“Get in touch with Miss Callahan and tell her Carrie Parish is there and we need her at the station, stat,” the detective instructed.
“Affirmative,” the voice replied.
“And call CPS and tell them we need Judy Marsons immediately. We’ll also need Renee from the Child Advocacy Center. You getting all of that?”
“Affirmative. One other thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The young lady asked for Allie Callahan. She said she won’t talk unless she’s here.”
“Well, we’re in luck. I’ve got Allie Callahan right here. Fill everyone in. We’re about a minute away.”
Detective Lambert pressed a button in the console, and the scream of police sirens filled the air. He whipped the car around and sped toward the police station.
Sammy sat pouting in his mommy’s room, holding the Incredible Hulk and Flash. His ants program was on, but he didn’t want to watch it. It reminded him too much of the little ant that Zoe squished. He still felt sick thinking about it.
He’d wanted to go out with Mommy, not be left home with Zoe. He didn’t like Zoe anymore. And he was mad that Mommy hadn’t even listened to him when he was trying to tell her about all the mean things Zoe had done.
He was lonely, too. Mommy was gone and Grammy had just lain down for a nap because she wasn’t feeling well.
But then he remembered the secret he’d seen in the girls’ closet earlier in the week. He scrambled out of bed and ran down the hallway. He stopped right before the end and peered into the living room. Zoe was lying on the couch, covered up with his mommy’s favorite blanket, reading a book. She looked comfortable, like she was going to sit there for a while.
Good! he thought, because he needed time to get the secret thing out of the closet without her knowing. His heart beating loudly, he ran to the girls’ room and quietly slinked in. Then he opened the closet door and quickly rooted around behind a bunch of things for the backpack. It took a while, because there were lots of things covering it this time. More stuff than even before.
Then there it was.
Right in front of him!
He grabbed it, then ran to his mommy’s room and closed the door. He jumped into bed and burrowed under the covers and turned it on.
Its light illuminated the dark space. He smiled, searching for game apps—and wondered why Zoe was keeping the phone such a big secret in her backpack. As he flipped through the different icons, looking for something fun, the blanket suddenly flew from over his head.
Zoe stared down at him. Her green eyes looked suspicious. She saw the phone, and her mouth opened wide. “Oh my God! Where’d you—?”
Before he could get a tighter grip on it, she snatched it away just like she had grabbed the stuffed bear.
“That not nice,” he tried to say, but his words came out quietly because he really didn’t like the look on her face.
“You snooped in my closet again!”
Piglet stepped in front of Sammy and barked sharply at Zoe.
“Shut up, you stupid dog!” she said, and shoved Piglet off the bed.
She stared at the phone again, and the muscle in her cheek jumped. She looked at him, then made a frustrated noise. Then she walked to the bedroom door and closed it. He watched as she walked to the window . . . the bedroom door . . . the window . . . the door.
Back and forth.
She dragged her hands through her hair, making it stick up funny. “Shit, shit, shit!!!”
Sammy backed away from her, until his bottom hit the bed’s headboard.
Zoe sat on the bed and gazed at him, then quickly sprang up again. She looked like she had ants in her pants.
A moment later, she looked at him hard. “Don’t you dare tell your mommy about this,” she hissed.
The way she was looking at him made him shiver.
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare say one freaking word. Not one! Do you understand me?”
Snakes squirmed around in her hair again. He looked away from her and picked up his Flash and Incredible Hulk.
“It a secret?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I can keep secrets.”
“Oh, sure you can! Oh, God!” She threw her hands up in the air, then jumped up and started walking around again. She shook her head and mumbled to herself.
“You no allowed to have phone?” he asked.
“God!” she said, not answering his question. “What am I going to do?”
He was scared. Zoe, the wanna-be bug, was acting crazy.
He closed his eyes, willing her to disappear in a puff of smoke.
She go away if I no look.
“I can still see you, dumbass,” she said.
He opened his eyes.
