Every Last Fear

by Alex Finlay

It seemed like a long time, but it probably lasted only a few seconds. Matt still had an electrical charge tearing through him. He waited for Kyle to say something, but Kyle just sat there, his whole body trembling.

  Matt recognized broken when he saw it.

  “It was an accident,” Kyle said at last.

  “Liar,” Matt said it calmly, but his voice was full of menace. “You killed her, then you wheeled her to the creek and framed my brother.”

  Kyle took a deep, juddering breath. Not saying anything, but he was shaking his head violently.

  “It’s over,” Matt said. “The video. At the party. Danny was wearing only a tank top. You were wearing his jacket. It was you I saw that night. And you saw me, and all these years you let me think—”

  “It was an accident,” Kyle said again. “After everyone cleared out, she stayed behind. She was angry, and she said things that weren’t true, and when I told her to get out of my house, she came at me, and I just pushed her away, and she fell and bumped her head. It was an accident.” He was gulping for air.

  Matt felt a slash of rage again. For a riotous moment he considered shoving Kyle’s face to the floor, smashing it into the broken shards.

  “What did Danny—or my family—ever do to you?”

  “We weren’t trying to hurt Danny. We tried to make it look like the Smasher.”

  It explained why Charlotte’s head was caved in, the differences from the Smasher slayings Matt’s dad was always talking about.

  “All these years I thought my brother … But it was you.…” Matt felt a crushing remorse in his chest. He’d hated his brother. Resented his father. He’d been such a fool, such a stubborn fool. “You!” Matt screamed.

  “Not him,” a voice said from the kitchen doorway.

  Noah Brawn stood holding a handgun. “Get up, Kyle,” he said to his son.

  Kyle just looked up at him, didn’t move.

  “Get up!” his father yelled.

  Kyle rose slowly to his feet.

  “Turn around,” Noah Brawn said to Matt.

  Matt turned and felt a gun barrel jabbed into his back. Noah marched Matt out of the kitchen and into the great room. Bookshelves lined the walls, high-end furniture, expensive art. Noah told Matt to turn around, put his hands on his head.

  Kyle came in after them. Noah seemed to be debating what to do. He gazed out the large glass window to the backyard, which was illuminated by party lights strung along the patio.

  Then he seemed to make a decision.

  Matt didn’t like the look on his face. “You covered for him? Framed my brother,” Matt said.

  “I never meant Danny to get the blame. I wouldn’t do that to your mother. The state police had given the governor’s office a heads-up about a serial killer in Kansas that they thought may have ventured into Nebraska. I called in tips to the prosecutor and Danny’s defense lawyer linking Charlotte’s murder to the Smasher.”

  Kyle chimed in: “That’s why I got Ricky to report the Unknown Partygoer. We thought they would think he was the Smasher. We didn’t know Danny would confess. It just all got out of hand.”

  Maybe it was the truth. It explained Charlotte’s head. Explained why Ricky was the only kid who saw the Unknown Partygoer—creating a monster other than Danny to blame things on. Explained why Ricky raced his car into a tree, from the guilt.

  “Dad, put the gun down,” Kyle said. “It’s over. I’ll tell them it was an accident. We can tell them I moved the body, that you and Ricky had nothing to—”

  “Shut up,” Noah said.

  Images of that night were forming in Matt’s mind, the pixels coming together: Charlotte finding a place to hide in the house when the police broke up the party. Finding Kyle in a bedroom. Kyle shit-faced, putting his hands on her, Charlotte pushing him away. Then she was on the floor, blood seeping from her head. Kyle called Ricky to help, and they brought her body to the creek. Kyle was still wearing Danny’s jacket from the drunken party shenanigans. He saw Matt on the trail, panicked, called his father for help.

  Maybe Kyle and Ricky were disagreeing over calling Noah—the fight Jessica saw the night Charlotte was killed. But Jessica had referred to the person as Ricky’s date.

  Then it came to him. Maybe Kyle wasn’t interested in Charlotte. Maybe she stumbled upon something she shouldn’t have. The class president and the school’s star running back in a compromising position.

