Aunt Charlie said she had proof that Jonathan killed Jesse.
Was that the key to my survival? Telling JD that Jonathan killed Jesse?
It seemed like a long shot, but at this point, what wasn’t?
“Why do you think Charlie killed Jonathan?” I asked.
His head whipped back around to stare at me. “That’s obvious,” he said. “She wanted his power.”
“Power?”
“Yes, his power.”
I gazed at him blankly.
His face started to contort into anger, but then he scrubbed at it. “I forgot, you never met him in person. If you had, you wouldn’t be asking such a question.”
“How would killing him get his power?”
His eyes narrowed. Clearly, I had struck a nerve. “What, you think it’s something else?”
“I know it’s something else,” I said. “And I think you do, too.”
I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth, and for a moment, I was terrified I had overstepped. But he just stood there, staring at me, looking as shocked as I felt. “What are you talking about?”
Something shifted in the room. I could feel it. Suddenly, even though I was the one on the chair with the noose around my neck, I was in charge. I didn’t know how long the power shift would last, but I knew I had to keep going.
I fought against the terror threatening to collapse my knees.
“Charlie didn’t kill Jonathan because she wanted his power,” I said, sounding far more confident than I felt. “It was the exact opposite, actually.”
My shot hit home. JD froze, his face contorting into multiple expressions. “No, you’re wrong.”
“Your father was weak. Want to know how I know?”
“He wasn’t weak.”
“Because he killed Jesse, that’s why.”
JD shook his head violently. “No. You’re wrong. My father was strong, not weak.”
“Only a bully kills someone weaker than himself,” I said. “You said yourself that your father told you Jesse was weak. Your father killed someone he thought was weaker than him because HE was weak. And a bully.”
“No! My father was a powerful man.”
“He was a failure. A nobody,” I continued.
“Take it back.” JD’s face recoiled in rage, and I leaned back. Oh God, had I pushed too far?
“He was a great man,” JD shouted at me, his face red and splotchy. I could see a vein pulsing by his temple. “A strong, powerful man. A wonderful man. He was NOT a no-good loser. He was NOT a slacker. My grandfather was wrong about him. He wasn’t weak. He was strong. And powerful. Take it back!”
He was advancing on me, coming closer and closer, and I shrank as far back as I could, straining against the ties still binding my hands. I was almost free—I just needed a little more time. The noose tightened around my neck as I tried to cling to the chair with my legs, keeping JD from kicking it out from under me. Blackness danced at the edge of my vision.
Suddenly, there was a loud screech, and JD fell forward, hitting the chair underneath me. It shuddered beneath my feet, rocking slightly, and for a heart-wrenching moment, I was sure it would tip over. Somehow, though, it righted itself, and my eyes focused on the scene in front of me.
JD was in a heap, swearing up a storm as he twisted his arms at unnatural angles. Something had attached itself to his back. Something large and black and ... furry.
Oscar?
JD howled with rage and pain, slamming his back against the wall, but the angry ball of teeth and claws nimbly darted up his shoulder and fastened itself to his neck.
JD screamed in agony, and a line of blood soaked across his grey tee shirt. His hands blindly scrabbled at Oscar, trying to tear him off. He screamed anew as Oscar clamped down harder, finally ripping the cat free and throwing him across the room.
Oscar landed lightly on his feet, immediately turning to face JD, ears back, fangs barred. This was not the soft, purring bundle of warmth who cuddled next to me at night. This was the hunter, the predator, the creature who ruled the backyard with teeth and claws.
JD stumbled to his feet, covered in blood. One hand was pressed to his neck. He launched himself at Oscar, who somehow leaped out of the way.
I started sawing at the ropes as hard and as fast as I could. I had to get free. I had to help Oscar. There was no way a cat would survive this fight, even though Oscar seemed to look ... bigger than normal. Almost like a small cougar.
No. That was impossible. I had to be seeing things. The noose around my neck was probably causing a lack of oxygen to the brain, resulting in hallucinations.
JD righted himself and lunged toward Oscar again. And again, Oscar leaped out of the way, but not before slashing JD’s delicate, exposed inner wrist with his nail. A red burst of blood appeared, and JD screamed again, jerking his hand back as Oscar landed safely out of range.
The bindings frayed beneath my fingers and finally went slack. I did it! My hands were untied. I moved quickly to free my head from the noose. I jumped off the chair, prepared to join the battle.
JD’s head swiveled around at the sound of my hitting the floor, his eyes widening as he turned to confront me. He was covered with blood and scratches.
“Bitch,” he spat. “Look what your cat did to me.” His face was purple, contorted with fury and pain.
“JD, it’s over,” I said, trying to sound calm. “Your blood is all over this room. There’s no way anyone is going to think I committed suicide now.”
“Do you think I give a damn about that,” he snapped, stalking toward me. “Once you and that cat are dead, I can set up the scene any way I want.”
Warily, I shifted to the right as we began circling each other. “They’ll process your blood and come for you.”
He laughed, a sick, twisted sound. “I’m not in the system,” he said. “They won’t be able to find me.”
“If you leave town unexpectedly ...”
