Kill the Ones You Love by Robert Scott

fridge and a stove.”
    They stayed in these motel rooms in Oceanside, near San Diego, until February 7. Apparently, Gabe was not able to raise any funds, as he’d hoped. And whatever relief Gabe got from being back in the place of his youth, it did not last very long.
    While in San Diego, Gabe told Jessica that they needed to return to Bandon and have it out with Bob about trying to poison them. Later, Jessica would say it was a joint decision; but by now, she was going along with just about anything that Gabe said.
    Jessica recalled later, “We woke up in the morning and Kalea was still asleep. We woke up early and Gabe said that we should go back and see Bob and Robin and talk to them. And I said, ‘Okay.’ It was going to be a long drive, so we got going, got everything packed, showered and got Kalea up. We had breakfast and then got on the road.”
    The long drive began once again, back north to Bandon. On the way, the pickup truck that Jessica’s father had loaned them began having problems with the clutch. Up through California’s Central Valley, through Sacramento, Redding and over the mountains into Oregon, they just hoped the pickup truck would last long enough to get them back to Bandon.
    Despite the mechanical problems, the pickup truck made it all the way back up to Bandon on the morning of February 8. Jessica recalled, “We had missed a turn at Drain on I-5 and ended up having to go to Coos Bay. And so it took extra time and we drove through Coos Bay down to Bandon and then on 42 South. There was a little pull-off past Bob’s driveway and that’s where we pulled off. We got some rest there. It was just before the sun was coming up.”
    Gabe purposefully had Jessica and Kalea wait in the pickup while he made his way up the hill. Robin and Bob generally slept late in the morning, and Gabe did not want to have them hear the pickup approaching the residence. Jessica recalled, “Gabe said that it would be best if we did not let them know that we were there. Just because of what happened previously, we didn’t know how Bob would react to us.”
    Gabe made his way stealthily into some brush, where he could watch the house, unobserved. Incredibly, Gabe took a portable radio set along with him; he had given Jessica another one. By this means, they communicated with one another about what was happening.
    One of Gabe’s messages became garbled, and Jessica understood him to say that he wanted her to drive the pickup truck up the hill. She started up the driveway. Gabe came tearing out of hiding and told her he didn’t want her doing that. Rather than drive the pickup back to its original spot, however, he had her pull it off on the side of the driveway, partway up the hill.
    This did not seem to satisfy him for long, so then he had her pull the pickup truck behind a barn and hill so that it couldn’t be seen from the house. Gabe returned to a place of hiding, this time behind a group of trees. And once again he watched the house and communicated by hand-held radio with Jessica. Perhaps in Gabe’s mind, this was like a secret operation he had talked about so much. To him, he was scouting out the “enemy”; and in his mind, Bob was that enemy. He even perceived Bob as being armed and dangerous, since he knew that Bob had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
    After watching the house for several hours, Gabe saw Robin and Bob leave the residence. Gabe walked over to the house and checked out all the rooms, making sure that they were empty. When Gabe determined that things were the way he wanted them in the house, he went and got Jessica and Kalea. Then all three of them went into the house. There they showered and got something to eat. Once this was accomplished, Gabe walked Jessica and Kalea back to the pickup truck and had them wait once more. And Jessica later admitted that Gabe smoked a couple of joints while he was up on the hill. He also