Authors: M.Z. Kelly
“Corinne,” I said, as everything began to tumble into place for me. I looked at Buck. “Where exactly was this girl taken?”
He checked some paperwork in front of him. “She was a student at Bixby Elementary School in Chandler.”
I looked at Joe after I’d googled the school’s address. “It’s about thirty miles from where Macy’s mother lived.”
Joe nodded. “Macy had Brown take the girl as a replacement for his sister.”
I said to Selfie and Molly, “Do we have any idea where Macy’s sister is buried?”
I got two head shakes. Selfie said, “There’s no record of her anywhere in the system after her birth.”
I suddenly flashed on the image of Dr. Moore stumbling out of the darkness behind Alice Macy’s home. Had she heard Corinne Williams calling out from somewhere on the property? Had she known that Macy had taken the girl and was too traumatized to say anything? Could Macy’s sister also be buried on the property?
Joe was apparently on the same wavelength. He said to Selfie and Molly, “What was Corinne Macy’s birthdate?”
Molly glanced at her paperwork, her eyes growing wide as she said, “Today…her birthday is today. If she was alive, she’d be turning twenty-one today.”
I found Joe’s pale blue eyes. “I think the girl Brown kidnapped could still be on Macy’s mother’s property in Blackwater. And I think Quinton Macy is going there tonight to kill her.”
Quinton Macy’s headlights cut through the darkness of the desert landscape. He was on an isolated stretch of Interstate 40, probably not too far from where Joshua Brown had once done his work for him. The countryside was empty and barren, causing his thoughts to drift.
Joshua was dead.
That knowledge consumed him. They had been partners for years, until his friend had lost his mind, sealing his fate.
“Corinne is dead,” Joshua had said to him. “You killed her.”
He laughed out loud at his friend’s last words. Maybe
he
was the one who had belonged in the mental hospital. Joshua had gotten everything wrong, even in the end. The idiot deserved what he got.
Macy checked his gas gauge. He was still a couple of hours from Blackwater and would need to stop for gas. A few minutes later, he saw some lights off the freeway and pulled over, finding a small, older gas station with a couple of pumps.
As he filled his tank, a woman stopped at one of the other pumps. She was young, with brown hair and luminous blue eyes. Her image caused something to shift inside of him, and a rage began to erupt.
The girl looked in his direction and their eyes locked for an instant before she turned away and began pumping gas. It was enough to make his mind reel, the dark images of the past reaching out and smothering him.
He heard the words of his mother coming out of that dark place that had been buried in his mind, hitting him like a jolt of electricity. “If you don’t want to watch anymore and learn what it means to be a man, you can sleep in the garage with the dogs,” his mother had said.
Quinton’s moody eyes had regarded his mother. “It’s Corinne’s birthday. I thought we…”
Her laughter split the air. “You thought what? That we were going to bake a cake and sing to her?” She came over to him. “Your father has a special celebration, just for her, but you’re not man enough to watch.”
He surprised himself by saying, “Corinne doesn’t like what he does.”
His mother’s response was full of contempt and hatred. “You act like you’re a little boy, instead of someone who will be old enough to drive a car next year.” She opened the back door. “Get out.”
The door slammed shut behind him. A shiver went through his body as he stumbled through the darkness. He stopped a few yards from the house. There was a cornfield about a half mile up the road that shimmered in the night air. Just beyond the highway sign, a path led to the place where he knew his father would be with Corinne.
He stopped at the road and looked back at his parents’ small house. He remembered being in the garage last week when his father had done to him what he knew he was now doing to Corinne. There had been a shotgun on the workbench that his father had used when he went quail hunting.
He made his way over to the garage and retrieved his father’s gun, before finding his way down the highway and into the cornfield.
The place where his sister had been held since she was a little girl was about a hundred yards from the road. It was entered by moving a wooden door back and following a stairway down one side. The first time he’d seen the room, Corinne was just a little girl and he remembered one of their long-ago conversations.
“What is the outside like?” she had asked him.
He was seven when their conversation had taken place. Her question had surprised him. “Outside?”
“The place where the cornfield ends. Daddy once told me that he would show it to me someday, if Mama let him.”
He’d reached out and brushed the brown hair out of Corinne’s eyes. He’d realized in that moment that his sister had never seen the outside world. “I can show you,” he said, the idea suddenly occurring to him. “It’s different from here. There are stars in the sky and the moon.”
She looked at him with a blank expression. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He took her hand and they turned to the stairway. “You’ll see. Come with me.”
They had been in the field for only a few minutes, with him pointing out the stars to Corinne, when he’d heard his mother’s shrill, angry words behind him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just…Corinne…wanted…”
“Get back down there,” his mother had screamed at his sister. “NOW!”
After his mother had told their father what happened, he and Corinne had both been beaten every night for weeks…but only after Daddy had done those terrible things to them.