“So what? Lots of people disappear unexpectedly from Redemption, right? Why would this be any different?”
My initial burst of triumph was beginning to deflate. Despite all the blood and cuts, JD didn’t seem at all hampered. I didn’t think I was strong enough to take him on myself. I had to find a weapon.
JD feinted at me, and I quickly sidestepped, trying to keep one eye on him while searching the room at the same time. I was still holding the jade, and I could feel the sharp edge under my fingers.
But it was so small. I would have to get super close to do any damage with it.
JD laughed. “I can play this game all day,” he said. “And if we’re still playing when Mia and Chrissy come home ... well, maybe what the cops will find is that you just snapped … killing your roommates, too, before committing suicide.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes darting frantically around the room. I had to figure something out, and I had to do it now. I had no idea when Mia or Chrissy were due home, but I couldn’t risk them walking right into their death.
JD jabbed at me again, and I twisted out of the way. That’s when I saw it—the baseball bat in the back of Mia’s closet. She must have put it there that night we searched the house.
I squared my shoulders and studied JD. I had to do something, distract him somehow, so I could get my hands on that bat. But what? All I had was this piece of jade—could I even hurt him with it?
I studied the base of his neck, where Oscar had bit him. He was still holding a hand up to the wound, and I could see blood pulsing out between his fingers.
It was a long shot. But it was all I had.
“You’re never going to get away with this,” I said.
JD looked at me with disdain. “Seriously? Who’s going to stop me? You?”
“Says the guy who lost a fight with a cat,” I said.
JD stiffened
, his face contorting into rage as he lunged at me. I forced myself to pause, to hold still.
Wait for it ... wait for it ...
He was almost on top of me, so close I could smell his hot, fetid breath and see the madness gloating at me from deep within his eyes, when I struck. I stabbed him in the neck as hard as I could with the jade.
He shrieked and stumbled, crashing against the dresser. “You bitch!”
Without pausing, I dropped the stone and ran to the closet. I had to get to the bat before he figured out what I was doing.
I grasped the bat, my fingers wet, and it slipped. Was it sweat? No, it was blood. JD’s blood. My stomach twisted, but I couldn’t stop. I squeezed the bat as hard as I could and whirled around to confront him.
He was standing by the dresser, examining one of his hands, the other still to his neck. “What did you hit me with ...” he started to ask, but his words cut off as I swung at his head as hard as I could. At the last moment before impact, he looked up, his expression almost comical as understanding dawned across his face.
Thwak went the bat against his head. JD dropped like a stone, crumbling in a heap without a sound.
For a moment, I just stood there, still clutching the bat, watching JD. The only sound in the stillness around me was my own harsh breathing. Oh God, did I kill him?
No. His chest was moving. I couldn’t decide if I was glad or upset that he wasn’t dead.
Suddenly, I felt a warm softness against my ankles and heard a deep rumbling sound. Oscar wound himself around my legs, purring.
I bent down to pet him, and he pushed his face against my hand, his bloodstained whiskers tickling my skin. The predator who had saved me was gone, and my soft, warm companion was back.
His dark-green eyes gazed into mine, and he opened his mouth, revealing a row of blood-stained teeth. He closed his mouth with a click, and a very satisfied expression.
Chapter 33
“You are one lucky lady,” the doctor said. He had a shock of white hair and thick, dark glasses that he adjusted before making a few notes on a pad.
I nodded, shivering a little in the ice-cold, air-conditioned hospital room. The doctor, whose name I couldn’t remember, noticed. “Your body is going to need some time to recover,” he said. “Get plenty of rest, good food, and fluids.”
“I will.”
He made a few more notes. “We’re going to keep an eye on you for a couple more hours, and if everything checks out, you should be good to go home.”
Even though the EMTs had already examined me at the house, and even though I told Daniel I was fine, he had insisted on taking me to the hospital for a second opinion. I couldn’t really blame him. I had JD’s blood streaked all over my arms and chest, my neck was red and sore from where the noose had tightened, and I had a lump on my head and a mild concussion from when JD had first knocked me out. Plus, my fingers were swollen.
Back in Mia’s room, after it finally sunk in that JD was incapacitated (at least for the moment) and I was safe, I got myself in gear. I found more of the rope he had used to bind my hands, and I quickly tied him up. I didn’t want to touch him, but I would also have no way of restraining him if he woke up before the cops arrived.
Then I went off in search of my phone. I found it in The Studio, lying on the floor where I had apparently dropped it after JD hit me. I called Daniel and the cops, and then went down to the first floor to wait for them.
JD was immediately taken to the hospital. According to the doctors, he was stable and expected to recover fully.
“Now it all makes sense,” Daniel said to me in the car as he drove me to the hospital. “I couldn’t find any record of Jesse’s secret girlfriend having a baby, so I started investigating Jonathan’s children. I was in the process of tracing Darrel, I mean JD, when I got your call.”
I leaned my head back against the car seat. Exhaustion was settling in like an old friend, thick and heavy in my veins. “Darrel?”
“That’s his real name. And it’s one of the reasons no one figured out who he was sooner.”
