Dark Places

This chapter begins the day before the massacre. Patty Day struggles to deal with her son, Ben, 15, who has been acting strange recently. He talks on the phone almost all day but will not tell anyone to whom he is talking. Weeks earlier, he had requested his own phone line, and when Patty refused, he got a line splitter and strung a phone cord down the hall and into his room. Ben has become secretive; he put a padlock on his bedroom door, which is always locked. Patty thinks Ben is reasonable to protect his privacy; with three younger sisters whose things litter the house, his room is his only space. Patty sympathizes with him being the only male in the house: “The farmhouse had gone girly in the years since Runner left. The curtains, the couches, even the candles were all apricot and lace” (18). Still, his behavior makes her nervous.

The three daughters are Michelle, 10; Debby, 9; and Libby, 7. Michelle is bossy, and she and Debby have a “boss and assistant” relationship (19). They exclude Libby, and Libby acts out: That morning, when Michelle and Debby are making a snow fort, Libby gets angry, screams, and knocks the fort over. This behavior exasperates Patty, who is not in the mood for the fighting that follows.

Patty is concerned about the farm’s debt. She is three years behind on the loan, and every morning she prays for the strength to get through the day. She walks on eggshells around Ben, always trying not to upset him while managing her three unruly daughters.

Ben comes downstairs wearing black combat boots, black clothing, and a thermal hat. Patty convinces Ben to have breakfast with the family, and when she asks him to remove his hat, he reveals dyed black hair. The change shocks his family: he, Patty, and Libby have bright red hair, and Patty feels that in dyeing his hair, he is rejecting her. Libby is the only sibling with whom Ben is close, but even she finds his new hair disturbing. Patty tries not to overreact, but Ben stomps out without eating breakfast. After he leaves, Libby declares, “He hates us” (22).

Five days after meeting with Lyle, Libby goes to the Kill Convention, which is held in an abandoned building in Kansas City’s old industrial district. A doorman questions her about her identity before leading her down into the cavernous basement that houses the convention. The large space is divided into rows of booths, and about 200 people, mostly men, swarm around the tables. The doorman hands Libby off to Lyle, who apologizes for the man’s rudeness. Lyle guides Libby through the crowd, explaining that most of the people there are “solvers,” people who believe they can solve both closed and unsolved cases. Others are role players, people who dress up like murderers and other real-life characters. One of the ongoing mysteries Lyle mentions is a serial killer nicknamed the Angel of Debt: “They think he’s like a Kevorkian for people who have bad credit and good life insurance” (34). At this point, the Angel of Debt is merely a speculation: No one knows for sure if someone is murdering people with financial difficulties to help their families get life insurance money.

Libby finds the convention’s atmosphere disgusting. She is barely five feet tall, and the men tower over her, bumping into her without noticing. A role player at one booth tries to grab Libby, and she tries to punch him and misses. She tries to knock over his table, but Lyle pulls her away. On their way through the crowd, Lyle gives Libby an envelope containing her appearance fee. Lyle explains that the women who come to the conventions identify with the victims. At one booth, a group of women crowd around a laptop, reading a website about Lisette Stephens. Lisette’s case is strange because there are no obvious suspects, such as a boyfriend, husband, or disgruntled coworker. Libby is jealous that Lisette’s case gets so much attention.

A sign for Lyle’s booth reads: “Talk About a Bad Day! The Kinnakee Kansas Farmhouse Massacre—Case Dissection and a Special, Special GUEST!!!” (28-29). Lyle says the people in the group are serious fans of her family’s case. The group consists of 12 people, one of whom is a frizzy-haired woman with a stack of folders. Lyle introduces Libby, and Libby soon realizes they think she lied about her testimony. They interrogate her, saying she could not have seen the things she claimed to have witnessed because she was hiding. The popular opinion is that Runner is the real killer; he tried to get money from Patty and failed, then went berserk and killed the family. One man interjects: “I mean, the guy was crazy, right?” (37). They believe that whatever happened was a result of an unknown incident that happened on January 2, 1985, the day leading up to the murder.

