by James Hunt
“You saw all of those things in my head,” Williams said. “From my life, and what I went through. But… when you were describing it… it was like you could feel what I felt back then.”
“Emotions are part of memories,” Lindsy said. “I can feel what the person felt at that moment. Sadness. Hope. Emptiness.”
Williams swallowed, his pronounced adam’s apple bouncing up and down. “That’s quite a skill you have, Mrs. Foster.”
“And it’s a skill I’ve used to help people,” Lindsy said. “But I can’t help anyone from inside here.”
Williams stared at the prison bars as if he were seeing them for the first time. He swallowed. “Right.” He stepped back, afraid, and then retreated down the hallway.
Lindsy leaned forward, resting her head against the hard iron, and shut her eyes. “Shit.”
“Is he going to come back?” Carla asked.
Lindsy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not.” She turned away from the front of the cell and then sat on the edge of her cot. “Sometimes, the truth just isn’t enough.” She stared at the dirty floor of the concrete cell. She had hated prison. She hated being locked in a cage. But what she hated, even more, was failing.
“I’m sorry, Carla,” Lindsy said, taking a breath as she shook her head. “I thought I would be able to change his mind.”
Carla remained silent, and Lindsy hunched forward, bowing her head low between her shoulders as she tried to brace herself for the coming days and months where she would be forced through the confinement she remembered when she was going through the first trial.
At least this time, Lindsy knew what to expect. But she also knew that because of her past crimes, she would be considered a repeat offender, even though she had done her time and gone through her parole and was considered a citizen that could vote.
Lindsy would make her case, but she could see everything unfolding in front of her, and the future looked very, very bleak.
“Lindsy,” Carla said, her voice suddenly excited.
Lindsy lifted her head, and when she turned to look at Carla, she noticed Williams standing outside the cell door, keys in hand. She immediately stood.
“If you can do the things you say you can,” Williams said, inserting the key into the cell lock, giving it a quick twist of his wrist. “Then I’d like to see you do something good for this town.” He opened the door. “Lord knows we need it.”
Lindsy stepped through the front gate and then walked to Williams, hugging the man tightly.
Williams remained rigid but then gently returned the embrace, and Lindsy stepped back, smiling and eyes watering.
“You’re a good man, Williams,” Lindsy said, and then she softly kissed his cheek.
Williams blushed and scuffed his heels on the floor like he was a kid who received his first kiss.
“Yeah, well, doing the right thing is always a good choice,” Williams said.
“But being able to recognize the right thing is always better,” Lindsy said, and he looked to Carla, and then back to Williams. “What do you say?”
Carla gripped the bars with hope, and then Williams walked over and released her as well, receiving another hug and several kisses on the cheek. “Okay, don’t get all excited now. This is only a temporary release.” He checked his watch. “The sheriff will be back at the office around eight o’clock this morning. So whatever you two ladies plan on doing, you need to do it quickly.”
Lindsy nodded, knowing that the first thing they needed to do was check in with Mike and Daniel to make sure they had opened the trunk and to see what they found inside.
19
Lindsy and Carla rode in the back of the deputy’s vehicle after they left the station, and while Lindsy was in the back of the cruiser again, at least she wasn’t handcuffed for this ride.
“So, what’s the plan?” Williams asked, turning off the paved road and onto the dirt road that led up to the Maples property. “You do have a plan, right?” Williams made eye contact with Lindsy through the rearview mirror.
“With every soul that refuses to pass on to the next realm, there is always a token that helps keep them bound to our world,” Lindsy said. “I had Mike and Daniel search for the token. If they found it, then that will be our key to stop the midwife.”
“What’s the token?” Carla asked.
Lindsy was quiet for a moment, knowing that both Williams and Carla had put their trust in her, hoping that she wouldn’t lead them astray.
“We’ll find out when we get to the house,” Lindsy said, hoping Daniel and Mike had come through with retrieving the trunk.
Lindsy fidgeted the rest of the ride, but her involuntary jerky motions were concealed by the vehicle's jarring motion along the uneven dirt road.
Mike had been right when he told her that she had been too close to this case. Her personal history had clouded her judgment and objectivity. This case had picked at the scabs of her past, causing fresh blood to spurt from the wounds, tearing Lindsy open again and again.
It was like the case was the ocean, slowly eroding the shores of her reason and strength. Every second she spent here, focusing on this work, was one more lap of the waves taking away the sand of her beaches.
“We’re here,” Williams said, pulling up to the house and parking next to the RV.
Out of the vehicle, Lindsy sprinted to the house, hoping that Mike was all right, and when she saw him step out through the front door, she couldn’t help but smile.
“Lindsy?” Mike asked
Lindsy jogged up the porch and hugged him, squeezing him tight while he stood there like she was only a figment of his imagination. She kissed him, smiling, happier to see him than she had expected.
“What are you doing here?” Mike asked, and then he looked past her to Carla and Deputy Williams. “How did you get out? Did I miss something?”
“I managed to convince Williams to help us,” Lindsy said. “But we only have until morning to get what we need. Did you find the trunk?”