“JD,” I mused. “J for Jonathan and D for Darrel.”
Daniel glanced at me. “That was my thought, as well.” He went back to focusing on driving, and I noticed his fingers were white where they clutched the steering wheel. “I still can’t believe I missed all the signs.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “He was good.”
He pressed his lips together. “I should have known,” he said. “If anything had happened to you ...”
“Hey.” I reached over to put my hand on his thigh. “I’m fine. The EMT said so. I just need a good night’s sleep.”
Daniel didn’t look at me.
Outside my room, I could hear light, quick footsteps before the privacy curtain was drawn back with a rattle. “I came as soon as I could,” Mia said. Chrissy was right behind her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, as both of them ran into the room to hug me. “Truly. Everything is okay.”
“But what about the blood?” Chrissy asked.
“Was it really JD?” Mia asked.
“The blood isn’t mine,” I said. “It’s JD’s. And, yes, it really was him.”
“I can’t believe it,” Mia said. “So he was Jonathan’s son. I gotta say, I now understand Charlie’s affair more, if Jonanthan looked like his boy.”
“Seriously, Mia.”
“Well, I’m just saying,” she said, turning a little red. “You have to admit he’s pretty hot.”
“He is super-hot,” Chrissy chimed in.
I was getting the sense that neither of them had fully grasped what had just happened. Of course, they didn’t see the transformation as I had. They still remembered the JD with mask firmly in place. And, maybe a part of them didn’t really want to believe. Even though I had seen the transformation with my own eyes, there was a part of me that didn’t want to believe it either.
Again, I found myself wondering, how could we have all missed the monster living among us?
“Well, he is also a psychopath,” I said. “And a little old for you.” The last part was directed at Chrissy, who at least had the grace to look slightly ashamed.
“It’s just such a shock,” Mia said. “We worked with him, even flirted a little.” Now, Mia really turned red. “I actually considered ... well, never mind. How could we have been so wrong about him?”
“You weren’t alone. He fooled all of us,” I said.
“What happened?” Chrissy asked. “And how is it that JD bled all over the place, but you didn’t at all?”
I smiled a tiny smile. “Oscar got him.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open. “Oscar?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t believe it either.”
“I didn’t think cats protect their owners,” Mia said. “Dogs, sure. But cats?”
I thought about how Oscar had seemed to grow in size when he went after JD, looking more like a panther or black mountain lion than a cat. I thought about how Oscar seemed so similar to the cat my aunt had owned all those years ago. Of course, there was no way he could be the same cat.
But maybe Oscar was more than a normal cat.
“I hear you,” I said. “All I can tell you is Oscar attacked JD.”
“Maybe start at the beginning,” Mia suggested.
So I did. I told them everything, starting from the moment Chrissy had left for work. Her face noticeably paled when she realized the timing of the attack. “Do you think he was in the house when I was?” she asked.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, if he was,” I said, squeezing her suddenly cold-and-clammy hand. “He wasn’t interested in you. Only me.”
She nodded, but didn’t look overly reassured.
When I got to the end of the account, Mia’s eyes were as round as her mouth. “You hit him with a bat,�
�� she marveled. “I can’t believe you did that. I don’t know if I could ever hit anyone with a bat.”
“You were the one who was holding the bat when we searched the house,” I said. “You don’t think you could have used it?”
“That was different,” she said. “I wasn’t sure then if anyone was even in the house.”
“Well, it was a good thing you kept the bat in your closet,” I said. “I don’t know if I would have had time to find it in the office.”
Mia looked puzzled. “I didn’t put it in my closet,” she said. “I remember distinctly putting it back in the office closet.”
“But ...” I was confused. “Who would have put it in your closet? No one went into your room other than you.”
“I don’t know, but it wasn’t me,” Mia said. “JD, maybe.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “He wanted to hang me, remember? He wouldn’t have any use for the bat.”
“What did he use to knock you out?” Daniel asked. He was standing at the edge of the room. I hadn’t even noticed him appear. In the harsh fluorescent light, his face looked tired and drawn.
Mia shifted to sit in one of the chairs, patting the bed. “Come sit with us,” she invited.
He came forward, perching himself awkwardly on the side of the bed as I answered, “I don’t know what he used.”
“Maybe it was the bat,” Daniel suggested.
I tried to think back to when JD attacked me. The heavy, excited breathing. The dark shape that seemed to fly at me. It didn’t feel like he had used something as big as a bat to hit me, but my memory was pretty fuzzy. “Why wouldn’t he have left it in The Studio?”
Daniel shrugged. “Who knows? What I want to know is how you managed to untie yourself.”
“Oh. I almost forgot about that. It’s a good thing you guys didn’t take the jade.”
Daniel blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Well, not you,” I amended. “The cops, I mean.”
“I’m still not following.”
“I was down in the basement today when I saw it,” I said. “The jade. You know, that was in the crack, marking the location of Jonathan’s body. I would have thought the cops would have taken it as part of their investigation, but there it was today, behind some boxes.”
The Evil That Was Done (Secrets of Redemption Book 3) Page 29
