The Killer You Know

by Kimberly Van Meter

  Silas placed a flash drive on the desk and gestured. “Plug it in and see for yourself. I should warn you...the photos are disturbing.”

  Lester snatched up the drive, not willing to accept his best friend was a killer of any sort. “This is bullshit,” he muttered, mostly to himself but a thread of fear had begun to squeeze his heart, causing his angina to flare up.

  He rubbed at his chest but stilled the moment the flash drive opened and a treasure trove of horrors unfolded before his eyes.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “Leo Jackson’s home computer. Quinn stumbled on it and brought it to me.”

  “Where is Quinn?” he asked.

  “Safe. I have her resting. She’s understandably distraught.”

  The pain in his chest intensified, causing him to fall forward. “Goddamn it,” he muttered, squeezing his eyelids shut as he waited out the pain.

  “Lester...what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “J-just give me a minute,” he gasped through the clenching agony. “It’s just a-angina.”

  “I’m calling the ambulance,” Silas said, ignoring his protests. Within minutes, paramedics came pouring into the office in a flurry of motion.

  This was all his fault. He should’ve known. He should’ve seen it coming.

  Dimly, he heard the paramedics barking orders and he was hoisted onto a gurney.

  An oxygen mask was fixed to his face as he was loaded into the ambulance. “You’re suffering a heart attack, Sheriff,” a young paramedic told him. “Stay calm and we’ll have you at the hospital in minutes.”

  Leo Jackson killed Spencer Kelly.

  After all this time, the truth came out.

  He closed his eyes and saw Leo, twenty years earlier, right before the Kelly boy was murdered. Jumpy, easily agitated, looking as if he was going to be caught at any second doing something he shouldn’t.

  Lester had joked Leo needed to get himself a girlfriend, to relieve some of that stress.

  He’d had no idea he’d been fighting his perverse nature.

  But if Leo had blood on his hands...so did Lester.

  It had seemed a small thing.

  Sara Westfall was stirring the muck of the town, making insane accusations that made everyone edgy.

  In the wake of Spencer’s death, it seemed a mercy for the townsfolk.

  It’d taken all of three seconds to adjust three little letters followed by a colon.

  From BAC: .02

  To BAC: .20

  In a few clicks, Sara had gone from sober to raging drunk and no one asked questions.

  Everyone knew Sara had been an alcoholic. Death by DUI had seemed an inevitability.

  Leo had urged him to make the change. “You gotta think of the town and everything they’ve been through. Sara is a cancer. We need to nip it.”

  He should’ve known then that something was up but Leo had made a good point, had seemed so earnest in his concern, that Lester had made the decision to change the report.

  Such a small thing...

  Better for the greater good.

  But as it turned out the true cancer had been whispering in his ear under the guise of friendship.

  He groaned as his old heart simply broke.

  His last thought before blacking out... I should’ve retired when I had the chance.

  * * *

  Silas brought three deputies with him to arrest Leo Jackson. He wasn’t taking any chances with the big man in case he started throwing punches.

  He thought of Quinn and how her world had just crumbled to dust and he wanted to shout at the man responsible for ruining what she knew as her life.

  But he couldn’t do that.

  He needed to stay on course, implacable.

  Silas knocked on the front door but after several knocks, he realized no one was home.

  “He’s probably at the shop,” Silas told the deputies with a frown. He’d hoped to do this away from curious onlookers, for Quinn’s sake.

  Silas made a quick call to Quinn. “Your uncle wasn’t home. I want you to stay at the hotel. Don’t come to the shop. You don’t need to watch us arrest him.”

  She sniffled and agreed, hanging up quickly.

  Silas grimaced at the pain she was in.

  Time to get this over with.

  They arrived at the shop and found it open but seemingly empty.

  The deputy told him, “There’s a dark room in the back.”

  Silas nodded for the intel. “Leo Jackson?” he called out. “Come out with your hands up. We don’t want to make a scene. Come quietly for the sake of your niece.”

  Leo emerged, haggard but wearing a resigned smile as he dropped a gas can from his fingers.

  Silas swore under his breath. “Don’t shoot, he’s doused in gasoline.”

  To Leo he said, “It doesn’t have to be like this. Don’t let Quinn’s last memory of you be like this.”

  “You think she’s going to remember me as anything but a deviant?” Leo said, his mouth quivering as he wiped the gasoline from his eyes. “This is all that’s left.”

  “Let’s talk,” Silas said, trying to get the man to calm down before he set the entire building on fire. “You love this town. You don’t want to do this.”

  “No, I don’t want to do this,” he agreed. “But I have to.”

  “You need help.”

  “Nothing can help me.”

  The desperation in Leo’s eyes was dangerous. The man had nothing to lose.

  “Why’d you kill my brother?” he asked, knowing if he didn’t ask, the question would haunt him. “What did he do to you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then why’d you kill him?”

  “Things went too far,” Leo answered as if that made total sense. “It was before I realized I could control it if I had an outlet. I was able to maintain. But when he...he started screaming. He didn’t like my games anymore. I had to shut him up. I was just trying to scare him. But I went too far.”

