No One to Hear You Scream

by K. J. Dahlen

  He didn't have a choice. He broke cover to run across the road. The tall grasses there hid him well almost the entire rest of the way. He stopped to see if he could hear any sounds coming from the barn.

  Looking around, he noticed that something was lying in the grass just ahead of him. Moving in closer to see what it was, he found the first dead body. It was Jasper Wiley. Tucker had slit his throat. So much for friendship, Sam thought.

  The blood on Jasper's body was still warm and sticky, so Sam concluded that Wiley had just been murdered. Sam pulled out his weapon and snuck closer to the barn.

  Roger and Cole had thought that this was where Tucker planned to kill his family, but Sam had no doubt that they were wrong.

  Sam saw a way to get inside without using the door. There was a broken window. He got closer to the window and peeked through. The small room was dark and smelled of old leather. This must have been the tack room. Sam hoisted himself up on the sill and slipped inside. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim surroundings before he moved to the door.

  He peeked through the slats of the door and listened for any sounds from outside the room. He saw a young boy lying on the ground on the main floor of the barn. The boy was tied up and appeared to be unconscious. Sam couldn't see anyone else from this angle.

  He took a chance and slid his hand down the door to find the handle. Carefully turning the old knob, he heard the door protesting the motion after being stationary for so long. Sam waited for any movement outside the room, but when he didn't hear anything he slipped out of the tack room and into the main part of the barn.

  He flattened himself against the wall and crept toward the end of the wall. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his gun to firing position and carefully peeked around the corner of the wall. He saw three more bodies lying in the same way as the first. All were bound and unconscious. He checked for signs of breathing and was glad to see that they were.

  Sam cocked his head and listened for any other signs of Tucker and Cole. He hadn't yet seen Wyatt, so he was hoping that he was with the other two men. He didn't hear anything, so he moved a little closer.

  When he was nearer to the man he understood to be Ethan, he saw that Ethan was looking straight at him. Ethan didn't dare move, but he looked upward toward the loft and Sam understood what he was trying to tell him. Tucker was up in the loft. Sam fished out his pocket knife and slid it over to Ethan. Then he put his finger over his mouth and told Ethan to be quiet. Ethan nodded and picked up the knife and began sawing at the ropes around his wrists.

  Sam found the ladder to the loft, and taking one step at a time, made his way up. Peeking his head over the floor of the loft, he finally saw Cole and Tucker.

  Cole was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. They were both facing away, so they didn't notice Sam. Tucker was pushing the hay around Cole. Sam looked around the loft again. He didn't see any sign of Wyatt.

  "So, what are you going to do now, Cousin?" he heard Cole ask.

  "I have to get ready for your friend Sam," Tucker replied.

  Sam heard someone sneeze and he recognized the sound. Wyatt was there, and he was still alive. Sam almost jumped right up at that moment, but knew he couldn't.

  "What are you going to do?" Cole asked again.

  Sam peeked over the edge of the loft and saw Tucker turn and smile. Cole was surrounded by hay up to his chest. A path had been cleared in a circle all the way around him. Sam feared that when the time came, Tucker was going to burn his cousin alive.

  He had to distract him, but how? Sam looked down at Tucker's family. Ethan had cut through his and Joyce's ropes, but the boys' were still bound. He caught Ethan's eye and motioned for him to get his family out of the barn.

  Ethan nodded, and he and Joyce each carried or dragged their sons clear of the barn. Taking a deep breath, Sam raised his weapon to his chest and called out Tucker's name. "Tucker Briggs, you are under arrest."

  Tucker laughed out loud. He looked over at Cole. "Guess who's here and ready to play?" He looked over to the top of the ladder leading up to the loft. "Why don't you join us, Sam?" he called out.

  Sam climbed up to the loft. There at the edge of the loft, in the middle of the double doors leading to the outside, stood Tucker and Wyatt.

  Sam could see that Wyatt's hands were tied behind his back. Tucker had hold of his shirt and held him almost off the ground.

