Cain snapped the sim card with his gloved fingers and then the flip phone with both hands, tossing them out the driver side window. The abandoned broken plastic bounced on the wet asphalt beside the car’s discus rims. He pressed down the gas pedal. The sickly green 1983 Mercury Marquis drove away from the dark, hollow house, escaping the developing neighborhood without going one mile-per-hour over the speed limit.
2
Calando
Yesterday's rain left the black asphalt glossy and the air humid. Like the silicon in Anna’s IV bag, water dripped steadily from damp yellow leaves. The tired investigator held the metal tree as the needle pinched her arm. The pain was nothing compared to the persistent aching that plagued her malnourished being. Though she’d only spent two days in that black hole, she felt as though she’d lost pounds of muscle and fat, and the skin on her cheeks had sunken to outline the structure of her face.
From under the shaded awning, she watched the family of three climb out of their dinky sedan. A small, involuntary smile crept up Anna’s face when Evan approached. He wrapped one arm around her, squeezing too tightly, but Anna voiced no complaint.
“I’m going to miss you, sis,” Evan said as he let go of Anna. Though he was thirty, Evan’s dark eyes had crow’s feet, and little grey hair spotted his straggly goatee. Unlike Anna, his tan was that of a farmer’s and, through the opening of his plaid shirt, his skin color could be seen changing from tawny to pale. With seriousness, he said, “My offer still stands, you know.”
Anna had thought long and hard about her brother’s proposition. There wasn’t much else to do in the hospital but think or watch mindless television. Anna did her fair share of both, but didn’t have a decision until now.
“I’m staying here, in Van Buren,” Anna confessed.
Her brother didn’t do well hiding his disappointment. His sleepless eyes made Anna feel guilty of some unknown crime.
“Dad needs me,” Anna clarified, thinking of her father and his failing memory. “Besides, I have my practice.”
Evan cast his eyes down at his muddy boots and nodded with a frown. “I’m only looking out for my sister, that’s all.”
“And I appreciate it,” Anna replied softly.
Grace closed the car’s back door and shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Her nine-year-old daughter, Lily, clasped her hand tightly. The child’s face lit up when they joined Anna and Evan under the hospital’s front door awning.
Grace hugged Anna and kissed her on the cheek. “Oh, God, Anna. I--We can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done. For us and Lily.” She hugged Anna again, more passionately than the last. “Please, come along. I feel weird taking your money and not inviting you.”
“If I wanted to go, I would’ve said it,” Anna lied. “Besides, it will give the three of you a much-needed vacation.”
Grace looked Anna in the eyes intently. “Anything you need--”
“It’s okay,” Anna interrupted. “You don’t owe me anything.”
“You saved my daughter’s life,” Grace exclaimed as if Anna didn’t remember spending days underground with her niece, Lily, unsure who would die first of starvation or thirst. “I owe you everything. And the gift… I’ll be sure to pay you back once Evan gets a job.”
“Please,” Anna took the woman’s hand. It felt warm compared to her own. “It’s yours. All of it. I don’t want it back.”
With a finger, Grace wiped away a tear and thanked Anna. But before they could say goodbye, Lily rushed to in and wrapped her arms Anna’s waist.
“I don’t want you to go,” the little girl protested.
Anna felt the child’s bony figure against her own. She should be in a hospital, Anna thought but didn’t feel it was her right to criticize the parents. After all, she wasn’t a mother, the only lover she knew was work, and right now he was being neglected.
Anna ran her fingers through Lily’s soft blonde hair. The girl had an angular face like her mother and hazel eyes like her father. She would grow up to be pretty, Anna could tell, and hoped to be a part of her niece's life once her career steadied. Giving them what Avery and Trisha Rines had paid her set Anna back a healthy sum but seemed like the right thing to do. Her heart ached when she thought of the Rines. Maybe she could succeed with her brother and his family where she failed with the Rines and their daughter, Keisha. She could only hope.
Lily turned her doe-like eyes up to Anna.