She gave him a mean look. “Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit!” she hissed again.
He’d never seen anyone so angry, except maybe the Hulk, but he could tell she was trying hard to keep her voice down so Grammy wouldn’t hear. Maybe he should go get Grammy, because he didn’t like the way Zoe was acting.
But Zoe was standing between him and the door.
And he didn’t want to be any closer to her.
She leaned close to him, her face red as a tomato. “God, why do you have to be so jealous of me? You just want to ruin everything, don’t you? And I was so nice to you!”
“Huh?” He didn’t understand. He wasn’t even sure he knew what “jealous” meant. “Sorry, I didn’t knowed.”
He really wished his mommy was there.
Zoe paced some more, then suddenly froze, her back to him. She stayed like that for a long moment. Then when she turned, she smiled like suddenly everything was okay.
She knelt down in front of him. “Sammy, would you like some gummy worms?”
No! he thought.
Oh no. Hard question.
Maybe.
Yes! Yes, he did.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you ten gummy worms if you drink something for me.”
“Twenty.”
“Okay, twenty.”
Twenty? Twenty gummy worms?!
“Drink what?” he asked, his mouth watering.
Her smile grew wider. She wasn’t mad at all anymore. Her moods changed way too fast. It made him uncomfortable.
But he really liked gummy worms.
“It’s something tasty. I promise,” she said. “Just stay right here, okay? Don’t move an inch.”
CHAPTER 36
BETWEEN THE INVESTIGATING officers and Bitty, a lot had been uncovered, Carrie thought. The only thing they hadn’t figured out yet was the truth.
The police station smelled like the Child Advocacy Center . . . of coffee and lemon disinfectant. Carrie sat, soaked, her clothes clinging to her, in the small room she’d been told to wait in. She’d draped thin blankets over her shoulders and lap but was still shivering.
She was finally going to tell the truth. Keeping the secrets had been ripping her apart. She’d made the decisions she’d made because Zoe meant everything to her . . . and she’d been trying to please and protect her. She also thought she was saving Zoe’s life. But now she realized that it was unlikely Zoe could be saved.
Something inside her sister was very broken.
The door opened and the young police officer who’d given her the blankets poked his head in. “Sure you don’t want something to drink? We have Dr Pepper and Coke.”
“No, thank you.”
“All right then,” he said. “The detective will be here any minute.”
“Thank you.”
The door closed again.
She stared at the scars on her wrists. The truth will set you free, she told herself. The truth will set you free . . .
Zoe was going to lose her mind when she found out, but Carrie had to be okay with that. Still, it would be difficult. She had loved Zoe more than anything all her life. All, except for the last few weeks: since their parents had died.
Because Zoe had changed.
During the weeks at the Callahans’, Carrie had tried to see the Zoe she’d once adored, not the Zoe she’d become. But Carrie was frightened of Zoe now. Not for herself, but for Allie, Bitty, and Sammy, because she now knew exactly what Zoe was capable of.
For weeks, she’d watched as the lies just spilled out of Zoe’s mouth so effortlessly. How long had she been lying like this? All along, and she just hadn’t noticed? Or just since that night?
It didn’t really matter now. She could never forgive her. The bond they’d once shared had been shattered beyond repair. For as long as she lived, Carrie would always remember Zoe’s coldness that night in the bathroom as she lay bleeding on the floor.
You know how freaking selfish that was? Did you even stop to think about me?
Yes—and that’s where Carrie had gone wrong.
Zoe didn’t love her at all. Zoe didn’t know how to love. Not a healthy love, at least. Her love was obsessive, selfish.
Dangerous.
Hearing footsteps approach, Carrie bravely lifted her head and took a deep breath.
The door opened and Detective Lambert walked in. Allie walked in behind him, her face a mixture of surprise and concern. Seeing her, Carrie shuddered. She tried to be strong, to keep it together. But her face crumpled.
Allie crossed the room and knelt beside her. She took her hands.
