Yeah, great, then you could shoot the fucking leaves. She forced herself to walk faster. Major had said she wouldn’t have to go too far down the path. He hadn’t said what she’d see when she got there, though.
The Crimson Ram on his black horse, holding his burning sword, glaring with his red eyes, laughing with his blackened mouth.
“Stop.” She actually said it out loud. It was only the woods. Why was it getting to her like this?
It was those stupid visions Vivian put in her head. But they didn’t mean anything. People talked about vision quests as though they were rare or meaningful, but the truth was that if anyone lay down in the dark and concentrated only on the voice of someone speaking to them in graphic detail about something, any person would conjure a vivid picture in one’s mind. It was a human thing to do. It was only imagination. It wasn’t real, and she didn’t need to pay it any mind.
Even though the picture in her minds’ eye had taken on a life of its own, and now the Crimson Ram’s black horse reared up on its hind legs, and the Crimson Ram pointed his sword at the sky, tilting back his horned head and laughing as the flames shot into the heavens and the stars turned red and began to rain down on the forest.
Laughter.
Behind her head.
Real laughter.
She turned.
Something was moving in the woods, and she couldn’t make it out. Something tall and dark and lumbering.
“Major?” she said, and her voice quivered.
Call Reilly, she told herself. Call him now.
The thrashing figure was heading away from her.
She hesitated. In front her, the path stretched ahead. It wasn’t a wide path, and it was overgrown in some places, but it was a path. If she stayed on it, she knew where she was going. If she went off the path…
She did it.
She pushed into the woods, after whoever it was that was making so much noise. She thrust aside brambles and thorns and she waded through the underbrush.
But her own noise had drowned out the sound of the person she was pursuing.
She stopped, listening, watching.
He had been right there. But now, nothing was there, not even fireflies or squirrels. Everything was silent and still. Then the wind gusted again, lifting her hair up from the back of her neck, chilling her.
“Major,” she said again, except now her voice sounded as if it hadn’t been used in years.
Forget this.
She staggered back through the woods, back to the path.
And when she got there, Major was there, with his arms full of bones.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Wren froze, one foot on the path, one foot still inside some kind of bush. She looked at Major.
He smiled at her. “You came. I was afraid you wouldn’t follow directions very well. You know, Hawk is not good at following directions. He thinks that I am, but he’s wrong. He doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he knows me.”
“Where is Hawk?” she said.
Major kept smiling. “Follow me.” Then he turned and started down the path. His gait was quick and a little sprightly, as if he was enjoying himself.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Wren went after him. She could call Reilly, but then Major would hear her. Also, she still didn’t know where Hawk was. And what the hell was Major carrying?
Major was humming to himself. Wren recognized the tune as something that they used to sing around the campfire, one of the old praise and worship songs that didn’t sound much different than a more mainstream Christian worship session. “Our God is an Awesome God.” She shuddered, memories of people singing the song a capella as they stamped their feet, the flames of the bonfire illuminating their faces, before Vivian sent her army off to kill.
Abruptly, Major turned off the path and into the woods again.
She was right behind him.
They traveled only a short way before coming to a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a pile of bones. They had all been stacked into various heaps, but now Wren could see that they were animal bones. Deer maybe. Some smaller things, too, like the squirrels. Birds too. The bones were laid out on a stone circle that had been painstakingly put together, wedging the stones just so. The stone fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Major sat down and laid down his bones. He began to stack them in a pile next to one of the others.
“Major?” said Wren. “Where’s Hawk?”
Major continued to hum “Our God is an Awesome God.”
She stalked over to him and knelt down so that she was eye level with him.
He didn’t look at her.
She reached out and grabbed his chin to pull his face up to hers.
He suddenly seized her arm, digging his fingers into her flesh. “He’s all you care about.”
“You told me that if I came out here, you would take me to him.”
“Did I say that?” said Major. “Did I really?”
Hadn’t he said that? Maybe she’d just thought that he had said it. He’d threatened Hawk, after all. She thought… “Is Hawk still alive?” she whispered.
Major continued to stack bones. “Aren’t you going to ask what this place is?”
She looked around. “What is this place?” she asked obediently.
“This is the place to lay them out,” said Major. “After they are asleep. Before they are given to the Lord.”
“The girls?” she rasped. “The little girls?”
“They are not,” said Major. “No, verily, I say to thee assembled. These initiates have passed into womanhood, and it pleases the Lord to see that they are given to a mature man of God to take them under his holy wing and train them up right in the ways of righteousness.”
“Stop it,” she said. She had no wish to hear David Song’s garbled take on scripture come out of Major’s mouth.
“Not little girls,” said Major. “Women.”
“No.” She stood up. “Little girls. I was a little girl. You were just a kid, too, Major. None of it should have happened to us. It wasn’t the will of God, it was the will of sick people like Vivian and David Song.”
Major looked up at her. “I don’t really remember doing it.”
She folded her arms over her chest.
