Lets Read

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7,275 appearances 8 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 15 Sep

Lets Read’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.

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The Lets Read Podcast · 364: I'M NEVER HIKING ALONE AGAIN | 6 TERRIFYING True Scary Stories | EP 349 · 15 Sep 2026 podcast

What I was saying would have sure as hell sounded crazy to me, back when I was just a uniformed desk jockey.

So when I told him it might be a good idea to evacuate the schools and keep them empty until Joe had been found, he told me that probably wasn't going to happen.

And by probably, he meant definitely wasn't going to happen.

He assured me all the town schools had robust safety measures and could liaise with city law enforcement in the event that some crazy guy tried to gain access.

He wasn't dismissive at all, almost like he wanted to reassure me that I had nothing to worry about.

But as you can probably imagine, nothing he said did anything to reassure me.

Either Joe or one of his mysterious affiliates was almost certainly in town, and while I didn't know exactly what they were planning, the fact that they were targeting elementary schools gave me a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I did my usual thing of stopping by any churches I could find to ask if they had any sort of strange or frightening encounters with anyone, but none had.

And they also stopped by an old antique store that they had in town, which just so happened to have a sizable cache of old books.

But the owner had no recollection of anyone asking for old Arabic texts or of anyone stopping by who fit Joe's description.

I ended up staying with my brother that night, but while he was kind enough to let me sleep in his spare room on that old big comfy mattress that he had in there, I don't think I slept for more than a couple of hours.

I remember the one dream that woke me up startled, how the schools were on fire, and how no matter how much the fire department tried to hose them down and douse the flames, little kids kept on bursting from the doors in flames and running around like little torches.

And no one could put them out.

Around six thirty in the morning I decided it was useless to try and get back to sleep, so I got up, took a shower and got dressed and then drove into town to find somewhere to have breakfast.

It was a Friday morning and the place was pretty busy, so I had to park my car a block away and walk to the diner.

I spent about an hour and a half sitting at the table taking advantage of the free coffee refills while pouring over my notes regarding the case.

Sometimes just ruminating on a subject helps with a breakthrough, and sometimes not, and unfortunately on this occasion, I left the diner with nothing but that bad, bad feeling in my stomach, telling me something was going to happen that day.

I thought about calling the cops again, of doing everything shy, of demanding that they close the schools for the day, but I knew that I'd just sound twice as crazy as I did the day before.

And all I had was my hunch.

And no matter how long I worked as a cop or how big it was, a hunch was still just a hunch.

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