Little Belle Gone (18 page)

How had he not noticed that? How had the lab? Scanning over the brochure, he found it. Number seven on the list of properties was a picture-less listing for a fixer-upper in the Hamptons, and sure enough, the address matched their crime scene. His frown deepened. “I think maybe this is what we were supposed to use to find the bodies in the Hamptons, but the dog found them first. Some twisted bread crumbs for us to follow. Sadly, I don’t think we would have realized its significance if it had happened in the intended order.” Elizabeth looked troubled, but not by this. Studying her for a moment, he asked, “What’s got you looking so thoughtful?” She jerked her eyes to him, as if she had been lost in thought.

“Oh, well, it’s uncle Mark.” He was truly confused now.

“You can’t think your uncle is responsible for these crimes...” Her face pinched in disgust at the very thought and he immediately regretted saying it.

“No, I don’t think that, but it is weird that his firm represents that house when you consider that our other two crime scenes are also represented by him.” This was truly a bombshell, and Matt’s jaw dropped open.

“All three?!”

“Well, honestly, his firm manages half the rentable floor space in New York, and he actually owns the building I live in, that’s how I manage to swing a park view apartment on my salary. But the Hampton house is a surprise. It could just be a coincidence.” He thought about what she said for a moment and decided that while it warranted looking into, she might be right. He had heard of Targstead Realty before and was fairly sure that it did indeed represent most of the city.

“Okay, well, moving that back into the ‘important pile’. Next we have the autopsy report on the Does.” He lifted the coroner’s report and started scanning through it. “That’s different. I remember seeing the phrase carved into the wall, but it wasn’t carved into the bodies this time. They were killed approximately 18-20 days ago, based on decay rates and bugs.” He saw her cringe a little, remembering the horrific scene from the day before. Reading a bit further he came upon something interesting. “Oh, here’s something. They were able to get fingerprints from the bodies. Turns out our Does were actually married. A Mr. and Mrs. Kird. They were retired teachers from Florida, so their fingerprints were in the system. They were reported missing...about three weeks ago by a neighbor.”

Elizabeth was listening to him read from the coroner’s report when the victims’ name rang in her ears. For some reason, it sounded so familiar. She sat puzzling over it for several minutes before she realized that he wasn’t reading anymore. Matt had stopped reading and was now staring at her, a look of bemused confusion on his face. She smirked, shifting slightly in the uncomfortable bed. “What?” she asked.

“I feel like I should be asking you that. What are you thinking so intensely about? Are you about to drop another bombshell on me, making me completely rethink my ability as a detective?” His eyes flashed so brightly that her face flushed.

“I’m not really sure. I just feel like I’ve heard that name before. You said they were from Florida, right? So am I. What part?” He looked back at the report and flipped the page a few times looking for the information she was asking for.

“Um...ah, here it is, The Kird’s lived in Ponte Vedra, a suburb of Jacksonville. A David and Jerilyn.” Elizabeth shrieked. The sound had been far louder than the ambient volume of the room, causing Bucky to jump up and start barking into no where. She went cold as horror flooded over her. Her hands began to shake and tears streamed unheeded down her cheeks.

“No! No, it can’t be them! It
can’t
be!” Leaning forward, she snatched the report violently from his fingers and read it again herself. Matt had gotten to his feet and was now standing very close to her. She could hear his voice, but only faintly, behind the throb of her heart in her ears. She could feel his hands moving over her clammy, goose-pimpled skin, but she found no comfort in his touch. Reading the information again, for the third time, she let the file slip from her fingers and buried her face in her hands, openly weeping with her entire body. Unable to console her, Matt wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rocked with her. Shuddering violently, she kept repeating, over and over,”It can’t be true, not them, it can’t be them.”

Matt struggled to hold her as she rocked. He had never seen her like this and it terrified him. She obviously knew who these people were, but what they meant to her was a complete mystery. She hadn’t lived in Florida in nearly ten years. As she mumbled disturbingly in his arms, he began to try and figure out what her connection could be. They had been teachers, perhaps she had been a student. No, that didn’t make sense. He had plenty of teachers, none of which had touched his heart enough to warrant this level of shock and grief. Perhaps they were relatives. No, she had said that Aggie and Mark were her only living family. It was hopeless. He knew far too little about her life before her parent’s murder to be able to figure it out without her.

