Jewels and Panties (Book, Six): Puppet Master

by Brooke Kinsley

  "Church," she replied as though it was the most obvious answer.

  "The church?"

  "The church orphanage. What's it called? The one in Broadwood..."

  "No. We're not going back to that damned neighborhood. We take them somewhere no one knows or suspects anything."

  She sighed and began tapping her foot on the floor.

  "Fuck. Fuck. Let me think. Wait! I know!"

  Her eyes grew wider and wider as she looked up at me.

  "Well for Christ sake's, Kirsty. Are you gonna tell me?"

  "The Commune of the Reformation," she said.

  My stomach sank.

  "That crazy camp!"

  She nodded.

  "Camp yes. Crazy no. Remember Sonya?"

  The name sounded familiar. There were so many girls that came in and out the house on a regular basis it was hard to keep up.

  "And Roberta?" she added.

  "I remember her," I said and thought about how her body was discovered shortly after the others with the red spiral tattooed on her ankle, her mouth dried out from saltwater and sand in her eyes.

  "What about her?"

  "They both used to live out there."

  "Explains a lot."

  "No, listen. I know it sounds crazy but think about it. Nobody will ask questions and the children will go to homes where-"

  "Where they'll be expected to work the land like something from ancient times. I've heard about those places. The children don't go to school. They build barns and milk cows for twelve hours a day then pray to false prophets at night.

  "But they'll be away from us," said Kirsty. "Think about that."

  I did. She was right.

  "Okay... so what now? We can't just bundle them into a van and leave them there?"

  "Do you have a better plan?"

  "No! But... I wanted to return them to their parents."

  She lowered her head and examined her shoes.

  "I don't think that's possible right now. Do you?"

  Curling my fingers around the window ledge, I watched as the waves of wheat glistened beneath the wispy clouds. We didn't have many options but what Kirsty was suggesting was at least a start.

  "There's something else we need to do."

  She looked up and blinked before running a hand through her hair. There was a faraway look in her eyes. I wondered who she was thinking about.

  "What?" she asked as she focused on something behind me.

  "The judge. He needs to be out of our lives."

  Her leg began to shake.

  "You're not suggesting we..."

  "It'll be the last thing I ever do."

  "You don't mean that."

  My silence answered for me.

  "Okay," she said. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. Anything."

  I grabbed hold of her and hugged her with all the strength I could muster. The outburst of affection even shocked me. It had been so long since I had felt someone’s arms around me.

  "Hey... Hey don't worry," she said and smoothed down my hair. "We'll make it all right again."

  "I hope we do," I said, my voice muffled by her breast. "I really hope we do."

  Chapter Seven

  Etta

  Running.

  Running headlong into nowhere. There was nothing but the wind rustling through the trees on either side of me. A long stretch of road ahead of me. Far, far in the distance, I could just about make out the faint glow of streetlamps as a town came into view but it seemed so far away. Further than my legs could take me.

  Behind me, sirens blazed.

  I stopped to catch my breath. In the darkness, blue lights flashed like dancing fireflies. An ambulance, a cop car. They knew what I had done. How long was it until they caught up with me?

  I gulped down air and continued to run. Faster and faster until the blood pumped in my ears and I could taste blood in my mouth. A stich ached all up the side of my body but I didn't dare stop.

  The lights on the horizon came closer. There were streets, a row of houses, a convenience store with graffiti on the shutters. Music emanated from a nearby apartment. I was finally on the edge of Normont but I had no idea where I was.

  A sound rattled up behind me. I turned to see a rusty old beat up Hyundai roll to a stop before the window glided down to reveal a man with threads of hair slicked over his balding head.

  "Are you okay there, girly?"

  Girly? Who is this creep?

  I got a bad vibe from him straight away. His car looked even more exhausted than I did and there was something about the way he looked at me. Something that sent a shudder down my spine.

  "You need a ride?"

  "No thanks," I blurted out.

  "Are you sure? It's not every night I see pretty young girls running through the country for miles."

  Was he watching me?

  "Came from the motel back that way, did ya?"

  He pointed his thumb behind him.

  It was a loaded question. It was the only place I could have come from.

  "Well, why don't you hop in and I'll drop you off somewhere in the city. That sound good to you?"

  I shook my head. There was no way I was getting in the car with him. Even as I hesitated and shuffled from foot to foot, his eyes ran over every inch of my body. I expected to climb in the car and see that all the inside handles were removed.

  I'm fine. Really. I'll walk from here."

  Before I could finish my sentence, the sound of sirens carried on the breeze. They were looking for me. Getting nearer every second.

  He leaned out the window and slapped the door.

  "It seems to me as though you don't really have much of a choice," he said.

  Looking to my right, I could see blue lights approaching.

  I leaped into the passenger side and he stepped on the accelerator before I had the chance to close the door.

  "Where we heading?" I asked.

  "You tell me. You're the one who bludgeoned a police officer."

  "How... How the fuck do you know that?"

  Instinctively, I checked around the car for signs that he was a cop but if he was, he wasn't like any policeman I'd seen before.

