Spilled Blood

by Brian Freeman

  Lenny marched on him menacingly, jabbing at him with the Ruger. The old man was six inches taller than Lenny. Everyone was taller than Lenny. ‘Get the hell out of here.’

  The old man stood his ground. They were six feet apart. ‘I have to be honest, you’re making me nervous with that gun. I’d feel better if you put it down.’

  ‘Just get out of here! Go!’ Lenny’s voice quavered.

  ‘Whatever you’re doing, I think you’re in over your head, son. Put that gun down, and let’s talk about it.’

  ‘If you don’t get out of here, I’ll shoot,’ Lenny swore. ‘I will.’

  The man reached out his hand. ‘How about you let me take that gun from you? You don’t want anyone to get hurt.’

  Lenny’s arm shook. ‘Don’t make me kill you.’

  The man took a cautious step toward Lenny. His mouth crinkled into a warm smile. ‘When you’re a teenager, things can seem pretty overwhelming. I’ve been there. Then you get old, and you realize most stuff that you thought was important when you were a kid isn’t important at all.’

  ‘Stop.’

  ‘Let’s talk about this, okay? You and me.’

  He took another step. His hand was inches from the gun.

  Lenny’s finger jerked. He didn’t even want to fire, but he fired. The explosion rang in his ears, and the recoil shuddered through his arm. He watched the old man stutter backwards, his hand over his chest, blood seeping through his knuckles, trickling down his skin and over his purple sweatshirt. The man’s eyes were wide with disbelief. His face contorted in pain. He stumbled and sank to his knees. His breathing was ragged.

  Lenny ran. He went wild with panic. He leaped into the pick-up and drove, spinning the wheel so wildly that the truck nearly upended as he shot onto the highway. The passenger door flapped and finally shut itself. He twisted his torso to look over his shoulder, and he could see the old man on the ground. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. There was no going back now.

  You just killed a man, Leno.

  45

  ‘Did my son kill Kirk Watson?’ Glenn Magnus asked, his voice low. ‘Tell me the truth, Chris.’

  ‘He says he didn’t.’

  ‘I know what he says. I know what the police told me. I want to know what you think.’

  Chris glanced at the porch, where Hannah sat with Olivia. Johan was hidden inside. They were out of earshot, but he saw Olivia watching him, and her eyes reached out to him for help. It was a feeling he’d missed, the way she used to turn to him when she was a child. He’d never thought he would experience it again. His daughter needed him. She’d grown up, but she still needed him.

  He’d interviewed Olivia and Johan separately throughout the night. Their stories matched. He didn’t think they were lying.

  ‘Johan admits he went there to kill Kirk,’ Chris said, ‘but before he reached the house, he heard gunshots near the river. He went to check it out and came across Kirk’s body. He says he heard footsteps running in the opposite direction.’

  ‘What about the gun? It was the same gun that killed Ashlynn, wasn’t it?’

  ‘It looks that way.’

  ‘I’ve never doubted Johan in my life,’ the minister said, ‘but it’s hard to know what to think. There was blood on his clothes after Ashlynn was killed. There was blood on his clothes now.’

  The two men stood eye to eye in the street. The minister looked shaken.

  ‘He was honest about what he wanted to do,’ Chris said. ‘He was honest about trying to get a gun from Tanya. If he already had a gun, why would he bother calling her? I think if Johan killed Kirk, he’d simply say so. He’d be proud of it.’

  ‘That scares me, too. If he didn’t do it, it’s only because someone beat him to it.’

  Chris thought of himself outside Kirk’s house. One by one, they had all come face to face with the devil. ‘Not necessarily.’

  ‘You said yourself he had murder in his heart.’

  ‘It’s one thing to think about it, Glenn, it’s another to do it. It’s a lot harder than people believe.’

  ‘The police want to talk to him.’

  ‘I know. Get a lawyer first. In the meantime, don’t let him say anything or answer any questions. Olivia says Johan wasn’t wearing gloves. If he didn’t swing the shovel, if he didn’t touch the gun, they won’t find prints. If he wasn’t there, they won’t find anything to prove he was.’

