The Clicks

For about a year now I've been hearing the clicks. I’ve asked people around and they don’t hear the clicking.

It's become a little bit of an obsession for me. I worked with channelers, meditation teachers, witches, gurus, shamans to get rid of them but they are not going away.

At the beginning I thought they were here to confirm or deny an idea... as they would click once for yes and twice for no but just as with i-ching I got absolutely confused. Not everyone knows that: clicks—just like i-ching—were sarcastic. 


The other day I was driving for a hike in Carmel Valley and somewhere on Reservation road I slowed the car to see the flowers and signs for a girl whose body was found here. Click.


Her name was Christina Marie Williams. She was Filipino after her mother, born in Japan. She moved here to California as a little girl. Very beautiful girl. The day she was kidnapped she was walking her dog as she did every other day (she shared the task with her siblings). Her dog Greg came back home one hour later carrying the leash. 


Her body was found seven months later by the Botanist from the University of California, Santa Cruz. There are photos of her parents on the internet, the photos of them screaming and crying when they found out about the body. The internet wasn’t really a thing back then, she was found in January of 1999. I asked around and people in the area thought that the kidnapper kept her alive for a while before throwing her in the woods.

She was 13 years old, she was beautiful. Her family moved to Florida. They needed to live, to take care of two other kids. Her dad was well known in the military world, and if one looks at the photos he appears like the guy who could kill the killer of his child with his bare hands.

It was Wednesday, a few days before Halloween. I put on the fire and sat over a few decks of tarot cards. The clicks were clicking. I googled her name to find out that in March of last year— 2020—Charles Holifield was arrested for murder. His DNA was found on her underwear. I kept clicking on my laptop—who was he? How old was he then? What was he doing for a living? Where was he living? Click. Click. I looked at the photo of the man with white hair, white beard, he looked like... some creepy spiritual leader from Esalen and yet he is a murder. He raped her. He killed her. Click. I kept looking. I was home alone, it was dark and quiet, just the clicks. He molested two girls before he killed Christina. Click. He had an alibi for the night she was kidnapped. Click. Click. His ex-girlfriend and her mother both covered his ass. Click. He wanted to live and choose a life sentence in prison without the option for parole instead of the death penalty. Click.

I kept looking. Another 13 years old. Same army base. Click. I live here now in the very clean TrumanShow-like neighborhood. Her name was Ekaterina. She came here from Russia when she was five years old. Green eyes, Ekaterina had a scar on her left ankle and her nickname was “Katie”.

That night she left her home on Casanova Street to go to a friend's house. Her friend told authorities that Ekaterina stayed until approximately 8:00 pm and last saw her walking towards Fremont Boulevard on her way back home. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Charles Allen Holifield was named as a possible suspect in Ekaterina’s disappearance. Click. He is believed to have committed multiple crimes against women since 1979 in the Monterey area of California. Click. He was previously convicted of raping and strangling a 14 year old girl from Monterey and attempting to kidnap a 18 year old girl in the early 1980s. Click. Click. Click. Click. Holifield also attempted to abduct a female jogger at gunpoint on September 13th 1998. She was able to escape him and he was charged with this case as well. Click.

Investigators have considered his possible involvement in Ekaterina’s disappearance because both she and Christina had attended Fitch Middle School. Click. Holifield’s brother’s home was only blocks away from where Ekaterina was last seen and he would’ve crossed paths with her that night while driving in the area. Click. Investigators have found no conclusive evidence to link him to her case. Click click. Her mother holds onto hope that her daughter is safe and unharmed and that Holifield did not kill her. Click. Click.