by Dawn Kirby
“You should have,” he said, stroking my back gently. “You’ll never know how much I regret not being a part of your life. I wanted to be here. I kept up as best I could through Mia, but it’s not the same. I realize that.”
“How could she not tell me?” I looked up at him pleading for an answer. “She knows how much I wanted to know you.”
“She was scared. Scared of what you might think. What you might say.”
“So she just cut you out? Just like that?”
“Honey, it was the only way she knew how to deal with the situation. I’m sure she told you what she could, but you know as well as I do pulling anything more out of her is next to impossible.”
“Told me what she could?!” I asked sarcastically. I slid out of his arms and sunk back into my chair. “Mom never told me a thing. Only that your family and hers were dead and you disappeared. That’s it. Had all this not happened she would’ve probably let me go on believing you were dead.”
“I was afraid of that,” he sighed. His shoulders fell. “I’d hoped she would share something with you, but I guess I knew deep down inside she wouldn’t.”
“She did the same to you,” I said, wiping the snot from nose with my finger. I absently wiped it on my jeans, keeping my focus on David.
“Yes,” he conceded. “But Leah, you need to understand. This thing, these people we’ve been hiding you from all these years, are dangerous. Don’t judge what we’ve done until you know the whole story. Be angry. Be hurt. We understand that. But don’t think for one second we were ever trying to punish you.”
I wanted to say more; maybe even yell, but I couldn’t.
“Now, what time can we expect her home?”
I looked over his shoulder at the microwave and started to panic. It was already twelve o’clock and she wasn’t here. Even on the busiest of days she made it home within thirty minutes of the store closing. I ran to the phone and called the store. The line was busy. I called her cell phone but she didn’t picking up. After trying the store three more times and getting the same busy signal every time, I got scared. Mom had a routine and she never deviated from it. If she did get sidetracked she always called to let me know she’d be late.
“What’s wrong?” he asked calmly. He grabbed my arm gently and made me look at him. “Calm down and talk to me.”
“She should have been home thirty minutes ago. The phone at the store is busy and she’s not answering her cell phone.”
“Slow down,” he said, holding my shoulders firmly in his huge hands. “You said the man on the phone knows where you live?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how.” I didn’t know how the question was going to help Mom. By now she was more than likely somewhere between here and the store.
“Isn’t it obvious? He had you followed,” he explained. “Do you remember seeing anything strange?”
The past couple of days had been strange. What kind of strange were we talking about here? I discounted everything that had happened over the last several hours as well as the note. The phone call was weird, but the man wasn’t anywhere near me as far as I knew. Then I remembered that black dog. His odd behavior was the only thing that really stood out.
“Last night,” my eyes immediately went to the floor, “after you and Mom had coffee. I saw a dog in the driveway.”
When I finally looked up again, he was smiling down at me. He wasn’t at all upset that I knew they’d made love last night. “And Mia thought you were asleep,” he chuckled. David brushed my cheek with his cool hand and cleared his throat. “Now tell me. What made the dog seem strange to you?”
“He didn’t act like a dog. He acted like a person.” It sounded crazy to say it out loud, but that’s what I saw. “We’ve never had one, but I know enough to know he was acting weird.”
His eyes grew wider. A frown furrowed into his forehead. “Why would you say that?”
“I know dogs use their sense of smell to root things out, but there was something about the way he moved around out there that bothered me. He was so deliberate, so disciplined.” David gave me a quizzical look. I inhaled deeply, trying to think of some way to justify the fear the animal had instilled in me. “That dog started with your car, sniffed every inch on and around it and then moved on to Mom’s. By the time he finished with mine he acted like he’d found the biggest bone in the world.”
“It’s possible the dog just smelled something he liked,” he reasoned. “Tires pick up all kinds of things, Leah.”
“Then explain his reaction when he saw me watching him.” David’s eyes widened as his hand gripped my shoulder again. “He looked right at me, glowing eyes and all and growled. I’ve never been more scared of an animal in my life.”
“Why on earth didn’t you come get us?”
“Believe me, it was tempting. If that lady hadn’t come out and called him back home I probably would have.”
His eyes narrowed a little, his grip tightened even more. I tapped on his hands to get him to let up on my shoulders a little. “This lady; what did she look like?”
“She had long black hair and rea–”
He cut me off and pulled out his cell phone. The muscles in his jaw twitched furiously.
“Call her again,” he demanded. “Right now!”
I did as I was told. The phone at the shop still rang busy. She still wasn’t picking up her cell phone. I shook my head at him and tried a couple more times. The results didn’t change.
Then he made his own phone call. “Declan, I need Kale,” he said. “I don’t know why yet, but she’s already seen Leah. Meet me at Mia’s store. We’re headed there now.” He hung up and turned to me. “Where did she take the dog?” he asked sharply.
“To our neighbor’s backyard.”
“Are they home now?” His voice was getting more urgent with every question he asked.
“No, they’re on vacation,” I told him. “Their son’s been coming by to check on things. He was there last night.”
“You saw him?”