  “That’s why you go to Thailand, isn’t it?” Silas said. Thailand had a reputation for child sex trafficking. American tourists bought children without an ounce of guilt or threat of prosecution because the government looked the other way, happy to have American money in the economy.

  “They love me there,” Leo said. “Always happy to see me. Always ready to be my friend for the cost of a lollipop.”

  Silas tried not to grimace with disgust. He’d heard the stories from agents on specialized task forces. It was a detail he couldn’t stomach.

  “And Sara?”

  “Sara was spreading terrible lies.”

  “Were they lies?”

  “As far as anyone was concerned,” Leo said, a far-off look in his eyes. “And she was a drunk. Drunks kill themselves in accidents all the time. Brake lines fail at inopportune times.”

  Silas swallowed. “And Rhia? What was her crime?”

  Rhia’s name roused him as he spat, “That little bitch. She went snooping through my private things, pretended to be interested in photography so I would let down my guard. She discovered my secret files then forced me to say my photos were hers so she could win that contest but that wasn’t good enough. She wanted more. She wanted money or else she was going to expose my activities. I couldn’t have that. I had to protect Quinn.”

  “She was extorting money from you to keep your secret,” Silas said. “It must’ve been hard to play the concerned citizen.”

  “You have no idea, but I would do anything for my Quinnie.”

  “Even come in quietly, to spare her the pain of this standoff?”

  “You and I both know I won’t last in prison. I’ll die there. Violently. I know men like me are the bottom of the so
cial pyramid. I’d rather choose my death than wait in fear for it every night.”

  Selfish bastard. He was going to do it.

  But before he could say anything else, Quinn’s voice at his back had him swearing internally. She was supposed to stay at the hotel!

  “Uncle Leo, what are you doing?” she said in an anguished whisper. “Don’t. Please.”

  “Quinnie...go home. Don’t watch.” His voice shook. “I love you, Quinnie. I really, really do. I tried to manage it. Lord, I tried. Somehow things just spiraled out of control. I never meant to hurt you. Not ever.” He drew a halting breath. “I love you. You’re a good girl. I wish I could’ve done better. Take the world by storm. There ain’t no one in this world who can do it as good as you.”

  And then in slow motion, Silas saw the lighter flick and a flame erupted as Quinn screamed. Silas managed to catch her before she ran straight into the flaming ball of fire that’d become Leo Jackson.

  Silas dragged Quinn to safety as the building quickly became engulfed. Fire trucks came rushing in as deputies secured the streets.

  All Silas could do was hold Quinn as she collapsed against him, sobbing as if her heart had shattered.

  Chapter 29

  Several days had passed in a blur as Quinn had hid in her house, refusing to leave her bedroom.

  Johnna had stopped by but when Quinn had been unresponsive, she left with a promise to return later.

  She never did.

  But Quinn wasn’t hurt by Johnna’s defection.

  No one wanted anything to do with Quinn after the revelation that Leo Jackson had been a perverted monster, living right among the good folk of Port Orion, completely sheltered by their ignorance.

  Gigi had written the news story, not her.

  It was a conflict of interest, but she had no heart to do so anyway so it hadn’t mattered.

  Silas was the only one who refused to leave her side.

  He cooked for her.

  Made her shower.

  Held her at night.

  But she felt nothing.

  “You don’t have to stay,” she finally said one night as he settled a bowl of hot soup in front of her. “There’s nothing keeping you here now. All the murders have been solved. Yay for closure.”

  She didn’t even have the strength for the level of sarcasm she was going for and gave up.

  “Sometimes we think the truth is going to set us free when it really just drags us down,” he said quietly.

  Quinn swung her gaze to Silas. “What do you mean?”

  “All this time I thought knowing the truth would help me sleep at night but the nightmares are worse. Now I know what happened and I can’t forgive myself.”

  “It’s not your fault Spencer ran into a predator,” she returned dully. That predator being...her uncle. She still couldn’t say it out loud.

  “No. But I should’ve never sent him away. If he’d been with me...he would still be alive.”

  She couldn’t argue that nor did she try. “I guess that’s the cost you were talking about. The cost of knowledge. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.”

  Silas changed the subject. “Lester is out of the hospital with new hardware in his heart. Doctor said he’s going to recover fully as long as he changes his diet, limits his stress and starts exercising.”

  “Good luck with that,” Quinn said, wiping at the sudden tears that tended to show up at the most inopportune moments. “Damn it.”

  “It’s okay to cry.”

  “No, it’s not. Who am I crying for? The monster or myself? If I cry for my uncle, I’m the monster. If I cry for myself, I’m a selfish bitch. How can I love a man who was so bad? I can’t grieve for him. I’m not allowed.”

  “He wasn’t a bad man to you,” Silas explained, understanding her struggle. “To you, he was loving and kind. And that’s all you need to remember.”

  “But everyone knows.”

  “Yes. But that doesn’t change who he was to you.”

  She laughed almost hysterically. “It changes everything.” Quinn pushed away the soup and rose. “I need some space. Can you go, please? It’s been days. I need you to go.”

