Tipping Point (Book 2): Ground Zero

by Rain Stickland

  “Hey, Brian. Mac here wanted to know a little something about you, seeing as it was her property you trespassed on yesterday, on your way to come see me.”

  “Mac, eh?” His lips twitched, reminding Mackenzie that everyone in the area still thought of Neil as Mac, because his last name was McKinnon. He didn’t say anything about it. Just told them to come on in.

  “That’s okay, Mr. Newman. If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to be able to see your face while we’re talking. Your porch here probably has a bit more light.”

  “The deck out back is even brighter. You might as well come through the house and see what I’ve got that you might consider a threat. Geraldine’s inside, and it would probably do her good to meet you. This is a difficult situation, especially for her, and I’d like to see it resolved as best it can be.”

  “Alright,” she said reluctantly, giving him a nod. “I guess we can do that.”

  The house wasn’t particularly dark, so Mackenzie relaxed a little bit more. Brian’s matter-of-fact attitude went a long way toward reassuring her, so she could see why everyone had such a good impression of him. Geraldine was a surprise. Somehow she’d been expecting a flowered housedress. Instead she was wearing a good-quality pair of jeans and a long fisherman sweater. Her hair appeared to be freshly cut in a sassy swing, too, though the streaks were natural.

  “You’re the woman my son was bothering?” Her blunt question was another surprise.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m Mac.”

  “You might as well call me Geraldine. Why don’t I make us some coffee, and we can talk about all this?”

  Mackenzie headed through the kitchen door behind Brian, with Neil following her. The deck out back was stunning. She hadn’t known there would be a lake view from the front. There were a lot of trees on either side, but the land in the back had been cleared long ago, creating a gentle slope down to the water. The late-morning sun reflected almost blindingly from the surface.

  “This is really nice,” she commented. Brian nodded agreeably.

  “We spend most days out back here. Geraldine has her garden there, and I fish off the dock for our dinner. Breakfast and lunch too now. It’s quiet, and we need that right now.”

  “I don’t blame you,” she said softly. “I doubt very much I’d ever want to see another person if I lost my daughter.”

  “Sit down and we’ll get to all that in a bit. You’re not going to need your Glock.” He was making sure she understood that he knew a thing or two about weapons, apparently, and she was wondering why. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to assure her he wasn’t planning to pick up one of his own. Unless his wife had one under her sweater, she didn’t think either of them were armed. He was wearing a white undershirt with a button-down lumberjack shirt flapping loosely over it, and Mac could see he wasn’t concealing a piece with it.

  “Just the same, I’ve gotten used to carrying it,” she said in warning. “You seem to be doing alright over here. That woodstove I noticed inside helps a lot I’m sure. What do you do for water, aside from the lake I mean.”

  “Had to jury-rig a rainwater collection system when the well pump and pressure tank stopped working. Actually set up a system to have a hot water shower in the basement, using a gravity feed and a tank we can set up on top of the woodstove. I can show it to you later if you like. Even used an old bicycle to pedal-power a sort of washing machine and spinner. We’ve got some friends we can trade with, too, though we haven’t really bothered with that. Not much we need so long as we’re clean and fed. I wasn’t gonna have us trying to wash in cold water in the winter, though. How about you folks?”

  “We were prepared for it, mostly. Solar power to start, and we got lucky with a flowing artesian well that didn’t really need a pump or pressure tank, but we have those, too. We started working on wind turbines over the winter, which provided a bit of extra power even though they weren’t very efficient, but now that the roads are clear we got some more PV panels and marine batteries. We ended up with more people than we originally planned for, so our power ran down close to nothing every day, but at least we had it.”

  It was another mild warning, letting him know about the extra people, but she just didn’t feel a threat coming from him. It was sort of making her feel like an idiot, but she was a mother. Even before she’d become a mother, she’d been ridiculously overprotective of her friends.

  “You sound like you’re from the city, but not quite. You mind me asking where you came from?”

