by R E Swirsky
Arlene's mouth fell open. She was flabbergasted at how callous the words flowed from Joey's lips.
"I did it for you, babe. That prick will never touch you again." Joey suddenly laughed at the double entendre he made accidentally.
"And get this," he added. "Because it's a suicide, if they test his blood, they won't be testing for a poison that's been out of use for a decades. There will be nothing to find even if they test for other drugs he may have been using."
Joey continued smiling and chuckling as he slugged back more beer. “That was another home run,” he said. He set his beer down and rubbed his hands together. “It was so easy. Two at bats, two home runs: I’m batting one thousand, babe.”
Arlene felt revulsion swell up inside, and her stomach churned. She thought she might throw up.
“Who is next?" he asked. He continued to laugh.
CHAPTER 78 Day Fifteen - Friday 9:40 PM
“How is Arlene?” Anita repeated. She slipped him an obliging smile. “You just saw her for a whole week, Chris. She's doing fine."
Chris smiled back at Anita.
“I don’t think you fully understand my question.”
Anita frowned. “Oh, don’t be boorish. You come in here late at night pretending to ask about Arlene, but that’s not really what you came for at all now, is it?”
Chris affirmed his intention by nodding at her. “It is actually.”
Anita plucked the bookmark from the side table and slipped it between the pages before closing her book and setting it on her lap.
“I know you, Chris. You came in here to talk to me about that rope. It’s what you do. You stew for a while, and then you come and talk. So let’s talk.” She smiled at him again.
Chris responded to her smile with another short chuckle. He was becoming impatient with the requisite smiles. She was certainly fully aware and cognizant of where this conversation was headed. “We’ll talk about that rope later. It really is Arlene I’ve come to talk to you about.”
“I’m not sure I want to talk about Arlene right now. You still need to clear up how that rope of yours ended up where it did. I know you said you took care of things but I’m really not pleased if you did what I think you did. I’m afraid of what you might tell me, Chris. I am.”
“This isn’t about that damned rope, the skull, or anything to do with what happened out at that well. What I came to see you about right now is more important than any of that,” he said sternly.
“Now Chris, you’re upsetting me again. For decades you wanted nothing to do with Arlene. You refused to even mention her name, and now you suddenly want to talk about her. You just saw her for a whole week. What about Arlene is there to even talk about? She’s lovely and doing just fine,” she said. She attempted to slide in another smile at him, but it was weak and rife with worry.
“How often have you called her?” he asked.
What was left of Anita’s smile faded completely, and he knew instantly that his suspicion was correct.
"I don't know what you mean, Chris. Call her? I don't call her,” she lied.
Chris shook his head in frustration. He'd had enough. "Goddamn it, Anita!” he yelled. He clenched his fists. “You've been calling her for years! I know you have!”
She batted her eyes and tried to speak but seemed unable to put together any words.
He nodded at her. "There's no point in denying it anymore. You've kept in touch with her the entire time, haven't you? For the last ten years.” He was visibly upset.
"Chris," she replied. “She is my daughter."
"How often do you talk?" he demanded.
Anita's apprehension shifted to anger. "Maybe I do talk to her! So what? It's really none of your business if I call her from time to time!”
“Everything that goes on in this house is my business! How often do you two talk?"
Anita sat upright and responded stiffly. "That is my business, Chris. You are trying to judge me now after all of this time? You drop a skull down onto my kitchen table, take a rope and murder a police officer, for whatever reason I still don’t even understand, and you dare to judge me?" She raised her hand and stuck one finger out towards him. "You just remember what you did to that poor crippled boy out there by that well. You murdered three members of that family, Chris. That boy was only thirteen and crippled."
"Hush!" Chris shouted. “And I had nothing to do with that officer’s death.”
“I don’t believe you, Chris! And I won't be hushed! Not today! You can't come in here and tell me what to do when you've done the unspeakable. For over half a century, I've kept your secret about what really went on out at that well. Even thinking about it leaves me in tears for those poor parents who never knew what happened to their little boy."
Chris was taken aback by Anita's outburst. "It wasn't like that."
“For over fifty years I’ve held my tongue for you. But I've cried, Chris. I have.”
Anita’s sudden turn startled him. He was at a loss for how to respond.
“I cried for that boy that night after I found out what you did, and I cried for his parents. And let me tell you, I've mostly cried for you. Every time I see some young poor child in need, all I can see is the face of little Billy Bumstead, and I want to cry all over again."
"You're changing the subject. I came in here to talk about Arlene, damn it!”
“Don’t you dare curse at me! Don’t you dare! Not tonight! You suddenly want to talk about Arlene? Really, Chris? We’ll talk if you really want, but you won’t like what I have to say. My memory is still very good about such things. You really want to open up secrets from within this house?”
“You’ve been keeping in touch with her behind my back all of these years, Anita! We are going to talk about this!”
Anita nodded at him and thrust one shaky finger up in his direction again. “I call her because you turned your back on her and shut her out all those years ago. Do you think I don’t know what went on when Arlene was little?”