  “She found out you and Ricky were together. Caught you. And you killed her to keep your secret.” It was so unnecessary. Adair wasn’t the most progressive place, but being gay wasn’t exactly something to kill over.

  Kyle shook his head. “Dad,” he said again, “put the gun down.”

  Noah kept his aim trained on Matt.

  Matt understood then that Noah had no intention of letting him walk out of there.

  “You won’t get away with it,” Matt said. “The video shows Kyle in my brother’s jacket. The FBI knows.” A lie, but he had to try.

  “The video proves nothing.”

  “Then why?” Matt said, his voice pleading. “Why kill them?” His voice broke. “Why kill my family?” Matt was taking a leap. But everything had happened after that video had appeared. And the only person who had the resources to kill his family, hire a professional, as Keller had speculated, was Noah Brawn. Kyle was a law student who relied on his father for support, and Ricky was disabled.

  “It wasn’t supposed to go that way. I loved your mother,” Noah said.

  The words hit Matt like a two-by-four in the head. He was right.

  “What does he mean, Dad?” Kyle asked. “What’s he talking about?”

  Matt shouted again, “He’s talking about how he paid someone to kill my family! To protect you for killing Charlotte. And her baby.”

  Kyle Brawn looked confused, then gut-punched.

  “You wouldn’t.” Kyle spit the words at his father. He looked at his dad, his eyes filling with tears. “You didn’t!”

  Noah ignored him. “Let’s go,” he said to Matt. He gestured to the sliding back doors.

  “Oh my god,” Kyle said. “That’s why you were acting so weird about that cop’s wife giving Mrs. Pine evidence. The blood work she was talking about. It was you. Charlotte wasn’t lying.” Kyle started breathing heavily, like he was hyperventilating.

  “We’ll talk about this later, son.”

  “No! We’ll talk about this now! I told you it was an accident. I told you we should tell the police what happened. She was saying all those things about you, and I just pushed her to get her out of there. But you…”

  “What? Saved your ass. It would have ruined your life.”

  “And yours,” Kyle said. “She said you forced her.”

  Matt felt the wind knocked out of him.

  “She was lying,” Noah said.

  “She said she had proof.” Kyle took in a ragged gasp of air. “Said the baby was yours!”

  Noah turned to his son, the gun momentarily not pointed at Matt’s chest. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “When I took you to see her at the creek. I thought she was still breathing. That she’d moved. I thought—” Kyle and his father faced each other. “But you—you took that rock and—”

  Matt lunged for the weapon in Noah Brawn’s hand, thinking it was his last chance. He felt the cold metal in his grip as he tugged to get the gun away from him.

  Noah kneed Matt in the gut. Matt held on, the air stolen from his lungs.

  But Noah managed to release Matt’s hold.

  The gun fired.

  Matt was on the ground. His shoulder burned white-hot. He touched it, and his hand came away covered in deep red blood.

  Noah stood a few feet away, standing over Matt, the gun pointed at his face. Matt lunged for the weapon, violently heaving Noah’s arm, running on only adrenaline and rage. The world was a blur, and then the gun discharged again.

  When Matt reopened his eyes, Kyle was on the floor.

  “No!” Noah Bra
wn ran to his son. Red seeped through Kyle’s shirt, his eyes distant.

  “Noooo!” Noah wailed, cradling his son now.

  Matt was still on the ground, the blood loss and pain making him light-headed. He needed to get out of there. Matt reached to pull himself up, when Noah’s head snapped over to him.

  “You and your fucking family. You just couldn’t let it go.” Noah picked up the gun from the floor next to his dead son.

  “So you killed them? A six-year-old boy? A teenage girl? The woman you claimed to love?” Matt clutched the bookshelf and pulled himself to his feet. His head was spinning, his shirt soaked in red.

  “None of that was supposed to happen. When the video appeared, I just wanted your father to let things go. Then your sister found him, saw his face, took a picture of him in Mexico. He said he had no choice. I would’ve never hurt your mom. I just wanted your father to…” He let the words die.