  "That motel back there is my old man's,” he explained.“I work in it most weekends. You know helping out and such."

  "You were there!"

  "Saw the whole thing."

  "And... and...."

  My chest tightened up like a coil winding itself round and round until I couldn’t breathe.

  "Calm down," he said as he picked up more speed. "It's okay. I drove out here to help you."

  "Why?"

  A stoplight turned red in front of us and he sped through it before turning on the radio. He settled on a country channel and soon the sound of tinnyguitar and saccharine sweet lyrics oozed out the speakers.

  "If you want me to let you in on a little secret," he began with a smile. "I fucking hate the police. You did a good thing back there. Killing that guy."

  "Killing him!"

  "Oh... He's dead alright. I saw them take him away in a body bag. I suggest you lay low for a while. Cop killers are never the most popular of fugitives."

  It was then, as I was sure I was about to lose the contents of my stomach once again, that the hospital loomed up in front of us and I recognized where I was. We were only a mile or so from Broadwood.

  "Stop the car."

  "What? Where you wanna go round here?"

  "Stop the car!"

  He screeched to a halt in the middle of the highway and I dashed out.

  The only sirens out here were the ones coming from the hospital.

  I began to run again, scrambling up the embankment at the edge of the road before dashing in front of an ambulance and edging my way down a side street.

  My feet battered off the ground, burning with blisters but I didn't stop until I saw the diner, the docks, the alley where Jet's body lay dead.

  Then I saw it. The house.

  It seemed
bigger now and even more sinister. As I entered the parking lot I noticed the doors to the basement and knelt down beside them.

  Opening them up, I looked down and saw nothing but darkness.

  "Hello?" I called out.

  There was no one down there. Even the rats were too afraid to scuttle across the dirt.

  Looking up at Phaedra's room, I saw her light was off. Out of all the things that struck me as peculiar about this night, it was that she wasn't up there with her light on, sleepless and obsessive as she wrote down her meticulous notes.

  I approached the front door and raised a fist to the wood.

  My body was still trembling.

  What had I done?

  What was I doing there?

  I've killed someone, I thought. A father. A man with two beautiful daughters who loved to play the guitar and... saved me from being raped.

  I was a monster.

  Without thinking, I rapped my knuckles against the door. From inside, I could make out the sound of someone shuffling down the stairs in slippers. A moment later, the door opened.

  "Oh, hey! It's you."

  The girl was about my age with dyed red hair and heart shaped lips. Dressed in a skeleton onesie, she looked like a kid. I almost didn't recognize her.

  "Erm... Katy, right?"

  "Yeah! You stay here, right?"

  "Used to," I said.

  "You don't stay here now?" she asked, confused. “I swear to God this place is like a railway station. I can never keep up with everyone.”

  She twiddled a strand of her crimson hair around her fingers and hummed in thought.

  "I.. was just passing by and..."

  What the hell am I doing?

  "You wanna come in?" she asked.

  I shook my head.

  "No," I said with a definite firmness. "I'm not coming in."

  "Suit yourself. What are you doing here then?"

  "I... I don't know. I just... I just had nowhere else to go!" I cried.

  I burst into tears and slumped against the door frame.

  "Woah. It's okay. Look. Just come inside. It's freezing."

  She pulled me into the lounge and dropped me into an armchair.

  "It's okay. It's okay," she said and held my hand.

  That was the thing about the house. It could be pure evil or it could be a helping hand.

  "What's the matter? Your man kick you out or something?"

  I nodded, unable to tell her the truth.

  "Let me get you a drink."

  She disappeared into the kitchen and emerged with a can of beer.

  "Sorry. None of the fancy stuff around here."

  I took it gratefully and pulled it open. Taking a few sips, I reeled back my lips with disgust but carried on drinking regardless. I needed something to take the pain and panic away.

  "Where's Phaedra?" I asked. "She's usually awake all night."

  "Gone," said Katy.

  "Gone? Where?"

  "All I know is that she went to the country. Someone said she's at her parents' place or something. I don’t' care. As long as she's not on my back and I don’t' have her nagging at me about curfew all the time."

  She took a long gulp of her beer and slammed the can down on the coffee table.

  "Gone," I repeated. "Why did she leave?"

  She shrugged and threw up her hands.

  "Someone overheard her on the phone talking about Judge Kennedy. You know, the old dude who's always cruising around here and likes his hookers as skinny as they are high."

  "The judge?"

  "Yeah, apparently some shit's going down with him so she took off."

  None of it was making sense. My mind was beginning to unravel.

  "I'm looking for someone," I said. "Someone I really love is missing but there's no way I can go to the police."

  "It's not that doctor, is it?"

  "Jesus, word really does get around fast."

  "Yeah, when he didn't show up at the hospital this morning he was reported missing."

  "What?"

  "Yeah!"

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. After a few taps, she pulled up a recent news article.

  BILLIONAIRE DOC BOSWORTH MISSING AFTER BEING TAKEN HOSTAGE

  My heart began to pound as I skimmed over the article. A few words jumped out at me.

