Hold Back the Dark (27 page)

“You accuse me of raping you, and then you say you’re here because you love me? You are one sorry excuse for a person.” Carl practically spat as he spoke.

“You think I don’t know that? I see the contempt on your face when you look at me, but it’s not even a tenth of the contempt I feel for myself. Why do you think I started drinking when I was fifteen? What did you think those suicide attempts when I was nineteen and twenty were about? That’s the
real
reason I came back. The idea of you doing that to another boy, making him feel the way I do, was too unbearable.”

“You are such a pussy, Sean. So I had a little fun with you when you were a kid. It’s nothing more than my father and his brother did to me, and you don’t see me whining about how they ruined my life. They made me strong. I took it like a man then, and I take it like a man now that it’s my turn.”

“Not anymore, you won’t.” Sean started toward his father.

“That’s Aimee’s car,” Josh said as they pulled up to the Walter home.

Elise turned to him. “Why would she be here?”

Josh gritted his teeth. “She’s here warning Sarah Barlow about Sean. I’d put money on it.”

“Why the hell would she do that? You explained why she needed to stay away.”

“Because she’s convinced he’s going to rape his stepbrother, the one whose puppy he buried.” Josh got out of the car.

“And you
let
her?” Elise got out of her side.

“Have you noticed that there’s not a lot of permission being asked on her part? Ever?” Josh started up the driveway.

“I’d tell you you’re a lucky son of a bitch if I wasn’t so worried about her right now.” Elise fell in step with him.

Carl grabbed a heavy crystal vase of cut flowers, heaved it up, and cracked Sean across the skull hard enough to shatter the vase. The connection made a sickening sound, like a ripe melon being dropped on the ground, and Sean sank to the floor.

Sarah screamed again.

Aimee again tried to scramble for the door, but Carl’s voice stopped her. “Don’t move a muscle.”

She looked back. Carl had grabbed Thomas and held the little boy against him, a piece of jagged glass pressed against the boy’s jugular.

“If I cut him, he’ll bleed out before you even get to your car.” Carl’s voice was even, but his chest was heaving.

“He’s just a child,” Aimee pleaded.

“True. He is only a child,” Carl crooned, swaying back and forth a little bit. “A beautiful child, isn’t he?”

“Please, Carl,” Sarah begged. “Please don’t hurt him.”

“Shut up,” Carl snarled over his shoulder. “Shut your stupid mouth, Sarah.”

Thomas began to cry, and Carl leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “Hush, Thomas,” he said in honeyed tones. “Hush now. You know I love you. I adore boys this age. Just ask your big brother. We’re going to have so much fun together. You’ll see.”

“I don’t want to,” Thomas cried. “I want to go be with Mom.”

Carl pressed the piece of glass against the boy’s throat, and Thomas screamed as a bright red dribble of blood ran down his neck.

Then the front door burst open, and Josh and Elise charged in with guns drawn.

Josh took in the scene in an instant. Aimee was on the floor, her arm cradled to herself. Sean was on the floor, blood flowing from his head, but his chest rose and fell. He was still breathing.

Carl stood with a jagged piece of glass pressed against the little boy’s neck.

“Let the boy go, Carl,” Josh said. “It’s over. Let him go.”

He had a good, clean shot to Carl’s head. He could easily take him out.

“I don’t think so, Detective Wolf.” Carl’s voice shook a little and his eyes didn’t leave the gun.

Josh took another step into the room, and Carl shifted toward Sean’s body. “There’s no way out of this for you, Carl. You might as well let the boy go.” From the corner of his eye, Josh thought he saw Sean twitch.

Carl shook his head and laughed, hysterical and high-pitched. “You might as well shoot me, Detective. I’m not going to give up.”

“Come on, Mr. Walter.” Elise walked forward, too, boxing Carl in with Sean at his feet and Aimee just a few yards away. “Nobody needs to get hurt here. Let’s end this now before it gets any worse for you.”

“Worse for me? How much worse can it get?” Carl was panting now; sweat had sprung up on his forehead.

Sean Walter had twitched again; Josh was sure of it.

“Killing a child in cold blood? No jury would ever let you go. But Orrin and Stacey? It wasn’t premeditated. You might be able to convince a jury of that,” Aimee said, her voice strained.

“Shut up!” Carl screamed. “This would have all gone away if it wasn’t for you. You couldn’t just leave it alone! You had to keep asking questions, sticking your nose in where it didn’t belong. This is all
your
fault.” He stepped toward Aimee but Thomas didn’t move, and for just one fraction of a second, Carl was off balance.

That was all Sean needed. He straightened his legs, entangling them with Carl’s, and scissored them hard. Carl Walter came down with a crash.