  “No.”

  “Get out.”

  “No.”

  Quinn balled up her fists and screamed. “Get out of my house!”

  “I’m not leaving you like this.”

  “I’m not a child. I don’t need you to babysit me.”

  He didn’t answer, just regarded her with an expression that raked nails across her heart.

  “Don’t,” she warned. “Just don’t. I don’t want this. I don’t want you. I don’t want anyone. I just want to be left alone!”

  And still he stood, weathering her rage, accepting her abuse.

  “Are you deaf?” All the pent-up rage and grief exploded and she ran at Silas, fists swinging. “I said get out, get out, get out!”

  He caught her easily even as she tried to destroy him, lashing out with pure agony at everything she’d lost. She screamed until she was hoarse and still he held her tightly.

  “I’m not leaving,” he said, squeezing her in his arms, holding her so she couldn’t hurt herself or him.

  Quinn gasped as the fire burnt out of her soul, leaving ash. She lost the strength in her legs and he hoisted her up. “Why did he do those terrible things?” she whimpered, crying against Silas’s chest. “Why, Silas? Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Silas answered, choking up with raw emotion. “I don’t know.”

  “Why don’t you leave me?” she groaned. “I’m toxic. You deserve to get your life back.”

  “Shhhh,” he said against her crown, rocking her like a baby. She cuddled up to him, her hand tucked beneath her chin, so tiny.

  His whispered answer, “I won’t leave...because I love you,” was the last thing she heard before falling into a fitful sleep.

  Everything had changed.

  Nothing would ever be the same.

  This was what she’d wanted but she’d had no idea the cost.

  * * *

  Sawyer, Shaine and Shaine’s fiancée, Poppy, arrived in Port Orion three days later, each cashing in immediate sick leave or vacation time, whatever they had on the books to get there.

  Their mom had opted to stay in Florida, saying she’d said her goodbyes to Spencer long ago and seeing Port Orion again would only open old wounds.

  Silas understood and didn’t try to convince her otherwise.

  Quinn had offered her place for them to stay so they didn’t have to get a hotel room.

  It’d been a while since he’d seen his brothers, even though they kept in touch on the phone.

  The minute his older brothers walked into the house, Silas felt the tears coming.

  They embraced, a knot of Kelly boys, bound by shared grief.

  Sawyer, the oldest brother, broke the embrace first, wiping at his eyes, as well.

  “You did it, little brother,” he said with love and respect. “You managed to do the impossible.”

  Silas accepted his brother’s praise but out of consideration to Quinn, didn’t go into detail.

  He introduced Quinn to Shaine, Sawyer and Poppy. She shyly welcomed them and they went to the living room to talk.

  Shaine jumped in first, as was his style. “Quinn, I just want to say how sorry I am that you’ve had to go through this ordeal. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.”

  She shared a look with Silas then returned to Shaine with a small smile. “I’ll be okay. Eventually. Silas has been my rock.”

  Shaine smiled. “At least he’s good for something. As a kid, we all had our doubts.”

  Poppy sent Shaine an incredulous look, “Cut the guy some slack,” she said then apologiz
ed to Quinn. “Sorry, I’d like to say Shaine’s not usually like this but that would be a lie. But from what I hear, this is totally normal between these knuckleheads.”

  Quinn actually laughed and Silas’s heart tripled in beat. Hearing her laughter was worth enduring the insult from his brother. Hell, he’d let Shaine roast him alive if it made Quinn smile.

  “I’m going to get some coffee,” she announced and Poppy offered to join her, both leaving the room. Silas knew they were allowing for some privacy so he could talk with his brothers.

  Silas gestured after Poppy, saying to Shaine, “She’s a keeper.”

  “As is yours,” Shaine agreed then teased, “I never knew you had a thing for red hair.”

  “Neither did I.”

  They chuckled softly, each processing the newfound facts in their own way. It was easier to talk about superficial stuff than to delve straight into the pit they were all circling but it had to be done.

  Sawyer shook his head. “When you called...I couldn’t believe it. After all this time...it was Leo Jackson. He took my senior photos.”

  Shaine jumped in, “And he set himself on fire? Man, that’s wild. That takes some cojones.”

  “Hey, watch yourself. Quinn loved her uncle very much. This has been a terrible transition.”

  Shaine immediately apologized. “You’re right, man. I’m sorry. I just can’t wrap my brain around everything. It’s a lot, you know?”

  “This case had more twists and turns than a country road. If it hadn’t been for Quinn, I would’ve derailed several times. She’s an incredible investigator. She’s got great instincts.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “I want her to come to Chicago with me,” he said, braving his brother’s disapproval.

  But he received none.

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Sawyer said and Shaine agreed.

  “Where’s the lecture that she’s too young for me or I shouldn’t get involved with people from a case...?”

  “Yeah, if I thought any of that would work, I might try to offer it as advice but I can see right now none of it would matter. You love her. It’s written all over your face. The way you look at her, the way you track her every move, the way you worry. You practically have hearts and butterflies floating around your head.”