He hesitated before admitting, “Our father was a monster.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “He was. But what he did to Mary Grace wasn’t your fault.”
“I was her big brother!” Josiah yelled. “I should have protected her.”
It was obvious the man was mentally unstable. If she had to guess, this was probably due to the many years Josiah had been forced to witness the abuse of both his mother and sister. In order to avoid the same type of punishment, he’d felt compelled to hide who he really was inside.
Having previously read the FBI’s profile of the suspect they were after, Eden knew they’d been spot-on in their description. Josiah’s personality traits factored greatly in becoming the killer standing before her now.
He exhibited all the classic signs of someone with narcissistic tendencies, as well as having a God complex. Because of those things, Eden was confident she could keep him talking, as long as he was the focus of conversation.
On the flip side, because of Josiah’s strong personality traits, his decision to keep his abilities a secret from his parents—as well as his sister’s abuse and subsequent suicide—made him feel like a failure. And failure was not something narcissists dealt well with.
In this particular case, when nature and nurture came together, they combined to create the perfect storm.
“You were just a kid, yourself,” Eden continued to talk about him. “And from what I saw, youdidtry to protect her. You gave her advice on how to avoid being beaten. It’s not your fault Mary Grace chose not to listen.”
“What my sister chose was death.” Tears slid down the tortured man’s cheeks. “She slit her own wrists, right in front of me. She knew if she continued on, her life would either be filled with lies or abuse at the hands of her own father. What kind of choice is that for a young girl to have to make?”
“A horrible one,” Eden answered truthfully.
“You’re damn right it was horrible. But she found a way out.” Josiah stared back at her. “She found a way to be free.”
When he started for the metal tray, Eden quickly turned the topic back to him. “What about you, Josiah? How did you manage to get away from your father?”
“My father claimed to be a man of God. He preached day and night that society was nothing but sinners, their fate already spoken for. Said if we joined them, we’d be damned to Hell, too.” He looked back at her. “That’s why we lived off the grid. The only time my father went to town was for supplies, and those were minimal. We grew our own food, made our own furniture. My mother sewed all our clothes.”
“But you broke free, didn’t you?” Eden focused on him again. “It must have been a hard thing to do.”
An evil grin slowly formed on Josiah’s lips. “It was the same day Mary Grace became free.”
Just as she’d hoped, Josiah returned his focus on her and came a few steps closer.
“My father heard me crying in the barn and came back. When he saw what Mary Grace had done, he didn’t say a word. He simply grabbed a shovel, went out to the tree line, and dug a grave.” His cold eyes found hers. “He didn’t even tell Mother what had happened until after he’d buried her.”
What a horrible, awful man.
“I waited until later that night,” Josiah continued. “I crushed some tranquilizers we kept for the animals and put them into their evening tea. After they went to bed, I snuck into their room. Drove my knife straight into my mother’s heart as she slept.” The look he gave was that of an innocent child. “I made sure it was quick and painless for her.”
Eden barely controlled her expression, knowing that had to be anything but painless. Her thoughts flashed to Zoe, but she forced them away. As heartless as it seemed, she couldn’t think about the detective now.
“What about your father?” She cleared her rough throat. “Did he wake up?”
Josiah smiled again. “He slept like a baby through the whole thing.”
Eden shivered as he came even closer to her. The madman showed no signs of remorse for having murdered his own mother in cold blood.
“I went to his side of the bed, but I didn’t kill him right away. Instead, I tied a rope around his wrists and carried him over my shoulders out into the barn. Once inside, I hung him from a hook in the wall we used to hold the extra rope for the horses.”
Not really wanting to know, Eden kept him talking. “What happened next, Josiah?”
Josiah looked down at her. “I woke him up. Tossed a bucket of cold water on the bastard. It took him a minute to clear his head and realize where he was. As soon as he did, he started yelling at me, demanding I let him down. When I refused, he asked what I was doing.”
“And what did you tell him?”
A look of pure evil crossed Josiah’s face, and he became agitated as the memories from that day came to life inside his head.
“I told him I was only giving him what he’d given to Mary Grace. And then I took the same belt he always used on her, and I beat him with it.” He looked somewhat satisfied when he added, “By the time I was finished with that part, the powerful, all-knowing Amos Black was sobbing like a child.”
