Beyond This Place

My favorite story about what happened to Debbie Key is "Bad Dream House" by John Allore. During our Halloween weekend I have learned that John had written a sequel to the story. It is called "Beyond This Place," and the first chapter now appears in his WKT? blog.

http://theresaallore.com/?bloggerURL=/.com/

Below is a sample of the first chapter, edited by me.
(...) indicates where I left out sentences.

(You don't have to tell me I'm biased because I already know that, but I also want to make it shorter for this post)
------------------------------------------------------------

I live in a house once inhabited by a psychopath. (...) Each day there are a dozen little things reminding me that Deborah Key – the young woman who was most likely murdered by the former owner of our home – is still missing. Working in the garden, I’ll unearth some artifact belonging to the former owners. Inevitably, it will be some weapon or instrument of torture – an arrow, a spear, the broken blade from a sword. One time I found a gigantic hunting knife with brown stains on the blade. (...) Another time I found the remains of a dismembered Barbie doll.

Last year my wife started a business; a children’s resale shop in downtown Carrboro. Carrboro is a little bedroom community of Chapel Hill in North Carolina. My wife’s shop is cute. She has a lot of nice stuff. (...) As fate would have it, my wife rented the space where the bar Sticks and Stones was formerly located. The same Sticks and Stones where Deborah Key was last seen alive. Every day after work I pull into the parking lot to pick up the kids. I always park in the spot where Deborah was last seen kissing Andrew Dalzell against the hood of her car. Deborah’s mother placed a small memorial on the spot with flowers and a plaque. It’s nice that it’s there to remind me. Just in case I forgot.

Not long ago I got another call from our local police. Deborah Key’s body still had not been recovered. Chief Henderson wanted to return and search our property. This time they weren’t bringing a cadaver dog; they were bringing a psychic.

I don’t understand this “psychic” business. They always seem to be able to see everything that is totally extraneous. They do everything but the one thing police ask them to do: solve the crime. (...)

“She had a vision that Deborah’s body was in a place with woods and a lake.”

(...) That was the thing, it wasn’t a gimmick; my friend had done it. It was amazing. She had a conversation through the medium with her dead relatives. It was creepy. There were details this medium knew about my friend’s life that only people who had “passed” could have known – little pieces of knowledge that no one could find through deception. My friend came to a conclusion. Either the medium was really a psychic and she was reading your mind; or it was for real, and she talked to the dead. My friend suggested I arrange for a consultation with my sister. The medium charged two hundred dollars an hour. I said I’d think about it.

On the weekend I phone my parents and ask them about the medium. They say, why not? I talk with my brother. He can’t think of a reason not to do it either. Curious. I was hoping one of them would stop me. At Barnes & Noble I “inadvertently” wind up in front of the New Age section. My medium’s staring at me from the cover of her book. What’s going on here?
--------------------------------------------------------------
IN OTHER NEWS:

Today is the day the trial begins for Curtis Lavelle Vance, who last year murdered TV news anchor Anne Pressly in Little Rock, Arkansas. I plan to keep up with this case.

Here is some more news on the prison release issue.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6304543/

Tomorrow will be the 31-year anniversary of the murder of Theresa Allore - November 3, 1978.

Also on this day, 3 years ago, Michelle Young was killed near Raleigh, NC - November 3, 2006.