The Trees Beyond the Grass (A Cole Mouzon Thriller) (16 page)

CHAPTER 43

COLE HAD MADE
IT to his sister’s home in the Old Village, with Agent Leas introducing himself at the door to Jackie before leaving. He had booked a room at local hotel for his stay and agreed to meet in the morning. Cole had intended to go boating to Bull Island with his college friend Victor Sweeney, or ‘Vic.’ Once a pirate hideout, the only pirates it served now were Captain Morgan’s sauced boaters who could make it to the secluded national wildlife reserve island for a day in the sun. But Cole’s desire for a PBR and coconut rum day wasn’t possible with all the events of the night. So he texted Vic during the drive to let him know he needed to cancel and would owe him big, perhaps beer before he left. Vic had texted back that he understood and to just check back in later in the week.
If there is a later in the week.

His sister wore concern on her face as Cole walked into the house. She was quiet as Agent Leas left, waiting for Cole to start. Cole went up to the spare room, threw his bag on the floor and came back downstairs. “I need a drink, and then we are going to talk. What’s your poison?” Because of her history with William, she didn’t keep much in the form of alcohol in the house. He opened the cabinets one by one until he found a half-empty bottle of gin and a new bottle of tonic water. He held the two bottles in the air. “Gin and tonic it is.” As he mixed the drink, he looked up at his sister, who was still silent. “Kidnapped? Kidnapped, Jackie? And, my mom… Libby was murdered?” He let the words float out there. He was bordering on rage, disappointment, fear…swirling like a whirlpool in his mind.

Her mouth dropped. That was clearly the last thing she’d expected to hear out of his mouth. “Oh my god, Cole. Is that what this is about?”

“You knew.
You knew
? And you and Mom and Dad didn’t think to tell me? I mean, isn’t that something you would think is important? Hey, Cole. So you know when your mom died. Well, actually she was raped and tortured. Yeah, like a bad movie. And you may be a little fucked in the head because of that. Don’t worry, we have insurance for therapy.”

Jackie rounded the corner of the kitchen counter to get closer. “Cole, please understand. You had no memory of it. I was seven and from what I recall there was a therapist, he…he said that it was best to just leave you without remembering. That it was your mind’s way of protecting itself.” She was sobbing. “…He said it would help you heal.”

Logically, he understood that and the choice. But he couldn’t be logical right now. He had been kept in the dark for over thirty years, played by his own family. “And this brand thing? Is that what this scar is?” He pulled up his shirt, flashing his back to his sister.

She looked down to his back, her eyes wet from the tears. “Mom and Dad hated that thing. It reminded them of the horror Aunt Libby went through. Dad and Libby were close, crazy close. So they had it removed while you were still in the hospital. What’s happening, Cole? I thought that this was about one of your ex-clients in Georgia. How does that have anything to do with what happened thirty years ago?”

“Dammit Jackie, someone is back…killing those who were kidnapped like me. She’s back and she wants me dead.” Cole trembled as he said it out loud; his wall was unintentionally down. Jackie ran over to him and clasped her arms around him, sobbing harder.

COLE’S EYES WERE
red from fresh tears as he looked up to the ceiling and faked a smile. “But you’re a bad-ass cop with a Glock 21, right sis? You’ll kick his ass.” Cole tried to add levity to the moment. It was a way for the wall to be raised again. His sister released and punched him in his arm, still upset. Cole had an aversion to being serious for too long. And his brain tired quickly without a break from the seriousness of life and always processing it in high-definition. This moment was burning his brain. “Do you have any Tylenol? My head is killing me.” His sister rushed to a cabinet and poured out three pills from the bottle she had grabbed. Swallowing them down, he chased the pills with his gin and tonic.

His sister spoke more calmly now, the tears controlled. “I don’t understand, Cole. Who is back…to kill you?” She choked on the last words.

