Relentless: Three Novels

by Lindsey Stiles

  She again dialed the Matthews’s landline number, but this time, she did it from her cell phone.

  Jimmy answered and turned down the volume on some sports game. “Hello?” he said.

  “Hi, Jimmy. It’s Nikki.”

  “Nik-Nik, what are you up to?”

  “I’m in my car, sitting in front of your house. I want to talk to you right now.”

  “On the phone?”

  “No, I want to come in.”

  The porch light went on and he opened the front door.

  “What on Earth?” he asked.

  “What on Earth, indeed,” Nikki said and breezed in past him.

  He turned on the lights in the living room and turned off the big-screen TV. “Um, can I get you a cup of coffee or something?”

  “No, but you can get me a cup of the truth.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Oh, yes. I’m not leaving until you serve it up—black, no sugar, and no subterfuge.”

  He sat down heavily on the long leather couch. “Well, make yourself at home, I guess. What brought this on?”

  She perched on the edge of an overstuffed chair. “Your dad just threatened my life. Again.”

  “My dad is dead,” he said calmly.

  “I know he is, and I also know he is keeping my dad—my dad’s spirit, that is—a prisoner. Here, in your back yard.”

  “Oh my. Oh my! How do you know that?”

  “Let’s not go there,” she said, thinking of the toy telephone. “Come on, Jimmy. Tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can’t, or you won’t?” she said angrily.

  He sighed long and hard.

  “I know what happened the day my mom died,” she said.

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “I finally remembered some of it. I’ve been overmedicated all of my life, but I haven’t taken my anxiety meds for a few days because it was hurting my performance in school, and suddenly, I have a growing clarity about my entire life.”

  He groaned.

  “Look, Jimmy. Obviously, I don’t know all of it and if I can ask you to please, please tell me the truth, I promise that you won’t get in any trouble.”

  “Oh, Nik-Nik, you cannot promise that in any way.”

  “Yes, I can. I won’t tell. But I have to know.”

  “What about Tara?”

  “She’s not going to say anything either. Look, I know that your dad sexually assaulted my mom, probably more than once. That day that my mom took us to the city bus stop, we had our suitcases with us. I think she wanted to run away for some reason. But she didn’t have her bus pass and we had to go back to the house. And your dad showed up before we could leave again.”

  “No wonder he was so mad.”

  “Your dad?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t know she was leaving with you two girls. And obviously, when he found out…”

  “He busted in the front door,” she said, remembering. “I called you on the phone and then, as soon as I hung up, Tara called our dad at work. And you both came riding up on your white horses like the cavalry to save the day.” She paused. “Except, you sort of didn’t.”

  “So, you and Tara pieced that together.”

  “Yes, we did.”

  “So, you also know…” His voice trailed off.

  “I also know that you and my dad tried to stop your dad from beating her, after he raped her…in front of us little girls. I know that you tried to kill your own dad, but that he swung my mom around and you stabbed her by accident!” Nikki dissolved into tears. “I remember that part! I remember you crying and trying to get her to come back to life. Your hands had gardening gloves on them and the gloves were bloody because you tried to stop the bleeding.” She stopped to catch her breath and put her hand to her throat. “Our dads were fighting and then, you pushed me and Tara into our bedroom and locked the door from the outside, which you could do in those old houses.”

  He nodded and pulled out his keys and handed them to Nikki. On the key ring to the front door to her old house was another key, a very old key.

  “It’s the key to mine and Tara’s bedroom, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “You kept it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “So he couldn’t get you and Tara and kill you.”

  “I realize that. But why did you keep it until now?”

  He closed his eyes and took a few breaths, then opened them. “You girls were in that room. This was literally the key to my heart.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I know. I don’t want to tell you.”

  “Tell me, Jimmy. Tell me. My soul is in torment, for God’s sake! Have mercy on me. I have been in and out of mental hospitals over this. So tell me, what could your dad possibly know about my mom that he could hold so much power over her that she would let him sexually assault her, more than once, and never tell anyone, not the police, not even my dad?”

  “I don’t want to tell you because it will mess you up even more than you are.”

  “You are the only one who knows the truth. I’m begging you, Jimmy.”

  “Okay. Here goes.” He moaned. “You’re my half-sister.”

  “What?” Nikki said, shocked. Her knees shook.

  “That’s what he held over Deborah’s head. He was a rapist and a control freak. And a murderer. Your mom never had an affair. He took her by force, every time. For six years. In the attic, except that last time. There was a bed up there with bloodstains on the sheets. I didn’t want you to see it, so I didn’t let you go up there.”

  Nikki saw stars in front of her eyes and blurted, “Bathroom!”

  He pointed down the hall and she just made it to the toilet before she threw up.

  He came in after and put a hand on her shoulder and flushed the toilet. “I’ll get you a cold washrag. Come sit in the kitchen and I’ll make you some hot tea.”

  Nikki followed him and hyperventilated as he gave her a cold wet cloth for her face.

