by K. J. Dahlen
Sam turned and motioned for Cole to leave the barn. Outside, he holstered his weapon and asked, "Is there somewhere close by we could stay? I don't want to be far away if Tucker decides to come by here around dawn."
Cole nodded. "Sure, we could stay up at the house. I think my family keeps it clean and stocked with groceries for when they come down. Ethan mentioned that they had all just been here a few weeks ago"
Sam turned to look at the river. The path from the barn to the riverbank was clear. He could see the ex panding volume of the water from where he stood. He looked back at the barn. On the second-story loft area he could see a double door that faced the river. From that location, Sam bet he would be able to see quite a bit more of the river. "What exactly did your grandfather raise on this farm?" Sam asked.
"Mostly Cain, my grandmother used to say," Cole told him. "Actually, this farm has quite a history. Back before the Civil War, this farm was used to smuggle goods to the North. During the war, this was one of the underground slave stops. The caves near the water's edge made it a perfect place to hide things."
Sam perked up at this bit of trivia. "Do you know where these caves are?"
Cole nodded. "Sure, Tucker and I used to play in them when we were kids." It was then that the significance of what he had just said seemed to hit Cole. He looked at Sam. "If he needed a safe place to hole up or hide something, he'd use the caves"
Sam grinned. "Let's go to the caves before we go up to the house. We just might find something."
Cole led the way. The overgrown brush made the trip hazardous, but when they reached the entrance, Cole noticed that someone had been keeping it up. There were no footprints in the sand, so they knew Tucker hadn't been there in a while. The entrance was through two boulders and it was a tight squeeze for a grown man, but they made it through.
Just inside the cave they found supplies, candles, matches, and a gas lantern. Lighting the lantern, they ventured deeper into the cave. When they came to a side cave they looked around it before moving on. The cave seemed to branch off at one point. They followed the left branch, but didn't find anything worthwhile, so they retraced their steps and went the other way. There they came to a wooden door of sorts. Moving the door that had long ago rusted off its hinges, they found what they were looking for.
It was another room, but this one had modern amenities. There was a cot and a battery-powered lamp. Cole switched on the lamp and it illuminated the whole room.
Tucker had everything he needed to stay hidden for days. He had a suitcase, a five-gallon barrel of fresh water, and a few supplies.
Sam walked over to the suitcase and flipped open the top. The inside was filled with papers, some jewelry, and a lot of money. Sam didn't touch the money, but he was interested in the papers. He sat on the cot and began looking through them.
He found Paul Moran's driver's license, as well as a bank card and a stained receipt for the houseboat. The stain looked like blood, but Sam didn't want to hazard a guess at whose.
He also found two other driver's licenses bearing the names of Tom Danvers and Michael Kennedy, and a press ID bearing Michael Kennedy's name.
"Well, at least we know where he goes underground. He could stay here for days," Cole remarked.
"How often does your family come here?" Sam asked.
Cole tried to remember but couldn't. "They come down about six times a year just to make sure that no one has broken into the house. Mom and Aunt Joyce can't bear to part with the house, so it hasn't been sold yet"
Sam motioned around the cave. "I don't suppose you can get to the house from this cave, can you?"
Cole grinned. "Actually, you can, if no one has moved the piano. Come on, I'll show you"
Cole picked up the lantern and led the way. They took the other tunnel and walked deeper into the cave. They came to a stop at the very edge of the cave, and when Cole raised the lantern, Sam saw a wooden ladder leading upward.
Grabbing the ladder, Sam began to climb. He came to the top of the ladder only to find a wooden door. He pushed the door open and found himself inside the house.
"Watch yourself-there's a piano just to your left," Cole called out. Sam grabbed the flashlight and lit the room with it. It was the sitting room, as far as he could tell. He moved away from the door and waited for Cole to climb the ladder.
