There was a long pause when I finished, broken only by Mia blowing her nose. “Well, it does sound like the hit on the head was what did it,” Daphne said. “But we don’t know for certain. And, even if that was the case, it was an accident.”
I stared at the table, which I idly noticed was wet. Then I realized it was from my tears. “My head knows that,” I said. “But it still feels like I should have done something differently that night. Maybe if I hadn’t fought with her to come back to the house, if I had just let her sleep it off, she would have been fine.”
“CB still would have found her,” Mia said, her voice bitter.
I winced, trying to push that picture out of my head. “Maybe not fine,” I said at last. “But maybe still alive.”
“Maybe,” Daphne said. “Maybe if I had stayed in the woods that night instead of coming back for Mia, things would have been different, too. There’s a lot we don’t know. What I do know is that you can’t blame yourself. You were trying to do what was best for Jessica, which was get her back to the house before she passed out. It didn’t work out that way but I’m not sure leaving her would have been the best option either.”
“I have to go,” Mia said suddenly. She stood up so abruptly that the chair fell over with a clatter. She ignored it. “I need to be alone for a bit. Think things through. You’ll be fine here, right? If I don’t stay?” It wasn’t exactly a question.
I nodded, a little sadly, wondering if this was the end of our friendship. “I’ll be fine,” I said quietly. “Thanks for staying as long as you did.”
Mia nodded tightly before quickly turning on her heel and leaving the kitchen. Daphne watched her go, a worried look on her face, before turning back to me. “She just needs some time to process it,” Daphne said.
“Of course,” I said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
Daphne looked back to where Mia had disappeared. “I’m sure once she’s had some time ...”
“Why don’t you go be with her?” I interrupted. “I’m sure she needs a friendly face right now.”
She turned back to me, her frown deepening. “But, what about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said again. “Chrissy is here. And the tea really helped.” Which was sort of true—I was feeling calmer and my stomach was more settled, but my head was still pounding. “Go be with Mia.”
She bit her lip, looked back at Mia and then at me again before getting to her feet. “Keep me posted if you hear anything.”
“I will.”
She took a few steps toward the door before pausing to look directly into my eyes. “It’s all going to work out, Becca.”
“I’m sure it is,” I said, but I was lying. I didn’t think anything would ever be fine again.
The moment she left, I crumbled to the table, tears gushing out of me. I cried for Jessica, for Mia, for Daphne, for everyone in Redemption who had been betrayed by a monster.
A cool hand slipped around me, and before I even knew what had happened, Chrissy was holding me in her arms. She didn’t say a word. She simply held me as I cried until I didn’t think I had any tears left inside me.
Chapter 35
The bored guard, who reminded me of an ex-football player with his shirt straining at the seams across a massive barrel chest, opened the door and pointed toward a row of chairs, a phone, and a sheet of plexiglass.
Just like on television shows.
A thin, exhausted-looking mother with lanky brown hair juggling a crying infant and a phone receiver sat in one chair, talking urgently to a tattooed, greasy-haired man. A second rough looking, grizzled man spoke to a an equally hard-looking older woman.
I moved toward the middle of the row and took a seat in a chipped, plastic chair. The wooden hutch was decorated with a variety of carvings and graffiti. The whole room stunk of unwashed bodies, cigarette smoke and despair.
CB must hate it here.
Of course, maybe CB should have thought about that before kidnapping Brittany.
Daniel had told me how he had traced CB’s phone to an RV dealership in Milwaukee. He had been in the process of purchasing a motorhome with a stolen identity when the police grabbed him. He had planned to disappear that night … and take Brittany with him.
It appeared that plan had been in motion since the moment he first laid eyes on her. He never did go back to New York like he had told me. Rather, he holed up right here in Redemption, dividing his time between stalking Brittany and getting his ducks in a row to take her and disappear.
Luckily for everyone, he hadn’t quite accomplished the ducks in a row part when he grabbed Brittany, which led him to temporarily stash her in an abandoned barn outside of town. He hadn’t touched her yet—apparently, he was waiting until he was safely on the road. Instead, he had kept her tied up and drugged for four days. When they found her, she was malnourished and dehydrated but otherwise unharmed.
At least, physically.
The door on the other side of the plexiglass opened, and CB appeared wearing the traditional orange prison garb. He looked dreadful. The orange made his skin look yellow and sallow, and his hair was oily and unwashed. But that wasn’t the worst of it. His face was puffy and bruised and one eye was half-closed. I wondered who had beaten him up. I wondered if he was getting decent medical care and if he was being protected so it wouldn’t happen again.
I wondered why I cared.
He saw me and stopped. His expression grew cold. For a moment I thought he might turn around and leave without speaking to me, but then he shuffled forward and took his seat across from me before picking up the phone. I did the same.
“What happened?” I asked.
He snorted. “What do you think happened? Men don’t like men who fall in love with teenagers.”
“Love? You think you fell in love with Brittany?”
His eyes widened. “God, no.” His face softened. “Jessica. It was Jessica I loved.”
