by Brown, Tara
Paige shook her head, pointing at the house.
“Is Horatio in there?” That made me feel something.
Paige lowered her hand but glanced at me, staring with the most forlorn expression I’d ever seen. She blinked and a dirty shimmering tear slid down her cheek.
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s Horatio, he’ll jump out a window.” Her expression didn’t change.
“What is it?” Laertes asked, turning and hurrying in my direction.
“No!” I started to cry but this time tears sprang from my eyes. The numbness hovered on the outskirts of my brain and heart, as an intense agony took over my center. I pressed my lips together, shaking my head back and forth. “No.” I refused this one. Mother had taken nearly everything from us, she wasn’t taking Horatio too.
“What is it?” Laertes grabbed my arms and shook me.
“Horatio,” I muttered.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Laertes said, looking back at the house. The entire mansion was engulfed. “You can’t see anything from here.” He spun in a circle, trying to solve the mystery of me sobbing and holding myself. “He’s probably on the other side. I’ll go look. Don’t move.” He ran back toward the house, skirting it and guards and staff. But I knew he wouldn’t find him.
Paige hadn’t been wrong about a single thing.
“I’m-I’m sorry,” I said to her, realizing this was a loss for her as well.
She stayed and watched with me, both of us crying as the glow from the house was so bright I couldn’t look at it as it crackled and collapsed.
I was homeless.
Wiping my eyes, I asked her about the sudden random memory that popped into my mind, “You remember when we met, and you told me that I could be your sister and live with your family?”
She nodded in the creepiest way possible.
“And I told you that we could live in my mansion and have everything we ever wanted?”
She gave me a side-smirk that would give me nightmares later.
“You were right. It was better at your house. You were the one with everything. I just didn’t know how important those other things were until now.” I wiped my face again but the tears kept coming. “Now that the mansion and all the possessions are burning, there’s nothing I wish I’d brought. Except Horatio.”
“Ophelia!” Deborah shouted at me as she ran over, winded, and a little dirty from the ash in the air. “You’re okay. Thank God. Did Horatio make it out this side? I didn’t see him come out yet. Foolish boy. He ran up the stairs after your mother.” She scanned the area. “Where’s your brother?”
“He’s checking on Horatio now, to see if he’s on the other side of the house.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her he was gone.
Deborah wrapped an arm over my shoulders. “He’ll be fine. The devil himself couldn’t get that kid.”
But she was wrong. She would have to wait for dawn to know it.
Truck and crews and police showed up. The yard became a crime scene, and everyone here was interviewed like a suspect.
Finally, at dawn the fire was out.
In my blood-stained clothes, I walked across the dewy morning grass, barefoot and scared as I approached the soaked rubble. It was steaming in a few places.
“Careful, miss,” a firefighter called to me as I got to the ashes, close enough to hear my brother speaking.
“Did you find her?” Laertes asked.
“We did.” The large man in the fireman’s suit nodded. “Over there. I can’t let you get close. Police and the investigators have to do their job first.” The police and fire investigators were already busy with it. We’d answered dozens of questions already.
“And Horatio?” Laertes questioned.
“There’s a male with her. We believe it could be your friend.” He pointed at the spot where I guessed the grand staircase was. “It’s weird how he’s holding her.”
“Hands around her neck?” Laertes asked bitterly.
“Actually, yes.” The fireman scowled. “How did you know?”
“He hated her. She murdered his girlfriend and tried to shoot my sister.” Laertes was back to his primary functions. Matter-of-fact. But he wasn’t thinking about how ridiculous this sounded.
“Holy shit,” the fireman said blankly. “Are you being serious?”
“Perfectly. My mother was a disturbed woman. She murdered my father and started the fire trying to kill us all.” He sighed and glanced at me. “Needless to say, it’s been one hell of a day and we want to leave. I want to go and find a hotel and a shower. Then I’d like to sleep for a week. Can we do that?”
“You can leave a cell phone number with us, so the investigators know where to reach you.”