Cole brought the lantern with him, and soon the house was bathed in light. Sam looked around the room and ventured down the hall. When he returned, Cole shrugged. "I don't know if he's been here or not"
Sam was putting away his weapon when he heard a noise upstairs. He motioned for Cole to douse the light and found his way to the stairway in the dark. As he was about to take the first step up, Cole whispered from behind, "Watch the fifth step-it squeaks"
Sam nodded and carefully made his way upstairs. He stepped over the fifth stair, and when he reached the top he saw a faint light under the door of the bedroom at the end of the hall. Carefully and quietly, he made his way to the bedroom door. Reaching for the doorknob, he turned it and pushed it open.
Tucker Briggs was sitting on the bed. Sam had caught him unaware and unarmed. Tucker just grinned and held up his hands.
"Don't you move an inch, or I will blow you to Kingdom Come." Sam spoke quietly, his rage barely in check.
"If you kill me, you'll never find your kid," Tucker told him.
"Where is he?" Sam asked, pointing his gun at Tucker.
"That's for me to know and you to wonder," Tucker said as he linked his hands behind his head and leaned back against the headboard.
"I will kill you," Sam assured him.
"Then I will take your son's whereabouts to the grave with me "
Sam's fingers tightened around the trigger of the gun, and then without warning his head exploded with pain as something hit him from behind. He slumped to the floor.
Tucker grinned and looked beyond Sam. "Cousin, what have you done?"
* *
Cole looked over at the man on the bed. "Where's the boy?"
Tucker leaned back and smiled. "I don't think I'll tell you that, not yet anyway" He looked at Sam, then back at his cousin. "You know he's going to hate you when he wakes up, don't you?"
"I think you've goaded him as far as you can. He wants his kid back and you dead. I just saved your miserable life," Cole told his cousin.
Tucker's smile grew as he got up off the bed. "Nah, he wasn't going to shoot. I still have something he wants. As long as I have the kid, he won't kill me."
Cole shook his head. Tucker wasn't facing the stark reality of his situation. He watched as his cousin gathered his things and prepared to exit. "Where do you think you're going?" Cole asked.
"I still have things to do. You might consider leaving too, before he comes to. He might just kill you for helping me escape," Tucker told Cole.
"You aren't going anywhere. Sit down" Cole motioned toward the bed. "I didn't knock Sam out to help you escape. I knocked him out because he was going to shoot you"
Tucker's demeanor changed. His smile faded, and his eyes glazed over, his expression cold. This was the killer side of Tucker.
Tucker came toward Cole. He didn't have to reach for the knife on his belt. He just had to walk toward him. "Don't make me kill you, Cousin. I'm going to walk out of here, and the next time we meet, you and I will have issues to settle. Right now I have some other unfinished business to attend to. As long as I'm in the area I might have to go see what's left of my family. Won't they be surprised? I mean, it's been what ... ten years since I've seen any of them? We'll have so much to catch up on"
Cole knew that if he wanted to, Tucker would kill him. He didn't move, and he didn't try to stop Tucker either. He just let him walk past. When he was gone, Cole took a deep breath.
He sat down on the bed and looked at Sam. What could Cole say to him? How could he justify what he'd done to a man who only wanted his son back? Would Cole get a chance to explain the knock-out blow before Sam killed him?
&n
bsp; And what had Tucker meant by his statement about seeing the rest of his family? Ethan had told Cole that they hadn't seen Tucker since he left all those years ago. It could only mean one thing.
Sam groaned as he regained consciousness. His head hurt and when he opened his eyes he saw that Tucker was gone. Sam sat up and held his head for a minute. When the throbbing became tolerable, he blinked his eyes and looked around the room again. The only one he saw was Cole. Had he let Tucker go? They had been after him for almost a week. Sam thought he knew Cole; he had actually begun to trust him.
Sam felt around for his gun. He found it underneath his leg. Picking it up, he cocked the weapon. Then he stood up groggily and took a few steps toward Cole. Pointing the barrel at him, Sam said, "Give me a reason I shouldn't pull this trigger. Make it a good one, because my head is killing me and the noise won't make it any better."