  Noah wanted Dad out of the picture. Maybe Mom would come back to him. Or maybe he wanted to end the Pine investigation once and for all by killing the driving force behind it.

  Sirens wailed in the distance.

  Noah looked at his lifeless son, still cradled in his lap. His eyes turned dark. He gently lowered Kyle’s body to the floor with one hand, pointing the gun at Matt with the other. He rose to his feet.

  It was over. Matt could see it in the man’s face.

  Noah said, “I want you to die knowing that your brother will rot in prison for the rest of his life. And that the world will know you confessed to hiring someone to kill your parents for the insurance. That you killed my son.”

  He was going to get away with it all—again. Say that Matt and Danny hired the killer for the insurance money. Say that Matt broke in and attacked Kyle, and that Noah killed Matt in self-defense.

  Fuck that. Not today.

  Matt channeled every football move he’d ever seen his brother perform and barreled at Noah, ducking under the gun and flinging his arms around Noah’s waist as they both flew onto the floor. Matt scrambled on top of him and began punching, pummeling his face, as Noah clawed at him, blood everywhere. When Noah stopped moving, Matt staggered to his feet.

  Noah said something unintelligible through the snot and blood.

  Matt reached above to the bookshelf, removing a marble bookend. He thought of Charlotte on the bank of that creek. Still alive, fighting for her life like Danny was right now. He thought of his father and mother and little brother and sister. And he raised the heavy bookend over his head.

  “Matt, no!” a voice yelled from behind him.

  He turned and saw Agent Keller, a group of local officers behind her, one of them with his gun drawn.

  “You don’t want to do this, Matthew.”

  “He took everything,” Matt sobbed.

  “We know, Matt. We have the proof,” Keller said. “But don’t let him take you, too.”

  Matt looked down at Noah Brawn, who was shielding his face with a hand.

  Matt raised the marble bookend as high as he could and with every ounce of strength he had left, he hurled it toward the floor.

  Excerpt from

  A Violent Nature

  Season 1/Season Finale

  EXT. STONE CREEK - DAY

  A beautiful day. The sun shining. The sound of water flowing down the creek.

  C.U. on bank where Charlotte’s body was found.

  EVAN PINE (V.O)

  People think I’m obsessed, that I’m crazy. That I’m selfish and a fool. But what would you do if your son was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit? If he was locked up for the rest of his life and you knew in your bones he was innocent? If your family was broken?

  You have two choices when you’re confronted with your every last fear:

  Give up or fight like hell.

  And I’m going to fight until my last breath for Danny, for Liv, for Matt, for Maggie, for Tommy—for Charlotte—to uncover the truth.

  FADE TO BLACK

  EPILOGUE

  MATT PINE

  AFTER

  “This your brother, Affleck?”

  “That’s what I said, Reggie. Now, don’t look at the camera. Just play the game like always.” Matt aimed the Blackmagic camera at the two men playing chess in Washington Square Park, the sun lowering in the sky. Danny had arrived early, before Matt finished the shoot for his short film, and Reggie seemed fascinated with him.

  “You was the one who was inside?” Reggie said.

  “I am,” Danny said. “Fishkill.”

  “Shoot, how’d a pretty boy like you survive the Fish Killer?” Reggie looked at the chess opponent sitting across from him for affirmation.

  Matt’s brother smiled. “Kept my head down, I guess.”

  “And ass to the wall,” Reggie cackled.

  Danny didn’t mention that he almost didn’t survive prison. That he’d been hospitalized for nearly a month.

  “I heard your bro got you out?” Reggie said.

  Matt lowered the camera, defeated. “No,” he said. “My family got him out.” Matt pictured Maggie and his father poring over mountains of evidence piled on the desk in their home office, his mother plodding off to Nebraska to plead with the governor about a pardon.

  Danny rested a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t be here without this guy.” It was partially true, but credit went to the new governor, whose first act in office was to push the board to pardon Danny. The governor’s predecessor, Noah Brawn, would be spending the rest of his days in a cell at the very prison where Danny was first incarcerated.

