Ron Wesselmann, Wesselmann’s Corner Store owner
“I just feel for his folks, I do. Them good people. See them at church every Sunday. Well, at least did before it happened. Haven’t seen them since.
“But no, them just good solid townsfolk. Hope they get through this all right. Hope people don’t blame them for what David did.
“I’m sure they would have raised him right. I mean Culla, his older brother, he turned out fine. Granted, I ain’t had much to do with him now he’s moved out of town, though I ain’t never heard of anyone with an issue with him. But I guess sometimes good trees can bear bad fruit, right?
“That’s really the only way I can explain it. Now, was there anything I can get you while you in here? Tammy, my wife, she bakes the pies herself, best in the state I can tell you that much.”
Susan Knowles, former teacher at St Johns College (now retired)
“I’ve been thinking a lot about whether we should have seen it in him, about whether there was something we could have done to help him. I know not a lot of people will have any sympathy for him, but you don’t do something like that unless your seriously damaged.
“So, I suppose I’ve been trying to rack my mind to understand if that damage occurred when he was attending St Johns. If he was already on this path when he was with us, I didn’t notice, but maybe I should have. Maybe if I had noticed we could have gotten him the help he needed or done something. I don’t know. It’s hard to see a situation like this and not think someone could have intervened.
“But hard as I’ve been trying to remember, I don’t think David was too different to the other students I taught. I would have taught hundreds in my time at St Johns. Some of them you worry about. David wasn’t one of them, but he was… I don’t know.
“Maybe looking back with what I know now makes gives a sinister tone to my memories. He wasn’t a bad student, like I said, I’ve had far worse. But there were times when he seemed detached. Or maybe that’s not the right word. David was bright enough but sometimes he seemed apathetic. Not distracted, like a lot of kids are at that age, but just uncaring – not really concerned about anything academic or social, or anything really.
“Maybe that should have worried me more than it did. But he was never particularly difficult or disruptive or caused any trouble. Except, of course, for that one time with Dexter Martin.”
Walker Thomas, David’s friend
“Yeah, I never knew what Dexter did to piss David off so bad. David was always a target at school. The others knew I’d fight back, so when they said stuff about me, they did it behind my back. But with David they knew they could say and do just about anything to him and he wouldn’t retaliate. Course, they’re the same folk who are now saying David was always a bad kind. They’re full of it though, they were much worse – gave David all kind of grief.
“Dexter though, never saw him do anything towards David. He was a couple of years below us, and even though we were kind of the punching bags for a lot of the other kids, it tended to come from kids who were in our class or occasionally from the years above.
“Maybe Dexter said or did something fairly minor to David and that just happened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. You can only keep absorbing that kind of crap for so long, sooner or later you’re going to snap. Maybe Dexter just happened to be there at the wrong time.
“I didn’t see it start, but I tell you what, it was no mean feat pulling David off Dexter. I was always a few inches taller than David, even back then, but he was surprisingly strong, at least, he was when he was angry, and when I hauled him off Dexter he was seething. It was lucky for Dexter I was there though, David seemed pretty keen on turning his face to jelly.
“He never told me what Dexter did to provoke him. I remember asking him point blank why he had been so hell bent on breaking his knuckles on Dexter’s face. He just told me to forget about it. I always wondered though if it was something to do with Maisie though. David always had a crush on her, and I think around then she and Dexter had a thing going. I remember David telling me he was planning to ask her out. I tried to talk him out of it without being as blunt as telling him she would laugh it his face then probably joke about it with all her friends. Pretty sure David never asked her, so I must’ve gotten the message across.
“We didn’t see each other much after school. I was working nights at the factory while he was working days at the abattoir, so we just kind of drifted apart a little. The odd time I did see him around town though he was still same old David. Still a friend. People might think I’m mad for saying that after all that’s happened, but screw them, they don’t know shit.”
Odette Wells, mother of Carson Wells (victim #1).
“Don’t listen to a word that Thomas boy said. He was always trouble. Once caught him slashing the tyres of a car near the corner store. Little devil didn’t even know whose car it was. That was just his idea of fun. I would have reported him to sheriff, but I didn’t out of sympathy to his mother. You know her husband died from an infection – was the result of some kind of accident he had in the factory. I didn’t want to create more trouble for her.
“That was some ten years ago now, but I sure don’t believe that Thomas boy has changed a jot, he’s just gotten bigger.
“What he said about David is a load of rubbish too. I always said he and David was trouble, didn’t I, Ron. Never liked Carson being round those boys, but in a small town like this you can’t really do much about that.
“You know, I wish David hadn’t killed himself before the police got there. Would have liked to see him cook on the electric chair. Don’t look at me like that, you heard what he did to my boy, the chair would have been the least he deserved, and you could have bet I would be there to see him fry.”
Earl Bailey, On the Road Automotive Repairs owner
“Yeah, David had been apprenticing here for a couple of months. Quick learner you know, would’ve been a solid mechanic.
