If it didn’t hurt, then my sister was a complete sociopath. The possibility of that scared me more than anything … but then I remembered the tremor in her voice, the way she tried to stop Jessica and Rhonda. Why couldn’t she have tried harder, dammit!
‘I just wanted to come by and give you the picture, Mrs Goins. I didn’t realize you had so many already…’ I stood up from the chair, looking around the room at the shrine one more time.
‘You keep it, dear. She would have wanted you to have it.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, and I had to fight back tears as I took the picture back.
As though I were in a dream, I drifted through the sitting room and into the kitchen, eager to catch my breath outside.
Mindy shuffled behind, walking me to the door. My shin banged against something hard and I caught myself on the doorframe. I stared down at a twelve-pack of cokes by my feet. RC Cola, a brand from another life…
‘I hope they find your sister’s body soon. I would hate for it to stay missing forever, like my Sarah’s.’ Stunned, I looked back at Mrs Goins. I was shocked by her statement, but even more shocked when I realized she was pointing a gun in my face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
‘What are you doing?’ I stammered, but I knew perfectly well.
‘I know you weren’t the one who killed Sarah, but I can’t have you snooping around, taunting me with your pictures, and pretending you don’t know what your sister did.’
The barrel of the gun looked like a deep black pit waiting to consume me.
‘Walk. And do it slowly. Out to the barn now, please.’
‘But why? Why are you doing this?’ Shuffling my feet, I was trying to put off the inevitable.
‘You know why. Your sister killed my Sarah.’
‘When did you find out?’
‘When she told me.’ Mindy jabbed the back of my head with the metal barrel of the gun, and I lurched forward out the door. ‘Now don’t try to scream or I’ll blow that pretty little head of yours right off.’ My heart jumped, the panicked beat of it pounding in both my ears. She’s going to kill me, I realized.
I kept my mouth shut as I crossed the yard, Mindy breathing down my neck the whole way.
‘I’m sorry about Sarah. I really am. I only found out the truth about her death last night.’
‘Uh huh. Just keep moving and shut up.’
The door to the barn was closed. Mindy moved around me, and I watched as she unbolted the heavy barn doors. I should just lunge at her, try to grab for the gun…
But the doors swung open; I’d missed my chance, for now.
Mindy closed the doors back behind us, shrouding us both in the dark musty tomb that was the Goins barn. It smelled like horses, cow manure, and hay. There was also the smell of mildew – it was so strong I could taste it in my mouth.
All the stalls were empty. The farm was no longer a farm, just a ghost of a place that used to house animals and crops…
‘Did you kill my sister? I understand why you did it. Believe me, I really do. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, but really, I didn’t know. I had no idea what those girls did…’
Mindy froze. ‘Girls? What girls?’
I stiffened, unsure how much she knew. Had she seen the tape? She said that Madeline told her, but I couldn’t see Madeline doing that…
‘Did Madeline tell you she killed Sarah?’
Mindy shoved me forward and I stumbled over loose hay on the barn floor. This place smelled of death.
‘Yes. She came over about a week ago. We’d sort of become friends from our time in that grief group together. She said she had something to tell me and then she admitted to killing my Sarah. Just like that! She didn’t give me the details, all she said was that her body was in Moon Lake and she was going to turn herself in. I was shocked. After all these years, I never thought I’d know the truth. She begged my forgiveness and told me that as soon as you got to town to watch over her kids, she was going to go to the police and tell them what she did. I think she wanted to be punished for her crime, and your sister felt like she was being punished by God – all of Ben’s troubles, and then him getting picked on at school … she needed to repent. She wanted to do her time for the crime, so to speak.’
‘But she didn’t turn herself in. She disappeared.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Did you kill her? Did you kill my sister?’ I asked her again.
‘Not yet. Jail is too good for her. Death is too good for her. I want to make her suffer before she dies. My Sarah didn’t get to choose her fate so why should your sister get to choose hers? The world doesn’t work that way.’
