Watched

by Louise River

  “What the fuck?” Ryder says under his breath. He doesn’t need to read any other articles. He knows this guy is her brother.

  “This town knows. Mary set these out for me. She knew.”

  “I gave the sketch to Sam.”

  “He saw it?” Parker exclaims.

  “Shh!” Mary warns in true librarian fashion

  “He did.”

  “So, he knew, and he didn’t say anything?”

  “Maybe he wanted to talk to your parents first?”

  “I don’t fucking care.” Ryder seems shocked by her outburst.

  “Do you have anything you need to do today?”

  “Like visit a boyfriend or best friend? Nope, lost both of those last night.” Her sarcasm amuses Ryder. “Sorry, I’m just really pissed off right now”

  “I like fiery Parker. You say what you need, kid.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I think we should take a visit to the hospital.”

  Without a word, Parker stands from the table and walks out of the library with Ryder hurrying after her. Mary gives Parker a look only Ryder catches, and he thinks she feels a little guilty. Running down the steps, she stops at the passenger side of his pickup. Scott is sitting next to the pickup in the parking lot, eyeing them both up.

  “I’ve got her from here,” Ryder says to his coworker as he rolls his window down.

  “Chief won’t be happy about this.”

  “I’m not sure she really cares what Chief would or wouldn’t like at this point. She’s pretty pissed right now. And if I don’t take her, she might try and go by herself. This is the only option we have right now.”

  “I can’t keep this from him, Rook. You know that.” He looks almost sorry.

  “I know. Don’t get yourself in trouble.”

  “I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

  “Thanks.” He unlocks his door with his key and climbs in. Reaching across the seat, he unlocks her door.

  “I like this truck.”

  “It’s an oldie but goodie.”

  “What year?”

  “1965.”

  “This is older than Grandma’s Diner. I like it. There’s something nice and nostalgic about things from decades ago. Simpler times, you know?”

  “I agree. We’ve lost a lot of values from the fifties and sixties.”

  After about fifteen minutes, Parker falls asleep. Ryder wonders if she was tired from being up all night thinking about him like he was about her. The trip is only an hour and a half drive, and he is constantly looking over at her sleeping form. He can’t help himself.

  “Kid,” Ryder says running a hand on her cheek. “Wakey, wakey.”

  “Oh!” She jumps slightly. “I fell asleep.”

  “No,” Ryder says sarcastically.

  “Are we here?”

  “Kind of the point of waking you.”

  “Be nice.” It’s a warning.

  “I’m always nice to you, kid.”

  “Stop calling me ‘kid.’”

  “We’re here. Let’s go talk to the receptionist and see if we can get any information.”

  They walk into the hospital, and Parker falls behind him. He can’t tell if she’s nervous, scared, or unsure. Maybe all three. Ryder looks at the receptionist named Beth. She looks about twenty-five with bleached blonde hair, and she’s snapping her gum. He tries to dazzle her with his charming smile, but she appears to not be phased.

  “Good afternoon. I was wondering if you could tell me if Kane Lewis is a patient here.”

  “I’m sorry,” she says snapping her gum. “I can’t give out patient information”

  Ryder pulls his badge out of his pocket and shows her. She shakes her head. “Still no.”

  Before Ryder’s able to say another word to try and convince her, Parker steps up to the desk. “Please, can you tell me anything about Kane? I think he might be my brother.”

  Beth looks startled and gasps when she sees Parker. Regaining her composure, she snaps her gum again. “Look, I can’t give out patient information, but here’s the number of someone you can talk to in order to attempt to get the information released to you if you’re family.” Beth hands Parker a piece of paper she had just written on.

  “Thank you.” Parker takes the paper and glances at it quickly. Folding it up, she slips it into a little pocket in her black shorts. The slight flash of smooth skin on her stomach makes Ryder’s cock twitch.

