Chapter 1: The Welcome Committee 
It was a 2 hour drive from Westport to Hidden Hills. The long stretch of highway reached before Madeline like open arms. The scenery conjured thoughts of change and hope to Madeline as she took peeks of the landscape through her drivers side window. As the wind blew through her thick curls she imagined the things she would be leaving behind in Westport. Madeline would miss her mother especially and the friends she made in college. Madeline needed a change since that fateful day last year when her father was killed in what the coroner called an accident..Madeline always felt it was no accident that claimed the life of her father... There wasnt much she could do about it anyway, that is of course if she wanted to stay out of prison for assaulting the sherriff whom she despised. Madeline thought of these things as she drove down the winding highway outside of Hidden Hills. She was almost home.
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Madeline found her new home and got settled in. She had her personal effects shipped there before she arrived so she would have little to no unpacking to do once she finally made the drive. She was there a month ago arranging her furniture and hooking up her laptop making sure the cable company had hooked up the broadband connection that she paid for. Madeline lived on her laptop, it was the key feature of her social life, she had met interesting friends on it and spent the majority of her freetime either in chatrooms or instant messaging whoever was lucky enough to capture her attention at that time..
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As Madeline got comfortable in her home she grabbed the Gazette and sat down to read the local news. This was her first real peak at the ups and downs of her city, maybe she would also find about the nightlife and see if there were concerts or parties that night to go to.
"Suspects still at large in Griffinwood murder case"
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Madeline read the headline saying aloud
"Griffinwood? Sounds so posh..." She laughed not at the murder, but at the idea of Hidden Hills being some mysterious and vicious version of Beverly Hills
"yeah right" she muttered turning to the employment section.
Madeline had graduated with a degree in nursing. She had worked in the emergency room back home in Westport and saved up enough to live comfortably once she moved without working right away. She figured she would at least have a look at the jobs to see what the town had availiable. Not many nursing jobs to her dismay. Madeline wasnt immediately worried however, she had enough saved and could always work out of her field for awhile until something opened up in nursing there.
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After a quick snack, Madeline decided to see who was online to tell them she had finally settled in to her new home.
Madeline noticed a new email message from an unfamiliar name. The username "Spider" had sent her an email that ended up in her junk bin due to her filters..
"Spider huh? What is it spider?" Madeline laughed.. She thought it was probably someone trying to sell her something until she opened it and read the words
"Welcome to town"
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Madeline was a little confused, she didnt remember telling anyone she moved except her mother and a friend. Who could "Spider" be and how did he know she was in town...
She replied to the email simply stating she had no idea what he/she was talking about and probably they had the wrong email address. She didnt want to give anything away, who knew who this person could be.
Just as Madeline was about to check the rest of her messages and do a search for "Spider" to see if she had ever received a message from him before, the doorbell rang. Again, Madeline had only told her mother and a friend about her move, hopefully these were just neighbors ..
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Madeline approached the side window seeing two men standing outside laughing, she opened the door to greet them..
"Hello can I help you?" "Oh hey! Um.. we just live down the road a bit and noticed you recently moved in. This home has been up for sale for about a year now, we've been waiting for someone to move in.. Im Ross and this is my friend George" "Oh its nice to meet you, I'm Madeline please come in" The trio entered Madeline's home and made their way into the living room.
Madeline offered drinks but the fellas declined saying the couldnt stay long but wanted to welcome her to the neighborhood.
"Wicked spot you got here Madeline. I probably would have had more women in swimsuits on the wall had we bought it no offense" Madeline laughs saying
"none taken." Ross laughed saying
"Please excuse him Madeline.. he's got what I like to call ISSUES" Laughter filled Madelines living room..
Madeline thought George was funny and pretty cute too.. they talked for awhile about the neighborhood and the nightlife. Madeline wanted to go out that evening and George gave her some ideas on some spots to check out.
Madeline was secretly thrilled to have some people in her neighborhood that were her age. After reading the paper that morning she was beginning to think she had moved into a retirement community. It was relief to know that at least on this street, she had peers.
"Theres this place called Night To Remember, its a bar and dance club downtown, you'll probably really like it, good drinks, pool and dancing, thats if you like that kind of stuff." Ross chimed in as George took a seat in front of the television to watch the end of the football game.
"Oh I do it sounds like a lot of fun, I may check it out tonight." 
"We may be there too" Ross said.
George was in the living room watching the football game as Ross and Madeline continued their discussion. Madeline found it comfortable talking with Ross, for some reason he seemed familiar. He was very friendly and reminded her of a friend she knew back home.
"You know I was reading the paper this morning, apparently the big story is some Griffinwood murder" "Oh yeah, its been all over the news, Griffinwood is the next town over. Its like.. thats all they talk about now, some lady got hacked, no witnesses nothing major, its just that when crap like that happpens here everything stops" "Wow.. thats crazy" 
Where Madeline was from, crime like that happened all the time, she explained to Ross that there was nothing to shocking to her about it, she was all too familiar with it.
"Yeah.. no biggie" Ross replied
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"It was great to meet you both, thanks a lot for stopping by" "Yeah no problem Maddie.. can I call you that?" "Sure, everyone else does" "Well Ross cant get any shorter so you can just call me that" The two laughed as Madeline exchanged handshakes with the two men and saw them out.
Kinda dorky, somewhat jock-ish. Thats what Madeline thought to herself as the two guys left..
"oh well.."Something about them made her feel uneasy but .. first encounters were always uneasy ....
Thinking back to her discussion with Ross, she didnt really remember seeing any signs for "Griffinwood" during her drive that morning, and in fact, she didnt even rememeber hearing of the city before now. She didnt know why she was so interested in that story..
She got online to see if she could research anything on the story for some background information.
"Griffinwood girl found strangled, sexually assaulted in shallow grave behind her home"
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The story was incredibly gruesome but Madeline couldnt stop reading it..
According to the story, three men kidnapped the Griffinwood girl at gunpoint forcing her to drive home. When they got there, they duct taped her and beat her for days.. police estimate she was held hostage in her own home for 4 days. They sexually assaulted her and strangled her and tossed out the back like garbage.. What made the story so unique is that no witnesses have come forward, there are no suspects and according to criminology experts, the girl apparently knew the suspects prior to the kidnapping but no one knows how she knew them... And what was even more puzzling was the fact that the letters
"ARAC" were carved into her inner thigh...
Madeline was feeling worse and worse about the story, still reading, she felt most disgusted at how they treated the girl and that they were still at large.. And she couldnt for the life of her figure out what "Arac" meant.. the autopsy revelead severe beating and internal bleeding but asphyxia was ruled as the cause of death...
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"Griffinwood"... Madeline whispered to herself as she lay on the sofa drifting off to sleep..thinkin of this nameless faceless girl who lay dead in the next town over...
