by David Banner
I watched as Hope took Sonny's hand into her own, brought it up to her lips and kissed it. Then, after a short pause she stood and made her way to the mirror. It was dark, illuminated only by the shadows of the small light at the other end of the room but something about it, about its placement didn't look exactly right.
"I didn't see it at first,” Rachel spoke up. "Not until after he passed and it got real quiet. That’s when I heard the noises."
"Break it,” Hope said, looking around the room for something useful.
"We don't know what might be back there,” I said.
"Fine," she replied. "Then stand there and watch me break it."
Turning on her heels she marched up the stairs, returning a few seconds later with a metal stool. Instinctively I took a step back, waiting for her to launch the stool into the air at the glass. But she didn't, instead she just stood there, staring at her own reflection for a long minute.
"No,” she said calmly. "I don't care what's back there. I came here to handle a problem and that's what I'm going to do."
"What?" I asked, watching as she sat the stool down in front of me and left.
"What was that about?" Rachel said, walking toward me.
"She thinks I've been keeping secrets from her,” I said.
"What kind of secrets?" Rachel asked.
"Something about what Mayor Hall said. About 'what I've been trying to do to him',” I said.
"Yeah..." she said. "I was going to ask you about that."
"I don't know!" I said, feeling tears well-up in my eyes. "Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
"I believe you,” Rachel said, taking the stool in her hands and slamming it hard into the glass.
Fragments came crashing down all around us, one catching my arm and leaving a small gash. But it was what came next that almost knocked me right off of my feet. Against the wall I could see what appeared to be a trophy case. But what it held was almost too disturbing to handle.
A series of small glass boxes sat lined up on shelves, each one containing a single finger with a painted red nail. And I could feel my stomach churning at the thought of what else might be in that room.
"What in Heaven?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know,” I said. "It looks like a trophy room."
"See...?” Rachel said. "Don't you hear that."
Clearing my head I listened for anything I could hear and at first it was nothing. But then, the quieter it got, the more I could see what she was talking about. "What is that?" I asked.
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's in that room,” she said.
Breathing deep and trying not to focus on the fact that Sonny was lying dead behind me, or that Mayor Hall would probably walk through that door at any moment I took a step forward. Stepping over the shards of glass that now littered the floor I continued to listen for any other sounds.
Rachel was right, there was something in that room, something alive and I had to find out what that was. I stepped over the opening in the wall and crawled through the mirrors opening into the room.
"I think this was a two-sided mirror,” I said, picking up a small shard of glass. "But why—”
"MMMGRTTN," an unintelligible voice called from behind me.
"Oh my God!" I yelled, turning back to see a young woman chained to the wall.
She was thin, with long blond hair and dark features. Her hair was dirty and her skin was bruised and cut. It wasn't hard to tell she had been there for a while, especially given the fact the entire room smelled of urine and sweat.
"What?" Rachel yelled, jumping over the opening in the wall. "Oh God!"
"We have to get her out!" I said.
"She's chained to the wall." Rachel replied, her eyes filling with tears once again.
"Can't you pick the lock?"
"I... I can try.”
I couldn't help but keep my eyes focused on the trophy case, knowing that if my dad were here he'd tell me that each of these fingers had a story to tell. And that it was that story that would free Micah. It was all becoming clearer now. Someone must have killed all these women and Mayor Hall was protecting them. That or Mayor Hall himself was a serial killer. Whatever the case though, I knew we needed to get out of that basement, and fast.
"How's it coming?" I asked nervously.
"I'm trying,” Rachel said. "Be still."
The young woman was obviously frightened. Her entire body was shaking and heavy tears rolled down her face. Getting closer I pulled the tape and cloth from her mouth. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"Please..." she cried. "Get me out of here."
"We will," I said. "What's your name?"
"Anna," she cried. "Anna Robertson."
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"Weeks... months. I don't know,” she said, her body shaking with every word. "It's always dark in here. Please, get me out."
"Hold still,” Rachel said, jabbing her hair pin into the lock over and over.
"Who brought you here?" I asked the woman.
"It was that guy. The one who shot the man,” she cried.
"Mayor Hall?" I asked.
"There!" Rachel snapped managing to free the woman's hands. "Let's go!"
""Wait!" Anna screamed as we turned to run. "I can't..."
I watched as she struggled to get up from the ground, but she was far too weak. She was too weak, her skinny legs unable to support the weight of her thin frame. "Please..." she cried.
"C'mon," Rachel said, slinging Anna's arm over her shoulder. "Help me carry her!"
I rushed over to the two and grabbed Anna by the waist and pulled her up into my arms. But as quick as hope had come it was washed away again as I turned to see Mayor Hall standing in the basement clapping his hands.
"Well done, Brandon." He smiled wide. "Well done indeed."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I STARTED AT THE MAN, TRYING TO READ SOMETHING INTO HIS FACIAL FEATURES. He couldn't be what I thought he was. No man was all evil and nothing else. There had to be something else there. There had to be motive, desire, and weakness. There had to be humanity and, if I could find it, maybe I could figure out how to put an end to this whirlwind he'd turned my life into.