Quinton had pushed the memory of those events away as he’d gone down the stairway, carrying the gun. What he saw in the dim light of the room was no surprise to him. His father was in bed and Corinne was crying.
“Well, look at you,” his father said, getting out of the bed. Quinton saw that he was naked as he came over to him. His father’s dark eyes fixed on the gun that he carried. “You think you’re man enough to use that, boy?”
Quinton had tried to keep his voice steady. “I’m not going…to let you…”
His father suddenly grabbed the gun out of his hand and hit him across the face. Quinton fell to the ground as his father said, “I guess you still have a few things to learn.” He brought the butt of the gun down, smashing it against his head.
He cried out as the gun continued to strike him and his father kicked at him. “No, please…”
Quinton rubbed his head and looked up as he heard Corinne’s words. He saw that she was struggling, trying to get the gun away from his father. He felt dizzy, the images in the dark room coming in and out of focus. Then he heard the explosion and his mind reeled. He looked over, seeing that Corinne was on the ground, bleeding. He crawled over to her.
His father’s big hand came down, grabbing him by the hair as he screamed, “It’s all your fault, you little motherfucker.”
His father’s fists began to rain down on him. He scrambled back, now finding the shotgun on the ground next to Corinne. He rolled away from the punches, at the same time his fingers wrapped around the gun. He brought it up, aiming it as his father and fired. The last thing he remembered was his father’s head exploding, before the blood had rained down on him and his dead sister.
“Nooooo…” Quinton Macy screamed as he strangled the girl that was at the gas station. He had taken her into the restroom, where he now drained the last bit of strength from the girl’s body. Relief flooded through him as the images from the past that had assaulted his mind were pushed back into the darkness.
Everything he’d remembered, all of it had been a lie, something created by his mind. After that dark night in the room where the explosions from the shotgun had changed his world, his mother had told him what had really happened. “It was Corinne. Your crazy sister killed your daddy before you took the gun away and shot her. You avenged his death by killing her. You must never forget that.”
It was with those words that the world inside of Quinton Macy rumbled, then exploded like a massive earthquake that had suddenly erupted at the center of his being. His mind had split apart and, in that instant, the boy he’d once been had gone away. He had been reborn into the man they called the Reaper. And his only mission in life was to kill his sister over and over until he could forever bury the illusion that continued to assault his mind.
As he pulled out of the gas station back onto the highway, he knew there was another girl awaiting his vengeance. The one who Joshua Brown had taken would soon be dead. Maybe then, the lies that crashed through his mind would finally be put to rest. Maybe then, he would finally be at peace.
THE SECRET
“Is the man coming soon?” I asked Nancy.
Nancy and I were still at the table after finishing dinner. We spent most of the day telling stories. I told her about my mama and how much I missed her. I also told Nancy about my school and the girls that sometimes bother me. She said she understood what it’s like to have someone be mean to you, but that’s all she said. It’s cold now and I have my blanket around my shoulders. It’s funny, it doesn’t seem to bother my friend.
“Yes,” Nancy said, “but a different man is coming. He’s the one who sent the other man, the one who took you and brought you here.”
I saw that Nancy’s eyes were changed, different than before. They seem softer now. My eyes sometimes look like that before I cry.
I felt my heart beating faster. “What’s he going to do?”
Nancy didn’t answer right away. I think maybe she was trying to decide something.
She finally said, “You must listen to me very carefully, Corinne.”
Nancy stood up and brought her chair over to my side of the table. Her eyes had the same look as before as she took my hand. The light in the secret room isn’t very bright, but I could tell there was something different about Nancy.
“What’s going to happen?” I asked.
Nancy’s eyes looked away from me and she blinked. “I’m going away.”
Tears came from my eyes and I squeezed her hand harder. “No. You’re real now. You can’t go away.”
Nancy looked back at me. “I’m sorry, Corinne, but even someone who is very real sometimes has to go away, just like your father.”
I tried to brush my tears away but more came. After a long time, I looked back at Nancy. “How did you know about…about my father?”
“Because he’s very real now.”
I thought about what she’d said, but didn’t really understand it. I then asked her a question that scared me. “Am I going away, too?”
Nancy looked at me and smiled. “I can’t tell you that, but…there is something I can tell you.”
I took a breath and wiped my face again. “Okay.”
“When the man comes, you must be very brave. If you are afraid, he will know it, and…” Nancy took a moment before continuing. “Remember when we talked about what being real is?”
I nodded my head. “It’s love.”
Nancy’s soft eyes brightened. “Yes. And even if you are very afraid inside, you must be fearless on the outside, Corinne. Being real can be a hard thing to do. Love means that you face whatever happens, without fear.”
“But, how…how do I be fearless on the outside when I’m scared?”
Nancy took a moment. Her eyes brightened again and she said, “Remember when you were a little girl and you were with your mother? She would hold you in her arms and make you think nothing in the world could be better or more real or more safe.”
