The Nightmare at the Halloween Party

I have been a university professor all my adult life. My kids have been along for the ride. I teach international students, and my kids love spending time with my students. However, there was a time that it turned into a nightmare. You see, one of my students from an unnamed poorer country decided to change his major from Enlgish to Theology. He had come as an English major, become a Christian, and then decided he wanted to serve God as a preacher. The secret that people didn't know was that this very good looking, charismatic, seemingly pure young man carried with him a secret from his past in his own country. He was known as a ladies' man. The girls where we were also chased him, but he had been wise and kept them at arms length while still enjoying their company. He wasn't so wise before he came and was a literal James Bond or Don Juan type ladies' man. Girls couldn't keep their hands off him, and he didn't make them in his country. Where we were, when he stood up to speak it was like Elivis Presely singing, and the girls swooned, but no one ever knew him to take advantage of these girls. They all thought he was as pure as the driven snow. However, my daughter and this young man had become very good friends, and she had learned who he had been in his country. This young man wasn't so worried because he trusted my daughter and asked her to keep her mouth shut because she could ruin his future. She had told no one.

We had a Halloween party at our house one evening that was completely overshadowed by all this. The students were all coming on buses and in the subway. Some of them didn't know how to find our house. My daughter loved to give parties! It just so happened the above mentioned young man couldn't come to the party because he was in a special class that evening at the university, but many of his close friends were coming. My daughter was in the kitchen still preparing things for her party. Her phone rang and they asked someone to come to the station and meet them because they didn't know how to get from the station to our house. She was busy, so she asked me to go. I went out the door and headed for the station to get the students.

I met the group of students, and just as I met them, my daughter's boyfriend got of the bus, and he came with us. They were all excited about dressing up for Halloween and couldn't wait to see what kind of food was going to be served. I was dressed as a witch, but I wasn't wearing my hat as I walked with them so as not to draw too much attention to myself. My daughter's boyfriend was dressed as William Tell, all in green, carrying a bow and arrow. One of the boys was dressed as a cowboy. Where he got the hat, I don't know. One girl was dressed like a cat. Some of them didn't have costumes, but they wanted to come anyway. All the students hadn't arrived yet. This was just one group. We knew the group that was coming later knew their way because they had been to our house many times.

We walked down the narrow roads between the shops and apartment buildings until we came to a quieter neighborhood which happened to be ours. I opened the front door, and we all went into the living room. My daughter's boyfriend went looking for her. He found her in the middle of the kitchen floor with blood all over her and a bloody knife on the floor next to her. He began yelling, and I ran into the kitchen followed by the students. She said, "Dave's...," and then she passed out! Was she dead? Surely not! One of the students called 911 as my daughter's boyfriend tried to comfort me.

 The police arrived first. There was a fat detective with a big black mustache wearing a black suit and a crazy looking hat. He told everyone to back away from the body, and he closed the kitchen off. The paramedics came running in, and they looked at my daughter and decided they could save her if they got her to the hospital right away. They loaded her into the ambulance, but they wouldn't let me go. The cops wanted to ask everyone questions. No one was allowed to leave. About that time, the second group of students showed up, two of Dave's best friends and a couple of girls. They were shocked to see what they found!

The fat policeman with the mustache got out a notebook saying he needed to interview one person at a time. He took one person at a time into the other room asking questions and the other policemen ruffled around my house looking for clues. 

Each person had to give an account of their where abouts before we found the body. There was a whole group of students with me including my daughter's boyfriend walking from the station together, so we all gave one another alibies because it was the truth.

The two boys who just came in heard that she had said, "Dave's..." just before she passed out, and it worried them because they were good friends with Dave. They thought they were going to be implicated. They were also worried because one had traveled on the bus with the girls, and the other had traveled alone and met them at the bus station. The boys began lying. They were both afraid of being implicated! The girls who were with them were also afraid, and the girls gave one another an alibi, but they refused to give one to either of the boys even though one of the boys had been with them. The boys were squirming. They gave one another alibies, but the police could tell they were lying. The boys were scared!

Someone suggested that we call Dave and find out if he was actually in class. I called Dave, and he had no idea what was happening at our house. I also called his teacher, and he confirmed that Dave had been in class. It wasn't Dave. He had been in a whole room of people at the university at the time of the attempted murder. We began asking, "Why would anyone want to kill her?" She is so sweet and good, and everyone loved her. The police were still searching for clues and looking for a motive. Dave's two buddies were under suspicion because the police knew they were lying.

The police found a plane ticket stub in the floor for a plane ticket that had been used. It must have fallen from someone's pocket. It was from Dave's country. After that, they found a stack of letters addressed to Dave from all the different girls at the party professing their undying love for him. The collected letters were in my daughter's room at her desk. They also found a series of e-mails on my daughter's computer. They were from Dave's brother to my daughter, and from my daughter to Dave's brother. As the police read the emails, they put the story together. My daughter knew Dave's secret, that he had been a real Don Juan back in his country, every girls' lover. His charisma had always brought girls to him. Now that he was a Christian, he had slowed it all down, but my daughter thought it was wrong for someone like him to become a preacher, and Dave's brother knew. He was writing to her begging her not to reveal his brother's secret. Dave's family was extremely proud of him and his great transformation. They could see him making a lot of money as a preacher, and they were very poor. My daughter had sent an email to Dave's brother saying that she was going to announce what Dave' had done at the party, and Dave's brother was begging her not to tell. After that, the emails stopped. 

When they fingerprinted the knife, they didn't have the fingerprints on file anywhere. They fingerprinted everyone at the party. No one at the party fit the fingerprints. They fingerprinted the plane ticket stub too, and realized it had the same fingerprints on it that were on the knife. They called the airport and figured out who had bought the ticket. It was Dave's brother, but where was he? He had tried to stop my daughter from revealing Dave's secret. He had come into the house while she was alone and stabbed her leaving her for dead knowing she couldn't tell his brother's secret. The police had an idea. They called the airport and asked if there were any flights going out to Dave's country that evening, and they confirmed that there had been, but they were all gone. They asked to be sent a copy of the passenger list. Dave's brother's name was on the list. He was gone back to his country, no longer in the country.

The students were relieved that none of them got arrested for the attempted murder of my daughter. My daughter recovered and came home from the hospital. When we told Dave what happened, he felt so bad and was in complete shock! He could only apologize. Now, we all knew this good looking, charismatic guy was not what everyone had thought he was, but it was in the past, and he was forgiven for his past. He went on to become a very popular preacher, but he never went home to live where his brother lived again.