Suffer II (20 page)

Emily shot out of the front door and ran down the steps when Brittany arrived. They embraced as tears streamed down their cheeks. Emily’s were real.

It had been months since there was any communication between them. Brittany’s parents had forbidden their daughter from seeing Emily, but the girls stayed in touch through the occasional phone call or text message. Judge Hall’s need for Brittany to monitor Emily had diminished since Bullet became her primary – and most effective – tool to destroy Emily’s life.

When Emily reached out to Brittany with the news she had solid evidence that would clear her name and end the nightmare, Brittany reached out to Judge Hall as instructed. The judge told her to meet with Emily and find out the details of that evidence.

“Oh my God, it’s so good to see you,” said Emily, pulling her in for another hug.

“It’s good to see you too,” said Brittany, wiping a fake tear. “You look great, Em.”

“I feel great. I’ve been clean for weeks, and my mom is off of those pills. She can’t wait to see you, Brit. Come on inside. I have something to show you.”

Brittany walked into the house to find Karla putting cookies on the table. That was followed by more tears and hugs. Emily and her mother were on the road to recovery. Brittany became more furious with each smile and laugh they gave.

The house wasn’t the scene of agony and despair that she had expected and wanted. It turned her stomach that Emily seemed happy. Her only solace was knowing Judge Hall would be putting her back in the gutter where the backstabbing, boyfriend-stealing slut belonged.

They chatted for a few moments before Emily took Brittany into her room and closed the door. She motioned for her to sit on the bed while she found the place on the recording that would finally change her life for the better. Brittany acted excited when the conversation was finished.

“How did you get that?” asked Brittany.

“I planted a couple of microphones on Bullet’s boat,” said Emily, beaming. “I knew they were going to meet and talk about a drug shipment. I had no idea they were going to say so much about what they did to me.”

“I’m so happy for you, Em,” said Brittany. “Who have you told about this? Does your mom know?”

“No,” said Emily. “My mom doesn’t really know much about anything, and I’m going to keep it that way for now. She’s been doing so well, Brit. She hasn’t taken a pill in weeks. I love being at home again. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve felt this way. I really think all of this is about to be over.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I called the FBI yesterday and talked to an agent,” said Emily.

“Really? Wow. What did you tell him?”

“Not much,” said Emily. “It’s hard enough for me to believe all of this has happened, so I didn’t want to sound like a paranoid, crazy person. I just told him I had information about a judge who was protecting a local drug dealer and that I had evidence to prove it.”

“What did he say?”

“Well, he didn’t call me crazy,” said Emily. “He told me he had business in Houma in a few days and that he’d come to Boudreaux after. That’s why I called you.”

“What do you need?”

“I’d like for your parents to be with me when I meet him,” said Emily. “I wanted you to hear the tape so you could tell them that I wasn’t lying. I’d feel more comfortable with them there. I can’t ask my mom. I’m not ready to tell her what’s been happening. I’m afraid it might hurt her recovery. I want her to be stronger when I tell her everything.”

“Of course,” said Brittany. “Once the FBI finds out what the judge and Bullet did to you, they’ll help you, Em. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you make copies?”

“No, but I need to,” said Emily. “The more people that know the truth, the better. It’ll be harder for them to come after me with all of this out in the open.”

“Okay,” said Brittany. “This is really great news, Em. But I don’t think you should tell anyone else about this until I talk to my parents. There’s no telling what those people will do to you if they find out about this.”

After Brittany left, Emily’s mood went from good to great. Her mother laughed at her silly daughter who couldn’t go more than a few minutes without giving her a hug and telling her how much she loved her. Emily was glued to her side while they cooked dinner. When they finished, Karla pulled out a stack of photo albums. For hours they laughed, cried, and then laughed again.

The cycle repeated itself until they both grew tired. Emily stayed on the couch to browse the last photo album while her mother went to bed. Engrossed in the pictures, she didn’t notice the car pull into the driveway. A light knock on the door got her attention. She exhaled when she saw it was Brittany’s car.