“We did,” Mike answered. “And I think I found the token.”
“Where is it—”
“Carla?” Daniel stepped from the house and onto the porch as Carla and the deputy approached the porch steps.
Carla smiled at him, tears in her eyes. “Hey.”
Daniel walked to her and held her hands. He kissed her palms and then slowly pulled her into a loving embrace. They held each other for a long time, and no one said a word as Daniel began to cry.
“I’m so sorry,” Daniel said.
“You weren’t yourself,” Carla said. “Lindsy explained it to me.”
The pair separated from their embrace but continued to hold each other’s hands.
“I couldn’t stop myself,” Daniel said. “And I know that’s not a very good excuse, but—”
Carla covered Daniel’s mouth with her hand and shook her head. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. I know it wasn’t you. You would never hurt our child or me.” She waited until Daniel relaxed and then finally lowered her hand. “I love you.”
The pair kissed again, and now that the reunions were over, Lindsy turned to Mike. “Show me the token you found.”
Everyone entered the house, Deputy Williams bringing up the rear, and he shut the door as Lindsy followed Mike into the living room where they had brought the trunk.
The floor was covered with dirt and leaves where the trunk had been carried inside the living room. The trunk was empty, its contents spilled out around it. Lindsy studied the piles, wondering which item was the token, when Mike walked to an armchair and picked up an old photograph album.
“I found this at the bottom of the trunk,” Mike said, carrying the album over to her like it was some sacred item. “It’s pictures of Evelyn Carter’s wedding and when they built the nursery here in the house.”
Lindsy took the album from Mike and flipped through the pages, looking at the midwife during a time of youth and innocence. This was before her life chan
ged course forever, and she became possessed by that emptiness in her soul, which ultimately consumed everything she did.
The nursery looked homey and cute, and Evelyn’s smiling face in the picture was a stark contrast to the scowling hatred Lindsy had seen earlier in person.
“It’s like she’s two different people,” Lindsy said, but then she shook her head. “I’m not receiving a strong connection from any of these pictures though, are you sure this was it?”
Mike reached into his pocket, shaking his head. “There was something taped to the very last page of the album.” He removed a pink bracelet and placed it on the pages of the album.
The moment Lindsy saw it, she felt the midwife’s presence. She picked it up to read the name written across the small pink beaded bracelet that was no doubt meant for a child.
This was the token.
“Oh my god,” Lindsy said, trembling from the sensation she was getting from the bracelet, feelings and memories from when Evelyn was alive. The hope the midwife felt at starting a new life with her husband, and the pain she experienced when all of that ultimately fell apart, and she was forced to sit with the reality that her dreams of having a family were over.
“She wanted to be a mother above everything else,” Lindsy said, still holding the bracelet in her hand. “And when she couldn’t do that, it drove her mad.”
Of course, Lindsy knew the madness didn’t occur overnight, but through the pulse of the bracelet, she felt the days and months and years chip away at Evelyn Carter’s sanity. Years of delivering children that weren’t her own. Years of watching the joy and love on the mother’s faces. Years of watching the one experience she desired, but would never have. It was these images that finally pushed Evelyn Carter over the edge.
“So, what do we do now?” Carla asked.
“Yeah,” Williams replied, adding his voice to the cause. “Because I still don’t know what the hell is going on.”
Lindsy set the album down and clutched the bracelet in her fist, where it would remain until she had Evelyn Carter in her sights. Everyone was looking to her for answers, so she gathered everyone close. “Okay, this is what we’re dealing with. Tomorrow morning, because Carla was arrested, the sheriff and the mayor are going to be filing an injunction to buy the land out from under Daniel and Carla.”
“They can’t do that,” Carla said, disgusted.
Daniel lowered his head in shame. “They can.”
Carla looked at Daniel, shocked.
“I signed over the paperwork already,” Daniel said. “It said that once you were committed, since the property was in your name, the property would revert to the state, which the resort company would be able to purchase. That’s how they were going to get the land.” He looked to his wife, struggling to hold her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Carla huffed, but she gently placed her hand on Daniel’s cheek. “It’s all right. We’ll figure it out.” She looked at Lindsy. “Right?”
“Eventually, but right now, the sheriff and the mayor are under Evelyn Carter’s thumb,” Lindsy said. “We send the midwife to the afterlife and her hold on them will be over.”
“Why can’t you just do to them what you did to Daniel?” Carla asked. “Wouldn’t that be easier?”
“Getting both of them restrained for me to do what I did to Daniel would be tricky,” Lindsy answered. “And there would be nothing to stop the midwife from going after them again or any of us. So long as she’s alive, everyone will remain vulnerable.”
“So, how do we take her out?” Williams asked.
“She’ll know I have the bracelet,” Lindsy answered, staring at her closed fists. “And because of that, she’ll want to try and get it back. She might use any of you to do it.”
Everyone exchanged a worried glance, except for Mike, who looked directly at Lindsy, unafraid.
“We’ll fight it,” Mike said, the strength in his voice reverberating to the rest of the group. “With everything we have.”
Everyone nodded in response, and Lindsy was glad to see they were all on the same page.