  Kidnapped. House ransacked. Police suspect robbery gone wrong.

  The walls around me were shifting. Katy's lips were moving but I couldn't hear a word she was saying.

  Where do I go? What do I do?

  "Oh, Jesus Christ!" I heard myself say as though my words were coming from a faraway place.

  "Hey. Sit back down. You don't look well."

  "We gotta do something!"

  "Here, just relax okay. Phaedra left her address and phone number down in case of emergencies. We can call her."

  "Her address?"

  This was just about the craziest idea I'd ever had but what else was I supposed to do. She was at the center of all of this. If anyone knew anything it had to be her.

  "Here," said Katy as she pulled a sticky note from the notice board. "It's way out in the ass end of nowhere."

  I looked at the address but I didn't recognize it.

  "You know where this is?" I asked.

  She shook her head. Satnav would tell ya, I guess.”

  "I need a car," I said. "You know how to hotwire one?"

  "Does your grandma know how to suck eggs? Fuck yes, I know how to hotwire a car!"

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes now! Get moving!”

  Chapter Eight

  PHAEDRA

  "Phaedra this is not a good time!" spat Kennedy, his voice crackling down the phone line.

  He was always spitting at me, making me feel as though I didn't deserve even a second of his attention.

  "When is a good time?"

  "Not right now."

  "Where are you?"

  "None of your Goddamn business. Since when were you so interested in my whereabouts?"

  "Just tell me where you are."

  "Fuck you."

  He hung up. I was so angry I felt as though my body was being charged with rocket fuel. Behind me, Kirsty was pouring herself a cup of coffee.

  "That didn't sound as though it went well."

  "It didn't"

  She sat down at the kitchen table and rubbed her eyes.

  "Where do you think he is?" she asked.

  "It's as much a mystery to me as it is to you."

  She looked up at to the clock. It wouldn't be long until the sun would rise and this house would be shrouded in an auburn glow that illuminated all the dirt and rot.

  Across the table, Kirsty's mind was wondering away to a deep place. She tapped her fingers against the table and stared into her coffee.

  "I have an idea," she said. "I think I know how we can find him."

  Her eyes remained cast down to her cup as the thought, her fingers still tapping away like rapid Morse code.

  "I know a girl who's been with him," she said.

  "Been with him?"

  Part of me knew what she meant but I needed to hear it.

  "Yeah. Been with him. As in, he's paid her and not just for sex."

  Her finger tapping reached a crescendo then her hand fell flat on the table.

  "Kennedy has a wicked cocaine problem and he'd do just about anything for the best he can get. Money's not an issue. I'm sure you know that."

  I moved to speak but before I could say a word, headlights beamed in through the window. At first, I assumed it was the old man in that rusted red tractor of his. Then I remembered what the time was.

  "Who the hell is that?"

  Like vampires struck by the sun, we both shielded our eyes from the shock of light.

  I moved over to the window and leant across the sink. There was the sound of tires on gravel and the rumble of an engine. As the headlights turned off and my vision returned to
normal, I found myself looking at a red sedan. Two girls were in the front. A jolt of recognition shot through me when I saw their faces.

  Kirsty was close behind me, looking over my shoulder as the two figures stepped out from the car and hurried up to the front door.

  "Is that... Is that...

  "It is."

  "What are they doing here!"

  "I think we're about to find out."

  Before I could draw a breath, a frantic knock sounded on the door.

  "What do we do?" asked Kirsty in a pointless whisper.

  There was no point in pretending we weren't here.

  "Let them in," I said. "I doubt they're here just for fun."

  Chapter Nine

  ETTA

  Hell wasn't a word I could use to describe the car journey out here. It was so much worse than that. Last month I hadn't done anything illegal in my life besides being caught drinking peach Schnapps as a teenager. In the last week I had turned into a villain, a girl who thought it acceptable to injure, to steal cars. To kill a man...

  I'd had a hand clamped to my face all the way out here to stop myself vomiting. Katy was at the wheel, talking the entire time still clad in her skeleton onesie, popping bubblegum and singing along to the radio whenever one of her favorites came on.

  It was like we were just two regular girls ploughing down the highway in the middle of the night like we'd known each other our whole lives. As I watched her face in profile, her youthful features framed by the lights on the dashboard, I wondered how often she did this kinda thing. I was starting to suspect it wasn't an infrequent occurrence.

  Now, standing in front of the house that was barely visible above the tops of the corn field, I felt like collapsing to my knees. Everything in me was telling to give up, to let myself go and fall away. But I had to find Lincoln and the thought of him spurred me on to smack my hand against the door.

  "Phaedra!"

  I knew she was in there. Just like back at her the Waters' House, a single light was on to accompany her insomnia.

  Slowly, the door creaked open to reveal a dark hallway. The smell of mildew and disinfectant filtered out. In the doorway, stood Phaedra with her hair tied back so tight her wrinkled forehead was pulled flat. Behind her, a young girl lurked in the shadows.

  "Katy! What are you doing here?"