Kaymoor is the site of an abandoned coal mine located at the bottom of New River Gorge in southern West Virginia. The mine is half way down the gorge.
Below the mine at the bottom of the valley are the coke ovens.
A 2000 step stairway descends from the mine to the coke ovens. A little further down the gorge is a railway line which runs adjacent to and slightly above New River. The mine was in operation from 1900 until 1970. The woman at the tourist center in Fayetteville had told him about the steps, but he basically ignored her. As he began to walk down the steps towards the bottom he could hear thunder, not close but approaching.
Clearly he hadn't appreciated how far 2000 steps were. He also hadn't brought the video equipment. He wasn't sure if the site
was appropriate.
He had to get down to the bottom of the gorge, find the coke ovens, decide if he wanted to use them for the video,
run back up the stairs then climb the dirt trail to the car,
put the video projector and battery packs in the daypack and run back down to the bottom again with the rain drops beginning to fall and the thunder becoming louder.
"I can't stand the rain against my window bringing back sweet memories". After having completed the video recording it began to rain. Droplets at first. Later, in the car on the highway, the rain came down. So heavy that he could not see the road. Opaque sheets of water flowing down the windshield. The wipers were useless. Immediately he could see nothing. Stop in the middle of the four lane highway. Water blind. Trucks, cars behind? No traffic. He waited. Swerved to the right avoiding imaginary cars. He drove the car to the highway shoulder. Then to a rural road which appeared on the right. No accident. Wait more.
The coal was baked in these brick ovens to remove impurities at which point it became coke which was a more usable form of energy for industrial purposes.
The video is projected on the inner brick wall of the domed oven which is one of a series of brick ovens collapsing and overgrown. The projected Russian cosmonauts float in a simulated gravity free capsule. The video projector is battery operated. It has a plastic body. The batteries fit in a compartment in the base of the projector. The projector looks like a toy.
The Economy Inn is another motel chain from the 1960's, stale carpets, slighty soggy, dim lighting. He walks his bags
from the parking lot through the motel lobby down a corridor past the vending machines until he came to the room.
Dinner would be take out from an Applebees
conveniently located across the highway from the Economy Inn.
The serial killer is portrayed as an artist. Messy, smudged drawings on wall. Strings attached to pushpins stretched between images. Activities repeated. Distinct pattern or manner of working that becomes associated with a particular criminal. Invert. A distinct pattern or manner of working. The artist is serial killer. Modus Operandi.