CHAPTER 26
The plastic ties that Phoenix had attached to her and Sarah dug into Julia’s wrists as she sat in the backseat of the car with her sister. Phoenix hooked a right onto I-94 North and followed Agent Kenny’s car that was taking the lead. As they entered Macomb County, Julia realized her hunch was likely right that they would take the Gooden family to the late Max Mueller’s remote property.
Phoenix’s dark eyes stayed on Julia in the rearview mirror before they looked back toward the road.
“You played me where I was most vulnerable,” Julia said. “You son of a bitch.”
“What’s the saying? The heart wants what it wants? Not in a romantic sense for you, but you were so desperate to know what happened to your brother. And the thought that he might be alive? You ate that up. Kenny didn’t think you’d fall for it. But I convinced him you would. I know you, Julia, what makes you tick, how you operate, and the one thing that would make you drop your guard.”
“I should’ve killed you back at that house when I had a chance,” Sarah said.
“Shut up,” Phoenix answered. “You’re going to pay for cutting me.”
“You never knew my brother,” Julia said.
“No, no, no. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’re missing one piece of the puzzle. I did know Ben. I met him when he was in Ahote’s trailer. All that time in that shitty little place, Ben had nothing to do but talk. And all he did was talk about you, stories about your life. That kid, when he said something, you believed it. He told me he was going to get out. He was determined, you know? A kid that little who was so driven to make sure his sister was going to be okay, that was something. He cared more about getting back to you than making sure he was going to live. Someone who loves you that much, it makes sense why you’d go blind if you thought he was alive after all these years.”
“How did you get my charm bracelet?” Julia asked.
“Ben knew Ahote was about ready to hunt him, so he gave it to me to hold on to. He said if he didn’t make it, he wanted me to give it to you one day. I liked your brother. I really did. Tough little kid. I held on to the bracelet, kind of like my own personal good-luck charm. Truth be told, I didn’t want to give it to you, but I realized it was probably the only thing that would make you believe my story, once you caught me in the lie about being a photographer.”
“Who called me pretending to be Ben?” Julia asked.
“Wasn’t me. I paid a guy to do it. Matt, he’s got crazy talent. My buddy, he’s an actor, or at least he was until his drug problem got out of hand. I met him in prison and looked him up for the job. I gave him the background about you and Ben, and you were just so wanting to believe it was true. Kenny and I figured your cop boyfriend would try and protect you in all this, but Duke, that was a surprise.”
“Who’s involved in this? Just you and Kenny?” Julia asked.
“You ask a lot of questions. But fine. We got some more time to kill. Kenny’s the alpha dog in this pack, the new boss after Max died. There were four players at first—me, Kenny, Liam Mueller, and Louis Lemming out in St. Louis. Fifty million dollars is a lot of money, but Kenny and I didn’t want to split it four ways.”
“The notebook was van Gogh’s personal journal.”
“That’s right. I don’t care about that kind of stuff, but it’s worth a fortune. But like I said, splitting the pot wasn’t something Kenny or I wanted to do. Kenny and Ahote went after Liam. Max’s kid was only going to get a cut because of his dad, but Liam killed himself before they got to him. Big daddy Max had promised Lemming a cut when he was still alive. Kenny told him the deal was off after Max died, but Lemming swore he’d rat out Kenny to the FBI, so we had to cut him in. But Lemming is out of the picture now. We hired a guy to take him out. He shot Lemming in the back of the head at one of his clubs in St. Louis about an hour ago.”
“How do you know Kenny?” Julia asked.
“Through a relative. Anything else?”
“Go to hell. Did Ahote kill my brother?” Julia asked.
“Ah, Julia. Always such a hard edge on you. Ask me nicely, and maybe I’ll tell you. You’ve come this far, right? Don’t you want to know? Say ‘please.’”
Julia looked out the window at the dark night and the road passing by them and could picture Ben in her mind’s eye as if he had never left her side.
“I’m not going to beg you for anything. You wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway. My brother, when I was a kid, he told me to always fight back against the bullies. You don’t have anything over my brother and me. And you never will.”
“Pride is a wonderful thing. Until it keeps you from what you really want.”
