Afterthoughts (20 page)

Paige started to think about what this
had to do with her and quickly remembered the shovel in her hand,
watching Aileen. She lost her train of thought
completely.

“
My brother started
behaving even more strangely one day. He seemed to have eyes in the
back of his head where I was concerned. He always showed up as soon
as I had whatever dinner I could scrounge up. He seemed to always
know what I was thinking. I soon figured it out and I figured out
how to stop him. I figured out he had a gift and I had it too. I
had to hide it from him. He was becoming controlling and mean.
Abusive … so abusive. He thought of his gift as power and he used
it as such. I learned to control my thoughts so I could avoid him;
to deceive him. He didn’t seem to catch on to what I was doing so I
got away and went back to the orphanage. I didn’t see him
again.”

Paige was beginning to understand. It
was becoming more difficult to concentrate on the deaths of her
friends and what Junna was telling her so she pulled on her arm
causing excruciating pain. She had to think about the
pain.

Junna waited for Paige to catch her
breath. Jay, Tom and Adam watched in disbelief.

“
I kept up with you Paige.
That was my fault. I helped him find you. I remembered the couple
that came in to adopt you and their young daughter, Sarah. I
remembered everything. I was hurt that it wasn’t me, but Shepherd,
my brother, was devastated. He hated the life you had while we were
in that awful orphanage.”

Paige began to cry. “You’re my sister.
That evil man is my brother!”

“
He had to fight to
survive after I left him and went back to the orphanage. God only
knows what has happened to him. Whatever it was only made him
stronger. I’m sure he used his gift to convince people to give him
what he wanted. Now he wants you to pay. Pay for the crimes he’s
done,” she paused before she continued. “He has always hated you.
From the time you were adopted he hated you and the family that
took care of you. I can’t say that I didn’t feel some resentment,
but I truly was happy for you. When you disappeared, I knew what
happened. I could read you. I knew. I saw what you were thinking
but I couldn’t find you. I had no idea you were here. Maybe he
blocked that from me. I couldn’t read you again until it was too
late. I never gave up. I kept trying until one day I could read
your thoughts. You were trying to help Sarah. But it was too late.
I finally found Shepherd in the collective conscious and knew what
he had done. The search for the two of you was making me more
powerful. He knows that now and that’s why I am here. He found me.
He found my house and waited for me and took me to that awful
place. Paige, you didn’t kill anyone. He did. He did it and is
somehow transferring his memories and thoughts to you as if you did
everything. He’s trying to get you to admit to killing all of them.
That’s his plan. Have faith in yourself, Paige. I hope I haven’t
done you more harm by telling you. But you need to know. It wasn’t
you! You need to fight him.”

John interrupted, “Jay, this is what
you wanted me to hear? This is nuts and you are going along with
it! Out, all of you, out!”

Jay took Paige’s hand, “Read me,
Paige.”

She looked at him and shut her eyes.
She opened them and looked at him. She could hear him say, “Paige,
I love you. I believe in you. Believe in yourself too.”

He kissed Paige softly on the forehead
and took Junna by the arm and led her out. Junna turned to Paige,
“He’s right, you know.”

Chapter 40

Paige sat in silence in
the cell. She closed her eyes.
“I don’t
care if you can read me, Shepherd. I know who you are and what you
are up to. I may be in this cell now, but I won’t be for long. I
believe in Jay and I believe in Junna. They will convince everyone
of what you did. You won’t pin this on me.”
She paced around the cell, still thinking in her head.
“Hear me now, Shepherd. You will not control my
thoughts any longer. It’s not my fault. I don’t know why I was
chosen for adoption, but it is not my fault. I don’t know what has
happened to you but you will not defeat me. Not while there is a
breath left in my body!”

She could hear the icy
voice,
“You have no idea what I can do,
dear pigeon. You may be getting stronger, but your friends aren’t.
No one will believe you. They all will think you are crazy. After
all, you are crazy. You’ve imagined everything, dear pigeon.
Everything. See, you are hearing voices. You are crazy. Just wait
and see.”

Tears swelled up in her
eyes again. Paige sat down on the cot and curled up into a ball to
rock back and forth.
“Is it true? Have I
gone crazy? Have I imagined everything?”
As she rocked back and forth, John Waters watched her from
down the hall, wondering the same thing.

Jay and Junna headed out to the
Steckler Estate. “There has to be something. Some shred of evidence
that Shepherd was here,” Jay said to Junna as they got out of the
car and headed toward the broken door.

Jay pushed the yellow tape aside and
entered the foyer. They wandered around the room looking for any
sign of evidence.

“
I never thought I’d set
foot in here,” Junna whispered as she walked up behind Jay. “I’ve
seen it from the outside so many times when I’d drive by trying to
catch a glimpse of my sister.”

Jay touched her arm, “I’m sorry. I
know that must have been very hard for you being able to see your
sister and not being able to talk to her.”

“
I did what I had to, or
thought I had to,” Junna sighed and continued to look around. She
stopped in her tracks when she finally saw the writing in red on
the wall. “My brother is also very stupid. Did he really think this
would lead the police to Paige?”

“
I guess he thought it
might if we were to believe this to be a warning.”

Junna nodded and continued to look
around the estate which was now empty from the auction.

Suddenly a voice came from the hall,
“Hello, Jay. You here?” It was John Waters.

Jay walked back toward the front door.
John reached out his hand to Jay but Jay didn’t take it.

“
I want to apologize. I
should not have behaved the way I did earlier.

In fact,” he looked over his shoulder
as Paige walked through the door, “I decided to give her the
benefit of the doubt. Something kept telling me to trust
Paige.”

