Meet Author J.L. Drake

Author J.L. Drake

Interview

Welcome to the show, I will be your host this evening my name is Lilly During, I’m with channel six news. We’re here today to speak to two survivors of the infamous Night Watchman. As most of you know, the Night Watchman stalked women, for his own sick pleasure, then killed them. Please welcome Emily McPhee and Seth Connors, who have been kind enough to grant us this interview right here in their own livingroom.

Emily: Thank you for your interest.

Lilly: No, thank you, I appreciate you both agreeing to be interviewed, especially right here. Now, am I right when I say that Jimmy Lasko has been inside this very room?

Emily: (Looks around and rubs her arm) Yes.

Lilly: Let’s talk a little bit about what happened to you. How did this all start?

Emily: Okay, umm, well we believe Jimmy Lasko started following me about two months before I was aware of it.

Lilly: How did you discover that he was?

Emily: He followed me to a gas station one night and attacked me. Thankfully I got away but it opened a sea of terror after that. Now that he had outted himself and was unsuccessful, he was determined to have me. After a few terrifying weeks of cat and mouse I needed to get away so I went to Seth’s cabin for a break. Garrett, Seth’s and my good friend and Seth’s partner, went into town and, while they were gone, one of Jimmy Lasko’s people ended up shooting one of our friends who was with me.

Lilly: Oh wow! Was he…

Emily: (Shaking her head) No, luckily he was alright. But sadly, I ran into the woods just as Lasko had hoped I would and he grabbed me.

Lilly: Seth. (She smiled) Welcome. Now I understand you were on the phone with her right before she was taken correct?

Seth: (Clears his throat) Yes.

Lilly: That must have been...well just horrible.

Seth: It was, but not as bad as the live video feed he had set up in his basement for us to see. He had Emily in a cabin, we had no idea where, and she was with a known psychopath who wanted her for himself.

Lilly: (Looking at Emily) Okay Emily, let’s see if I have this right, Jimmy Lasko, AKA the Night Watchman, has you bound and gagged in his basement in the woods. A live video feed was linked with you, the FBI and Orange Police Department who are staked out in a hotel. So then what?

Emily: Ahh, I was there for six days. I saw many different sides of him, sometimes he was drunk, or high, sometimes calm, or hyper, he was totally unpredictable.

Lilly: He drugged you, correct?

Emily: Yes, many times. He kept me in a room with a deadbolt. My bathroom was a bucket in the corner, my food was always laced with something and he sometimes played this haunting cello song by Bach. To this day, he’s ruined classical music for me.

Lilly: (shaking her head) Unbelieveable! This sure is the stuff movies are made from. Seth, what was happening on your end? You’re a police officer for the Orange Police Department you and your partner and, as Emily said, your friend, Garrett O’Brian worked closely to find her.

Seth: There wasn’t a moment we stopped. We took shifts, if I needed to sleep he would stay awake and watch the feed, same went for him. She needed to know we were there with her one hundred percent of the time. The FBI got involved because they believed Jimmy Lasko had murdered a woman in Texas. If it’s over state lines they step in.

Lilly: How was that for you?

Seth: I welcomed it. We needed all the help we could get. We worked well together, they kept us in the loop. When you’re after the same thing with that much on the line, well, politics don’t matter.

Lilly: Emily, you said six days, tell me about the day you escaped.

Emily: Well, by then I was about done and, in a moment of weakness, just wanted it to be over. Jimmy had a scalpel to my throat and I just let go. I yelled out to Seth all that I could hear, smell, and see, I didn’t care what happened. Jimmy got so mad that he dropped the scalpel covered my mouth and forced me to pass out. Then I guess he started to beat me.

Seth: We could hear him beating her, but then he ran upstairs. The next morning she woke and freed herself from the chair using the scalpel Jimmy had dropped. After she let us know her plan, she escaped through the window.

Emily: (cutting into the conversation) I’d been in the dark so long the sun hurt my eyes. I realized my only option was to run for the woods. I had on a cotton dress but no shoes.

Lilly: Jimmy saw you outside, right?

Emily: Yes, he screamed then fired his gun at me. I ran and ran and ran, nothing mattered and nothing registered. All I could do was keep the sun ahead of me while I followed a roaring sound in the distance. His pit-butt was on my heels at one point, god he was so close! One minute I was running the next I was falling. I had jumped right off a sixty-foot waterfall.

Lilly: I understand some campers found you and called the police. Thank god they did. You made a speedy recovery, Emily. That is pretty amazing in itself.

So, what then, you get back home, jump back into your normal life?

Seth: (answering for her). She felt smothered after that, by the people who wanted to keep her alive.

Lilly: I’m sure that was a struggle for the both of you. What happened after that? After all Jimmy Lasko was still out there.

Emily: Officer Riley with the San Francisco PD got assigned to me as a full-time body guard. I convinced him to come with me to a spa in Laguna. I should have known better because Jimmy showed up and, played his awful game with all of us, until he got me alone in his room.

Lilly: (Holding up her hand) I’m going to stop you right there, Emily. I know you can’t talk about any more from that point until the case is closed. (She turned to Seth) Are you able to tell me why the case isn’t closed yet?

Seth: No, there are a few things that need to be dealt with first. But I can tell you this, Jimmy Lasko is no longer a threat.

Lilly: Well, I think we can all agree that’s a relief! Thanks to both of you, Emily McPhee and Seth Connors. I sure hope that we can get together again to do the conclusion of this amazing story and, hopefully close this horrific chapter of your life.

Emily: (Reaches over for Seth’s hand) Yes, I hope we can too.

About the Author

J. L. Drake was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, later moving to Southern California where she now lives with her husband and two children.

When she is not writing she loves to spend time with her family, travelling or just enjoying a night at home. One thing you might notice in her books is her love of the four seasons. Growing up on the east coast of Canada the change in the seasons is in her blood and is often mentioned in her writing.

An avid reader of James Patterson, J.L. Drake has often found herself inspired by his many stories of mystery and intrigue. She hopes you will enjoy her books as much as she has enjoyed writing them.

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Other books by J.L. Drake

Broken Trilogy