by Cross, Amy
“Don't make me do this,” Alex said, following him.
“Do what? Make an ass of yourself? You're -”
“Benjamin Freeman, you're under arrest on suspicion -”
“Based on what?” Ben snarled, turning to him. “The half-cut ramblings of my dense brother? Or does this go back to my father and the time he marched me down to the station?”
“Ben -” Jack began.
“Let's do this in a more appropriate setting,” Alex said firmly, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder.
“Don't touch me,” Ben hissed, pushing him away before stepping back over to Jack. “Don't ever touch me. What the hell do you -”
Before he could finish, he was slammed forward by Alex, landing hard against the table and knocking both beer glasses over. He tried to get up, but Alex already had a pair of handcuffs around one of his wrists and he quickly finished the job.
“Don't hurt him,” Jack said, unable to match Ben's angry stare.
“I'll read you your rights along the way,” Alex continued, pulling Ben back and starting to lead him to the door. “All the lawyer stuff, we can arrange down at the station.”
“It's for your own good,” Jack called after them as they headed out the door. He waited for a response. “Ben! I'm doing this to help you!”
He waited, but the door swung shut, leaving him sitting alone.
“I'm your brother,” he sighed, leaning back and taking a deep breath. “I'm just trying to help you.”
Epilogue
Nine years ago
“Oh yeah,” Jane laughed, landing on top of Jack as they fell onto the bed. “Kids asleep, phones off, weekend ahead. A handsome man to kiss. Could life get any better?”
“What the Border?” he asked.
She paused, staring down at him with a hint of shock in her eyes. “What's... what?” she replied finally.
“The Border,” he continued, with a faint smile. “You were talking about it last night in your sleep.”
“I was?”
“You kept saying something about how you didn't want to go back to the Border, and about how you were done with it, and about how you weren't that kind of person anymore.” He paused, waiting for a reply. “I guess you were having a dream, but it seemed very specific.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out.
“Jane?”
“Huh,” she replied, forcing a smile. “I have no idea.”
“You don't remember the dream?”
“Sorry.”
“You've...” He paused again. “You've talked about the same thing before, actually.”
“I have?”
“It seems like you dream about it quite a lot. I never said anything before, I guess I didn't think it was important, but now...” Again, he waited for her to offer an answer. “Even if you don't remember the specific dream, maybe you know what it was about?”
“The Border?” she replied, swallowing hard. “No, I really don't know what that means.”
“You don't?”
“Would I lie to you?”
He paused. “No,” he said finally. “Of course you wouldn't. You couldn't.”
“I couldn't?”
“I know you,” he continued. “Don't take this the wrong way, Jane, but I can see right through you. I'd know if you were lying to me. Sorry.”
She smiled. “Well, that's... good to know.”
“I guess I'm just a good judge of character,” he continued. “Plus, you know, one of the reasons I fell in love with you is the fact that you're so open. These days, everyone seems to have secrets. I love that you're...” He paused, before starting to laugh. “I'm trying to think of a synonym for 'simple' that won't sound wrong.”
“Let's stop worrying about silly nightmares,” she continued, leaning closer and kissing the side of his face, breathing in the scent of his aftershave, “and let's start having some fun. Come on, we never get a chance these days. Does everything have to end up as some kind of super-serious interrogation?” She kissed him again. “I'm not a story you're chasing for your newspaper, you know.”
“Mr. Crutchlow says hello, by the way.”
She flinched slightly. “He does?”
“Yeah. He said he's seen you around town. He says hello.”
She paused. “Well, that's nice of him. Considering I've never met him.”
“You seem tense.”
She shook her head.
“Are you sure nothing's wrong?” He frowned, as if for a brief moment he was seeing a flicker of something unusual in his wife's expression. “Are you -”
“Do you want me to do that thing?” she asked quickly, as if she wanted to shut him up.
“What thing?”
“The thing I don't really like doing, but that you like a lot.” She stuck her tongue out for a moment.
“Oh. That thing.”
“Maybe I'll learn to like it,” she continued. “If I try it enough.”
“Maybe you will.”
She took a deep breath, before starting to make her way slowly down to the lower half of his body.
Leaning back, Jack closed his eyes as he felt her getting into position. He'd been worried for a moment when he'd seen that glimmer of fear in Jane's expression, but he told himself that he was worrying about nothing. Jane truly was an open book, someone who couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it, and he was glad about that. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with complications. As he waited for her to get started, he reminded himself that he was the luckiest guy in town, and then he let out a gasp as he felt Jane's tongue against his bare skin.
***
After pulling the door shut and turning the key in the lock, Mac Crutchlow stepped back and looked up at the night sky. It was almost midnight, and as usual he'd stayed late to finish off his latest editorial for the newspaper. Once he was satisfied that the rain was only light, he turned to head across the town square.
“Hey, old man.”
Stopping, he looked along the sidewalk, just as a figure stepped out of the shadows.
“Huh,” Mac said with a smile, “I heard you were back in town again.”
“Good news travels fast,” Ben replied. “So, I was wondering. Have you got any new jobs you need doing?”
Part Five
Prologue
Nine years ago
“Pressure here! Now!”