Paige glanced at Junna who passed her
a quick smile and a wink making Paige smile as well.

John continued, “She’s still in
custody with me. But I thought maybe her being here would jog a
memory or help us out some way.”

“
That’s a great idea,” Jay
beamed as he hugged Paige.

Paige slowly walked around the room.
She rubbed her hand along the paint and tried to envision what had
happened here. She then walked out to the garage. It was all she
could do to keep any composure possible as she remembered the rope
in her hands and watching Richie swing from the rafters. “Why did
he have to do this to us?” she said out loud.

The others joined her in the garage.
They watched her walk around in circles, whispering her thoughts so
that no one else could hear.

“
Good, you are all here,”
an icy voice came from the doorway. “I would like for you all to
move to the corner where I can see you clearly, with your hands up,
of course.” The man moved into the light. Everyone could see that
he had two handguns, resembling a gunfighter, pointed at them all.
“And don’t bother thinking about reaching for your own guns. I will
know it before you do. I can read minds you know.”

They all gathered in the
corner of the garage. Jay placed his arms around both Paige and
Junna while John stood beside them. Shepherd walked up to them,
running the barrel of one hand gun along Paige’s cheek. “After
today, my life will be complete. You will all have paid for the
crimes committed against me.
All of
you!”
he screamed in Junna’s
face.

“
What happened to you,
Shepherd?” Junna asked him. “Let me know why you are doing this?
Why do we need to die?”

“
Sweet little, Junna. Do
you not remember? Or do you choose to forget?” He then ran the
barrel down her cheek. “Old man Messing, remember him?” He backed
away and looked at the rest of the group.

“
I know Junna has let you
all in on our little secret. That’s why you all have to
die.”

“
What about old man
Messing?” Junna interrupted.

He moved quickly back to her face,
keeping his guns pointed at her and Paige. “I’ll deal with him
soon. You don’t know what it’s like to read the mind of a very,
very sick man, do you? You never tried! You didn’t hear night after
night how that man wanted to touch us, smell us, rape us. Over and
over I listened to him. I knew every one of that sick man’s
fantasies. I watched them all come true. All the while, our perfect
little sister was living happily ever after in her fairy tale land.
Oblivious to all that we were going through! Being loved by these
horrid little rich bastards! And then you, my dear Junna, had to go
and try to raise money to keep that damn place open!” He started to
pace around the room.

Jay pulled the girls
closer to him. Paige could feel his gun push into her side. She
started whispering the words “Don’t think. Don’t think. Feel the
gun. Reach for the gun.” While tying to think
, “Be still, don’t move”.

Shepherd continued his
rant. “Paige, you were so easy to suggest to. You were so easy to
find thinking about you dear dead friends. It was so easy for me to
interrupt your thoughts and dreams with
my
memories, especially when you
were mine when I kept you in that dark place, getting into your
head, infiltrating your dreams,” he laughed. “It was so easy to
convince you that you killed everyone. My God, you are so weak, so
vulnerable. I think I could have convinced you that you shot
President Lincoln. I even had you believing you had killed cats
with your bare hands! It was such pleasure to cause you grief! You
cared so much for your family but you were still so lonely. You
still wanted more, you selfish little bitch. It was so easy to
convince you that you killed everyone out of jealousy. So easy to
convince you that you were losing your mind.”

As soon as he said the last word an
explosion reverberated through the garage. Two more shots were
fired; one, hitting Junna in the leg and the other hitting the
garage door. The first, however, hit its mark.

Shepherd sank slowly to the floor,
dropping both guns. Jay hurried and kicked them out of
reach.

“
How?” Shepherd asked as
he fell to the floor.

“
You’re not the only one
with a gift,” Paige smiled at him while still holding Jay’s gun.
“You thought I was afraid. You thought I was telling myself to keep
very still. At least, that’s what I wanted you to think. You
believed what I wanted you to believe, Shepherd. How does that
feel?” she said as she watched him slowly drift away.

Chapter 41

The next week was extremely busy. John
and Jay were trying to keep everything out of the press with the
exception of the fact that the murderer had been caught and was
killed in self defense. Paige and Junna were spending time getting
to know one another and becoming fast friends while helping each
other recover.

The two of them were sitting at a
small table in Pauline’s when Jay walked in.

“
Hey ladies,” he smiled
and kissed Paige as he sat down. “Paige, Junna, I have something to
tell you. I just found out myself.”

“
What’s that?” Paige
smiled up and him.

“
I just spoke with John
Waters. It seems he’s had a secret,” Paige resisted the urge to
read him. “It appears Mr. Messing has been arrested for a running
prostitution ring as well as possession of child
pornography.”

Paige couldn’t believe her ears. “I
knew that chick I saw him with was a whore!” Paige remembered
seeing Ian in the restaurant while having dinner with
David.

Junna reached across the table and
took her hand.

“
That’s just perfect!
He’ll no doubt use the estate money for all of his legal fees,”
Junna sighed.

“
I’ll make sure that
doesn’t happen,” Paige said lightly.

“
Yeah, all the money will
be spent on the kids, and on finding a new Ian Messing.” Jay stood
up from the table and looked at Paige.

Paige jumped into his arms and kissed
him happily, “Now all we have to do is find a way to prosecute him
for his abuse. At least he will not be around to harm anyone else.
We all are witnesses to Shepherd’s confession. Others should come
out now.” She turned and hugged Junna.

“
Excuse me,” a voice
sounded from behind. “Are you Paige Aldridge?”

Paige turned to find two gentlemen in
suits looking at them.

“
Yes,” she replied looking
puzzled.

“
You must be Junna
Brooks?” One of them asked.