by Willow Rose
"This really has nothing to do with me…" Susan said and was about to get up from her seat. Jack signaled for her to sit down.
"How did you track him down? How did you find Benjamin? The Rutherfords had been very thorough and created a false identity for him with a social security number and everything."
Susan sank into her seat. Shannon sensed she was about to give up fighting this.
"I couldn't let it go. John, my husband, kept telling me to, but I couldn't. I was completely obsessed with finding him. It drove me nuts and almost ruined my marriage. I hired a private investigator to track the driver down, thinking that somehow Tommy, that was Benjamin's name before, had to have disappeared with him. It took the investigator almost four years and most of my savings, but he found the friends that Charles was out with that night and a neighbor who had seen him steal the car and recognized him as the pastor's son. But by then, they were long gone, and my husband got sick, so I let it go. Until he died and I didn't have any purpose in life anymore, at least that's how it felt. So, I found the old files again and started to look into them, then realized that the investigator had actually tracked the pastor down to living in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. So, I decided we should go there. I needed to get away; we both did."
"And you wanted to see your nephew," Jack said, sipping more coffee.
"It was this all-consuming mystery that I couldn't stop thinking about, no matter how much I tried. It was all day and all night, lurking in the back of my head. So finally, I had enough and decided to go. I didn't tell Savannah anything because she didn't need to know all this."
"You just hadn't expected her to fall for him," Jack said. "Nor had you expected to be pregnant with the pastor's baby. That's what derailed you, wasn't it? You were planning on destroying the family, getting close enough to them to find out everything you needed, then destroy them. That's why you started the affair with the pastor."
"I contacted Benjamin first. I went up to him in the parking lot outside the school and told him I knew who he was and that we were related. He hadn't met Savannah yet, and to this day, I still believe he only dated her to spite me. See, that was his character. He didn't want to reveal any of them and told me so when I tried to talk him into doing it. He told me he didn't need my help, that he was happy the way he was. How can you be happy this way? I asked him. Living a lie, never telling anyone who you really are?
“‘This way, I get everything I want,’ he said. Those were his words.”
“And then he told me how he had made this flash drive many years ago, to blackmail his family. He used it to get his way in everything. That was how he got away with sleeping with his own sister, who wasn’t his biological sister. Everyone believed she was the one obsessed with him, and she was, but only because he seduced her. He was the one who asked her to sleep with him; he was the one who told her that he would run away with her one day and they'd be an item. But he lied to her, thinking this family deserved no better for what they had done to his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford tried to stop him from ruining Penny’s life, but he just told them that if they did, he'd reveal who he really was and send the proof to a journalist and the police. They'd all go to jail. Maybe not Penny, but the rest of them. Her, he only made believe he loved her, but the fact was that Benjamin loved no one but himself. He held them all prisoners and had them serving his every command and need. If ever anything happened to him, he'd have the proof sent out, and their lives would be over. He didn't want to destroy that. He had a great life this way, he told me. He didn't need my help. He started dating Savannah as protection. So, I wouldn’t reveal anything. He knew I wouldn't want to risk hurting her."
"So, you came up with another way of hurting the Rutherfords and started an affair with the pastor," Jack said.
Susan sighed, then nodded. "I thought I could at least destroy what they had; I owed my sister that much. It wasn't like I'd have anything to lose."
"But then you fell for him, didn't you? Just like your daughter fell for Benjamin, and that screwed everything up, am I right? And with the baby coming and all, there really wasn't any part of you that wanted them to be revealed since the pastor would only end up in jail. He had promised you he'd leave his family for you, right?"
"Yes. He said he wanted to leave but was scared of what would happen. But then the strangest thing happened. A few days before he disappeared, Benjamin came to me and told me he was ready to tell. He was sick of his family and wanted them to finally get what they deserved. They had killed his parents and kidnapped him, and he wanted them to suffer for that. He was ready to tell. He knew a journalist who had been working on the story of the missing child from the crash for years, and she had offered him a great deal of money for an interview. He wanted me to know that he was coming clean, and he wanted me to support his story."
Susan sighed again and fiddled with her cup.
"And you told him you wouldn't do that, didn't you?" Jack asked. “You had come this far, but now you’d changed your mind.”
Shannon held her breath as she watched the two of them, their eyes locked like two dogs ready to fight.
"Yes. I said I was over it and there was no need to do this anymore. I also begged him not to do it since I was pregnant with Charles’ child and he had promised to leave his wife for me."
"And Benjamin told you he couldn't do that, right? He wanted the money that the journalist had promised him. He wanted them to hurt and then leave and begin a new life for himself. He knew they were getting tired of him and feared what they might do to him. He had gone too far."
Susan nodded.
"So, you killed him?"
