Behind The Lies by Mark Beckner (the chimp paradox .txt) 📗

Three things make Wendy attractive to Brad. One, her demeanor is different than any other girl he has ever dated. Most of his girls have been partiers with big personalities like his. Wendy is just the opposite. She is quiet, studious, and highly intelligent. Second, while she is not stunning in the way some girls are, Wendy has a reserved beauty to her. She is well proportioned at 5’5”, 120 lbs., and always well dressed. She has long flowing blond hair, nice skin, and comports herself with an air of class he is not used to. Third and finally, she is not someone who fawned over him or flirted with him like many other girls. In fact, she has brushed aside all his advances since he first laid eyes on her a year ago. This may be the one thing that is most attractive to him; the challenge to get her to date him. It is easy to get most girls to date him, but not Wendy. Brad takes offense to the fact that Wendy does not want anything to do with him. How could she not want to date me? he questions.  I’m maybe the best-looking, greatest athlete she will ever meet. It doesn’t make sense to Brad. The more she rejects him, the more he wants to get her to like him enough to go on a date, with the ultimate goal of course to score. What a victory that would be.

Trying to win Wendy over by talking to her directly has not worked for Brad. He comes to believe she simply does not like sports figures, and maybe if she can see him through different eyes, he will have a chance with her. Brad is too conceited to think maybe it is his personality she does not like. Maybe if she gets to know me in some other way, she will learn to like me, thinks Brad. This is when Brad develops his plan to try to win her over through someone else. Aaron Livingston seems like the perfect person to help him out.

Friday, November 13th, 2:15 pm

Sgt. Thomas walks into the detective's office.

“I think we have something,” he announces.

Both Walker and Baker look up with expressions that say, what is it?

“While talking with students from the school, Officer Ivey located a close friend of Wendy’s,” shares Thomas. “She found a student by the name of, let me see, I’ve got it written down. Here it is, Katy Anderson. According to Anderson, Wendy was supposed to meet a boy by the name of Aaron Livingston after orchestra practice, around five-thirty last night. Katy last saw Wendy as they were leaving practice.”

“Yeah, the Chief mentioned a student by the name of Aaron as someone we needed to talk to,” says Baker.

“Aaron Livingston?” repeats Walker. “Didn’t that ring we found in the grass have the initials of A.L.? Let me see that ring again.”

Sure enough, the gold ring found at the scene has the initials A.L. engraved on the top.

“I think we may have our first lead,” Baker says.

“I’m going back out to coordinate the neighborhood canvass to see if anyone saw anything suspicious last night,” Sgt. Thomas says as he walks out of the office.

Just then, Chief Cindy Carson walks in for an update. Walker explains to her the new information they’ve received and shows her the plastic bag containing the gold ring.

“Okay then, let’s get someone to track down this Aaron Livingston kid,” says Carson.

“I’ll work on that,” says Baker. “Don is leaving for the autopsy at three-thirty.”

Several minutes later, Officer Linda Ivey walks into the office with more detailed information. She had located and interviewed Wendy’s friend, Katy Anderson. Officer Ivey tells the detectives that according to Anderson, Wendy had been texting with some secret admirer for a week or so. Initially, the texts were anonymous, but eventually, they found out it was Aaron Livingston doing the texting. The texts were mostly about how he admired Wendy. He admitted to being shy around girls and wanted to meet her privately just to talk. Wendy was intrigued and flattered. Wendy knew who Aaron was and while she had not socialized with him, she somewhat knew him from a couple of classes they had together. He was studious like her and seemed like a nice guy. She even thought he was kind of cute. After a series of exchanges, Aaron asked Wendy to meet him Thursday after school. Aaron had also texted he had found her yellow scarf, which had been Wendy’s favorite scarf. Apparently, Wendy had lost the scarf on Tuesday of this week. Wendy suspected the scarf had been stolen from the cafeteria, but once Aaron said he found it, she figured it must have just been misplaced. Not only did Wendy want to get her scarf back, but she was curious to talk to Aaron in person. Maybe even a bit excited.

Wendy texted Aaron that she had orchestra practice on Thursday night, and it would probably be a long one, as they were getting ready for an upcoming concert. She could meet him around five-thirty. Aaron agreed, suggesting they meet out back beyond the courtyard near the creek and he would walk her home from there. Wendy typically took this path home anyway as it was shorter than going out the front of the school and walking back around in the direction of her home, so it seemed like a good place to meet. At that time of night, it would also give them some privacy.

Katy was a bit concerned given it would be getting dark by then, but certainly didn’t consider a shy introvert like Aaron to be any danger. Katy now wishes she would have gone out back with Wendy. Katy now suspects Aaron had indeed stolen the scarf as a means to get her to meet with him.

Thursday, November 5th

Brad finds Aaron sitting at his usual spot in the cafeteria with Timmy Goodman and Harold Best. They are just finishing up their