I stared at him, horrified. “But you were going to ... hurt her.” Even now, I couldn’t say the words. I still couldn’t wrap my head around what he had planned to do.
He started shaking his head. “I would never hurt Jessica. Ever.”
“But I saw you.” The memory of his unbuttoned shorts floated through my head again.
His face twisted and for a moment, I thought I caught a glimpse of the darkness hiding just under the surface.
The darkness I had seen that night.
I sucked my breath in with a hiss.
I had seen it before. That evil.
I had seen it in Chrissy when she was sleepwalking. I had felt it fifteen years ago, in the woods, pursuing me.
And it was still here. It had been here all along.
The darkness was inside CB.
“You saw what? What do you think you saw?” His voice dripped with disgust.
I found myself wondering how long the darkness had been inside him. Since that summer? Even earlier?
Was this the real curse of Redemption? Was this what was behind the adults disappearing in the late 1800s?
Would I ever know the truth?
“I remember,” I finally said. “ I remember everything.”
“Oh, now you remember.” He laughed, but it was devoid of humor. “You who spent time in mental institutes not once but twice. You don’t know what you remember. How do you know what’s real and what’s not?” He spat the last sentence out.
For a moment, I sat frozen as that ugly truth settled around me like a well-worn cloak. Was he right? Had I remembered everything wrong? Had my treacherous brain betrayed me again?
But almost as soon as I had that thought, I dismissed it. CB wasn’t sitting in jail because of my memories of Jessica. I wasn’t even sure if he had committed a crime that night. Sure, his intentions seemed to have been pretty clear but what did he actually do?
&
nbsp; No, he was behind bars because he had taken Brittany.
“I know the truth,” I said, clutching the phone harder. “It doesn’t matter if you want to admit it or not.”
“Then why are you here?”
I took a deep breath. “I want to know what you did to me. How I ended up in the hospital.”
“I was trying to protect you!”
“What?!?” I was so shocked, so horrified by his audacity, I stopped breathing. “The only protection I needed that night was from you.”
He snorted. “See? This is precisely the problem. You have no idea what happened that night.”
“Then why don’t you enlighten me?”
He placed one hand flat on the wooden hutch and leaned forward. Even though I knew it was impossible with the plexiglass between us, I could somehow smell his breath, hot and fetid, like something had died inside him. “Who do you think took care of Jessica that night? Who do you think snuck into her house and packed a bag for her, so everyone would think she left? I did.”
Briefly I closed my eyes. So, Jessica had died that night. I knew it. I had felt it. But somehow, hearing it made it real in a way it hadn’t been before. “That sounds like you were protecting yourself, not me.”
His eyes glittered. In their depths, I could see the darkness laughing at me. “Who do you think killed her?”
For a moment I couldn’t say a word. I couldn’t even breathe. I could only stare into whatever it was hiding behind CB’s eyes, now triumphant, knowing it had won. “What are you saying?” I asked, my voice strangled.
His lips curved into a smile, but it was as empty and as evil as his eyes. “How do you think Jessica died that night?”
I tried to swallow but my mouth was so dry. “You did something to her.”
“Not me, cos. I wasn’t with her when she hit her head.”
Oh God. It was all true. I was the one responsible for Jessica’s death.
What had I done?
He watched me, a knowing expression on his face. “Now, you see. I was protecting you that night. And look how you repaid me!” He held his arm out, gesturing around the prison. “I did everything for you, and you turned me in.”
My mind was spinning. I couldn’t process what he was telling me. But I had to keep going. God only knew if he would ever talk to me again after this day. “But what you gave me. What you made me drink … what was it? How was it protecting me?”
“It was to help you forget.” He snorted again. “Even then, I knew you couldn’t keep your mouth shut if you remembered what really happened. Always too much of a goody two-shoes. I was protecting you from yourself. From turning yourself in.”
That didn’t feel like what he had in mind when he grabbed me, but I let it go. “How could you be so sure pumping me full of alcohol would make me forget?”
“Because it wasn’t just alcohol.”
My eyes widened. “You drugged me?”
He rolled his eyes. “You say that like I forced you to take heroin or something. It was just rufies. To help you forget.”
“But ... why did you have punch laced with rufies?”
For the first time, I saw a crack in his arrogant demeanor, and for a moment, he almost looked ashamed. “It was for Jessica.”
“You were going to rufie Jessica?”
“Just to make things easier for her,” he retorted defensively. “I never meant to hurt her. Besides, you saw how upset she was at her mom that night. I thought forgetting, even for one night, would give her some peace.”
“Peace?” I felt like the top of my head was going to explode. “You wanted to give her peace?”
“Of course. I had no intention of hurting her.” He shot me a meaningful look.
I ignored it. “So, are you saying Jessica was drugged all night?”
CB grimaced. “No. It was harder than it should have been to give her my special punch. The first time, Mia took her glass by mistake. Then Rich showed up and all he did was hover around her, which made it impossible to do anything.”