An old man in the group states the facts of the case: “Michelle Day was strangled; Debby Day died of axe wounds, Patty Day of two shotgun wounds, axe wounds, and deep cuts from a Bowie hunting knife” (36). Libby “escaped the killer or killers through a window in her mother’s room” (36). Ben’s alibi was that he had left the house after an argument with his mother and was sleeping in a neighbor’s barn when the murders occurred, but his story could not be corroborated. There were rumors that Ben was a Satan worshipper, and Satanic symbols had been smeared on the walls in Patty’s blood. Though little physical evidence linked Ben to the crime, the rumors and Libby’s testimony were enough to convict him.

Libby stands by her testimony and says that Ben has never filed an appeal, nor has he tried to get out of prison. Magda, the frizzy-haired woman, claims that Libby is a liar; she corresponds with Ben and says he is a “force of hope” (38). The conversation brings up painful memories for Libby. She sees a photo of Debby’s massacred body and thinks of a time when Debby braided her hair. She expected the group to be supportive, but they were dismissive and disrespectful. She storms out, glad that she has her money.

At home, she admits to herself that she did not actually see what happened to her family that night; she heard it because she was hiding in the closet. She recounts the events of the night: It was cold, and her sister Debby was sleeping with her in bed. Libby wakes up and steps over Michelle, who is sleeping on the floor. Libby goes to her mom’s bedroom and gets in bed.

She can hear frantic voices coming from Ben’s room. Her mother wakes up and hugs her, and Libby falls asleep. Later, she wakes to hear her mother and Ben arguing and the sound of an axe slicing the air. Ben yells at her mother: “Why’d you make me do this?” as he butchers her and Debby (42). Libby is hiding in the closet in her mother’s room as she listens to her mother and Debby’s screams, the axe slicing, and the shotgun shots. When she hears Ben’s footsteps coming toward her, she jumps out the window (the room is on the ground floor) and runs toward the pond. She hides there in the snow while Ben searches for her with a flashlight. Finally, he moves off; she hides outside for the rest of the night. In the morning, frostbitten, she returns to find a gruesome scene: her mother and sister’s hacked bodies in the living room; blood, hair, and Satanic symbols smeared on the walls; broken bottles, food, and the bloody axe. She looks for Michelle and finds her body upstairs, strangled. Libby calls her aunt Diane and hides in the kitchen until she arrives. At the hospital, the doctors remove three of Libby’s toes and part of her ring finger.

Libby decides to take advantage of the “Day enthusiasts” and use them as a source of income (44). They had asked her to find Runner and talk to Ben’s friends. She knows they will pay her to do so and that she can access information that they cannot.

Ben rides his bike on a frozen dirt bike trail and falls, hitting his head on the hard ground. Blood rushes down his face from the wound, and the word “annihilation” springs into his mind (46). He briefly thinks about Vikings and axes before getting back on his bike.

As he rides, he thinks about his girlfriend, Diondra. She is rich and lives in a big house near the edge of town. Ben works at his family’s farm during the week and works as a janitor at the school on weekends. He thinks his mother should sell the farm; he resents having to share his paycheck with her and does not understand why she had three more children when she “could barely afford the first one” (48). He hears something rattling in his bike and laments that his father never taught him how to fix anything. He knows how to hunt, like the rest of his family, but feels emasculated because Patty is a better shot than he is. He fantasizes about living in an apartment in Wichita with Diondra, who is 17. He would work at the sporting goods store her uncle owned out there and come home to see her watching soap operas and smoking her menthol cigarettes. They would eat Taco Bell or McDonald’s, and she would laugh and talk about her nails and put makeup on him, as she liked to do. Ben feels bad, knowing this is a fantasy he can never have. Again, he thinks “annihilation” and pictures screaming and massacred bodies around him.

Libby admits she has a habit of stealing. When she goes to parties, she steals things from the house, out of people’s purses, and sometimes the purses themselves: She likes objects that tell other people’s stories.

She does not like items that tell her own family’s story. She keeps a box of letters and belongings in her house but never looks at them. One such item is a book written about the murders, Devil’s Harvest: The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee Kansas. The author, Barb Eichel, wrote the true-crime novel in 1986, after Ben’s conviction. Boyfriends have gifted Libby copies of the book in the past, and when they did, she dumped them. Now, she wants to read the book to get details from an expert who believes Ben is guilty. That way, she has counterpoints for Lyle and his group. She reads the book while her old cat, Buck, watches. After reading a few pages, Libby calls Barb, and right away, Barb apologizes for writing the book: She, too, now believes Ben is innocent.