He turned his focus to her. She was lost right now and he needed to find her, bring her back to him. He kissed her forehead as she rocked, stroking her hair and whispering her name. Slowly but surely, she began to calm. Her color returned and she leaned into him. When her breathing became less ragged and her flesh warmed under his touch, he turned her face to his, kissing her gently.

As his mouth pulled away from hers, she sniffed, “They saved my life, Matt.” She feel into tears again, though this time wasn’t nearly as terrifying for him. She buried her face in his neck and cried. He wanted to know what she meant, what she had been referring to, but he knew deep down that she would tell him, eventually. He just needed to be patient. He whispered kindness into her ears and nuzzled her sweetly until she calmed enough to sit back up on her own. Her eyed were red and puffy and her cheeks were water streaked, but she seemed to be pulling herself back together again. He cupped the side of her face, brushing him thumb back and forth over the fresh trails her tears had left behind and she leaned into the touch, sighing sadly.

“Matt I need to tell you something. I tried to tell you last night, but I couldn’t do it. I should have told you sooner, but I was afraid and I didn’t really think it would matter in the end. But now I know I can’t hide from it any longer. I’m just so scared of what you will think of me.” She looked so frightened and fragile. To reassure her, he pulled her to him and pressed his forehead to hers, the way they did when they were sharing a moment.

“I will never turn away from you Elizabeth. I swear it.”

The solemn truth behind his words gave her courage. Trying to start at the beginning, she asked, “Okay, do you still have my case file?” He nodded against her and left her side just long enough to grab it. Coming back to her, she took it from him and opened it. This story would be painful to tell. “I guess I’ll start with this, my name isn’t Elizabeth Cord, or at least, that’s not my full name. I was born Marabella Elizabeth Concord. Only child of Janet and Benjamin Concord of Jacksonville. We weren’t exactly wealthy, but we didn’t need for money and life was pretty good, nice house, safe neighborhood, lots of friends. One day, after we got home from a picnic in the park, a man knocked on our front door. I was standing with my mother in the foyer when daddy answered it. The man said something that I couldn’t hear, but it made my parents really upset and the next thing I knew, my mother was shouting at me to run, hide, get away and my dad was fighting with the stranger just inside the door. I ran and hid under one of the bed upstairs listening to the screams and crashing noises downstairs, hoping that my dad would be able to beat up the stranger. I was wrong.

“When everything went quiet I started to climb out from under the bed when I heard him. He was climbing the stairs and singing the same phrase over and over again. ‘Where, oh where has my little Belle gone? Oh where, oh where can you be?’“ Hearing the words, in her own sweet voice, in their sickening melody, choked her. She clinched her eyes tight trying to shut out the images of what happened next. Feeling Matt beside her, coaxing her forward, she took a deep, labored breath. “I tried to hide, but he found me, dragged me out from under the bed...then he took me downstairs. My parents were lying face down on the floor in the living room, still alive. I can remember being happy to see them, before he threw me down in the middle. He taped my wrists together behind my back and then he...he...” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t say what he had done to her. “He made my parents watch, Matt. He kept saying things like ‘Thank you for this’ and ‘she’s not yours anymore.’“ She shuddered violently with the memory of his horrid body moving over her. For a moment she thought she might be sick as she buried her head into Matt’s stalwart chest. She could feel the hum of his rage, the disgust rising in him and it terrified her. She didn’t want him to see her that way, as a victim, as damaged goods, defiled and dirty. Just when she feared she would fall into despair, his lips pressed against her temple.

“I’m here, Liz. I’m with you.” His voice was kind and loving as he whispered against her flesh. The void growing beneath her heart closed again. He was enraged, but not with her, he was with her, still clinging to her with warmth and love.