Over the next hour Cole filled his sister in on everything: the others, the murders, the note. He was still mad about the secrets. But he was even more pissed that someone dared to think they were going to take him down without a fight.

CHAPTER 44

Day Six Ninety-Two.

IT WAS FIVE-THIRTY
Monday morning and Cole was sitting on the back porch of his sister’s home, his arms wrapped around his knees with his feet tucked under him, seated in the rocking chair he had crawled into several minutes before. The sun was slowly peeking in, beckoning another day. Though her home didn’t sit right on the water, he could see it thirty yards off, through a separation between the homes directly behind hers.

The dream had come again, followed by the hollowness of longing when he woke. Sitting in the chair, his mind was now silent as he stared at the ripples in the distance. The tide was moving out. The soft sound of the lapping waves filled the silence otherwise left by those around him sleeping. He took it all in, zoning on the buzzing of energy around him. His body mimicked the waves as he rocked. He could feel the inertia and ebb through his body. It was like this for a while.
Silence. Peace. Healing.

Jackie could be heard rustling in the kitchen by six. The thick, chocolate-laden smell of coffee wafted Cole’s way and a few minutes later Jackie came out to the porch with two cups, catching the screen door with her hips so it didn’t slam shut. She sat next to him and began to rock. No words were spoken until both had taken a few sips of the coffee and the marsh view.

“Okay, so according to my scanned reading of the file materials Agent Leas gave me, I was taken in March of 1982, along with a Mark Calhoun and my mother, by a fake cop. Four or so days later, I was found in the marsh, behind the Academy, by one of MeMe’s boys.” There was a long pause. “…Mom dead, the Calhoun boy and I huddled around her.” Cole took a deep breath. “Branded, dead mom. That about sum it up?” Cole looked over at his sister, who had her head down, clearly holding back from crying again.

“Cole…” She spoke softly and slowly, “…I really don’t know. I mean, I remember the event. I remember you being found and that you had that mark. I remember a lot of crying and screaming by Mom and Dad. And then…well, you didn’t remember and so I remember Mom and Dad making it very clear that I was to never speak of it unless you did. You never did, Cole.
You never did
.”

“Sis, I’m not blaming you. It wasn’t your fault I was taken. Hell, I hope you haven’t been carrying that all these years. Have you?”

“I know that now Cole. But…” The tears had returned.

Cole reached over to his sister and grabbed her forearm. “Sis, I am so very sorry if you ever felt that way. If you do now, stop. As a cop, you know better than anyone that it was not your fault. What’s happening now is
not your fault
.” He spoke the last three words slowly. She nodded her head.

Of course it all made sense now. The dream, the nightmare…it was my mind trying to remind me. And I was stubborn and refused to see it as anything other than a stupid, disruptive dream. The marsh, the field, the hand, it was all real. Shit.
Cole had come to this conclusion sometime after waking up at three a.m. and being unable to fall back to sleep.

Cole took a deep breath. “Jackie, I don’t want you involved. You’ve done enough. I will not have you and Billy in danger.”

“Cole, you’re my brother and I’m not going to let some fucker mess up that pretty face.” Like Cole, Jackie liked to disrupt serious moments from taking hold. “Plus, I’ve seen you handle a gun, it’s not pretty.”

Cole let out a singular laugh. “Oh, please. You know, Little Miss Annie Oakley, I can take you any day.” He made a finger gun and shot it sideways, gangster-style, adding the sound effects.

She pinched her mouth tight on one end to show her skepticism. “In your wet dreams!”

Cole almost spit his sip of coffee out with laughter. “I love you, sis. You
truly
are my favorite sister.”

Jackie stuck out her tongue and turned back to the marsh view. The sun had risen and orange had turned to blues and greens.

