by Hadena James
Twenty
The stalker mystery seemed to be solved, at least to a point, but the bone cleaner was still bothering me. Why keep beetles? What did people do with them other than feed them human flesh? I looked it up on the internet and found beetles were good for fishing and eating.
I had no desire to do either with them. In a general sense, bugs didn’t bother me. I knew they served a purpose and I would let them live if I found them in my house. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the idea of them crawling on me. Actually, that wasn’t exactly correct. It wasn’t on me that bothered me, it was in me.
My sister, Isabella, had genuinely been a good person. Not just a good friend or a good sister, but a good person. She’d spent time in some exceptionally hot country after a major disaster administering aid. When she’d returned, she’d had a cyst-like infection on her arm. It was long before Mr. Callow, so I was very young when it happened. One night, I noticed the cyst-like spot moved. She went to the ER and found out she’d been infected by a tsetse fly. They laid eggs under her skin and were starting to hatch. For some reason, I had gone with her to the ER and watched them cut it open and remove the maggots. It was one of those moments that scarred my psyche. Nothing is quite as horrifying as watching a doctor wash maggots out of someone’s flesh. It made me not want to travel anywhere tropical.
The thought of the Tsetse fly incident made me stop and do something I almost never did; remember. Growing up, Isabella had been significantly older than me. She was married about the time I was born. Her husband was a missionary of all things.
She had looked like our mother. Light colored hair that wasn’t exactly brown, but wasn’t light enough to be considered blonde either. Sparkling blue eyes that always smiled and held a laugh. An easy smile that would widen with just her own thoughts. I could remember her babysitting me from time to time when Eric didn’t. She never seemed to mind my presence.
There was one time, she had just given birth and it was pretty close to the time I was taken by Callow, and she was babysitting me. She had brought her daughter over with her. When her daughter fell asleep, she made popcorn with extra butter and gave me a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. Then she sat on the couch and curled me up in her arms and body and turned on a movie. The movie was called Monster Squad. It was this very cheesy horror movie with terrible language about kids beating a group of monsters that tried to invade their town. She had held me the entire time we watched the movie. The movie wasn’t scary so at the time I hadn’t understood why she would hold onto me the entire time. Fast forward twenty years and it was among my favorite movies, I watched it when I felt alone and I understood that she had just wanted to sit there with me and hold onto me, like a big sister.
My second night back from the clutches of Mr. Callow, she had done the same thing with the same movie. Eric and her had both curled up with me on the couch. I had sat protected by both of them and we had watched that cheesy movie yet again. Back then, I had thought they just really enjoyed that movie. Now I understood, they had watched it because I liked monster movies at that age. I was a huge fan of Godzilla. It was bonding time for us. Bonding wasn’t something I did well or easily and yet, they had both made the effort, even knowing that I was a sociopath. Because after Mr. Callow, my secret was out in the family. She hadn’t cared though.
She had been nothing like Eric or me, but she hadn’t cared. She had loved us both anyway and she had tried to connect to us as if we were just normal people. It was harder with me because of our age difference and her having kids when I was so young, but she had tried. Somewhere along the line, I had forgotten that. She would die before I was old enough to understand or appreciate that.
I understood Eric’s desire for revenge. He had needed to kill the monster that had taken our sister from us. The only other person that had understood who we were and not cared. I did not understand why everyone else in my family was still so calm about it. I did not understand why the files were sealed, even to me as a member of the SCTU. Much like Gabriel’s file or Lucas’s file, I felt like there was a big part of the puzzle missing. Something else had gone on that I didn’t know about or understand.
Just like I didn’t know why Eric knew a bunch of serial killers before he went to prison. Nor did I know why Apex had taken such an interest in my safety. Apex wouldn’t talk about it. When I asked, he would hang up on me or leave if we were face to face. I had considered Tasering him a few times, but I figured if I did, that would end worse for me.
However, just like Gabriel’s past was coming back to haunt him, I figured Eric’s might come back too. Since I didn’t know what it was, I couldn’t prepare for it. My brother and I needed to have a conversation. Possibly a long one that would involve some very uncomfortable questions and answers. First, I was going to find his lawyer that didn’t exist except on paper and security footage and figure out what was going on there.
For now, that would have to wait, we had a killer to find. A killer and a stalker. I considered calling Alex, but she would call me when she was done investigating. No need to bother her. After she finished with where my mystery man went, I would put her to work on the lawyer. That was a good job for her. Knowing what I knew at the moment, I had a twinge of worry that he was a serial killer. That would make sense at a time when nothing else did.
I needed some kind of eureka moment with the case in front of me. Something that would say this is your killer, possibly in neon flashing lights. I was designed to shoot people and kick down doors, not sit on my hands and investigate. I also wasn’t great at working with others. There was no way I ever wanted Gabriel’s job. I would happily follow him into the bowels of Hell if he stayed team leader. It was a position of power that was surprising. I wouldn’t follow Malachi just to keep him in power, but I would Gabriel. He had grown on me. I liked him as both a friend and my boss. I felt better when he was barking orders at me then when I was doing his job.
