The Eyes Tell No Lies (17 page)

Arie
quickly rel
aye
d everything to the
c
aptain
that
Cris
and Tate
had
told her as she guided the boat back to shore.

****

Cris
crossed his hands across his chest and leaned forward as he sat across the table
from Tate in the interrogation room. He knew the only way for them to get the full
story from Tate was for him to do the interrogation.

“Mom
,
come in
,
”
Cris
called out as he leaned back into the chair and knock on the window behind him.
Tate didn’t need to know he was bluffing about his mother being there and that she
was at the hospital with Tate’s wife.

“No
,
man,
don’t bring her in
,
I will tell you everything you need to know
,
” Tate said as he
immediately
started
telling
what happened the night
Grace
was killed.

“Meet me at the family cabin
,
I have something you want.”
Tate heard Mark say
to him
o
n
the phone as soon as he answered.

“Look
,
Mark
,
I
’
m at work
.
I cannot leave for another hour or two
,
” Tate
replied
as he blew out a frustrated breath.

He knew Mark was just playing a cat and mouse game with him since he hadn’t talked
to him for two weeks
a
fter seeing him try to hit his wife for not bringing him a beer. He was pissed at
Mark.
He
couldn’t understand what kind a brother tried to hit his pregnant
sister-in-law
for not getting him a beer.

“If you love your wife you will be here in an hour
,
” Mark said as he hung up the phone.

“Fuck
,
” Tate screamed as he logged out of his computer and ran out his office door.

He drove as quick
ly
as he could to the family cabin without giving the police anything to pull him over.
As he pulled up to the cabin he noticed Mark whistling with a shovel in one hand and
a bag in the other.

“Where is my wife
,
Mark?” Tate asked
. H
e had tried to call his wife the whole time he drove there and she never answered
,
which was so unlike her.

She always answered the phone for him no matter where she was or what she was doing.

“I’ll tell you after I finish bur
y
ing this stuff
,
” Mark said as he lifted up the clear plastic bag enough for Tate to see the contents
in it. “I will know if you try to call
Cris
and tell him or leave. I have a tracking device on you and your phone
,
” Mark called out as he continued to make his way into the woods.

Tate couldn’t believe it
,
he sa
w
the jewelry the victims of the Daytime Killer were wearing prior to them being kidnapped
in the bag Mark had
. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t hear the person approaching him until
it was too late.

“Tate
,
”
t
he woman whispered before she turned around and took off running.

He took off running behind her
,
he didn’t want his brother to catch her before he was able to get her out of there.

The deeper she r
an into the woods the more scared Tate became. He knew Mark had probably heard her
running through the woods now and was lying in wait.
Fuck, I have to get her out of here now
,
Tate thought as he tripped over a branch
,
but he quickly recovered.

“Come her
e,
Grace,
I just want to talk to you, you know I will never hurt you like he did the others
,
we are family
,
stop
,
” Tate yelled loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough for his brother to hear.

Come on please
,
Supreme Holy Spirit
,
help me stop her before she gets her
self
killed. Tate began to pray to their ancestors and every spirit he
could remember
. He just needed her to stop for him.

“
Grace
!” Tate screamed as he saw Mark coming from behind the trees.

He ran faster trying to get to her when he saw Mark raise the shovel. A sickening
crack vibrated through his ears as the shovel made contact with the back of
Grace’
s head. He dropped to his knees and crawled to her body when he got close enough.

“Stop
,
stay back
,
unless you want to go to jail for her murder,”
h
e heard Mark
’
s
v
oice drift into his mind as
Mark pulled him back
from
Grace’s
body.

Tate
’
s hands sho
o
k as he pulled out his phone attempting to dial
Cris’s
number.

“Your wife is in my house with a bomb
,
all I have to do is push a button and she is dead. Both of you will be killed by
trip wire surrounding my property if you even attempt to try to rescue her. If you
try to call
Cris
, his mother, or anyone from the police
,
I will press the button. I have a monitoring device on your phone and a tracking
device on you
,
” Mark said as he searched his bag and pulled out hazard
mat suit.

Tate watched in shock as Mark slid on the suit and picked up
Grace
as if
she was nothing. He couldn’t understand how someone could kill their own cousin
and act like nothing happened.

“Go home and don’t say
anyt
hing to
anyone
or your wife is dead
,
” Mark said as he got up and left Tate kneeling on the ground.

Tate stayed like that for hours. Until rain started pouring down on his head and
he had no choice but to get up and go home.

After
Tate
finished
talk
ing
about the episode leading up to Grace's death that day, Grace began to whisper her
own account of what had happened to Cris.