"Mayor Hall," I said, surprised at how strong and sturdy the words came out, given how weak I felt inside. "What the hell is going on here?"
"That depends on who you ask," he answered flatly. "I'm sure, if I were to ask you or the two ladies at your sides, they would spin some yarn about how I'm some sort of monster who hurts, captures, and kills people." He shook his head, his smile widening. "Of course, if you ask me, and I'm sure the police will as soon as they get here, I'd say I walked into the basement of a property I own, to find a fugitive from justice hiding out here. He killed them all; the man and both women."
"Both women?" I asked, narrowing my eyes as I glared at the mayor. My heart slammed into the pit of my stomach as I realized what he was talking about. "You son of a bitch," I muttered. "You leave these women alone." I swallowed hard, pushing both Rachel and the other woman behind me. "They haven't done anything to you!"
"No. Indeed, they haven't," Mayor Hall said, pulling a gun from his hip and pointing it in my direction. "And, left to my own devices, I'd have allowed my little pet there to live a long life of servitude to us, but you couldn't leave well enough alone," he said. "You had to stick your nose where it didn't belong; just like your stupid father and your whore of a mother."
The words cut into me like a knife. No one talked about my parents like that without losing at least a couple of teeth for their trouble. There was something else too though, something he said that pulled at the curious piece of my mind. The word 'us'.
He wasn't working alone. There was someone else, someone other than the mayor involved in this.
"You killed them, Brandon Waters," he said. "When you brought them here, when you sent me those letters, when you tried to dig up all our skeletons."
"What letters?" I asked, stammering
in shock. "I've never talked to you before in my life until I got here."
"You don't lie well," he spat back. "It doesn't matter. The police will be here soon, and they'll have all they need to put you away for the rest of your godforsaken life." He chuckled hard. "You'll be a murderer, Waters. Just like your brother. And no one will listen to anything you have to say. No one."
"You don't have to do this," I said, watching in disbelief as a crazy (yet powerful) man I'd never met laid out his vengeful plan at my feet.
But why?
None of this made any sense. I didn't know him, and I'd certainly never sent him any letters. Still, I was a good man with a working memory. Now that I knew he had a woman locked up here, tortured behind a wall for Lord knows how long, I wouldn't be able to let it go. He'd have to pay for that crime. Likely, he'd have to pay for others too. If my parents had taught me anything during their tenure as private investigators, it was that people who commit crimes as heinous as what I had just witnessed didn't stop at just one. Who knew how many women he'd kept behind that wall before Anna? Who knew how many missing women met their ends in this very house?
"That's where you're mistaken, Mr. Waters," Mayor Hall said. "I do have to do this. You've left me no choice in the matter." He took a deep breath. "Now, if you don't step aside and allow me a clean shot at these women, I'll shoot you in the leg and take it anyway."
"Mayor Hall," I said, my jaw tensing with anger. "I'm warning you, if you do this—”
"You'll do what?" he argued. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you're not exactly in any position to be making threats. Not anymore." He huffed. "What did you think was going to happen when you took us on, Mr. Waters? Did you think this was going to end well for you? We don't take extortion lightly, sir. And we certainly don’t comply with those who trade in it. That mistake is going to cost you the rest of your life. It'll cost your brother the same thing."
"You did this," I muttered. "You're the reason my brother is in jail right now."
"Your brother is in jail because he is who he is, and because you did what you did," Mayor Hall said. "Simple as that."
"I didn't do anything, you crazy fuck!" I screamed. "I don't know you! But believe me when I tell you that, if you think I'm going to sit back and let you ruin my brother's life, you're going to find that I can be a lot more troublesome than even you think."
"Wrong answer," he said flatly. Mayor Hall cocked his gun.
I heard a gunshot and waited to feel the hot metal tearing through my flesh. My entire body flexed, but I didn't move. What good would it have done?
My hands clenched into fists, I balked when I realized I hadn't been shot. Instead, Mayor Hall's eyes went wide and his body fell face first to the floor.
Blood pooled under his body. Looking up in disbelief, I saw Hope standing at the top of the stairs, gun in hand.
"That's for my father," she muttered. She looked back at me for a brief moment, and I wondered what she was going to say. I would never find out though because, before she could speak, sirens filled the empty space between us. We were fugitives from the law, the mayor was dead at our feet, and the police were here.
This wasn't going to end well.
"We have to get out of here," I said, my mouth going dry as I took stock of the issues at hand. Mayor Hall was an institution in this city. In my short time, I'd learned as much. There was no way they'd believe us. Of course, Anna might be another story.
"Anna," I said, spinning as I heard Hope descending the steps toward me. "You can tell them the truth. They'll believe you."
"They never have before," she answered, shuffling nervously and rubbing cut and bruised arms. "I'm not a model citizen, sir. I've had issues. I've had addictions. Even before I went missing, nobody cared where I was. Hell, I'd be surprised if there was even a missing poster around town. They'd probably think I was just out somewhere getting high."