Libby goes to Barb’s house in Topeka for lunch to discuss the book. On the drive, Libby remembers going to Topeka for psychiatric counselling when she was a child. Barb is thin, with spiky gray hair and “funky” glasses with a beaded chain (55). They eat lunch in Barb’s overstuffed living room, and Barb tells Libby that, unfortunately, she got caught up in the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. She bought into the story of Ben being a Satanist because he liked heavy metal. It took Barb 10 years to realize the case’s red flags. When Libby asks what she means, Barb replies, “Um, like the fact that you were clearly coached, that you were in no way a credible witness, that the shrink they had assigned to you, to quote ‘draw you out’ was just putting words into your head” (56). Barb reminds Libby of Runner’s flimsy alibi and his suspicious girlfriend. The crime scene was compromised: There was a bloody footprint from a man’s dress shoe that remains a mystery. Barb assumes Libby has come because she is trying to prove Ben’s innocence. She tells Libby that only new evidence, like DNA, could earn him an appeal. She asks if Libby has officially recanted her testimony, but Libby does not reply.

Libby sees self-help books on Barb’s bookshelves and thinks about how much she hates them. Having stolen a blue heart-shaped paperweight, she leaves, promising to call Barb.

Patty finds the remnants of a black hair dye kit in the bathroom and purple stains in the sink from Ben dyeing his hair the previous night. She thinks it is sad a teenager did something like that alone; she recalls her older sister, Diane, piercing Patty’s ears in that same bathroom when they were children. Patty misses Diane and wishes she would visit; Diane is no-nonsense and can always keep Patty from worrying. She’ll say that Ben is just being a kid, and there’s nothing to worry about. Patty still worries about the music Ben listens to, heavy metal with Satanic-sounding lyrics.

Patty, 32, sees her reflection in the mirror and realizes how old she looks. She is bony, with a wrinkled forehead and wiry, white-streaked red hair. She thinks about Runner turning up at the farm the previous summer after being gone for three years. He stayed and helped out for a few months but eventually left after stealing her liquor and cash. They had gotten married in 1974, when Patty was 17 and pregnant with Ben. They took over the farm from Patty’s aging parents but couldn’t maintain it. The neighboring farmers watched Runner buy expensive new equipment he couldn’t afford, and then they bought it at half price when the Days auctioned it off a few years later.

A car pulls into the driveway, and Patty hopes it’s Diane. It turns out to be Len Werner, her loan officer. Len hugs Patty too long and calls her his “farm girl” (65). She dreads Len’s visits: She knows he wants to make a pass at her, and he always comes bearing bad news. He tells her the bank is going to foreclose on the house and that she is out of options. To save the farm, she needs money, not pride. Patty hears the squeaking of the girls bouncing on the bed in the next room; Len smiles and asks how badly Patty wants to keep the farm.

Libby plans her next steps in reaching out to people involved in her family’s case; Barb had sent her a box of items—newspaper clippings, old photos, and a video from the 80s called Threat to Innocence: Satanism in America—but none of it was helpful. Libby does not have an internet connection at home and is generally disorganized. She knows she needs Lyle’s help. She calls Lyle, and he apologizes profusely for the way his group treated her; Libby can tell he is sincere.

Lyle is tall, and when they meet at the bar, he bends down awkwardly to hug Libby. He is in his early 20s and dresses in a retro 80s style: He wears a denim jacket with pins that say “Rock the Vote” and “Don’t Drink and Drive” (72). They discuss whom Libby might try to contact. Lyle mentions Runner, and Libby recalls an incident when, as a prank, Runner threw a live catfish in the bathtub while Libby was taking a bath. No one could use the tub for three days because he was too lazy to kill it. He would send Libby cheap gifts for several years after the murder, truck stop trinkets from different states. Back then, he was drunk, unstable, and lived in a cabin in the hills of Kinnakee. Runner is the top suspect, but neither Libby nor Lyle believe he is smart enough to have pulled off the murders.

Lyle suggests she visit Ben in prison and ask why he has never appealed his conviction. Libby would like to believe that Ben is innocent, but she has avoided thinking about him for decades and is not ready to confront him. She thinks about the outrageousness of her trying to investigate a murder that she witnessed, but she has come to doubt her seven-year-old self’s memory. Finally, she agrees to go see Ben and tells Lyle she needs $300. Lyle has the cash on hand: He is the Kill Club’s treasurer and is using discretionary funds for this project.