Chris shuddered. “What are you talking about?” But he knew exactly what Anita was referring to.
“Ever since Arlene was a toddler you coddled her and did who knows what with her when you two were alone. You know what I’m talking about, Chris! You and the kids all played hide and seek when I went out. It was just you and our three children all alone in this big house playing games! I know what went on, damn you! And then you closed the door on her the moment she grew up and found herself a man other than you who could actually love her.”
“He wasn’t a man! Tommy Puck was a drug smoking, eighteen-year-old punk!” he shouted at her.
“I knew all about Tommy Puck. He could have been any boy, but it was what happened to her after you called her out and scared that boy off that was truly inexcusable. She tried to reach out to you to make it right, but you wouldn’t have it. You just turned your back on her even though she still loved you.”
Chris recognized the truth in her words and found it hard to defend himself.
“And how old was I when you took me?” she added.
Chris didn’t respond. He wasn’t used to Anita talking to him this way, and it left him extremely unsettled.
“I was seventeen when I worked on Bumstead’s farm! I was seventeen when I let you bed me! And you were how old already? I was just barely past the same age that Arlene was with that boy Tommy.”
Chris shook his head. “Jesus Christ, Anita,” he said, but it came out in a whisper.
“And you wonder why she turned to being with all of those young men the way she did after you pushed her away?”
"She was rotten. That's why she behaved that way. That was the reason I shut her out," he replied.
“It was because you shut her out that she started to sleep with all of those young men. If she’s rotten, it’s only because of you. I don’t know why, but she still loved you after you found out about that Tommy boy. But you still pushed her away!”
Chris wanted to explode. "She started s
leeping around like a little slut."
Anita glared at him. "And why was that, Chris? I know what went on in this house when I left you alone with the children when they were little. Hide and seek? Really, Chris? And what did you do when you found her?”
Chris turned away. Could she really have known all along? His face reddened, and he suddenly felt exposed and ashamed. Her words stripped him naked.
“Oh yes, Chris. Arlene told me some of the memories she had from when she was little. She didn’t point her finger directly at you, but I knew what she was trying to tell me. Jennifer and Charlie would go hiding underneath the stairs to the basement but you were never ever able to find them. Not once.” She shook her head. “I asked them both about those hide-n-seek games a few years ago, and they remembered it very clearly. You could never find them.”
Chris’ mouthed dropped open.
“The closet in our bedroom is where Arlene would always hide. But you always found her. So what does that make you, Chris? You tell me that. There’s a word for that.”
“Stop it,” he whispered.
“I kept quiet for you, and I stood behind you after what happened out at that well. And then years later when I suspected what terrible unspeakable things you did to our daughter and were possibly still doing, I still kept my silence. I told myself you could never do anything so horrible to one of your own. I blame myself for not stepping in, and that’s why I call her. I owe her that much. That was my secret and I am so ashamed of it.”
Chris felt weak in the knees. He moved towards the door and grabbed onto the frame to keep himself upright.
“Why do you think I tried to set her up in that house when Vincent was born?”
Anita’s words were breaking through his armour and cutting him in places he thought were impenetrable.
“I even wondered if Vincent was actually yours. But she shut you out long before then. You, Chris…” She shook her finger at him again. “You have no right to question me about Arlene.”
Chris slowly turned and backed out of the room.
“And you still wonder why she turned out the way she did?” Anita called out loudly as he staggered down the hall. “Do you even know what she’s been reduced to just to earn a living these past years, Chris? Do you? She’s told me many times what she’s had to resort to, and she’s not proud of it. I’m ashamed to even tell you.”
She continued her rant as he slowly descended the stairs. He knew she was right.
“She’s become a prostitute because of you! Do you hear me, Chris? A prostitute!”
He thought of his own father and what a bastard of a man he was. But Chris knew he was not the same kind of bastard his father was.
“Chris!” she called out from the room above. “She sells her body to make a living because of what you did to her!”
He was worse.
CHAPTER 79 Day Fifteen - Friday 10:35 PM
Dean tried to sleep but it wouldn't come. A lot had happened in the past 48 hours. His mind rolled and churned as it tried sort everything out.
Jet's sudden death caused him to think about the ghost Millie said he talked about. He didn't understand, but the word ghost made him to think about bones and Vincent's crazy escape. He was unable to separate the two events, especially when the same rope was involved in both.
As he lined up the facts, the rope was the defining connection between Vincent and Jet. He didn't understand the connection. How and why? They certainly didn’t know each other.
His thoughts moved to the note pad. "WHAT TO DO?” were Jet's final words. He wrote those words, and he was dead shortly after.
He wished he had collected the note pad as evidence. It just didn't make any sense.
"Alien" he said aloud.
"Alene," he said next. "Alien? Ailene?"
He knew the answer might be in the barely readable word aliene.
Old mans house. That was definitely Chris.
What was found candy?
What did Jet find at the old man’s house? Candy?
"Aliene? Alien? Allen? Ailene? Arlene?"