“He told me he couldn’t stand the smell of the abattoir, said the stench of pig carcass lingered in his nose even after he got home. Guess after that, going home with the smell of oil in your nose ain’t too bad.
“I wasn’t sure of him when I first took him on. There was times when I would tell him something and I wasn’t really sure it was getting through to him. Had that kind of zoned out stare that some people have – usually older folk mind you. But after a couple of weeks, I realised that what I was telling him was getting through, so I started giving him a few more responsibilities, even let him lock up at the end of the day a couple of times that final week.
“What can I say? I just didn’t see it in him. Maybe I’m an old fool, but I… I don’t know. David could sometimes get peoples hackles up. He would sometimes say things that most normal folk would see but would have the good sense not to say anything about. I don’t think it was David was intentionally being impolite, but some people took it that way.
“Still, even if he was, it’s a hell of a long way to go from being impolite to skinning folk and whatever other heinous stuff he supposedly did. You know I heard he hung’em on meat hooks he stole from the abattoir. Hooked ‘em just below the collar bone and left them their hanging in that old barn whilst they was still alive.
“That’s what I heard anyway. Me, I’m not too sure of it. That just doesn’t line up with the David I knew. Given, there were folk who knew him better, but the last three months I would have seen him as much as anyone, and I’m meant to believe during that time he’s going off at the end of the day and cutting strips of skin off some poor innocent folks hangin’ in his uncle’s old barn.
“I should probably stop runnin’ my mouth before it gets me in any trouble. Wouldn’t be the first time that happened and it won’t be the last. I’m just saying, I didn’t see it in him.”
Kip Driscoll, Royal’s Service Station attendant
“I’m sorry sir, I don’t know if I got a lot to say. All I know I already told the sheriff. Helped him as much as I could, but I don’t think I that was all that much.
“Yeah, I guess I was the last one to see David alive. That’s what the sheriff said anyways. Kind of makes me feel a little uncomfortable if I’m honest with you sir.
“Can’t say I really knew him all that well, although my sister, Maisie, she was in the same class as him at school, maybe you should talk to her about him. Actually, she probably would rather you not. Forget I mentioned it.
“I could always tell when it was David drivin’ in to get some fuel though. His truck always made this coughing sound when it rumbled in. He said he was going to get Mr. Bailey to have a look at it now he was apprenticing for him. Said he reckoned it was something wrong with the exhaust. Guess he never got around to it though.
“Yeah, he came in here on Sunday. Didn’t have much to say. He almost always got some licorice with his fuel, but this time he just paid for the fuel. Paid over actually. Told me to keep the change for myself. Guess he knew what he was going to do, knew he didn’t need no money where he was going.
“The sheriff was saying that he probably used the truck to cart the victims off to the barn. They didn’t find any blood or nothin’ in the back, but they reckon he might have wrapped ‘em in a tarp and driven them off there while they were unconscious or bound. Gives me the creeps to think there could have been times when he came in and filled up here with someone lying in the back. Sheriff said I should try not to think about that, but it’s hard not to.
“One thing I have been wonderin’ is why I wasn’t one of them. The people he did all those things to, the sheriff was saying he seemed to just take people at random, that he just had passing connections to the victims and that they hadn’t actually wronged him in anyway.
“And that gets me thinking. There was nights when he came in here to fill up and it was just me manning the station. If he wanted to grab someone without being seen than I would have been the perfect target – late at night, on the edge of town, certainly wouldn’t have been any witnesses. But I guess there isn’t really anyway to know what someone who does something like that is thinking, is there?
“There isn’t really a lot more I can say though. I should probably get back to the counter sir.”
Lyall Beckett, Harris Meats Abattoir manager
“We get a lot of boys come through here. Most only last a few months, if that. This generation doesn’t really have the stomach for hard work. They think showing up is enough. They never had that work ethic knocked into them like we did.
“I didn’t have a whole heap to do with David, which probably means he was one of the better workers. Have you spoken to Earl? He could probably tell you more.
“You have? Well, I wouldn’t really have much to add.
“Only thing of note was one time we did think he was stealing from us. Yeah, we thought he had taken a bunch of the meat hooks. When I asked him about it, he looked guilty as hell. At first, he said he didn’t know anything about what happened to them. He wasn’t a good liar, but he was determined to avoid telling the truth until I let him know we’d have to fire him if he didn’t own up. That’s when he let it slip that Walker Thomas had stolen them. David didn’t want to tell me because Walker was his friend. I suggested he should find some better friends, but I don’t think he ever took my advice. “No, we never reported Walker for it. Pretty sure he just climbed in though one of the windows, it’s not exactly Fort Knox here. But I didn’t think reporting it would do much good, you know, not with Walker’s uncle being the sheriff and all.”
Klaus Nannestad is a media advisor living in Victoria, Australia. He has previously had short stories feature in Theme of Absence, Defenestration, Little Old Lady Comedy and Darkfire Magazine.
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