Buried

by Ellison Cooper

  “To stop him,” Ezra said, realization dawning.

  “And she took Sam to protect her from Kyle!” Max practically shouted.

  Kona jumped up at the excitement in Max’s voice.

  “Exactly. Max, remember we even said that the Dark Hollow House looked like a place to hide out. I think she was trying to protect the girl.”

  Max half stood up. “And that explains why Kyle was running like a bat out of hell ahead of us up at Dark Hollow. He knew that Cricket, Beaumont, whatever, would tell us about him. He had to get there first to shut her up. He ran up ahead to kill her—she just got the drop on him first.”

  Sayer slapped the table, unable to rein in her excitement. “Yes!” Finally all the pieces fit together in a way that made sense. “In 1987, infant Kyle got horribly ill and needed a bone marrow transplant. Cricket was the donor. Abigail Nelson was suffering from postpartum psychosis and heard the doctors repeatedly talking about Kyle as a chimera. Her psychosis developed into an elaborate delusion and she became convinced in 1996 she had to sacrifice people to protect her monstrous child. I’m betting she involved both of them. Mrs. Nelson is our original UNSUB.”

  Sayer took a deep breath and continued. “Then, in 2002, Cricket did something that caused a confrontation with her mother. Maybe she threatened to turn her in. There was a struggle, Cricket killed her own mother, then ran to Max to help her escape. She came back and has been trying to stop Kyle all this time. Hell, she even fed us the perfect profile, describing Kyle to a tee.”

  Max groaned, face pale.

  “What’s wrong, Max?”

  “Cricket was trying to protect Sam. And I shot her.…” Max leaned forward, grasping his head. “I shot a woman trying to protect a little girl from a serial killer.”

  The reality of what he said crashed onto Sayer. She looked up, shaking. “Max, I handed that little girl off to a killer. I literally asked Kyle to take her to the hospital. And he smiled and walked away with a two-year-old girl who is probably now down in the pit about to be tortured and killed. We’ve got to find the pit before it’s too late.”

  Dana spoke up. “One thing I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t Cricket, I mean Beaumont … why wouldn’t she just tell you it was Kyle? She had to know his DNA would match hers. Why try to stop him on her own rather than just telling us what happened?”

  Sayer’s phone buzzed and she read the text. “How about I ask her? Alice Beaumont is out of surgery. She wants to talk.”

  CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

  Hannah Valdez wandered down Fifth Street, shivering in her soaked hospital gown. She stuck to the shadows, cursing herself for not thinking to put on some clothes. It was obvious something was wrong with her, wandering the streets in the thin cotton shift. She didn’t want to arouse any suspicions.

  She made it to the corner where the voice had told her to wait.

  Looking along the empty road, Hannah retreated against a building so she could remain out of sight.

  She pulled out Zoe’s cell phone. Surely it would occur to him to check her for a phone.

  With weak hands, she cracked the silvery casing and plucked out the GPS microchip connected to the small battery.

  Headlights turned down the road and approached slowly. Before they got too close, Hannah swallowed the GPS and battery, wires and all, choking it down her dry throat.

  As the car rolled to a stop, her heart seized. A police cruiser. No! Had someone noticed her missing?

  But then the window rolled down and Hannah knew it was him. The man inside smiled, but it was not the concerned smile of a police officer. It was a gleeful look that made her stomach quail with fear.

  “So glad you came,” he said conversationally. “Although we already know each other, let me formally introduce myself. I’m Kyle Nelson, police chief, and resident monster of Rockfish Gap.” He got out, his body stringy like a gangly marionette. With warm hands, he patted her down and then opened the car door like a gentleman on a date.

  “Get in, Hannah. It’s time to go save Sam.”

  UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

  As Sayer wound her way through the hospital, she battled with guilt and anger. Kyle had taken Sam right in front of her. She had let him walk away. She had missed that he was their UNSUB all along.

  Sayer pushed into Alice Beaumont’s room so hard the door banged against the back wall.

  A nurse fussing over Beaumont jumped at the loud sound. “Oh! You can’t be in here.”