“Good,” Lindsy said. “Now, when the midwife shows up, and she will—”
Headlights outside shone through the windows, pulling everyone’s attention toward the front of the house. Deputy Williams walked to the nearest living room window and pulled the blinds back. “It’s the sheriff and the mayor.”
“What the hell are they doing here?” Daniel asked.
Lindsy shut her eyes, realizing what happened. “The midwife. She’s told them we’re here.”
The car engines shut off, but the headlights to both the sheriff’s vehicle and the mayor’s car remained on, blinding everyone inside. A pair of car doors shut, and Lindsy approached the windows along with everyone else to get a peek outside.
The sheriff was in uniform, armed with a rifle. The mayor was dressed in his usual suit, holding a shotgun.
“All right, everyone,” Sheriff Torrence said. “I think that’s enough games for one night. I want everyone out of the house with their hands in the air. Deputy Williams! Escort these prisoners out immediately, or I will have your badge, and you can join them in the cells.”
Lindsy looked to Williams and realized the deputy was the only person in the house with a weapon. And while Lindsy had been able to convince Williams to let her out of the cage, she was unsure if he was willing to risk his own freedom.
“Williams,” Lindsy said, feeling Mike and Daniel tense in her peripheral. “Remember the sheriff isn’t himself. Neither is the mayor, most likely. They’re all under the midwife’s influence. She’s been tearing this town apart for decades, and that’s what she’s going to keep doing unless we stand up to her now.”
Williams flexed his grip on the pistol. He licked his lips. He was sweating. This was more than he had been trained to handle as a deputy.
“Williams!” Torrence barked, growing impatient. “I’m going to give you to the count of three, and then I’ll consider you a fugitive of the law!”
Williams flinched, and Lindsy knew she was on the verge of losing him.
“You have to fight it, Williams,” Lindsy said. “It’s like what we talked about in doing the right thing. It’s not always what you think it is, and sometimes you have to follow a different path.”
“One!” Torrence shouted.
Williams unholstered his pistol but kept it as his side.
“Two!” Torrence said.
Williams looked to Lindsy, an intensity in his eye that she hadn’t seen before. “You’re sure about all of this? About the sheriff? About the midwife?”
Lindsy knew what she wanted to say, but if she pushed him too hard, he might lose his conviction during the fight, and once the fighting began, everyone needed to know their role.
“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” Lindsy said. “What do you believe?”
“Williams, I’m warning you!” Torrence’s tone was teetering on the edge of hysterics, and Lindsy sensed the midwife’s presence growing stronger. She was about to have the sheriff and the mayor lay into them without mercy.
Williams finally nodded and turned toward the window, gun still in hand. “I’m not coming out, Sheriff! Now, I know you think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re not yourself! You haven’t been for a while now, and these people are trying to help! So why don’t you put your guns down, I’ll come out, and we can talk about this without any bloodshed!”
Lindsy wasn’t sure if Williams’s words would reach the sheriff, but she didn’t think that it would hurt. But she knew Williams was also underestimating the midwife’s persuasive abilities.
“You made the wrong choice, Williams,” Torrence said in a foreboding tone. “I’m sorry it had to end this way for you.”
Williams stepped back from the window, gripping the pistol with both hands as he turned to Lindsy. “Now what?”
Lindsy looked to Mike, Williams, and Daniel. “I need the three of you to keep the sheriff and the mayor busy.”
“I’m going to try and make sure the midwife has a target,” Lindsy said, and then she raised the fist with the bracelet. “She is going to be coming for me, and I need to be ready when she does.”
“And what do I do?” Carla asked.
Lindsy reached for Carla’s hand, holding it tight. “You’re with me.”
With everyone understanding their roles, the men took their positions near the front while Lindsy and Carla retreated towards the stairs.
“Where are we going?” Carla asked.
“The picture I saw of the nursery,” Lindsy answered. “That’s where the midwife will be her strongest. That’s where we’re going.”
“And why would we do that?” Carla asked.
“Because it’s the only way I’ll be able to draw her in close enough,” Lindsy said, adjusting her grip on the pink bracelet. “Because she wants what I have, and she might be brave enough to take it from me if we go to her turf.”
20
When Mike Foster was in the seventh grade, he got into his first fight. He was at school, and one of the bigger kids in his class had been nagging him in the halls all day. And it went like that for weeks, making Mike’s life unbearable. So, finally, fed up with the teasing, Mike decided he was going to make a statement at lunch, and he was convinced when he did, the bully would finally stop bothering him.
Because that’s exactly what everyone had always told him his entire life. When you stand up to a bully, they’ll back down.
So, young Mike had bought a carton of milk from school and had let it sit in his locker for two weeks. Once the milk was lovely and spoiled, Mike carried it into the lunchroom and found the bully at the table with all of his little cronies.
With a smile on his face, Mike opened the carton of spoiled milk, taking a whiff that sent shivers down his spine, then walked right up to the biggest kid in their school, shouted his name, and when the big oaf turned around, Mike chucked the curdled milk at the kid, covering him from head to toe.