Julian

by Kathi S. Barton

  Chapter 4

  Jules didn’t want to leave her, but knew that he had to do something productive. But almost as soon as he stood up, thinking that he’d take a walk around the nurses’ station again, Tess opened her eyes. “Hello, beautiful. I’m so glad to see you.” She grinned, then winced. “Yeah, you should probably just lie still for a little while longer. You have a nice bruise on your cheek there; not too bad, but it will be sore. Plus, they had to put nineteen stitches in the back of your head, and even then, it was still a worrisome knot.” “Ruby?” He had to hold her down while he told her that her daughter was with his mom. “I was so afraid that he’d find the two of you. Dexter, he was.... I want you to find him, Jules. There is something wrong with him. I don’t know what, but he’s not the same person he was before. He’s more...I don’t know, like he’s not all there. Childlike. That’s it; he’s more childlike than I remember him being.” “Dane, you’ve met her, she’s been doing some research, and you know some of it. That his mom is dead, but what you don’t know is what a sick evil bitch she might have been. If you promise to rest here, I’m going to tell you what we’ve been able to piece together. And before you try to convince me that he needs help, I believe you. There are things...things going on that you’re not going to believe, all right?” She told him yes. “All right. We know where he is right now—at his home that he shared with Alma. And it was more than just a casual relationship between them. He purchased an engagement ring for her, and more than likely gave it to her. They were content. More than content—we think he and Alma were very happy to be a couple. That is, until he took her home to meet his mom.” “Debra Jorden wasn’t a nice person. I don’t think anyone knew that as well as me and Dexter did.” He told her no shit. “But she’s dead. How or what does any of this have to do with her?” “When Dexter started dating Alma, he was very careful that his mother didn’t know. Also, the people that he worked with were surprised that he even had a living mom. It wasn’t until he took Alma to his mom’s home that they realized that she was still around. And only then because he had to ask for time off.” He didn’t want to tell her this but knew that she had been friends with Dexter until recently. “Alma was excited, as you can guess. Her friends, people that she worked with, were in turn very excited for her. To meet the parents was a big deal. Before leaving, Dexter proposed and set things up so that they’d marry when they returned. As you can guess, it never happened. Alma was five months pregnant.” “No.” He nodded. “I don’t want to know the rest. Not now. She did something to that baby, didn’t she? And to Alma. What was it? Please, tell me.” “She lost the child, as best we can tell. How, we’re not sure, but she said that it wasn’t an accident. So—this is just speculation on Dane’s part—Debra didn’t want her son to be married, nor to have a child. She didn’t want to be a grandmother at all. Her neighbors said that Debra told them that all the time, that she’d rather be dead then be called Grandma. So, she took care that she wasn’t one. We believe, and Dane is rarely wrong about this sort of thing, but she thinks that she strapped Alma to a bed then cut the child out of her, and she died along with her child. She murdered them both.” Jules watched her face; he knew this was too much, but he had to tell her all of it. “Dane went to the house where things had happened and had a team go over everything. There is blood in one of the bedrooms consistent with what she thinks happened.” “Oh, poor Dexter. Do you think that he knew? That he was there when that happened?” Jules told her that for the most part Dexter didn’t spend much time at his mother’s home when visiting. “He would have snapped after that—is that what you’re saying happened?” “Dexter and Alma spent a lot of time away from the house. It was only for four days, but on the last day, Dexter was alone. Up until then she was going to have the baby, and people were surprised when she wasn’t with him the last day. He told people that she was resting up and packing. He was picking up a few things for his mother. Dexter doesn’t go there. His mind snapped after that, as you have surmised. He hasn’t been the same man he’d been before, as you know. And when asked about Alma, he doesn’t know. While Dane is reasonably sure that he didn’t have anything to do with her death or that of his child, he did help with the cleanup. They burned the rags and such in the back yard. The body was buried nearby with the child.” “Oh no—no, that’s so not right, Jules. You have to have it wrong. Tell Dane to keep looking. There has to be a better reason that that poor woman and her child are gone. Please, tell her.” He held her why she cried. “My poor friend. She did this to him, didn’t she? Debra was a horrid person when we were children, but I never expected her to be a murderer. Oh no, I just remembered something. When I was falling backward, I heard him say ‘no kids,’ but it was different.” “How do you mean different?” They both looked at his dad and Colton when they entered the room. Colton asked Tess again what she meant by him being different. “He talks to himself, or so we thought, but now we’re not so sure. I think he might be talking to his dead mother, as well as answering himself with her voice.” “He’s being his mom?” Colton nodded. “No. He never liked his mom. I mean, I knew her too, when we were younger. But she’s dead.” “If what I’ve heard is true, when she made him help her with the clean up or more, his mind took a turn so that he wouldn’t have to remember what had happened. To Alma, or about the cleanup afterwards. He was, for all intents and purposes, an extremely bright man. Graduated from college. Had a good job. They even owned the house that they lived in. And when he met up with his mom, he never mentioned any of these things.” She asked him how he knew. “We found Debra’s diary. Or I should say diaries. Not once does she mention a woman, nor does she say a word about him having a home. Because we think she didn’t have any idea, not until he brought Alma home to meet her. That’s important, because she does talk about everything else, and had kept a running diary since he was born. Every year since he’d been born, she kept a catalog of events of his entire life. And according to her notes, Debra didn’t even know that she was to have a child until she gave birth to it one night in her bed. No one assisted her, and there