Grabbing one of the nurses, the doctor pushed her hand onto Joe's bare abdomen and forced her to used two fingers in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of blood. There were too many knife wounds, however, with blood flowing from all of them at once.
“Doctor,” the nurse stammered, “I need to -”
“Just keep pushing,” he replied, hurrying around the bed and pushing two other nurses out of the way. Looking down at Joe's face, he forced the boy's right eye open. “Joe,” he said firmly, “can you hear me? Joseph Baldwin, my name is Doctor Stephen Winchester and I need you to let me know if you can hear what I'm saying to you.” He took hold of Joe's hand. “Squeeze if you can hear me.”
He waited.
Nothing.
“Joe, can you -”
Suddenly Joe's body twitched and a mass of blood erupted from his mouth, flowing down his chin.
“Cardiac!” a nurse shouted from nearby, as an alarm sounded on one of the nearby monitors. “He's going into cardiac arrest!”
“Joe, stay with me,” Doctor Winchester continued as more blood flowed from the boy's mouth. “Someone get me the kit from the wall, we have to get his heart going again. Move, people!”
As his whole body spasmed and twitched, Joe tilted his head back and let out a low, heavy rasp. His eyes opened, revealing two enlarged pupils. He was completely unaware of the doctors' frantic efforts to save his life. Instead, in his mind's eye, he was reliving his encounter with the stag-headed man over and over again.
“Clear!” a voice shouted, before pads were placed on Joe's chest and the first shock was deli
vered, sending a jolt of electricity through his body.
***
“I keep telling myself he's lucky to be alive,” Doctor Winchester said a short while later, as he and Jane stood in the doorway and watched Joe sleeping in his hospital bed, “but then I find myself wondering if that's true. I mean, with everything he's been through...”
“He'll be okay,” Jane replied, feeling a shiver pass through her chest as she saw the huge number of wires and tubes running into Joe's body from the monitors next to the bed. “He's a good kid. He's strong. He's a fighter.”
“Do you really believe that?”
She turned to the doctor.
“He had seventeen different penetration wounds on his abdomen, chest and arms,” Winchester continued, keeping his voice down so they wouldn't be overheard. “He's lost one kidney and the other is marginal, he's got a collapsed lung, a damaged spleen, perforations on the liver, it's a miracle the knife missed his heart... When I first saw Joe Baldwin on the trolley a few hours ago, I swear to God, I assumed he was going to die within the first few minutes. I don't mind telling you, there are doctors even in this very hospital who would have given up on him much sooner. He'd be dead now.”
“Like I said,” Jane replied, “he's a fighter.”
“That's got nothing to do with it. It's a sheer fluke that we've managed to get him this far, but he's not out of the woods yet. If he lasts the night, we'll know a lot more in the morning.”
“Can I talk to him now?”
“I'd rather let him rest.”
“But if he might not -” She paused, aware that she was broaching a difficult subject. “I mean, you said he might not last until morning, so I really need to ask him just one or two questions, in case this is my only chance.” She waited for an answer. “Please?”
“Don't push him too hard,” the doctor replied, turning and heading back to the office. “I'm giving you five minutes and then you have to leave, so stick to the questions that really matter. The only reason I'm cooperating at all is that I can't promise he'll be around this time tomorrow and I want you to catch whoever did this to him. The kid's in bad shape.”
Stepping into the darkened room, Jane approached the bed cautiously. As she made her way closer, she saw to her surprise that Joe's eyes appeared to be ever-so-slightly open, and that he seemed to be staring at the window. Reaching the side of his bed, she looked at the monitors for a moment, seeing various numbers and displays that she didn't really understand, but at least everything seemed steady and calm, which she figured was a good sign. Above, fluid bags were hanging from hooks, connected to Joe's arms and delivering various drugs, while a bag down near the floor was slowly filling with bright orange urine.
“Hey,” she said with a smile, turning to him. “Joe? Can you hear me?”
No reply. She looked at the heart monitor, half expecting to see a blip, but the readings seemed unaffected.
“I don't know if you remember me,” she continued, turning back to him, “but we said hi a few times over the years. My name is Jane Freeman, I'm a police officer and I need to ask you a few questions about what happened to you tonight. Specifically, I need to know what you and Caitlin were doing out there and whether you saw the man who attacked you. I'm sure you can imagine that time is of the essence and we really have to get moving on this one.”
She waited.
Nothing.
“Why don't we start with the easy stuff?” she asked, taking a notebook and pen from her pocket. “What were you doing out there with Caitlin so late? Were you... I mean, were you and her...” She paused again. “I guess what I'm trying to ask is whether the pair of you were engaged in a romantic relationship of any kind. Or if not romantic, then maybe just physical?”
Again, she waited.
Silence.
“We need to act fast on this one,” she told him. “We believe that -”
“Is she dead?” he asked suddenly, his voice sounding tired and frail. He didn't turn to her, didn't even blink. Instead, he simply stared at the dark window.
“Joe -”
“I know she is,” he continued. “I saw her. I know what he did to her. I just need to ask and hear someone say it. Is Caitlin dead?”