Which brought me back to the stalker. He had to be caught. Maybe I did need to put Alex on that job. She might dig up something that I couldn’t. That would require me to put her in harm’s way though. Not just as a passing shadow in the peripheral vision of the wendigo, but in his crosshairs. I didn’t want to do that. Alex was smart and capable, but even I wasn’t sure what this guy was capable of doing. It might be more than she could handle. It might be more than I could handle.
Maybe it was time to involve Patterson. The old man was capable of things I wasn’t. Not just because he seemed further down the rabbit hole than me, but because his psyche was different. Even Eric could probably do more than me. I felt inadequate for the first time in my life. I did not want to lose Gabriel to this monster. But Gabriel had escaped him once before, so maybe Gabriel was the only one that could defeat the demon.
I forced myself to stop thinking. My thoughts were going around in circles. I didn’t know if it was the brain damage or my inability to function when I was supposed to be in control. My mother and Nyleena had taught me about consequences and that was all I could think about at the moment. If I failed, Gabriel would die. It was that simple. But if I didn’t find the bone cleaner, more people would die from him too, possibly people I liked. I had no idea what to do.
For the second night in a row, I didn’t sleep. I could feel dawn approaching as if I were a demon who hid in the dark. It was possible I was going crazy. Not my normal level of crazy, but off the deep end crazy. If I didn’t sleep in a day or two, I’d start to have a psychotic break from reality. That would be interesting.
My thoughts swirled as I attempted to sleep. My mind never turning off, my body aware of the sun, I gave up around eight a.m. and began to make my way to the bunker that served as our offices. The neighborhood was busy. Kids were already outside, waiting for their special transport to their special school. Cars were coming and going as shift changes happened at The Fortress and local law enforcement offices. Ivan drove past and waved at me. His mother, Melina, in the passenger’s seat. Sh
e had been babysitting off and on for him lately. She also waved. I tried to smile, but failed. They knew me, they wouldn’t care. I did wave to them though.
Xavier was standing on the grassy hillside that housed a giant tower with gun turrets. It was in this stone building that the epicenter of the security for the FGN was held. It was also the building where we were headquartered in the basement. Many changes had happened since last year, changes that were supposed to make us all feel safer. The truth was, outside the walls of the FGN, none of us were any safer. Hell, even the inside could be turned into a trap. Fall had proven that to all of us. Our safety was an illusion.
Lewis
Keirnan knew he should skip town. The newest body was probably connectable to him. He had kept Thomas’s wallet and dumped his car. He had made sure that his DNA wasn’t on the body. However, there would still be a call log that they could get from the provider.
Despite this, Keirnan stayed put in the place he had grown up. He did break several of his hidden drawers. The police would have to dissemble the boxes of insects to find the bodies he had there. He also set up several bee hives around the barn. Bees were a good deterrent. Most people were afraid of bees.
He’d always wanted to get into the beeswax and honey business anyway. This was his chance. He had one of the eco-friendliest farms around anyway, adding bees made sense.
Besides, he had a scapegoat. The number he had given to Thomas was registered to Charlie. Charlie hadn’t carried it in a while because he’d lost it in the goat pen one day, but it was still Charlie’s number and the phone was still activated because Keirnan kept it activated. It was part of Charlie’s salary. After coming home with the beehives, he had put the lost phone in Charlie’s bedroom across the road. Then he and Charlie had set up the beehives. If the cops needed more evidence, Charlie had built the insect boxes. Keirnan had really just modified them. Charlie was good with woodworking, even if he did have brain damage.
The best part was that Keirnan had falsified receipts for his victims. Each victim had visited him to get something from his farm the day they died, according to his receipts. He’d even paid the sales taxes and put money in the bank for the transactions. Charlie could have seen them there while they were buying stuff and then killed them and Keirnan would have been known the wiser.
That was the story if Keirnan needed it. If he worked at it, he could probably even convince Charlie that Charlie had indeed stalked the victims and killed them. But that seemed a little over the top and more effort than Keirnan was willing to make. After all, he hadn’t been tied to a body yet. Not even his daddy’s.
The bees, while a cover story, were not an impulse purchase. He’d been eying them for a while. An old guy a town over had been wanting to sell for over a year now. He hadn’t had any takers because he was overpriced and the boxes needed some serious work. It was this that Keirnan and Charlie set to task on now. He had bought an old hive ages ago. He now tore it apart for him and Charlie to look at.
It didn’t take long to figure out the engineering. Bee boxes were simply constructed for easy access by both bees and humans. The important part was having a queen. Hives died without a queen and queens didn’t grow on trees. They had to be bought or discovered. It was really the queen that a person was paying for when buying hives. Each box contained a hive and each hive had to have a queen.
The trays were the trickiest part, but Charlie was able to tackle them without Keirnan’s help. Keirnan was busy trying to figure out how to seed the new hives. Moving the queen to the new box wasn’t enough. They had to have honey and wax put into them as well. There was a special way to do it. The old guy had told him and he was now working on it.