“Hawk and I, we talked about it when we were tripping together sometimes, and that’s when it would come back to me.”
“Wait, you told Hawk? You confessed to Hawk? He knew all along?”
Major didn’t answer the question. “It wasn’t me, not really, I don’t think. It was the Crimson Ram working through me for his glory. There were no holy men left to pair the initiates with, you see. It is better for them to go to Lord in glory than to live out their lives here on this crippled, broken earth. Don’t you think?”
“No,” she said, horrified. “No, that’s…” Okay, don’t argue with him. He’s crazy. You have to work with him. You need to find Hawk. “So, that’s why you did it. You saved the girls from this earth and sent them to heaven?”
“Yes.” Major nodded. He set the last bone on top of the pile and then he got to his feet as well. “They are happy now. They are seated at the right hand of the Crimson Father.”
Well, now Major was evolving the terminology. Because while there might have been some hint of the trinity back before David Song had taken over the Children, afterwards, there was only the Horned Lord.
“So, it wasn’t so bad,” she said. “And you made sure they didn’t suffer. You suffocated them after they were unconscious.”
“I didn’t want to hurt them,” said Major. “I saw people hurt at the Walker house. I saw them screaming. I dream about it.”
“Okay,” she said, swallowing hard, “then, you see, it’s not so bad. If we explain it all, maybe you can just go somewhere nice to rest a little. If you tell people what you told me, I’m sure they won’t send you to jail.” A big, fat lie. Even though she agreed with Hawk. This was a classic case of a person not knowing right from wrong. He was delu
sional. “So, then Hawk didn’t betray you after all. He just told me so that I could get you help.”
Major cocked his head to one side, thinking about this. “No, no, no. Hawk did betray me.” Major shook his head sadly.
“Where is Hawk?” she said.
Major squared his shoulders. And then he turned and walked out of the clearing and into the woods.
She followed him.
There was a body lying on the ground, arms and legs in the readiness position.
She let out a little cry and ran to the body’s side. Kneeling down, she could confirm that it was Hawk, dressed in black clothes, motionless.
But then, Hawk moaned.
He was alive! She gasped, and now there were tears forming in her eyes. She reached down and grabbed Hawk’s hand.
But he pulled it away from her. His eyes fluttered, but he looked through her. “Eli, you shot my Eli. Why? Why? Please, why?”
What was he saying?
Major was rummaging around in the pockets of his jacket. “I was going to kill Hawk. But then I changed my mind. It’s all fine and good to say those little girls are in heaven, but…” He pulled out a gun.
Wren froze.
Major pointed the barrel at her. “If I shoot you, do you think you’ll go to heaven? Or do you think you’ll go to hell?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Wren couldn’t breathe.
Hawk’s arms flailed out. His body convulsed. He started to shake. “Eli. My Eli. We were good to you bastards. You fucking bastards. You should all rot in hell, all of you. I curse you. I curse this land. I curse you all, you fucking bastards!”
“He’s talking about Eli Brown,” said Major. “That’s what Dexter said, at the tower, after they shot Eli. I don’t think they meant it. Everyone was so drunk.”
Hawk’s eyes were rolling back in his head. He was having a seizure.
“What did you do to him?”
“I made him take things,” said Major. “I wanted him to die. But then I changed my mind. I didn’t suffocate him. I could have. But then I thought…” He put his gun underneath his chin. “Maybe I’m the one who should die.”
She shook her head. “No, Major stop. Don’t do that.”
Major nodded. “Yes. They’re dead. I killed those girls. I don’t even know why.” His face twisted. “I didn’t want really anyone to die.” He started to back up, backing into the woods.
Wren pursued him. “Look, it’s like I said. You’ll go to a nice place to rest. They’ll be people there who can help you. You… this isn’t your fault. They did it to you. My mother. David Song. Garrett Edwards.” Even as she said it, she knew she didn’t really believe it, not really. Because she’d lived through hell too, and she wasn’t taking girls’ lives.
No, she wasn’t. But she couldn’t stay away when she found out they were dying either, could she?
Major kept walking backward, gun stuck under his chin. “I don’t know why I did it. Can you tell me why?”
“Major…” The hell of it was that she did feel sorry for him. He was pathetic and awful. But there was no forgiveness for him, not in the end. Not for something this horrific. Maybe it would be better if he killed himself.
She stopped moving.
Major backed into a tree trunk. He sucked in a breath. He shut his eyes.
“No,” came a hoarse voice from behind her.
Wren turned and Hawk was scrambling to his feet. He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. There was some kind of foaming drool there. He staggered, unable to stand.
“Major, no,” said Hawk.
Major’s eyes widened. He took the gun away from his chin and turned it on Hawk.
“No,” said Wren, and she dove for Major.
She collided with him.
The gun went off.
She and Major tumbled over and over on the dry leaves of the forest floor.
Major was crying.
She climbed off him, looking to make sure the gunshot hadn’t hit Hawk, but he was leaning against a tree trunk. He had scooped up the gun.
