'a c r i m e - t i m e' story "The Iron-Army" THE FINAL CHAPTER written by- tomevans

'DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND "bruiex-thegreenman"

Chapter ten: The Final Chapter/ As Larry Koontz and his small group of agents gathered evidence from the salvage yard, and had the thunderbird seized for further investigation, he knew that all of this that had little significance, but he also knew that Roc Newman could not walk free, not after all the bloodshed and bodies buried all over Madison county. He had to keep fighting until something gave. On the drive back to headquarters, he wondered about the two bodies that had laid in the trunk of that old car. Knowing in his heart that somewhere two families grieve and search for answers. He wondered about the reasons why? He was just so confused about the death toll and the senseless reasons for the scattered bodies that had been spread all over Madison county. It bewildered him. There was no real evidence, no weapon, no eye witness's, norhing but a strange letter and that doesn't prove guilt. The writer of the letter could've killed the people he listed in the note. It was a frustrating case indeed. It was a puzzle with several pieces missing................

Winter slowly turned into spring, and for Terri Mills, her visions and her dreams seemed to continue, even more intense. She knew the truth about Tag, after all he was never seen again. She knew the same thing happened to Dennis. She knew through her dreams that June-bug had met with devestation and horror. She had sat back and watched the "Iron-Army" go up in flames, worst of all, she was robbed of her closest and best friend Valerie Campbell. Drugs and violence had ravaged the lives of so many people, but the true ring-leader was Roc Newman and Terri Mill's only mission in life was to find justice for her friend.

Time had erased 'hell-farm', it was now a developmental area, no longer was it a haven for harley-davidsons, hog-roasts, rock & roll concerts, and drink till you drop festivals. The homemade drugs had vanished, along with the clubhouse. The posse' of bikers' disappeared when Valerie Campbells death made the news, and most of them, although building a shield of protection around Roc, still knew in their hearts- the truth pointed at him and his ever growing temper, and they could see his drug-use had become way too over the edge. They slipped out and left the clubhouse at 'hell-farm', mostly to avoid confronting the entire Val situation. Not to mention that "The Iron-Army" was corroding and rapidly deteriorating...............

March 23, 1992: Terri Mills was awoken by a frightening dream. She looked up and at the foot of her bed stood a bloody Valerie Campbell, dripping of blood, holding a gun, and quietly whispering Terri's name. "Terri" The ghostly figure says, "Terri, Roc did this to me, you didn't forget the letter did you?" Valerie asked with a look of uneasy pain exuding from her eyes. "The letter Terri? I handed it to you at The Full Moon that friday night." Terri tried to focus on the outline of her best friend, standing before her, dripping of blood and speaking so peaceful, yet with a purpose. "I need you to get the letter Terri, I need you read it and I need you let me lead you someplace." Terri closed her eyes and opended them and Val was gone. Terri sat straight up in her bed, caught a breath, and jumped out of her bed and headed upstairs to the closet in the spare room where Val had stayed many nights. She pulled out a box that contained letters, photos, cards, keepsakes, and personal momento's. She pulled the letters from the box and began to look through each one, until finally she found the letter Val instructed her to find. It read:

Dear Terri" You have always been the best friend anyone could ask for and I'm sorry for crying on your shoulder, seems like the only time I ever talk to you is to tell you about my problems, which aren't your fault, they're my own. You have always been there for me, since we were little girls, you have been the best! I know I have really screwed up, royally, the drugs, getting involved in this stupid gang of thugs, but my biggest mistake by far is Roc. I can't escape him, he has threatened to kill me, and says he has killed before and he'll never let me go. He's mean to me. Hit's me around. Insults me, tries to swap me off to his buddies, and the drugs, it's a night and day thing. I want to break away, I want to come see you, start over, get my own life back, but he'd hunt me down and kill me and I can't drag you into it. You didn't put me in this position, I know you'd give me shelter, but this is what I chose and this is what I have to take. He has put a gun to my head several times and threatened to blow my brains out if I ever try to leave him. He insults me, ridicules me, and sometimes he just sits there and stares at me with the most evil look and says- "I could kill you and not think a thing about it." I think he wants to kill me. If I end up dead, he's the one who did it. You just need to know that if anything ever happens to me, I love you for eternity and I wish I would have listened to you. I mean, in the beginning, before the drugs and all of these bikers came along, Roc was a gentleman, he treated me like a lady. Now I'm cheated like a cheap pieace of trash. Oh well, keep me in your prayers. I love you sis, your friend forever, Val.

