Truth in the Bones
Page 30
Atka trotted over to the boy and plopped down at his feet. Brayden ruffled the dog’s head. “There’s just one question the police kept asking me, over and over again.”
“What was that?” Josh snapped, still not trusting anything out of the kid’s mouth.
“They wanted to know if I knew how he picked his victims, if he told me how he selected the families.”
Clearly interested, Josh sat down across from Brayden and poured himself a glass of lemonade. “And?”
“I don’t know exactly. But I told the cops what I learned myself during the time I spent with him. Smith was always on the Internet…a lot. I could hear the keys clicking. And when he did finally move me out of the basement and into a bedroom upstairs—where he also kept me chained up—I heard the same clicking. The police said they planned to do a forensic audit of his computer. Maybe they’ll be able to figure out a lot of things, like where he put his wife’s body and that of her boyfriend. I mean, how do you suppose he got away with that? How could people not know he killed them?”
“Without bodies, most DAs in this country won’t prosecute,” Josh explained. “Are you saying Smith never hinted at where he might’ve put his wife?”
“Nope. He took that information to his grave.”
“He took a lot more than that,” Skye noted. “Not knowing how he picked those families, we’re left to wonder what they ever did to him.”
“Like I said before, the guy was barely human.”
Josh rubbed the back of his neck before looking the teen in the eye. “These past weeks I kept in touch with the authorities in Ithaca and San Diego. They told me you passed your polygraphs. They also said there was no evidence to support your involvement other than the lookout that you were forced to do.”
“But you still don’t believe me a hundred percent,” Brayden pointed out. “Maybe this will convince you, and then again, maybe not.” He pushed up his shirt sleeves to show them both wrists where they could see the deep red scars the chains had left.
“Oh, my God,” Skye said, giving Josh a dirty look. “Those are permanent.”
“That’s not all.” He rolled the shirt cuffs up to his elbows to show the small, circular red welts that looked like cigarette burns. “This might’ve been what did it for the cops. Smith put every single one of those on me when I did something he didn’t like. How will I ever be able to explain these…burns…to someone I care about? I’ll have these for the rest of my life to remind me how weak I was to let this happen.”
Josh let out a guttural sound from his throat. “The torture was to keep you in line. Make sure you did what you were told. You shouldn’t consider yourself weak because you didn’t fight back. You were fifteen. There are adults who would’ve done the same thing.”
“Yeah. But that day at the river, I didn’t do what I was told. I didn’t. No matter what you believe. Shooting your wife was an accident. I swear it. I’ve never been good with guns even when my uncle used to take me hunting.”
“I know what happened was an accident,” Skye repeated. “And when Josh has time to absorb…everything…he’ll know it, too.”
“Look, you guys saved my life that day. That guy was never going to be happy with anything I did. I was basically living on borrowed time. One false move out of me and he would’ve shot me dead. I believed that. I believed he was crazy enough to do just about anything. And when things went south at that last house in Montana, he’d reached the end of his patience with me. If you guys hadn’t come along when you did, I wouldn’t be sitting here today. And Smith would still be wiping out innocent families. You heard the things he said at the river. If you think about it, you know what I’m saying is true.”
Skye reached over and patted him on the arm. This time he didn’t balk at her touch. “We do know. Too well. That’s why you should stop blaming yourself. Just be glad you lived, that you survived the ordeal. Look at me. I’m fine now. I went through surgery without any complications. All my family and friends donated blood to replace what I lost. I’m okay. I appreciate your taking the time to check in on me while you’re here in Seattle, to come all this way just to see me says a lot about who you are.”
“Thanks for that.”
“When are you heading back home to St. Louis?”
“I’ve already been. There’s not much there for me anymore. I went to visit my family at the cemetery. And that hurt. A lot. I stood over their graves and wondered why I was the one who survived. Why couldn’t it have been my little sister. Tina was only eight. She could be a pest sometimes, but…I miss her. I miss everyone. I miss going to school. Wow. Now there’s something I never thought would come out of my mouth. But now I’m so far behind, two years, I think it might be impossible for me to ever catch up.”
“Nothing’s impossible. Two years is nothing. You can do it.” But Skye saw the defeated look in the kid’s eyes. “What else happened while you were there?”
“I ended up at a distant cousin’s house, you know, asking for someplace to stay. The cousin is on my father’s side. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. But my dad’s cousin didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“Why on earth not?”
“He bought the story from the cops early on that I killed everybody that night and took off. I’m alive and they aren’t. He figures if the cops believed something like that it had to be the truth.”
“But the story about Michael Smith made national headlines. It was all over the media.”
Brayden shrugged. “The cousin is certain that this whole thing about the serial killer stuff is made up.”
“That’s ridiculous. Would you like me to call and talk to him? Maybe I could straighten him out.”
“It wouldn’t do any good. Besides, I don’t want to live under someone’s roof who thinks I could’ve killed my family.”