“Here.” Laertes gave him his cell phone number.
“I’m really sorry about your family.”
“Me too,” Laertes lamented and walked to me. “Let’s go. Everyone else has left.”
He was right. I needed sleep too. Although I wanted to see Mother's body for the confirmation she was gone. I wouldn’t rest until I was confident it was over. I yawned and let my brother lead me to one of Father’s jaguars. As he drove us out the gates for what I assumed might be the last time, I watched it in the rearview mirror, scared she might appear any second. Knife or gun like some horror show.
But she didn’t follow us, and eventually, I lost the sensation of her nearby.
I fell asleep to the sound of the car and the feeling of security, and for the first time, it was real.
Chapter 17
Tuesday, July 30
A cold breeze woke me. I opened my eyes, believing Mother had found us, but the room was empty. I was alone in the bedroom of the hotel suite where Laertes had checked us in. The sun was gone, it was dark. I held my breath listening for the rustling of clothes or footsteps, but there was nothing. I was utterly alone and the cool draft came in the window from the ocean. It was normal. Everything was as it should be.
I closed my eyes again, drifting off but trying to remain aware, in case my mother came.
“Hey?” Paige spoke and I opened my eyes. The room was bright and airy, the wind warmed up with the rising sun. “You’re asleep.” She climbed on the bed, startling me at first. I nearly asked if this was a dream but soon realized everything else was the dream. This was real. I was in my bedroom and she slept over.
“I had the most awful nightmare,” I said with a yawn.
“Let me guess, Lucas got married,” she teased as she lay beside me. We stared at the ceiling, shoulder to shoulder.
“No. You died,” I recalled the dream too clearly. “You and King Hamlet. Then my dad. Then Horatio and my mother.”
“That’s crazy, Horatio is waiting for me upstairs. I just came to say bye. You totally got this. You can take it from here.” She rolled over and pressed her lips against my cheek. “I’ll love you forever.”
“If you loved me forever, you’d let me sleep,” I moaned but pressed my face into her lips. “Don’t go.” I clung to her.
“I have to. Go back to sleep.” She got up off the bed and pointed at me. “Don’t be upset about that.”
“About what?” I asked, following her finger to my lower stomach or hip area.
“It might be the most important thing that ever happens to you. For reals. Don’t be upset.” She smiled and blew me a kiss before she walked out the door. It was brighter in the hallway.
Unsure what the hell she was talking about, I closed my eyes.
I was just about asleep again when I moved my hand, feeling the USB in my pocket. She was reminding me about it, that I couldn’t get upset. I needed to focus and send the footage to someone. Maybe the police in a different town. We needed a plan.
For some reason I couldn’t get air. It strained in my chest but I couldn’t breathe. My eyes shot open. It was light out, just like it had been a moment before. The smell of lilacs drifted in the air faintly, barely there. I was breathing normally.
She was gone.
She
’d come to say goodbye. Horatio was waiting for her upstairs. The USB had been her mission, and now she was free, no longer a troubled spirit.
It was hard to be happy about that, but equally challenging to be sad. I let the mixed emotions settle in as I climbed from the bed, realizing the USB was on the bedside table where I’d left it. My pajamas, which Laertes had brought over by a personal shopper, didn’t have pockets. I picked it up, deciding I had better not leave it behind. Just in case.
My brother was watching the news in the living room that joined our suites while eating a massive bowl of cereal. He didn’t look in my direction when I entered the room, but he spoke to me, “They’re saying Lucas did it all to take over the kingdom. Killed Mother, burned our house, killed Father, killed his dad.” He rolled his eyes and shut the TV off. “I’m waiting for them to pin Paige’s murder on him with poorly photoshopped footage to complete the series.”
“So you don’t think it was him?”
“I’ve slept on it and no. Has Lucas ever struck you as violent? But mostly, has he ever seemed even remotely interested in being king of the Jacobi crime family?” Laertes shook his head, putting the bowl down on the coffee table. “No, this is Mother and Claudius. He’s bought the news to protect himself. Something had to have brought Lucas to the balcony with the gun.”