“I’m going to miss you too,” Anna confessed. “Go on, it’s time for you to get going.”
“But…” The little girl’s lip quivered as she fought back tears.
“I’ll visit you, I promise.”
Sniffling, the little girl agreed and forced herself away from Anna. She held her bandaged hand in the place where the pinky and ring fingers once were.
“Come on, sweetie.” Grace called her daughter and headed to the car. Lily followed behind with rapid steps, taking the time to turn back to Anna before climbing in the back seat.
Evan stayed with Anna a moment longer, sighing. “I know we shouldn’t have her out of the hospital yet, but I couldn’t stay in this gutter of a town any longer. Not with that SOB still on the loose and not with all the recent memories. I should’ve never come back. Neither should have you.”
In light of recent events, Anna was inclined to agree with her brother but kept her opinion silent. “Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know…” Her brother kicked a stone, shoved his hands in his blue pockets, and looked up at the cloudless sky. “Tennessee? North Carolina? Wherever, we’ll find a hospital for Lily, make sure she’s all healed up for our vacation in the Bahamas and then put her in some sort of therapy. Like the type Mom and Dad put you through.”
“It might help,” Anna said with uncertainty. “But things don’t stay buried forever, especially bad memories.”
Evan frowned. He took her advice with a bitter taste. “I’ll talk to Grace about it. I just want Lily to live a normal life.”
“Unlike us?” Anna joked to lighten the mood.
Evan smiled. “Yeah.”
Her brother said his final goodbye and ducked into the driver seat. While Grace typed in the GPS, Lily pressed her full hand against the window.
Anna waved back and the car rolled away. She spent a few more moments outside and took a deep breath. A strong drink would be nice, She fought the temptation when she looked at the portable IV tree beside her. Apart from a few chirping birds, it was a quiet morning. It almost seemed like the universe had moved on from the dread of the last two weeks and life returned to normal. If only Anna could do the same. She thought of King’s Opera House less than two miles away and returned to the hospital. The dummy wheel on her IV tree spun chaotically across the scuffed tile floor, but the device stayed its course.
Anna twisted the doorknob to her room, replaying the investigation in her head. She closed her eyes, thinking of the black octagonal walls that surrounded her beneath the abandoned train yard. The fear was raw and real like a festering wound. She trembled those days, expecting Cain to enter and finish what he started. But the abductor never came. He had left Anna and Lily in the darkness to die. The gun Anna held contained a single round in the chamber. If the little girl had passed, would Anna have used the bullet on herself, starved, or fed? She didn’t know her answer, and that scared her white.
Anna entered the room, expecting to spend her day watching local news anchors bicker about Cain but reveal no new information regarding his whereabouts or Keisha’s. Instead, she found herself staring at FBI Agent Justin Rennard, who sat in the chair beside the hospital bed. He had thick brown hair, a clean shaven face with a dimpled chin, and eyes that were easy to look upon. He stood at Anna’s entrance, but Anna beckoned him to sit back down. His black FBI jacket scrunched as he returned to the chair.
“Hey,” Anna said, plopping down on the edge of the bed. The door shut behind her.
Rennard shifted in his seat. He hesitated to spe
ak but forced out the words. “Cain called.”
Anna’s pulse quickened and, by the downtrodden look on Rennard’s face, she knew bad news was about to follow. “Did he hurt her again?”
“He said...” Rennard’s eyes glossed over. “He said he killed her.”
An invisible vacuum sucked the air from the room and Anna’s lungs. Her hands trembled but she didn’t know if it was out of anger, fear, or dread. She asked, afraid to let her guard down. “Is there a body?”
With pursed lips, the agent shook his head. “Only the phone call to Sheriff Greenbell. He hung up too quick to trace, but we have his name and face plastered all over. Maybe someone saw him.”