  ‘On the other hand, if he’s lying, they’ll know.’

  ‘Probably.’

  Magnus stared at the sky. Chris wondered if he was debating with God. If anyone had reason to question his faith, it was Glenn Magnus, who had already lost a wife and a daughter. Now his son was at risk, too.

  ‘If he didn’t do it, someone else did,’ the minister said.

  ‘Olivia said someone searched Kirk’s house,’ Chris said.

  ‘Whoever killed him was looking for something.’

  ‘What do you think it was?’

  ‘I don’t know, but my bet is that the killer didn’t find it. If you find what you’re looking for, you stop. I think whoever it was saw Kirk leave and ransacked the house. When he didn’t find what he wanted, he went after Kirk and killed him. Then Johan showed up, and he had to bolt.’

  ‘If it’s worth killing over, someone else may be in danger.’

  ‘Johan’s already in danger,’ Chris said. ‘Keep an eye out for Lenny Watson. With his brother dead, he’s out for blood. The feud’s not over.’

  ‘Lenny isn’t a monster like Kirk.’

  ‘No, but he’s desperate. You don’t know what he’ll do.’

  Distantly, Chris heard music. He realized it was Hannah’s phone, ringing on the porch. He watched Hannah answer, and only seconds later, his ex-wife hurried toward them. He realized, watching the minister’s face, that they had something in common. They both loved Hannah.

  ‘Who was on the phone?’ Chris asked.

  ‘It’s a woman I’ve worked with at the Center,’ Hannah replied. ‘She’s an EMT in Barron. She responded to a 911 call, and she thought I’d want to know about it. There’s been a shooting.’

  Chris found Michael Altman at the remote U-Stor facility outside Barron. The ambulance was gone, but the police presence surrounding Kirk’s storage garage remained. The county attorney looked older, as if his inexhaustible energy had been drained. He stared into space, oblivious to his surroundings. Chris tapped on the window of the county sedan, and Altman made a weary gesture at the other door. Chris climbed inside. The engine was running, and the interior of the car was warm. Altman had a bulky laptop computer, an old model, open on his dashboard. The screen saver had come on, sending rotating swirls of color across the monitor. There were several file folders bulging on the front seat and a plastic bag filled with computer thumb drives.

  ‘You have an excellent network of spies, Mr. Hawk,’ Altman told him.

  ‘Hannah does.’

  ‘Ah. Of course.’

  ‘How’s the victim?’ Chris asked.

  ‘He lost a lot of blood, but he was able to call for help, and he was conscious when the EMTs arrived. The medical personnel think he’ll survive.’

  ‘Was it Lenny Watson who shot him?’

  ‘It looks that way, based on the description the victim provided. He’s armed and dangerous now. That stupid boy, all he’s going to do is get himself killed.’ Altman swiveled his head and stared at Chris. ‘I need to know where Johan Magnus is.’

  ‘He’s at Hannah’s house. His father is with him. He’s safe.’

  ‘I don’t appreciate your hiding that fact from me last night.’

  ‘I didn’t know it when I saw you.’

  Altman frowned, but he dropped it.

  ‘You don’t look happy,’ Chris said.

  The county attorney had sunken eyes. Like Glenn Magnus, he appeared to be in the midst of an utter crisis of faith. It wasn’t anger or disappointment. It was devastation. Whatever the man had found in Kirk’s garage had shaken him to the
core.

  ‘You would think that after the years I’ve spent in this job, I would have cultivated a cynical view of human behavior,’ Altman told him. ‘The strange thing is, I haven’t. I’m a Christian, Mr. Hawk. I believe people are basically good.’

  ‘Actually, I agree with you,’ Chris said.

  Altman reached for a file folder on the front seat and handed it to Chris silently. Chris opened it, and he felt a weight land upon his chest, heavy and awful. With each page he turned, he felt nausea grip his stomach, he felt rage chill his heart, and he felt his soul release a silent, irrepressible scream. The images printed on the pages spoke of such depravity that he had a difficult time imagining that whoever had done this was part of the same human race. The trouble was, they were. They walked the same streets. They breathed the same air. They looked like everyone else.