Phoenix’s eyes stayed on Julia again in the rearview mirror, but then darted away as he pulled his vehicle off the main road directly behind Kenny’s car. Julia tried to take in her surroundings in the dark of night and saw the dirt kicking up under Phoenix’s tires as they traveled several miles into a deep thicket of woods cut only by a narrow road.
Sarah leaned in toward Julia and whispered in her ear, “What are we going to do?”
“Hey, cut the shit. No talking,” Phoenix said.
The two-car caravan went another mile on the desolate offshoot until it dead-ended at a clearing. A two-story white house, with its windows boarded up, sat to the right of the property, and to the left was an old brown trailer.
Julia felt a cool horror run through her as she realized this was likely the same place where Ben was taken.
Phoenix pulled up next to Agent Kenny’s car between the two structures and killed the engine. “Don’t move and keep your mouths shut,” Phoenix said as he got out of the car and then secured the locks to ensure Julia and Sarah were trapped inside.
The door of the old trailer opened and Ahote came out. Phoenix extended his hand to Ahote, who, instead, grabbed the younger man in a big bear hug.
Phoenix had left the driver-side window open a crack, and Julia could hear the conversation play out between the two men.
“The deal is done. We got Duke and had to pick up his daughters to close the loop. I’ll take care of them. You ready to get to work?” Phoenix asked, and winked at Ahote.
“Always. Where’s Duke?” Ahote said. His gaze trailed over to Phoenix’s car, and when he caught a glimpse of Julia sitting in the backseat, he seemed to lose interest over the man he had been entrusted to snare. Ahote made a slow, almost-zombielike approach over to Julia’s window. He bent down so his face was next to the glass and stared into Julia’s eyes without blinking and then mumbled something incoherent.
Julia heard a car door slam and looked over to see Agent Kenny exiting his vehicle. He looked irritated as he strode over to his security man and grabbed Ahote upright by his arm.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kenny asked. “Duke’s in the backseat of my car. Take him inside. Don’t screw it up like you did with Chip Haskell. Torture Duke, but keep him alive until he tells you where the notebook is. I mean it, Ahote. You kill him, I’ll kill you. I haven’t waited this long and come this close for there to be any mistakes.”
Ahote followed Kenny’s cue and pulled Duke roughly out of the agent’s car. Duke shot a look at his daughters and gave them a bright smile, like everything was going to be all right, but Julia could see the fear in her father’s eyes and she was surprised at the odd sense of loyalty she felt toward the man who had abandoned her and dragged her into this situation.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” Sarah said to Julia. “I got a sense about these things.”
Julia let Sarah’s words sink in as she looked back at the men. Agent Kenny led the way to the house, with Ahote and Duke behind him in a straight line, with Phoenix the last man in the row. When Kenny reached the front steps of the house, Ahote shot a quick look back to Phoenix, who reciprocated with a subtle nod, which prompted Ahote to cup his hand over Duke’s mouth and move off the path.
Now steps away from the front door, Agent Kenny, still with his back to the men, waved a hand over his head like a warning.
“You’re done, Duke. Your choice. Give up the location of the notebook and painting, and you die easy. Otherwise, my man, Ahote, here is going to make you beg for him to kill you. You’ve seen Ahote’s work before. Is that how you want to go down?”
Kenny reached in his pocket for the keys to the house and began to open the door.
“Think about it, Duke. Fifty million dollars makes a man hungry enough to do anything,” Kenny said.
As the front door slowly edged its way open, Kenny started to turn around. Julia could catch just a glimpse of the FBI agent’s face from the headlights of Phoenix’s car. The agent’s eyes looked dark and mean, but he had a look of eager anticipation for the prize that was never so closely in sight.
Kenny’s expression slipped to surprise as he quickly reached inside his jacket for his weapon. But, Phoenix was already there, now three steps away, with his gun drawn and pointed at the agent.
Julia heard a shot ring out from Phoenix’s weapon and watched on as Agent Kenny crumpled to the ground. The agent struggled to get up, but only managed to turn on his side. Kenny tried to go for his gun, but Phoenix quickly reached into the agent’s coat and removed the weapon from Kenny’s holster.
“You bastard,” Kenny gasped as he looked up at Phoenix.
“You were right. Fifty million dollars would make a man hungry enough to do anything,” Phoenix said.
Julia scrambled to come up with an escape plan as Phoenix coolly bent down over the FBI agent, whispered something in his ear, and then fired his gun one more time into the agent’s chest at close range.
