by Melissa Marr
She laughs. It’s not a pretty sound. “I don’t. They weren’t the only monsters in this house. When I’m gone . . . Michael wrote things. Memories. You should take them. Send them to his agent or throw them away.”
I don’t know what they say, but I am sure that I don’t want to know either.
“They’re only partway truth.” Tess watches me in the mirror. “But they have one big truth: I’m not a good person.”
There’s nothing to say to that. I can’t argue because I don’t know what she’s done. I don’t know what Andrew’s done either. I probably never will know the whole of it. After today, there is no chance of answers other than the pages Michael has apparently written.
“Did Andrew rape you? Did he rape the other women?” I blurt the questions before I can think better of it.
She shakes her head. “He did the first time, but Reid made him. The next time, I seduced him. He wanted to save me. He wanted to run away with me. If not for him . . . I’d have died.”
“Reid said—”
“He wasn’t strong enough to say no, but he helped me escape. If not for him, I’d have died there. He was better than Michael. Better than Reid. You were right not to kill him.”
I follow her, stopping in the living room. The stink of death and sight of Andrew and the writer, both dead, are too much. I don’t want to be here, but I don’t know that I want to have Tess go to jail either.
“Come with me? I need to go in there . . .” Tess looks away. “I’m scared. He’s dead, but . . .”
She stares at the door of her bedroom. I don’t know that I can face that. Tess, apparently, isn’t sure she can either.
Together, we step into the room. The smell is worse. I look at him, the killer who haunted me all these years. He’s mutilated, bloody, and staring sightlessly at me from her bed.
She dresses as I stare at the Creeper. I can’t summon any remorse. I’m not sure anything that happened to him could be too awful. My mind starts a litany of names of his dead: Courtney, Ana, Andrew, Michael. I picture him alive and threatening me. I picture the bodies, the graves, and then I look again at Tess—his living victim.
“Will you help me?” Her voice startles me, and I realize that there is no way I can do anything but help her. She saved my life—and countless others today.
I nod, and as quickly as I can, I help Tess pack clothes and sundries.
“Please,” I say awkwardly, “don’t let anyone hurt you—and don’t hurt them.”
Teresa Morris, Tess, nods. She smiles at me, and I’m still not sure she sees me. The variety of pills she packs is shocking, and the stack of cash she removes from under a board in the floor is equally unexpected. In that instant, I know that she has spent years prepared to run again.
“At least twenty minutes.” She hands me a cell phone, and I’m not sure whose it is. “I need that. I killed him”—she points at the corpse—“so he didn’t kill you. I need time.”
I take the phone.
“There are videos on here. Of Michael. Use them if you need them.” She grabs a few notebooks and gives me those as well.
“Tell me you will not let anyone hurt you.” I stare at her. “That you will not hurt anyone. I need to know that, Tess. I need to know that, so I can be okay with this.”
“Yes,” she says.
It’s not a real answer, but I hope it means she agrees. I’m strong enough, especially as she is so injured, but emotionally, I can’t try to force her to stay, but I am well aware that I am letting a killer walk out of the house.
Then Tess is gone, and I am left in a three-room house with three dead bodies.
I return to the bathroom. I could leave, walk until my twenty minutes are up, but I don’t think I can walk by the corpses again. It’s a strange thing for a mortician to feel, but these are not simply corpses—they are my lover and the murderer who tormented me, who sent dead bodies to me, who was my lover’s only living family member.
Whether in curiosity or as a way to distract myself so I can wait as I promised, I start to watch videos, to look at the things stored on J. Michael Anderson’s phone.
His emails to his agent about Tess horrify me.
His notes to himself disgust me.
He wasn’t Reid, but he was still a monster in his way. He exploited Tess.
I look at the notebooks. His manuscript leaves me unable to understand how anyone could justify the things he has done.
I don’t finish the pieces of his book that I have in my hands, but I read enough to know that Tess is better off without him.
It’s just under an hour when I stop reading A Girl with No Past. Longer than Tess asked for, but long enough to give her a fair start at flight.
I call Henry. Call N.O.P.D.
It’s not twenty minutes more before Henry is coming in the house calling my name. It’s only two minutes more before he is holding me, and I am crying.
“Where is she?”
“Gone. Tess is gone.”
An officer stands in the doorway. He has the look of a man who has seen bad things, but nothing like this. I want to comfort him, to pull out the tricks that got me through harsh crime scenes. I can’t. I am not working here.
I am a victim.
“Andrew is—”
I cut Henry off. “I know.”
He's still studying me, looking at me as if he can’t decide if he ought to send me to the paramedics or clutch me to him. I don’t know either. I am alive. I am not bleeding badly; I have not been raped. The rest . . . the rest is all details.
“Henry?”
He looks at me.
“That’s him, the Creeper. That’s him. Teresa Morris killed him. She saved me.” I give my statement. “I am alive because she killed him.”