  That was the horror Michael Altman was facing. How could you ever trust your neighbor again, when you knew that there were people on earth capable of this?

  Chris closed the folder, and he closed his eyes. He steadied his breathing. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  Altman held up the bag of flash drives. ‘There’s more. These are even worse. Videos. It’s unspeakable.’

  Chris had a hard time conceiving of something that could be worse than what he had already seen. ‘I can’t begin to explain it. I wish I could.’

  Altman held up another folder. ‘His buyers are numbered rather than named. The drop shipments go to post office boxes. We’ll have to identify the customers one by one.’

  ‘They’ll go to prison.’

  ‘Of course, they will, but that’s not the point. Look at how many people are on this list! These are people with family and friends. People who show a normal face to the world. People who profess to worship the same God I do and live by the same ideals.’ His voice was eloquent in its pain, disbelief, and desperation.

  ‘Without Kirk’s murder, you might never have found this place,’ Chris said. ‘Now you can put these people away.’

  Altman shook his head. ‘I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing the inside of that garage.’

  Chris studied the storage locker beyond the police tape. The cops were carrying out guns. ‘Someone ransacked Kirk’s house. Do you think this is what they were looking for?’

  ‘Possibly.’

  ‘I know you’re searching for Johan, but I don’t think he killed Kirk. He’s not the one.’

  ‘Now that I’ve seen this, I think you may be right.’ Altman hesitated and then added, ‘There’s something I failed to mention last night. Where we found Kirk’s body, we found another body, too. A skeleton, partially unburied. Kirk had apparently been digging it up when he was attacked.’

  ‘Do you have any idea who it was?’

  Altman shrugged. ‘The forensics will take a long time, but I can think of one person who went missing at an opportune time in the last few years.’

  Chris thought about it. ‘Vernon Clay.’

  ‘I’m not a betting man, but that would be my bet.’

  ‘If he was dead all this time, then he’s obviously not Aquarius.’

  ‘Yes, and if he’s dead, and Kirk killed him, I doubt he acted on his own.’

  ‘Florian wanted him eliminated,’ Chris said.

  ‘Again, that’s a possibility. Not that I’m ever likely to prove it.’

  ‘So who is Aquarius?’ Chris asked. ‘What’s he planning?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I’m beginning to think there really has been a monstrous cover-up at Mondamin. Because of it, Aquarius seems to be bent on taking revenge against Florian and exposing his sins. The question is why and what he’s planning next.’

  ‘Do you think Aquarius killed Kirk? Is that part of the plan?’

  Altman turned his head toward Chris. ‘If he did, and if he used that gun, that means one thing.’

  ‘He started with Ashlynn,’ Chris said.

  46

  The rattle of the van awakened Julia Steele. They were moving.

  She was blindfolded, but she could tell from the paler shade of darkness on her eyes that they had left the cold garage and were out in the daylight. The bumps of the road pummeled her body like tiny punches. Her seat was reclined. Her hands were tied securely and uncomfortably behind her back, but her feet were free.

  She didn’t know whether to be afraid. The man who had taken her from her bedroom had been surprisingly tender. He’d apologized as he tied her up. He’d asked about her comfort. When it was obvious she was cold, he’d taken a blanket and positioned it gently over her body. His voice wasn’t cruel. Even so, she was a prisoner, taken against her will.

  They’d spent the night in the cramped confines of the van. They were inside; she could tell from the quiet, and she’d heard the slam of a garage door. He’d been with her the whole time, in the driver’s seat. He hadn’t touched her. Despite herself, she’d fallen in and out of sleep, but whenever she awakened she felt his presence beside her, and she heard him breathing. As far as she knew, he hadn’t slept at all.

  ‘Who are you?’ she asked quietly.

  He waited a long time before he replied. ‘You know who I am, Mrs. Steele.’

  ‘Aquarius.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That tells me nothing,’ she said.

