Dr. Beck had said it was likely Charles had Obsessive Love Disorder. All of his actions, the stalking of Celeste’s partners, the uncontrolled jealousy, and his violent justifications, “in the name of love,” all made him a prime candidate for the diagnosis.
Celeste had been innocent. She had dreams and aspirations. She was building a life, and he took it all because he couldn’t live with her rejection.
Now I was sitting here paying for a crime I didn’t commit. I merely dared to exist after a tragedy. In his head, I didn’t deserve to be here, still breathing. There were many times I wished that had been true. I didn’t want my sister to be another statistic, but I couldn’t turn back time.
I was unsure how much time had passed. Charles paced and paced. Sometimes, he would flip the knife that he carried on his waist.
The silence was jarring. I almost wished he would ramble to fill the void. His silence was more terrifying than his sharp words.
My eyes darted to the door at the sound of it’s squeaking hinges.
Sheriff Strauss had returned with a duffel bag in hand, of what Charles had asked for, I presumed.
“Were you followed?” he asked, closing the distance between him and the sheriff, snatching the bag from his hands before turning away to set it down on a table against the wall.
“For a moment there, I thought so. But I’m sure I lost them when I took that detour through Belland,” the sheriff drawled as he cracked his knuckles, his eyes darting to me before returning to his son.
He cackled. It was a laugh that I would know anywhere if I heard it in a crowd. It used to inspire giggles from me, but now it made me unwell.
“Now, we can get to the real fun.”
With a speed that was foreign to me, he pulled a gun from the waistband of his jeans and pointed it towards the sheriff.
“Son?”
A single shot rang out. Charles had put a bullet through his father’s head. Uncertainty and pain marred his face as the light left his eyes and his body fell to the floor.
Chapter 40
Parker
Turns out finding Sheriff Strauss hadn’t been that difficult. With my foot stuck on the gas, I caught up to him fairly quickly. Doing my best to remain concealed, I followed him throughout town.
He lived modestly on the other side of town. The houses weren’t stacked on top of each other, so there was a modicum of privacy. The neighborhood was quiet, and it seemed to be home to many older couples.
Strauss exited the car with ease. Not an ounce of paranoia in him. He just walked into his house like it was a normal evening.
The illogical part of me wanted to run up on him and thrash him until he told me where Evelyn was. But I had to keep my cool. I waited this long for him to resurface, so I had to play my cards right.
He spent another fifteen minutes inside the house, then returned with a few more bags that looked like they held food.
It was time to see where he was headed.
Forty minutes and twenty miles later, he had finally stopped driving.
I rolled the car into the tall grass off the shoulder of the road and just watched.
We were miles outside of town in the farm lands on the outskirts of Brenton. The sun had set, and the only thing lighting the night was the moon.
Sheriff Strauss was none the wiser of my presence, and I hoped it would stay that way.
I gave him a wide berth as he trekked through the grass and into the rust colored barn that sat in the field.
Evelyn had been gone for eight hours already, and I couldn’t let my mind think too much about the state of her. Everything in my body was telling me I needed to get into that barn and do it quickly, but this wasn’t the time to make decisions fueled by emotions.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I turned on my location and shared it with Danny, knowing that he would drive here. I couldn’t stand by and wait for someone to show up. The whole ride here, I kept thinking about every moment I spent with Evelyn. In the past few weeks, she had become my rock and my safe space. I thought coming up with the list idea would help her open up. But it did something for me, too.
Each moment I spent with her, I realized how empty my life had been. I worked harder than most, and even when I reached new heights in my career as a firefighter, I never stopped to rest. My life had turned into this predictable cycle.