Wesley Jenkins, Anna recalled the real name of the monster, but Cain was how she would always remember him. In the DMV photos, he was just some average Joe with thick, square-framed glasses and a blemish-free face that would get lost in any crowd. He stood at five foot nine and in his photo, he wore a tucked-in collared shirt with a green tie. When Sergeant Mathis showed her the photo, Anna anticipated a towering man with a sinister grin, black pits for eyes, and an intimidating look about him, but instead she got a nerd with the fashion sense of a ‘70s accountant.
“He wears disguises,” Anna said, knowing full well that Rennard had the same thought.
“It’s something at least,” Rennard replied with false hope. “The state has confiscated his properties and he’s been put on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. The guy’s on the run. He’s going to make a mistake. They always do.”
“So that’s it?” Anna asked.
Locking his fingers together, Rennard looked Anna in the eyes. “I’m afraid so.”
Anna gnashed her teeth. A thought popped into her mind that caused her to pause her dread. “What about the markings?”
Rennard crinkled his brow in question.
“From my Kevlar vest. When Cain attacked me, he slashed tally marks into the back of the vest,” Anna explained.
“Are you sure he wasn’t just trying to kill you? When I Served, I saw people do all sorts of crazy things in a fit of rage.”
Anna remember how he slashed the back of her vest like a hound digging a hole then yanked her head by her short brown hair. He placed the cold, antler-hilted knife on her throat. Realizing her impending doom, Anna slung back the metal baton and cracked the top of his head, causing Cain to howl, scurry out of the room, and lock her inside.
“He was but… I don’t know,” Anna admitted. Her gut refused to believe in chance when she thought of Cain. “It could be a warning or a countdown. He’s only removed five of the ten fingers, remember. And according to his previous attacks, he always counts down from ten.”
“But now that his identity is known, his jig is up,” Rennard explained. “By killing Keisha Rines, he’s severed all ties to the world.”
“There’s not a body.”
Rennard ran his fingers through his hair. “I want to believe Keisha is alive, too, but sometimes there’s no happy ending. Sometimes the bad guy gets away.”
“You don’t need to remind me,” Anna snapped.
They sat in silence for a moment.
Anna broke the quiet. “Did he say anything else?”
Rennard hesitated. “Nothing good.”
Anna glared at him.
Rennard huffed. “He said that you failed. That Keisha’s blood is on your hands. The usual taunts that are better left forgotten.”
And yet, Anna couldn’t forget them.
Leaning in, Rennard took her hand in his own. Memories of Anna’s own abduction replayed in her mind, but she refused to withdraw her hand.
“I’m going to find him,” Rennard vowed in the way Anna had vowed to the Rines when their daughter was still alive. “Once I get back to Little Rock, I’ll ask the director if I can stay on the case instead of him putting me out on the field right away. If there’s any developments, I’ll make sure I’m the first to know.”
Anna slipped her hand away. “When are you leaving?”
“This afternoon,” Rennard said and sighed. “It’s only a few hours’ drive.”
Anna stood from the bed’s corner. “Well, Agent…” She extended her hand. Rennard stood and shook it firmly. “I wish you the best of luck.”
“Thanks, you too.”
They had held on for a moment longer than was necessary. Rennard headed for the door and opened it. In the threshold, he smiled sadly at her and said, “Pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Dedrick. God willing, we’ll work together again.”
“God willing,” Anna replied.
Rennard stepped into the hall and away from Anna’s life.
Anna buried her face in the palms of her hands. Her blood is on your hands, a voice told her again and again.
By noon the next day, Anna checked out of the hospital. It had been nearly a week since Cain vanished, and the locals of Van Buren had returned to their everyday lives. Schools were reopened, traffic filled Main Street, and every photocopy of Keisha Rines stapled to power lines wasted away in the rain. On her way to the police station, Anna drove past one poster whose color had been bleached by the elements. Half of the little girl’s face was torn away.
“He’s the FBI’s problem now.” Sergeant Mathis said when Anna followed him into evidence lockup. He was a short man with a bald head, muscular body, and a uniform that clung to him like another layer of skin.
“You’re still going to keep looking, right?” Anna asked as they stepped into the shelf-lined store room and slid the box on the top shelf.
