Dead Enemies

by K. E. Garvey

  “I’m fine. There’s still some healing soreness, but it’s manageable.” She waited until Sali looked her in the eyes. “Let’s do this. It’s time.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Sali - 2018

  Sali found it difficult to begin telling Johnston about her sordid past. She also found it difficult to sit still. He was forced to turn back and forth as she paced a circle around the outer edge of the room. With each pass she stopped at the window and pulled the drapes back just enough to peer out, each time stalling the conversation.

  He seemed to understand her struggle and gave her ample time to sort through her thoughts and put them into a cohesive story.

  “This started back when we were kids,” she finally said. “Warren is a sick man.”

  “Did he molest either of you as children?”

  Rather than to face the question and the man asking it, Sali spun to face her sister. Amy’s face was expressionless. She didn’t seem shocked, angered, or appalled by his question.

  Sali then turned to face Johnston. “One of us.” She glanced to Amy who looked smaller than she previously had sitting on the couch with her hands folded neatly in her lap. If it weren’t for the slight rise and fall of her chest, she could have passed for a cardboard cutout or a petite statue in her stillness.

  She took several calming breaths and sat next to her sister. Taking hold of her hand, she positioned her body to face the detective, and began.

  “Warren began grooming me when I was maybe eight or so… yes, I was eight or nine because it was the year Amy began half-day kindergarten. At first, he forced me to touch… him, through clothing. And after a while, he began touching me back. But as time went by he became more aggressive.” Her throat muscles tightened and she paused to regain the composure she was quickly losing. As hard as it was to revisit such a painful time in her life, if she didn’t get it out now she’d be forced to do it again and again until he knew everything. She forced herself to keep the end in sight. Warren’s capture. Even if she couldn’t make him pay for what he had done to her all those years ago, she was determined he would pay for what he had done to Amy.

  “He raped you?” Detective Johnston asked in a consoling tone.

  She nodded. A moment passed before she continued. “Once. Everything else was a lead-up to that night. Eventually, I became pregnant although at the time, I didn’t know it or even how it happened. It was shortly after my thirteenth birthday and I wasn’t as worldly as some of the other girls in my class. Warren kept us under close watch. I suppose other people would have said we were sheltered.”

  A sob broke through her words. She swallowed hard, and continued. “It’s ironic really. Here he was sheltering us from the outside world when what we needed sheltered from lived among us.”

  She felt Amy’s hand squeeze around her own. She closed her eyes and thought about what her reliving her childhood would mean for Amy. Then she continued. “It wasn’t until the day I had my miscarriage that I even realized I was pregnant. My mother took me to the hospital and once she knew I was going to be OK, she slipped out to talk to the doctor. The words baby, pregnant, and miscarriage were never spoken in my presence. I had to piece most of it together later.”

  “Did your mother know who the father was?”

  She looked to Amy whose vacant stare had been replaced with a look of sympathy. She offered a subliminal nod, which told Sali she was ready to hear the rest.

  She licked her lips, and began. “Our mother was… wonderful, but not overly expressive. At least not with us. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, while most parents sheltered their children from the outside world she was sheltering us from our own father. She suffered. Silently, but she suffered. Funny how clear things become in both hindsight and adulthood.”

  He looked between the sisters and smiled in sympathetic agreement.

  “He hadn’t started on Amy yet, at least not as far as I could tell. When I learned of the baby and lost it all in the same day, something in me changed. All I could think about was Amy and how I never wanted him to do to her what he had done to me. Maybe he wouldn’t have, but I wasn’t going to take that chance. So, when he came home later that night I could tell he’d been drinking. He walked and talked differently, depending on how much he had had. That night, I could tell it had been more than a couple. When I was asked to bring him a beer I only filled the mug three-quarters of the way with beer, and the rest with antifreeze from a jug he had left on the back porch.”

  “I’m assuming he never realized what you had done.”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.”

  Amy leaned forward to look her in the eye. “That’s why you thought you killed him?”

  She pulled her lower lip in and nodded.

  “But you didn’t,” the detective said. “So, what happened next?”

  “I went back into the house and left him and our mother fighting outside. I could make out some of what they were saying, but not enough. Next thing I knew I heard what sounded like shots, and then Warren’s truck speeding out of the driveway. That was the last time any of us ever saw him.”

  Detective Johnston was scribbling in his notebook, nodding to himself as he did. “OK, what’s the next thing you remember?”

  She looked to Amy for a reason to end her story there. When her sister showed no resistance, she continued. “An officer came to the house later that night to tell my mother that Warren had been killed in an accident. At least that’s what she told us.”

  “And you thought it was because of the antifreeze you had put in his beer?”

  “That on top of the amount of beer he drank. If nothing else, I thought it contributed to it. Anyway, I was expecting the police to want to talk to me, but they didn’t and I never told anyone what I had done.”

  When he finished what he was writing, he looked between both women. “What was your biological relationship to him?” He raised a hand as if to halt a reply. “It’s just that I noticed you don’t share a last name with him but you do with each other, so I’m assuming Bloo isn’t a married name.”