wasn’t any kind of birth certificate. It wasn’t until he was ready to go to school that she applied for one, having to remember as many details as she could. But there is no mention of a father. Not even an unknown.” “So, she killed this woman because of a baby, then she had Dexter help with the disposal of the body and the child, and then what? He killed her? Debra died not long after I found out I was pregnant with Ruby.” She looked like she was thinking hard. “From what I remember, it was thought it was a heart attack and that she died at home alone. But I don’t know. I do remember thinking that perhaps Dexter could get his life together now that his mom was gone. But to be honest with you, I didn’t know Alma. After he went to college, we sort of went our separate ways. Do you think it was the baby that sent him after me?” “I don’t know. I think you’d be better equipped to answer that. But I will say this— whatever is wrong with Dexter right now, it’s because of his mom. The things that we’ve read in those diaries of hers are sick.” Julian asked his brother how many diaries there were. “One for each year of his life. And there are pictures too. She did things to him—had him shave his pubic hair off when he was ten. Pluck out his underarm hair when he was about the same age. She even made him wear girls’ panties when he woke up with a hard on. The woman was a sadist. And through it all, she maintained a façade of being the perfect mother of a very smart young man. He never once hinted of the life he had there, other than to you.” “She killed that poor baby and its mom. Oh my God, Jules, I just thought of something. She murdered her own grandchild.” Colton looked at him when Tess spoke. “What is it? What else have you found out?” “Dexter is still writing in diaries. He has taken over for his mother. He is his mother when he writes in them. They’re all over the house where he’s at. Bits and pieces of what he’s done all day, and how he’s got to keep babies away from her little boy. That’s how we found out the other things too, like why he is taking your c
ash. Why he wants the baby dead. Not you—he won’t kill you, even though his mom says for him to. He won’t do it. He loves you like a sister. But we honestly believe, from when his mind takes over from his mom, that he’s trying to protect Ruby from her.” Jules wanted to tell Colton to stop, that this was too much, but all he did was look at him and tell him what he thought. “You can’t hurt this man. He’s not guilty of any of this. Not hurting the baby, not what he did to Tess. This is a problem that started well before his mom was killed.” Jules looked at Tess. “Colton and my dad, they’re the best at what they do. So, if they have a plan, we should do it. I don’t want him hurt any more than you do, love.” “Who killed Debra, do you know?” Colton nodded at Tess. “He killed her, didn’t he? That’s what you’re trying very hard not to tell me. Somehow he made it look like she had a heart attack, and he killed her.” “Yes. He killed her about the same time that Alma died. The child, a little boy, he died soon after being born, but not long after. He was too small.” Jules reached for and caught Tess’s hand in his own as his dad continued. “The family is going to be notified today about their daughter. There won’t be any information about her just yet, not in the papers either. The police will just tell them that it’s an ongoing investigation, and they’ll tell them that while we don’t have any suspects at this time, we’re very close. We have to see if we can bring Dexter in without hurting him.” “But you know where he is. You said he was at his home.” Dad nodded at Tess. “Then I don’t understand. Why not just go and get him and bring him in and talk to him? Maybe we can get him some help.” But Jules knew the answer and looked at Tess. “He’ll never understand what’s going on. He hasn’t any idea that Alma is dead, that his child is either. The mind is a tricky thing. The trauma of all this, it’s put him in a place where he’s safe from thinking about what has happened to them.” Colton said that he hadn’t mentioned the child when writing as his mom. “So, there isn’t anything we can get him help for without him being Dexter. What I mean is—” “He could become his mother and never come out of this at all.” He nodded. “The mind is a complicated and delicate thing. If he reverts to his mother, he’ll never be able to remember what he was like before this. Have no idea about Alma loving him. Or the baby that they more than likely loved. Being his mom might be safe for him, but it’ll never help him grieve.” “That’s right. The house, it was ready for the baby. They knew it was a boy as well. But it’s closed off; there is even a chair in front of the door, almost to remind him, or his mind, not to go there.” Tess started crying, but Colton didn’t stop. “The things in the house, they were beautiful. Poems. There was a date on the calendar for appointments, and he was going with her to all of them. Then they just stopped. The calendar is still on the time they went to see his mom, months ago. It’s also marked with the time they were going to be getting married. When they returned.” After his brother left them, taking Dad home too, he held onto Tess for over an hour. She would speak about how Dexter had been her friend, things they’d done as children. But then she’d sob again about how his mother was such a horrible person. Through it all, she kept holding his hand. “I want you to make me like you.” He nodded, not really sure she was paying attention to what she was saying. “When I was there in the bathroom that day, all I could think about was how you wouldn’t have been able to find me. That if I was killed, you’d never know it. And I vowed that I wanted you to bite me, but now I want you to convert me. I need to have something extra to keep me from being a victim.” “We’ll need to wait until you’re released before I can convert you. But as for taking a bite of you, I can do that. I’d willingly bite you now.” She smiled a watery smile at him. “Tess, I love you so much. I’d very much like for you to be my wife before this all hits the fan.” “I’m good with that.” He laughed, and she did as well. “I know that’s not really a very good way to say yes, but you understand.” “I do. I can have us a license in about twenty-four hours. Mom and your granddad can get all the planning done. I’m guessing you want him to give you away?” She said that she did, and to have Ruby in the wedding as well. “Good. And if you would let me, I’d like to adopt her. To give you both my last name.”