by Lara Swann
“Yeah, I heard you liked to ask questions.” He says, shaking his head. “Why d’you think, Kelsey? You’ve been asking the wrong sorts of questions - caused problems - made a mess. One that we’re going to have to clear up.”
There’s no doubt from the way he looks at me what clearing up means.
“Why bring me here, then?” I ask, the words coming out before I can stop myself. Okay, this time it is my damned curiosity talking for me. That, and the back of my mind scrambling around for a way out of this. “If you’re just looking to get rid of me and the problems I’ve caused, why didn’t you use the accident last night? Hit and run. Would’ve been easier than covering up a murder in some—place like this.”
I haven’t actually looked at where I am. I don’t know what this place is. I can barely make my eyes focus on the guy right in front of me, so for now I’m dealing with that.
He grunts, giving me an almost amused look, and I can’t exactly blame him. I’m wondering why the hell I’m pointing that out, too. I should not be assisting in the easiest way to get rid of me.
“We need to ask you some questions, first.” His leer turns menacing. “See how far you’ve spread all this. We’re clearing it all up - the whole project - it’s gone too far. As soon as the last of the money comes in today, it’s over, and we’re dealing with anyone who knows anything. That includes him, too.”
He says that with a jerk of his thumb toward Ken, his face dropping into a scowl. “Become a damned liability. It’s a pity…been such a good thing for us…but he had to go and fuck it up, so here we are.”
He says the latter with a kick aimed in Ken’s direction. It only hits his leg, but he winces anyway and my stomach churns. That doesn’t bode well for how this might go and I feel far too vulnerable restrained and exposed like this. Especially with my chest feeling so fragile. I’m far too aware that one well-aimed kick could—
Don’t think about it.
“You can’t kill him!” I say, the words spilling out before I’ve had a chance to think about it. “If you lose him, then Ashton will elect another Mayor and you’ll be exposed. They’ll see what you’ve been doing—”
“Like anyone is going to go back and look through a damned sewage project.” He dismisses. “Especially after such a tragic death…who’s going to want to dig through or question anything their beloved Mayor Kenneth did? And if they do…eh, well we’ll deal with that too.”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal and I just stare at him for a moment. I’ve never heard anyone talk so callously about killing. Like it’s a casual way to solve a problem. It’s unnerving and my heart sinks. These people really are completely alien to me. I’m totally out of my depth.
Liam’s words flash back into my head, but I push them away. I can’t think about them right now. I can’t think about him. Or I’m going to break down completely.
“I’m surprised you don’t agree with us there.” The guy in front of me continues, almost nonchalant. “This is his mess. He’s the reason you’re here. Would’ve thought you’d be itching to see him pay.”
He shrugs, gives me another look like he can’t quite work me out and then - as someone else walks in and gestures to him - he turns and walks away without another word. I think about calling after him, trying to get him to stay, to find out more, something that could help, some way I could reason with him…but I don’t want to.
I can’t face hearing any more of it.
When I finally look around - seeing a worn, broken down barn of some kind - I notice Ken is looking at me strangely, too.
He frowns as he catches my eye. “You were trying to convince them not to kill me.”
He makes it sound almost like a question - like he’s surprised - and I feel like sinking into some kind of despair.
He doesn’t get that either?
What do these people expect? Of course I don’t want him dead. I might despise what he’s done, but is it so hard to believe that stops me from basic human decency?
“Of course I was.” I say, glaring at him. “We need to get you through this so that you can testify against these guys. I want your ass in jail, where you belong, and some cushy deal that protects Margaret and Emily while these guys go down for what they’ve done. I don’t want you dead.”
Ken gives me a small, sorrowful smile as he says sadly. “I don’t think either of us is going to ‘get through this’, Kelsey.”
“Well, not if you think like that.” I retort, mainly because I don’t have any better ideas.
“Aren’t you scared?” He asks me. “For yourself?”
“I’m fucking terrified.” I reply, with feeling. “But I’m trying not to think about it - and also, I think the pain is dulling that a bit.”
I don’t mention that the only reason I didn’t try to convince them not to kill me, too, was that I couldn’t think of a good argument for it. I try not to think about what that says about my own chances.
The ache in my head threatens to overwhelm me at any moment, I’m struggling to breathe and can’t move without pain crippling me. Yeah, it’s not looking promising.
I try to look around anyway, take in where we are and see if there’s anything useful around…anything I could work with…
To do what?
I have no answer to that. Just looking around makes my head hurt. I’m not in any condition to escape, I can’t see any possibility of being able to steal some phone somehow and get a call through to the cops, and even if I did—what would I tell them? That I’ve been abducted and I’m trapped in a barn with some maniacs about to kill me? Would they even believe me? They certainly couldn’t find me—
I suddenly blink as I wonder why the hell I didn’t call the cops last night.
Why the fuck did you call Liam? He didn’t even pick up!