“I’m sorry to come by so late,” said Brittany.

“Is everything okay?” asked Emily, stepping out onto the porch and closing the door behind her.

“Better than okay,” said Brittany. “I talked to my dad. He’s going to help us, but he’s worried about you staying here. He wants you to stay with us and put those recorders in his safe. He said you can bring your mom so she won’t be alone.”

“No,” said Emily. “She’ll know something’s wrong. Does he want me to come now?”

“Yep,” said Brittany, smiling. “He’s really excited about this and wants to make sure nobody messes with you until the FBI agent gets here. He wants to circle the wagons around you, Em. I think that’s so cool of him. He can’t wait to see you and neither can my mom.”

“I can’t wait to see them,” said Emily. “This has been one of the best days of my life.”

“Mine too.”

“What do I tell my mom?”

“Is she awake?”

“No.”

“Let her sleep,” said Brittany. “Throw some stuff in a bag. We’ll come back early tomorrow morning and tell her you’re coming on a trip with me and my family for a few days. I think she’ll be excited for you.”

“Yes, she will.”

After packing, Emily and Brittany left the house. When they were far enough away, Brittany blasted the radio when they heard their favorite song. On an isolated stretch of the road, Brittany turned off the car when Emily was looking away. She coasted onto a dirt road flanked by thick woods.

“Shit,” said Brittany, shaking the key in the ignition as if she was trying to restart the car. “This happened to me last week.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s no big deal,” said Brittany, opening her door. “My dad was supposed to fix it. It’s just a loose cable. Come hold the flashlight for me.”

“I didn’t know you were a mechanic,” said Emily, laughing. “You never cease to amaze me.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” said Brittany, stepping out of the car. “Come on. It’s spooky out here. Let’s get this done quick.”

While opening the hood, Brittany locked the doors with her remote. Emily held the flashlight as Brittany wiggled a cable. When she finished, she closed the hood and then sat on the front of her car.

“You know,” said Brittany, “if you had just told me the truth, none of this would’ve happened.”

“What?”

“I asked you if anything was going on between you and Conner, and you lied to me,” said Brittany, looking over Emily’s shoulder as Brad and Eddie stepped out of the darkness. “And you kept lying.”

“Brit, nothing happened between –”

Brad wrapped his arm around her throat as Eddie walked in front of her. Brittany flinched when he landed a heavy punch to Emily’s stomach. She fell to the ground, unable to catch her breath. Brittany stood over her as she curled into a ball. Headlights turned a corner up the dirt road and headed towards them.

Brittany stopped the car as planned when she saw the orange flag on the side of the dirt road. Brad and Eddie were lurking in the woods behind it. Bullet was behind the wheel of the approaching car. The abduction was on schedule.

“And you’re still lying, you fucking dirty skank!” said Brittany, kicking dirt in Emily’s face.

“Where’s the recorder?” asked Bullet, stepping out of his car.

“Her stuff is in the back seat,” said Brittany, unlocking the doors.

“Get it, Brad,” said Bullet, walking up to Emily. “You stupid bitch. You didn’t think we’d find out? You done fucked up now.”

“I want you to know something before they gang rape you,” said Brittany, pulling Emily’s head up by her hair. “I was the one who drugged you, paid them to fuck you, and took the pictures. I’m the one that ruined your life for trying to ruin mine.”

“They’re going to kill me,” said Emily, pushing out her words through the pain.

“No, they’re not,” said Brittany. “Quit being so fucking dramatic. But they are going to put you back in the sewer you crawled out of.”

“Got it,” said Brad, holding up the recorders.

“Good,” said Bullet. “Grab the rest of her shit and let’s go.”

They dragged her by her feet and threw her in the back of the car. Emily tried to resist, but another hard punch to the stomach immobilized her. They bound her hands and headed for the ramp where Bullet’s boat was waiting.

“I almost believed you,” said Brad, shoving her onto the boat. “You still wanna be my girlfriend now?”

“I’m sorry, Brad,” said Emily. “Please don’t do this.”