“No, but his truck was there. I guess it could have been hers.” David made another phone call. This one was to a cell phone. I could hear it ringing. A man’s happy voice answered it after the fourth ring. “Kale, what does JD drive?” My assumption about Kale being a dog had, apparently, been wrong.
“He drives a late ’60 model Bronco. If he hasn’t painted it yet, its primer gray,” Kale answered. “It sounds sweet, but the rest needs a lot of love. Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it.”
His description matched Drew’s perfectly. It was also the same kind of truck I had seen in Tom’s driveway last night. I ran out the door before I heard another word. The only thing going through my mind was my former neighbor. I had to make sure he wasn’t lying in the house hurt. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that JD wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him or the woman I’d seen the night before.
When I came to a halt in the backyard, David was right there beside me. I jumped back and nearly fell over an overturned trashcan. Luckily his hand caught me and easily pulled me back to my feet.
“Don’t do that!” I yelled at him.
“Don’t run away,” he reprimanded me. “It’s not safe.”
“If they’re hurt we have to help them,” I told him. I started towards the back door but his hand on mine stopped me.
“Stop and listen. Do you hear anything?”
I listened carefully. There wasn’t anything or anyone inside the dark house. My attention turned to the yard. There was no sign of a dog ever having lived here. No food or water bowls. No worn patches of dirt along the fence line. No doghouse either.
“Where’s the dog?” I asked absently. “Do you think she took him with her?”
“She’s not his girlfriend, Leah. The dog is with her though. That was Judith you saw last night. If you see her again, run. Get back into the house as soon as possible,” he said. He turned me to face him, his hands firmly in mine. “If you heard anything last night, you know that nam
e.”
“I heard her name, but that’s all. The rest was about as clear to me as muddy water,” I snapped. “Why would she be after me? I don’t even know her.”
Predictably, I didn’t get an answer. He wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulders and led me back to our house. David’s body didn’t relax until we got to the front door. I went in, but he didn’t.
“We need to find Mia,” he said standing just outside the front door. “Get your keys and let’s go.”
I didn’t argue. Something in his voice urged me not too. I couldn’t tell if it was anger, worry or both. I could smell his sandalwood scent, but barely. In the past, I’d assumed it meant someone was sad or worried. The dangerous glint shining in his eyes made me think he was furious. One of the hazes could really come in handy. So far, I hadn’t seen one.
I grabbed my purse off the table, turned off the kitchen light, and closed the front door.
“Bolt it,” he said, when I shut the door. I did exactly that and followed him to a truck parked on the street. I was expecting the Lexus, but this suited him much better. It was a big, black Ford F-250, 4x4. “The Lexus is for business,” he said, noticing the surprised look on my face.
“I like this one better.”
He opened up the passenger door and I crawled in. The second his seat belt was clicked he put the truck into drive and took off. He didn’t bother turning on the headlights until we got to the end of the block. Apparently my eyesight came from his side of the family.
“I need you to stay by my side no matter what happens,” he told me. “From this point on you will not be alone. Use your senses, but keep your head on your shoulders.”
“What exactly do you think is gonna happen?”
“I don’t know darlin’. Your mother and I are just obstacles they have to go through to get to you. These people will do whatever it takes to find you.”
“Why me? You and Mom know. Hell, David, even a lady I’ve never met knows more than I do. What is going on? Why would anyone want me?” All the secrecy was too much. I turned to face him, tears welling up in my eyes. “I know what you said at the house, but I need more, David. Why did you leave?”
“I left because I had to,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road. “There is too much to tell you right now. I promise, when we find your mother, I’ll tell you everything. Now is not the time.”
“But—”
“Not now, Leah. Don’t ask again.”
At least they both had something in common. Each one of them knew how to end a conversation. Mom had done it my whole life. It seemed my long lost dad could achieve it just as effectively. If this kept up, I wouldn’t find out what was going on until I turned fifty. With that little realization I pretty much pouted the rest of the way.
Mom’s car still sat in the parking lot when we pulled into the small parking area behind the store. I held out hope she’d just gotten busy mixing something up and lost track of time. That’s what my heart said anyway. My brain and every other sense said something different. Something I didn’t want to consider.
I should’ve heard her comforting heartbeat as soon as we parked in front of the shop door, but I was met by silence. Surely the silence could be attributed to David’s truck. Yeah, that’s it. Maybe it was sound proofed or something. Then again nothing was sound proof around me. A sick feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. I reached for the truck’s door handle. The commanding timbre in David’s voice stopped me.
“Don’t you move,” he ordered. “Let me go first.”
He cautiously got out and came around to my door. I slid out of the truck and he pointed to the door. It stood slightly ajar. I couldn’t see any lights on inside. There was no way Mom would be working in the dark.
David grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him. Slowly we made our way to the door. The wind kicked up and the door flew open, filling the air with a sickening smell. It was the bittersweet, metallic smell of blood. It was Mom’s blood. I could smell the rosy scent hidden in the blood. David’s grip grew tighter. My eyes immediately began to tear up.
“Do you hear anything?” he whispered desperately.
“No, but that smell,” my ragged voice said. “It’s Mom’s.”