  Sayer held up her badge. “FBI. Beaumont wanted to talk to me.”

  “Oh.” The nurse looked closely at the badge. “All right. I guess you can stay, but she’ll tire out fast, so don’t push it.” The nurse hurried off like Sayer might bite her. Sayer realized she must look dangerous.

  She loudly scraped a chair across the floor next to the bed. “So, do I call you Alice Beaumont or Cricket Nelson?” she said sharply.

  Beaumont cast her eyes down with shame. “Alice, please. I’m not Cricket Nelson anymore. Haven’t been for a long, long time,” she said with a raspy voice.

  With Beaumont’s face slack, and without the deep berry lipstick and flowing dress, Sayer could finally see Cricket Nelson in her eyes.

  “Did Kyle get the girl?” she asked.

  “Yes, he did.” Sayer struggled with conflicting emotions. If Beaumont had just told her everything, Sam would be safe at home. But at least this woman had tried to intervene and protect the girl, even if it failed miserably.

  “I’m so sorry. I thought I could protect her.… You have no idea what he’s capable of.”

  Sayer bit back a harsh comment and tried to remember what this woman must have gone through as a child. “Is that why you tried to kill him at the archives?” she managed to say.

  Beaumont nodded, a wet sound rattling in her chest as she inhaled.

  Sayer didn’t respond. There would be plenty of time to determine what price Alice Beaumont should pay for her silence about Kyle. For now, Sayer needed information.

  “Can you tell us where he’s keeping her?”

  Beaumont took a wheezing breath. “No, I’m sorry. My mother never trusted me when she took us to the mine. She made me wear a blindfold. I know it’s in the southern end of the park, but I have no clue where.”

  “Damn. Okay, I need you to tell me everything.”

  Alice Beaumont closed her eyes and nodded almost imperceptibly. “I guess it’s finally time to stop hiding.” She looked at Sayer. “Obviously you’ve already figured out that I used to be Cricket. What else do you know?”

  “I’ve read parts of your mother’s journal. I need you to explain what happened back then.”

  “After Kyle was born, he became very ill.”

  “Some kind of blood cancer?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “We’ve figured out that you must have been his bone marrow donor when he got sick,” Sayer said.

  “That’s right.” Beaumont’s voice trembled slightly. “While he was recovering in the hospital after the transplant, our mom … became very ill. All the doctors talking about chimerism set off an elaborate delusion. If Kyle was a chimera, then she had to be Ekhidna.” Beaumont’s face pulled into a disgusted grimace. “I know now that she had a history of deep psychosis. She needed help.”

  “She became convinced she was the mother of a monster,” Sayer said.

  Beaumont nodded.

  “In her journal, it sounds like she became convinced that people were out to get Kyle?”

  “She thought we were constantly in danger. The idea that she was some kind of Greek monster fed her delusions of persecution. Mom started to believe that we were all monsters and that it was her job to protect us from vengeful gods angry that we were still alive. Though the delusion changed. Sometimes it was angry gods, sometimes it was people afraid of our power.”

  “So basically she thought people were after you?”

  “Yeah. Doctors, teachers, even my dad. She thought they were
all avatars of gods, or acting out the will of the gods. I don’t know. Like I said, her delusions weren’t exactly coherent. My dad knew that she wasn’t stable, but he had no idea what she was really up to. He wouldn’t let her get any help, which is why she lost it after the floods in ’96.”

  “She thought the floods were sent to hurt Kyle?” Sayer asked.

  “I guess so. She made us sacrifice goats a few times, but the flood convinced her that wasn’t enough to appease the angry gods. That was the first time she brought home a person.” Beaumont looked away, shame and sorrow showing.

  “I read the journal entry. She kept him beneath the shed until he was weak and then led him to the old mine?”

  Beaumont let out a strangled sound of agreement. “She called the mine ‘the pit.’ Once she had him there, she tied him up and slit his throat in front of me and Kyle. Mom was … in full-blown psychosis. She drank his blood and then made us drink as well.” Her voice broke. She sat in silence, breathing heavily.