  Sam knew that one step backward was all it would take to send them both crashing down a twenty-foot drop to the ground outside. Tucker had an unholy gleam in his black eyes. Sam could see that Wyatt was scared to death. Who wouldn't be, with a seven-inch knife blade at their throat, and being dangled so close to a ledge?

  "Well, I see you saved the good people who are supposed to be my family," Tucker said. "By the way, why don't you lose your gun? I would hate to have to drop your son out the window."

  Sam slowly lowered his weapon to the floor.

  "Let the boy go, Tucker, or you won't have a chance in the world of getting out of this barn alive," Sam told him as he watched his son struggle to keep his feet on the ground.

  Tucker threw his head back and laughed. "You don't scare me, fool. Don't you know by now what I was planning? Hasn't it sunk in yet why I let you follow me? I explained my reason to you that night out on the river. Didn't you believe me?"

  Sam frowned. He wasn't sure what Tucker meant. He tried to think about what was said that night. He remembered that Tucker had told him that he might be the only one who could stop him. Sam decided to stall for more time to figure out what to do. "Tell me one thing, will you? Why did you kill all those people?"

  Tucker looked sad for a moment, as if he really cared, and then his eyes hardened as he began to finally tell his side of the family saga. "Do you know what it's like to be a disappointment to your parents, almost from the first day of your life? To grow up hearing the words `Why can't you be as clever as your cousin?' or `Come on, Tucker, Cole walked at thirteen months, so why can't you?' You know, some kids might fight harder to please their parents, but I didn't. I knew that no matter what I did, I could never be as clever or as smart as my cousin Cole.

  "Cole knew it too, and while we were younger it didn't seem to matter. We were more like twins than real twins ever were. Then something happened to change all that. Cole betrayed me" Tucker paused at the fresh memories of the betrayal.

  "Is this about the bully in school teasing you about your mother being pregnant?" Sam asked.

  Tucker laughed. "No, but I am surprised he told you about that. Cole doesn't like to admit to anyone that he isn't perfect"

  Tucker began pacing back and forth in front of the window, dragging Wyatt with him. Sam's heart leaped to his throat as he watched his son struggling to keep up with Tucker.

  "No, this happened much earlier." Tucker sneered at Cole. "We were about six, I guess, when my dad said I could have a puppy, if I was the one to take care of it. I was so happy. I was finally going to have something Cole couldn't. Cole wasn't allowed to have pets, but my dad said I could have a dog. We went to the pet store and I picked out the dog I wanted. It was a golden cocker spaniel, and I called her Lady, after Lady and the Tramp.

  "I took care of her the best I could, until the day I came home and found Cole playing with her." Tucker's voice hardened.

  "Somebody had to play with her-you never did," Cole interjected.

  "You had no business being around her. She was my dog" Tucker shouted. "She was the only thing I could have that you couldn't, and you managed to steal her love away from me."

  "No, I didn't," Cole said quietly. "All I did was play with her when you didn't. I was glad that you had her."

  "What happened next?" Sam asked. He sensed that Tucker was getting too caught up in the story to think about his hostage, Wyatt.

  Cole took over telling the story. "Tucker got so mad at me that he killed the dog. He called her over to him, and she went willingly. Then he twisted her neck so hard he broke it. Then he to
ld me, `Now play with that."'

  "My mother came in just about then," Tucker stated. "When she saw the dog, she asked what happened. I told her that Cole killed Lady, but she didn't believe me. She never believed me. She turned to Cole for the explanation. At first Cole wouldn't tell her. He wouldn't say a word, but then his mother came in and asked what happened, and the little whiner told them what I'd done. He betrayed me"

  "You had just killed a dog in front of me. We were only six at the time, but I knew why you did it. Did you think you were the only one to feel the pressure of being an only child in a family of twins?" Cole asked. "I had those feeling too. People were always mistaking us for twins, but that day I was glad we weren't. I hated you for killing Lady, and I was glad when you got in trouble for it."

  Tucker looked at Cole in a new light. "You told them that I killed Lady because I didn't like her anymore. You told them that I told you that she was too much trouble."