“What’s going on, Carrie? Why are you here?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she choked out.
“What are you sorry for?” Allie asked, her beautiful gray eyes as kind as always. But they were also red and swollen.
Carrie knew she was to blame. She shook harder. “You shouldn’t be so nice to me. I don’t deserve it.”
Allie cocked her head. She studied her, a questioning look in her eyes. “Yes you do,” she said, but she sounded uncertain.
The door clicked open and her caseworker appeared. Then right behind her, the forensic therapist, Renee, and Sergeant Davis.
Detective Lambert sat down, and said softly: “Carrie, I’m going to have a short talk with Renee, then she’ll be in here to talk with you, okay?”
Carrie shook her head. “No . . . I can’t . . . I can’t wait. I need to tell you now.” Her eyes swung back to Allie’s.
“Is this about Johnny, Carrie?” Detective Lambert asked.
Carrie listened to the low-pitched hum of the fluorescent lights above her. Tears clouded her eyes as she tried to get the words out, but they were stuck in her throat. “Part of it.”
“It’s okay, Carrie. Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay,” Allie said.
She shook her head. “No. It isn’t.”
Carrie wasn’t sure where to start, so she just began talking. “I didn’t want to make her mad,” she said. “I never . . . wanted to make her mad.”
Sammy waited for Zoe in his mommy’s bed. When she came back she was wearing boots and holding a cup and a syringe. She kept pushing at, squishing, crushing, something at the bottom of the cup with the syringe. She looked like she was in a big hurry.
“You spilling on Mommy’s bed,” he said.
She didn’t seem to hear him. She just kept crushing. And spilling.
“You spilling, I said.”
Zoe set the cup on his mommy’s dresser. “Don’t worry. I’ll clean that up in a little while.”
“What in the cup?”
“Medicine,” she said. “Yummy medicine. I’ll be right back,” she said and rushed out of the room again. Seconds later, she was back, her hands full of gummy worms. She threw them on the bed in front of him. He reached for one, and she slapped his hand away.
“Hey!” he said, his hand stinging.
“You have to take your medicine first. You know that.”
His eyes locked on the colorful worms.
She picked up the cup and filled the syringe. Then she pressed the syringe to his lips. “Go ahead. Make sure to drink it all.”
He did. It tasted like orange juice and something bitter, like the orange peel he had tasted once. It was a big yucky taste. Not tasty at all.
“Focus, Sammy,” Zoe said.
He got it all down, then reached for the gummy worms again. She pushed them away. “No, you’re not done.” She swirled the medicine around in the cup and eyed it. “You have one more to drink.”
Sammy noticed something poking out of Zoe’s pocket. Grammy’s cell phone in its green case.
“Why you got Grammy’s phone?”
Zoe ignored him and handed him another syringe filled with medicine. As he tried to get the next syringe down, Sammy stared at Zoe and noticed all the sunshine—every bit of it—had gone from her eyes. Now they reminded him of the fish he caught with his mommy at the lake. It made him sad to see those fish flopping around in the ice chest. It was fun to catch them, but it was sad to know they were going to die when they—
“Focus, Sammy,” Zoe barked, making him jump. He felt some of the medicine trickle onto his chin. “Drink the rest of it, dammit. C’mon, hurry.”
“You say a bad word,” he said.
She rolled her eyes.
Even though he wondered why she was in such a big rush, he did as he was told. When he was done, his tummy suddenly felt very full. He cupped his hands to it and heard it gurgle. As he reached for the worms again, Zoe shoved them to the floor.
“No fair! I dranked all my medicine!”
Zoe turned her back to do something, and he noticed she’d left one gummy worm clinging to the end of the bed. A red-green one. His favorite. He grabbed it and held it tight.
His stomach gurgled again. It was starting to hurt.
He wanted his mommy.
“I no feel good. I . . . need Mommy.”
Zoe turned around. “Well, you’re not getting your damn mommy,” she snapped, looking mean again. Even meaner than before.