"Well, they won't say that about me," Rachel said, nodding firmly. "I've got no priors, and no motive to see anything bad happen to this asshole."
"Except the fact that you broke into his house," Hope reminded her. "You can't do this, Rachel. You don't even belong in this city. They start asking you questions and the answers lead back to us." She shook her head. "Which means you won't stay innocent for long."
"We're going to have to run," I said, blinking hard and pursing my lips.
"Damned right," Hope said. "We need to leave this place and never look back."
"Except that my brother is still in prison," I said. "And, now that you've shot this idiot, I'm not sure how we're going to get him out."
"Maybe I should have just let him kill you then," she answered. "Look. We've got the house. There's evidence here. Regardless of what anyone thinks of any of us, they'll have to listen to evidence."
"His father is a judge," Anna said weakly.
"What?" I asked, my eyes wide.
"His father is a judge. His brother is a lawyer. His two sons are a lawyer and the district attorney. He was best man at the chief of police's wedding," she said. "If you think anyone in this town is going to listen to anything negative about Mayor Hall, you're dreaming."
Sirens filled the air as she continued.
"If you don't get out of here now, what the mayor said will turn out to be true. You'll spend the rest of your lives in prison,” Anna said.
"Let's go," Hope said. "Now!"
With that the group of us fled up the stairs and out the kitchen door. I had seen a lot over the last few days, but seeing a bullet go through a man as he stood in front of me was going to be hard to get out of my mind. Even if he was just some criminal asshole threatening me and my brother.
Sirens wailed through the air as we ran down the dark island streets. "Where are we going to go?" I said, my feet pounding the pavement.
"I have an idea!" Hope yelled. "Just get in."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
A FEW HOURS LATER I WAS STANDING ON THE BEACH IN FORT MYERS, FLORIDA. Looking out at the warm gulf water I couldn't help but wonder how I had gotten here. What started out as my lone mission of saving my brother had morphed into something else entirely.
I too had been accused of murder and become a fugitive of the law. But stranger than that, I was no longer alone. Three other people's lives had been completely upended by my actions. Hope, Sonny, and Rachel had all been pulled into this by me and my quest to clear Micah's name.
"I think I should just do this alone from now on,” I said, looking over at the three women sitting beside me.
"Don't be stupid,” Hope said in reply. "You don't know what you're doing."
"You told me that you wanted nothing to do with me.”
"That was when I thought you were hiding something from me.”
"You don't anymore?"
"No," she said. "I heard everything from the top of the stairs. "I know you haven't written him any letters. But you need to find out why he thinks you did."
"I need to find out how to get my brother out of jail,” I said. "Before any of this gets any worse."
"And you think wandering off by yourself is the way to get that done?" Hope asked.
"She's right,” Rachel said. "You stand a better chance if she's with you."
There was something in the way she said it, something in tone of her voice that made Rachel’s words seem sad. Nothing had ever happened between Hope and I, Rachel knew that. And while neither one of us might be in the best place at the moment there was still something between us. I just couldn't be sure what that was.
"There's a guy,” Hope said. "In Mexico City."
"Mexico City?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Surely, she wasn't entertaining the idea of leaving the country while Micah was still in jail, right?
"Yeah. He can help us.”
"Help us how?"
"We're in an amazing amount of trouble. And at the rate we're going it won't be long before it catches up with us,” Hope said. "We need someone on our side. Someone who can make
sure we're not arrested trying to walk down the fucking street. Ya know?"
"You expect me to just leave my brother?" I asked. "That’s the one thing I promised him I would never do." I took a deep breath. "When our parents vanished—”
"Stop right there," Rachel said, shaking her head. She had obviously had enough of this. "I know what happened when your parent's vanished, Brandon. I've heard you tell the story more times than I can count. I know you promised Micah you'd always be there for him, and I know you think you owe it to your parents or whatever, but what about the things you owe yourself? What about the things you owe the rest of us?"
"The rest of you?" I asked, my eyes narrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, you idiot, the rest of us," she scoffed. “Do you have any idea what Hope and I have put ourselves through for you? Do you have any idea the things we've lost? I don't know if I can even go back home after this, and Hope's father—”
"I know what happened to Hope's father," I said, swallowing hard. "I remember."
"Good," Rachel said, her tone more of an accusation than anything else. "Then keep it in mind when you're making these decisions. We didn't do all of this, we didn't go through everything we did, just so you could throw it all away." She shook her head. "And what the hell do you think you're going to accomplish off by yourself anyway? Hell, the only reason you're not dead or in prison right this instant is because the two of us were with you." She took two steps, closing the gap between us. "So please, take your stubborn head out of your ass and listen to reason for once in your life, Brandon. A trial is a long thing. It'll take years to mount and execute. We'll use that time, okay? We'll gather evidence. We'll get to the truth." She shook her head again, blinking. "We can't do any of that though if you're locked up too. You can't help your brother from inside a jail cell." She touched my hand. "Come to Mexico, Brandon. Let's do this the right way."
I blinked hard at her, a million thoughts running through my mind all at once. If this was the right way, if running off was the only way to help my brother, then why did it feel so wrong?