‘
My heart pounded loudly, the beat reaching my ears as I ran through the forest, drowning
out everything else around me for a second. I felt so stupid, I had always promised
myself I wouldn’t be like one of those girls on television or in the movies who gets
caught or killed by the suspect they were going after. I could hear him getting closer
to me as I ran deeper and deeper into the woods
.

‘I
knew
I
should have told
you, Cris,
that
I
had a suspect in mind, but
I
didn’t want to believe who the suspect was so
I
said nothing. Now here
I
was running from that suspect as he taunted
me
.

‘
He must be stupid if he think
s
using my nickname is going to make me stop running, so his crazy as
s
could kill me
,
I
thought as
I
kept running
.
I
knew he was lying and wouldn’t let
me
go if he caught
me
so
I
kept running
.

‘I
couldn’t believe what was happening
,
all
I
wanted to do was
h
elp the police figure out the identity of The Daytime Serial Killer and it was
our
cousin Tate the whole
time
. I will not trip over anything and I will get out of here in enough time
,
I
thought as
I
jumped over a log in front of
me
.

‘
The trees all became a blur as
I
ran through them.
My
face was now numb from all the branches
I
had r
u
n into.
I
knew
my
face must be scratched up but
I
didn’t care. All that was on
my
mind was getting to the road before he caught
me
.

‘
Fuck!
I am just a journalist
,
what am I doing out here
?
My hard head really got me into trouble this time
,
I
thought as
I
remember
ed
what
our
ancestors told
me
earlier.
I
was now pissed
I
didn’t listen. Just before
I
left
tonight, our ancestors came to me
and warned
me
of the dangers that l
ay
ahead if
I
didn’t take
my
brother with
me
.

‘I
could hear the sound of cars passing by at a rapid speed and
I
knew
I
was almost to the open highway.
I
breathed a sigh of relief when
I
noticed the clearing to the highway.

‘
Just a couple more steps and I am there
,
I
thought just before
I
felt a sharp pain in the back of
my
head and everything around
me
went black
,’
Grace finished telling Cris what happened to her.

Cris looked at Tate when
Grace
finished
her
recount of
her
death and
he
shook his head at
Tate.

“I tried to call you once
,
but Mark called me on my cell phone and told me to hang up the house phone. After
I hung up
,
he sent me a video of my wife to my cell phone. He sent me five videos in total
you can check my phone.
He continued as he saw the pain in Cris
’s
eyes from what he was hearing.

“That’s not all. He told me he gave my parents a sedative before lighting the house
on fire. He killed our parents and watched as the house burned until he heard the
sirens approaching,
” Tate said as he laid his head down on the table.

It had been so hard for him keeping this all in. A huge weight gradually lifted off
him as he told
Cris
everything.

Cris
signaled for the person behind the window to bring him the phone when they were finished
viewing it. He was feeling confused
,
he didn’t know whether to remain professional or comfort his cousin. The door to
the interrogation room opened just as he was about to make his move. He took the
phone from the officer and began to watch the videos.

The first video was of Jessica
,
Tate’s wife
,
sitting on a dirty mattress with just a nightgown on. As he went through
the
videos
,
he saw as Jessica became dirtier and dirtier and dark rings formed around her eyes.
The last one was of Mark throwing fruit and water at Jessica and laughing.

The room burst open again as Captain O’Kelly walked into the room.

“Tate Crow
,
you are free to go
,
an investigator will be contacting you. There is an officer waiting out there to
take you to the hospital w
h
ere your wife is waiting
,
” Captain O’Kel
ly said as he
took the
cuff
s off
Tate.

“Wait
,
how do you know he didn’t have anything to do with what his brother did?”
Cris
asked
,
thinking like a cop now.

“Your sister was a smart woman
,
she was recording and videoing the who
le time she was there. Mark
broke her recording equipment thinking that was the end of it. Your sister had a
backup file
that
load
ed
to her computer.

“
Our
techs were finally able to crack through all the firewalls she put in place last
night. They were able to pull up the night of her murder just a few moments ago.
I would have told you about the evidence we knew was on the computer
but
I knew you would
n’t
have been able to help.

“I didn’t want to tell you until we knew we could get in
to her computer,
” Captain O’Kelly said as he sat on the other side of
Cris, who sat there dazed
.

“I understand,
”
Cris
finally
said.

He wasn’t lying about understanding
,
he had been in the
c
aptain’s position quite a few times in his career. Not giving a victim’s family member
false hope was one of their number one rules in this office.