“What happened after he took her upstairs?” Phoenix asked.
“Jed had me get the tape from his bag - to cover the kid’s mouth. I didn’t know why he wanted his mouth covered because the kid wasn’t making any noise…all he was doing was crying. I didn’t want to do it, but Jed put the gun to my head so I did. The way the kid looked at me,” I whispered. I wiped away the tears that began to fall again. “But I couldn’t help him. I…I didn’t know how to tell him that. I was such a fucking coward.”
“You were a kid-”
“Yeah, but so was he!” I said angrily. “I knew what Ricky was like, but I got into that car anyway. I did everything he told me to do because I was more afraid of him than anything else. Even when he wasn’t in the fucking room, I was still scared shitless.” I tried to calm myself down so I could finish my story and get the hell out of there.
“When the father didn’t tell Jed where the safe was, he pulled out his knife and put some tape over the father’s mouth. I thought he was going to stab him. But then he went after the kid. I tried to stop him, but he pushed me aside and when I grabbed his arm, he knocked me down. I was too out of it to do anything after that. He started slicing the kid up…to make the father talk.”
I felt rather than saw Phoenix’s hand on my knee as he pushed some tissues into my hand.
“The father was screaming, even with the tape. And I could hearthe woman upstairs…it was a fucking nightmare. When Jed finally stopped and let the father talk again, he started begging Jed not to hurt his wife and kid anymore. That he’d do anything. That was when I knew there was no safe…there never had been. Jed actually agreed with me when I told him that. I thought it was over…”
“But it wasn’t,” Phoenix ventured.
I shook my head. “He slit the guy’s throat,” I whispered hoarsely. “Like it was nothing…like it was something he’d done a thousand times. The kid started screaming, but he still had the tape on his mouth. I threw up, but there was nothing in my stomach anymore. My brother came downstairs…he was covered in blood. The woman had stopped screaming.”
I stopped because I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Everything hurt. My eyes, my nose, my wrist, my stomach. “My brother and Jed started arguing. I still couldn’t process what was happening. My only thought was to get help. So when Jed and Ricky weren’t looking, I picked up a cordless phone from the table behind me. Ricky went back upstairs to deal with some evidence he was worried about. Once he was gone, Jed started tearing up the rest of the room…I don’t know why.”
“Probably so the cops wouldn’t zero in on just the paintings and realize a wall safe had been the target.”
“Why would that matter?” I asked.
“Because a wall safe isn’t a common thing. It would have led the cops to believe it was an inside job…that someone who knew the family and knew they had a wall safe had told Jed and Ricky about it. By trashing the room, Jed was making it look like a regular robbery.”
I nodded in understanding. I hadn’t even considered that. “While Jed was doing that, I dialed 911, but kept the phone pressed against my back so he wouldn’t hear the operator talking. I was hoping they’d be able to trace the call or something, like they do on TV. To this day, I don’t know if it worked. I wasn’t paying attention to Jed, so I didn’t see what was happening until it was too late.”
“He went after the boy,” Phoenix murmured.
“Yeah. He began stabbing him. I forgot all about the phone, but before I could try to stop him, Ricky came back into the room.”
“He saw you with the phone.”
I nodded. “He didn’t say anything,” I said softly. “He didn’t even look pissed…he looked almost glad. Like when he’d been talking about all the money we were going to steal. He walked over to me, not even looking at what Jed was doing to the kid once. He just took the phone from my hand, hung it up and then he stabbed me.”
I could feel the scar on my side tingling, though I knew it was likely just my imagination.
“If Jed hadn’t stopped him, he would have killed me for sure. Jed told Ricky there’d be too much evidence to cover up. Ricky told Jed to take me out of the house while he cleaned up the evidence…I was still conscious and able to walk, but I was bleeding pretty bad. I saw Ricky grab the bottle of bleach he’d taken upstairs with him, so I assume he used that to get rid of my blood.”
“What happened once you guys got out of there?”
“I’m not sure. I heard Jed and Ricky arguing about getting rid of their knives. Jed wanted to throw them in the lake. I passed out after that. When I came to, I was in the hospital. My dad was in the room with me. He warned me to keep my mouth shut and to let him do the talking. I found out later that he’d told the people in the ER that I’d fallen through a glass window and that was how I’d gotten hurt. Everyone seemed to believe him and I was too scared to tell the truth. I saw the news the next morning about the kid and his parents. The kid made it, but the parents didn’t.”
I allowed myself to look at Phoenix. “You want to hear the most fucked up part?” I didn’t wait for him to answer because I didn’t expect him to. “They brought the kid to the same hospital as me…he was on the same floor.”
Phoenix stiffened and his eyes went wide. I let out a choked laugh. “Yeah, he was three rooms down. I heard the nurses talking about him. They’d had to put him into a coma or something…to let his body heal. I was terrified Ricky would find out, but luckily my dad didn’t make the connection and I knew Ricky wouldn’t be coming to see me in the hospital. But even with him right there, onhis fucking deathbed, I still didn’t do anything. No Ricky around, no Jed. Hell, my father didn’t even stay past the time it took him to make sure I wouldn’t rat on Ricky…I had dozens of opportunities to tell someone. But I didn’t, and you want to know why?”
“Why?” Phoenix managed to ask, though from the expression on his face, I knew I’d managed to shock him.
“Because I knew Ricky would kill me. It didn’t even occur to me that if I told, I’d spend the rest of my life in prison or that Ricky would too. All I could think was that Ricky would string me up like he had Mrs. Hurley’s cat.”
I shook my head and dropped my eyes again. I’d hoped I’d feel some measure of relief after finally telling someone the truth about that night, but all I felt was cold and empty. I waited for Phoenix to say something, anything, but I heard nothing.
And the longer the silence lasted, I knew the pipe dream I’d had that he might somehow forgive my sins, even when I couldn’t, had been yet another one of God’s punishments.
“I know you don’t owe me anything, but I need a favor,” I murmured. “I need 24 hours to get Henry situated. I’ll go to the cops then. You have my word.” I kept my eyes averted as I climbed off the opposite side of the bed, the side Phoenix wasn’t sitting on, in the hopes that I wouldn’t see that look of disgust I’d been waiting for. I knew he had no reason to let me go since my word meant shit to him after everything I’d just told him, so I held my breath as I walked around the bed and towards the door. But when I didn’t hear anything behind me, no shifting on the bed, no footsteps, I quickened my pace.
I’d just made it to the bedroom door when fingers closed around my upper arm and dragged me backwards. Phoenix’s hand slid around the back of my head.