A flash of hope exploded inside me. Madi’s alive!
‘Oh, Mindy. Please don’t do this. Let Madeline go to the police. Let her do the right thing. Do you have her? Have you been holding her here?’
‘The right thing! The right thing! The right thing would have been to let my daughter live to grow old.’
‘So, it was you? Watching her from the woods. How did you take her from the house?’ I was stalling now, my eyes jerking around the circumference of the barn – looking for weapons, or better yet, an alternative way out.
Mindy Goins threw back her head and cackled like a madwoman. ‘I called her and told her I had to talk to her. She came outside, and I had the gun. For someone who committed murder, your sister is really dumb. She thought I was going to let her get away with it. Such a moron! I was going to just throw her off at the bluff, but like I said, that would have been too easy, too good for her. I wanted to make sure she suffered.’
‘But you don’t want to be a murderer too, do you? You’re not evil, you wouldn’t…’ But my words were falling on deaf ears.
‘Punishing your sister is the right thing, missy. And what better way to do it than to hurt you? I wonder how she’ll feel when she sees you die. And after that, I’ll bring in Ben and Shelley. I’ll make her watch me kill them next.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Mindy Goins pushed me further inside the barn. She pointed toward the last stall on the left. What was she going to do to me?
‘Please.’ I gave Mindy one last, pleading look before walking into the stall. I nearly stumbled over a cold white figure on the floor. Madeline!
‘Madi!’ I fell to the ground beside her and started trying to shake her.
‘Enjoy visiting with your sister before I kill her.’ I’m not sure which one of us she was talking to – maybe both of us – but then she slammed the stall door closed and there was a rattling sound on the other side. She was locking us inside.
‘Madeline.’ I shook my sister as hard as I could without hurting her. She was lying in a fetal position, her eyes closed … but then suddenly, her eyelids lifted. She stared at me, her expression at first unseeing, and then perplexed.
‘What are you doing here?’ she croaked. I was shocked to see that her lips were bloody and cracked. She was wearing loose-fitting pajamas – the same pajamas she had on days ago when she disappeared. It looked like she’d lost thirty pounds already, but how was that possible?
Her shoulders jutted out at strange angles, her collarbones stretched taut beneath her thin skin. Even her cheekbones were protruding, like an extra from The Walking Dead.
‘Has she been starving you?’ I was shocked beyond belief. I held my sister’s head in my hands, stroking her hair. Strands and strands of her dirty blonde hair fell away with my fingers.
‘I don’t blame her,’ Madeline croaked. ‘I killed her daughter for god’s sake.’
‘But you didn’t, Madi! Jessica did, she orchestrated all of it! Why isn’t she going after Jessica?’
My sister closed her eyes again and flinched, as though blinking – and thinking – were painful tasks.
‘I didn’t tell her. I decided that I was just going to turn myself in, but I didn’t want Mindy to see it on the news. I felt like I owed her that, at least. She deserved to know the truth. I thought I had time to … to get
everything in order. But then she showed up and forced me into the car at gunpoint. She hit me over the head and made me drive…’ Madeline choked and sputtered, her tears were waterless.
‘I thought she was going to push me over the edge. And just when I thought I couldn’t be any more scared than I already was, she said if I screamed or made a move, she’d kill Shelley and Ben.’ Madeline’s voice cracked as she mentioned her children’s names. She began sobbing, but still no tears were coming out, maybe because she was too dehydrated to cry.
‘Does she have them? Please tell me she didn’t take them too.’
‘John’s got them. They’re okay for now, Madeline. She didn’t take me either. I found the tape. I came here to talk to her. I had no idea what I was walking into. She’s old. She may have a gun, but together, we’re stronger. We can fight her.’
‘Can you blame her? If someone did to Ben what we did to Sarah, I’d hurt them even worse than this. You better believe I would…’
I didn’t know what to say to that – I couldn’t disagree – so I kept rubbing my sister’s crumpled hair, looking around the stall for a way out. ‘If we scream loud enough, someone will hear us. The walls on this barn aren’t soundproof.’
