Suffer II

by E. E. Borton

  “No, you’re not,” said Kate, reaching around him with her knife and slicing his abdomen. “You’re never going to hurt anyone’s child again.”

  As Grey and Chief released their grip, Kate kicked him in the back, sending him down to his fate. The second large splash didn’t scatter the eyes. They were focused on the next course that was coming over the side. A mass of hungry mouths fought for an open space. Within seconds, the water was boiling red. Tails slapped against the boat as the alligators rolled and ripped his limbs from his body.

  Cassandra was catatonic. A hard slap from Kate brought her back. She stared at the knife hovering above her leg.

  “That looked awful,” said Kate. “I can’t imagine a worse way to die, can you?”

  Chief cut the rope holding her down. She flinched when Grey reached under her arm and lifted her from her seat. She was standing eye to eye with Kate.

  “I asked you a question,” said Kate.

  “No,” said Cassandra, exhaling. “I can’t imagine a worse way to die. Please don’t do this.”

  “Do I tell her mother how she was murdered?” asked Kate.

  “What?” said Cassandra, starting to hyperventilate.

  “Karla Pierce,” said Kate. “Emily’s mom. Did you think she didn’t have a mother?”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say,” said Cassandra, crying.

  “It’s not what I want you to say,” said Kate, moving in closer. “It’s what I want you to feel. Emily was intelligent and beautiful and adored by her parents. Her father died when she was fifteen. You have no idea how much she loved him and how much he loved her.

  “They didn’t raise a predator like you did. Their daughter was going to do amazing things with her life. Emily was going to be a bright light in this world. She cared about other people, and the thought of hurting someone never crossed her mind.

  “You should’ve been protecting her, not your son. We found out from Greg and Brittany that he’s drugged and raped several women over the years. He was planning to do it again the night he was arrested. Did you know about the others?”

  “Not all of them,” said Cassandra. “I only knew of one other.”

  “Did you kill her? Did you harass and torture her like you did Emily? Is another mother wondering why her daughter never came home?”

  “No,” said Cassandra. “My son was never charged.”

  “Because you protected him,” said Kate.

  “Yes.”

  “Time for you to die now,” said Kate.

  She grabbed the front of Cassandra’s life preserver and dragged her to the rail. Chief and Grey only had a few seconds to make a decision. Both didn’t know whether to keep trusting or stop her.

  She leaned Cassandra over the water. The judge cried for mercy. Kate gave it to her.

  “You don’t deserve another breath,” said Kate, throwing her to the deck. “But I can’t kill you. I have people I need to protect who are worth it. You owe them your life.”

  Grey reached down and cut off her restraints. Chief wrapped her in a blanket and helped her into a seat. Cassandra was trembling.

  “Thank you,” said Chief, standing at the console.

  “You really are worth it,” said Kate. “All of you.”

  “No, not that,” said Chief, smiling. “Thank you for not making Grey jump over to save her.”

  “I was going to toss you first as a distraction,” said Grey, joining them at the helm. “But they probably would’ve spit out an old, tough bird like you, Chief.”

  “True that.”

  “So you two were going to stop me?” asked Kate.

  “Yes,” said Grey. “We were. I appreciate you not making us have to.”

  “I’m pretty sure you got your message across,” said Chief, turning to look at Cassandra. “She’s a wreck.”

  “It was hard keeping her on this boat,” said Kate.

  “You did the right thing,” said Grey. “As much as it sucks hearing that right now, it’s true.”

  “We’re not through with her or her son,” said Kate.

  “I know.”

  Kate left Cassandra alone with her thoughts for most of the ride back to the boat ramp. She wanted her to absorb everything that happened on Mud Lake. She wanted her to realize how close she came to being eaten alive.

  “The deal stands,” said Kate, taking a seat beside Cassandra as they approached the ramp. “Sheriff Lewis will send his statement in the morning clearing your son of the trafficking charges. He’ll be released shortly after.”

