On December 15, Jason Dawson logged on to MSN Messenger. From her home computer, Lisa Montgomery joined him online. If he had known he was chatting with Lisa, he would have found a quick, polite way to sign off and return later when she was not there.
Jason, however, had no clue to the real identity of the person he engaged in e-conversation. He thought he was talking to Darlene Fischer, a woman who was eager to get a rat terrier puppy for her children for Christmas.
She told him that she couldn’t take the puppy home right away because she was going on vacation. She wanted to put a deposit down, though, before she left town. Jason thought Darlene was a nice person. He appreciated her excitement about surprising her children. He was a parent, too.
Jason wanted to help her in her puppy quest and asked her where she lived. Darlene told him she was in Fairfax, Missouri. Jason knew that town was just a half hour’s drive from Skidmore and thought of Bobbie Jo Stinnett right away. He knew Bobbie Jo had puppies for sale. He gave Bobbie Jo’s email address to Darlene. He thought he was doing Bobbie Jo a favor.
At 4:22 P.M., Lisa Montgomery—using her Darlene Fischer alias—sent a note via instant messenger to Bobbie Jo Stinnett:
I was recommended to you by Jason Dawson and have been unable to reach you by either phone or email. Please get in touch with me soon as we are considering the purchase of one of your puppies .. .
For twenty minutes, Bobbie Jo and Darlene chattered in instant messenger. They made plans to meet at Bobbie Jo’s home the next day.
Early in the afternoon of December 16, Deann Hensley of Bedford, Iowa, was shopping at the Wal-Mart in Maryville, Missouri—just a half hour’s drive from Skidmore. She strolled through the aisles with her mother and her 6-month-old baby. Her baby started to cry while she was browsing through CDs in the music department.
Lisa Montgomery approached her with a smile. “What a beautiful baby,” she said.
Deann thanked her for the compliment, then turned back to her child to soothe her and wipe away her tears.
Lisa continued to hover nearby. “I’ll hold your baby while you look around if she’s not scared of me,” she offered.
Unease rumbled through Deann. She held her baby tighter. She looked at the stranger who wanted to lay hands on her child. Behind Lisa’s smile she saw unhealthy hunger. In that hunger, she saw danger. She told herself that this sudden onset of paranoid suspicion was just her maternal instinct run amok. But still she did not want that woman near her baby. She smiled a tight, polite smile, nodded in farewell and walked away from Lisa Montgomery. She moved as quickly as decorum would allow, putting as much distance as possible between her baby and the needy, dirty-blond stranger. She breathed easier when Lisa Montgomery was out of sight.
Lisa watched the mother and child leave until they disappeared into another aisle. Then she drifted over to the baby department to browse. The Wal-Mart security cameras followed her every move. They captured images of everything she did that day in the store, but they were blind to the motivations behind her actions. Lisa selected a few items of baby clothing, paid for her purchase and left the store.
She turned left out of the parking lot, driving the compact red car, laden with a burden of dust and mud picked up on the dirt roads of Melvern. At the last light before leaving Maryville, she turned right onto the road to Skidmore.
She followed the byway up and down hills. Around gentle curves and major bends. Through fallow fields barren in the cold.
She entered Skidmore. She drove past the brick Skidmore Museum. Past the block where emptiness prevailed and only the bar beckoned. At the intersection, the highway turned left. Lisa drove straight ahead—down Elm Street to the white bungalow of Zeb and Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
Bobbie Joe was at home on Elm Street awaiting the arrival of Darlene Fischer. She was excited about the visit. She loved the opportunity to show off her puppies.
At 2:30, her telephone rang. It was her mother, Becky Harper, calling to ask if Bobbie Jo could pick her up from work at Sumy Oil—just a couple of blocks away. If Becky had looked out the window at that time, she would have seen Lisa Montgomery’s dirty red car drive past Sumy Oil.
Bobbie Jo explained to her mother that she couldn’t leave the house just yet—she was expecting someone to look at the dogs. As the two women chatted, Bobbie Jo heard a knock on her door. She looked out the front window and saw a red Toyota parked in front of her house.
“Oh, they’re here,” she said to her mother. “I’ve got to go.”