Riker's Calling - Episode 22

Riekr Wednesdays

LIKE AN ACTOR, A SINGER, A REALITY TV STAR. Royce Riggs was a face from everyday life. Sometimes I’d see him in passing as I flipped from one channel to another. Other times I’d actually tune in, depending on the topic being discussed. Flabbergasted is what I now felt. All those years and he was not only hiding in plain sight, but right there in the limelight. Reliving, in front of millions, what he had done to those connected to me, through that charisma, that ‘it’ factor that had made him a household name.

Past his wall of awards and trophy case, beyond the bachelor furnishings of his expensive condo, which included a life-sized silicone dummy who had been used for killing practice, it was in a walk-in closet where I found the answer to the question why me? Well, as close to an answer as I could comprehend. Every inch had been covered with details about me. A massive spider web of information, the center being where it had all started. The news story of me being shot as a Police Explorer. He hadn’t been the first to report on it- that distinction went to a local news chopper- but he had, as a young CNN intern, been listening to police scanners, and had had the foresight to take it national. Seven years later, after five of which he had earned his own show, the journalist that would stop at nothing to get the story began to slowly put into effect his extraordinary plan of using me as his muse, and those he killed as stepping stones for higher ratings. The entire blueprint obsessively chronicled in thick binders, countless photos and thousands of hours of video footage. No wonder it seemed he had simply disappeared off the face of the earth. He had created suspicion on his last show, which he must have known would lead to this overwhelming amount of evidence being discovered.