Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (33 page)

“What did you expect me to do
?
Let Alex have Cami and do nothing to save her?
”
I was starting to lose control;
he needed to get to the point and quickly
.

“He may have had control of her, but he wouldn’t have hurt her yet
.
He still had a use for her
.
You should have left well enough alone, but what’s done is done,” he finished with a deep sigh
.
“Alex did not take kindly to you taking her away from him, he did not like the fact that you were able to pull it off
.
You seriously hurt his pride.”

I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Good, he better get use
d
to it.”

Michael crouch down in front o
f me.
“No
,
you don’t understand
.
He doesn’t take kindly to anyone getting in his way
.
He was here tonight Michelle, he came to your house.”

I didn’t know w
hat to say, I didn’t understand.
“Alex had to know I wasn’t here
.
He must have know that I didn’t bring Cami here.”

“He
wasn’t looking for you or Cami.
” Michael put one of his muscular arms on either side of the rocking chair and leaned in
.
“He said that you took something from him, and now he would take something from you.”

“What are you saying
?
” I could feel the panic descending upon me, who was under the sheet in the kitchen
?

“He was here
.
He walked right through the back door
.
Your f
ather is dead
, Michelle.
I’m so sorry,” he finished
,
clearly waiting for my reaction
.
I didn’t react, I couldn’t think, my brain refused to understand what he had just said
.
No, no, there was no way, he had to be wrong
.
I shook my head and launched myself from the rocking chair, sending the chair skidding across the front porch
.
I pushed passed
Michael and slammed through the front door
.
I didn’t
notice the other officer or my
mother,
my sight was
set on the red-stained sheet on the kitchen floor
.

I stepped up to the sheet and felt my combat boots slide in the red pool
that spread across the floor. I
n the back of my mind I thought about the fact that I was contaminating a crime scene, but my grief over powered the thought
.
I pulled the sheet back just as Michael’s arms wrapped around my back
,
locking my arms to the sides of my body
.
He lifted me from the ground and turned with me in his arms, shielding my eyes from the sight I had just uncovered, but he wasn’t fast enough
.
Before he could fully block my view I got a good look at what lay beneath the sheet
.
I wouldn’t have recognized the man on the floor, if not for the faded flannel shirt and the shotgun that lay at his side
.
The gun was in his hand, and
where his face should have been was nothing but a mass of red ruin
.

As Michael pulled me back outside without letting my feet hit the ground I saw the rest of the kitchen
.
The cabinets above the stove and the counter where the coffee pot sat were splattered with dark, crimson blood and thicker things
.
The reality of the situation set in, and I went limp in Michael’s arms
.
I heard him bark at the other officer to
stay with my m
other on the couch
, and then he threw the storm door back open and all but tossed my into the rocking chair again
.
It had slide to the corner of the porch, and with Michael standing in front of me I was truly trapped this time.

“That was really stupid, Michelle, really stupid
.
You have to keep it
together, I need you not to lo
se it.” T
he fierce tone of his voice infuriated me
.

“My f
athe
r is laying on my kitchen floor
dead! I’m sure that I don’t have to keep it together
.
No one would blame me!
”
I shouted at him
.

He jerked the rocking chair I was sitting in so I faced him straight on and he leaned in so o
ur faces were mere inches apart.
“No
,
Michelle, if y
ou were anyone else you could l
ose it, but you don’t have that luxury
.
I
need you to calm down before the coroner gets here
.
As far as the other officer and the coroner
are
concerned
I am just his partner, reporting to a call,
but I need to explain some thing
s to you before the others arrive.
”

I was t
o
o shocked to respond, I just sat in front of him staring into those sky, blue eyes and waited for him to finish
.
“To everyone who views that crime scene it’s going to look like a suicide
.
You
,
Gabriel
, and I
know differently, but Alex wanted it to look like this
.
He has the
power to make people do things
they wouldn’t normally do
.
From the outside looking in his suicide won’t seem that surprising
.
He was married to a woma
n plagued by mental health issues, working at a construction company that was going under, and life just got to
be too
much for him to handle.
”

“N
o, n
o!” I began to scream and attempted to stand
.
“My f
ather would never kill himself!”

Michael put a hand on my shoulder
and forced me to sit back down.
“I know that,” he hissed
.
“But that is what this is suppose
d to look like, and your m
other’s ramblings about the Antichrist walking through
the back door and forcing your f
ather to do this are not helping her appear an
y
less insane.
”
 

“Is she okay?
” I whispered
,
ashamed that it had take
n me this long to ask about my m
other’s well being
.