  “Damn, Affleck. Maybe there’s hope for you after all.”

  Matt raised the camera. “Seriously. I’m losing light. And we have someplace to go before sundown.”

  Reggie made a noise of annoyance and turned back to the chessboard. Mumbling to himself, he said, “Who’s gonna watch a movie about two old men playing chess anyway?”

  * * *

  An hour later, Matt and Danny sat at an outdoor café on Fourteenth Street. Matt had a tall mug of beer in front of him, the glass sweating, the brew cold and perfect on a hot summer evening. Danny sipped a glass of water. He’d given up alcohol.

  “How long until it happens?” Danny asked.

  Matt checked the time on his phone. “They say at eight twenty.”

  The sun was starting to appear between the gap in the street grid. They’d know it was time when crowds took to the streets with their phones.

  “Remember our first Manhattanhenge?” Matt asked.

  Danny looked up, trying to conjure the memory. “How old were you? Five? Maybe six?”

  “Six.”

  “Like Tommy,” Danny said.

  Matt felt a rush of emotion.

  “What was he like? I mean, Dad and Mom talked a lot about him, but I never got to…” Danny let the thought trail off.

  “He was funny, a mama’s boy.”

  “Like you at that age.”

  Matt smiled.

  “I remember now,” Danny said. “That was the trip when you had the allergy attack when we visited Mom’s friend who had a cat. You were wheezing and you scared the shit out of everyone.”

  Matt had an image of himself in an unfamiliar bathroom, his mother filling the room with steam to try to open up his lungs. Her soothing voice. Keeping him calm. Making him feel safe.

  “You were a real drain on the family. Everything was about you,” Danny said, tongue in cheek. A recognition of what they’d given up for him. Then Danny’s face turned serious. “Matty, I want you to know that—”

  Matt held up a hand. “Don’t.”

  Danny swallowed, stared at his brother, mist in his eyes.

  “Interrupting something, ladies?” a voice said.

  Matt turned and saw Ganesh squinting at the sun. Behind him, Kala, looking exquisite, her skin bathed in golden sunlight. They pulled up two chairs at the small table, Kala wedging herself close to Matt.

  Matt looked over at his brother, who gave him a sma
ll nod of approval.

  “Where is everybody?” Matt asked. He’d invited the entire gang from Rubin Hall.

  Ganesh shrugged. “Curtis is probably at a meeting for his cult, and watching the sunset is probably too symbolic of toxic masculinity in the patriarchy for Sofia. And we don’t want Woo-jin here; he’ll block the sun.”

  “Remind me,” Matt said, “why are we friends with this guy?”

  Kala shook her head like she hadn’t the foggiest. “They’re on their way,” she said.

  Ganesh disappeared into the bar. Danny then stood, put some money on the table.

  “Where are you going?” Matt said. “You’re gonna miss it.”

  People were making their way into the street, smartphones in the air, twisting around to catch themselves in photos of the sun as it centered between the buildings.

  “I just love to walk out here in the open,” Danny said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Matt watched Danny make his way down the street, his back to the sun, still that cocksure strut. He had a limp now, a remnant from the prison attack, but otherwise it was still the stride of a confident man. Two girls stopped Danny, said something, like they recognized him from all the coverage of his release from prison. Danny took a selfie with them, then kept moving.

  Matt had only one regret: that his father wasn’t there to see the sight.

  Kala reached for his hand.

  A car pulled next to their table. The street was jammed with pedestrians filling their Instagram feeds with photos of the sun slowly dipping below the horizon. The car’s windows were down, music blaring.

  “Numb” by Linkin Park.

  “Everything okay?” Kala asked.

  Matt looked her in the eyes.

  Those eyes.

  “It is now.”

  SARAH KELLER

  AFTER

  “I’m scared,” Keller said quietly into her satellite phone.

  “No shit, I’m scared too, and I’m three thousand miles away, not in some hut in Colombia,” Bob said.

  He never tried to tell her how to feel, always validated her emotions, which was weirdly comforting. Keller never used to be afraid of anything. But that was before she had so much to lose.