CHAPTER 45

“COLE, PLEASE DON’T
take this out on Mom and Dad. They were just being parents and wanted you to have a normal life. As far as anyone knew, the creep just liked marking and releasing kids. No one knew he was going to come back.” The conversation had moved to the kitchen where liver puddin’ had been fried and poured over speckled grits, still steaming on Cole’s plate. Aptly named by some as liver mush, the rich, grey concoction of liver, random pork parts, rice, and spices native to the lowcountry had been sliced from its soft sausage form and fried until it turned into something that resembled a meaty sauce more than any solid meat.

“I know, but I have to talk to them. I’m not going to just sit here and wait. I need to figure out what’s going on and, at a minimum, I need to talk to this Calhoun guy. He’s probably next.”

“Did Agent Leas say anything about him?”

“No, nothing. I didn’t learn that till I read the file. But you know what I’m saying.”

Pouring another cup of coffee, she continued. “Yeah, and as much as I hate it, I tend to agree. Let’s get this fucker.”

“Mom!” Billy was now seated next to Cole, playing some kids’ game on his iPhone after Cole had turned off the signal to avoid any one of his immature friends’ texts from flashing across the screen. One friend in particular had a certain proclivity for sending random internet photo discoveries that Cole believed a child should never see.

He cocked his head in feigned shock. “Language, woman.” Cole was mocking Ava who, like all Southern ladies were taught, didn’t cuss, and had utterly failed to pass that on to her daughter.

“Uh, you started it, insulting my frail female sensitivities with your harsh language, dear sir.” Jackie fanned herself with an imaginary fan and batted her eyes.

“Lord, what I would give to see you in hoop skirt.”

“If I keep it up I’ll be as big as a hoop skirt.” Jackie looked down to her stomach.

“Woman, you are
crazy
. What are you, maybe one-thirty? You look amazing. I’m sure all the sugar daddies are lining up for you. In fact, didn’t you tell the biddies yesterday you had a date tonight?”

Walking over toward the built-in kitchen desk, Jackie said, “I’ll need to cancel that. I have an investigation and it’s important. I’m going to shower and get dressed. When I get to work I’ll pull everything I can on that Calhoun kid and let you know.” Pausing, she added, “Cole, when you see them, please…please remember they were doing only what they thought…what they were told was best.”

Cole looked up from his empty plate with a pensive face. “I know…I do. And I promise I won’t yell at them. But I have to know. And more importantly…I need to get them somewhere safe. I’d ask you to get out of town but I really don’t feel like getting shot by you. My card is already full.” Cole flashed a smile at Jackie as she grabbed a cell phone off the desk and walked up to her room.

CHAPTER 46

“COLE, WE THOUGHT
it best not to tell you about your mom, about how she died. What would have been the purpose? It was horrible enough that she died, but…but to tell you she died…was
murdered
, trying to protect you… Well, that just didn’t seem the best way to have you remember her. She went through horrible things to save you and that other boy.” Cole listened while Ava trembled with overflowing emotions that boiled over and caused her words to sputter. He’d dropped the bomb within minutes of arriving at the house. Between the tears, she was trying to justify the impression he had always been left with, that his mother had died in an auto accident when he was two years old. The truth splintered off from there.

Cole’s meeting with Leas had torn that story wide open like the violent pop of a bag of chips, leaving the flakes of Cole’s childhood flying in multiple directions. The residual effect of this revelation was almost as frightening as being hunted. He could no longer trust his memory. For as long as he recalled, if he saw it in his head, it was true. No ‘if’s, and’s, or but’s.’ But now…he was scared to trust anything he saw in his mind. It had betrayed him.

Libby Mouzon was a single mom, Cole’s father having disappeared as soon as the news of pregnancy hit his lap. According to the files supplied by Leas, sometime after Cole’s birth, his mother took a job as a housekeeper and sitter for the Calhoun family, including taking care of Mark, their only son at the time. According to the final police report, on March 16, 1982, she left to take Mark to kindergarten but never made it. The car was found abandoned off Rifle Range Road, everyone missing. Witnesses described seeing a car that matched the description of hers pulled over, an officer at her window. No officer could ever be identified as working the area, much less issuing a ticket.