He jolted upright in bed. “Arlene?” he whispered. “Chris’ daughter Arlene? She was from the coast. And Jet was from the coast.”
“No way,” he said. “It’s gotta be a coincidence.” He scratched his head. He was now fully awake. He was from the coast too.
“Ok. Let’s go over this again. I send Jet over to apologize to Chris and Vincent. He writes bastard because he is upset. Upset over what? Chris or Vincent? Me for sending him over to apologize to Chris?”
Found candy / old mans house was written next.
“What did you find at Chris’ house? You found… Candy. Was Arlene Candy?
Ailene candy.
And then Dean remembered Arlene’s outburst at the funeral. It was a minor outburst that bothered him a little at the time. Now it bothered him a lot.
"It's you," she shouted and pointed towards him as he tried to keep Vincent on his feet. He had thought at the time that she pointed at Vincent. Was it possible she had been pointing at him? He also thought he recognized her voice. But he couldn’t figure out from where. He couldn’t see her face under the veil.
“Arlene,” he whispered. He frowned. An old connection from many years ago, back when he spent endless hours patrolling the streets on the east side of Vancouver, entered his thoughts. “Candace?” That voice. It couldn’t be. Could it? Chris’ daughter?
Dean reached for his note pad from the side table and wrote down what he was thinking.
CHAPTER 80 Day Fifteen - Friday 10:41 PM
Vincent picked up his iPhone from the bedside table and called home. His Grams answered on the first ring.
“Hi Grams,” he said. “I know it’s late. I didn’t wake you, did I ?”
“No you didn’t, Vincent.”
She sounded upset.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Your Grandfather has just got me all riled tonight. You know how he can be. I’ll be up for hours now.”
“What did he do?” They didn’t argue very often, but it pained Vincent greatly when they did.
“It’s nothing that concerns you, dear. He just gets this way sometimes. It happens more often now with my dementia.”
Vincent almost wished he hadn’t called, but he had something he had to say or he’d never be able to sleep either.
“I’m sorry, Grams. I’m sure Gramps will come around. He always does,” he said.
His Grams released a heavy sigh into the phone.
“I suppose,” she said. “But it is good to hear your voice tonight. I needed a pick-me-up.” She tried to laugh.
“Well, I’m glad I called then,” he said. He looked down at Anna next to him in bed. He knew she could hear his Grams words from the phone and sensed her concern. She rubbed her hand across his chest and feigned a smile.
“So why are you calling so late, Vincent?”
“It’s about what you said when we talked the other day. I wanted to tell you that you were right, and I’ve reconsidered.”
“Oh, really?” She suddenly sounded cheerful.
“Yes. You and Anna have been relentless.” He laughed softly. “I’ve decided I will call her.”
“I do think it’s best. You’ll be able to move on once you’ve had a chance to hear her out… even if you don’t agree with her.”
He nodded. He squeezed Anna’s hand.
“I don’t know when I’ll call her. But I will,” he said. “I just wanted you to know.”
“Arlene can be very odd at times, but she means well.”
It was comforting to hear his Grams approval. He knew it meant a lot to her to hear that he listened to what she was trying to tell him. His grandparents’ approval always rested very high on his priorities.
“I will talk to her. I promise.”
CHAPTER 81 Day Fifteen - Friday 11:58 PM
Chris still hadn’t yet recovered from Anita’s accusations when the front door chime echoed
through the Pattison home. Chris shuffled himself over to the front door to see who the hell was bothering them at this hour.
“Good evening, Chris.”
Detective Daly stood on the stoop dressed in full police uniform.
Chris was immediately annoyed. His mind ran itself in circles, and he just didn’t have time to deal with Dean.
“It’s late, Dean. What the hell are you doing bothering us at this hour? I’m tired, and Anita’s asleep.” He glanced back over his shoulder and up the stairs.
“It’s important, Chris.”
“Like hell it is. Come back in the morning,” he said and started to close the door.
Dean thrust his arm out to prevent Chris from closing it fully. “It’s about your daughter. Arlene.”
Chris felt a rush of adrenaline at the mention of his daughter’s name. He pulled the door back open.
“Arlene? What about Arlene?” he asked gruffly.
Dean smiled. “I only came by to see if you had a photo of her I could look at.”
“A photo?” Chris shouted. “Jesus Christ! You come over at midnight asking for a photo of my daughter? What the hell is the matter with you?”
Dean raised his arms defensively. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said calmly. “I just really need to see a picture of your daughter.”
“Get the hell off my doorstep,” he said and closed the door.
Chris shuddered. Everything seemed to be suddenly crashing in on him.
“Chris,” Dean called from the other side of the door. “I really need that picture tonight. I’m sorry for bothering you, but this is important.”
Chris turned and stared at the closed door.
“Chris?” Dean called out. He rang the doorbell again.
“Get the hell off my property!” Chris shouted. He moved closer to the door and turned his ear to hear if Dean was leaving.
“Shit,” he heard Dean say. A few moments later, the sound of Dean’s patrol car starting up and backing out the drive put Chris at ease.