Mia? A picture of her stained blouse popped into my head. “Wait. Is that why you spilled Mia’s drink on her?”
“What else could I do? I didn’t want her to drink it. What if people figured out something was wrong?”
“But she got sick that night. “
CB shrugged. “Look, I tried to stop her. It’s not my fault if she drank some of it.”
I could feel the bile rising in my throat, and I fought to keep it down.
“What did you do with Jessica’s body?”
“You think I’m telling you?” He asked incredulously. “You’ve already proven you’re not to be trusted. Jessica is in a safe place. That’s all you need to know.”
“But ... what does it matter now? I remember what happened. Why would recovering her body make a difference now?”
He shook his head sadly. “Why can’t you trust me? I’m trying to protect you. Everything I’ve done over the years has been to protect you. You must know that there is no statute of limitations on murder?”
“I didn’t murder her,” I said, aghast. “It was an accident.”
“Are you so sure that’s what the investigators are going to think?” he asked. “If there’s no body, there’s nothing to charge you with.”
Oh God. Could he be right?
On the other hand, maybe I ought to start paying for my mistakes. Maybe that would flip my karma, which clearly needed some flipping.
He must have seen something in my face because he smiled. “You know I’m right. You should have listened to me.”
“What else should I have listened to you about?”
His eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? You’re still here, aren’t you? I kept telling you to leave. If you had gone back to New York, none of this would have happened. Instead, look at the mess you’ve created. I mean, really. Telling Daniel? What was that about? Didn’t you learn your lesson years ago?”
Something shifted inside me. “What lesson?” I asked, trying to sound casual, but inside, I was busy moving pieces around.
Our date that wasn’t. The date where we both thought we had been stood up.
“About Daniel!” CB said. “That he can’t be trusted.”
“You mean,” I said slowly. “Because he asked me out and then never showed?”
CB’s expression turned triumphant. “Yes! Exactly.”
“Soooo, I’m curious,” I said. “I never told anyone that. How did you know?”
His expression wavered. “What do you mean?”
“Daniel said someone talked to his mother and changed the location. I didn’t call. Do you know what happened?”
He stared at me, his eyes narrowing. “Why can’t you just get it through your thick head that I have spent my entire life protecting you?” His voice was low, but there was no hiding the undercurrent of anger beneath it. “I have protected you from secrets you have no idea about. Why can’t you just be grateful for everything I’ve done instead of questioning everything?”
I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “What secrets are you talking about?”
“You really think I’m going to tell you now?” His voice was a hiss. “Besides, you should be thanking me for not telling you. If you knew what I knew, you’d never sleep again.”
It felt like a vice was slowly squeezing my chest. I couldn’t get air into my lungs. “What are you talking about?”
He sat back, folding one arm across his chest. “It’s better you don’t know.”
I studied him. It seemed pretty clear this line of questioning was going nowhere, and if I didn’t want to piss him off, I probably should move to something else.
As if to underscore my thoughts, he glanced around, like he was getting ready to end the interview.
“Fair enough,”
I said quickly. “So, what about Pat? Were you trying to protect me there, too?”
He gave me a blank look. “Pat who? What are you talking about?”
“Pat. She lived behind Brittany. Fell down the stairs.”
His face changed. “Oh, yeah. Her.” He looked pensive. “That was unfortunate. I didn’t mean for anything to happen to her.”
Even though I had tried to prepare myself for this exact answer, it still felt like a body blow. CB is the devil. I put my hand over my mouth, as if to hold the bile down that threatened to spill over. “Did you kill her?”
“Not intentionally. Her house was perfect, though. From her attic, I could look directly into Brittany’s bedroom.”
The attic. The noises up there. Of course.
“What about Bear?”
CB looked puzzled. “Bear? Now what are you talking about? I don’t know anything about a bear.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “The dog. The golden retriever that lived next to Brittany.”
“Oh, him.” CB’s face fell. “That was unfortunate as well. I didn’t want to hurt him either, but he attacked me. There was nothing I could do.”
Nothing you could do? Nothing you could do?! What about not being there stalking Brittany in the first place? “How about Aunt Charlie’s house?”
“What about her house?”
“Were you there, too? I noticed footprints in the back.”
CB looked mystified. “Why would I be there?”
“You had nothing to do with the dead rabbit I found back there?”
“Why would I kill rabbits?”
He looked so perplexed; I knew he was telling me the truth. Besides, he had just said that he was spending his time watching Brittany at Pat’s house. So why would he be hanging around Aunt Charlie’s?
But ... if not him, then who?
“I think we’re done here,” CB said. “Or, at least, I’m done. And that’s all that matters.” He started to hang up.
“But, wait,” I said, feeling a little panicked. “What else have you been protecting me from? What aren’t you telling me?”
He paused, then smiled. It was all I could do not to gasp. It was so cold, so empty. It reminded of a skull. I could practically see the darkness inside him grinning at me.
Secrets of Redemption Box Set Page 65