“Oh shit. The game is changing,” Sarah said to Julia.
Ahote stepped over Kenny’s body, which was now strewn across the front entryway of the house, and pulled a struggling Duke inside with him.
Julia felt like a trapped animal as Phoenix came back to the car, with a huge smile on his face.
“Come on. Get out,” Phoenix said. He opened the back door of the car and reached in for Julia, whom he grabbed and nearly flung to the ground as he pulled her out of the vehicle. He then locked an arm around Julia’s waist and pointed his gun at the backseat for Sarah.
“Move,” Phoenix said.
Sarah slid out of the car, and Ahote appeared from the front door of the main house.
“Don’t tell me there’s a problem already,” Phoenix said.
“Not a problem. I’m just getting started with Duke,” Ahote said. He then looked down at the ground sheepishly as if he were a little boy asking a favor. “I’d like to take care of Julia. I get Duke to tell me where the notebook is, you save her for me.”
Phoenix shot Ahote a patient glance and smiled. “Whatever you want, Uncle. Just do your job and be quick about it.”
“You two freaks are related?” Sarah asked.
“That’s right. Blood is loyal, baby. We had a plan to take out Kenny from the beginning.”
Ahote looked on proudly at his nephew. “Phoenix Pontiac is a brave warrior.”
“He’s a piece of shit,” Sarah said.
“Find out where the notebook is, and you can have whatever you want, old man,” Phoenix said.
Ahote moved in heavy, lumbering steps back toward the house, but then he stopped and turned around to look at Julia.
“Your brother, he was a worthy opponent,” Ahote told Julia. “I wonder if you will be, too.”
A rage built inside Julia at Ahote’s mention of her brother’s name. Julia began to lunge toward Ahote, but Phoenix pulled her back.
“What did you do to my brother?” Julia screamed.
Ahote looked back at Julia and pointed his index finger in her direction. “It is not what I did. It is what I didn’t do.”
Ahote then turned back around and continued up the path. Within seconds after Ahote shut the door, Julia heard Duke moan in agony as Ahote began his work.
“Come on, girls, let’s go,” Phoenix said as he pushed the sisters in front of him toward the old trailer.
Once inside, Julia felt Phoenix’s hands shove her forward into the dim, narrow trailer, which had a hospital-like, antiseptic smell. She turned around to face Phoenix, but felt his leg sweep under her feet before she could catch herself. As Julia fell to the floor, Phoenix kicked her hard in the rib cage. She began to move back to the wall to get away from him, but Phoenix abruptly stopped his assault and laughed.
“Funny how you wound up right in that spot. Go ahead. See what your brother did,” Phoenix said, and gestured with his gun to what at first appeared to Julia to be tiny dark scuff marks on the border between the floor and the wall. Julia looked more closely and ran her fingers over the words: Ben Gooden was here.
“Ben and I spent some time in this dump. Ahote stuck me in the trailer with your brother while he did work for Max. What I told you about my mom, that was true. She was crazy, just like Ahote, but she took drugs to make it stop. The courts took me away from her. I didn’t wind up in foster care like I said, but Ahote took me in.”
“I don’t care about your personal story,” Julia said.
“You’re a reporter. You care about everyone’s personal story, no matter what you say,” Phoenix said. “You know, Ahote had a thing he did before he hunted. If he had the victim for a couple of days, he’d starve them so they’d be weak when it came time for the hunt. I felt sorry for your brother, I did. I brought him a candy bar every time my uncle locked me in here with him. You see, I’m not all bad. If you got to know me, you’d like me, just like your brother did. That’s why he gave me your charm bracelet. I think if we’d met under different circumstances, you and I would’ve been friends. Or at least we would’ve had sex.”
“You’re disgusting,” Julia said.
Julia, still with her hands tied behind her back, worked to get to her feet as she heard Duke’s screams echo from the main house. Julia closed her eyes, praying that her father would be all right, when the screaming stopped and was replaced by an even worse silence.
“Jesus. Why is Dad quiet? Why is he quiet?” Sarah cried out.
The door of the trailer opened and Ahote appeared with a bright spatter of blood on both of his hands. “It’s done,” Ahote said; his smile was cruel and wanting as he looked at Julia.