Cole swallowed hard. He wasn't sure he liked this side of Sam. "You were letting him goad you into shooting him. If you had, we would never have found Wyatt"
"What makes you think for a moment that we'll find him now?" Sam asked.
"Because I think I know where Tucker is going," Cole told him.
"And where would that be?" Sam asked.
"St. Louis."
"Why would Tucker go all the way back to St. Louis?"
"I think he's going to kill his entire family," Cole whispered. He couldn't believe it himself, but it was the only thing that made any sense.
Sam frowned. The throbbing in his head worsened, and he had to sit down and hold the top of his head for a moment. When the pain subsided, he looked at Cole. "What did you say?"
"Tucker said he had some unfinished business to attend to, and then he said he was going to see what was left of his family. I think he's going to murder them all."
"Why? Why would you think that?" Sam asked.
Cole struggled to put it into words so that someone else would understand. "Throughout our childhood, people would mistake us for brothers or twins. It was annoying. We were two separate people, yet to the rest of the world we looked identical. Those who knew us considered us opposites-one was good while the other was evil. Every time Tucker got into trouble, Joyce or Ethan would say to him, `Why can't you be more like Cole?' They were always comparing us to each other, and Tucker always got the short end. It wasn't that he was bad, not all the time. They were, in their own way, too focused on the twin thing. Twins never act identically. They are often very different people, two totally separate personalities. They're just two people who look alike. I don't think his parents ever realized just what they were doing to him."
"That doesn't explain why you think he's going to St. Louis," Sam said.
"Tucker wanted to be appreciated for himself. He didn't want to be compared to someone else. They did that every chance they got, until his own identity was washed away. Remember how Jerry Springs thought I was Nick Granger? Tucker became Nick because Nick had something he wanted. It was the same with Paul and the others. Tucker killed them and absorbed their place because he needed a new identity. Joyce and Ethan took his away years ago, and now he wants it back. I think he feels he has to kill them in order to get it."
"You know your cousin a lot better than I do, so I'll take your word for it," Sam told him. He placed the cold steel of his gun against his aching forehead. "Just don't ever try to knock me out again, not even to make a point. Next time I won't give you a chance to explain why you did. I'll just shoot you"
Cole nodded.
Sam stood up and holstered his weapon. Looking at Cole, he asked, "Well, are you coming or are you going to sit there all night? We have to go back to St. Louis."
By the time they got to the boat, there was very little daylight left. If they started out now, it would be dark by the time they got to St. Louis. "Can you drive this thing at night?" Sam asked Cole.
Cole nodded. "I think so. I did last night."
Sam nodded and cast off the tether lines as Cole started the engine. Neither of them spoke much on the journey south. Sam kept the lookout, peering through the ever-darkening skies for Jasper's black boat.
When they reached the port of St. Louis, they wasted very little time at the docks. They hailed a cab and made their way to the address Cole gave the cab driver. So as not to alarm anyone, they chose to get out of the cab at the corner of the block where Ethan and Joyce lived.
As Sam stepped out of the cab, he took a minute to look over the neighborhood. It was late and there were no outward signs of alarm. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad. He paid for the cab and, as it drove away, both men began walking down the block, looking for any sign of Tucker.
Sam and Cole were almost to their target when they reached for their weapons. Holding them at their sides, they approached the house. The lights were on but there was no immediate sign of trouble inside. Cole was reaching for the doorbell when he noticed the door was ajar.
He looked at Sam and motioned toward the door. Sam nodded and raised his gun. Cole did the same. Sam then raised his leg and nudged the door wide open.
Making their way through the foyer to the living room, they began to see signs of a struggle. The television was on with the volume turned up. A table had been overturned and a lamp smashed. But the real conflict appeared to have taken place in the kitchen. As they made their way through they found food and broken dishes strewn across the table and the floor, and when Sam looked more closely he found blood.
