Chapter 2
The Itch
Mitchell Carrington had had a problem for a long time, one that would have been noticed if those closest to him had been paying attention. His problem was not knowing. That internal itch that only answers can scratch. Mitchell had no answers, and he had four years without relief.
One question haunted him more than any other. What had happened to Winnie?
He could still see her, that night. His daughter, his thirteen-year-old daughter, lying in the hotel room bed, sleeping. Her long blonde hair spread across the white pillow. Her chest rising and sinking as she breathed.
Breathing... did she still do that?
Was she alive?
If so, where was she?
Where did she go?
Those questions caused an itch under Mitchell's skin whenever he had a moment of quiet.
Where?
Why?
She had been there sleeping, when he had flipped the wall switch and the room had gone dark.
Then the following morning when Mitchell had turned the same switch back on.
She was gone.
But not the dark.
The darkness had stayed ever since.
Her weeks' worth of clothing was still hanging in the back corner of the room, across from the bathroom. Her bookbag and Walkman still sat beside her bed the way that it had when he had cut the lights out and gone to sleep.
Nothing was gone the next morning except for Winnie.
Mitchell told the officers about the fight Winnie had with his ex-wife.
He told them about the call he'd gotten from Winnie. She was in tears. The only thing that she asked of him was to take her on the road for a week or two so she could get away from home for a while.
To get away from the constant bickering for awhile.
Those shorts are too short!
No they're not!
That lipstick is too much!
But all of the other girls wear it.
The thing that had brought on the tears and the call.
Her mother's last stinging words.
"You look like a whore!"
Just those five hurtful words and the sound of Winnie crying into the receiver got Mitchell Carrington into his car for the three-hour drive to Florence.
It was summer. No school would be missed, and the thought of his daughter spending time, other than a day when he came home on the weekend, thrilled him.
He would have gone anyway in the morning, but she needed him.
And his Winnie was all he had.
A month later, her bed was empty in the morning.
The hardest thing Mitchell ever had to do wasn't calling Winnie's mother the morning he found Winnie's bed empty.
It was leaving the small town of Cliffside when the job finally ended... without Winnie.
The job had lasted over a year, seven months of that year after Winnie's disappearance.
He had left without Winnie.
He had left without answers.
He left with an itch.
Four years went by.
Mitchell went from job to job, hotel to hotel, always hoping and praying that he would find her.
Mitchell had worked several times in North Carolina since he had lost Winnie, once in Clyde, a few times in Siler City, but never close to Cliffside.
Never close to where she had disappeared.
When Jimmy Allen asked Mitchell if he wanted to go on another crew, or if going on another job in Cliffside would present a problem for him, Mitchell said no.
He lied.
Shane Miller on Mitchell Carrington After the Incident at the River Weave Plant:
"When I first met Mitchell Carrington I was working in Cliffside at the Yarn Mill for Jennings. I had been working for Ray Wilson up at Isom Landings. Jennings needed the extra help, so they sent me and Curt."
It was break, and everybody always took break in the trailer. I was working as Curt's helper back then. Man I was so green. Mitchell and Curt knew each other.
Mitchell walked up and started shooting the shit with Curt. Mitchell was wearing like six heavy gaudy gold chains around his neck, a black tank top, khaki pants, and camouflage combat boots.
They talked about ten minutes. Then Curt went into the trailer's office and called the shop in Greenville.
Mitchell started talking to me, and all I wanted to do was get the hell away from him. I thought this guy is out of his fucking mind.
(Shane starts laughing. He laughs until he cries.)
He starts telling me about how the night before he'd picked up some "lot lizard" and was fucking her in the ass.
Mitchell grabbed the tool box in front of him and pretended that it was her, so I could get the picture. He was eating a bologna and cheese sandwich while he was doing her. He said that he would take a bite then lay it down on her hips so he could give her a good hard pump every now and then. After they were done she yelled at him for getting mustard and mayo on her ass.
I thought, poor guy didn't know if he was hungry or horny.
I just wanted to get away from him. It was just a bit much for a first conversation.
Don't get me wrong, I like Mitchell, excuse me.
(Shane gets choked up)
(Shane, through tears.)
I liked Mitchell.