“Duke told you where the notebook is?”
“Yes,” Ahote answered. He leaned into his nephew and whispered in his ear.
“Nice job. Did you kill him?” Phoenix asked.
“He’s got to be dead. I get Julia now,” Ahote said.
“Sure, old man. Whatever you want,” Phoenix answered. “Just be sure Duke is dead and you can have her.”
Phoenix flipped his shoulder-length hair to the side of his face and smiled at his uncle as the older man left the trailer and began his short trek to ensure he had indeed snuffed out another man’s life.
Phoenix stood silently in the trailer’s open doorway and looked out at his uncle. When Ahote made it halfway up the path, Phoenix slunk his body down low, like a panther, and swiftly pursued Ahote. When he was just a few feet away from his uncle, Phoenix stood to his full height, pointed his gun at Ahote, and pulled the trigger.
Ahote lurched forward as the bullet embedded in his lower abdomen. Julia was sure he would fall, but the giant merely stopped in his tracks when the bullet hit him and doubled over for a moment before righting himself. He then turned toward his nephew with a look of surprise and hurt etched on his face. Ahote, with his dingy white T-shirt now turning red with blood, took a quick glance back at the trailer and his promised treasure of Julia, and began to run at Phoenix for all he was worth.
“Sorry, old man,” Phoenix said. Ahote somehow stayed on his feet as the first two shots from Phoenix hit his body, but the third one to his chest crippled the giant, and Ahote fell to his knees.
Ahote looked up at Phoenix and his thick, dry lips parted. “Why?” Ahote asked.
“Sorry. I really am. But fifty million dollars, Jesus. You sure Duke is dead?”
“Has to be.”
Phoenix bent down, patted his uncle’s hand, and then tipped the barrel of his gun into Ahote’s ear and fired.
Julia watched the gruesome scene play out and then turned to her sister. “We’ve got to get out of here. When he comes back in the trailer, I’m going to try and distract him, and I want you to run.”
“Phoenix has got a gun, and right now, we don’t. And even if I can get away, how are you going to fight him with your hands tied?”
“I’ll figure it out. This is our only chance,” Julia said.
Phoenix made his way back into the trailer and looked over his shoulder at his uncle. “It’s a shame. I mean the guy was weird, but he was still blood. Now, here’s how we’re going to play. My uncle taught me to hunt. I’m an expert tracker. I know every inch of these woods, every tree, every smell, every type of animal that lives here.”
He leaned into Julia and put his face next to hers. Before she could move away, Phoenix inhaled deeply. “And now I know your scent, just like Ahote taught me. Everyone has a distinct scent that can be tracked through the thousands of other smells in the woods, if you own it. And now I own yours. Don’t worry. I don’t do the bow-and-arrow shit like Ahote. That’s too crazy for me. I just hunt with a gun. I picked you first because you’re special to me, Julia. Are you ready?”
Julia gave the slightest motion with her head to cue Sarah to run as the sound of a bird cawed out a dark warning just outside the trailer. As Phoenix turned his head toward the noise, Julia used the only thing she had and kicked Phoenix as hard as she could in his thigh.
“Run!” Julia yelled to her sister as Phoenix fell back. But instead of heading out the door, Sarah ran directly toward Phoenix who had recovered and was closing the space between himself and Julia.
Phoenix quickly pivoted and swung his gun in Sarah’s direction. A shot rang out in the confines of the small trailer, sounding like a deafening thunderclap in Julia’s ears. She looked toward her sister as Sarah flew back against the wall, and a growing splotch of red quickly spread across her lower thigh.
“You bitch,” Phoenix said, his eyes looking crazed with rage in the dim light.
Before he could fire off another shot, Julia called out a distraction to get him away from Sarah. “I’m the one you want. Not her. If you want to hunt, let’s go.”
Phoenix hesitated in front of Sarah, but then dropped his gun to his side.
“How bad does it hurt?” he asked Sarah, and smiled.
She sat with her knees bent on the floor and trembled as she looked down at her leg, but she didn’t give Phoenix the satisfaction of an answer.
“I’m ready. Come on,” Julia said.
“I like your spirit, Julia. I know you’re a runner, so let’s even out the odds. I’m going to take your shoes off. Running barefoot in the woods, not easy, especially with your hands tied behind your back. That’s fair, don’t you think?”