  Sayer waited for her to continue.

  “After she killed the first victim, the flooding receded. She was convinced that it worked. After that, about once a year she would just show up at home with a new victim. She kept them hidden from Dad, and Kyle and I would go on with our lives, to school and church, pretending that there wasn’t someone slowly starving to death beneath our shed. I just shut down, but Kyle … he loved it. He couldn’t take his eyes off Mom as she slit their throats. The look on his face, it was pure adoration. Like there was nothing more beautiful in the world than watching her while she killed those people to protect him.”

  She looked up at Sayer. “I was twelve when she started killing. I knew what she was doing was wrong. But Kyle was only nine. She told us he was a monster, and he was young enough to believe her.” Alice Beaumont paused to rub away tears. “I’m sorry, I know I have no right to cry. I watched those people die.”

  “You were a child being horrifically abused by your own mother.”

  “Logically I know that.” Beaumont sniffed. “I mean, it’s why I became a psychologist. I know all about the effects of trauma, and how psychopathy and psychosis work. But I saw those people die right in front of me and I didn’t do anything to stop her.”

  “If I’m guessing right, you did eventually do something to stop her.… We know one of the skeletons we found was your mother. And we suspect she was killed right before you ran away.”

  Beaumont stared down at the IV line snaking into her arm. “You’re right,” she whispered without looking at Sayer.

  Sayer waited.

  “I got into Harvard, did you know that? That’s what finally convinced me to leave. I told her I wanted to go and she forbade it. I was … furious. I knew then that she would never let me leave, so I told her I was going to turn her in.” Beaumont’s story began to come out in a staccato fashion now. “She attacked me. We fought. She had the kopis and I grabbed it from her, and … I pushed her so hard she fell and hit her head. Kyle was so furious, I knew I had to get away from him. I knew he would kill me for what I’d done. I took her away from him.” She looked up at Sayer as though asking for forgiveness.

  “And that’s when you ran to Max and made up the story about your dad?”

  Beaumont nodded. “I knew Max would help me get away. I blamed my dad so Max wouldn’t want to go to the cops.”

  “And then Kyle and your dad covered up your mom’s death?”

  “They must have. The worst part is that I still loved her. She was just sick and thought she was protecting us. Maybe if I had gotten her some help…”

  “You were a child.”

  “True. And my father forbade it. He didn’t know that she was killing people, but he knew she was sick and he was more worried about his reputation than anything else.” Alice Beaumont fell silent, lost in thought. “You know why everyone called me Cricket?” she finally asked.

  “No.”

  “My mom came up with it. She said that, by not embracing what she was doing, I was destined to go through life small, meek, living in a cage just like a cricket. She wanted me to revel in it and transform into a monster along with her and Kyle. I became convinced that she was right. Though it backfired on her. She thought the idea would encourage me to join them, but instead I decided that, by staying small and quiet, I could somehow contain the monster I was sure lived inside me.”

  “That was how you tried to fight her.” Sayer understood.

  “It was. But I eventually realized that me being quiet, starving myself to stay as small as possible, wasn’t what I needed. It took a lot of therapy, but I realized that I control who I am and what I do, not some evil creature buried in my subconscious.” She looked up at Sayer, tears gone. “That’s why I picked Beaumont as my new name.”

  “Beautiful mountain,” Sayer translated.

  “Beautiful mountain,” she repeated. “That’s why I have that huge photo of Mount Olympus in my office. Instead of a small, scared little Cricket, I wanted to revel in my size and strength. I wanted to become a mountain, unmovable. And I did. I’m a professor. I love my job. I love my life. I never thought I could be happy, but I … am. I came back to Virginia to keep an eye on Kyle but ended up building myself a real life here.”

  “Why do you think Kyle started killing again after all that time?” Sayer asked.

  “Our dad’s death. I think just him being alive must’ve kept Kyle in line.”

  “And he died not long ago.”