As Carl fell, Sean grabbed Thomas and swept him out of harm’s way. Elise leaped forward, planted a knee in Carl’s back, and cuffed him practically before his face hit the floor.

And Josh scooped Aimee off the floor, held her in his arms, and prayed he would never ever have to let her go.

Aimee clung to Josh. She was safe. Thomas and Sean and Sarah were safe. She repeated it to herself until she could accept that it was true.

“How did you get here?” she asked, still not letting go.

“When we ran the ANI to see what vehicles were registered to the house, I found out that Carl owned a Mercury Cougar. It has a very distinctive set of taillights. It’s the pattern that Taylor’s been drawing.”

It all clicked into place. “Taylor must have seen Carl driving away from the house in the Cougar. She saw the taillights. Then she went in the house and found her parents dead on the floor. It all crashed down on her. Sean raped her in the garage behind that same car. The taillights must have seemed like a symbol of destruction, of death and pain and humiliation. That’s why she painted them on the wall. That’s what she was trying to tell us.”

“I still thought it was all Sean. Everything pointed to him.” Josh shook his head.

“For good reason. He figured out that his father had killed Orrin and Stacey, and was trying to protect him.” It was amazing what the parent /child bond could withstand.

“That part I still don’t get. Why would he do that?”

“Do you love your father, Josh?”

“Of course.”

She shrugged. “There you have it.”

“My father didn’t rape me or kill anyone. His biggest fault is pulling his pants up too high.”

Aimee shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s still your father.” She looked over at Sean with new eyes. Another little boy who might still be saved. He’d certainly worked hard to save himself. Her heart broke for him, even knowing the monstrous thing he’d done to Taylor more than a decade before. Then he’d been a victim, creating more victims in his wake, yet somehow he’d found the strength to change himself, and try to change the horrible path his stepbrother had been on.

Sean had chosen not to be a victim anymore. He’d bear the scars of what had happened to him forever, but he’d chosen not to be defined by those scars.

She could make the same choice.

She pushed herself away from Josh’s broad chest and looked up into his eyes. “I was so scared.”

“It’s over now,” he assured her.

But he was wrong, in a way. Events like this were never over. What had happened in that living room had changed her, just as what had happened with Kyle had changed her. This time, though, she wouldn’t let it put her life on hold. She had so much to live for, so much to open herself to.

“No,” she said. “It’s just beginning.”

And she pulled him to her for a kiss.

Three months later

S
ean slammed the trunk of the BMW closed and dusted his hands off on his jeans. “Thanks for coming to see me off.”

“I wanted to say good-bye,” Aimee said. “And to wish you well.”

Josh slid an arm around her waist and she leaned into him. It wasn’t easy to see Sean again. It would have been easy to let all the anger and fear wash over her again, but she held it at bay.

Sean scratched his head. “I appreciate it. There are lots of people who are glad to see me leave, but not too many wish me well. I’d sort of hoped that Sarah would understand and let me say good-bye to Thomas, but I can see her side of it.”

“Maybe she’ll come around,” she said. Aimee didn’t think so, but it was possible. She placed her hand over Josh’s. Anything was possible.

“Yeah,” he said, the pain evident in his eyes. “Maybe someday.”

He opened the car door.

Josh came forward and stuck out his hand. “Good luck, man.”

“Thanks.” Sean shook his hand, then turned to Aimee. “You’ll tell Taylor that I said good-bye, right?”

She nodded.

“Make sure she knows that I’ll never bother her again. But if she…if she ever needs to talk to me, to yell at me…I don’t know. If she ever needs to kick me in the balls as hard as she can, all she has to do is call.”

Aimee nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

Taylor was living in Redding now with Marian’s family. She had a long road ahead of her, but she was making progress. Remembering what Sean had done to her all those years ago had been the first step. The anger that was buried so deep for so long was now very much on the surface. She understood in an intellectual sense that Sean had been as much or even more of a victim than she had been, but she wasn’t ready to forgive him yet. She might never be. In the end, that would be Taylor’s decision to make. Sean seemed to understand that.

He got in the BMW, shut the door, and rolled down the window. “Thanks again, Aimee. For everything.” He put the car in reverse and backed down the driveway.

“He’s a very sad young man, isn’t he?” Josh murmured.

She leaned against the warm breadth of his chest. “He is. He’s come a very long way. He may not have gone about things in exactly the right way, but what he tried to do was very brave.”

Josh kissed the spot on her neck that always made her shiver. “He’s not the only brave one.”

She turned and kissed him, still amazed at how good and how right that felt, then rested her head against his chest.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.

She smiled. “Never better.”