Julia nodded at Sarah, silently trying to let her know everything was going to be all right, as Phoenix removed Julia’s sandals and then pushed her toward the door.
* * *
Out in the stillness of the country night, Julia looked up, hoping for a clear sky and the bright canvas of stars that would help light her way, but instead, a thick blanket of clouds hung in their path. Julia shook her head to try and get a buzzing mosquito away from her face and then panned the dense woods that encircled the house and the trailer to try and figure out her best route.
Phoenix locked the door of the trailer behind him and looked Julia up and down.
“I tailed you during a few of your runs. You were good, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But I know these woods better than anyone, even Ahote. I’d normally give you a five-minute lead, but because it’s you and I can’t let you get too far ahead, you’ll only get two minutes, unless I decide I’ve been too charitable. You ready, babe? On your mark. Get set. Go!”
Julia sprinted around the back of the trailer away from Phoenix’s line of vision. Her usual effortless rhythm felt awkward at first, since her hands were tied behind her. Julia’s legs found their usual routine and she quickly found her pace as she skirted in the direction she thought would double back toward the circle of trees that surrounded the main house and, hopefully, in the opposite direction Phoenix would think she was going.
The muggy air seemed to explode around Julia as she ran. She pounded forward to a destination unknown as she dodged through a maze of knee-high grass that coated the ground in between a dense nest of birch, red oak, and black gum trees that seemed to be closing in all around her.
Julia heard her breath coming fast and quick as her bare feet beat a path through the underbrush. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain when her foot caught something jagged that sliced through her right heel, and she continued on deeper into the woods. She stopped abruptly when she came to a clearing and stayed behind a giant fir tree to keep from being seen. The forest seemed to be swallowing her alive as she looked behind her, swearing she could hear the almost-inaudible footfalls of Phoenix’s deadly approach.
Her eyes quickly darted back to the clearing and she started running in its direction when she heard an eerie, high-pitched cry of a bird above her. Julia stopped just as she was about to leave the cover of the tree and looked up at the bird, a kind that she had never seen before. It was large and brilliant in its crimson display, with wings that seemed to glint gloriously in the inky blackness of the woods. Julia held her breath as the bird hovered over her and then made a quick and low flight to the right.
Julia took one more look at the clearing, and then instinctively followed the bird as it seemed to float along the top of the tree line. A mournful wail of a coyote called out in the distance, and Julia picked up her pace as low-slung tree branches cut her skin as she passed. Julia looked up at the sky toward the bird and felt a strange ache of worry when she saw that it was gone.
“Keep going,” Julia whispered, and began to sprint when she heard the sound of a car driving by just beyond the tree line in front of her. Julia’s feet were torn up and raw, but she pushed herself harder at the promise of a road and her escape. She stopped short, though, when she saw a high fence, twice her height, six feet in the distance.
“No,” Julia said as she slowed her approach. She looked to the top of the fence and saw sharp spikes of barbed wire lacing across the top. The hope Julia had felt seconds ago mocked her like a bitter tease. With her hands still tied behind her back, Julia knew there was no way she could ever get over the fence.
Julia began to run, realizing that keeping still wasn’t an option, when a voice called out from behind her.
“It’s amazing. You took the exact same path your brother did that led him to the road. Max put the fence up after that,” Phoenix said as he appeared from behind a tree. “Don’t feel bad about losing. You did great, but there’s no way you could’ve gotten out. The fence wraps the entire way around the property. Get down on your knees, Julia. I won.”
“No,” Julia said.
Phoenix raised his gun so it was pointed at Julia’s head.
“My game. I said get down on your knees. You die the way I want you to.”
Julia heard the sound of something moving in the brush and started to run as Phoenix turned his head in the direction of the sound.
“It’s over. Drop your weapon.”
Julia looked toward the familiar voice as Chief Linderman appeared with his gun drawn and pointed at Phoenix.
“I’m not going to tell you twice,” Linderman said.
“I don’t think so. They’re all dead except for me now. But I know,” Phoenix said.
“You’ve been warned. Drop your weapon or I’ll shoot,” Linderman said.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you? Then all your problems would be over,” Phoenix said.
“What’s he talking about, Chief?” Julia asked.