Tears were coming down my cheeks again. “Yes. I miss my mama.”
“You must hold onto those feelings with all your heart, no matter what happens. And if you are real enough…maybe…”
When Nancy didn’t continue, I said, “Maybe what?”
Nancy stood up and walked to the center of the small room. She then looked back at me and smiled. “You will see.”
I watched as Nancy’s body began to grow fainter. I ran over to her. “Don’t leave me.”
“I can’t leave you, Corinne. As long as you remember what it is to be real, I can never leave you.” She reached over and took my hand. “But, before I go, I have a secret to tell you.”
After Nancy told me her secret, I hugged her for a long time, but, even as I tried to hold onto her, I knew it was too late. Nancy was gone and the room was cold and dark and empty.
I was alone again.
The entire taskforce, except for Oz, made the trip to Van Nuys Airport in record time. The lieutenant said he was a little under the weather and told us he was going to take the rest of the day off. It didn’t surprise me. Oz hadn’t looked well for several days, and I was worried about him.
As we drove to the airport, I took the opportunity to call Noah and check on Bernie.
“He’s a little more animated than earlier,” Noah said. “But he’s still pretty medicated. I think he’s also missing you, wondering what he’s doing here.”
“I miss him, too. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be tied up all evening.”
“The Reaper?”
“I’m afraid so. I hope to be able to fill you in tomorrow morning and see Bernie then.”
Noah didn’t respond right away. After a long moment, he said, “Okay, be safe. See you in the morning.”
After I put my phone away, I thought about how our conversation had ended. In the past, we’d always ended our calls by expressing our love for one another. Now, I wasn’t sure what either of us was feeling. I felt hollow and empty, and not having Bernie around only added to my distress.
When we were on the plane and in the air, Leo came over and sat next to me as Joe chatted with Greer and the other agents. My big partner proved that he wasn’t fond of flying by buckling up, even though the seatbelt sign wasn’t on.
“Sorry I missed out on everything that went down yesterday,” Leo said. “By the time I left the cemetery and got to Hollywood Boulevard, I missed all the action.”
“It was pretty intense. I just hope everything ends tonight.”
He nodded and was quiet for a moment. After we listened to the engines drone on for a couple of minutes, he said. “I heard you talking to Noah earlier. Everything okay?”
“Just checking on Bernie. He’s resting comfortably.”
His chocolate eyes held on me. “I meant with you and Noah.”
“Oh.” I exhaled and took a moment. “We’re just trying to sort a few things out.”
He gave me a moment, then said, “I can tell that you’ve had something on your mind for a few days now. If you want to talk, I’m a pretty good listener.”
I studied him for a long moment, again trying to decide whether or not to confide in him about the photograph I’d found of Oz with my love-dad. In the short time we’d been partners, I felt a connection to Leo that I knew was genuine and few partners shared. I again weighed that against his longtime friendship with Oz. I realized that I was going to have to talk to Oz about the photo in the next few days anyway and I might as well get Leo’s take on it.
I reached into my handbag and retrieved the photo, handing it over to him. “Recognize anyone?”
He took a moment, studying the faces. “Your dad and Jean Winslow.”
“And?”
“Ryan Cooper and…and Ozzie.”
I fixed my eyes on him. “Tell me what’s going on, Leo. I know that you, Oz, and my dad were best friends when that photo was taken. I also know from talking to Rosalind Castillo that Collin Russell and Harlan Ryland were part of the Revelation at one time. They split off from the group and formed the Tauist Society. How are they and Oz connected to what happened to John Sexton—the man who raised me?”
Joe came over before Leo could answer and said, “We’ve alerted the local police department. They’re going to meet us at the property, if they don’t get there first.” When we didn’t respond, he regarded us both for a long moment. “I’ll leave you two alone. We’re scheduled to land in a few.”
When he was gone, I looked back at Leo. “I’m waiting.”
My big partner tugged at his collar and exhaled. “There’s some things that Ozzie and I haven’t said before, but there’s a reason for that.”
My brows came together and my voice pitched higher. “What exactly are you talking about?”
Leo mumbled something under his breath and his gaze moved off.
“Tell me what’s going on, damn it!” I realized I’d raised my voice, causing some heads to turn. I didn’t care. “Talk to me, Leo.”
“All right.” His big chest rose and fell. “Oz and your dad, I mean, the man who raised you, they were close, much closer in a lot of ways than me and your dad were. He told…” He took another breath before going on. “I can’t be sure, but I think Ozzie might know more.”
“You mean, about who killed the man who raised me?”
Leo shook his head and lowered his voice. “I’m not exactly sure. All I know is that Oz told me once that he swore to keep a secret for John—for the man you call your love-dad—and for your biological mother. He said if he ever told anyone about it, you wouldn’t be safe. I can’t be sure, but I think Ozzie Powell might know who was behind everything that happened. I think he might also know who your biological father is.”