Ashley York Vol 6: Troy's Tale

That weekend I headed down to a bar call Three Steps in Grammercy. I can't recall what the occasion was exactly, but it gave me a chance to see some friends who I hadn't seen in a few weeks. One of these friends was my friend Sean, who of course wanted to hear the full Ashley York story since I think I had given him snippets over the weeks prior. The story was getting harder and harder to tell with every passing day due to the sheer number of crazy details that regularly emerged. I'm not sure I'd even exchanged so much as a text with Ashley in a few days, but I found a really good reason to break the silence before I headed to the bar. My friend Lexi, who went to Spence and would have been in the same class as Ashley was going to be at the bar too, so I texted Ashley, and told her I was going to see one of her old high school classmates at the bar, knowing full well that Ashley never had so much as set a foot in Spence. Her response was something to the effect of, "Oh she wouldn't remember me, I was the awkward British girl". People, believe me, if you saw this girl (and I will post pictures at some point) you would've at least, at the very very least, recalled having gone to school with her. I laughed off her response...but back to Sean. Upon completing the story to Sean he looked at me and said, "text her right now and tell her to send a picture of herself to you". Why would Sean ask that? Well, the prevailing theory was that maybe there really was no Ashley York. Or perhaps someone was posing as this blond girl in all the pictures. I mean, there was a person I spoke to and there was a picture, but maybe there was something else weird going on. I didn't rule it out although it seemed highly unlikely.

I looked at Sean and said what the hell. I texted Ashley. "I miss you". She hit me back immediately with an "I miss you too". I followed, "Seeing your face would really cheer me up. Send me a picture of yourself". The thought being that she wouldn't be able to produce a picture of herself immediately and thus would further confirm our theory. Her response not ten seconds later, "I look kinda gross, just got back from the gym" and attached, a picture of a sweaty, but still pretty, smiling Ashley York. Go figure. I was dumbfounded. Sean and I looked at each other incredulously. We had no idea what to make of it.

Team Krashley wanted me to walk a fine line. Stay close, but not too close. Get more information, but don't be too obvious. Try to meet her, but be careful. It was a lot. I wanted a call from my government connection. I wanted an answer. On Monday morning, sitting at my desk I got a call...from 202.

My friend said that nothing checked out. None of the schools she claimed to have gone to she went to, and none of the places she claimed to have lived in she lived in. I remember very clearly, he said, "Finger, I advise you to steer clear". Easy for him to say, Ashley hadn't left him by the side of the road in East Hampton holding his balls, tennis balls that is. I'd heard the word of the Department of Homeland Security but I still really didn't have an answer.

As I said last time, I've known Troy since 1990, but I hadn't seen him or spoken to him in years. My second week of Michigan I was walking to the business school and I see this guy coming out of Red Hot Lovers, a tried and true Ann Arbor hot dog institution on East U. I squint and am thinking, wow that looks like Troy, and maybe it is since Troy had gone to Michigan undergrad. Lo and behold, it was Troy, and the icing on the cake, Troy had just purchased, yes purchased Red Hot Lovers. Over the course of that first year in business school Troy would come up periodically to check on business and I'd come into Red Hots and he'd hook me up with dogs, chili, fries, and we'd go out to the bars and hang out and catch up. It was fun. But when I had left a message for Troy it was a serious matter.

On Tuesday my cell rings. Troy. We catch up a bit, talk about work and Michigan and just shoot the shit. He apologized for not calling sooner but he'd been in Capri with his family. I said, "Troy, I gotta ask you a random question. Do you know a girl named Krista Marks, from Old Westbury".

Silence.

"Why" Troy says, like he's leaning in real close. I explain to him that I was in Aruba back in May, and this Krista Marks emails me and she's trying to set me up, and then Troy interrupts me mid-sentence. Two words.

"Ashley York"

Silence.

Me, "What?"

"Ashley York" Troy says again, softly and slowly.

I swear to God, every single hair on my body stood up at that point. Hell, it's doing the same thing right now. I remember, I was standing next to the window, looking down at the street. I was wearing a pink shirt, grey slacks, and my brown shoes. I remember exactly where I was standing when I heard Troy say, "Ashley York".

I said, "how did you know?" Now Troy starts screaming into the phone "oh my God, oh my God", and I'm screaming a little bit too, for what, I don't exactly know, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Meanwhile, Jenny, my deskmate, nay, floormate is looking at me like I've literally lost my mind, but actually, I think I did. Once Troy and I stopped screaming at one another/together we started talking, quite frantically, as I tried to keep pace with what he was saying. What he first said was "stay away" and "you need to get away fast". I felt like my life was in danger and I asked as much, to which he said basically that it was. Shit. She knows where I live. I'm going to die.

Troy says, "Listen, I'm going to tell you something but you can't repeat it". I was all ears. He then delved deep into the craziest fucking story I've ever heard. I mean, you think this is all has been weird so far?...Child please.