“Phoenix Pontiac is a liar. Everything that he’s said to you has been a lie. He wasn’t abducted, like he told you.”
“How did you know that he said that to me?” Julia asked. She looked back at the man she’d known for twelve years and something raw and slippery felt like it was crawling through her belly.
“Navarro told me. Julia, come stand behind me.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Phoenix said, and then looked to Linderman. “Tell her. Tell her how long you’ve known Max, you elitist dick. Tell her how you first met Max when you worked patrol and how I met you when I was a kid when you started coming around here to get your payoffs.”
“That’s a lie. Don’t believe him, Julia. You know I’d never do anything like that.”
Phoenix tossed his long hair and gave Julia a cruel smile. “Tell her what you did, Chief. She’s been wanting to know all this time. Someone should put her out of her misery.”
A shot rang out and Julia looked on as a bullet pierced through Phoenix’s left eye. The man who had pretended to be many different people to her fell to the ground as a flash of heat lightning lit up the night sky.
A second shot stung the air, hitting Linderman in his gun hand. Linderman’s weapon fell to the ground as Duke appeared from behind a tree and scooped up Linderman’s weapon.
Julia felt an ache of relief as she ran to her father’s side. She wanted to touch Duke, to make sure he was real, since she had been certain Ahote had killed him.
“You okay?” Duke asked. He gave Julia a quick assessment and then turned her around and removed the plastic ties binding her wrists.
“Yes,” Julia said. “Did you hear?”
“Everything,” Duke answered.
She looked at Linderman, a man she had sometimes disagreed with through the years when she worked the crime beat, but still a man she had always respected. “What did Phoenix mean? You worked for Max?”
“No, he’s a liar,” Linderman said as he clutched his wounded hand.
“Tell the truth. Tell the damn truth!” Duke yelled and kept his gun trained at Linderman.
The strong, familiar mask that Julia had always seen Linderman wear slipped as the police chief looked at Julia pleadingly.
“What did you do, Chief?” Julia asked.
“I’m a good man. You know that. I kept an eye on you when I knew Agent Kenny and Phoenix were going to come after you. That’s why I came to your house to warn you they were coming for Duke. I didn’t want your boys to get hurt. You have to understand. I was in a bad situation at the time when I first met Max. My son, the one I told you about, he had been in the hospital for so long. On a cop’s salary, the medical bills were strangling us. Our house was about to go into foreclosure and my wife was under so much stress. She was going to leave me unless I could figure out a situation to get us out of our mess. I needed money. Everything was falling apart. I did it for my family.”
“You worked for Max then,” Julia said.
“I met Mueller when I worked patrol. He needed an in with the police department. Max was picking up illegals and runaways in the city in the area I patrolled and he needed a cover. So I gave it to him.”
“He paid you off. Jesus, Linderman,” Julia said. “You knew what he was doing, and how Ahote was killing those young men.”
“I had no other choice.”
Something Phoenix said to Linderman clicked in place for Julia.
“Stand behind me, Julia,” Duke told his daughter as he seemed to sense her mood shift. But Julia held her ground and stood alone in front of Linderman, with both her hands balled into tight fists.
“You know what happened to my brother, don’t you? Tell me. Goddamn it, tell me!” Julia said.
Linderman swallowed hard and shifted his eyes down at the ground. “I couldn’t believe it the first day you walked into the station and I heard what your name was. Julia Gooden, the sister of the missing boy. The other cops, they didn’t know your backstory, not even Navarro back then, but I did. When we were working your son’s abduction case and we had to start looking at Ben’s cold case, I thought about coming forward. I swear, I did, because I like you, and I knew my detectives were on the wrong trail, thinking the two cases were linked.”
“Did Ahote kill my brother?” Julia asked.
Linderman looked back at Julia, and in the indistinct shadows of the night, Julia thought the police chief was about to cry.
“I held this secret for thirty years. A man does what he has to do to be sure his family is protected,” Linderman answered.
“On your knees with your hands behind your head,” Duke said. “You tell me what happened to my boy or I pull the trigger.”
Linderman kept his eyes on Julia as he acquiesced to Duke’s command.
