The Game

by Natalie Clarke

  I take a deep breath before taking his hand, letting him lead me into his office. He guides me over to the desk, and I take a seat in the leather office chair.

  He opens a draw to the right of me and pulls out a thick brown file and places it on the desk in front of me.

  “This is the file the private investigator I hired gave me five years ago, this is why I accused you of snooping that day, I didn’t want you finding it. I was looking into my mother, and it led to Payn... this is what he came back with.”

  I turn the first page to find numerous drawings of a man’s face. Payn's face.

  I freeze.

  The same face that stares up at me has been etched into my brain for years. The same face I’ve tried so desperately to forget.

  “Are you alright?” Kyle comes to stand behind the chair, placing his hands on the tops of my arms, squeezing gently.

  “No.” I shake my head. “You don’t know how many times he’s haunted me in my dreams. I wake up covered in sweat, trembling, crying so much my pillow is soaked, having to check every inch of my bedroom to make sure it was just a dream and that he isn’t really there,” I whimper.

  “Hey.” He kneels beside me, reaching up to run his thumb along my jaw. “Remember that second night when you found me having a nightmare, when I told you about it?”

  I nod.

  “You told me that nightmares couldn’t hurt me, because that's all they are, dreams. He can’t hurt you, not anymore. I promise, he’s long gone.”

  The edge in his voice has me questioning what he really means.

  How could Kyle possibly know that he’s gone?

  I smile faintly.

  He leans in and presses his lips to mine tenderly. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to.”

  “I need to. I need to know.”

  “Okay.” He pecks my lips one more before rising to his feet. “I’ll leave you to it. You know where I am if you need me.” He bends down and kisses my forehead, giving me a comforting smile before he turns and exits the room.

  I take a deep breath before peering down at the drawings of Payn's face. I hate the fact that he still has a hold over me.

  It must take me well over an hour to read through all of the private investigator’s reports, along with victim statements, including Kyle’s mother, Kyle and his mother’s birth certificate, her death certificate, police reports and medical records. There are photos of the bruises that covered Kyle’s mother's body, not dissimilar to my own.

  After I’ve finished, I return the file to the draw where Kyle got it from, hoping that I’d never see it again and make my way to the living room, where I find Kyle sitting in the armchair, forearms resting on his thighs, his legs shaking nervously, staring at the floor.

  As I approach, he looks up, rising from where he’s sat.

  “Are you okay?” he asks.

  “I guess.” I collapse onto the couch, shortly joined by Kyle. “I just feel so guilty.”

  “Why?”

  “I never reported what happened, maybe if I had he could have been caught. I mean, how many more have there been since me? I could have stopped it.”

  “You can’t carry that kind of guilt, you don’t have to worry about him, I told you, he’s gone.”

  “Kyle, what does that mean? How can you know that he isn’t still out there, doing it to someone else?”

  He hesitates. “Because I knew him.” His voice barely a whisper.

  My heart stops.

  “What?”

  “He came to the casino a few times about a year and a half ago.” He grits his teeth. “The name he used was Andrew Myers, that’s his real name, he was a member for a short time. He used so many different names, like you saw in the files, the one he used most often was Nicholas Payn.”

  “So what happened, did you go to the police?”

  “Not quite.” He exhales slowly. “Hayley, people like him don’t change. It was only a matter of time before he did it to another girl, I couldn’t let that happen if I had just contacted the police he would have got off, there was no evidence.” His hands ball into fists.

  “Kyle, what did you do?”

  “I set him up... William found out where he lived, some shitty apartment in Brooklyn. I had this idea to set him up, to catch him in the act then hand him over to the police, he deserved to rot inside a prison cell for what he did.”

  “So how did you do it?” I ask.

  He takes a deep breath and tells me everything.

  Chapter 46

  Kyle

  1 and a half years ago

  “This is crazy, Kyle, there’s so much that can go wrong...” My dad shakes his head, his brows knit together in worry.

  “Not if I do it right. He needs to pay.”

  My dad sighs, his hand on his hip as he leans against my desk.

  “I’ve bought the apartment next to his, Cassie has agreed to help us-”

  “Cassie? You’re assistant?”

  “Yeah.”

  I make my way over to the door, pulling it open, finding Cassie sat behind her desk, typing away on her computer.

  “Cassie?” She glances over her monitor. “Can you come in here for a second?”

  “Sure.” She rounds the side of her desk and heads towards me, passing me as she enters my office. I close the door softly shut behind her.

  “Is something wrong?” she asks.

  “No, of course not. Are you still willing to help with... you know?”