  "I was mad at you. I was a kid. What you did traumatized me. I had nightmares about it for the longest time," Cole defended himself.

  "So did I, Cousin." Tucker reminded him. "You knew I loved that dog. You of all people knew how I felt about her."

  "How could you kill her just because I was playing with her?" Cole asked. "She was so happy to see you. She came to you willingly. You changed that day. I saw it but didn't understand at the time. It was like you shut off part of your brain. You weren't the same" Cole paused. "Did you purposely cause the accident that broke Grandpa's back and made your mom lose her babies?"

  Tucker scowled. "What do you think?"

  Cole shook his head. "I always thought it was an accident."

  "Everyone was laughing at me and telling me how having new babies in the house would really suck. John was the worst, but I got even with him that day in chemistry class. I could feel the rage building inside me, and then I couldn't take it anymore. I had to hurt somebody, so I grabbed the rope and pulled as hard as I could." That one incident had been the first step toward what he had become.

  "Now what?" Cole asked.

  "I won't let you take me in," Tucker told them.

  "You need help," Cole started to tell him.

  Tucker laughed out loud. "You think I'm crazy? Is that what you've been telling yourself all these years?" He grabbed Wyatt's shirt and pulled him closer. Lifting him off the ground, Tucker whispered loudly in his ear. "Is that what you think, boy? You think that I'm crazy? Huh? Am I a crazy man?"

  Wyatt shook his head. His eyes were round with fear, and his feet were feeling for something solid to rest on. Sweat beaded his forehead and Sam grew alarmed. "No, sir," Wyatt whispered.

  "Please don't hurt him. He's just a kid," Sam begged, as the tension mounted in the hayloft. Tucker was holding all the cards, and Sam and Cole knew it. Sam could tell from the look in his eyes that Tucker wouldn't hesitate to kill his son.

  "Why did you carve a headstone in their backs?" Cole asked, trying to divert Tucker's attention from the child.

  "I knew that was the one thing you and only you would know about. How long did it take you to figure out what the design meant?" Tucker scoffed.

  "I figured out what the design was on your third victim, Sarah Gold," Cole told him.

  Tucker nodded. He remembered Sarah. The look on his face said that he remembered them all. "You know what you have to do to stop me, don't you?"

  Cole shook his head. "I won't kill you"

  Tucker smiled as he looked at Sam. "How about you, Dad? Are you going to kill me, or let me walk away with your kid again?"

  Sam looked at his gun and then back at Tucker. Tucker could see the want on Sam's face.

  "If you don't, I'll use this boy as a shield to get away from you, and I will kill again," Tucker told them.

  When Sam didn't comment, Tucker sneered. "It didn't bother me at first-killing them, I mean," Tucker began. "I would pick someone I felt had nothing left to lose and I would just slit their throat. Then something happened. Around the fourth or fifth person I killed, I started to enjoy the whole process. It became something I craved. I needed to feel the excitement of looking for my next victim. It gave me something to look forward to. I would find just the right one, and I would watch them go about their lives. The waiting was the best part because I grew to appreciate what I was waiting for. I waited until the rage inside me was so strong I needed to feel the release only a murder could bring. I loved to hear them scream as I carved their own headstone into their skin. I can still hear the screams when I think about the way they all died. That's why I carved them while they were still alive."

  Sam shook his head. "How many victims didn't we find?"

  Tucker just smiled. "Well, now, that would all depend on when you started looking, wouldn't it?"

  From out of nowhere came a gunshot. Cole looked at his cousin. He had a funny look on his face. Sam turned around with his gun drawn.

  At the top of the loft steps stood Ethan Davidson, the gun in his hand pointed at his oldest son.

  Sam and Cole turned to see Tucker crumple to the ground. He had let Wyatt go and had fallen on top of the boy.

  Sam scrambled over to them. He pushed Tucker's body off his son and pulled Wyatt into his arms. Wyatt was crying, and Sam grabbed the knife from Tucker's limp hand and used it to cut through the tape that bound Wyatt's hands.