73
Maggie Valley 2019
January 25th
11:36 PM
Benjamin watched Savannah as she left the porch and got into her car. Their eyes locked once more before she drove off and disappeared into the night. Benjamin stood for a few seconds, looking after her, while Susan Kelsey watched him from her car. She had parked it at the neighboring cabin, waiting for her daughter to be done talking to him, and as soon as she drove away, Susan drove up into the driveway and parked. She grabbed the gun in her glove compartment and got out. She could still see Benjamin on the porch. The gun shook in her hands while she realized she wasn’t completely clear about what her plan was. All she knew was that she was angry at Benjamin and she had to stop him somehow.
But Benjamin wasn't alone, she soon realized, and she hid behind the car to wait for this person to leave. As she looked up there, she realized he was talking to his brother in the wheelchair. They were fighting. Squatting behind the truck and listening, she could hear most of what they said. The voice speaking loudest was Benjamin's.
"You're a helpless idiot, you always have been, ever since that day. Why do you lurk in the darkness like this? Why do you listen in on my conversations, huh?"
"I was out here anyway,” Charles Junior answered. “I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I'll go inside. You can deal with your own problems, and I will deal with mine, okay?"
"Problems? Problems, ha? I don't have any problems. Do you want to know why? Because I am not a liar or a kidnapper, that's why. You are all that and a murderer on top of it, and soon the entire world will know. They'll all know who and what you are, and you'll all get what you deserve."
"Please, Benjamin. Haven't we suffered enough for what we did? You’ve tortured us all for years, ever since you came with us. It was an accident. Don’t you understand that? All we wanted was to move on and make sure you had a good life and a family to grow up in. We tried to give you a life. You'd have ended up in the foster care system if it wasn't for us. And all you have done is torture us."
"Well, get used to it, my friend, because you're in for a lot more suffering,” he said, leaning close to his brother, breathing into his face. Charles Junior sobbed, bending his head down in shame.
Susan felt her heart knock against her rib cage. The gun felt heavy in her hand, and suddenly she regretted coming
there. She felt like crying and put the gun in the back of her pants, then waited for a few seconds, waiting for them to go inside when suddenly she heard a loud thud, followed by a big bump. Startled, she peeked up above the front of the car and looked up at the porch. On the wooden floor, she saw Benjamin, his dead eyes staring accusatorily at her, blood running from the back of his head.
Susan gasped and clasped her mouth. And that was when they heard her.
"Who’s there?" Mrs. Rutherford said and stepped into the sparse light. "Come forward, now!"
74
"So, it was Charles who hit him with the fire poker?" Shannon asked.
I shook my head as the final pieces fell into place. Susan was rubbing her fingers against each other nervously.
"It was Mrs. Rutherford, wasn't it?" I said.
Susan nodded. "Beatrice was still holding the fire poker in her gloved hands as I walked up there. She asked me if I had seen her do it. I said yes, but I also said I wouldn't tell if she didn't want me to. I guess I felt guilty somehow because of the affair and the pregnancy and all that. Plus, I was scared of her in that instant. She's a very frightening woman."
"So, you kept quiet for her sake?” Shannon said.
"I wanted him gone too, remember. Beatrice didn't need to say anything. Our eyes locked and we decided to help each other out. She couldn't lose her son. She couldn’t lose Charles Junior, she kept saying. That was why she had done what she did back then, and that was why she did it again. I helped her carry the body to the freezer in the shack at the end of the property by the creek. The ground was too hard for us to dig a hole, and we knew the search teams would be out there when they realized he was gone in the morning, so we put him the freezer where there would be no smell for the hounds to find. Then we put the fire poker in the hatch and closed it. We had no idea Penny would find it all and think that Savannah had placed it there. Their uncle had heard everything and came out to help us carry the body away. Beatrice made him swear never to tell anyone, but then he did anyway. While drunk, he spoke to that journalist who was still on the story after Benjamin had talked to her. She knew everything, and now that Benjamin was gone, she suddenly started to dig deeper, realizing that there was a huge story in there somewhere. She knew something had happened to Benjamin and wouldn't believe that he had just run off. She met with the uncle in a bar, got him plastered, and then he blabbed. Soon, she found the horse wrangler, and he revealed that he had been working late that night and then come out of the stables just in time to see us carry the body away. Lyle Bishop was in the house when it happened because he was dating Penny at the time and must have seen it happen since he was also talking to the journalist. Back when Savannah showed me the flash drive, I told her to forget all about it. If the police ever questioned her, she was supposed to not talk about it. I said it was a matter of life and death. It would ruin everything if she mentioned it. She didn’t know anything. She had left before it happened, so she didn’t know who killed Benjamin. But she had seen what was on the flash drive. She knew their secret. I explained to her why I had asked her to keep quiet about it when she got out of jail. I told her I was in love with the pastor and the information on the flash drive could hurt him. Then she ran off and well…you know the rest better than I do."
"Why did you fight with him?" Shannon asked. “I saw you two fighting in the parking lot."