“So…basically you have nowhere else to go?” Skye asked, looking over at Josh. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“No,” Josh said, shaking his head. “I’m definitely not. No.”
“Do you have a place picked out to live, Brayden?” Skye wanted to know. “Do you have any money?”
“I thought I’d try Canada.”
Skye laughed and had to hold her still tender side. “Do you want to live in Canada?”
“Not really.”
“Good. You could always visit Canada. It’s like five hours from Seattle. Couldn’t he, Josh?”
“Who listens to me?” Josh barked, snatching Sierra up off her mother’s lap. “Who listens to Daddy?” The question made Sierra giggle.
“What are you guys talking about?” Brayden wanted to know.
Skye’s lips curved. “Funny you should ask. We finished renovating some older studio apartments last year. Well, actually it was a rundown motel when Josh bought it. But the place is brand new now…with a beautiful color scheme in southwest design…and every unit comes with new appliances and furniture. We call it The Sun Dance. It comes from the Native culture, the idea of community coming together after great personal sacrifice, sacrifice that benefits the entire tribe. The name was my idea.”
“The Sun Dance, I like that,” Brayden said, trying to keep his voice level.
“Good. From the third floor, you can see Puget Sound. Awesome view. Anyway, you could live there. You’ll love it. The only thing we ask is that you go to school, catch up on your studies. Get an education. You could get your GED. We know lots of people who would help you out.”
“Is this a joke?” Brayden asked in astonishment. “Are you guys just yanking my chain to get back at me?”
Skye chuckled. “Get back at you for what? For helping Josh get me out of the mountains? It’s real, Brayden. It’s a chance for a new start.”
She batted her eyes in Josh’s direction. “Come on. Don’t be such a hard ass. Brayden’s homeless. He qualifies for an apartment. And you know more about him than you do about the man who moved into that second-floor unit in February. Think about it
. It’s the reason we fixed that building up in the first place. New starts, remember? What better place to begin again than a nice, clean place to live. And not two days ago Hank Fielding called and said that we have a vacancy on the third floor.”
“I’d have to get a job,” Brayden pointed out, hope rising in his voice.
“What can you do?”
“I used to be pretty good with computers.”
Skye threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, that’s perfect. You’ll fit right in. You might as well stay for dinner and then we’ll take you over to your new place. Do you have transportation?”
Brayden shook his head. “No.”
“It’s on a bus line that goes wherever you want to go in the city. You’ll love that about Seattle. It’s so easy to get around.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. That used to be me.”
***
After getting Brayden settled into his new digs, they went outside to watch the sun go down in a golden purple haze over their little inlet.
While thoughts of summer sparkled on the water, they kicked back, the three of them, and watched the lights of Seattle pop to life in the distance.
“Why are you so hard on Brayden? Don’t you believe what that kid’s been through?”
“I’m beginning to. But try to put yourself in my shoes. I turned around after I’d just taken out Smith and saw you bleeding on the ground from a gunshot wound. What do you expect out of me? It’s hard to put what I saw out of my head, something I can never un-see. Never.”
“Oh, so how’s that any different whenever I mention to you about that day I turned around and saw that you were dying, beaten and bloody, and how scared I was at losing you? Whenever I mention how horrible I felt because it was my fault, you dismiss it. I was the reason we were there that day. I was careless. Yet, I’m not allowed regret.”
He twisted his mouth up, squeezing her hand. “And I told Travis I’d make sure nothing happened to you. You got shot. The man may never let me live that down.”
“But that’s just it, that’s a promise neither one of us can possibly keep. What we do is dangerous. I suppose it always will be. I know you didn’t mean it that day back at the river when you said you wanted to quit.”
Josh looked up at the stars over the bay. “No, I didn’t mean it. There’s too many sick, twisted people out there to think we can go about our lives ignoring the things they do. Without catching a few of them I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.” He held Sierra up to stand on his lap. “Not with my baby girl growing up in such a mean, cruel world.”
She reached over and took his chin in her hand. “You’re a good man. As long as we always have each other’s back, we’re a team that won’t be broken.”
“Now I know how you felt that day when you thought I’d died. I couldn’t bear it without you, Skye. I couldn’t. Don’t ever make me go through that again.”
She nudged his shoulder. “I’ll do my best. You know Winston’s itching to go with us. I think maybe next time we bring our own damn team to the fight.”
“Outnumber the bad guys? I like it.”
As the twilight kicked in, she looked around at her garden, or what would become her summer project. Joy filled her. The way the light squeezed into her favorite spot. “We aren’t moving.”
“No, we’re part of this place. We’re staying put.”
******
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vickie McKeehan has twenty-two novels to her credit and counting. Vickie's novels have consistently appeared on Amazon’s Top 100 lists in Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense and Mystery / Thriller. She writes what she loves to read—heartwarming romance laced with suspense, heart-pounding thrillers, and riveting mysteries. Vickie loves to write about compelling and down-to-earth characters in settings that stay with her readers long after they've finished her books. She makes her home in Southern California.
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