  “Yeah. That must’ve triggered Kyle. And when he started killing”—her voice cracked—“I convinced myself that it was my job to deal with him. I just didn’t have any faith that you would catch him. Or, if you did, I thought he would get off. He’s a cop and I know how the system works. Plus, I … don’t trust people very easily.” She grimaced ruefully. “Legacy of my own past. If I couldn’t even rely on my own parents, who else can I count on? But if I’d just told you … those poor women … that little girl…”

  Sayer had no reassuring words for her.

  “I was monitoring the police radio to make sure you didn’t find any more bodies. When I heard that he was after Sam,” Beaumont continued, “I knew I had to save her. I couldn’t let another little girl go through that.…”

  “Do you have any clue why he would still want Sam even though her mother escaped?”

  “No clue.”

  Sayer tried to keep her face neutral despite her frustration. “Is there anything you can tell us that could help us find him? Anything you can remember about the location of the mine?”

  Beaumont closed her eyes. “The only thing I can really remember is that the entrance is under a rocky overhang just beyond a big chestnut tree. She would take off my blindfold just outside the cave and I would always see it. But I can’t imagine how that helps you.”

  Thinking once more about Piper, Sayer said, “One last question. Do you think Kyle would team up with someone, as partners?”

  “I doubt it. Kyle would want to work alone.”

  Sayer got up, a dark knot tightening her gut. If Piper wasn’t Kyle’s partner, then where was she? “Thank you for talking to me. Please call if you think of anything that might be useful.”

  “Will you tell that girl’s family that I’m sorry?” Beaumont asked quietly.

  Sayer nodded and left without comment. She stopped by Hannah Valdez’s room on her way out, but the officers at her door said Hannah was probably asleep. She decided not to disturb the poor woman. Plus she sure didn’t want to explain that they’d actually found Sam, and that Sayer had literally handed the girl to the killer.

  Sayer headed back to the ranger station, heart aching for the things that young Alice Beaumont had gone through, and for the things that Sam Valdez might be going through right now.

  SOUTHERN RANGER STATION, SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, VA

  Back at the ranger station, Sayer recounted her interview with Alice Beaumont to Max, Ezra, and Dana. Despite everything they knew, they still had no clue why Kyle
took Sam or how to find the pit.

  After an hour of futile churning over possible leads, Sayer took a moment to assess her team. Max and Dana were clear-eyed, but Ezra was pale, shoulders sunken. She glanced up at the clock.

  “Whoa, it’s almost three A.M.!” She realized that no one had eaten since Nana had brought them lunch. “I know we all want to work until we find Sam, but we need food and at least a few hours of rest. We’re no good to anybody overtired and underfed.”

  “I can go heat up the leftover chili,” Max offered.

  “I’m fine with a granola bar.” Ezra held up a new box.

  “Me too,” she said, grabbing one. “I just want to scarf something and get some shut-eye.” Sayer tugged on her annoyingly damp jacket and said good night, looking one last time at the photo of Sam tacked to the murder board.

  Back in the cabin, she sat on the hard cot and ate the granola bar like penance for letting Kyle walk away with Sam. She glanced over at the wrapped present Adi had brought for her birthday. The cheerful blue and white wrapping paper screamed Happy Birthday! making her want to shred it into a thousand pieces.

  Sayer tried to clear her mind, but all she could picture was Sam, her trusting eyes as she curled herself into Kyle’s arms. And then Kyle’s face as he walked away with the girl—his lip-curled smile. At the time, Sayer had taken it as a smile of satisfaction at saving the girl. But now she knew it was a grin of victory. He knew he’d won and was walking away with his prize.

  Realizing she would just stare at the ceiling if she tried to sleep, Sayer grabbed Jake’s letter and Adi’s present. She wrapped herself in the wool blanket and retreated to the cabin’s narrow front porch.

  Rain ran off the edge of the tin roof, creating a sheet of gray water obscuring the woods beyond. She cleared away a few sticky cobwebs from a rough-hewn rocking chair and curled into the worn seat, tucking the blanket around her feet. She lightly tapped her gun, just making sure it was still there, before letting go of some of the tightly held emotion balled in her chest. Sam’s trusting eyes. Kyle’s grin. Sam’s eyes … Kyle … Sam …