  “Not at all. I was raised in Muskoka, but moved to the city when I married at sixteen so my first husband and I both had a shot at having decent careers. When it came time to buy land, though, I wanted to be back here.”

  “That explains it,” he said, nodding at her. “What family?”

  “Thane,” she said curtly. “And if you know who they are, then I’m sure you won’t be too surprised when I say I didn’t remain close to them.”

  “Funny how that works, isn’t it?” He was nodding again, thoughtfully, and with more than a little sadness. “We’re generally considered good people, and we tried to raise Gerry to follow that lead. As you saw for yourself, it didn’t work out very well for us. Or for him. You came from a family like the Thanes, who are not generally considered good people, and yet you and your daughter both seem to have turned into fine human beings. All the arguments about nature versus nurture don’t answer questions like that. Sometimes people are just good. Sometimes they’re not. And there’s no genetic or environmental reason for it.”

  Mackenzie had nothing to add. She knew it was true. Everyone had to be taken for the person they were as an individual, not based on the circumstances of their birth or how they’d been raised. Sure, in many cases nature and nurture had a large impact, but the exceptions still baffled everyone and caught them by surprise.

  There were a few minutes of bustle and awkwardness when Geraldine brought out the coffee. Then she sat down and pushed away all of that confusion with a single, bold statement.

  “From what my husband says, your daughter most likely did the job that I was afraid to do, I’m sorry to say.” The blunt words from Gerry’s mother made Mac grateful she hadn’t tried to swallow any coffee just yet.

  “Our son was an evil little shit from the time he was born. I’m sorry, Brian, for saying that, but you know as well as I do that it was true. In fact, it’s far more true than most people in this area realize. You know all those childhood symptoms they talk about on the true-crime shows? The ones for serial killers?” When Mac nodded, she went on.

  “He had them all, except for the bed-wetting thing. He started out with animals. So we sold off our livestock and took him to therapy in North Bay. He started watching extremely violent and graphic sexual content online, so we got rid of the internet and got him to another therapist. When the situation developed with you, we actually hoped that they would catch him and arrest him before he managed to kill someone. The only reason we gave him a place to live here, was because we were trying to keep an eye on him. Otherwise we’d have told him to leave as soon as he turned eighteen.

  “We couldn’t have pets, and he figured out a way to turn on the porn on our satellite service. One day, a couple of months before he started going after you, he came after me in a way I never thought I’d see my own son do. I had to stand there with a knife in my hand to get him to leave me alone, but even that wasn’t enough until I cut his hand when he tried to grab me. I knew Brian would kill him if he found out, so I didn’t tell him until a few weeks ago when he told me he was going to go looking for answers. As much as I wanted Gerry gone from my sight, I felt it was my responsibility to watch him.”

  “You didn’t have to tell me all this,” Mackenzie began. “So why are you?”

  “Because I want your daughter to know, assuming she’s the one who managed to kill him, that she may have saved my life, too, and maybe countless other women. He would have started with rape, if he hadn’t already. He certainly tri
ed it with me. Then it would have progressed. Most likely to torture and murder. His last two therapists agreed with me, but unless he actually did something to a human being, there was little that could be done. He was an adult by that point, and we could no longer have him institutionalized without going through the court system.”

  Mackenzie needed a few minutes to absorb what she was hearing, so she took her time and drank some of the coffee. She almost moaned at the taste.

  “How do you people make coffee this good? I don’t get it. I’ve got a really nice machine. I’ve read the directions on the coffeemaker, and on the coffee containers themselves, countless times. I still cannot make a decent cup of coffee.” Her words relieved a bit of the tension.

  “That’s my wife for ya,” Neil stated laconically. “Always focusing on the real issues.”

  “Hey, coffee is going to be a luxury in this part of the world very, very soon. It’s definitely an issue. Especially when I keep ruining it.”