  “After he died our mother moved in with our Aunt Katherine. She said without him she couldn’t afford the house on her own. We lived with her for a while. Our mother took a job, saved her money, and when she had saved enough she moved us to our own house.”

  “Your last name?” Johnston prodded.

  “That was a gift,” she said while Amy nodded in agreement.

  “A… gift?”

  “She had said it would be fun. We could be anyone we wanted to be. And quite frankly, the opportunity to rid myself of that man’s name was more appealing than you could possibly know. We gave it some thought and eventually came up with Amy and Sali Bloo.”

  “Although I can only guess her reasons, I assume the name change was her way of protecting you from him since she knew he was still alive.”

  Her thoughts had become his words. The pieces were starting to fall into place, but she still had several questions. “So, if he wasn’t killed in an accident, what did he go to jail for? What he had done to me?” she asked. A jolt of electricity ran up her spine as she awaited his answer.

  He shook his head. “He was involved in an accident that night. That part was true, but not much else you were told. He hit another vehicle head-on killing all of its occupants. A couple and their young children.”

  Amy gasped, and she reached out to retake hold of Sali’s hand.

  He continued. “He has spent the last twenty years at the Graterford Prison and was recently approved for parole.”

  Amy pulled her hand from Sali’s and placed both palms on her cheeks. “And you have no idea where he is?”

  The look in his eyes answered Amy’s question.

  Amy looked to Sali, worry creasing her forehead.

  Sali said, “They’ll find him.” There was no conviction in her tone or her words, even as she heard them said in her own ears. “It’s going to be alright.�
��

  “We’re close. We tracked him to his job. We went there today, but were told that he had called in this morning and quit.”

  “Then he knows you’re on to him,” Sali said, unsure if she should feel excitement that he was now running scared or worry that he might feel as though he had nothing to lose.

  “He’s been all over the news, so yes, I would assume he knows. At this point he’ll do one of two things: he’ll either pick an unremarkable destination and hide, or he’ll lie low until he sees an opportunity to strike again. I don’t say that to scare you, but I want you both to realize the seriousness of the situation.”

  Sali wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders. She felt her tremble under her arm. He was only doing his job, but what he didn’t realize was that his job was going to send Amy into a panic attack. She turned to her. “You’re still recuperating and this can’t be helping. Why don’t you go lie down and when we finish up here, I’ll fill you in?”

  She began to protest. “But—”

  “No buts. You’re going to wear yourself down and your recovery will suffer. I promise, I’ll tell you everything although I think we covered most of it already. Please. For me?”

  Her expression was one of reluctance, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she stood, thanked Johnston, and disappeared into the bedroom.

  Only after she closed the door did the detective speak. “You’re very protective of her.”

  She stared at the closed door as if she could see through it. “I’m all she has.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Amy - 2018

  The house was quiet. Dead quiet. Amy woke to the sun reflecting off everything in the room, and her eyes unable to adjust. She didn’t remember falling asleep the night before. Had she slept from late afternoon until morning without once waking?

  She rolled onto her good shoulder and used her forearm to help her sit upright on the edge of the bed. Her head pounded, pulsated at her temples and behind her eyes. Too much sleep. Although she hadn’t been sleeping well, and last night may have just been her body’s way of playing catch up; she couldn’t help but wonder if Sali had slipped her something to ensure she’d sleep.

  Keeping one hand on the bed, she stood and waited for her legs to adjust to her weight. Her steps were tentative as she made her way around the bed and toward the door. She opened it slowly not knowing who she might find in the living room. Empty. She said Sali’s name low enough not to wake her if she were still sleeping.

  Just then the front door swung open causing her to retreat into her room by a few steps.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I thought you’d still be asleep.”

  There was nothing but a ring of keys dangling from Sali’s hand. She asked, “Where did you go?”

  “I drove the car to the convenience store down the road and left it in the back of the lot. We talked about it, remember?”

  She returned to the living room and sat. “Did you give me something last night? I haven’t slept like that since this started.”

  “No, promise. Actually, the first thing I was going to do when I came in was check on you. I was beginning to worry.” She set the keys on the counter. “What do you want for breakfast…” she looked at the clock on the wall, “… or lunch. It’s that late.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Sali let out an exasperated breath. “Am I going to have to fight you every time you have to take medicine?”

  “The only one I have to take with food is the pain med, right?”

  “So?”

  “I don’t think I’m going to take that anymore.”

  “You’re telling me you have no pain.”

  Amy shifted in her seat. “I’m telling you it isn’t enough to keep taking them if I ever want to go to the bathroom again.”

  Her sister’s face softened in understanding. “But you slept for sixteen hours. You couldn’t eat something small… for strength?”

  “The only thing I could go for right now are a couple Ex∙Lax if you should come across any.”

  Sali headed toward the bathroom. “I would have picked them up while I was out had I known.”

  “And I would have told you had you woken me before you left.”

  “Touché.” Her voice grew faint behind the bathroom door. “I’m sure Aunt Katherine has something here that’ll work.”