  Turing on her heel, she walks out of the front door, and Ryder has no choice but to jog to catch her. She turns the corner and head to the back of the building.

  “Who do we have to talk to?”

  Parker hands the note to Ryder, her flat stomach showing once again. Meet me out back. Break starts in 5.

  In a few minutes, Beth walks out the back door, still snapping her gum. Pulling out a pack of cigarettes from her purse, she lights one and leans against he brick building. “I’m not allowed to give out information. We never spoke.”

  “Understood.” Parker nods and looks at Ryder. He nods as well.

  “Kane was a patient here. He seemed pretty dangerous, too. Once he turned eighteen, however, the state stopped paying the fees. He was able to somehow get something into his file that he was no longer a menace to society. A family member started taking over the payments. Those payments stopped about a month ago. And because of that note, he was released.”

  “Why are you risking your job to talk to us?” Parker asks.

  “Your picture was in his room. All over his room. Someone visited him every few months and would bring him picture of you sometimes. He saw me one day, and he tried to attack me. I was told to avoid that route to the break room. I broke protocol and read his file. I saw he was admitted after trying to kill you.”

  “Thank you for helping us.”

  “Are visitor logs privileged?” Ryder asks.

  “You’ll have to talk to Cheryl inside.”

  Ryder walks quickly to the front of the building leaving Parker and Beth behind. Walking up to Cheryl, he pulls out his badge. “I was wondering if would be possible to get the visitor logs for Kane Lewis.”

  “What’s this about?”

  “He’s a suspect in a series of murders in his hometown, and his visitor logs will help us establish a timeline.”

  “I’ll go make a copy.”

  Cheryl walks away fro the desk and returns a minute later with a piece of paper. “Anything else I can help you with?”

  “No, thank you. This is very helpful.”

  He heads out back to find Parker.

  “Thanks,” Parker says as she turns and walks towards Ryder. “Did you get it?”

  “Yep.” He waves the papers slightly.

  Once they get into his pickup, he opens the folded papers to view the visitor logs. There are only two names. Margaret Lewis and Violet Lewis.

  “Violet was my dad’s mom. She died two years ago.”

  “That matches when her visits stopped. Who’s Margaret?”

  “My aunt. She must’ve been paying for him.”

  “Why?”

  “She died just under two months ago. If the payments stopped, and he was released about a month ago, it fits the timeline.”

  “Didn’t he say something to you about “Auntie” to you?” Ryder asks as he starts the pickup.

  “Tell Auntie hi for me.”

  “He blames her for being locked up in there after the state stopped paying his way.”

  “Why did she and Grandma visit him?” Parker looks out the window. “And why did they give him pictures of me?”

  “Maybe to see if he was getting better? Or to see if he should really be locked up?”

  “I don’t know. Margaret visited him and paid to keep him there. That just seems weird to me. I’m going to have to ask my parents.”

  “Probably not he worst idea to bring them into this situation now.”

  Chapter 13

  Ryder drops Parker off, and as much as
she wishes he would have walked her to the door, it was four in the afternoon and she was on a mission. He told her he’d head to the station to talk to Sam. All of her bases were covered. Her irate feeling of being kept I the dark about someone who could ultimately kill her kept raising. Not only by her parent but also by Sam. The entire town. They all knew.

  She walks into the kitchen and takes a deep breath as she sees both Peter and Anne home early from work. She approaches them with confidence at the kitchen island, but the air escapes her lungs when she sees the sketch of Kane in front of them.

  “Sam brought this to you, didn’t he?” Her eyes are glued on the sketch.

  “Honey, we are so sorry.” Anne starts to cry. “This is all our fault.”

  “We didn’t realize until it was too late he was being let out. We ignored the letters,” Peter says.

  “Why?” She looks right at her father. “Why did you ignore them? What if he had hurt himself? What if he had killed himself? Wouldn’t you want to know? He’s still your child.”