“I was thinking maybe he heard it and came running and found it on the floor, picking it up and looking down on us all,” I said as I sat and poured myself a bowl of cereal in his bowl.
He wrinkled his nose when I started eating with his spoon. “That sounds too much like a cheesy murder mystery. Has he texted you?”
“I don’t know.” I stood up with my cereal, taking huge bites and hardly chewing as I made my way back to my room to fish my phone from my dirty pajama pants. The blood on them made my head spin and my stomach clench, but I chose to look past it. I needed food and water and to not flip out. My anxiety levels were already off the charts.
When I got to the small dining room table, I sat and pushed the “on” button. My phone was dead again, but Laertes had his cables there. Of course, he did. I plugged the phone in and started eating again.
“He sent me a message, just one thing. It said I’m in the hallway.” Laertes frowned but solved the puzzle much quicker than I did. He leapt up and hurried to the door, opening it to Lucas standing there in sunglasses and a ball cap.
We both flinched, noticeably.
Lucas pressed his lips together and nodded, likely expecting this reaction. The last time we’d seen him, he had the gun that shot our father.
I left my cereal and hurried toward the door, unsure if I was going to slap his face or kiss him. I did neither, stopping short as my emotions confused me.
“I didn’t do it.” His voice cracked. “I would die before hurting one hair on your dad’s head. You know that.”
“Yes,” Laertes moved over so Lucas could come in.
“Is it true?” Lucas asked as he entered, removing the sunglasses and hat. “About Horatio? I came as soon as I heard.”
“It is,” Laertes said as he slumped, losing the hold he had over himself.
“No,” Lucas’ voice wavered. After a second he pulled my brother in, and the two men hugged as Laertes shook. Lucas’ eyes stayed shut as tears escaped, trailing down his cheeks.
I joined them, slipping into the awkward embrace.
“I thought for sure it was a ploy to force me to turn myself in. Your house burning—”
“Mother. She came with a gun, started the fire, tried to shoot O, and Horatio,” Laertes couldn’t finish it, so I did.
“He ran further into the burning house, looking for Mother. How they were found suggested he either dove off the balcony with her, or he was choking her on the stairs, and the roof collapsed. They were found in the rubble, and he had his hands around her neck.” I mimicked a little, my hands squeezing the imaginary neck of my mother.
Lucas stared at me as if I had three heads for a whole minute before he burst out laughing. He was still crying, so the sound was gut-wrenching.
Laertes started to laugh too, more nervously.
I watched them in disbelief.
“He died—doing—the thing—thing he most wanted—to,” Lucas stammered, making Laertes laugh even harder. I thought they’d both lost their minds, but after a minute, the laughing stopped and neither made a sound. Lucas stared at the wall and Laertes at him.
The silence was thick and agonizing. I needed to end it. “I have the USB from Horatio.” I held it up. “The surveillance from Mother and Paige on the docks.”
“You have it?” they asked at the same time, snapping out of the space they’d been sucked into. Likely memories of Horatio. I knew that pain well.
Laertes took it and carried it to the TV, plugging it in. He fiddled with the TV for a second before the video started.
We stood motionless, watching the weird cargo dock. It was still. There was a bit of rain and the lights glowed orange, beyond that we saw nothing but crates and machinery.
The time stamp on the TV showed twelve fifty-four.
We watched in silence, waiting. Every minute that passed increased my fear.
At twelve fifty-eight a figure appeared in the top right corner. Paige. She was walking and fiddling in her pocket, no doubt about to press call on the phone so the voice recording would catch the whole conversation. She was so thorough on something like that I knew she would have timed how long it took for the phone to ring and start recording the message.
Anxiety rose in my stomach.
Her heels clicked on the wet cement as she came closer to the cameras.