  Wyatt threw his arms around his dad's neck. Lifting him away from Tucker, Sam carried the boy over to where Ethan was helping to free Cole.

  Ethan looked at his son and shook his head. "I had to put an end to this madness. I couldn't believe what he was saying. That monster wasn't the son I raised. I loved Tucker once, and I guess a part of me still does, but I couldn't let him go free. I couldn't let you allow him to escape with the boy. God knows he would have murdered that child just like he did all the others"

  Cole reached out to his uncle. "I'm sorry, Uncle Ethan. I don't think he wanted to escape this time. He chose the place, and he knew in his heart that he wasn't going to get out of here alive."

  Ethan looked at Cole. "Did he really mean all those awful things he said ... about how he enjoyed killing all those people?"

  Cole shook his head as he looked over at his cousin's body. "I don't know. I can't imagine."

  Ethan sighed. "I always knew there was something wrong with Tucker, but I never imagined anything like that"

  Ethan and Cole looked at Tucker one last time. Tucker was sprawled out on the hay. His life was ended, along with his need to kill.

  They joined the rest of Ethan's family outside the barn. Joyce and the boys were glad to see Cole and the others, but Joyce was looking for the one person who was missing. She looked at her husband, and when he shook his head, she turned away and began crying. She knew that her oldest son was dead.

  Sam felt relief for the first time in weeks. He had his son back and the killer was dead. He reached for his phone and dialed 911. He spoke to the operator and asked that the nearest police department be dispatched to the farm. Then he looked at his son.

  Wyatt looked up at his dad and smiled. Sam picked him up and held him close. The worry he'd felt for so long melted away as his son's arms reached around his neck. He felt almost whole, and he knew he never wanted to be apart from his son again.

  Cole watched the reunion and smiled. It felt good to see something worthwhile come out of all this misery. He hated to break up the moment, but asked, "Sam, where are my parents?"

  Sam tossed him the phone. "I called the local cop shop, and they should be here any time now."

  Cole let go a huge sigh of relief when he heard the first of the sirens wailing in the distance. His parents were on their way back, and this mess was finally over. He felt a degree of sadness for his aunt and uncle, and as he looked over at them he wasn't sure what to say.

  Joyce stood in Ethan's arms, her tears drying, and when she saw Cole join them, she obviously didn't know what to say either. "I'm so sorry," she finally told him.

  Cole shook his head. "Sorry
for what?"

  Joyce closed her eyes. "He was still my son. I heard some of what he said up there. I couldn't believe it, but I know it was true."

  "You can't blame yourself for what he did," Cole told his aunt. "Tucker chose his own path in life. You had nothing to do with what he became any more than I did."

  They all turned their attention to the front of the yard as several police cars pulled into the driveway with their lights flashing and sirens wailing. One by one the sirens died, but the lights were left on as the police officers emerged from their vehicles and headed toward the group.

  One officer introduced himself as John Sanders. Sam stepped forward to handle any questions. "I'm Detective Sam Sebastian from New Orleans."

  Sanders held out his hand and as they shook, he said, "You're kind of a long way from home, aren't you, Mr. Sebastian?"

  "We were trailing a serial killer and this is where he brought us," Sam said.

  "What happened here today?" he asked.

  "Tucker Briggs kidnapped his parents, my son, and his own cousin, and brought them here to kill them. I've been following him for a week, since he kidnapped my son and murdered several other people, including three police officers in Louisiana."

  John raised an eyebrow. "And where exactly is Tucker Briggs right now?"

  Sam nodded toward the barn. "His body is up in the hayloft. You'll find a bullet in his chest"

  John called out to one of the other cops standing in the yard. He told him to go check out the barn loft for a dead body. Turning back to Sam he asked, "Who shot him?"

  Ethan took a step forward and said, "I did."

  John looked at Sam for a long minute and then turned to Ethan. "And you are?"

  "I'm Tucker's father. I shot him before he could hurt anyone else."

  Before he could comment, John was called to the barn door by the officer he'd sent in to find the body. They talked for a few minute, and then John rejoined the group. He was looking at Sam when he asked, "What is going on here?"