  He was silent again. The truck rumbled on the road, but the pavement felt smooth, like a highway. She wondered where he was taking her. And why.

  ‘Aquarius is the water bearer,’ he went on.

  ‘I’m a Christian, not an astrologer.’

  ‘As am I.’

  ‘A Christian wouldn’t do what you’ve done.’

  His voice remained measured and calm. ‘You’re not a woman to offer lectures on morality.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘You’re married to Florian Steele,’ he said.

  ‘So?’

  ‘So he created something evil and immoral. I intend to destroy it.’

  ‘Florian has done great things,’ she insisted. ‘People who would have starved in this world are alive because of my husband. Is that a sin? Are you one of those anarchists who believe we can go back to the Garden of Eden by wandering around naked?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then why do you have a vendetta against Florian?’

  ‘Your husband took away my life, and now I will take away his.’

  Julia sucked in her breath. He said it with a matter-of-fact sincerity. ‘Who are you?’ she asked again. When the man next to her was silent, she said, ‘You’re not Vernon Clay. I’d recognize his voice.’

  ‘So you do know.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You know what Vernon Clay did.’

  Julia didn’t want to pretend anymore. They had made a mistake, but she had never dreamed that God would make them pay and pay and pay.

  ‘Vernon was insane,’ she told him. ‘Yes, it’s true, Vernon spent years poisoning the groundwater near St. Croix. It was horrifying, but we didn’t know it was happening. If you want to believe the deaths there were connected to the chemicals, so be it. When Florian found out about Vernon, he made sure it stopped. He got rid of Vernon, and he cleaned up the land.’

  ‘Then he covered up the truth. He lied. He cheated. He destroyed.’

  ‘What choice did he have? Let the company be wiped out by the actions of one deranged psychopath? Would that have been fair to the employees and their families? To the people of Barron? To the farmers?’

  ‘He killed.’

  ‘Florian would never do that.’

  ‘You don’t know him as well as you think. Or have you deceived yourself all these years?’

  ‘Let me go. Stop this.’

  Julia struggled against her bonds, but they held her tight. She was angry now. She wanted to escape. She wriggled in her seat and tried to reach the door handle, not caring if she spilled out of the moving van on to the highway. She found the indentation in the door where it should have been, but the handle had
been removed. There was no way out.

  She sank onto the seat cushion, breathing heavily, kicking the underside of the dashboard in frustration. The man next to her didn’t say a thing. He made no move to stop her.

  ‘So why are you doing this?’ she asked quietly. ‘Are you related to one of the children in St. Croix? If so, I am very sorry. It may mean nothing, but our hearts broke with every death.’

  Aquarius was silent.

  Julia felt a shiver of fear for the first time. She realized that calm, tender men can also be deadly. ‘Tell me something. Be honest with me. Should I make my peace with God?’

  ‘You mean, am I planning to kill you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What you say to God is up to you, Mrs. Steele, but I have no intention of harming you. I need you to bring your husband to me, and then you’ll be free to go.’

  She tried to decide if she believed him. She didn’t think he had a reason to lie. Not now. Then again, this man was intent on violence and revenge. He would say anything if it meant getting what he wanted. ‘Did my daughter figure out who you were?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, she did,’ he acknowledged. ‘She was a smart girl.’

  ‘So you had to stop her from exposing you.’

  She heard sorrow in his voice. ‘The only person Ashlynn wanted to expose, Mrs. Steele, was her father.’

  ‘That’s a lie,’ Julia snapped, but she remembered the light under Florian’s door in the middle of the night. She remembered finding Ashlynn at Florian’s computer. What was she looking for? What did she discover? Julia realized that Aquarius was right. There were some sins you couldn’t cover up. Sooner or later, they rose up to consume you.

  It was as if he could see the workings of her mind. ‘You know I’m right, don’t you?’

  Julia said nothing. She felt the van drift to a stop. The world around her was quiet. She listened, and she could hear the hiss of the wind, but she didn’t hear any other traffic. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.

  He didn’t reply.

  ‘What are you going to do?’