Free She Survived by M. William Phelps Page A

said. “Uh-huh.”
    Hanging up, the detective screamed.
    “Honey, I will tell you what,” she recalled, going back to that moment, “that was the highest I have ever been in my life.”
    She jumped up from behind her desk, still screaming, running through the office, her arms flailing above her head. “We’ve got him! We’ve got him! We’ve got him!”
    She couldn’t say those three words enough.
    Her boss, Joey Davis, came running out of his office.
    “What’s going on here?”
    “We’ve got him, Joey! I’ve got him.”
    Buttram’s partner, Earl Cooper, who had helped with the investigation, sat behind his desk, looking on. He gave her an agreeing nod, leaned back in his chair, and said, “I knew it all along.”
    “Well, Earl, you’ve got a little bit more seasoning than I do.”
    They laughed and rejoiced at such great news.
    Buttram knew that catching a guy peeping in a window was one thing. If those were the only charges Saxton faced, he’d be out and about within a few days and probably end up with probation when the courts got done with him. But putting him in Melissa’s apartment was quite another set of crimes altogether. Scott Saxton was now looking at doing serious time.
    “I’ve never had a feeling like that at work ever in my life,” the detective said later.
    After the exhilaration calmed and she settled down, she sat at her desk and typed up a probable cause warrant to have Saxton charged with the additional crimes.
    Thus, two days after he was arrested while peeping in a woman’s window, still in custody on those charges, Scott Saxton was arrested and charged with burglary, confinement, and battery. Attempted murder, if it was to become an additional charge, would have to be resolved later—if at all. There was still some discussion whether the law allowed them to charge Saxton with attempted murder.
    Fingerprints taken from the hockey stick in Melissa’s apartment matched those of Scott Saxton, proving he had attacked Melissa. Police were working to link him to the other two assaults that took place after Melissa’s. Saxton was held on $75,000 bond.
    Not a lot of money considering the charges and accusations against the man, especially when you take into account the serial nature of Scott Saxton’s crimes. The guy was a repeat offender, arguably motivated by a rage-fueled, deviant sexual nature, a serial stalker, Peeping Tom, home invader, and violent attacker. Yet the law dictated that for the price of a used car (10 percent of the $75,000 bond to a bondsman), Scott Saxton could walk the streets.
    Didn’t seem fair.

CHAPTER 26
    FRESH MEMORIES
    As Melissa took in the realization that Scott Saxton was someone she saw on occasion and lived so close, and was now, without a doubt, the man who had nearly killed her, it sparked new memories.
    “Scott Saxton was my neighbor,” Melissa said. “His front door faced my front door. I shared the landing at the top of the stairs with him and his, what I assumed to be, girlfriend. I don’t know why I never thought they were married.... I think I may have spoken to her on a couple of occasions. I know I never spoke to him except to say hello when he was outside. It always seemed like he was outside at his car when I was leaving for work. I never put it completely together at the time, but I think it was a little odd. Except for once. I’m such an idiot! I gave the guy all the information about myself he ever needed to attack me—and I never knew it.”
    According to Melissa’s recollection, she claimed Saxton stopped her one day while the two of them were outside. It was sometime after her male roommate had moved out. Saxton started with friendly chitchat. For Melissa, the guy was a neighbor. One was supposed to be friendly to one’s neighbor. Despite a creep factor reading that Melissa picked up being in his presence, she really had no reason not to talk to him. She had lived there for over a year by then and had never really spoken to