Madeline let out what was either a cough or a chuckle. ‘If you try it, she’ll shock you with a cow prod, just wait and see.’ Gently, she lifted the edges of her nightshirt. Gasping, I stared in disbelief at the red burn marks on my sister’s sunken stomach. The strange burns were leaking pus and I now realized that they were the cause of the sickly smell in the barn. My sister had a life-threatening infection, not to mention she was starved and dehydrated.
‘I’m so sorry, Madeline. She can’t do this to us!’
‘Monsters beget monsters…’ At least that’s what it sounded like she said as she closed her eyes again.
‘Madi?’ I tried to shake her again, but she was asleep. Nervously, I checked for a pulse. It was thready, but it was there – thank god.
Slowly, I slid her head off my lap and onto the dirty floor of the stall. I stood up, trying to stay quiet, and peek through the gaps in the wooden door.
‘Mindy, are you there? I need to tell you something.’
My sister might have wanted to act all righteous and not bring Jessica into it, but I wasn’t that nice. Maybe if I told Mindy about Jessica’s role in the murder and mentioned the tape, she would leave the farm to either go hunt down Jessica, or at least to verify my story with the tape. If I knew she was going to be away, I could find a way out of this barn…
But Mindy didn’t answer me, and I couldn’t see her through the slats. Did she go back inside?
I remembered what my sister said about screaming and the cattle prod. Oh well. I’d let her shock me, if it meant I could tell her about Jessica first.
I opened my mouth and released a blood-curdling scream.
My throat was raw, but I still couldn’t hear her coming. If she let me go on much longer, someone might possibly hear me. I took a deep breath and screamed again, waking up my sister beside me.
Madeline clutched my ankle, digging her nails in deep, a terrified look on her face. ‘Please, don’t do this,’ she whispered.
But then I heard the door to the barn slide open. She’s back. I backed up in the stall, terrified but preparing myself for what was to come.
‘Before you shock me, I need you to know that someone else was involved! Two other girls! Rhonda Sheckles and Jessica Feeler. Madi just filmed what they did. She even tried to stop them! She didn’t kill your daughter, Mindy. If you want to torture someone, then you better go get Jessica! I have proof. There’s a tape at my sister’s house, I can show you where it is…’
There was a loud popping noise that set my ears on fire. Was that a gunshot?
‘Emily!’ The voice didn’t belong to Mindy Goins.
Oh my god. ‘Paul! Is that you? We’re in here. The last stall!’
I ran up to the stall door and peered through the slats. Suddenly, Paul’s face appeared, and it had never looked as beautiful as it did in that moment.
‘Oh, thank goodness you’re here. Please, let us out! Madeline’s in here.’
‘Just a minute,’ Paul said. I heard rattling sounds again. ‘I’ll have to come back. I have to find the key, or something to cut this lock off with.’
‘No, don’t go! Please!’ But his feet pounded against the floor of the barn and I heard the screech of the barn door open and close.
I bent down and shook my sister again. She was drifting in and out of consciousness.
She’s dying. I finally found my sister alive, and she’s going to die on me anyways…
Paul had been gone so long, it felt like an eternity. But then I heard the screech of the barn door again. I was half expecting Mindy’s horrifying face to reappear through the slats, but I was relieved when I heard the jangling of keys and saw Paul’s liquid blue eyes through the stall door.
The door flew open and he grabbed me into his arms. I’d never been happier to let him hold me.
‘Where is she? Where’s Mindy Goins?’ I shouted.
‘Dead,’ Paul said, simply. He was holding me up in his arms, and finally, he sat me down on my feet. I ran back into the stall to comfort Madeline as Paul barked into his radio, calling for an ambulance. Sirens rang out in the distance, the sound of them like a beautiful symphony.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I never thought the click and whir of hospital machines could be so comforting. The doctors had Madeline on an IV – she was getting fluids and antibiotics to treat the infection.