“I had just picked up a payment from Max at his property here. It made me sick what he was doing. Just sick. I was driving home, and for some reason, I took the longer route. There were no other cars on the road and I was thinking about my own boy when this kid, he runs into the middle of the road. The boy, he was waving his hands at me to stop. So I did. The little boy, he was barefoot and terrified, but he had a presence about him, like he was a lot older than he actually was. I felt so sorry for the kid.”
“The boy was Ben,” Julia said.
“He told me his name and what happened to him at Max’s place. When Ben got in the car, I promised him that everything was going to be all right, but then, I knew he would go to the police and tell them about what Mueller had done and the business he was running there. Max would have dragged me down with him. I was stuck.”
Linderman looked down at the ground and away from Julia as if finally staring down his long-ago but never forgotten sin.
“Everything’s all right, son. What’s your name?” Linderman asked as the boy got inside his car.
“Ben, Ben Gooden. We need to go to the police! I was kidnapped by a big guy named Ahote. He was going to kill me. They’ve got a bunch of other people trapped inside a house there in the woods. There’s a man named Max Mueller, who runs the whole thing. You’ve got to speed up. The people who took me, they’re going to go after my sister Julia if they know I got out.”
Linderman’s hands froze on the steering wheel as he looked back at the little dark-haired boy who was still trying to catch his breath. His thoughts then moved on to his own boy and his wife, who had stopped talking about divorce after Linderman was able to get their house out of foreclosure and move their son to a better hospital because of the hush money Mueller was paying him.
Linderman began to turn the car around, back in the direction of Mueller’s property, when Ben grabbed the patrol officer’s arm.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Ben asked. “You can’t go back there. You’re not a good guy, are you?”
“No, son. I’m not.”
Linderman reached across to snap the locks in place, but Ben’s hand was already on the door and he pushed it open.
“Stop!” Linderman called out as he slammed on the brakes, but Ben had already leapt from the car and was running to the cover of the tree line.
Linderman jerked his car to a stop and jumped out. He reached for his gun and figured a warning shot would stop the child, who was about to disappear into the woods.
Linderman fired and began to run in the direction of Ben, but then he stopped when he saw the small boy fall.
“Oh God,” Linderman cried out. He ran to the boy’s side and watched as Ben, who had been struck by the bullet in his chest, stared up at the night sky as he struggled to breathe.
“Please. My sister is Julia Gooden,” Ben panted as his eyes began to fill with tears. “Make sure she’s okay.”
“Hold on, son,” Linderman said. He reached for the boy’s hand, but it was too late.
Ben’s labored breath stopped and his nine-year-old, dark brown eyes stayed fixed and unblinking as if they were taking in the stars and the vastness of the universe. A single tear slid down the dead child’s cheek and Linderman stood and looked up at the same sky, knowing that he had lost his soul forever.
Julia began to shudder as if she had fallen beneath the ice and was plummeting down into frigid black water.
Linderman, Duke, and the woods seemed to fade away as the weight of what happened to her brother began to settle in—a truth she had desperately sought to uncover for the past thirty years—but one so cruel, now that it was revealed, Julia wasn’t sure she could ever accept it.
Julia closed her eyes and pictured her beloved Ben, her first and forever hero, who had devoted his entire young life trying to always protect her, just a little boy who knew nothing but hardship, neglect, and poverty, but somehow had seemed to still see the goodness in the world and fought to the end for his little sister.
Julia let out an anguished cry as she imagined Ben’s final moments spent alone and terrified in the dark woods and prayed his last thought wasn’t that he failed her by not being able to find a way back home.
Julia looked back with primal rage at Linderman, the man who had taken everything away from her. The silver metal of Duke’s gun seemed to glint in the moonlight, and Julia fixated on the weapon, almost able to feel the weight of it in her hands as she imagined holding it against Linderman’s temple and pulling the trigger.
“You’re okay, Julia,” Duke said. He clasped Julia with a firm and steady hand and pulled her to him.
“Let me go!” Julia cried. She began to hit her father with her fists, not wanting to be touched or comforted; but the harder she fought, the harder Duke held on.
“It’s going to be okay. It might not seem like it right now, but you’re going to come out of this all right,” Duke said. “Now you know what happened, and that’s how you’re going to heal.”
“Daddy,” Julia cried. She fell into her father and buried her face against his chest as she allowed herself to weep.
“I got you. You’re safe,” Duke promised.