  “No,” Peter shakes his head. “I would not want to know. As far as I’m concerned, he’s not my child.”

  “How can you say that? Does the same conditional love apply to me? What if I come home with a man you don’t like? Will you be childless people?”

  “It’s not the same thing, Park. He tried to kill you. He doesn’t have a conscience. He’s a bad seed that runs all the way through to his bones. He would have killed you when he was five years old if we hadn’t stopped him. That is not our child. That is a monster.”

  “He used to write us letters,” Anne says softly. Her sobs have subsided. “When he first went to the hospital. He would tell us he was sorry for what he did, and how he learned his lesson. He wanted to come home. They tore me up inside, but the doctors told me he wasn’t capable of feeling remorse. He’s a sociopath. Then we received a letter from him telling us he hated you and wanted you dead. He believed you were born to replace him, and you were evil.”

  “That’s when we stopped opening any letters from the hospital.”

  “How old was he?” Parker asks.

  “He was six when the last letter came. We reached out to the hospital to not allow any more to be sent. There were a few times he was able to get one sent off over the years. We assumed those were what the letters were when we received them,” Peter answers.

  “If we knew there was funding needed, we would have paid for it forever to make sure you stayed safe,” Anne sobs. “That’s the only thing I want in life. I want you to be safe.”

  “I think Aunt Margaret was funding it.”

  “Why?” Peter asks and looks at Anne.

  “Mary set aside the news articles about Kane for me to look at, and I knew where he was, obviously from the letters. Ryder came with me to the hospital, and we got the visitor logs. Grandma Violet and Margaret were his only visitors.”

  “We didn’t know that.” Peter’s voice sounds distant.

  “One of the receptionists told me he was able to manipulate a note in his file. Once he turned eighteen, state funding stopped. A family member started paying for it, but it suddenly stopped just over a month ago when he was released.”

  “Margaret passed away two months ago.” Anne looks at Peter with alarm. “If only we would’ve known.”

  “That makes sense, actually,” Peter says. “Margaret always asked about him. Thankfully, when she did around you, you didn’t ask who she was talking about. I think she was trying to force us into telling you.”

  “He also had pictures of me all over his room. Do you know how he got them?” Parker’s voice is also quiet.

  “Grandma,” Anne says.

  “You think?” Peter asks.

  “She always asked for two copies of all of our pictures.”

  “How do Kane and I have the same scar?”

  Peter takes a deep breath as Anne silently sobs. “When he was about three, he started killing animals. He killed two of our cats, and when we stopped buying more, he started catching wild animals in the backyard. He would get ahold of chipmunks or squirrels and snap their necks.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “One day, he grabbed a rabid squirrel who fought back against a crazy four-year-old. He scratched Kane’s eye. It caused the scar but also an infection that caused him to go blind.”

  “He had to get rabies shots in the stomach after the attack, and then when I was pregnant with you, he tried to stab me in the stomach. He told me we had to get the infection out.”

  “The day he attacked you, we were outside picking up the pieces of the toys he smashed in an attempt to stun a chipmunk, and you were asleep upstairs. The baby monitor was shut off, but we could hear you screaming from inside. We rushed upstairs to find you bleeding and Kane with a steak knife,” Peter says.

  “It was the most terrifying sight I have ever seen.” Anne’s shaky hands grab Parker’s. “I was so scared for you.”

  “I grabbed him, and wrestled the knife out of his hands while your mother rushed to you to try and stop the bleeding. We rushed to the hospital, and a psych evaluation was done on Kane.”

  “He hadn’t done too much damage, so it was mostly superficial bleeding. Aside from the scar, you were given a clean bill of health.”

  “Kane told the doctors he wanted his baby sister to look just like him, so he needed to give you a scar, too. How accurately he placed the cut on our face, and the meticulous way he determined how to carry out his plan is scary, especially for a five-year-old. The doctors were flabbergasted on how someone without fine motor skills could have precision like that.”