Terri clutched the letter and for reasons unknown, at 2:30 am. she got dressed and jumped into her car. Maybe it was because she couldn't sleep, maybe it was because some force was leading her someplace that she had yet to foresee. At any rate, she was driving, tears streaming down her face, and the silly song 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' was playing on her radio. It brought back many memories. She finally began to accept the reality that she could have saved Val from the drugs, she could have fought harder to keep her out of the circle of people that Val had got caught up in, she could have maybe stopped the demise that Val faced in the end of her young life. She missed her friend Val and justice just seemed to keep eluding her. As she drove and as the tears continued to well up in Terri Mills eyes, she realized that she had driven within a few feet of the spot, where just a couple of months earlier, she had stopped her car. Where the trees had stood still, but a cold chill blew and her car had rocked back & forth. She pulled over and parked her car. She got out and still gripping the letter that Val had written to her, she leaned against the car and looked behind her at the old bridge surrounded by the thick fog that was slowly creeping up from the creek bed as the sun began to rise. Ahead of her was just the empty road glowing in the light of the full moon. She listened to some music and shivered in the chilly air. Then, she heard it, a whisper, a quiet, gentle whisper coming from the other side of the car. She walked around the car and in her confusion and mystique, she looked down and there it was- the justice, the reason for her being out there. In a small batch of busted glass, lay a bullet casing, and she realized that this was where Val was shot. She reached down and picked up the casing, still holding onto the letter, knowing for sure, she had found the justice that Val had lead her to. As she circled her car, she could hear a distant rumble. She got in her car and proceeded forward to the lst turn-around, she backed her car out and headed back toward town. As she started to drive, she could see the headlight cutting through the fog as it crossed the old bridge. It was a motorcycle and it was cutting her off. She wondered who it could be at 3:00 in the morning- to her dismay, it was Roc Newman. "Well, well, strange that you'd be out here in the middle of nowhere. What are we a little detective?" He asked. "No, I just couldn't sleep, I was out riding around." she responded. "Hmmmmm, I don't think I believe you." She backed her car up and went around him in a manuever, just wanting to get away from the deranged killer. She was l0 miles from the city limits and at lst, it looked like he wasn't too interested in her anyway. But within a couple minutes, his bike was on her bumper and the roar of that harley engine added to her fear. Finally, she hit the city limits of Anderson and lost him a street light. She took a criss-cross pattern, and once again she thought she had lost him. She pulled up in front of her house, jumped out of her car, ran to her front door, fought with the lock, fumbling with her keys, gettting the door opened she fell into the doorway and crawled to the phone. She dialed 911/ "911", the dispatcher replied. "He'll be here any minute to kill me, just like Val, Dennis, Oh my God! The dispatcher tried desperately to get a response, but the sudden silence was replaced by 3 deafening gunshots & some sort of violent babble, a fit of rage- so to speak, then once again- silence.

The police found Terri Mills sitting in a chair, phone in one hand, a blood soaked letter in another hand. In a pocket of her blue jeans- a bullet casing. She had been shot in the head, the chest, and the abdomen. The room still wreaked of gunsmoke and fear. She knew her killer, and so did the law that was investigating the crime. "Where's Koontz?" One of the investigating officers asked. "He should be here any moment." At a stoplight 3 blocks for Terri Mills house, Larry Koontz and his partner pulled up beside Roc Newman. He looked over at them and immediately, without hesitation, drew his gun, before he could fire a single shot, Koontz and Finch (Officer Ted Finch) filled Newman full of bullet holes and Roc fell over, with his harley-davidson laying on top of him. He was dead. With him went alot of secrets.

The cold hard truth is Valerie Campbell, Tag MacDuff, Dennis Kootzer, Alice ?, Connie 'June-bug' Johnson, two teenagers probably never to be identified, and an old man buried behind an old schoolhouse on 450 E. are all victims of the man that lay dead in the middle of Columbia, st. He took alot of answers with him, but the murder and death is over, and 'hell-farm' went from biker land to burial ground, Roc Newman is gone now and his legacy is simply that of a cold-blooded serial killer..........................

peace/ tomevans:

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