  “Shh, you’re okay, little sis. No one is ever going to hurt you here, I promise.”

  She nodded and took slower breaths.

  “There you go,” he said softly. “Calm down.”

  “Trying. After you locked me and my sister in our room, your dad killed my dad, right?”

  “Yes. He badly hurt him there in your living room, but your dad chased my dad down the street and he died in our back yard of a head injury. From a shovel.”

  She began to cry harder.

  “Come here,” he said, and it felt weird when he hugged her, but she didn’t pull away.

  “And somehow, my dad is buried in your back yard?”

  “Yeah, he is.”

  “Why didn’t you call the police, Jimmy?”

  “Because I accidentally killed your mom and I thought I would have gone to prison. I still think so. I fear it every day.”

  “So, now your dad had something over on you and he made you help him bury my dad in your back yard? When you were only twelve?”

  He nodded, unable to look at her.

  “Let’s go outside. I want to see my dad.”

  “He’s out there, too. My dad’s spirit is evil.”

  “Why is he here? I thought he died in a car accident with your mom. A drunk driver.”

  “My mom died in the accident, but the drunk driver was my dad. He jumped out of the car after the accident and ran. He staggered home, and had a heart attack in the driveway when the police drove up, chasing him from the scene of the accident.”

  “How awful! I am so sorry,” Nikki said, her jaw dropping. “I guess everyone has their sad parts of their lives.”

  “They do. Thank you. So, he’s here. Mr. Evil himself. I try to make him shut up. Mostly, I succeed, but I am too scared of him to even have a normal relationship with a woman for fear that he will haunt and torment her.”

  “That’s ter
rible. I don’t care how scared I am of him. I am mad, Jimmy. I want my dad to not be trapped anymore. I want to see him.”

  “Okay, but I need to get the backhoe started and it’s dark outside. It’s actually against the law to run heavy equipment at this hour by a contractor.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope. My dad put a big boulder over your dad and he also did some other things.”

  “I don’t understand. What other things?”

  “We shall not go there. The short version is: black magic. That is all you need to know.”

  “Oh no. How do we undo that?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not my thing whatsoever.”

  She snapped her fingers. “I want to go get that old toy phone out of my car.”

  “Huh?” he said. “That toy from your old house?”

  “Yeah. You’ll see.”

  “I have a confession to make,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I’ve talked on that haunted phone a lot. To dead people.”

  “You have, too?”

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t work on my dad to be nice to him on the phone. I can’t make him go away and I can’t release your dad from whatever my dad did to trap his spirit here in my back yard.”

  “Well, I guess the spirits need to be cooperative.”

  “That’s right.”

  “You saved me and Tara and you risked your life to try to help my mom. I know you didn’t mean to kill her! I know you were twelve when it happened and what can a boy possibly do against a man?”

  Jimmy nodded sadly.

  “Why did my dad run to your house when he was hurt?”

  “That is a huge mystery to me, too,” Jimmy said. “I don’t know if we will ever know.”

  “Maybe he was worried that something had happened to your mom. Or maybe he thought me and Tara were there since he didn’t see us in the room because you locked us in our bedroom.”

  “Could be,” Jimmy said.

  Through her tears, Nikki said, “Stabbing my mother was a terrible accident and it was not your fault. Moreover, you saved the lives of me and my sister. I forgive you, Jimmy. My big brother.”

  They wept together.

  After a minute, he brought her a box of tissues. She blew her nose and he made hot tea in the microwave and put it in front of her. “Did my dad know I wasn’t his child?” Nikki asked, sipping the tea.

  “I think he probably knew, but I doubt your mom discussed it with him or my dad wouldn’t have still had the hold over her that he did. Your dad was in the Army Reserves and was gone for a couple of months when his unit was called out of the country. He came back and she was pregnant with you. He could do the math, you know?”

  “And yet, he still loved me. My dad.” Nikki was amazed.

  “Of course he did. You were a cute little thing. How could he not love his little pixie? You and Tara.”

  “Aww. Does Tara know I am your half-sister?”

  “Oh, yeah. We talked about it once, as kids. She said she would never, ever tell you. That it would destroy you.”

  “Apparently, I don’t give my sister enough credit,” Nikki said. “Well, it looks like we are unofficially brother and sister. I mean, pending the DNA testing.”

  “Yeah, of course,” he said. “How about a hug, little sis? We do share the same dimple in our chin.”

  She burst into tears when he hugged her.

  “What did I say to make you cry again?” he asked, letting go.

  “Everything except the big thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s over. It’s finally over. I know the truth.”

  “It’s an ugly truth, little girl.”

  “I’m not a little girl anymore. But it was the one thing missing from my life. Now, the pieces of the puzzle all fit.”

  “Not quite all of them.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “My dad buried a bunch of women in that big, green back yard.”

  “Oh, Jimmy! No!”

  “Yes. I was afraid to tell him I knew that there was more than just your dad’s body back there.”