  She looks between my father and me. “Of course I am, Kyle, you forget, I’m the one who suggested it.”

  “You volunteered?” my father asks.

  She nods. “Yes. My sister was abused when we were younger, just kids really, I couldn’t stop it from happening to her, so I’ll do my best to stop it from happening to someone else.”

  “So how do you want to play this?” My dad turns his attention to me.

  “Cassie pretends to have moved into the apartment, gets friendly with him and we wait for him to strike, we crash in and catch him, hand him over to the police. Police can put a rapist behind bars, we get rid of Myers, stop him hurting any more girls, it’s a win for everyone.”

  “Use Cassie as bait? That’s your big plan? Kyle, she could get hurt."

  “I won’t let it go that far, do you really think I would let her get hurt? I got the apartment rigged with cameras, she'll only be in there at night, I’ll be outside in my car downstairs keeping tabs, watching. As soon as he makes his move, I’ll be there to stop him.”

  “You can’t come barging in too quickly though, I'm gonna need a few bruises to make it believable,” Cassie says. “I trust you, Kyle, I know you won’t let it go too far... too violent.” She smiles, reaching out to touch my upper arm.

  My dad exhales slowly, rubbing his jaw deep in thought. “Alright. I'll help. Let’s pray to God this works and everything turns out fine.”

  “It will. It has to.”

  ∞∞∞

  I’ve been camped out in my car across the street from his building for the past six nights, my dad coming to check on me every now and then, sometimes keeping watch as I take a nap, like tonight. Six nights of hardly anything happening.

  The second night, Cassie said that she and Myers had crossed paths on the stairs, where according to her, he introduced himself as Daniel Owens, yet another one of his fake names. He’d kissed her hand and swiftly turned on his heel before carrying on down the stairs.

  “Why isn’t anything happening?” I huff in frustration.

  “Give it time, he gave her a false name, as he always has done, he’s just biding his time, patience, son, it'll happen.”

  I rest my head against the headrest, letting out a yawn.

  My dad chuckles beside me. “It’s not even seven o'clock yet and you’re already tired?”

  “Haven’t been sleeping properly the past few nights, didn’t you notice?” I joke, my mouth curving up into a smile.

  He laughs.
<
br />   A loud knocking sound from my laptop has me jerking up in my seat. We watch as Cassie crosses the living area, heading for the front door, giving a quick glance up at us through the camera that rests on a tall bookshelf, the whole of the room in full view. She twists the doorknob, the door swings open on its hinges.

  He’s standing on the other side.

  “Hello,” he greets politely.

  “Hi,” Cassie replies. “Um... what can I do for you?”

  “I bought you these,” he pulls a bouquet of flowers from behind his back, “A gift, thought they might brighten the place up a little.”

  “Oh, thank you, how kind.” She takes them from him. “I’ll go put these in some water, won’t be a second.” She turns and disappears into the kitchen.

  We watch as Myers takes a step forward into the apartment, closing the door behind him carefully. He steps further into the area, studying the room. He traces his fingers over the sofa in the center of the room, where one of Cassie's sweaters drapes across it. He picks it up and holds it up to his face, inhaling deeply.

  “Fucking creep,” I curse.

  Cassie returns from the kitchen and hesitates when she sees Myers in her living room. We see her take a deep breath and continues forward.

  “So how long have you lived in the building?” she asks.

  “Not long, about six months or so, I moved here from Queens.”

  “Oh right. I moved from New Jersey, recently got a job in the city, this is my first time living alone.”

  “No boyfriend?”

  “No. You? Do you have a wife? Children?”

  “No wife, no children.”

  My chest tightens.

  Well, dick, you’re about to meet your son, and his fists if my plan works.

  She lowers her gaze to the ground, fidgeting with her hands. “Well, thank you for the flowers, they’re beautiful.”

  He takes a step towards her, stopping only a couple of feet away from Cassie, reaching out to touch her hair, tucking the stray strands behind her ear.

  “Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl.” He leans in and kisses her.

  “Fuck, here we go,” I say. I grip the door handle ready.

  Cassie backs away, unlatching herself from his hold. “No, stop.”

  “Come on, darlin’.” He steps forward, his hand gripping the back of her head forcefully, pulling to him.

  She yelps, pushing against his chest, trying to struggle away from him. She pulls her hand back and punches him in the stomach, getting enough leverage to push him away and scurry past him, but not fast enough.

  He swivels on his heel and catches her arm, wrenching her back, he drags her over to the sofa and throws her down.

