13 Nights of Horror: The Disappearance of Rose Hillard (9 page)

“You and Rose were friends,” Gorman replied.

Karyn nodded, with tears running down her face.

“I used to think the people of this town needed to be protected from the truth about lots of things,” Gorman continued. “I was wrong. This should have…” He paused again. “Well, it’ll all be in my report, whether people believe it or not.”

“There’s something in her shoulder,” Joe called out as he leaned closer to the body. Using a pair of tweezers, he pulled a bullet from Rose’s body. “Boss, this looks like one of ours, but it can’t be. We changed suppliers recently, so how the hell did it end up in her if she’d been buried for five years?”

“That’ll be in my report as well.”

“But -”

“Bag her up,” he added, staring at Rose’s dead face. “She’ll need to undergo an autopsy before we can release the body to the family.”

“I can’t help thinking about poor Carey,” Joe replied. “First Michael’s heart attack, then this… Do you think maybe we should, you know, keep things under wraps a little? Depending on what the autopsy finds, there’s still no need to let people know what really happened, is there? For her mother’s sake, and for the sake of -”

“No more secrets,” Gorman said firmly. “It’s people trying to protect other people that caused half this mess in the first place. Anyway, I’m pretty sure Carey had her suspicions. I guess she just couldn’t bring herself to recognize what was happening right in front of her.” Turning, he began to limp toward his car.

“Do you really think the people of Vantage can deal with this?” Karyn called after him.

“It’s not our job to hide the truth from people,” he replied. “Our job is to help them deal with it. Besides, the truth always finds a way to get out eventually, even if the laws of nature end up getting broken in the process. The truth breaks through in the end. It’s unstoppable. The world will only stand so much evil.”

Glancing at the nearby trees, he saw that although some were still bent down toward the ground, most were now starting to curl back up toward the sky again, as if the horror had truly passed.

Half an hour later, as he reached his office and sat at the desk, he switched on the computer and began to gather his notes, ready to write up a comprehensive report that would cover every aspect of the disappearance of Rose Hillard. He knew it would make for difficult reading, and he knew that parts of it would make people doubt his sanity, but he no longer felt like picking and choosing which parts of the truth to let people hear. He was simply going to record what happened and let the world judge. If that meant he had to retire early, then so be it. Besides, he wanted to rescue the concept of the ‘truth’ from gutter journalists like Deborah Culstone and their tabloids.

Spotting something under a nearby pile of papers, he pulled out a small envelope and found that it contained the missing disc. With a heavy heart, he slipped it into a bag labeled ‘Evidence’ and placed it next to the computer, ready to submit it once his report was ready.

He paused.

The room was silent.

Finally, he began to type a full report about the disappearance of Rose Hillard, so that the truth could finally be known.

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