I probably couldn’t have told them anything useful about where I was, but at least they would have known—at least it would be some clue—but back then, I didn’t even think I’d make it through the next moments, let alone to a brand new day…
I start as I suddenly realize it is a brand new day. It’s not even dim in this barn. There’s light coming through the somewhat patchy roof and the front of it - where I guess there would have been large, double doors at one point - is totally open. All I can see in the wide, empty space through it is dusty ground and blue skies, though. Nothing to give me a clue of the location.
But the sun is high. It’s not even early.
I bite my tongue as I think of that message last night, struggling against the tears that want to form. He will have listened to it by now. What will he have done? What will he be doing about it?
I try not to imagine him bursting in with an army of cops behind him, here to fix every stupid mistake I’ve made. It’s too painful to think about, because I’m too aware how impossible that would be.
He doesn’t have a clue where I am…and I told him I was about to die! Last night! He’ll think it’s way too late…he won’t know where to direct the cops…he’ll be devastated and grieving and…and who knows what else. Even if it looked hopeful, he couldn’t do more than call the cops. He has Maya to think about. I don’t begrudge him that.
But still…it doesn’t stop me from fantasizing about it, as I sit there and try not to pass out again from the pain. That’s about as close as I can get to thinking of a plan that might save me.
Yeah. Not very close.
“Hey…” I say, something else coming back to me as my mind drifts between hazy semi-conscious thoughts during this interminable wait for them to come and do whatever they’re going to. “Did someone say you recognized this place?”
He blinks at me, his expression sinking further into itself as he gives a short nod. My eyes widen, sudden excitement flaring through me.
“Well, where is it then?!” I ask. “Why the hell didn’t you mention that?! If we could get to a phone, we could tell someone, and—”
“We’re not going to get to a phone, Kelsey.” He says
, in such a defeatist voice that I grind my teeth together.
“Fine. Don’t try. But tell me anyway. It can’t fucking hurt.”
My language has gotten significantly worse since being abducted, I notice belatedly.
Who would have thought?
He hesitates again, and I don’t know what he’s stalling for. C’mon, damn it.
“It’s my Uncle’s farm.” He finally says, and I blink.
My mind flicks back to that story he fed me about Margaret’s accident and I frown. “Wait. Your Uncle actually has a farm?”
“Not anymore, he—”
Ken stops talking as two men walk in from the front of the barn, striding toward us with a determined enough focus to make me shy away a little.
Oh damn.
My stomach flips as I see them coming. One of them is the guy who was here before, but the other one…a shudder rocks through me, even as I try to stop it. I’ve only ever seen him once, but…I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget him.
The guy from the town archives. The one who first terrified me.
The first guy walks behind a stack of boxes - there are all sorts of things like that scattered around, dividing the barn into different sections - and brings over a flimsy table and a couple of chairs. I didn’t even know those were in here. But where we are in the back corner, those boxes enclose the space pretty well and it’s not easy to see much more than the entrance straight in front of us.
I guess that makes it easy for them to keep an eye on us from over there, but I haven’t exactly seen many people watching so far. I haven’t seen the guys from the construction site I was following at all. I belatedly wonder how many people are even around here. That’s something I should have been trying to pay attention to, but it never occurred to me.
It would have occurred to Liam. If he were here, he would already be out of this mess, and—
“So. Kelsey.” The guy from the town archives starts, twisting his chair to face me and leaning forward, his arms resting on his legs. I can’t remember his name. I can’t even remember whether I’ve heard it. “We found this, which clears up one problem, but we’re going to need you to help us with a few other things.”
He indicates something in his hands and it takes me a moment to recognize what it is - my camera. It’s battered and probably destroyed, and I get a pang in my chest for it, even though that’s stupid.
I didn’t really mind when they took the laptop or my work gear or folders, but the camera…
“Did you make any copies of these pictures before this got destroyed?”
I stare at him. “I was in a car. I’m guessing your guys saw me the whole time. When would I have had the chance to make copies before you railroaded me and destroyed the camera?”
“You only had pictures of that night?” He raises an eyebrow at me, and this feels very strange. He’s just going to ask me about this? I can’t help the uneasy feeling in my gut.
“That was the only thing I saw that was worth taking pictures of.” I say, answering honestly.
I really don’t see how saying anything else would help. Threatening them with secret stashes of hidden information and others who are going to come after them sounds nice and all…but I don’t think that would work the way I’d like it to.
He seems to consider this for a moment, then grunts, sitting up and setting the broken camera back on the table before folding his arms.
“I’m not going to waste time asking what you know. I saw the conclusions you’d drawn in your notes. What I want to know - is who else saw those notes? Who else have you told about all these theories?”
I swallow, even though I don’t want to, even though I don’t want to give anything away. The other guy’s words from earlier come back to me.
We’re dealing with anyone who knows anything.
I think of Anderson, who didn’t believe a word of it. And I think of Liam.
Liam, who supported me the whole time…but refused to get involved, because of Maya. Because of something like this.
Oh, no. Oh fuck no.