“And Andrew was—”
“His brother. I had no idea until I met Reid.” I want to be strong, to not let strangers see me shaking as I now am. There are blankets around me. I wrap them tighter. “Andrew was why—”
“Later,” Henry says gently. “We can deal with it later.”
And in that moment, I see the man behind the job. He is afraid. He doesn’t need to say the words to tell me he remembers the bodies we’ve seen. He doesn’t need to admit he imagined that I would be the next one.
“I could have died,” I say, testing the words. “The things he would have done . . .”
“Where is she, Jules?”
I shake my head. I don’t know. I didn’t ask where she was going, and she didn’t tell me. I finally found Teresa Morris, but I didn’t save her. She saved me. Without her kindness or madness, because I’m not sure which it was that made her choose to kill Reid this time, I would’ve died.
I won’t talk about her, not yet. I can’t. Later, I’ll tell Henry everything.
“Tess is gone.” I give him the phone and the book. “She saved me, and she left these. That’s all I know.”
It wasn’t. I knew a lot more. I’d seen the video. I’d spoken to Tess. I’d met the Creeper. I’d read some of the contents of the phone. The biggest thing I knew, the thing that I couldn’t say just then, was that I was glad that the three men were all dead.
And I was glad that Tess was alive.
44
Epilogue
I open the mailbox. There’s another postcard this week. A few times a year, I get one. They never say anything new, but what they say is enough.
No one has hurt me.
I have hurt no one.
You are okay.
She’s out there, and I’m never sure where. They come from all over the country. I could try to track her. I’m sure there is a file still open where someone is doing just that. I know Henry still looks for her. Sometimes, I think about telling him.
Without him, I’m not sure how I would’ve been able to recover. Some nights, his arms are the only thing that bring me enough comfort to allow me to sleep. Other nights, I know he checks the locks on our house more than once in order to find peace of his own.
<
br /> So, I do what I’ve always done with Tess’ postcards: I shred them. I don’t know if she’s found peace, or if she could. I know that I have. With Henry, I have found peace and a healthy relationship with a man I love, and I’m not willing to risk losing it. If he knew, Henry would forgive me for keeping my secret. He loves me and accepts me, but I don’t know if I could forgive myself for exposing Tess.
Some secrets, some people, are better off hidden.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the following:
Merrilee, you never gave up on this one. My book of my heart. Weird, twisted, and written from my own darkest places, and you stood at my side for it the whole time.
Kelley Armstrong and Kim Derting, every time I faltered, you were there. Thank you for faith and for standing at my side at Cyn’s memorial. You’re family in my heart.
Youval, you know the days and ways you ended up aiding this book. You were the spark that let me write this—and didn’t argue about staying in that dive with holes in the walls to “get in Tess’s head.”
Jeanette Battista, Tom Pollock, Laura Kalnajs, and Jeaniene Frost, your edits and insights were essential.
Bayou & Cave Creek Retreaters, you’re my people. From swamp tours, feral pigs, Pilates classes, murder plotting, and delicious meals, you are a haven.
Grey Sweeney Perkins, you are a treasure.
Frank, I do adore a man who can help with body dumps.
Todd Harra, I still fondly call you “my mortician.” I’m ever grateful that my regard for your profession doesn’t bother you and that you still answer my weird questions.
Diana Williams, I am far less worried about forensics, thanks to your expert eyes on this one.
(Please note that errors on forensics, mortuary, or New Orleans aspects are likely my fault.)
Available now: Cold Iron Heart!
* * *
How far would you go to escape fate?
In this prequel to the international bestselling WICKED LOVELY series, the Faery Courts collide a century before the mortals in Wicked Lovely are born.
Thelma Foy, a jeweler with the Second Sight in iron-bedecked 1890s New Orleans, wasn’t expecting to be caught in a faery conflict. Tam can see through the glamours faeries wear to hide themselves from mortals, but if her secret were revealed, the fey would steal her eyes, her life, or her freedom. So, Tam doesn’t respond when they trail thorn-crusted fingertips through her hair at the French Market or when the Dark King sings along with her in the bayou.
But when the Dark King, Irial, rescues her, Tam must confront everything she thought she knew about faeries, men, and love.
Too soon, New Orleans is filling with faeries who are looking for her, and Irial is the only one who can keep her safe.
Unbeknownst to Tam, she is the prize in a centuries-old fight between Summer Court and Winter Court. To protect her, Irial must risk a war he can’t win--or surrender the first mortal woman he's loved.
Available now: Cursed by Death!
* * *
The dead don’t always stay dead in Claysville . . . and in the afterlife, Death himself can’t be trusted.
* * *
Amity Blue has begun to remember strange impossible events, her ex trying to bite her and people vanishing like mist. Everyone in town swears a mountain lion is responsible for the recent deaths, but Amity is sure that there’s more to the story.
After a stalker—a dead stalker—appears at the bar where she works, Amity discovers that the dead don’t always stay dead in Claysville. Along with the current Graveminder, Rebekkah Barrow, Amity seeks out the enigmatic Mr D, who seems to be Death himself, only to discover that the centuries-old contract to protect Claysville has been broken.