  “How awful! I want to ask you something, Jimmy.”

  “What, Nik-Nik?”

  She smiled. “I want you to call the police to give the victims’ families closure. And this will clear my dad’s name in the process.”

  “Hmmm. That’s going to be very hard to do without incriminating myself in your mom’s accidental death and your dad’s burial in the back yard.”

  “Listen, it happened a long time ago. There is no forensic evidence that puts you at the crime scene. I will tell Tara, too, that we are not implicating you in any way, shape or form.”

  “I don’t know. It’s pretty risky.”

  “I have had a lifetime of pain. This freed me, Jimmy. The truth.”

  “A sanitized version of it.”

  “Well, thank you for that.” She got out her phone and texted Brad that she was on her way home with some big news.

  “Don’t be a stranger,” Jimmy said.

  “I’ll be back with Tara and we will get organized about the official story of what happened that day, so you don’t get in any trouble.”

  “I’ll handle it. Just don’t add any details to my story. If you do, it will trip me up.” He looked worried. “When the police come and start digging up the yard, I think the spirit of your dad will be released.”

  “I hope so,” she said. She looked at a massive boulder in the corner of the yard. “He’s under there?”

  “Yup.”

  She shook her head. “Horrific.”

  Rosie trotted up to them with her tennis ball in her mouth.

  “I see you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Nikki said, and hugged him goodbye.

  Chapter Twelve

  When Nikki got home, she found her husband and daughter asleep on the couch, with the TV blaring in the background. Nikki put down the toy phone and turned off the television. She picked up Katie and put her in her bed. She covered her daughter with her blankets and turned on her nightlight.

  Nikki headed out of Katie’s room, shutting the door. She walked into the living room to make sure Brad was still asleep. He was, so she went into her bedroom with the toy phone, shut the door. She dialed her mother’s old phone number. She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting. She just knew she needed to talk to her.

  “Hello, it’s me,” her mother’s voice said.

  “Mom, it’s Nikki. I really need your help.”

  “Anything, sweetheart.”

  “Actually, I need two things. The first thing is just a piece of information.”

  “Like what?”

  “Over at the Matthews house, there are a lot of women buried in the yard.”

  “Yes. I didn’t know it then, but I knew it after I died.”

  “Do you have any idea if the police were already looking for him for those other murders?”

  “Yes, he’s the infamous River Killer.”

  Nikki gasped and felt faint. “Okay, that was more than I expected to find out, but we can work with that.”

  “Work with that?”

  “Go to the police.”

  “No. Jimmy would be implicated.”

  “No, Mom. He was twelve. And he can easily blame it on the River Killer. I think that the police will take that and run with it. And so will the media.”

  “In that case, I’m sure you’re right, Nikki. What was the other thing you wanted?”

  “Do you still love Daddy?”

  “Of course I do, baby.”

  “Will you be brave and go get him from the Matthews back yard and you and Daddy can go into the…where do you go from here?”

  “Into the light.” Her mother hesitated. “I’m scared to leave our house.”

  “Mom, please. Go get Daddy. His spirit is under like a 50-ton boulder in the back yard. And there’s some sort of evil spell keeping him there.”

 
“I know where he is and what was done to him.” Her mother started to cry. “I’m not scared of what you think I am scared of.”

  “What are you scared of? Why are you crying, Mom?” Nikki asked.

  “I’m scared that he won’t forgive me. That he won’t understand why I kept it a secret.”

  “He will.”

  “How do you know?” asked the spirit of her mother.

  “Because I forgive you. And I understand.”

  “Why do you?”

  “Because I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Okay, I’m going to go over there. And if you don’t hear from me again, you’ll know that I went. That we went.”

  “Wait, I won’t hear from you again?” Nikki asked.

  “That’s how it works.”

  “Then I guess this is goodbye, Mom. I love you. Tell Daddy I love him, too.”

  “I will.”

  The line went dead.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Nikki, do you realize how crazy this all sounds?” Brad said, wiping the sleep from his eyes as she related her adventure.

  “Yes, I do know it’s really crazy. But, Brad, it’s true. It’s all true.”

  “Were you and Tara smoking pot when you were over there?”

  “Brad, you know I haven’t smoked pot since college. I’m being serious.”

  “Honey, I know you think you’re being serious, but it’s all crazy talk.”

  Nikki shook her head, and her blood began to boil from anger. Then it hit her. She knew exactly what she could do to prove to her husband that she wasn’t crazy.

  “Okay, Brad, since you don’t believe me, why don’t you call your grandfather’s old telephone number and see what happens?”

  “Why would I call my grandfather’s old number on a toy phone?” He began to laugh out loud.

  “Well, it couldn’t hurt, could it? Can’t you just humor your crazy wife and dial the number?”

  Brad could see his wife was very upset and he was starting to really worry for her sanity.

  “I already used the phone to call people who died.”

  “I want to see you use it again, while I am standing here, so I know you aren’t just humoring me, but that you really believe it’s real.”