Trent (15 page)

“Perhaps. But I still blame myself for her
death. From the moment he knocked her to the floor with his fist to.... I was
gone longer than I’d thought. I found a couple of things that I wanted to take
back to show her, but when I got there, he was.... I thought she was on the
phone with someone at first.” Jefferson got up to pace. “He hit her, as I said,
punched her in the face hard enough to knock her down. She hit her head on the
fireplace, and I thought he’d just leave. But he didn’t. He…he tore her
underthings off and raped her.” Jefferson closed his eyes as the image took
shape in his head. He had never forgotten it…never went a day or night without
thinking about it. “It took me a few seconds to realize that she was dead when
he’d finished. He’d covered her face up with a pillow and was holding it down
while he…while he took her. When Max stood up, his body naked from the waist
down, he stood over her, laughing. I was positive he had no idea that he’d
killed her.”

He ended his walk by the window that looked
out over the tree-lined street behind the building. It was a lovely park area.
The trees were dark against the light of the grass. There was a little boy
running with a puppy, laughing. Jefferson didn’t bother looking behind him as
he continued. The scene in front of him was so surreal that he watched it
instead of thinking about the words that flowed from his mouth.

“He yelled at her, screamed really, telling
her that she got no less than she deserved for tossing him away. He mentioned
money too, how she’d kept it from him, and that’s what got her killed. When her
blood—and by then there was quite a bit of it on the floor—touched his shoes,
he kicked out at her, and screamed at her that it was all her fault again.”
Jefferson could almost hear him telling her that she was nothing to him, that
she should have just given him what he wanted and she would have died more
quickly. “Max was going to kill her anyway, I figured out then. No matter what
she’d done, he would have killed her. After she agreed to marry him and he got
whatever it was he thought that she was holding from him. I don’t know what he
thought she had, but I think he was under the impression that she had money,
and a great deal of it.”

“He’d done it before. Not raping anyone so
far as we know, but marrying for money, then killing his wife off. Three times
that we can find so far. It was always a younger woman that had been left a fortune.
Randal found at least two more since Sydney’s death, and one prior to it.” He
knew that as well and told Trent that. “I was sure you did. But I wanted you to
know in the event that you didn’t. Max wasn’t going to just go away. You had no
way of knowing that then. Neither did Noah.”

“He was a monster. Even after all of that, he
continued to be one. I guess since I begged my parents not to…not to tell the
police what he had done to me later, I sort of gave him the access to others. I
didn’t…I was a kid. Not a good excuse, but all I had back then. I was
seventeen, overweight, and a nerd. I guess my pride was what I was thinking
about then.” He watched the young boy in the park playing with the dog as he
continued with his part in the story that had gotten Max killed.

“A few weeks after she was killed, I was home
alone again. My grief was profound, and I had taken to staying at home even
when my parents would go out. I was hiding, I guess, trying to deal with the
murder and that I’d done nothing to help her. The knock at my door never…it never
occurred to me not to open the door, but when I did....” He shivered when he
thought of what had happened next. “There were seven of them. Big men with
Halloween masks on their faces and their shirts off. As soon as the door was
open, after they shoved their way into my home, they started hitting me. I
fought back, but I was no match against them and their size, and I was alone
too. Then when I was down—and it hadn’t been easy for any of them—they nailed
nails in the floor with a nail gun. They had come prepared, was all my mind was
working on. As I was tied to the floor by tying my hands above my head and wrapping
the rope around the nails, they laughed and told me I was going to enjoy this
and that they would, too, if I didn’t. After I could no longer get to them to
hit back, tape was put across my mouth after a wad of something dirty was put
into my mouth to gag me. Then they did the same to my feet, tying me there as
if I was nothing. I suppose to them I was just that. Nothing. After they beat
me, kicking me to the point where I was sure I was going to die, they stripped
off my clothing and each of them raped me.”

He remembered it vividly. They’d taken turns
with him, each man tearing into him while the others continued to laugh and
joke about how much fun they were having. One of them had even taken him into
his mouth, making him sick to his stomach even then. And when they were done, they
untied him and left him there, his body beaten, bruised, and broken.

“I never had sex after…I’m sure that it’s not
called sex, what they did to me. But after that I was never able to let anyone
touch me like that again. Then after a while, I never even tried.” He leaned
his head against the cool glass. “My mother found me there, bloodied and
bruised, after they left. My father came in next, outraged that someone had
done this to me. In our own home. It was everything I could do…I begged them
never to tell anyone. I didn’t even want the police to know. At that time, in
that small frame of time, I thought it was just a random act, that I’d just
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“When did you figure out it had been Max?” Trent’s
voice was soft, but Jefferson heard him. “He did tell you, right? I can’t see
him just letting you think that you were the victim of a random house invasion.”
Jefferson wished that was all it had been, but he really appreciated Trent not
saying “rape.” It was hard enough for him to say it, but to hear it from
someone else was too much.

“Yes. He told me, took a great deal of pride
in it, I think, that he’d hurt me like he had. About a week later, I get this
card in the mailbox. I had no idea who it might have been from. There was no
return address, not even a postmark or stamp. But it was him. On the front
there was a picture of a young boy peeking in the window of a candy store. But
he’d changed all the cakes to erect penises and pictures of bottoms. When I
opened it, he asked me if I enjoyed my little fun, and that he thought of me
often when he saw the men who had done it for him. He’d done it, he told me,
because since I’d kept him from getting his piece of ass, he wanted to make
sure that I had fun with mine. Then he signed it, ‘Love Benson.’ I kept it.
It’s there with the rest of the things I wanted you to have. I don’t know what
you can do with it, but I brought it.”