Caught between life in a cursed town and Death himself, Amity and Rebekkah must find a way to put the dead where they belong—because if the Hungry Dead keep rising, everyone in town will be lost.
Return to the world of Graveminder, Goodreads Choice Winner for Best Horror Novel in this stand-alone Graveminder novel (also includes two Graveminder short stories.).
What People Have Said about GRAVEMINDER :
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“If anyone can put the goth in Southern Gothic, it’s Melissa Marr.” —NPR.org
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“Marr creates sympathetic characters, she takes readers to places both sinister and delightful, and there’s a satisfying end to a wonderfully awful villain. It’s a fast read, spooky enough to please but not too disturbing to read in bed.” —Washington Post
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“Dark and dreamy. . . . Rod Serling would have loved Graveminder. . . Marr is not tapping into the latest horde of zombie novels, she’s created a new kind of undead creature. . . . A creatively creepy gothic tale for grown-ups.”—USA Today
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“Plan ahead to read this one, because you won’t be able to put it down! Haunting, captivating, brilliant!” —Library Journal (starred review)
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“Filled with ancient contracts, the walking dead, and fated love, this eerie tale draws you in and leaves you yearning for more.”—IndieNext List, July 2011
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“The emotional dance between Rebekkah and Byron will captivate female readers. . . . Fantasy-horror fans will demand more.” —Kirkus Reviews
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“An adult novel that Marr’s fans may enjoy. Graveminder is worthy of praise. . . . The main characters and it is easy to become involved in their struggles.” VOYA, Top Fantasy of the Year
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“Melissa Marr has the rare talent of making deeply weird things seem perfectly normal, and making perfectly normal things seem deeply weird.” io9
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“Welcome to the return of the great American gothic.” —Del Howison, Bram Stoker Award-winning editor of Dark Delicacies
“I loved The Wicked and The Dead! A sassy, ass-kicking heroine, a deliciously mysterious fae hero, and a wonderful mix of action and romance. Add that to Melissa's usual great world-building, and I'm already looking forward to book 2!"
— Jeaniene Frost, NYT Bestselling Author
AVAILABLE Now!
In near-future New Orleans, draugar, again-walkers, are faster and stronger than most humans, but not venomous until they are a century old. Until then, they shamble and bite. Since not everyone wants to see their relatives end up that way, Geneviève Crowe makes her living beheading the dead.
But now, her magic has gone sideways, and the only person strong enough to help her is the one man who could tempt her to think about picket fences: Eli Stonecroft, a faery who chose to be a bar-owner in New Orleans rather than live in Elphame.
When human businessmen start turning up as draugar, the queen of the again-walkers and the wealthy son of one of the victims, both hire Geneviève to figure it out. She works to keep her magic in check, the dead from crawling out of their graves, and enough money for a future that might be a lot longer than she’d like. Neither her heart nor her life are safe now that she’s juggling a faery, murder, and magic.
* * *
Continue the Faery Bargains series with
Under a Winter Sky (19 November 2020)
Under a Winter Sky includes “Blood Martinis and Mistletoe” (Faery Bargains 1.5)
Half-dead witch Geneviève Crowe makes her living beheading the dead--and spends her free time trying not to get too attached to her business partner, Eli Stonecroft, a faery in self-imposed exile in New Orleans. With a killer at her throat and a blood martini in her hand, Gen accepts what seems like a straight-forward faery bargain, but soon realizes that if she can't figure out a way out of this faery bargain, she'll be planning a wedding after the holidays.
And also …
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The Kiss & The Killer (1 March 2021) Book 2 in the Faery Bargains series
The next installment in a new faery and fanged world written by the author of the internationally bestselling Wicked Lovely series.
For re
aders of Patricia Briggs, Chloe Neill, and Jeaniene Frost.
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Half witch, half killer, wholly unsuccessful at every Faery Bargain so far...
Geneviève Crowe makes her living beheading or resurrecting the dead in near-future New Orleans. After entering an accidental engagement, overcoming attempted murder, and discovering a family secret, Geneviève is ready for things to settle down, but carnival season in New Orleans is not the best time of year for "normal."
When Eli Stonecroft, the faery who has claimed her heart despite her best attempts, offers her a new faery bargain--she's smart enough to say no . . . right up to the point when she has to decide between dealing with the consequence of this faery bargain or facing the killer alone.
As the draugar mix with the locals and tourists, and bodies start to pile up, Geneviève is enlisted by the faery king and the draugar queen to find the killer amidst the swirl of parades and parties of carnival season...
About the Author
Melissa Marr is a former university literature instructor who writes fiction for adults, teens, and children. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have been bestsellers internationally (Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, et. al.) as well as domestically. She is best known for the Wicked Lovely series for teens, Graveminder for adults, and her debut picture book Bunny Roo, I Love You.