Jane paused. “Well... Um, yes, Joe, I'm sorry but yes, Caitlin was pronounced dead at the scene.”
He closed his eyes, but a moment later tears began to run down his cheeks and his bottom lip began to tremble.
“I'm sorry,” Jane said, even though she knew her words wouldn't help. “I can't imagine what you're going through right now, and how it must feel to have lost her, but I have to ask you these questions. Joe, did you see the person who attacked you? Even if you didn't get a proper view of him, the smallest detail might be the key to unlocking this whole thing. It might be something you heard or something you saw, maybe even a smell. We need to move fast on this, and while we wait for the results of the autopsy, we -”
“They're cutting her open?” he whispered, finally turning to her.
“An autopsy has to be performed.”
“Why?”
“To find out exactly what happened.”
“He killed her,” he replied, “that's what happened.”
“He? Are you sure it was a man?”
“He wore a crown like a stag,” Joe whispered, “and he knew exactly how to kill her. He'd done it before, I could tell.”
“A crown like a stag?” She made some notes. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“I only saw him for a fraction of a second,” Joe continued, staring past her now, as if he could see something on the far wall. “Just as he lunged at me, I saw the shape of his head in the moonlight. He had a crown like a stag, parts of it were broken but parts of it weren't, it was...” He paused. “It was beautiful.”
“Like a stag?” she continued. “So... like, antlers?”
“I saw the two most beautiful things in my life,” he replied. “First, I saw what he'd done to Caitlin, and then I saw him coming for me.”
She frowned. “Joe, can you be a little more -”
“Why didn't he kill me?” he asked. “Why didn't he put me up there with her?”
“We don't know exactly what his motivation was,” she replied, “but so far we're working on the assumption that Caitlin was the one he was more focused on. It's quite possible that he only attacked you because you were a witness.”
“Have you taken her down yet?” he asked.
“I'm sorry?”
“Have you taken Caitlin out of the tree, or is she still there?”
“She's been taken for examination.”
“Why?” he asked. “She looked so beautiful in the tree.”
“Joe -”
Before she could finish, he let out a gasp and arched his back, just as one of the monitors began to beep. A moment later, hearing an alarm sounding out in the corridor, Jane turned to call for help. Before she could get a word out, however, Doctor Winchester rushed through with two nurses just a few steps behind, and they reached the bed just as Jane stepped back and as Joe's body began to twitch and convulse.
“What did you say to him?” the doctor asked, clearly annoyed as he checked the monitors and then pulled a vial of liquid from one of the drawers.
“Nothing,” Jane stammered, “I was just -”
“Get out of here,” he continued, taking a fresh syringe from one of the nurses. “Go before I call security and have you hauled out of here!”
Taking a few steps back, Jane watched as they frantically worked on Joe, whose body was continuing to shake with such violent force that the entire bed was starting to shake now. Shocked by what she was seeing, she lingered for a moment longer before turning and hurrying out into the corridor. She took her phone from her pocket, brought up a number and then put the phone to her ear, waiting for someone to pick up on the other end.
“It's me,” she said as soon as she was connected. “Something's happened and I need to know whether you're involved.”
Today
Standing naked in the bathroom, bathed in the harsh light from the shaving mirror, Joe looked at his reflection and slowly ran his hands down across his chest and belly, feeling the rippled scars. He knew them intimately, of course, but there was something strangely comforting about examining them again, like looking at a map of a land one already knew well. Finally he closed his eyes, heightening the sense of touch.
After a moment, he was able to convince himself that it was her hands caressing his abdomen.
“Do you know what they remind me of?” Caitlin's voice whispered, so close that he could feel her breath on his ear.
“What?”
“The scars on a frozen lake,” she continued, as her icy fingertips touched his belly button and then ran across one of the thicker threads of skin, which cut across his pelvis. “The scars in frozen water. The ones that go away when the water flows again, and come back when it freezes.”
He allowed himself a faint smile.
“You're frozen at the moment, Joe,” she added. “The scars will be part of you for as long as you're scared to flow again. You froze on that night nine years ago, but nothing can stay frozen forever. One day...” She pressed a little harder against his skin. “One day, you'll have to start melting, and then finally the scars will fall away. Until then, they'll be a part of you, but that's not so bad, not when they're so beautiful.” She ran a single fingertip past his belly and up toward his chest, trailing a line of cold water. “I think you're going to melt soon, Joe. I really do.”
He opened his eyes.
Staring into the mirror, he saw that it wasn't Caitlin standing behind him, but the stag-headed man, staring at him from behind his mask. Looking down, Joe saw the creature's cloth-covered hands dragging scratchy lines across his scars.
***
“What the hell's going on here?” Beth asked, hurrying into the reception area of the police station just as Alex and Ben emerged from one of the other rooms. “Ben, are you okay?”
“I'm good,” he replied wearily, holding his hands up in mock-surrender. He seemed tired more than anything, and not angry as his sister had expected. “Gotta watch what I do and say, though. Any sudden movements and Officer Gordon here might pop a slug or two in the back of my head. He's constantly vigilant and constantly watching for signs of criminal activity.”