  “Salt,” Geraldine responded with a smile. “I always put in a bit of salt. Though I do try to brew it right, too. It makes a difference.”

  “When did you guys get married, Mac? Sorry, I mean Neil,” Brian said with a short laugh, when both of them hesitated after opening their mouths to respond at the same time.

  “About eight months ago. It was right after I talked to you that last time, and just before the power died in this area. It was already down in most of the cities by then. We got the licence from the town hall in Parry Sound on the Monday morning, and then we were hitched that afternoon. A friend of ours was able to do the ceremony, because she was a JP.”

  “I didn’t realize when you were talking to me about her that you two were involved, but it makes sense now. Truth be told, I wasn’t worried much about why you were telling me. I was too busy thinking about wanting to kick Gerry’s ass. He might have been named after my wife, but he sure as hell didn’t take any other part of himself from her.” With that they were back on topic.

  “I want you to know something,” Mac began haltingly, knowing there was no going back now that she was about to confirm their suspicions. “My daughter has been miserable since that day. Until she went out to check on the sensor alert yesterday, she hadn’t picked up her bow. We had to move it for her when we put up the main building, because she wouldn’t even look at it. This hasn’t been easy for her to live with.”

  “Taking a life shouldn’t be an easy thing, no matter whose life it is,” Brian responded. “I volunteered for the CAF when Bush Sr. started that brouhaha in Kuwait, and Canada joined in the fight. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was already winding down by the time I got through boot camp. I was only over there for a month, but it took me a few years to get past what I had to do in that time, and the things I’d seen. No matter who you kill, it damages you.

  “Neither of us knew that Geraldine was pregnant when I shipped out. We were very lucky that I was back home in time to be there for her through most of it, but I often wondered if maybe I’d brought home some of that evil and passed it on to my child. Since nobody knows how that works, I suppose it’s as good an explanation as we’ll ever get. I had recovered enough that we were talking about maybe having another baby, when we started noticing that Gerry was a little different.

  “At first we put off having more children so we could concentrate on figuring out what was wrong with him. When we knew what it was, we decided not to have more. It’s a shame, really, because Geraldine was a damn good mother to that kid, but we couldn’t risk it. Not just the possibility that we’d have another like him, but also that he might harm a younger sibling.”

  “It makes us sound so terrible,” Geraldine quietly stated.

  “I don’t think it does,” Mac responded. “I think it’s heartbreaking that you felt you had to make that choice. Very few people are capable of looking at their children realistically, and you did everything humanly possible to get help for him and try to turn him away from that path. I can’t think of a single other thing you could have done. When he became an adult, he made choices that went against everything you tried to instill in him, and they were his choices, not yours.”

  Geraldine had started crying, so Brian reached for her hand. He held it up to his mouth and rubbed her forearm with his other hand. Neil laced his fingers with Mackenzie’s. She looked down at their joined hands and then covered them with her other one.

  “You gave him real love,” Mac began again. “You might not think you did, because of the way he made you feel, but you gave him the kind of love that a majority of parents can’t even imagine. You did the hard work to give him his best chance, even when your own feelings were working against you. I don’t think a lot of people have that kind of love in them. Most of us take the easier road. Denial.”

  “Thank you for that,” Brian said gruffly. “Geraldine was right about your daughter probably saving a lot more lives than she realizes, and I hope you’ll tell her that we said so.”

  “I will. I’ve been trying to find a way to help her deal with it. She didn’t just feel guilt for killing your son, either. She also felt guilty because she seemed to think it meant she felt bad for Neil not being killed, and probably myself, but we both knew that wasn’t really how she felt about it. She just hated having blood on her hands.

  “Cam’s always been pretty tough and cynical. When we took archery lessons, then later went to the gun ranges to learn to shoot, I guess she figured she’d be perfectly fine with using those weapons. She wasn’t expecting to feel bad afterward, despite the fact that I tried to tell her it’s never quite what you imagine it will be when you have to kill someone.” Mac realized she would have to explain, when both Geraldine and Brian looked at her in confusion.

