Suffer

by E. E. Borton

  “Nobody has seen her since we arrived, Stan,” said Evan. “Not even Paul. She was in surgery for almost twelve hours and they only moved her in here a little while ago.”

  “I don’t care,” said Stan. “I need to see my daughter and I need to see her now.”

  “Dad, they know we’re out here,” said Abby. “They’ll come get us when she’s settled in.”

  “What do you know?” asked Stan, noticing Grey. “Who did this?”

  “I don’t know,” said Grey. “Florida investigators are following some leads. They’ll contact me as soon as they find out anything.”

  “Why aren’t you and the FBI helping them?”

  “The state hasn’t asked for our help,” replied Grey. “I can’t get involved until they do. And even if they do, I won’t be the lead investigator because I’m too close to the victims.”

  “Victims?” said Stan, taking a step closer to Grey. “You mean my daughter, Kate.”

  “You know what I meant. Yes, your daughter, Kate, and your grandson, Caleb. I know their names, Stan.”

  “Caleb?” asked Maggie, surprised. “Where’s Caleb?”

  Grey turned to look at Evan and Abby. “Don’t look at them,” ordered Stan. “Look at me, Grey.”

  “Mom, I need you and Dad to sit down,” said Abby, stepping forward.

  “No, we won’t sit down! What the hell is going on here?” asked Stan. “Answer my wife. Where’s Caleb?”

  “Caleb was in the house with Kate,” said Grey, being the first to confirm their fear. “He didn’t survive the attack. Caleb is dead.”

  Stan stood motionless, staring at Grey. Maggie buckled at the knees and was helped into a chair by Evan and Abby. Stan turned to look at Maggie and sank into the seat next to her. Maggie buried her head into Abby’s shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry, Stan,” said Evan, kneeling in front of him. “We didn’t want to tell you over the phone. We thought it best if Abby was here with you.”

  “My grandson was murdered?” asked Stan in disbelief.

  “Yes, he was,” said Evan.

  Stan sat stunned for a moment with his arm around Maggie. He attempted to fight back tears that Maggie was letting go into Abby’s shoulder. He clenched his teeth and looked around the waiting room. His eyes locked on Paul, sitting motionless in his chair by the window. He stood with purpose and walked over to him.

  “Stand up,” said Stan.

  Paul turned his head and looked up at Stan with vacant eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Like hell you are,” said Stan, balling his fist. “This is your fault.”

  “I know,” whispered Paul.

  Before Evan and Grey could move in closer, Stan began punching Paul in the face. Paul made no attempt to defend himself, and accepted each blow. Abby screamed at her father to stop as Evan pulled him away.

  “I’m going to kill you with my bare hands!” cried Stan, “I swear to God!” Evan wrestled the sixty-five-year-old man out of the waiting room and into the hall.

  Grey took a knee in front of Paul and placed his hands on the sides of his friends bleeding face. He lifted his head so they were eye to eye. Paul was crying, but it had nothing to do with the pain of his swelling eye.

  “Look at me,” said Grey with a slight smile. “Look at me, Paul.”

  “He’s right,” said Paul, defeated. “You know he is.”

  “He’s been an asshole since the first day we met him,” said Grey. “You know that.” He pulled his friend in close and wrapped his arms around him. “None of this is your fault. You’re a mess right now and you’re going be for a long time, but none of this is your fault. Don’t let that prick get in your head, buddy.”

  Grey held Paul until the crying subsided. He left for a moment and then returned with ice wrapped in a towel. Two hospital security guards entered the room, but were waived off by the federal agent posted at the door. He motioned for Grey to meet him in the hall.

  “Is your friend okay?” asked the agent.

  “Yeah, it’s just a small cut, but he’s gonna have a nice shiner,” said Grey. “Thanks for handling security. And if you see that old man come back in here without me, shoot him in the leg.”