Lewis was milking the goats and watching the younger men. Every so often, he’d shake his head. Whatever Keirnan had done the night before, it must have been bad. Lewis had watched the young man long enough to know he only made large purchases when he was trying to forget something from the night before. The day after murdering his father, Keirnan had bought brand new goats to introduce to the herd, nearly doubling it in size. Two years later, the insect farm had shown up after Keirnan had disappeared for a weekend. It was as if adding to the farm made Keirnan forget the monster that lived in his soul.
Not that Lewis cared. Myron had been a bastard. He’d only stayed because his sister had married the fucker. He wished he’d been brave enough to kill his brother-in-law instead of letting his nephew do it. His sister had insisted he stay on after her death. Keirnan had agreed, never knowing that Lewis was his uncle.
Lewis preferred it that way. He’d done some bad things in his life. He’d killed a few times himself, before coming to the farm. The farm helped him keep his demons in check. He’d given up drinking after seeing Myron come home drunk the first time. Since that night, he’d led a good life. Watching Keirnan was his penance. Keirnan might have grown up to be a good boy if Lewis had acted that first night. Lewis would never be able to express the regret he felt for not killing Myron.
That night, his sister, pregnant with Keirnan, had come running to the little shack where he lived. Blood ran down her face, her arms, her legs. It soaked what little clothing she had on. Myron had come home and taken a belt to her. She was sure she was going to miscarry the baby growing in her. Lewis was drunk too, but not so drunk that he couldn’t help his sister.
When Myron showed up, demanding the return of his wife, Lewis has stood his ground, saying she could return only when Myron had sobered up. Myron had taken the belt to him and beat him about senseless, but he went away that night. His sister didn’t miscarry, but she was beat up pretty good. The following day, Lewis walked up to the house and pulled a gun on Myron. Swore if Myron ever beat his sister like that again, he’d kill him. Myron had seemed remorseful and Lewis had left.
He managed to keep his temper in check for the rest of the pregnancy. It was after Keirnan was born that things got insane. One night, Lewis was sitting at home, watching TV when Myron barged in. He grabbed Lewis shotgun, but the barrel to his chest and demanded that Lewis shoot him. Lewis had just stared at the deranged man in disbelief. If he’d pulled that trigger, things would have been different. He didn’t and from that moment on, Lewis avoided Myron and at times, his sister. He had let her die and he knew it.
There was no need for Keirnan to know this or that he was related to the older man. It was a secret Lewis would take to his grave. Of course, Keirnan wasn’t much different than his father, except that he didn’t like blood. Charlie had cut himself one time on an old blade and Keirnan had puked until he passed out. When the cops did eventually show up, Lewis would point this out to them and claim to have done whatever Keirnan did. He had a pretty good idea of what it was. It had started with his father’s body and moved to the insect farm. Keirnan just thought he was the only one that knew about the secret drawers in the insect boxes. Lewis had opened them on more than one occasion. He was sure they were drug addicts and prostitutes, that was what Myron liked to kill when he wasn’t killing his own family.
He watched the boys for a while longer, readying bee hives that would eventually become productive additions. They could sell honey and beeswax. Keirnan’s future secured, financially and physically, as long as he was willing to accept Lewis’s sacrifice and not fuck it up afterwards. That was the big problem, making sure that if Lewis confessed, Keirnan either stopped, slowed down, or started doing things different. They would be found out pretty quick if he didn’t.
“Lewis, what do you think?” Keirnan yelled to the older man.
“Looks good,” Lewis shouted back, nodding his approval. Keirnan smiled. He liked Lewis and he had no idea why, but he did. Having his approval was important to him and that meant something, since Keirnan rarely felt he needed approval for anything.
Keirnan had wondered a few times if Lewis had stayed because he had been in love with Keirnan’s mother. It felt like the two of them had something that Keirnan didn’t understand. He was sure his father had under
stood and he never knew why Myron had let Lewis stay. Maybe Lewis had known something about the monster Keirnan’s father turned into. It was as good a theory as any other.
The bees were beginning to move. Keirnan sat in a big wooden deck chair near the barn door and watched them. Charlie went into the house and came back out with three beers. Within minutes, all three men were sitting watching the bees move, drinking a beer, and enjoying the silence that stretched between them. This was comfortable and familiar to Keirnan. It was something he needed after the night he had.
Twenty-One
“We have an identity,” Xavier told me as I walked up to him.
“Great, for who?” I asked.
“Dead guy full of beetles is Thomas Phillip Wering and he went missing last night after going to watch the World Cup of Baseball with a buddy. We don’t have a name for the friend, but we might have a cell phone. He exchanged several text messages with the same number until he left the house he shared with his roommate.”
“Even better. Where’s the cell phone? Who owns the cell phone?”
“The cell phone is listed as a line belonging to a family farm in Peculiar, Missouri. Get this, among goats, chickens, and crops, they also have one of the best insect farms in the state. We were going to check them out, but then your car happened and we let it go, because it’s impossible to believe an USDA approved insect farm is using human corpses as food sources.”
“I’m so happy, I could kiss you, but I would probably get sick afterwards.”
“I don’t know if you just insulted me or not,” Xavier blinked at me.
“It isn’t you, it is all me. I have always been nauseated by the exchange of bodily fluids between humans. I would rather cradle your bleeding body than swap spit.”
