by Willow Rose
“NOO!” I yelled and glared at Matt. “You just killed all those people, and one of them was my brother!”
Matt handed me back the gun, then shook his head. He took the switch in his hand.
“When I was stationed overseas, I saw my share of remote triggers for IEDs. I’ve seen them use cell phones, radios, and garage door openers but common for them all is that they can’t reach more than a mile,” he said. “It’s a lot further than a mile to the shelter on the mainland where Adam is. Chris knew this. He tricked you.”
“But …?”
Matt grabbed the phone from the wall and showed me the screen where Adam was sitting still on a bed, his camera still showing the many people at the shelter, walking back and forth, some sleeping, others eating. On the other side of the screen, Chris’s fans were leaving, logging out of the message board, one faster than the other, till no one was watching anymore.
They got out of there while they could before their identities were revealed, the cowards.
I could barely breathe. I looked up at him, shaking my head. I fell to my knees, sobbing. Matt grabbed me in his arms. I cried loudly while he held me tight, rocking me back and forth. All I could see was Chad’s dead eyes. The man I had loved, the man I had been married to for fifteen years, the man who had given me three children was gone.
Dead and gone.
What do I tell the children? How will I break this to them?
It didn’t take many minutes before the hallway was filled with people. It wasn’t until Detective Foster finally came with another of his deputies that they managed to get people away from there.
David and Sydney took care of the kids, while Matt carried me back to the common room where he put me in a bed and tucked a blanket around me. He sat there all night, holding my hand in his while Damian finished his raging outside.
Three days later
Chapter One Hundred Twelve
The storm damage was excessive. It was the worst in history, they kept saying on the weather channel and the radio. Completely devastating. So many had lost their homes, and three people had lost their lives. Who could have known the storm would suddenly make landfall as a Cat5 storm on Amelia Island when all the models had said it would stay in the ocean?
No one could have predicted this, they kept saying. No one.
The flooding was the worst. My grandmother’s house was underwater still three days later, and we were staying in rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which had suffered little or almost no damage. The hotel had opened its doors for everyone who needed a place to stay while the island began its long road to recovery.
The kids were inconsolable. The loss of their father was a huge blow to them, and they couldn’t stop crying.
Neither could I.
I missed him terribly already, and I found it hard to forgive myself for getting him involved in all this. For some reason, I also kept blaming Matt slightly for what happened. Chad had taken the bullet for him, for whatever reason that I was never going to know. And it tormented me. I couldn’t help but think about it every time I looked at Matt, even though I tried not to. After all, it wasn’t his fault. He had no say in what happened.
Three days after the storm, I packed up what little I had, and took the elevator down to the lobby with the kids and Matt. I found Detective Foster waiting for me downstairs. He came up to me, hat in his hand, and asked if he could have a word.
I walked to the side with him, away from the kids so they wouldn’t hear. Foster had not once made me feel like I was making things up when I explained the story to him over and over again, even though he found it hard to understand, which I guess we all did. Luckily, I had so many people backing up my story by now that he knew he had to listen. The fact that they found Deputy Corel with the inscription on his back had made it easier as well.
“So … you’re ready to go home?” he asked.
“I can’t wait,” I said. “No offense, but it might take a while before I come back here.”
“You still have your family here,” he said.
I nodded. He was right. David, Adam, and my grandmother were determined to fix up the old house again and stay here, even though I had asked them to come to Cocoa Beach with me.
“Maybe when Mom isn’t around anymore,” David had said. “But this is her island. She wants to die here.”
“And she almost did,” I said.
“I know it’s been a lot,” Detective Foster said. “And I’m going to let you go in just a second. But first, I want to tell you that we finally managed to get into Christopher Hutching’s house, or rather his grandmother’s. And you were right. We did find her body there. It was in the bedroom upstairs, and it looked like Christopher had been sleeping with her dead body for quite some time.”
“I had a feeling that was what you’d find,” I said. “What else? Cyanide?”
“Yes, we found huge amounts of a cyanide-potassium powder that he had ordered online from China. It’s amazing what you can buy and get away with doing online these days, huh?”
“It sure is,” I said. “I’m sure it’ll be a match to what was in the champagne and the candy sticks that killed those three kids at the school and made six of them very sick. You see the strangest things online. Have you any way of tracking the people who watched his feed?”