“She was able to call 911, and when we arrived she was leaning over him praying
.
I think she is going to be fine, but she is in shock at the moment and we will most likely take her to the hospital once the coroner arrives.
”

I nodded as I thankfully began to feel a numbness seep into my mind
.
The body has a won
derful way of self-preservation; if something i
s t
o
o har
d to think about or understand the
n
your body doesn’t let your brain
think about it
.
“This is all my fault,” I whispered
.
“If I hadn’t challenged Alex he wouldn’t have
killed my f
ather.
”

Michael leaned back on h
is heels and took a deep breath.
“We don’t know that
,
Michelle
.
You were doing what you thought was right
.
These are the actions of an evil man, don’t blame yourself.
”
He lean
ed in a laid his hand on my chee
k
.
“Where is Gabriel?
”

“He’s hiding and watching over Cami, I left to get supplies and promised I would be back.”

Michael nodded.
“Okay, listen to me
.
You need to keep it together
.
You need to let the coroner and the detectives come in, do what they have to do
.
I’ll ride with your m
other to the hospital
.
I’ll convince them not to keep her the night
.
You need to pack her a bag and Cami a bag and get them out of here
.
Anyone you care about, you have to
make
leave
.
Alex won’t follow
them
if you stay here.
”

I numbly nodded, it sounded like a good plan
.
“Okay,” was all I
could muster as a
respons
e
.

Michael leaned in one more
time, laying his hand on my cheek.
“I really am sorry
,
Michelle, but you have to be strong.
”
With that he stood and left me sitting on the front porch in the cool October air
.

I don’t know what went on inside the house
.
I couldn’t bring myself to go back
inside;
instead I stayed seated in the rocking chair on the front porch
.
Michael and the other officer came out of the ho
use with my m
other
.
Michael loaded
her i
nto the ambulance and rode
off to the hospital
.
His “partner” stayed and spoke with the coroner and later the detectives
.
The
detectives
spoke to me briefly, but since I wasn’t home when the incident occurred
there wasn’t much they could ask me
.
Michael was right, everyone assumed it was a suicide and no one seemed to
o
surprise
d
.
I spoke with the coroner as to when the body would be available
for pick-up by the funeral home
.
All the while I felt strangely distant, unconnected to my body, as if the words were just coming without any initiation from my brain
.

Hours passed and at around
ten-thirty
the house was finally cleared
.
The coroner had left a card for a cleaning service
that
would come in and take care of the kitchen
.
I had called and they would be arriving at
seven
tomorrow
morning
.
I slipped into the house
,
trying very hard to keep my eyes away from the kitchen
.
First I went into my m
other
’
s room and hurriedly packed
her
bag, throwing jeans and t-shirts, socks and sneakers, underwear a
nd nightgowns into a large over
night bag
.
I hadn’t seen my m
other dressed and out of the house in years, but I assumed that these clothes still fit
.
I then tore down the hall to my room
.
I would have to pack Cami a bag out of my closet
.
I rushed around my room throwing in jeans and sweatshirts, she would have to buy underwear, we were close but no
t
that close
.
I then went to the hall linen closet and pulled out some blankets, towels, a few bars of soap, a tube of toothpaste, and some new toothbrus
hes courtesy of my last dentist
visit
.

Finally I snuck into my f
ather’s office
.
The room was originally suppose
d
to be another bedroom, but my parents had never had any other children except for me, and now I understood why
.
After what my
birth had put my m
other through, angels and demons and prophecies, who
would
want more children
?
It was d
ifficult being in his office,
surrounded by his things
,
but I kept my mind on the mission at hand
.
I reached into the bottom draw
er
of his desk and pulled out a small firebox
.
The box had a
combination
lock on it, but
luckily
I knew the combination;
it was the same numbers my father had used for everything, my birthday 12-21-1995
.
I rolled the numbers
i
n the lock to 12, 21, and 95 and the lock clicked open
.
Inside lay exactly what I was looking for, on top
of
my birth
certificate a
nd social security card was my f
ather’s handgun and a box of 9-millimeter shells
.
He had taken me to the range a few times to shoot, but it wasn’t something I
was in
to
.
I
grabbed the gun and shoved it into the back of my jean
’
s waistband
.
Underneath the gun laid $500 cash, Dad’s emergency fund
.
I though
t
this qualified as an emergency and grabbed the cash as well
.