  “They diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder, which is extremely rare for someone that young,” Anne says.

  “He was a miniature Bundy.” Parker has no humor in her voice.

  “Pretty much how they explained it to us,” Peter says. “They were worried if he was left to his own devices, he’d become a serial killer.”

  “We agreed to admitting him into the hospital.”

  “We are so sorry, kiddo,” Peter says.

  “Can you ever forgive us?”

  “Forgive you for what? Trying to keep me safe? Mom, there’s nothing to forgive. I wish you would’ve told me, and I was super pissed when I walked in here because the entire town knew about him, but I understand why you kept it from me.”

  “Sam is working to find him. And when he does, he will be in a maximum-security facility. He promised me that,” Peter says.

  “I’m going to go and take a shower. I need to process everything. There’s been a lot of information thrown at me in the past two days.”

  “Honey, I’m so sorry.” Anne sobs as she pulls Parker into a hug.

  “Mom, it’s okay. I’m not mad. I get it.”

  “I love you, kiddo,” Peter says and joins the hug.

  “I love you both, too.”

  Reluctantly, they let her go, and she smiles at them before heading upstairs to shower. After fifteen minutes, she feels like the hot water has helped ease her tense muscles. Drying off, she changes and towel-dries her hair.

  Shouts from downstairs catch her attention, and she freezes when she recognizes Kane’s voice. Grabbing her phone quickly, she calls Ryder. No answer.

  “Ryder, it’s me. There’s something going on at my house. I need you to come back. Kane’s here.” Looking out the window at the squad car, she sees Deputy Rogers hunched over in the front seat. “Scott looks like he’s hurt in his car.”

  She walks out quietly to the landing at the top of the steps, and she can see Kane with a knife in his hands. “He has a knife, Ryder. He’s threatening Dad. Please, come quickly.”

  Hanging up the phone, she calls Sam. His voicemail picks up after one ring.

  Chapter 14

  “I see you’re still telling the same old lies,” Kane screams and walks into the kitchen. “You still can’t admit the truth. You’re shitty parents who decided it was easier to lock up your child than try and help them.�
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  “Kane?” Anne asks startled. Both Peter and Anne stand up from the island.

  “How did you get in here?” Peter guides Anne behind him. Slowly, they walk backwards into the living room. Kane laughs to himself as he realizes Peter’s plan to get the attention of the deputy outside.

  “The door?” Sarcasm drips from his words as he grabs a chef’s knife from the knife block.

  Kane can see the fear in Anne’s eyes, and it makes his heart race. “Mommy, don’t you think I’ve spent the last eighteen years thinking about this? About all of this?”

  “Kane, it was for everyone’s safety. Including yours,” Peter says. He turns to look out the window and pales when he sees the cop car.

  “What made her so goddamned special?” Kane looks around the room at the many pictures of Parker in frames on the walls.

  “Kane.”

  “Stop saying my name like I’m crazy! I’m not crazy. I’m pissed the fuck off!” He slams his hand against one of the pictures, breaking the glass and causing to fall off the wall. “Everything Parker was ever given in this life is what I deserved. This is what I should have had! Instead, she got the loving parents. She got the track scholarship. I should have had it all, but you two ripped it all away from me!”

  “What is it you want?” Anne asks.

  “What do I want? What I want is my life back. What I want is to have loving parents who don’t lock you up because you made a bad decision when you were five-fucking-years-old!”

  “One bad decision? Don’t rewrite history, Kane.” Peter is playing with fire.

  “Peter,” Anne says. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe we should have been a little more compassionate towards him. Maybe we could have helped him.”

  “Listen to Mom, Dad. She is starting to make sense.”

  “Kane, baby, I’m so sorry you went through all of that.” She’s trying to placate him, and he knows.

  “Can I have a hug?”

  “Anne, don’t. Don’t do it,” Peter warns.

  “It’s okay, Peter. He’s our son.”