A car in the distance joined the noise. New heels clicked on over. Mother. She entered the frame with her back to the cameras.
“Finally,” Paige said quietly, her hand coming out of her pocket.
“The rain slowed down traffic. Anyway, Paige, thank you for meeting me. I am hoping we can come to an understanding. I’ll pay you five hundred thousand dollars and you leave. You never make contact with Ophelia or anyone in our family again. You vanish. Surely, that is enough money for someone like you.” Mother folded her arms over her fake chest.
Paige shook her head as she lit a cigarette. “You’re a real bitch, Mrs. Agard,” she said, taking a drag. “And you’re a shit mom. And I wouldn’t stay away from Ophelia for all the money you have. I didn’t come here to accept your bribe. I came to tell you to kiss my ass. I know who you are and what you’ve done. You don’t get to call the shots. Save your money and buy some manners and a lawyer.” She lifted a middle finger and flicked her cigarette at Mother.
“Why you—” Mother fished in her pocket as Paige turned around and walked away. She didn’t look back, she was smug.
I knew what was next, but I couldn’t close my eyes or look away.
Mother lifted a handgun. She stared for a second, sighting it, as if she knew how to shoot, and fired.
Paige jerked forward from the impact.
Then Mother shot again. Paige tripped with the impact and tried to crawl away. Mother walked to her, kicking her in the stomach.
Just as I had when I watched it the first time, I was shaking my head in tiny twitches as tears streamed my cheeks. Mother pulled out her cell phone, dialing someone. Her hands were shaking as she paced. “I’ve done something. I need help.”
She turned away from Paige, not watching as she bled out on the wet, cold concrete.
“I need a body moved and a car taken care of,” she said. “Five minutes is too long. Hurry up!” She hung up the phone and walked to Paige, who was jerking a little.
Mother fished in Paige’s pockets for the smokes and a lighter. She lifted one out, her fingers fumbling and dropping the lighter. She finally lit the cigarette and took a long drag off it, holding herself and shaking her head back and forth.
Paige continued to move in small jerks.
Mother ignored her, busy muttering something, but it was too quiet for the camera’s
audio.
My hands squeezed so tightly I felt the nails puncture in a couple of places.
Laertes reached over, taking my hand, forcing me to relax the other one, but he didn’t take his eyes off the screen, neither did I.
Mother smoked three cigarettes before a man showed up. He kept his back to the cameras and wore sunglasses and a ball cap, speaking in an incredibly low tone. He knew the docks and their cameras well. He took the gun and put it in his pocket as he said something inaudible and pointed to the right. Mother tried to hug him, but he shoved her off, becoming angry but not being loud enough to hear.
“See the way she tried to hug him? That has to be my uncle,” Lucas muttered.
We all nodded along.
Mother sobbed and walked away, going in the direction he’d instructed.
Two men came, lifting Paige’s dead body. She had stopped moving at some point. The man with the cap dumped something on the blood spot, a white powder, then grabbed a hose and sprayed, sending the blood and the white foam into the ocean. When he was done, he fished his keys from his pocket, flashing a white keychain.
“Those are Claudius’ keys. I guarantee he drove his Lincoln there. That’s his white golf keychain.” Lucas pointed.
Everyone left the screen and the video cut out.
We sat and stared, not speaking again for several minutes.
Finally, Laertes said, “Who do we give this to?”
“You mean, who do we trust?” Lucas asked.
Not one of us had an answer.
Chapter 18
Thursday, August 1
My phone vibrated on the table. I had to look but suspected it was some bullshit text about a frivolous party or gossip. Even worse, a friend, who didn’t really care about me, asking what was going on. Or checking in, when they hadn’t noticed my life was falling apart for weeks before both my parents died on the same day.
I existed in two worlds, the real one and my old one. And as horrible as the real world was, I liked not pretending better.
As my eyes landed on the screen of my phone, I scowled. It was Laertes asking me to come to the office. Office? His and Father’s work? I’d never been invited there before, not once in nineteen years.