Jefferson felt relieved and overwhelmed at
the same time. He was talked out, his body having spewed the story…and that was
what it felt like to him. He knew that he could die in peace. That going to the
police station now would be an end to this nightmare that had been long in
coming.

“Jefferson?”

He turned to look at Trent and realized that
at some point TJ had left them. He was more than likely sickened by what Jefferson
had done. He knew that he would be if he’d heard this story. And neither of
them knew the worst of it…how he’d not just planned Max’s death, but his own as
well, and in the last moments had chickened out of that as well.

“Come and have a seat. There’s a doctor
friend of mine here that wants to make sure you’re all right.”

Nodding, he made his way to the chair again
and sat. He had no idea how long he’d been standing there, just staring out the
window, but the doctor came in and had him lay out on the couch. He was gentle
with him, but Jefferson still had to brace himself for each touch. It wasn’t
until he was asked if he wanted anything for pain that he looked over at Trent
again.

“Why are you doing this for me?” Trent told
him that he was hurt and needed it. “No, I don’t mean that. Although I really
appreciate it, you really have no need to do this for me. I’m sure that once
I’m in prison, they’ll take care of me.”

Trent nodded at the doctor, and Jefferson
felt the small pinch of a needle entering his arm. In seconds he was floating,
and a few seconds more he was having difficulty holding his eyes open. But he
looked at Trent again, asking him again why he was helping him.

Trent smiled before answering. “Because you’re
a good man who was dealt a shitty hand. Rest now, Jefferson. We’ll talk again
when you wake.”

Jefferson tried to fight it, the drug that
was racing though his body like a freight train. But he didn’t have it in him,
and in the end, he faded out.

~~~

“There won’t be any charges brought against
Jefferson. Not now or ever. As far as anyone is concerned, Max Ford didn’t
exist, and there are no traces of him to be found anywhere near Jefferson or
Noah’s houses.” Joe nodded as Trent continued. “Noah kindly took care of the
remains for him. Jefferson killed him with a great deal of rage. I’m pretty
sure that Noah will be finding parts of him throughout the house for the next
several years.”

“He’s selling the house. Noah said that he
and the staff are going to find somewhere quiet to live, and I guess Jefferson
is going to go and stay with him. Not as his day walker, but as his friend.
They’ve become very close over the last several days.” Trent knew and he told
her he thought it was good for them both. “I think so too. Jefferson is seeing
a friend of Noah’s. A doctor. He needs to talk to someone that has no vested
interest in what he’s done, and Noah was agreeing too much with what he’d done.
The doctor will listen and not cheer him on as Noah had been doing.”

“There are those that would want to hurt
Jefferson for what he’s done. Others might be glad to shake his hand. But it’s
doubtful anyone will completely understand what he’s gone through with this.” Joe
didn’t think she would either after Trent had told her the rest of Jefferson’s
story. “Noah said he could make him forget it all, but he’s a little afraid
that it would ruin him. Those events, horrific as they were, made him what he
is today. A good man.”

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve invited
Jefferson to come and help me out on a few projects that I’m working on. He has
computer skills that will help me out. Also, I don’t know if you know this or
not, but your brother Tanner is out of work. He went to an interview with a
friend of Noah’s to work as a waiter in a restaurant the other day.” Trent
asked her if he needed anything. “Noah is going to hire him as his attorney. I
did it before for him, but Tanner might be better suited to it now that we are
together. Besides, I think that Tanner needs this more than he thinks. Not just
a job, but a feeling of self-worth. He’s very…I was going to say depressed, but
I think it’s more that he has lost his confidence somewhere along the line.”

“I don’t know…I’ve always thought of Tanner
as having his shit together more than the rest of us.” She said he hid it well.
“I guess so. I hope he takes on the job then. Noah is a good man, and he could
do no better than to have you and Tanner watching out for him.”

She paced the room, then sat down only to hop
up again. Trent asked her what she was doing. “I’m nervous, if you want to know
the truth. What if they hate me? This is the first time I’ve ever been a pack-mistress.”

“It’s pack-bitch, and no one could ever hate
you. You’re going to be just fine. And as many people as you’ve talked to this
week, I’m reasonably sure that you’ve met them all at some point.” She had been
getting out a lot this week. It was that or hide away. Nerves tended to do that
to her. “Mom said to tell you that she made your favorite cookies for the cookout,
and has hidden some away for you for later.”

“She makes the best pumpkin cookies I’ve ever
had.” They both sat down. “Did you see to those men from the other day, the
ones I was telling you about? They really do need some work, and I told them
that we’d find something until the new jobs you have coming in are set. When do
you think that will be?”

“I did take care of them. They’re now working
for Elijah, and two more have gone to work with Dad. He’s getting the three
buildings downtown set up for several businesses. Mostly pack, but there will
be others in it too. Dad is very proud that you asked him to help out. As for
the new business, that’s working along nicely too. It was great of Noah to put
in a manufacturing plant here instead of in another state. That’s going to help
out a lot of people around here.”

Joe just waved him off, thinking about the
two men that she’d come to love very much. Trent’s dad was going around like
he’d been asked to be president or something, and Noah was having the time of his
life.

Trent continued talking about other projects
she’d been working on. “The two women that make those quilts are going to rent
some of the space in the building and open a shop. They’re not sure that
they’ll sell their wares or not, but they want to teach younger people how to
make them before the art is lost. Did you have anything to do with that?”

“Maybe. I’ve spoken to a great many people,
as you’ve pointed out. And a lot of them are very talented.” Too many people, she
thought now. And they all knew her well enough to come by for a little chat at
the house when they were there. Joe had never been very good at chatting, but
now it seemed she was doing it constantly. “Your mom is conspiring against me
too.”