Foster shook his head. “I’m afraid not. But I have spoken to the FBI about it, and they might try. It’s out of my hands. I know they’re going to try and get the website closed down. There’s been so much bad on it so far, and I know that its creator is asking to have it closed down. It’s out of his hands since he created it so that the users were managing it, and he can’t close it down himself. But it has been used for people who dream about becoming school shooters, as a place to talk to likeminded people.”
“That is nasty,” I said.
“We found the entire living room filled with cameras and computers, and on one of his computers, we found many of the videos he had made. Looks like he was keeping them for himself, as a scrapbook maybe.”
“Sounds like him.”
“We also found bomb-making manuals that he had downloaded on his computer, and all the fingernails he pulled off his victims in a jar. When going through the theater, we found a camera attached under the ceiling that he must have put up there. It was linked to one of his computers. Jenkins did take the armoire there because he volunteered backstage, but Christopher must have broken into the building at some point and placed Melanie in the closet with the vest strapped onto her body. We found out that he has been using his grandmother’s blue car to drive around in, just like he used her savings to live off while all this went down. I feel convinced that we have enough evidence to make sure there is no doubt about his guilt, and you’ll be glad to hear that we found the video he made for Adam, threatening him to do the shooting, and holding a knife to Allyson’s throat. So, it’s safe to say that Adam’s in the clear. I suspect that we can close the case in a few months. Give the survivors some peace of mind.” Foster put his hat back on. “Anyway, I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you. Without you, we would never have stopped him.”
I smiled, half-choked, and watched him walk away. I still wasn’t so sure me coming here had helped anything. On the contrary, I feared that the fact that I had been there had made Chris accelerate and maybe even worsened things. I wasn’t sure. And I never would know now. I knew I had to accept that and move on, even though it was hard.
“You ready?”
I turned and faced David and Adam. As it turned out, Matt had been correct. The switch that Chris had held couldn’t reach the shelter on the mainland where Adam had been. As soon as I told Foster about the bomb, he had some of his colleagues who guarded that shelter get to Adam and take it from him. The bag was filled with explosives, and they called for a bomb squad to come out and defuse the bomb. Luckily, nothing happened to it, and all the people at the shelter were safe, including Adam. Eileen was still in the hospital, but she was getting
better, they said. She was in amazing shape for an eighty-year-old woman. I could only aspire to be as strong as she was once I reached that age.
“I am,” I said. “We have everything, I believe. Kids, Matt …”
“Bunnies?” David asked.
I nodded, chuckling sadly while thinking about Chad again. It was his project with those bunnies. I realized it was still too painful to think about him. The ME still had his body, so it would take a little while before it was released, and we could have a proper funeral for him.
“Come back to visit us soon, will you?” Adam said and gave me a warm hug. “It’s so cool to have not one, but two big sisters.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat and hugged him back. As he let go, I walked to David and looked into his eyes.
“Listen,” he said. “I know you wonder why I left back then. Why I took Sydney and left with her, leaving you behind. But the thing was, your mother wouldn’t let me see the two of you. She was angry at me, and I fought her in court, but she won. I didn’t know how to live my life without my two little girls, so I decided to take both of you. It wasn’t a good solution; I have no trouble admitting to that. But you’ll have to remember that I was desperate, and very young, a terrible combination. But once I did grab you, and wanted you to come with me, you wouldn’t let me take you. You pulled out of my grip, and I went for Syd instead. It wasn’t because I didn’t want you, sweetie, because I did. I truly did. I have dreamt about seeing you again so many times, and I tried to get in contact with you, but your mom kept you away. I can’t blame her for doing so; I really can’t, but that’s what happened. I loved you then, and I still do. What I’m trying to say is that … I’m glad to have you in my life again, and I hope you’ll come to visit me every now and then and bring those sweet munchkins of yours with you. My grandkids.”
His words brought tears to my eyes, and I fought to keep my composure. I pulled him into a hug and held him for a few seconds, then let go of him, wiping a tear away.
“It’s okay … Dad. It’s all water under the bridge now,” I said, half choked. “I … I guess I forgive you.”
He nodded, his eyes wet. “That means the world to me.”