“Too late for that,” said Brad. “Judge Hall told Bullet to shut you up so you wouldn’t talk to the feds. Guess what I’m gonna shut you up with?”

“Judge Hall was the only person keeping you alive, princess,” said Bullet, climbing on board and starting the boat. “She don’t give a fuck what happens to you now, and neither do we. You tried to get us busted, bitch. I’m gonna teach you lessons you ain’t never gonna forget.”

“And when we’re done with you, we’re gonna go do the same thing to your mama,” said Eddie. “Just remember that all of this is your fucking fault.”

Emily sat in silence as Eddie and Brad looked at her as if they were rabid dogs. She occupied her mind by trying to think of ways to escape. With her hands bound behind her back, jumping overboard would only make them angry. As the boat glided deeper into the black swamp, any thoughts of escaping her captors started to fade. Her only hope for survival was to do whatever they wanted.

A cabin built on a floating platform materialized out of thin air. Brad tied off the boat while Eddie and Bullet went inside. A soft glow grew behind the dirty windows as the dead shack came to life. A few moments later Bullet came back outside with a lantern.

“Get a fire going in that,” said Bullet, pointing to a half barrel on the corner of the covered porch. “Bring her inside and then throw all her shit in there. Make sure there ain’t nothing left but ashes and then dump them over the side.”

Emily did her best to control her breathing, but she began to hyperventilate. They had abused and terrorized her for eighteen months, but she never feared for her life. That changed when Eddie took her inside the cabin while Brad started the fire in the barrel. They weren’t burning her things to scare her. They were doing it to destroy evidence.

Bullet cut the thin rope binding her hands and replaced it with handcuffs. He shackled her to a post in an empty corner of the room and started cutting off her clothes. He threw each piece out onto the front porch for Brad to burn.

When he finished, he walked outside to join his brothers who were drinking beers by the fire. Emily slid down to the floor and leaned against a wall. Her only thought was about her mother, who was sleeping peacefully in her bed. Tears began to streak down her face when she thought about the moment somebody would have to tell her that her only child was dead.

A gruesome picture had been painted by everyone involved in Emily’s demise since Conner stole his kiss. All had a piece, but until that point nobody saw the whole. They were about to see everything.

Abby and Evan were upstairs watching and listening on a video monitor as Brad started to recount Emily’s final days. Grey wanted to keep them as disconnected as possible from the physical interactions. They needed to see what was happening, but at a safer distance. It was still close enough to keep them committed to the reasons why they were in Boudreaux, Louisiana.

Grey and Chief were standing behind Brad as he told Kate about his level of involvement with Emily. She made him start his side of the story from the first day he heard her name. By the time he told her about burning her clothes, they were ready to choke him to death.

Both men had been sworn officers of the law. Both had long and distinguished careers that put them face to face with the worst the human race had to offer. Time and time again, they were forced to watch some of those faces walk out of the courtroom as free men and women. Because of the Double Jeopardy clause in the Fifth Amendment, most of those faces couldn’t be tried again, even if they confessed to the crime.

They believed the judicial system was less about right and wrong and more about who had the smarter lawyer. Defense attorneys had little use for the truth from their clients. Their priority was finding the loophole or technicality that would make them the lead story on the evening news as they walked with smiles down marble stairs.

Grey and Chief had grown weary of watching those smiling faces leaving as winners in a flawed system. They knew Judge Hall was right when she told Sheriff Lewis any confessions he obtained would never make it into court. Her attorneys weren’t smart; they were brilliant.

That was the reason they were standing behind Brad, who was tied to a chair in their dark basement. There was no loophole or technicality that would make him a free man. There was no slick defense attorney to muddy the waters and confuse a jury. In the basement, there was only pain and the truth.

Kate lifted her hand to stop Brad from continuing his story. She didn’t want to hear the details of Emily’s torture and final moments inside the basement. She wanted to hear it inside the cabin where it happened.

There was more water than land around Boudreaux. When Evan arrived, Kate had him purchase a boat that would accommodate a variety of needs. She spared no expense.