  “Roger that,” chuckled the agent. “I’d love to stick around to see what happens next, but we just got a call that state troopers will be taking over. They should be here in twenty minutes. My boss is sending us home, but you just say the word and I’m staying. Same goes for my partner.”

  “I appreciate that, but we’ll be okay here.”

  Grey turned to see Abby and her parents standing in the lobby waiting for an elevator. He started moving toward them. Evan recognized the look on Grey’s face and tried to stand in front of him.

  “Abby’s taking them to check into their rooms,” said Evan as he passed by. “Grey.”

  “Go sit with Paul,” said Grey, never breaking stride.

  The elevator doors opened and Abby and her parents stepped inside. Grey reached in and pulled Stan out. “Wait for him in the lobby downstairs. He won’t be long.” Before Abby could protest, the doors closed, leaving Grey and Stan alone in the lobby.

  “What in the hell are –.”

  “Shut up,” said Grey, towering over Stan. “It’s my turn to be an asshole.”

  He stepped in closer, leaving only a few inches between them. “He found them,” said Grey. “Caleb, his son, was tied to a chair with his throat cut. Kate, his wife, was unconscious and tied to the bed with her face nearly ripped off her skull. She was lying in a pool of her own blood.”

  Stan closed his eyes and lowered his head. “Don’t you fucking look away from me,” said Grey, pulling Stan’s chin up. “He found them. And you decided a good man who saw that deserved a couple sucker punches. You disgust me. I always thought you were a coward, and now you just proved it to me.”

  “My daughter is –”

  “Alive,” said Grey. “His son isn’t. Believe it or not, you piece of shit, he needs you and Maggie. There’s nothing I can do about it, but you’re his only family now. What I can do is make you a promise. If you come back up here and go at him again, every cop in this place will turn his back while I beat you bloody in front of your wife and daughter. Do you understand me?”

  “I do.”

  “This is behind us now,” continued Grey. “Nobody will know about our conversation except you and me. Go get settled in across the street, calm your ass down, and get back here as soon as you can. The first thing you’re going to do after is sincerely apologize to Paul. You’re going to give him a hug and then you and Maggie aren’t going to leave his side. If you’re going to say anything to me now, choose your words carefully.”

  Stan stood silent for a moment before speaking. “I am sorry,” he said with tears welling in his eyes. “I will apologize to Paul and I won’t leave his side. My child is in a coma and I just found out my only grandbaby is dead. Yes, I lashed out in the wrong direction. You can’t imagine my pain.”

  It was a point Grey couldn’t argue. The elevator doors opened, revealing Abby standing alone inside.

  “Let’s go, Dad. We need to get Mom to the room.”

  Abby spoke to Stan without taking her eyes off of Grey. She knew he wouldn’t tolerate her dad’s outburst and wouldn’t hesitate to return the favor. In her eyes, she just saved her father from a beating. Stan stepped inside the elevator and turned around to face Grey.

  “I always keep my promises, Stan.”

  Brave

  DARKNESS WAS CREEPING OVER THE city as two black vans stopped in front of the rundown home of Gregory Kirsk. Ten heavily armed sheriff’s deputies moving like shadows took their positions around the perimeter of the house. A third van stopped and four more deputies in full body armor exited the vehicle and snaked up the walkway to the front door. Two of the men grabbed each side of a battering ram as another announced their intent. “Sheriff’s department! Search warrant!”

  Knocking the door off its hinges, the men entered, illu
minating the dark house with tactical flashlights mounted on the ends of their automatic rifles. Less than twenty seconds later, every room in the home was cleared. Kirsk was nowhere to be found.

  The men began a more extensive search, looking in any crevice that could hide a human being. When they confirmed no one was inside, Joel and Carol requested they remount the front door and move to a concealed position two blocks away in an abandoned apartment complex. If Kirsk was on his way home and saw all the activity, he would disappear into the night.

  Using flashlights to focus their attention on small areas, they began their search for evidence related to the crimes. It didn’t take them long to find it. He had converted a small space in the back of the house into his planning room. The walls were covered with photos of the Freemans, their home in Miami, and the vacation villa on Sugarloaf Key. A table in the corner had maps of the Key and detailed notes outlining their every move over the past three months.