I chuckled, then pushed him lovingly. “All right. Enough of all this. You’re making me sad again. Besides, I have to go now. See you soon, okay?”
I walked up toward Matt and the kids. Christine was holding the bunny cage in her hands, and I could barely see her behind it.
Matt put his arm around me, and we walked out to the valet parking where they brought out Matt’s car that I only hoped could fit us all and the bunnies. I didn’t have any suitcases since all my stuff had been destroyed in the flooding.
“I was thinking,” Matt said as the car drove up. “I don’t want to keep living with my mom for the rest of my life. How about we move in together?”
I stared at him, eyes wide open. “M-move in together? Now?”
He smiled. “Yes. Why not?”
“With all my kids … and Elijah?” I said.
“Yes.”
The valet parking guy got out and handed Matt the keys. The kids got in, and I helped place the bunny cage in their laps. Olivia groaned loudly at the prospect of having to sit like that for three hours. I couldn’t blame her. I closed their door. Matt looked at me over the top of the car.
“I know it’s crazy, but we only live once, and I know I want to be with you. What do you say?”
“I … I … well …” I exhaled deeply, then shrugged. I didn’t know what to say. I could find a million reasons why not to do it — among them that it was too early and that I wasn’t ready — but I couldn’t stand the thought of hurting Matt again. I had no idea what I wanted right now, and all I wanted to do was go home. Still, I loved Matt, I really did, and I wanted him to feel that. So, instead of the truth, I told him what he wanted to hear.
“Sure, why not?”
That brought out a huge smile on Matt’s lips.
“Perfect. I can’t wait.”
Matt jumped happily into the car. I remained outside of it for a few seconds while fighting the sensation that I was about to choke. I finally got into the car and sat down in my seat, strapping myself in, while my heart pounded loudly in my chest all the way home.
THE END
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Afterword
Dear Reader,
Thank you for purchasing Say You Love Me (Eva Rae Thomas #4) I wrote this book while I was evacuated from Hurricane Dorian. And of course, I had to put a hurricane in the book. It was odd writing about it while waiting for it to approach our home and not knowing what we would come home to. By the time we left, it looked like it would be a direct hit on Cocoa Beach, and that scared me, to be honest. Luckily, we got off easy, and nothing happened to our home or even our town. Others weren’t so lucky, especially not people in the Bahamas, as you probably know. It was truly devastating to see the pictures coming out of there in the days that followed.
As usual, a lot of the elements in this book are taken from real life. The webpage, for instance, that was created for people to be able to speak freely, but misused, exists. It has been closed down now, but they fear it’ll just pop up somewhere else. Up until the shooting in El Paso, it was a real deal. The El Paso shooter posted his manifest there, and it was known to be a place where people who dreamt of shooting in public places like schools could talk to one another and cheer each other on, etc. It’s a frightening thought that they can meet like that online and help each other along to do these things, counting kill-scores. It scares me like crazy.
You can read more about it in this article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-toxic-online-world-where-mass-shooters-thrive-11567608631
Being falsely accused of abusing your child has to be devastating. Nevertheless, it happens from time to time, and it is quite scary. It is mostly a parent accusing another in a custody battle, but there are other stories where both parents are accused. You can read a story here that is very similar to Bruce and Marlene’s tragic story:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/false-child-abuse-charges-trigger-murder-suicide-colorado/story?id=16074344
You might be surprised to know that dumpster-diving videos on YouTube are a real thing. I accidentally came across a couple and that’s how I got the idea for the woman in my book. You can find a ton of them if you go on YouTube and search for dumpster diving.
Also, Cutis Laxa is a real disease. You can read more here:
https://metro.co.uk/2017/02/16/20-year-old-with-condition-which-makes-her-age-dramatically-undergoes-facelift-6449805/
Oh, yeah, and as you might have guessed, my own kids just got bunnies, and yes, they’re constantly fighting about them and whose turn it is to clean the cage. The bunnies are cute, though, and like so much else when having kids, it is worth the struggle. They were of course with us when we evacuated as was our dog Snowball, the Goldendoodle.
Thank you once again for all your support. Don’t forget to leave a review if you can.
Take care,
Willow
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Fernandina Beach High School, Amelia Island
Chapter 4
One Week Later
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