“Is the boat ready?” asked Kate.

“Evan gassed it up this morning,” said Chief. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Yes,” said Kate. “Brad is going to take us to the cabin. I want him to finish his story there.”

Grey and Chief didn’t care why Brad and people like him do the things they do. They had no desire to explore the mental mechanics of what made him tick. They only wanted to stop his clock.

Kate did care. She wanted to know what made Brad, Eddie, Bullet, and others like them tick. It wasn’t for personal satisfaction or as a way to come to terms with her losses. She wanted to know so she could become what they feared. Understanding them would make her a more effective hunter.

“There are too many reasons why this is a bad idea,” said Grey, walking Chief to a corner in the basement. “Let’s make sure we have everything we need.”

“I’ll pack our bags,” said Chief, leaving Grey with Kate.

“You not arguing with me is a little boring,” said Kate. “Could you at least give me a dirty look?”

“It’s actually liberating,” said Grey. “I’ve already accepted the fact that you’re trying to kill me. It’s all cake after that.”

“You understand, right?”

“I do,” said Grey. “I really do. We should be fine. Chief is packing us a bag of tricks.”

“Do you think anyone will be there?”

“I doubt it, but it is a drug dealer’s hideaway,” said Grey. “We’ll be prepared.”

“Thank you, Grey.”

“It’s why you hired me,” said Grey, smiling.

Grey loaded the gear – and Brad – into the boat. Chief was at the helm and eased away from the dock when everyone was settled. After a long ride, Brad told them that they were getting close.

The boat went dark and quiet when Chief maneuvered off the main waterway and entered a narrow passage that would take them to the cabin. They lowered night vision goggles over their eyes and chambered a round into their weapons. Grey and Kate moved up to the bow and scanned the shoreline with their rifles.

Grey signaled that he saw their destination. Chief pointed the front of the boat towards the porch and then took it out of gear. It glided in silence the last fifty feet as Grey stood on the bow. Before it made contact with the porch, Grey stepped off and pushed the creeping boat backwards. Chief engaged the reverse gear, leaving Grey alone to clear the cabin. Kate held a steady aim as they backed away.

Fifteen seconds later, he reappeared on the front porch. Kate tied off the boat and turned her attention to Brad. His eyes were wide as she approached him.

“Things are a little different from the last time you were here,” said Kate, slinging her rifle across her back. “The girl on this boat isn’t afraid. You are.”

“I like this version better,” said Chief, pulling Brad up by his ear. “I bet Emily was terrified. Look at this place. It’s right out of a fucking nightmare. Now it’s your nightmare, turd.”

Brad swallowed hard when Grey threw the match into the familiar barrel. His face was painted orange from the flames lighting up the swamp around the shack. Brad turned to see Kate’s eyes locked onto his.

“When she saw that,” said Kate, “she knew she wasn’t going  to make it out of that cabin alive. But that wasn’t enough for you and your brothers. You wanted to see the fear in her eyes. Just like I see it in yours.”

“I didn’t know Bullet was planning on killing her,” said Brad. “He said we was just gonna scare the shit out of her so she wouldn’t snitch on us no more.”

“You’re not very smart at all,” said Chief, walking behind him, “but you knew he was going to kill her. You know your brother.”

“I swear I –”

“Get out of the boat,” said Chief, pushing him.

Brad’s eyes were glued to the burning barrel as he walked past it and into the cabin. Chief ignited two lanterns to illuminate the room inside. Kate stood by the post where they had shackled Emily. She ran her fingers across the fresh cuts and grooves her handcuffs made in the wood. There were bloodstains near the bottom of the post and on the floor.

“You didn’t even bother trying to clean up what you did,” said Kate. “You were thinking you’d never get caught.”

“How’d that work out for you?” asked Chief.

“Not well at all,” said Grey, answering for Brad after walking inside.

“You know what comes next,” said Grey.

“What does?” asked Brad.