  “This is over?” asked Cassandra, looking around and realizing where she was. “I’m going home now?”

  “Yes,” said Kate. “You needed to feel that. You needed to know how Emily was killed by the guys you hired. It wouldn’t have had the same effect if I just told you what we did to them. I hope you understand. No hard feelings.”

  “I thought you were really going to do it,” said Cassandra, regaining her composure. “I thought I was going to die.”

  “Your disappearance would’ve been too difficult to explain away,” said Kate. “I have other plans for you.”

  “Like what?”

  “I own you,” said Kate. “We have all the evidence we need to remove you from the bench and ruin your life. The only way to prevent that from happening is for you to cooperate.”

  “Cooperate with what?” asked Cassandra. “I just want to be clear about what you want me to do.”

  “Cooperate with whatever we tell you to do,” said Kate. “You’re going to be my new pet. If we want access to files, you give it. If we want you to rule a certain way on a case, you do it. If we tell you to break the law, you don’t hesitate. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Yes,” said Cassandra. “You’ve made all of your points very clear to me.”

  “You can start by calling off your dogs that are digging into my life in Miami,” said Kate.

  “Done.”

  “Good answer,” said Kate. “If you challenge us in any way, the recordings and affidavits go public. Your son goes to prison forever, and your life will be worthless. When you reach rock bottom and nobody gives a shit about you anymore, I’ll come for you. I’ll bring you and your son back here and finish what I started.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Kate,” said Cassandra, wrapping the blanket tighter. “I won’t forget what happened tonight. I know it doesn’t mean much to you or Emily’s mother, but I’m truly sorry for what we did. I promise you that I didn’t know they were going to do that to her. That was horrible.”

  “You’re right,” said Kate. “It doesn’t mean much.”

  Chief eased the front of the boat to the edge of the landing. They helped Cassandra over the side, and she waded to shore. She wasted no time getting out of the water. Kate threw her the keys to her car. As she walked up the ramp, Chief pushed the throttles hard and headed for home.

  “What was that all about?” asked Chief, cutting the engines as Grey tied off the boat at their dock.

  “What do you mean?” asked Kate, grabbing a bucket.

  “She’s your pet now? Access to files and ruling on cases?”

  “I needed a little more time,” said Kate, pouring water over the blood on the deck.

  “Are you going to give us one of your ‘trust me’ speeches again?”

  “No, Chief,” said Kate, scrubbing the seat, “I’m not. I’ve asked Sheriff Lewis for a favor. If he can help us, it’ll take a few days to organize. I’m still not sure he can make it happen, so I need to have a back-up plan.”

  “Which you don’t have yet,” said Grey, smiling as he helped her clean up the blood.

  “I want Cassandra to believe this is over,” said Kate. “I need her on ice until I put everything together. There are a lot of moving parts on this one, and timing is going be critical. When I told her there were no more deals, I meant every word.”

  “Mark’s not getting out of jail, is he?” asked Chief.

  “Not until he�
��s a very old man, if ever,” said Kate. “He’s a monster just like Bullet. He just hasn’t taken the next step to murder, but he will.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” said Grey. “He shows all the signs of a budding psychopath. His attacks will happen more often, and the violence will escalate. It’s not if, but when.”

  “Especially if mommy dearest is cleaning up his messes,” said Chief. “I got no problem hurting that piece of shit.”

  “We have an opportunity to keep him behind bars instead of hunting inside of them,” said Kate.

  “All right then, Kate,” said Chief. “I understand your move with Mark. What’s the plan for his mom?”

  “You were both right,” said Kate, pouring another bucket of water. “I can’t kill a federal judge. But she can.”

  Chapter 48

  Ray of Hope

  Evan stood on the back deck as the weary team secured and cleaned the boat. He had been manning the computer console since they left. His job was to make sure nobody he was able to track followed them from the boat ramp.