  “I think this falls under premeditation,” said Joel. “He’s even got copies of their emails.”

  “Do you see anything that looks like a map with an ‘X’ showing us where he is now?” asked Carol.

  “Maybe,” replied Joel. “I do have a map showing routes in and out of Sugarloaf with some points circled.”

  “We need to figure out what those points are,” said Carol. “Let’s get forensics in here to photograph everything. We can go over them back at the office. We’ll leave SWAT here in case he decides to come home.”

  “This guy planned out every detail,” said Joel, staring at the maps.

  “What’s your point?”

  “This much planning and you leave a fingerprint on a fork and skin under the victims fingernails? Doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “Figuring out what he did when he got there isn’t our priority,” said Carol. “He’s obviously our killer. We’ll let the shrinks work on what he was thinking.”

  “Do you want to let Grey know we have a primary suspect?” asked Joel.

  “Not yet.”

  “We told him we’d keep him in the loop,” said Joel.

  “And we will,” replied Carol. “But I didn’t say when. If Grey has a name, he’s going to go looking for him.”

  “You really think he’d go after him?”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  *****

  It had been twenty four hours since Stan and Grey had their conversation in the elevator lobby. The federal agent was pleased Kate’s father held up his end of the agreement. When he returned later in the day, he made his apologies and kept his word to stay by Paul’s side. He even convinced Paul to check into the hotel to get a shower and change of clothes. When Stan went into the minibar to fix them a drink, Paul fell onto the bed and didn’t wake up for over ten hours. Grey was relieved he found some peace.

  They were all assembled back in the waiting room when Dr. Singer surprised them with a visit. At first sight of him, Grey thought the worst. A disarming smile on the doctor’s face let him know she was still fighting.

  “I just finished going over the results of Kate’s last round of testing,” said Dr. Singer. “There’s still no sign of internal bleeding, and her vitals are getting a little stronger. But I have to caution you, the improvement is minimal. The fact that she’s continuing to improve at all is nothing short of amazing.”

  “None of us have seen her,” said Maggie. “Is there any chance we can go in for just a minute? I need to touch my baby’s hand. That’s all I want.”

  “Mrs. Coleman, I need you to listen to me,” said Dr. Singer. “All of you need to listen. This is going to be a very long battle with no guarantees for the next few weeks, perhaps months. The pace of any improvements is going to be very slow for Kate and all of you. I’m not telling any of you to leave today and wait for our call, but this waiting room is going to become small and uncomfortable.”

  “We know,” said Stan. “But you’re right, we’re not going anywhere for a while. Our place is with our daughter until she’s stronger. And she will get stronger. You don’t know our Kate like we do.”

  “We have rooms across the street at the hotel,” said Abby. “We can visit in shifts. We’ll be fine, Dr. Singer. So can we see her?”

  “No more than two at a time and no longer than five minutes,” said Dr. Singer. “I’ll send a nurse to escort you in and out. Whatever she says goes. Okay?”

  “Yes, of course,” said Maggie, unable to hide her excitement.

  “There is extensive facial damage and her eyes are covered,” continued Dr. Singer. “She is discolored and swollen from her injuries. You need to be prepared to see her in that condition.”

  Maggie didn’t hear anything the doctor said after he had given her permission to see her daughter.

  Grey looked at her beaming smile and knew it would be wiped off her face as soon as she walked into Kate’s room. The image of her being tied to the bedposts covered in blood would be the one burned into his memory. Regardless if she managed to survive and sought the best plastic surgeons in the world, he’d never forget. And he knew Paul wouldn’t either.

  Grey thought about saying something, anything, to help prepare her before she went inside. But in the ten minutes it took for the nurse to come out, nothing seemed adequate. He felt sorry for her when she grabbed Stan’s hand and disappeared behind the ICU doors. He knew the reason Dr. Singer limited the visit to five minutes wasn’t because Kate needed the rest. He did it to limit the level of exposure to something her family would need time to digest. Their daughter’s familiar beautiful face was gone.