She turned back to Major.
He sobbed. “I don’t know why I did it. I don’t know why.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Hawk went in and out of consciousness, and Wren kept the gun on Major, not that she needed to worry, because he wasn’t trying anything. He just sat on the ground and cried until Reilly and the cavalry showed up.
The Cardinal Falls Police Department cuffed Major and took him away in the back of a police car. Hawk was loaded onto a stretcher and put in the back of an ambulance.
After all that, she found Reilly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
“Yeah, not cool,” said Reilly. “Not cool at all.”
“I left you clues,” she said. “You obviously figured it out.”
He shook his head. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“Major had Hawk,” she said. “He told me I had to come alone.”
“Hawk’s pretty important to you, huh?”
“I…” She shrugged. “I just couldn’t be responsible for anyone else’s death is all.”
“Oh, hell, Wren.” Reilly cocked his head at her.
She looked away.
“Hey,” said Reilly quietly, “I don’t want to be responsible for anything happening to you either. So, next time, tell me if you’re going after a dangerous killer in the woods all by yourself. Got it?”
She nodded.
He massaged the bridge of his nose. “We need coffee. Is the Daily Bean closed?”
“I think so,” she said.
“Damn.” He sighed. “That’s pretty much the worst news I’ve gotten all day.”
* * *
Timmy picked up one of his toy trains and spoke to it in a serious voice. “Sodor needs you, Percy. You have to deliver the missing farm animals before the end of the day.”
Reilly crouched down on the opposite side of the coffee table in the living room, where Timmy was playing with his toys. “Hey, there, little man. What’s going on? Percy’s on a mission from Sir Topham Hat?”
“I’ll puff and huff and do my best,” said Timmy, making the train move around as if it was speaking. He hooked up several cars to the back of the train. They all had magnets on the end of them so that they could be easily joined.
“Well, your daddy closed a case this week,” said Reilly. “So, you know, that’s a good thing. The bad guy is behind bars, and everyone is safe again.”
Timmy looked up at Reilly and made penetrating eye contact. “You are a really useful engine, Percy.”
Reilly’s lips parted.
Timmy beamed at his father.
Reilly swallowed. It was almost as if Timmy was using the quote from the show to give his father a message. Almost as if he was communicating. But… well, that was silly, wasn’t it? “I, uh, I thought we could celebrate.”
Timmy held eye contact.
“With ice cream. You want to get ice cream?”
“Yes,” said Timmy, smiling. He dropped the trains on the coffee table and went over to the door. His shoes were there, and he sat down and began wrestling them onto his feet.
Reilly got up and followed him, his eyes stinging. Sometimes, he felt so close to connecting with his little boy. So, so close.
But Timmy was always just out of reach.
* * *
Hawk shoved his hands into his pockets. He was standing in the lobby of the hospital. “Thanks, uh, for giving me a ride home.”
“Sure,” Wren said. “You’re being discharged, clean bill of health and all of that?”
“Yeah, whatever Major gave me, it’s out of my system now,” he said. “I feel fine. They don’t know exactly. It was some combination of the drugs he gave the girls and other things. Weird interactions, but not ultimately harmful in the end.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” She gestured with her head, and they headed out of the lobby.
“So, where
is he?” said Hawk as they made their way into the parking lot.
“Major?” she said. “He’s locked up in the local jail for now. He’s not going to get bail set, so don’t get any ideas. I think there’s a really good case to be made for his being a flight risk.”
“No, running was my idea,” Hawk muttered. “Dumb idea.”
“If you want to help in some way, I would say he needs a good lawyer. It’s not easy to argue insanity, even though he’s clearly deluded. So save whatever money you were going to put up to get him out of jail and put it towards defense.”
“I wasn’t going to try to get him out of jail,” Hawk said into the pavement.
“You tried to help him escape,” she said.
“If you’re so angry with me, why are you bothering to drive me home?”
She stopped walking and looked at him. “He said that he told you about what he did when the two of you were tripping on acid together. That true?”
“No,” said Hawk.
She folded her arms over her chest.
“Look, if I had known—”
“You would have done a whole fuck lot of nothing, just like you did after you found Jenny’s ID,” she said. “You did nothing, and then she died.”
“Hey, by the time I found that card, she was probably dead already,” said Hawk.
“That how you’re sleeping at night?”
He squared his shoulders. “I haven’t slept right since that night at the Johnson house, actually. Don’t guess I ever will. You got your phone on you? I think I’ll just try to get an Uber or something.”
She sighed. She headed for the car. “Come on.”
“Seriously, if you’re pissed at me—”
“Come on,” she snapped.
He slunk after her.
They got in the car. She stuck the keys in the ignition. “When you found that ID, did you find the other trophies too?”
“No,” he said. “Is that was what was in that little wooden box? I kind of figured it was, but I didn’t want to see it.”
She started the car.
“Why’d you ask me that?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
Wren Delacroix Series Box Set Page 19