Cole left the kitchen and searched the rest of the house. When he returned, he shook his head. "There's no one here"
Sam nodded at the mess. "Well, we know he was here. Where would he take them?"
"The only place I can think of is my grandfather's farm," Cole told him.
"The farm we just left?" Sam groaned.
Cole nodded.
"You're kidding me. Why would he take them back there?" Sam asked.
"Because that's where he arranged the first accident that almost killed them," a voice from the doorway told them.
Cole and Sam spun around in surprise and confronted an older version of Cole.
"Dad?" Cole called out in surprise. "What do you mean `the first accident'?"
As Roger Davidson came into the kitchen, he was followed by Cole's mother, Emily. Cole was glad to see them both alive and unhurt.
"What did you mean, he arranged an accident? When was this?" Cole asked his parents.
Roger looked at Emily, and then they both looked at Cole and Sam. "It happened so long ago I had almost forgotten about it," Emily began. "At the time we didn't realize just what happened, but when Ethan called us, suddenly it all made sense"
"Excuse me," Sam interrupted. "You said Ethan called you? When did he do that?"
Emily looked at Sam. "After he talked to Cole the other day, he called us to let us know what was going on. At first we thought you were wrong about Tucker, and then we began remembering little things that happened when the two of you were growing up. When you two boys were about seven, Joyce and Ethan were going to have another baby. They were so happy, and they picked a weekend at your granddad's to let everyone know. She must have been about four months along because she was just starting to show." Emily paused and began pacing.
"How could we have been so blind all these years?" she asked as she wrung her hands. "We were all out in the yard. Ethan and your dad were helping Grandpa in the barn. Joyce was taking them a pitcher of lemonade when I heard her scream. By the time I got to the barn, Tucker was standing there in the doorway and the others were lying on the ground. He had pulled the handle on the loft and dropped a ton of hay on his mother. Roger, Ethan, and Grandpa were up in the loft. They fell through the floor when it dropped out from under them."
Emily looked over at her husband. "When we got the hay off them, we saw that your dad had been stabbed by a pitchfork, Ethan's leg was broken from the fall, and Joyce ended up losing her babies. They had just found out she was carrying twins. The fall broke your grandfather's back. He ende
d up in a wheelchair for the next two years." Emily buried her face in her hands for a moment, and then looked at her son. "At the time we thought it had been an accident, but now we know it wasn't. Tucker tried to kill his parents"
Cole shook his head. He had only vague memories of the incident. Like everyone else, he'd thought it had been an accident. "So you agree with Sam? You think he'll take them back to the farm?" Cole asked.
Roger nodded. "The farm is about the only place I can think of that he knows well and is comfortable in. Over the last ten years when we visit we've noticed that little things have changed. At first we thought someone was living there, and then about five years ago we found out it was Tucker."
"How did you find out?" Sam asked.
"Joyce noticed one of her father's chess sets was missing. She was devastated because Tucker had been fond of that particular set. When we searched the rest of the house she found it hidden under the bed in Tucker's old room. She left him a note that day, and when we went back a couple of weeks later the note was gone," Roger told them.
"Tell them what happened to the chess set," Emily demanded.
"Tucker had destroyed the pieces and hacked up the board. It had been a beautiful chess set until he destroyed it."
"Why did he destroy it?" Sam wanted to know.
Emily looked at him. "Because Joyce told him that he could have it. Her note said that because he got so much pleasure from the chess set, she wanted him to keep it."
"I don't understand," Sam said.
Emily looked at her husband before she continued with the rest of her story. "Tucker destroyed it because it represented a fond memory of his childhood and because it was a gift from his mother. He left her a note, along with a knife driven into the black queen. The note said that he didn't want anything from anyone who would treat their son the way they had treated him. He blamed them for what happened in his life after the incident in school. Joyce and Ethan were going to make him take responsibility for throwing acid in that poor boy's face.
"Now he's got his parents and his two brothers, and God only knows what's going to happen to them," Emily told them.