  I'm up and out of the car faster than the speed of light, my dad following a few steps behind, on the phone to the cops. We eat up the steps, two, three at a time.

  Cassie screams just as I reach the fourth floor, a smash comes from inside the apartment.

  “Cassie!” I shout, just as a neighbour pokes her head out to see what all the noise is.

  I kick down the door, practically off its hinges, where I find him trying to climb on top of Cassie as she fights him off as hard as she can.

  I reach for him, gripping the back of his shirt and pulling him off of her. I throw him to the ground and stand over him, landing a solid punch square across the face.

  “You sick motherfucking piece of shit!” I roar, as I deliver blow after blow across his face. “You like hurting girls, huh? Can’t get any willing participants so you have to force them instead? You sick bastard!”

  Blood pours from his nose that is surely broken now. I kick and punch until my dad pulls me away from him.

  “Kyle. Stop. That’s enough,” he shouts, clutching me by the tops of my arms.

  I pant rough, jagged breaths as I look down at him, bloody and broken.

  I turn my attention to Cassie, who’s curled up on the sofa, her shirt torn, the button of her jeans undone, her hair matted.

  I sit down next to her and pull her into me. “Are you alright? You’re safe, you’re safe.”

  She clutches my shirt and nods. “I’m... I'm okay,” she replies breathlessly.

  The sound of sirens wail in the distance, growing nearer, growing loud as they come to a halt on the street below.

  “You did it, Cassie, we did it. He’s going away for a long time.”

  For the first time since I found out the truth, knowing he’s going to be off the streets and probably going down for a long, long time once they connect him with the other cases, I can finally breathe again.

  Chapter 47

  Hayley

  “Cassie helped you?”

  “Yeah she was great, played it perfectly, couldn’t have got him without her.”

  “Is that when you two… you know, were together?” I avert my gaze, ashamed of my jealously at thinking of him with Cassie, even after everything I’ve just heard.

  “We were never really together, we slept together a few times, that’s all.”

  I nod slowly. “So what happened then?”

  “We waited for the police to show up and they took him away and we gave our statements to the police. They searched his apartment and they found photos of some of the girls he’d abused, plastered all over his bedroom wall, they were able to identify some of them.”

  A sense of dread seeps into my bones. He took photos.

  Oh my God. What if one of them was of me?

  He takes my hands in his and brings his lips to my forehead.

  “Along with the photos, they found a number of items, necklaces, rings, bracelets... underwear, items he took from some of his victims... the fucker kept them like keepsakes.” His lips pull tight over his teeth in anger.

  A memory pops into my head.

  I had one just like this.

  “The Rubik’s cube.”

  “What?”

  “I used to have a Rubik’s cube, it used to sit on top of my dresser, Payn saw it that day and picked it up. Anyway, I lost it, I assumed I’d moved it somewhere, I looked and looked but it never showed up. He must have taken it.”

  He squeezes my hands comfortingly.

  “So, was he sentenced?”

  “They managed to find the women that the items belonged to, for some of them, it was over fifteen years ago. When it came to trial, some of the women testified, Cassie, my dad and I included, one of the girls was fourteen when it happened. He lied his way through it of course, never admitted to any of it, but the evidence against him was too strong.” He takes my face in the palm of his hand rubbing his thumb over my cheek. “He got life, Hayley. He’s never coming out of prison.”

  I whimper. A tear escapes and trickles down my face in relief, and happiness. I’m happy that he’s gone, that he’s being punished, that he can’t hurt any more girls.

  Kyle catches the stray tear with his thumb. “He was charged with one count of assault and attempted rape and seventeen counts of rape, though there’s probably more. All of the cases in that file were closed with him being sent down, including my mother's.”

  I reach up and wrap my arms around Kyle, my face buried against his shoulder. “No more secrets.”

  “No more secrets,” he agrees. “I can’t promise I won’t fuck up again, I probably will knowing me, but I swear, I will never lie to you again, ever."

  I lift my head and press my lips to his. “I love you.”

  “And I love you.”

  Chapter 48

  Hayley

  Kyle and I are in the car, on our way back to his apartment after I met him for lunch after work. I reach my hand across the center console, placing my hand on top of his that’s resting on the shifter.

  “I need to talk to Aaron, I’ve asked him to meet me.”

  Kyle’s eyes flick to mine, his face hardening. “Why?”

  “Because even after everything that went down, he’s still one of my best friends. We’ve been friends too long for it to end how i
t did.”

  "I don't like it Hayley, I don't trust him."

  "But you trust me, right?" I ask.

  "Of course I do."

  "Then there's no problem, you don't have anything to worry about."