Julia stayed in the protection of her father’s embrace for a minute, but then pulled away as a sense of duty about what she had to do next beckoned her forward to a place she now knew she had to go. She owed Ben that much.
“Give me your gun,” Julia said. “I need to make it right.”
“Are you sure?” Duke asked.
“Yes.”
Duke looked uncertain but handed Julia the weapon. She held the gun between her hands and pointed it at Linderman’s head.
“You killed my brother,” Julia cried.
“It was an accident,” Linderman said. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“Even if it was, you were going to take him back to Max Mueller and Ahote, and they would’ve killed him.”
“I didn’t have any other choice. It was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. I regret what happened every day, but I didn’t have any other way out.”
“There’s always a way out,” Julia said. Her hands shook as she held the gun inches away from the back of Linderman’s head and willed herself to pull the trigger. “Where’s my brother’s body?”
“I buried him in the woods, near where we are. There’s a willow tree right around the bend from here. He’s there.”
Julia felt a hand on her arm as Duke gently grabbed hold of her.
“This isn’t you. Give me the gun. You kill Linderman, you’re no better than he is. Ben was right about you all along. You’re worth a whole lot. I know he wouldn’t want you to do this.”
Julia wept silently as she handed the gun back to her father and then stepped away from Linderman as Duke took her place.
“You killed my boy,” Duke said. “Julia isn’t a killer, but I am.”
“Go ahead. I deserve it,” Linderman said.
Duke looked at the police chief, prone on his knees, and nodded his head. “A guy like you, a lifetime cop, the big dog now, a secret gets out about what you did, something so terrible, and no one, not even your own wife or boy, would forgive you. If I kill you, you get off easy. You go to jail, that’s the one hell you’d never want to face.”
“Kill me,” Linderman begged. “Please.”
“No. You pay the consequences for what you did,” Duke said.
“Drop your weapon!”
Julia spun around to see Navarro coming out from the trees, with his gun pointed at Duke.
“No, Ray. It’s not what it looks like,” Julia said. “Linderman was mixed up with Max Mueller. The chief killed Ben.”
Navarro’s eyes darted back and forth from Julia to his boss.
“I swear, it’s true,” Julia said.
“Chief, what’s going on here?” Navarro asked.
“It’s just a mix-up,” Linderman said.
“Linderman confessed. He did. Duke and I both heard it,” Julia said. “Linderman was getting kickbacks from Mueller when he was on patrol because he needed the money, and he was covering for Mueller in the department.”
Navarro worked his jaw as he looked down at his boss of sixteen years. “Is that true? You’re dirty?”
“I want a lawyer,” Linderman said.
“Drop your weapon and back away,” Navarro told Duke.
Navarro then got Linderman to his feet and handcuffed him.
“I looked up to you like a father,” Navarro said to Linderman. “If it’s true, you’re a disgrace.”
Navarro then looked to Julia. “I have to arrest your father.”
“I know,” Julia answered. “My sister, Phoenix shot her. She’s locked up in a trailer at the main property. She needs help.”
“We already got her. Russell is with her and the paramedics should’ve already arrived,” Navarro said. “Let’s go, Duke. Over here by Linderman.”
Julia heard the chorus of sirens whir by her on the other side of the fence.
“Just give us a minute. My daughter is shaken up and I need to talk to her alone,” Duke said.
Navarro disarmed Duke and shook his head. “You want to do that, Julia?”
“It’s fine. Duke saved me.”
“I’ve got my eye on you. Don’t do anything stupid, Duke.”
“You have my word.”
Duke grabbed Julia’s hand and walked a few feet away from Linderman and Navarro.
“I was sure Ahote killed you,” Julia said to her father.
“Five more minutes with him, I probably would’ve been dead.” Duke’s right arm shot across his torso and he winced in pain.
“You okay?”
“I need a doctor. But I’ll be all right. Take this,” Duke said, and handed Julia a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” Julia asked.
“You did good, Julia. You know what happened to Ben now. Don’t let it consume you. Find your brother and take him home. Give him a real burial. Then you move on. That’s what you’re going to do. That’s what Ben would want for you, to have a good life and to let it go. That’s what you do now. You move forward, okay?”
Julia looked ahead in the direction where Linderman said he had buried Ben’s body. She turned back to her father to ask him to go there with her, but Duke had already slipped back into the woods and out of sight.