  When the team was outside of cell coverage, he could only track the satellite phone on the boat. Evan knew the general plan and where they were going, but Grey left out some of the details. Judge Hall’s red dot was moving away from Eddie’s and Bullet’s. The screen showed the two brothers still inside Bullet’s car. He had a feeling the dots would disappear once the batteries in their phones died.

  “Everybody okay?” asked Evan, seeing blood stains and smelling bleach.

  “Yes,” said Kate, giving him a hug. “We’re all fine, but I’m exhausted. I need a hot shower and my bed.”

  “I need a cold beer and my chair,” said Chief. “Take your time, Kate. I’ll grab mine after yours. The water pressure sucks in this place.”

  “Okay,” said Kate, giving Chief and Grey a hug. “Goodnight, boys. Thank you.”

  Chief went inside and came back with three beers. Grey dropped his bag and melted into his chair. Evan took a seat across from him.

  “The judge went with you?” asked Evan.

  “Not voluntarily,” said Grey. “Kate changed the plan.”

  “Strange,” said Evan. “That’s not like her.”

  He earned a laugh from Chief and Grey, but it was short-lived. Evan could sense they were thinking about where they had been and what they had done. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Grey noticed him peeling the label off of his beer.

  “What’s on your mind?” asked Grey. “You do that when you’re nervous.”

  “I’m not nervous,” said Evan. “I just don’t know the etiquette. Should I ask you what happened out there or let it go?”

  “You earned the right to ask us anything a long time ago, son,” said Chief. “We did the same thing to Eddie and Bullet that they did to Emily. Kate brought the judge along so she could see what they did to her.”

  “Holy shit,” said Evan, sitting up straight. “That must have been terrible. How do you get those images out of your head?”

  “I can tell you one beer ain’t gonna do it,” said Chief, heading back to the kitchen.

  “You don’t get them out of your head,” said Grey. “Ever.”

  “I’m not a gore junkie, but how do you deal with that?” asked Evan. “You saw two men get eaten by alligators. That would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Hell, just hearing about it might do it.”

  “You justify it to yourself,” said Chief, returning with another round. “I deal with it by thinking about two things. They’re not human to me, and they’ll never hurt anyone again.”

  “I get the second part of that,” said Evan. “I’m not sure about the first.”

  “They kidnapped, tortured, raped, and then murdered Emily,” said Grey. “They violated her with tools and anything else they could find in the shack. They sliced her open and threw her overboard as food. She wasn’t human to them. She was a worthless object. We adopt the same mentality with them.”

  “I won’t have nightmares about them,” said Chief. “All my nightmares are about the various stages of decomposition of their victims. The body parts of a missing woman we found in six different dumpsters. The boy who we found burned in the woods after being molested by a family friend. The remains of an eight-year-old girl we found in a sewage canal half-eaten by animals. Those are the things that give me nightmares, not the evil, sick fucks that put them there.”

  “Good Lord, Chief,” said Evan. “I don’t know how you guys did your jobs for that long.”

  “Neither do we,” said Grey. “Half the people we put away are already out of prison or getting closer every day. Very few, if any of them, are sorry for what they did. Their brains aren’t wired like ours. Eventually their impulses and appetites will overwhelm them, and then they’ll do it again. They’ll keep doing it until they get caught again. It’s a cycle we couldn’t break as cops.”

  “Bullet, Eddie, and Brad won’t be doing it again,” said Chief. “It gives me a little bit of comfort knowing I was part of the reason why. For me, it’s as simple as that. It’s why I’ll be able to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.”

  “What about Kate?” asked Evan. “She never had to deal with the stuff you guys did. Don’t get me wrong; I know why. I just don’t know how.”

  “How she deals with it?” asked Chief.

  “Yeah,” said Evan. “I mean, she killed the guy that hurt her family. Why does she want to keep doing it?”

  “You’re still helping her,” said Grey. “Why do you keep doing it?”

  “That’s different,” said Evan. “I’m not feeding them to alligators.”