He landed a crushing punch to Brad’s stomach. When he hit the ground, Chief stood on his neck. They unlocked the handcuffs and pulled his arms around the post. Before he was able to take a breath, he found himself in the same position in which he and his brothers had put Emily.

Chief stood behind him and lifted him to his feet. Grey moved in front of him, grabbed Brad’s arms, and braced his foot against the post. As Kate walked up to Brad with a pair of shears, Grey yanked on his arms and pinned his face and chest against the post. Before he was able to take a second breath, Kate was cutting off his clothes and throwing them on the front porch next to the fire.

Naked and disoriented from being punched, slammed into a wooden post, and manhandled by a woman – all in less than a minute – Brad slumped to the ground. Kate grabbed a handful of his hair and turned his head toward the porch. Grey made sure he was watching when he dropped his clothes into the fire.

“What did Emily say to you when you burned her clothes?” asked Kate. “At that point she knew she was going to die. What did she say?”

“She didn’t say much of anything,” said Brad, resting his forehead against the post. “She just started crying.”

“Okay, Brad,” said Kate, pulling up a chair. “Tell us what you and your brothers did to her. If you leave out any details – and I’ll know – they brought a bucket and a towel. I’ll get my twenty seconds out of you.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

“That’s up to you,” said Kate, reaching over and patting his shoulder. “This is your opportunity to get everything off your chest. I know Bullet made you do those things to Emily, but we need to know the details. It’s how all of us are going to get past what happened here. It’s how we start to heal.”

“I really liked her,” said Brad, believing there was hope he’d survive. “It made me mad when I found out she was using me to set up my brother. That’s what started all of this, you know.”

“I do know,” said Kate, taking off her jacket and putting it around him. “And I understand. Tell me everything that happened here, so we can all go home and put this mess behind us.”

“Okay,” said Brad, looking up at her. “We cuffed her to this here post. Bullet let us all have sex with her at his place, so we did it again here. But when Bullet and Eddie did it, they’d start choking and punching her. He told me to do the same thing.”

“That must have been awful for you, Brad,” said Kate, “because I know you really did like her.”

“It was, but I had to do what he said or he’d get bent out of shape real bad.”

“How long was she here?”

“Three days,” said Brad. “But we didn’t have sex with her on the third day because she kept passing out.”

“From the pain?” asked Kate.

“Naw,” said Brad. “Bullet told us not to feed her or get her anything to drink. He’d help her out every now and then by shooting her up with a little heroin, but I think she was just hungry or something like that.”

“Something like that,” said Kate, shifting in her seat.

“Yeah, I don’t know for sure,” said Brad. “He was doing some pretty rough things to her, but I don’t think she passed out from the pain. I mean, she didn’t cry after the first day or act like she was hurt or nothing. She just kinda laid there without saying much.”

“What happened on the third day?” asked Kate, leaning in closer. “The day she died. Was it an accident?”

“This is kinda hard for me to talk about, ma’am,” said Brad, looking down. “Ain’t right what happened. I still feel real bad about it.”

“It’s okay,” said Kate. “I know it wasn’t your fault. What happened, Brad? You need to tell me.”

“I tried to get out of there because I didn’t wanna see it, but Bullet was in a mood. He smacked me in the back of the head when we was on the boat. Damn near knocked me out.”

“All of you were on the boat?” asked Kate.

“Yeah,” said Brad. “It’s how we got her to Mud Lake.”

“Why did you take her there?” asked Kate. “Was she already dead?”

“You see now, this is the hard part,” said Brad. “She was supposed to be, but she wasn’t. I know that because she said something to me before we threw her over.”

Chief stood and walked as far away from Brad as the small cabin would allow. He resisted the urge to pull his gun and shoot Brad in the face. Grey knew the story didn’t end there. He focused on Kate who was within arm’s length of Brad.

“She drowned?” asked Kate.

“Yes,” said Brad, hoping that would be the end of the questions.

“You said Bullet smacked you in the back of the head because you didn’t want to see it,” said Kate. “It wasn’t her drowning. What was it? What didn’t you want to see?”

“The gators eating her.”