“I think I have to go potty.”
“You don’t have time for that.” She picked him up, her dark hair brushing his cheek. With his head above her shoulder, he could smell the scent of his mommy’s shampoo. It was a sweet tangerine smell. But Zoe also smelled like stinky sweat.
Breathing hard, she dashed out of the room and into the living room. With every one of her steps, he felt the medicine slosh around in his tummy, and he felt even sicker.
Zoe went to the sliding glass door and slid it open. She stepped outside and the freezing air made him shiver.
“But I no have coat on,” he said. “Or shoes.” He was just in his Spider-Man pajamas. “Where we going?”
But she didn’t answer him.
His tummy gurgled again. A bigger, more painful, gurgle.
He moaned as he bounced up and down in her arms, across the yard, her shoes making sucking sounds in the wet grass with every step.
She was heading to the woods.
CHAPTER 37
THE INTERVIEW ROOM was silent, which only made Carrie feel more uncomfortable.
“You didn’t want to make who mad, Carrie?” Allie asked. “Your mother?
Carrie shook her head, then stared down at her wrists. “No. Zoe.”
Everyone in the room waited with bated breath. The silence in the room was deafening. Carrie knew that once she told them, she wouldn’t be able to take the words back . . . and that scared her.
But she had to tell them.
She had to.
Finally, she took a deep breath, then let it out. “Johnny came by the other morning,” she started. “Zoe told him you had gone to the supermarket with Sammy.”
Allie nodded for her to go on.
“And he said he’d wait outside for you.”
Carrie finally managed to get the words out. She told them how she’d been on the couch in the living room when Johnny had stopped by. And how she’d managed to catch most of their conversation, before retreating to the bedroom to lie down. Bitty hadn’t been feeling well and was taking a nap, so Carrie saw it as an excuse to go to sleep, too. Sleeping, when she could manage to do it, was the
only time her mind could relax. But she wasn’t in her bedroom for a minute when the bedroom door slammed open.
Sitting up in the bed, Carrie watched Zoe rush in, her eyes wild. She crossed the room and threw open the closet door. Then she hurried out of the room, the stuffed bear in her hands.
Her heart pounding, Carrie slipped out of the bed and followed her. She heard her tell Johnny that Piglet had just run off into the woods and asked him to help find her. A moment later, Carrie watched them disappear into the woods together. She remembered her breath catching because she knew what Zoe was planning to do. And how guilty she felt later when she discovered she actually went through with it.
Carrie felt Allie’s hand go limp inside her own.
“Are you saying Zoe killed Johnny?” Detective Lambert asked.
Carrie nodded. “Yes.”
“She has a gun?” Allie asked, her face white.
Carrie nodded again. The gun was inside the stuffed bear. There was a deep pocket in its tummy, a zipper down its back. Plenty of room for the gun and silencer. Their father had a silencer for all of his handguns, because one of his favorite hobbies had been shooting wild pigs, and doing so in the manner he had wasn’t exactly legal. Zoe had been convinced that if the gun was hidden anywhere else, or buried in the woods, it would be found. But who would check a stuffed teddy bear? At least that had been her logic. “Yes. In the stuffed bear.”
Allie’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my God.”
Suddenly something occurred to Carrie. “Where’s Sammy? Is he here?”
Allie shook her head. “No, he’s at home with Bitty and Zoe.”
Carrie knew Zoe would be pissed when she found out her sister had left again. She’d be afraid that Carrie was going to tell. And what would that lead her to do? Carrie hadn’t thought about that until now.
“Why, Carrie? Tell me. You’re frightening me,” Allie said.
“I don’t think Sammy should be around Zoe right now,” Carrie said. “She’s jealous of him, and she’s going to be so angry when she finds out I left—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Detective Lambert was already out of his chair, ushering her and Allie out of the room and barking orders for everyone to follow him to the Callahans’ house.
Don't Say a Word (Strangers Series) Page 18