  The knock on the kitchen door was soft, but unmistakable. Rather than bother Sali, Amy stood and peeked out the living room window to find Steve’s car in the driveway. The knock came again as she made her way to the kitchen door.

  “Hi, Steve. Come in.”

  She let him close the door behind himself. “Was Sali expecting you?”

  “No, and I probably shouldn’t have come. But I was compelled and here I am. Is she here?”

  Compelled. Something in the way he said it sounded ominous. “She’s in the bathroom, she’ll be right out.”

  They didn’t have to sit in silence for very long before Sali came out with a box of what she’d been looking for in her hand. She stalled when she saw Steve sitting with Amy. “Oh… I’m sorry. Did we have plans?”

  Steve rubbed his hands together as if he were trying to warm them. “I didn’t realize we had to have plans for me to see you.”

  “We don’t. It’s just that—”

  He put a hand up between them. “Let me stop you there. As for why you didn’t want me here when you talked to that detective, I heard enough before I left to know there’s a lot I don’t know.”

  “There is, but it didn’t involve you.”

  He shook his head and let out a stifled laugh. “Didn’t involve me. Technically, you’re right. It didn’t. But love doesn’t operate on a technicality.”

  Sali’s eyes narrowed and she lifted her shoulders. “What are you talking about? Please get to the point you came to make, Steve. My mind is on overload right now, and I don’t have the time or the energy to figure it out for myself.”

  He bit his bottom lip and looked away. When he looked at Sali again, his eyes glistened. “I know you’re going through a lot. And I was up all night trying to talk myself out of coming here today for that very reason, but I couldn’t do it. Hell, I was still trying to talk myself out of coming here as I was pulling in the driveway.”

  Sali sat across from him. “As I said, it didn’t involve you. I’m just trying to make it all go away.”

  Neither of them said anything for the next several minutes. Amy watched the tendons in his neck flex with his tightening jaw. Her own breathing became ragged. Knowing what she now knew, this couldn’t end well.

  Finally, Steve spoke, his tone softer than it had been since he arrived. “If you were to learn I had had a child with another woman, or been accused of kidnapping, or did time for theft, wouldn’t you want to know? Wouldn’t you feel entitled to know?”

  Sali said, “Of course, I would. The difference is, I’m not being accused of wrongdoing.”

  Steve looked to Amy and then back to Sali. “Your sister was shot. You lied about your father being dead. I’m not stupid. There is something connecting the two and that detective was here to find out what it is.”

  Sali’s lips puckered briefly before she spoke. “That’s true, there is a connection but I didn’t lie to you. Again, it has nothing to do with you. Why are you forcing this?”

  “I want to marry you, but don’t you think it’s only fair I know you first? I don’t have to know the name of your best friend in first grade, or whether you went to summer camp every year. But things that cause you to tell massive lies, or get your family shot at… I have to know.”

  Sali stood and walked around the back of the couch, which placed her between them.

  “Do you hear what you’re saying?” Sali asked. “You’re offering me a marriage with conditions.”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “But it is. You want to marry me, but only if I spill my life’s story in your lap first. Did you ever
think I might have had a very good reason for not sharing my lousy life story with you? Did it ever occur to you that telling you would cause me to have to relive it? Does my past really change me so much that you can’t bring yourself to love damaged goods?”

  Steve’s expression froze. He stared at Sali as if he were seeing her for the first time. Amy wanted to disappear, but knew any movement would take them out of their moment.

  “You’re blowing this out of proportion. I never said that. I never even thought that.”

  “I think you should leave.”

  Steve shook his head as if to clear it. “What?”

  “Please leave,” Sali repeated before she disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

  For several uncomfortable minutes he remained still and stared at the spot where Sali had been standing. Amy prayed he didn’t press her for answers, some she had and didn’t want to share and others she didn’t know herself. Finally, he looked to his feet, and when he lifted his head, he said, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  He then turned and let himself out.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Warren - 2018

  Warren ran his thumbnail over the stubble that darkened his face. If anyone knew what he was involved in, they might think it was a lame attempt at a disguise. The truth was he didn’t have the mental fortitude to think about anything except what he’d waited more than twenty years to do. A simple trip to the drug store to buy a razor would take too many precious minutes from his plan. Unable to bring himself to use one of the two rusty razors sitting on the edge of the bathroom sink, his salt and pepper beard was free to spread at will.

  He had stopped thinking about things like the police being able to see which websites he had visited. He stopped watching the news. Now that the police knew who he was, it was only a matter of time before they tracked him down. Listing a fake address on his application at the factory would have proved a genius maneuver if he hadn’t turned around and accepted a ride from Chris Hoffman. The way he saw it, Hoffman was the police’s link to him. Tired of searching the internet, he decided to concentrate on Hoffman for a while. He was a loose end, and even though he hadn’t entered into this with the assumption he’d get away clean, he couldn’t allow them to catch him until he had finished what he had set out to do. It was his own fault it had gone this far. Doing the best he could with what was available to him hadn’t been good enough, and now he was on the defensive.