Now it's been a while since I told Troy's tale, so if it's a little disjointed bare with me. And remember now, I'm at work and Troy is about to drop some knowledge. Here it goes...

Troy starts off by telling me back in 2003 when he was a senior at Michigan he lived with a few of his best friends. One of which was this guy named Cole. It was Troy and his friends' last semester. They were second semester seniors and when you are a second semester senior and you're single you basically try to live every single last day of COLLEGE like it's your last and Troy and his friends were doing just that, except for Cole. Cole had met some girl online that winter and had been spending an awful lot of time communicating with this girl. Pressed by Troy as to what the hell was going on with this girl online Cole had stated, somewhat reluctantly, that he had met this smoking hot girl online and that they'd spent a lot of time talking on the phone and emailing. In fact, they were officially dating. This girl's name, Ashley York.

At this point my chin hits the floor. I continue to listen. Troy says that Cole was extremely serious about Ashley to the point where he and Ashley had decided to continue to date when Cole graduated and moved back to Los Angeles. Ashley, for your edification, was working in New York at this point. Troy once asked Cole if he had even met Ashley, and Cole strangely, Troy said, never really gave him a good answer. This freaked Troy out, especially given that Cole's father had passed the year before and he had been on an emotional roller coaster for a year. This Ashley, Troy said, seemed to have given Cole something to latch onto at a difficult point in his life. Towards the end of the school year Troy told me that Cole and Ashley agreed to meet for the first time, in person, in New York. While Troy and all his friends cautioned Cole about the trip Cole seemed adamant and Troy said there was basically no talking the kid out of it. Cole left on a Friday, and he came back Sunday. When Cole came back all his friends were eagerly awaiting the full report. This was the girl Cole had fallen in love with online, and he'd finally gone to meet her in New York for the first time. Sounds romantic a little bit. Cole was bizarrely silent about his trip. He didn't say a word. Troy pressed, "did you guys meet up?". Cole's answer "no". At that point Troy and his friends were seriously worried about Cole, who from what Troy tells me, was pretty shaken up at the missed connection in New York, but Troy said Cole was undeterred, and apparently kept in close contact with Ashley post-Michigan, in what was a true bi-coastal long distance relationship. Troy moved the city and from time to time Cole would come to New York, to see friends, and to see his girlfriend Ashley. Troy tells me she always flaked on him. Every single time. One time she said she was too sick. One time she had an emergency work thing in another city. Time after time, month after month. But Cole kept coming back for more. Fast forward to the following winter, winter 2004. At this point, Troy says, Cole is seriously in a bad place, and even Cole's family is a little freaked out. He's been dating Ashley close to one year, and they still have, not, met. Cole decides he's going to invite Ashley to a Super Bowl party in New York and flies into the city. It's Super Bowl Sunday, and Troy and a bunch of his friends are about to head to the party and nobody can find Cole. Cole comes back the following day, in the morning, dressed in his same clothes from the day before, and of course everyone has been worried sick because Cole had literally dropped off the face of the earth for 24 hours, and all anyone knew was that he was supposed to be with Ashley. I'd say, "now this is where things get weird", but I feel like we got to that point a while ago, sooooo..., "now this is where things start crossing otherworldly boundaries". Troy gets in Cole's face and says, "where were you". Cole answers, "at the Super Bowl, in Houston, I went to meet Ashley". Yes, you read that correctly. Troy tells me he was dumbfounded. Apparently Cole had gotten to New York to learn that Ashley (the lover of big sporting events apparently...Wimbledon) had decided that morning to go to Houston for the game and told Cole to come. Cole BUYS A PLANE TICKET TO HOUSTON and flies to meet her. Arrives. Takes a cab to the Stadium and waits for Ashley outside the gate...

"And...." I say, literally on the brink of passing out.

"And he says he kissed her in the concourse".

"Okay, so there's proof she's real. He kissed her. He saw her. She's real"

And Troy says, "Finger, I've know Cole for a long time. He's one of my best friends. He's never lied to me about anything, but I know he was not telling the truth. He never saw her. He flew to Houston and back in one day for a girl who didn't even exist. He came back to New York and he acted like nothing ever happened and he never spoke her name ever again. I don't bring it up ever. None of my friends do. And Cole doesn't either".

Listen folks, I know. It's too strange to even believe, and you can imagine my reaction listening to Troy tell this story. What the hell was I to do with this information. I told Troy my story and he was excited. Excited because he wanted to catch her, whoever this was and make her pay for all the pain she had caused his best friend. Troy became an integral member of Team Krashley that day. You can imagine the phone call with Team Krashley that afternoon relaying this story to them. We were excited too. The most major breakthrough in the case yet, but there there was this feeling like, all right folks, we're dealing with someone who really might be dangerous and unstable. Had Ashley been up to her tricks since 2003? Were dealing with a professional here? A stone cold professional?

Maybe you don't poke this rattlesnake. Maybe you let sleeping dogs lie. Or maybe you hunker down, think a little harder, and smarter, and maybe you figure out who this "Ashley York" really is.