"He was going to back out. He couldn't leave Beatrice now that they had lost their son, he said, and then he got very aggressive, trying to get me to leave him alone. But it started before Benjamin went missing. As soon as I told him about the pregnancy, that’s when everything changed. I was mad at him for some time for reacting that way. I think he got scared. Maybe he did love his wife after all and didn’t want to lose her. I don’t think he knew that Beatrice had killed Benjamin, but I think he suspected that she might have. He was afraid of what was going to happen. Would Beatrice tell the police everything? Would it be revealed somehow anyway that they had taken Benjamin and that Charles Junior had killed those two people on the day of the accident? I never heard him say these things, but that's what I assume he was thinking after I read the stuff on the flash drive. Anyway, I don't care anymore. Beatrice killed my daughter and, to be honest, I want her to fry for what she’s done. She shot her that night on the ledge. My guess is she knew that Savannah had the flash drive and that’s why she had to die. No one could know. She couldn’t risk that Savannah spoke to anyone about it. I guess it was my fault since I told her to keep quiet when talking to the police. If she had just told them, we wouldn’t be sitting here. The Rutherfords would have been revealed and jailed for their acts. And my Savannah would be…"
Susan stopped and sniffled. She wiped her nose on a tissue and shook her head.
"How do you know it was Mrs. Rutherford?" I asked. “How do you know she shot Savannah?”
Susan lifted her glare, and our eyes met across the room. I sensed deep anger but also regret in them.
"She was an army sniper. Took three trips to Iraq back in the nineties. I’ve been up to that place after I was told what happened to Savannah. I saw what distance she made the shot from, and at nighttime on top of it. To my knowledge, she's the only one around here who can shoot like that."
75
“Come on, Austin! Come play with us.”
Abigail bent down and gathered enough snow to shape a ball and throw it at her brother. It landed a few feet from where he was sitting. Abigail yelled his name again and signaled for him to join them, but Austin shook his head. He didn’t want to play in the snow with his siblings. He didn’t feel like it. He felt cold and awful. His father had ended up in the hospital, and it was all his fault. If only he had told him what he knew, then all of this wouldn’t have happened. But how could he have? When he knew he risked all their lives if he did?
Austin shook his head. It didn’t matter anymore. As soon as his dad came back from the hospital later today, he was going to tell him everything. It was about time.
“Austin, come on!”
Abigail yelled at the top of her lungs just as Angela threw a snowball at her and hit her forehead. Abigail shrieked as snow slid into her eyes.
“I’m gonna get you for this!” she yelled joyfully, then threw herself on top of Angela. They landed in the snow and started laughing, rolling around.
Tyler and Betsy Sue were building an igloo, or what was supposed to be one, piling up snow in the middle of the yard. Tyler waddled in his snowsuit while gathering snow between his hands and putting it on top of the mountain, while Betsy Sue began hollowing it.
Austin kicked the snow in front of him, annoyed. He missed being able to have fun like his siblings, and he envied his twin sister for being able to always make the best of any situation, of always finding joy even when things were tough.
Abigail ran across the yard, trying to get away from Angela, when she tripped and fell onto the igloo, missing Betsy Sue’s head by only a few inches.
“Hey!” Betsy Sue yelled when Abigail landed in the middle of her pile with a loud laugh.
“Hey!” Tyler chimed in, placing his hands on his sides.
Abigail couldn’t stop laughing, and Tyler grabbed a big pile of snow and placed it on top of her. Seconds later, they all threw themselves in the soft white powder and started making snow angels.
Tired of watching them, Austin rose to his feet. He walked in between the tall trees till he reached the creek. He bent down and stared into the crackling water, seeing his own reflection, then sighed. He reached his hand into the water and felt the freezing cold hit the tips of his fingers. As he pulled it out with a light gasp, he saw something in the reflection in front of him. A face and a set of eyes that made him wet his pants. Austin tried to scream, but a hand placed in front of his mouth blocked out all sound.
76
I spotted the kids playing in the yard as soon as we drove up in the driveway. The sight of them making snow angels made me smile. It was late in the afternoon, and we
had spent way too long at Susan’s place. We had talked and talked and finally called the sheriff. He had arrived with a couple of deputies, and Susan had told them her story once again, crying heavily this time. We had left, leaving the sheriff to deal with the rest. Hopefully, they would arrest Mrs. Rutherford within the next few hours, but I wasn’t going to meddle anymore. I was just happy I wasn’t working the case since it was quite the mess to figure out the details. But luckily, it was someone else’s mess. All I wanted was to be with my family and hopefully enjoy the rest of my vacation. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to snowboard anymore while there, but at least I could get to be with my most favorite people in the world.
Shannon parked the car in front of the cabin, and I got out, leaning on my cane. Abigail was the first to spot me.
“Daaaaaad!”
She ran to me and threw herself at me, hugging me tightly.