“I can go in alone. You don’t need to see this,” he said turning to face me. His eyes were glazed over. He knew she was gone too. “Declan and Kale will be here soon. We can wait out here.”
As much as I wanted to say yes, I couldn’t. “No, I need to see her,” I told him. Tears rolled down my cheeks. David shook his head and led me in, my hand held firmly in his.
The storeroom was in perfect order. There wasn’t a speck of blood anywhere. From the look of it, she was just about to walk out the door. Her computer had already been turned off and two bags of trash were leaning against the wall by the door. Aside from the smell everything looked fine.
When I looked towards the front of the store my heart sank. Even before David flipped on the storeroom light I caught sight of her bloody hand sticking out from behind the counter, gripping the phone. The busy signal I’d heard over and over again earlier reverberated in my ears.
I jerked my hand out of his and ran toward her. Broken shelves, trampled candles and busted bottles littered the floor. Pages of the catalogs I’d flipped through the night before were everywhere. Bloody shards of glass lead the way to the worst sight I’d ever seen. My mother’s entire body was covered in blood. I fell down beside her and pulled her head into my lap. Her sapphire eyes stared up at me, lifeless. Her normally warm skin felt cool to the touch. I leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Mom,” I whispered, hoping there was some sign of life in her I was missing. “Mom, we’re here now. You can wake up.”
“Leah,” David said softly. I ignored him.
“Look, Mom, David’s here,” I sobbed. I rubbed my hands on her arms trying to warm them. “He’s gonna take care of you from now on. We can do this right. We can fight this and be a family. All you have to do is wake up. Oh God, please wake up.”
“Leah,” he said, louder this time. “She can’t hear you. She’s past that now.”
“No!” I yelled at him. I shook her by the shoulders as hard as I could. “She’s just unconscious.”
“Baby, she’s gone.” He put his hand on my back. I looked up at him. Tears poured down my face, soaking my shirt. “I’m sorry.” Desperation kicked in. “She can’t be. I still need her.” I pulled him down beside me on the floor. “Help me. David, please help me!”
“I can’t,” he said, choking back tears. “I never could.”
David wrapped his arms around me. I could feel his ragged breath against my back. Cold tears fell onto my shoulder. I fell back against him unable to support my own weight. Something inside me broke.
Through the tears, I looked over her battered body. It was obvious she had fought hard to get away. The nails on both of her hands were either shredded or gone. Her left arm had been broken so badly a bone protruded through her skin. One of her legs was bent the wrong way. The other one looked okay, but I’m sure her jeans were only hiding more injuries. Her face was bloody and swollen. There was a huge gash under her eye and cuts all over her cheeks and forehead. Her lower lip was busted and caked in blood.
The worst injury was to her neck. Two small puncture wounds sat atop to two deep gashes that ran parallel to one another. It looked like a small-scale pitchfork had been stuck in her throat and dragged down the length of her neck, exposing the inside of her throat. Blood still trickled out of them. It was brutally obvious she had died a slow, painful death.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you,” David whispered taking her small hand into his after the worst of my wracking sobs trickled to a steady flow of tears. “I should have done more.”
For a long while we just sat there beside her, crying. It wasn’t fair. To have one parent I had to lose the other. To spare me from the consequences of a secret my dad had been invisible for twenty-two years. And now, b
ecause of that same secret, Mom was never coming back.
I pulled my mother’s head against my chest and buried my face in her hair, breathing in her rosy scent behind all the blood. When I closed my eyes I saw the look on David’s face when he told me the woman’s name. I remembered the dead tone in his voice when told me to run if I saw her again.
“Did she do this? I asked desperately, lifting my head and opening my eyes to glare at him. “Please tell me!”
“I don’t know. I need your help to figure this out,” he said. He moved over to sit beside me. Her hand laid gently in his. “None of us can do the things you can.”
“Who is us, David?! I don’t even know who I’m dealing with! Judith, as far as I knew, wasn’t someone I needed to be scared of. Last night I was so thrilled she took that damn dog away I could have kissed her,” I said incredulously. “How am I supposed to help find people I don’t know?”
“Use your senses,” he said standing up. “There has got to be something here you can use.”
He went to the front and turned on the lights. To be completely honest, I could have done without them. The amount of blood covering everything around her was staggering. Seeing her lying on the floor in the dark hadn’t driven her death home to me quite like this. Somehow the light finalized the end of her life– like wading through a nightmare only to wake up and find the horrible experience was real.
Faint traces of what I knew would be horrible bruises later began to show. The swelling around her eyes and nose was painful to look at. Dark red blood coated her body. I looked into her beautiful blue eyes one last time before I closed them forever with a shaking hand.
David came back and offered me his hand. After I gently laid her head back on the floor, I took it and stood up. I hadn’t realized I was sitting in the biggest portion of her blood.
When I wiped the tears from my face, I noticed something else in the blood on my hand. Mom’s blood had a hint of roses mixed in with it, but I could smell something else. I inhaled again to be sure. It was definitely there. Frantically, my eyes darted all over the store looking for paw prints.