‘It will be a few days before she starts to look and feel better. She’s in a great deal of shock. She’s lucky you found her when you did,’ the doctor told me.
Paul was standing at the door of the hospital room and he looked like he was guarding the door, with his uniform and gun belt. ‘You can come in, Paul,’ I told him.
He came and stood next to me, waiting for the doctor to leave the room. ‘When will you tell the children?’ he asked me.
‘They already know their mom is okay. I called Starla from the back of the ambulance. But I told her not to bring them yet. I don’t want them to see her like this. Not yet, anyways.’
‘Do they know…?’
I shook my head. ‘I just told them Mommy was very sick and had to be treated in the hospital. But I promised them that I would take care of her, and that they could come see her in a few days when the doctor said she was better.’
‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ Paul said, his eyes still scrunched up with worry.
‘How did you know I was there?’
‘Well, we were supposed to go out to breakfast, right? When you didn’t answer the door, I realized your front door was unlocked. After I’d just changed the locks, I knew you wouldn’t leave it unlocked unless something was very wrong. Just as I was walking through the house, Albert Tennors came to your door. He said you were trucking across the field toward Goins Farm. He was watching you the whole time from his window.’
‘Of course he was. And for once, I’m glad of it.’
‘So, I went over there to ask her if she had seen you. She said she hadn’t, but then I heard the most god-awful scream coming from the barn. When I started walking toward it, she pulled out a gun on me. I dived for it, but it went off. She took a bullet to the brain. I didn’t want to kill her, Emily. I really didn’t. But she gave me no other choice…’
Regardless of what Mindy Goins did to my sister, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. That woman had every right to be angry.
‘We need to talk.’
‘About what?’ Paul asked, scratching his head.
‘We’ll have to go to my house. I need to show you something.’
***
It felt wrong, leaving my sister all alone after I’d just found her, but I needed to show Paul the tape. I needed him to know the truth about my sister’s crime, and about what Jessica and Rhonda did all those years ago to Sarah Goins. The la
st thing I wanted to do was watch that tape again, but he had to see it for himself.
He asked me what was going on the whole ride back to my sister’s house, but I stayed quiet. Just as we were pulling up, he said, ‘I heard a little bit of what you were saying when I came into the barn. You said something about your sister and another girl killing someone?’
‘I’m sorry to make you watch this, but you need to see it for yourself.’
I took his hand and led him into Shelley’s room. I told him to take a seat while I went to unpackage the tape. I rewound the tape and then we sat, side by side, on the bed. Again, I watched my sister as she stumbled through the house with the camera. Jessica and Rhonda were standing at the front door…
‘What is this?’ Paul asked, perplexed.
I let out a deep whoosh of air. ‘Just keep watching, please. But prepare yourself.’
This time, I stayed quiet as I watched Jessica and Rhonda suffocate Sarah Goins. Paul stayed quiet too, but I watched his face. I’d never seen him look so drained of color. After the final scene when I came into the room, I got up and turned it off.
Before I could say anything, Paul blurted out: ‘Your sister didn’t kill Sarah Goins.’
‘I know she didn’t. But she taped it for Christ’s sake! Who does that? She was scared, and she told them to stop, but it was like she was frozen. She should have done something, called the cops or at least told Mom and Dad! She’s kept this secret for almost twenty years, Paul. That’s why Mindy Goins did what she did.’
Paul’s eyes were glued to the blank screen, looking past me. ‘It finally all makes sense.’
‘What does?’ I threw up my hands in exasperation. None of this made any sense to me. What Jessica did to Sarah Goins was unspeakable. Rhonda was pressured, and my sister stood by, but still, they were guilty too. In a way, we all were…
For the second time, Paul said, ‘Your sister didn’t kill Sarah Goins.’
‘What are you talking about, Paul?’
He coughed into his hand, then his eyes met mine, staring at me intently. ‘She didn’t kill Sarah. Neither did Jessica nor Rhonda. And I know this because I’m the one who did it.’
My Sister is Missing Page 19