  “I want to apologize for what I said to you earlier,” said Abby, taking Grey’s thoughts away from her parents. “You just happened to be the closest target for a misguided anger. I know you’d be out there with them hunting that animal if you could.”

  “I know you and your parents aren’t my biggest fans,” said Grey. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure why I’m not out there looking for him either. I think some of it has to do with staying as close to Kate and Paul as possible so nothing else bad happens. In spite of what you may believe, I love Caleb and Kate like they were my own.”

  “Do you think he’d try to come here?” asked Abby with a hint of fear in her voice.

  “I don’t, but I’m not willing to risk it,” replied Grey. “The bottom line is, she’s a witness. If he knows she survived and could identify him, he might want to change that.”

  “So that’s the reason you’re here,” said Abby. “You’re protecting them.”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “I do know you love them, Grey. I really am sorry.”

  “Abby, he hurt her bad,” said Grey. “She lost an eye, but that may not be the worst of it. You have to prepare yourself before you go in there. And you’re going to have to prepare yourself to deal with your parents when they come out. They have no idea what he did, but they’re finding out right now. The attack was brutal. If they didn’t tell you she was your sister, you wouldn’t recognize her.”

  “Will you go in with me?” asked Abby in an unfamiliar tone.

  “Of course.”

  They both turned as the ICU doors opened. Stan and the nurse were helping Maggie walk. Abby and Grey rushed to their side. They sat Maggie in the chair and Stan took the one beside her. He never let go of her hand. The nurse had a pained look when she spoke to Grey.

  “I think that should be the only visit today,” she said.

  “I’m a friend of the family, and I’m also with the FBI. I found her at the scene and know what to expect. Her sister needs to see her. I’ll be going in with her if that’s okay with you. Just for a minute, please. We’ll make this the last visit today.”

  She hesitated, but agreed to walk them back to Kate. Grey had known Abby for almost half of his life. It was the first time she had ever reached out to hold his hand. She gripped it as they walked through the same ominous doors that had just changed her parents’ lives forever.

  They stopped a
few steps away from Kate’s room. “Whenever you’re ready,” said Grey. Abby took a deep breath and turned the corner. Pain shot through his fingers when she put her eyes on Kate.

  Most of her face was concealed by bandages, but the areas exposed were discolored and swollen. Her hair was still matted with blood, and small tubes used to drain her wounds were attached to her face like tentacles. More tubes bringing fluid and blood into her body were attached to her arms and neck. Kate was covered with sheets, making it impossible for Abby to see what Grey knew was underneath.

  Abby released her grip and moved in closer to her sister. Grey stood silent in the doorway, watching her. She looked down at Kate’s purple, swollen hand and took it in hers with care. “I’m not afraid,” whispered Abby. “Because I know you wouldn’t be. I still see your beautiful face. That monster could never take that from you. Mom and Dad are scared right now, but they’ll be okay. All you have to do is get better, Kate. Paul and I will be here waiting for you when you come back. Just please come back to us. We love you so much.”

  Abby lowered her head and cried as if she didn’t want Kate to hear. Grey had never thought of Abby as being strong. She grew up in a privileged home and escaped most of the hardships of a young adult trying to find their way in the world. Watching her at her sister’s side, he couldn’t help but think of her as brave.

  She kissed her hand and walked passed him out into the hallway. Grey stared at Kate for a moment and made a silent deal with her. He promised he’d look after her husband and family if she promised to heal and honor Abby’s request to come back to them. He turned to leave the room and saw Abby standing a few feet away. The look on her face was unsettling.

  “I don’t care what it takes,” said Abby, moving in closer to him. “I don’t give a shit about who has to invite you to get involved. You just find a way and then you go find that bastard. And when you do, I pray to God you make him pay for what he did to her.”