systematically check out every possible hiding place in the area. We started by setting up a perimeter ten miles out from Crayton. Then we started fanning out to cover the territory. Once again we got lucky. It was only three hours after Garvey was spotted that we found a shack out in the desert and sure enough Janis was there. She was badly abused and beaten but alive. We were able to call in a medical helicopter and she was taken to the hospital in Tyler.
Unfortunately Josh and Garvey had slipped past us somehow and were nowhere to be found. I knew it would be difficult to locate them but I was determined that they would not get away with this and I made a promise to myself that I would find them and see them punished for what they had done to these two girls.
We went back to Tyler and Gina and I went to the hospital to check up on both girls. Janis was out of surgery for vaginal and anal tears and was in recovery. Gina and I just sat there talking about the case and I made it clear to her that I was going to find those two slime balls if it was the last thing I ever did. I could tell that Gina was pretty emotional about the whole thing too so I put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a little hug and smiled to reassure her. I told her we would get these men and bring them to justice.
When we had a chance to slip in and talk with Janis she told us that her uncle Josh and Garvey had decided to leave her there and were going to light out for "parts unknown" as they put it. She thought she heard them say something about south Texas but she wasn't sure. Other than the details of the rape and abduction she couldn't be much more help in locating the two men.
We were overjoyed that both girls were safe and that they were going to recover. I know they were going to need extensive counseling and continued support from their friends and family but I was sure they would be okay. On the last day of that week I promised them I would find their uncle and his friend and bring them in. I know, I know, I shouldn't have promised them but I was that certain I would succeed.
I guess here is where the story really starts. I continued to be obsessed with finding those two men. I am not apologizing for it but it is true. I spent most waking moments working that case. I followed up on leads that others thought were cold trails, I wanted justice and I did not want to fail in my promise to Mary and Janis.
Needless to say the situation got worse at home. Allie was constantly telling me that it was silly of me to work so hard on this case. The girls were both found and both doing better. I kept telling her that bringing Josh and Garvey to justice would help in the final healing for those two teenagers and she kept telling me that I should let it go. I worked that case for five weeks and our relationship got more strained every day.
Then we caught our final break in the case. It was on a Tuesday morning when I was informed that the "boys" had been arrested in Lake Charles, LA on a drunken disorderly charge the night before and the arresting officer was a cousin to the chief of police in Beaumont, TX. I had been in contact with the chief of police of Beaumont, one Manny Grayson, many times in the past five weeks because I was following all leads in the south. He let me know that they were in custody in Lake Charles and would be held the maximum amount of days to give us time to process an extradition. In two days all of the paperwork was processed to extradite the two men from Louisiana to Texas and I made arrangements to go pick them up on Friday. I was going to drive down to Beaumont and Manny, Gina and I were going to go over to Lake Charles and bring the prisoners back to Texas.
I figured that the trip would take me about five hours each way so I planned on leaving about 4:00 am so we could have Josh and Garvey in custody by 10:00 am and be back in Tyler before 5:00 pm.
When I was up and ready to leave I leaned over Allie and kissed her on the forehead. I said, "Goodbye honey, when I get home tonight all of this will be over and I will make it up to you for all the time I have spent on this case."
Her response was less enthusiastic than I had expected it to be when she said, "Well don't hurry back on my account JD. I am sure I will find something to keep me occupied until you get back. I have been on my own for the last six weeks so nothing new there."
It was just as bitchy as she had been to me all that time. Now I knew I had not been paying enough attention to her but I thought she knew how much I loved her and that this was only a temporary thing. I thought she would be overjoyed but all I got was the sarcasm. I knew I would have a lot to do to make it up to her and I was more than willing to do it. I missed her too but this case was ultra important to those girls, to our town and to me. I would make it up to her.
When I left the house I was in full "Go Get the Prisoner" gear. I had everything I would need to bring those assholes back to justice with a capital JAIL. I had arranged for Gina to go with me since I knew this case was special to her too so I stopped at the station and picked her up as we had arranged in advance.
We drove in silence for about two hours both contemplating our own thoughts on the events of the day. I looked over at her a couple of times and she was deep in thought so I didn't say anything. Suddenly the silence was broken with our phone ringing. Gina picked it up and listened for a minute then handed it to me saying, "It is the Director."
"This is JD," I said, "What is it Director?"
"JD, pull over so we can talk," he replied.
So I found a spot to pull off the road and Bill proceeded to tell me that the extradition order had been rescinded by Louisiana. Apparently an enterprising Assistant District Attorney had thought to run DNA comparisons of Josh and Garvey and had a hit on an unsolved rape and murder from eight months previous. Since they had the murder along with the rape it was decided that Louisiana would prosecute first and therefore we weren't going to be taking them back with us to Texas.
Although Gina and I weren't happy about not getting justice in our own jurisdiction we both understood that their case had the greatest potential for the death penalty. In Texas because there was no murder we would probably only be able to put them away for life. We grudgingly agreed to leave the current prosecution to Louisiana. Actually we had no choice. They had the "boys" and we didn't.
I did get on the phone though with Manny to be certain that he inform the Louisiana courts system the two should be held without bail since they were obvious flight risks and were facing additional criminal charges in Texas. He assured me that he would communicate with his cousin and that they would not be released.
When all talk had ended we turned around and headed back to Tyler. Bill had told us to take some time off since there were no pressing investigations now the Josh and Garvey had been apprehended. We stopped for breakfast on our way back and I dropped Gina at the station around 11:00 a.m. and headed home.
When I got home and opened the garage door there was a car parked in my spot. I know, there is always a strange car parked at the poor slob's house. But it was true. It was a hot red mustang and I thought I knew whose it was, one Billy Marconi, a local bad ass.
I of course had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and even before I entered the house I felt the rage building in me. I knew what I was going to find and I knew I wouldn't like it. I quietly entered through the garage into the utility room and from there worked my way through the kitchen, foyer and up the stairs to the bedrooms. There was no evidence lying around like you might expect, no shoes or piles of clothes but when I reached the top of the stairs I could hear them in the master bedroom.
"Oh god Billy, you fuck me so good. Every time seems to get better than the last," Allie said.
"You like my hot cock in your pussy Allie? It is better than that asshole husband of yours isn't it?," replied Billy.
"Oh god yes Billy, you know how to make me feel like a total tramp and I love it. JD loves me and he would never make me feel like a tramp but I love being used by you. Just fuck me," she said.
As I walked down the hallway to the bedroom I could feel the blood pounding in my head and I knew I was pretty much over the top. I reached for my gun and just about had it pulled out of the holster when my hand grazed the stun gun that every officer carried when transporting prisoners. It was a good thing I guess that my hand touched it because there is no telling what I would have done with the gun.
When I peeked into the room I could see Allie on her hands and knees with Billy fucking her doggie style. I quietly walked into the room with the stun gun in hand and was able to get right behind him and zapped him right in the ass and balls. He went down like a rock onto Allie's back and when she rolled him off of her I zapped her too.
With both of them out of it I took out one set of handcuffs and handcuffed Allie to our bed. There was no way she was going to be able to get away from me or impede me in what I was going to do to Billy. Then I handcuffed Billy and dragged him out of the bedroom and down the hall to the basement doorway. I think he bumped his head a couple of times sliding down the stairs but I really didn't care.