“The case is still open, yeah. If you’re asking whether I’m going to spend resources looking for a girl that we’re eighty-five percent sure is dead, the answer is no.”
Anna clenched her fist to keep herself from doing something stupid. “Have you checked everywhere?”
“We’ve combed every inch of Cain’s properties. We found old DNA samples, forgotten receipts, and other damning evidence, but no girl and no Cain—Wesley,” he corrected and turned to Anna, wiping down his sweaty forehead with a hanky. “I’m sorry, Ms. Dedrick, but we have other cases that require our full attention, we’re behind too much as it is.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Anna asked eagerly.
The man looked at her for a moment. His bulldog-like face was unreadable. “Move on,” he said gruffly. “You led us to the man’s identity, found his properties, and saved one of his captives. You’ve done your part, and, as I said before, he’s the FBI’s problem.”
Anna turned to the box placed above the other collapsing and dusty file containers. It read Rines and the date. Mathis joined her in staring at the box.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better consultant,” he said respectfully.
“I didn’t save the girl. I didn’t catch Cain,” Anna replied.
“You gave it your everything,” Mathis said. “That’s all we can ever do.”
Together, they left the evidence room and listened to the lock click.
Anna dropped off her Chevy Silverado at the local mechanic. She ordered a new driver side door to replace the one littered with Edger Strife’s bullets--one of the monsters that they had caught. She also bought a fresh coat of black paint to replace the scrapes on her side panels and hood caused by tree branches from when she’d crashed her truck. She got an alignment to straighten out the truck’s steering after driving up a train track to find Grace, who Cain had captured and let free, and the overall bill made her wish she hadn’t given away the Rines’ money. The repair would take at least a week so she would be driving her father’s car.
“Thanks for picking me up,” she said to Richard as he opened the door for her. He had a maroon Chevy that was old, big, and clunky.
“Anything for my little princess,” her father replied. He wore his fishing vest, frilled fishing hat, and rubber wading boots. His face was aged and square with the beginnings of a white beard sprouting on his neck and jaw.
“I forgot it was Sunday,” Anna admitted as she got com
fortable on the hard, bench-like seat. The truck rumbled down the street.
“Pastor reminded me,” Richard declared. “Nice guy, that one. I used to think he was hitting on your mother. We talked about it for a while over the phone and he said your mother had the same concerns about me. Not that I was hitting on the pastor, but that there was some other woman. In reality, it was just long, late hours of being a detective.”
Anna smiled. “You remembered all that?”
“It’s that memory journal you got me,” her father said proudly. “I put Post-It notes in every room to remind me of it. Whenever something comes to mind, I jot it down.”
“Are you getting involved with Pastor more?” Anna put on her aviator sunglasses.
Richard shrugged. “Church was always more of Ashley's thing. The man calls every now and then and has a few of the old ladies send me casserole and green beans. They sometimes mix them together.”
Anna chuckled for the first time in what felt like years. “Glad to hear you’re staying full.”
Richard patted his lean belly. “Not too full.”
“Big Jake’s?”
A grin stretched from ear to ear on her father’s face. “Big Jake’s.”
The restaurant's exterior had a black, dry wood look about it and a rectangular shape akin to an old Western saloon. The font and glowing red lettering matched that of a casino, and it bore the sigil of a horned bull’s skull. Inside, they feasted on river fish and hamburgers. They talked for hours about Evan, Grace, and Lily, the weather, Anna’s mother, and more. It seemed like the conversation would drift back to Cain’s case, but her father did well at redirecting Anna’s attention elsewhere, or at least he tried. It seemed like every few minutes she’d think of Cain’s words and the little girl she failed to save. She was glad Richard didn’t ask what was wrong. She would’ve hated to have lied to her father.
After they finished eating, they headed to the cemetery. Autumn wind cooled the air and kicked up a few fallen leaves amidst the gravestones. Richard and Anna stopped before their mother’s resting place.
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