  “Her father broke in to our apartment when Cam was just a baby. He had a knife that I managed to get away from him when he was distracted. I was standing there holding it when he ran at me. I faced up to it and called the police and all that, even though I was scared shitless. It was written off as self-defense, though they could have called it an accident, too, I suppose.

  “To this day I don’t know if I actually had time to turn the knife away from him. I had to deal with the aftermath, and I wasn’t expecting the guilt any more than Cam was. She didn’t know about it until I told her a couple of weeks ago. She only knew he’d been killed while trying to rob someone. She didn’t know it was me. I’ve never lied to her about it, but I didn’t want her growing up with the knowledge that her father had been killed by her mother. Her father had grown up spoiled by his family, and he seemed to think he was entitled to whatever he wanted.”

  “Sort of like our Gerry,” Brian said. “Except for the part about being spoiled. If anything, he was a bit deprived because we had to permanently remove most of his privileges. That sense of entitlement, though, seems to be a commonality.”

  “I don’t know what it was with some of the kids the baby boomers and our generation raised,” added Neil. “I’m thankful Billy was never like that, and Cameron isn’t either, but some of those overly-entitled shits still sprang from good people. Hopefully we’ll find some answers to those questions before we start repopulating the earth.”

  6 ~ BENEDICTION, PERHAPS

  Cam watched Gilles and Chuck slice off a long piece of plastic sheeting from the roll just inside the door of the ferret building. She was in there helping Kelly and Annette mix up raw eggs with kibble when they came in. The reason for the plastic was well-known to her, and she shuddered at the thought. Chuck and Gilles didn’t look any more cheerful about the prospect than she felt, but Cam was grateful it wasn’t going to be her at the hospital, attempting to transport the body of the man she’d killed.

  When her mother had come home the other day from seeing the Newmans, she seemed to have relaxed a great deal about the situation, though she intended to remain on her guard to some extent. Cam was shocked when her mother suggested that she meet with Geraldine, and though she dreaded it, some guilty,
self-destructive part of herself agreed to the meeting.

  One of her reasons for being in the ferret building was to get a much-needed dose of ferret-therapy, or ferrapy as her mother called it. The furry little monsters soothed her nerves enough that she finally felt okay with leaving that afternoon, even though another, saner part of her thought she was being a bit stupid in meeting the mother of her victim.

  At least she was getting it over with before they would be seeing what was left of their son. Cam wouldn’t be staying there long, and it had been arranged that Gilles and Chuck would make the morbid delivery an hour or so later. When her mother ducked her head inside the building and nodded at her that it was time, Cam suddenly felt really nauseous. She wasn’t ready for this.

  She had to wonder how many people had ever carried on a face-to-face conversation with the parents of someone they’d killed. She sincerely doubted that it had been very common even when the world was fully populated, but then not many people were left, so maybe things would end up being done a lot differently in the future. If that was the case, she could only hope she was never in this position again.

  Cam hopped into the passenger seat of her mother’s truck. It was supposed to be a twenty-minute drive, but Cameron didn’t notice a single second of it. She was too immersed in her personal terror.

  “We’re here, Cam,” her mother said gently. “I’m going in with you, so there’s no need to panic. I’m also armed.” Her mother bared her teeth in a semblance of a grin, which looked more feral than anything else. Cam couldn’t even open her mouth for fear the contents of her stomach would take the opportunity to escape.

  “Look, Cam. They’ve both said he deserved what he got. I told you that. I just think it’ll mean a lot more to you if it’s coming directly from them. Okay?”

  Cam nodded jerkily in response, still not opening her mouth. Then she opened the door and got out, so she could get it over with and go home. Brian, and a woman she assumed was Gerry’s mother, came out onto the front porch. Her own mother led the way up the steps, and indicated the woman with a sweeping motion of her hand.