  “Look, son,” said Chief. “We’re all here for our own reasons. Some of those reasons we share; some are more personal. Her reasons are on a deeper level we’ll never comprehend. Grey and I always show up after a crime; Kate experienced it. She looked into his eyes and saw the darkness behind them. She lived through that evil and came out the other side a different woman. I understand why she wants to get rid of all of it.”

  Chief did sleep well. They all did. It was only a few hours of rest, but enough to clear the fog.

  Sheriff Lewis arrived at the house after lunch. He wanted Kate to know that her favor was being honored. After the anonymous payment was received, Mark was transferred to a different facility outside of New Orleans.

  As instructed by Kate, Judge Hall made it impossible for anyone to post bail for her son. He was to stay behind bars until Sheriff Lewis arranged his release. Cassandra wasn’t concerned when Lewis didn’t make that happen on the first day. She did become concerned on the third. On the fifth day with no word from the sheriff, or anyone else, she defied Kate.

  Her caseload was transferred to other district judges while the judiciary commission investigated her son’s arrest. It was unlikely they would recommend that the Louisiana Supreme Court remove her based solely on Mark’s conduct. But the fact that the investigation was in its fifth day caused her an extreme amount of stress.

  The sooner Mark was cleared, the sooner the investigation would end. Each hour they continued was an opportunity for them to find another bone from the skeletons in her closet. She had been in control of everything and everyone since Emily went to the hospital the day after her rape. Losing that control to Kate was becoming unbearable.

  Sheriff Lewis noticed Judge Hall’s car in his driveway an hour before he stepped outside. He wasn’t surprised she was there. He was surprised when she stepped out of her car. She was a mess.

  Judge Hall was the second youngest Supreme Court judge in Louisiana history to be appointed by Congress. She was fit, attractive, and sharp. She took great pride in her appearance and beamed confidence whenever she appeared in public. As she walked towards him, he saw none of those things.

  Her hair was pulled back, but still managed to look disheveled. For the first time in the twenty years he had known her, she wasn’t wearing makeup. Dark circles accented the bags under her eyes. It looked as if
the pale skin on her face wanted to follow her frown down to the pavement. Her tailored power suit had been replaced by sweatpants and an oversized jacket. If it weren’t for her car, it would have been difficult to recognize her until she was standing in front of him.

  “Good morning, Judge,” said Sheriff Lewis, raising an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

  “No, James. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment. I apologize for my appearance and showing up at your doorstep, but this is a very personal matter. I didn’t want to meet in your office.”

  “Okay,” said Lewis. “I have a little time before my morning briefing. Please come inside.”

  “Thank you,” said Cassandra.

  “Can I get you a cup of coffee?” asked Lewis, showing her into the living room. “I just turned off the pot, but it’s still good.”

  “That would be great.”

  “You look tired,” said Lewis, returning with a cup.

  “It’s been a rough few days,” said Cassandra. “I’m sure you know why I’m here.”

  “I have no idea, Your Honor.”

  “James, please,” said Cassandra, setting her cup on the table. “I need you to release your statement. The judiciary commission is crawling all over me. It’s only a matter of time before they’re at your door. They’ll find out everything.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Lewis. “What statement?”

  “Stop it! Just stop it!”

  “Calm down, Judge,” said Lewis. “Is this about your son? If it is, I promise you that I had nothing to do with it.”

  “Yes, it’s about my son. I made a deal with Kate. If I gave her the brothers, you’d tell the prosecutor Mark was set up by Bullet. You were supposed to get the charges dropped four days ago. What are you waiting for? Are you enjoying my suffering, James?”

  “I never made a deal with Kate,” said Lewis. “What do you mean you gave her the brothers?”

  “I watched her kill them,” said Cassandra, glaring at Lewis. “They kidnapped me, dragged me out into the swamp, and then they killed them. Kate cut them open, threw them overboard, and let the alligators tear them apart. I thought they were going to kill me too. She’s insane, James. You have to stop her.”