Don’t Look Behind You

started to run. He caught up with her within a few feet and led her back to the bedroom. “Try that again and you’ll both get hurt,” he growled.
    She watched in amazement as he removed a Polaroid camera from the black case. Then he placed the pillowcase over her head; she could see only vague outlines. The man removed her slacks, blouse, and bra and ordered her to stand, wearing only her panties, next to the dresser. She could hear the click and whirr of the camera. He was taking pictures of her!
    Then he rustled through the drawers of the dresser until he found some panties he liked better. “Change into these,” he ordered, handing them to her.
    If she had any hope that he was merely a picture freak, a man with some kind of weird fetish, that hope was dashed. He closed the drapes tightly, and she could see through the thin weave of the pillow case that he was unzipping his jeans.
    “Spread your legs more,” he demanded. Then he raped her.
    When he was finished with her, Linda pleaded, “Leave—just leave!”
    “No, I have to tie you up.”
    That frightened her. Her little girl was still in the kitchen. If the man tied her up, she wouldn’t be able to protect her child. She pleaded with him not to tie her.
    “Okay, I won’t—but you have to give me all the time I need—an hour.”
    She promised. With rapists, a good rule is to promise them anything; ethics don’t enter into it—survival does.
    The big man walked down the hall, then suddenly returned to check on her. He found her still sitting on the edge of the bed as he’d left her and appeared satisfied. This time, he left and she heard the front door slam.
    Linda threw on some clothes and ran to check on her daughter, relieved to find the child still munching on her hamburger, unaware of the struggle in the bedroom. The child couldn’t understand why her mother was sobbing and holding her so close.
    Then Linda ran to the phone and called 911. Almost immediately, the streets around her house were alive with patrol cars.
    By this time, however, the audacious rapist’s luck had just about run out. While Marian McCann talked to the distraught victim, every detective and patrol car in the Edmonds Police Department was searching the area around Linda’s home. They were looking for a tall man with semi-long dark curly hair, a mustache, jeans, a white T-shirt with a flowered design, and ankle-high boots. They didn’t know if he was on foot or in a car, but if ever they were determined to catch someone, it was this man.
    Captain L. L. Neuert was proceeding south on Olympic View Drive at 12:43 p.m. when he received radio information that a rape had just taken place eight blocks away. The description was a good one, and the man should be easy to spot if he was on the street.
    Neuert turned around and headed northbound on Olympic View Drive. At that moment, he heard a Lynnwood car advise that he was in the area of Meadowdale High School and would block off that area. Neuert decided to go down the Meadowdale Beach Road in an attempt to intercept anybody coming eastbound. Just as he turned onto the Meadowdale Road, he spotted a whiteChevrolet at a stop sign. The driver was a dead ringer for the suspect being sought.
    Captain Neuert made a U-turn and headed back in pursuit of the Chevrolet. He found he had to hit 70 miles per hour even to get close to the white car. He turned on his blue flashing lights and the car ahead finally pulled over to the side of the road.
    Neuert hopped out of his car as a very tall man exited the Chevrolet and began to walk back toward him. Neuert ordered the man to return to his own vehicle, put his hands on the trunk, and spread his legs. Neuert’s pat-down search netted only an empty black knife case at the rear of the big man’s belt.
    Captain Neuert handcuffed the suspect and radioed to ask if the suspect had been wearing a floral-patterned T-shirt. The answer was yes. Dennis Kelly, of the Lynnwood Police Department, arrived at that moment and the subject was placed in the back of Kelly’s patrol car. He was advised of his rights.
    “Do you want to talk to us?” Neuert asked.
    “Talk about what?” the suspect countered.
    “About a young woman who was raped near here a few minutes ago,” Neuert answered.
    “I don’t know anything about anything like that.”
    “Well, you match the description—right down to your T-shirt.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    The man said that he was living in