“No one.” I say, trying to be as convincing as possible. “Have you ever been to Ashton? No one there would believe a word of it without actual evidence - even with it, it would be a hard sell. I was waiting for that. I thought the pictures last night might do it, but…”
I trail off deliberately, trying to make it more convincing with thoughts of my future plans.
“You expect us to believe that?” He raises one eyebrow at me, and I meet his gaze as coolly as I can. I don’t want him thinking I’ve got anything to hide. “Maybe it would be hard to talk to anyone from town about it - but someone new, maybe? Without all those prejudices?”
I give him a deliberately confused look. “What do you mean?”
I know exactly what he damn well means.
“You want to try to tell me you didn’t talk to your boyfriend about this?”
“He wasn’t my boyfriend.” I say instinctively, even though that really wasn’t the point. It’s just the idea of what it could have been, if I hadn’t been so stupid, is painful. “We were just casual.”
He laughs, and it’s not a nice sound. Amused and condescending and somehow, just a little bit threatening too.
“As much as I can appreciate a girl who’s up for casual, that doesn’t change anything. All that time together, and you never once mentioned what you were working on?”
“No.” I say, firmly.
There’s nothing I can do but deny this, over and over and over again. As many times as I need to.
There’s no way I’m getting Liam into this mess. There’s no way I’m letting them go after him - or, god forbid, Maya.
All I can hope is that I’ll be convincing enough that they’ll believe me. That they won’t risk checking for themselves.
He sighs. “He was with you when you followed Ken. Parked outside his daughter’s house with you all night. Don’t insult me with this.”
I blink.
They knew about that?
“Did you see what we were doing that night?” I retort, saying the first thing that comes into my mind. “Sure, I wanted to follow the Mayor, but I wasn’t about to tell him why. I told him I’d always had a spy fantasy - wanted to act it out. And for all I was trying to focus on what Ken was up to, we did. Very thoroughly.”
There’s no denying that. If they’d been watching us outside the house that night, they would have seen exactly what we were doing.
I take a deep breath, that I immediately cut short when I remember that’s a bad idea.
“Listen, I didn’t want to be right about this.” I say, knowing my words ring with truth there. “I heard you both when I was working in the town archives—”
He shoots Ken a glance, but I ignore it. I’m pretty sure they’ve both worked that out anyway.
“—but I didn’t really believe it. I thought I might have misheard. I’m from Ashton too, remember? I couldn’t believe it of Ken or my town. I just…I only started looking into it to quiet my own mind. To convince myself I was wrong. As it was, every path I tried was inconclusive - suspicious, but not damning. That wasn’t enough for me to go around accusing anyone of this sort of thing, let alone someone I’d always admired and respected. Even to the guy I was sleeping with. There’s just…no way that would have been a good idea.”
His expression is full of doubt as he looks at me, but he really is looking at me now. I’ve made him think - made him consider that I might be telling the truth. It’s a convincing argument. Almost everything I said is true…and that makes the best lies.
“So you’re saying you told absolutely no one - nothing about this?”
I shake my head. “I was as subtle as I could be. I got a few questions - mostly from my boss and colleague - but they just put it down to my usual curiosity and wandering mind.”
I feel like it’s safe to slip that in. I don’t think they’re going to go after anyone for a random question that they probably
don’t remember asking. And it helps my case - makes him feel I’m being open with him.
I really think it might work, too. I’ve swayed him, I know it.
“Okay.” He says, and I have to try hard not to react to the elation that rushes through me. “I don’t believe you.”
What? Wait—what?!
He gestures to the guy behind him, who walks over to me - and I’m already cringing, even before he cuts the rope that restrains me to the post I’m leaning against and hauls me up. Before I can even process that I’m momentarily unrestrained, pain crashes into me from the way he’s handling me - the rough movement enough to make the stabbing pain in my chest agonizing, while everything else throbs and the world turns dizzy.
I cry out with the pain of it all, and by the time it finally seems to stabilize I’m restrained in a chair, my arms bound to the armrests and feet to the legs of it. The guy who moved me here is back over beside his - I’d guess - boss, and I have no idea how long they’ve all just been looking at me, waiting for me to come back into the world.
I’m still whimpering from it all, but I look at the guy still sitting at the table, largely impassive.
“Wh—why not?” I whisper. “I’m telling the truth. I promise. I haven’t told anyone anything.”
He shrugs. “Maybe. I’ll believe you if that’s the same story you tell me in a little while, after you’re broken past the point of being able to think about it.”
I stare at him, horror rushing through me as those words sink in.
No…
The other man comes toward me, with that same leer on his expression that he was wearing earlier, a metal pipe in his hands. I can’t take my eyes off it. Distantly, I can hear Ken shouting something, but I can’t make anything else out past that metal pipe and the shaking now taking over my body.
I thought I was scared before - I thought I had a sensible understanding of how afraid I should be - but now…
Now I’m just fucking terrified.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Liam