Spurred on, she continued, “When he finished, he said something about adding me to his collection. That’s when he stabbed my father. I remember the sound of it, the sickening thud of each stab. It was horrible, but when he moved to my mother it got worse. She screamed, shrieked with each blow. I watched the life drain out of their eyes, Matt. He made me watch it before...he stabbed me, too. He said, ‘now, kiddo, you’re one of mine, my little Belle doll. Mine forever.’ And the world went dark.” It was his turn to whimper in pain. He pulled her against him so tightly that she almost couldn’t breath.

“Oh god no, tell me it isn’t true.” For moment she feared she had lost him, then he threaded his fingers into her hair and tugged her head back to look at him. He opened his mouth as if to say something but he couldn’t, instead he just bought her back to him, wrapping her in his arms as if to shield her from the memory. Stealing strength from his steady heartbeat, she took a deep breath and continued.

“I woke up in a pool of blood. My parents were gone. I managed to get to my feet and saw that phrase, that horrible, horrible phrase carved into the wall, dripping with our blood. I ran. I ran out of the house and down the street, screaming as loud as I could, but I was so weak, and it hurt so much. I collapsed in the driveway of a neighbor. The Kird’s driveway. They found me, called 9-1-1 and kept me alive. I almost died Matt, I was so close. After four days in a coma, I woke up only to find my world was completely destroyed. The police said that the man had come for me, and it would be best if he thought I was dead, so they changed my name and sent me to live here in New York. Then they altered parts of my file so I could be forgotten. He was never supposed to find me again, Matt. But he has. Last night he touched me, called me Belle again. No one but him has ever called me that.”

“I’m going to rip his fucking heart out.” He was holding her so tight now, the muscles in his chest and arms vibrating under the power of his rage. “I swear to you that he will never hurt you again.”

She tugged herself free of his arms to find his face. His eyes were red from the pressure of tears and rage, and they burned darkly. She didn’t know him just then. “I’m sorry, Matt. I should have told you sooner. I just didn’t want you to know my shame. To see me as damaged and brok...” He stopped her words with a kiss. It was gentle at first, then deepened into a passionate taking of her mouth, as if trying to prove to her that he still wanted her, needed her, maybe now more than ever.

Cupping her face in his hands, he broke their kiss and peered into her eyes. “You are not broken. Do you hear me? There is
nothing
wrong with you. You are flawless. Perfection. From the moment I met you I knew you were the strongest, most incredible person I had ever met in my entire life, and I still do. You endured a horror most people can’t even imagine and came out the other side a fighter. He didn’t damage you, Liz. What he did to you, you took it and used it. You made yourself strong. The bait program makes perfect sense now. You had already been a victim, but you let yourself be a victim again and again so no one else would have to. You did it because you were strong enough to handle it. Your a warrior, Liz. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” The gleam in his eyes, a mixture of pride, admiration, and truth, was too painful for her to look at. She closed her eyes and tried to turn away, but he held her fast. “Look at me.” She hesitated, and then opened her eyes again. The look was so bright that she thought for a moment it might burn her. “You are perfect exactly the way you are and I wouldn’t change a thing because that would mean changing the woman that you have become.” His mouth opened again, but he closed it.

For a moment they sat staring at each other in silence. Slowly it radiated through her that it was over. She had told him and now he knew. He knew her truth, every terrifying and torturous detail of it, and yet he stayed. Her fear and self consciousness seemed to dissolve in the face of his affection and the heavy ballast she had carried around her neck since that day seemed to slip from its post, falling away. She had spent the last nine years running from that moment, from that man, feeling guilt for what had happened. As the weight slipped from her, a wash of truth ran over her heart, sweeping away the last remnants of the wall she had forged. She wasn’t afraid of
him
anymore. She had beaten
him
. She had survived. No, not just survived, but thrived. For the first time in nine years she wanted to live, to walk in the sun and smile at strangers. She wanted to have a life, to share her journey with someone she loved. With Matt. In that moment she knew him, and she knew she loved him. She kissed him. Unbridled and with all her passion, she kissed him, and he returned it to her with all that he had. They didn’t stop until they heard someone clear their throat at the end of the bed. Pulling apart slowly, They found a rather embarrassed looking nurse with a small medicine tray, flushed almost to purple, and trying desperately not to stare at them.