Using the coroner’s report and limited evidence, the police had pieced together the next few days of Cole’s life, which read like a bad dream.

CHAPTER 47

LIBBY MOUZON LOOKED
at her baby boy Cole through her rear-view mirror. She smiled as if to say, ‘How you doing, Buster?’ as he played with his Cheerios, seated in his car seat. Mark Calhoun was seated next to him in the back seat, coloring in an old Disney coloring book, faded from sitting in the rear window of her wood-trimmed, red Ford Country Squire station wagon. “Good morning, Officer. Can I ask why I was stopped?” Libby knew she had been speeding down Rifle Range, but if she delivered Mark Calhoun late to kindergarten one more time, she was going to be fired. Playing coy worked well for her in these situations.

“License and registration please.” The thin-faced man with a salt and pepper beard stared down at her. His uniform was wrinkled and worn. Libby bent over, popped open the glove compartment and started digging for the registration.
Shit.
From the passenger’s side mirror she noticed the officer admiring the view of her bent over, then looked to the back seat and grinned at the boys.

“Here you go, Officer.” He inspected the materials the peroxide blond had just handed him for just seconds. “I’ll need you to step out of the car, if you don’t mind.”

“Are you sure about this? I mean, what did I do?” Frustration entered Libby’s voice.

“Ma’am, just step out of the car, please.” Libby clasped the car’s interior handle and took a quick look back in the mirror to see that the kids were safe as she opened the heavy, squealing door. It closed with a heavy latch. “Ma’am, did you know your license was suspended?”

Libby looked down at the documents in his hand, shocked. “What? When? That can’t be possible.”

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to arrest you. You can clear it up at the station. But I can’t leave you on the road with a suspended license.” He reached behind his cuffs as she protested.

“Please, please… my house is just a few miles away. My kids, I can’t leave them, what will I do with them? I can clear this up if you will just give…”

“Ma’am, place your hands behind your back.” Tears fell off Libby’s sunburned cheeks as she looked at the two boys in the back seat, Cole still playing with his cereal. The officer moved her quickly into the back of his sedan. She watched as he reached his hands through the driver’s side window, still rolled down from the stop, and pulled up the latch to the back door.

“Hey buddy, we are going to move ya’ll to my car, okay? That’s right, jump on out.”

Mark stared at Libby as the door was opened and he was pushed into the backseat. “Miss Libby, are you okay? Why are you sad?”

Trying hard to not show her panic, “Oh, baby, I’m okay. It’s going to be okay. I promise.” Mark slid in next to Libby and looked back at Cole, still in the back of the wagon. He joined them moments later, still in the car seat, giving his mom a large smile. She forced one back.

The navy sedan was driven several miles before Libby looked up and immediately noticed something was wrong. The police station was in the center of town, in a mostly commercial area. But all Libby saw were residential homes zooming by. “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the station. …Hey, do you hear me? Please answer me!” His only response was to speed up. Libby looked out the window to the occasional person on the sidewalk. What was he doing? She looked down at the two boys at her side. “Officer, please tell me where we’re going. You are scaring the kids. Hell, you’re scaring me.” He remained silent, turning onto a wooded lot. From the look of the white sand drive, it was along the marsh. Libby started pleading. “Please sir, stop the car. Please.” The tears had returned as she pled for the officer to stop, gathering in thick streams across her face. The car came to a stop in the middle of some forested lot with a small dark brown painted cabin.

Libby fought, screaming, yelling, as he dragged her by her cuffed hands through the sandy soil into the cabin. The boys would come easier…anything to be close to the safety Libby represented. Mark and Cole had picked up on the horrified energy pouring out of her and started to cry. Mark asked for his mom, prompting Libby to attempt to hold back her tears, but they continued to break through in small explosions of emotion. “Shhhh, shhhh, it will be okay. It will be okay.” But it wouldn’t.