Afterthoughts (17 page)

“
Yeah, Jay, how are ya?”
Adam answered.

“
Have you found out
anything on Miss Junna Breck?” Jay waited anxiously for an
answer.

“
Not yet. Our initial
research turned up a blank. We can’t find her registered anywhere.
But we’re still looking and I’ll let you know as soon as something
has turned up.”

Defeated, Jay replied, “Thanks” and
hung up the phone. He didn’t know if he was glad Junna had not
turned up or if he wanted to find her. He decided he hoped he would
find her. At least then, maybe Paige would stand a chance. He had
to believe she was not guilty and maybe not crazy.

Harry pawed at Jay’s leg to get his
attention. Jay decided to take him for a walk and try to clear his
head. He put Harry on a leash and headed out the door, locking it
behind him. As he continued along the street, he noticed Paige’s
neighbor watching him from the window. He smiled at her as he
passed; trying to look like everything was fine and hoping that
Paige would be back by the time they returned.

Chapter 31

He was very well pleased with himself.
Things were turning out better than expected. Soon, everything he
had planned for, worked for, suffered for would be over. He reveled
in his power. He could control his worst enemy. He would soon be
able to live his life the way he saw fit. He looked around the dark
room with a smile of great accomplishment. He ran his fingers
through his hair then placed them on his hips as he continued to
survey the room. The sun was bright, he thought, as he glanced
toward the boarded window. It cast too much light into the room and
that started to make him unhappy. He then realized it was hard to
be unhappy on a day like today. The wolves were out now. They were
figuring it out, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Soon,
soon it would be over. “Soon you will pay the price for what you
have done my little girl,” he hissed as he ran his hand across
Paige’s forehead. He felt the knot that had formed from where he
had knocked her out.

Paige’s vision had started to return
and she looked at him through squinted eyes. He was looking at the
window again and not at her. She could see his slim face and his
long straight nose. His hair was short.

At least it looked that way to her in
the dark light of the room. His eyes looked cold and dark. She
could see him smile with perfect white teeth that contrasted to the
darkness. He turned toward her and she immediately closed her eyes.
She wished she could get a good look at him. She could hear him
move about the room and finally heard a door shut.

She slowly opened her eyes again and
surveyed what was around her. She could feel the ropes tied around
her wrists and remembered being this way once before. This room
became familiar all at once. The dark walls were covered with the
old velvet wallpaper with Victorian designs. She glanced toward the
window and remembered seeing the boards and watching lightning
flash, casting shadows across the room.

She turned her head to find the
mattress. It was exactly where she remembered and as she remembered
with the blood stains and the long blue and white stripes. She
remembered strangling the cats on the mattress. The feeling of
total and complete fear took over her as it did all of those months
before. Tears began to fall down her cheeks. She licked them off of
her mouth as they were a welcome drink for the thirst she was
beginning to realize she had. As she tried to turn her head to the
wall opposite of the window, she could see a small table with a
single brass candle stick and beside that was a chair. Someone was
sitting in the chair! She struggled to focus her eyes more but all
she could see was that they were tied up as well. “Junna?” she
asked as her vision cleared more. “Junna? Is that really
you?”

A soft whimper came from the woman.
“Paige?” she whispered.

“
Oh, no! He got to you!”
Junna began to cry.

“
What’s going on?” Paige
asked looking for some explanation that she hoped Junna
had.

“
If he has you then it’s
all over. It’s all over!” Junna slipped out of
consciousness.

“
Junna!” Paige tried to
say more loudly; afraid the man would overhear her. “Junna, wake
up!” After a few tries, Paige gave up.

She listened for signs of anyone else
around her. All she could hear were birds chirping outside the
window and she could barely see the sun beaming through in streaks
across the room. As she tried to move her arms, she could feel the
knots tied around her wrists. As she struggled against them, she
could hear footsteps as if someone were climbing stairs. She waited
until she heard a key slowly unlock the door before the man walked
in.

“
I see my little pigeon is
awake,” he seemed to hiss the words has he spoke. Clearly he was
trying to intimidate her. She just looked at him defiantly. “Still
trying to be strong; even after all that you have done!

My little pigeon has been a very bad
girl,” he smiled wickedly at her with his perfect white teeth.
Paige still could not see his full face in the darkness.

“
What do you want from
me?” she demanded.

“
I want you to pay for
what you have done. Killing three people all by yourself! I will
admit Sarah stepping out in front of the bus must have really made
you smile. You didn’t have to do the dirty deed yourself. My, my,
my, you’ve been very … very … very bad,” he taunted her as he
rubbed her hair. She tried to pull away from him but was
unsuccessful. “Nonetheless, even a bad girl needs to eat.” He held
a piece of bread in front of her and waved it back and forth before
putting it in his own mouth. “See it won’t hurt you.” He offered
her another bite. Paige shook her head.

“
Fine, fine. We’ll see if
my little pigeon wants bread crumbs later. You need to think about
what you have done,” he said as he laid the bread on the floor at
her feet and turned to walk out.

“
What does he mean I
killed three people all by myself? I didn’t …” she broke off. “I
remember having my hands around Anthony’s neck.

I remember the rope in my hands when
Richie died. Oh, God! I had a smile on my face in the picture!” She
began to thrash in her chair.

“
Get me out of
here
!” she screamed. “What have I done?”
Tears poured down her face now. “What have I done?” She heaved and
vomited on herself. She pulled tightly on the ropes around her
wrists and fought against them on her ankles. The chair rocked
violently back and forth, but Paige was unable to free
herself.
“I want to die. I deserve to
die,”
she cried to
herself
.
Exhausted, she realized she couldn’t control anything and she
finally passed out.

Chapter 32

John Waters returned to the station,
entered his office, plopped down in his chair, and started to
think. He hoped that Paige had nothing to do with the murders. That
would look really bad on his reputation to have a murderer on his
force. But, if that were the case, he was determined to figure it
all out. If he solved the case and arrested her, he would look like
the hero. As he looked around his office, Jones Childers burst in
through the door, looking disheveled and exhausted.

Hannah was behind him, trying to
prevent him from rushing into John’s office.

“
Have you found out
anything yet?” he asked tearfully.

“
No, not yet. Are you sure
no one on your farm saw anything?

Nothing at all? No noises or unknown
cars?” John asked as he motioned for Jones to sit in a chair across
from his desk.

“
Not a thing. At least no
one has come forward yet. I’ve asked everyone I can find,” Jones
began to sob.

John walked over to him and placed his
hand on his shoulder. “I’ll call you as soon as we have any
idea.”

“
John, there’s one thing I
need to tell you. Just in case this helps with anything. Um …
Aileen … she was having an affair, an affair with David, Paige’s
boyfriend. Maybe he had something to do with this.”

“
I’m sorry, Jones. Really
I am. We’ll do everything we can to find out what happened. I know
this is hard. Keep your ears open for anything you can find out.
Okay?” John tried to sound sympathetic.

Not feeling any better, Jones stood,
shook his hand and left. John felt really sorry for him. He
couldn’t tell him of the suspicions yet but this added a motive, at
least to Aileen’s murder. Maybe he could nail her on that one. He
may not be able to pin anything else on her, but he could try to on
this one. Paige was missing this morning after all.

“
She was probably at the
Childers, having her revenge. But then again, could David be
involved? Could he have murdered Aileen? For that matter, could
Jones have killed her?”
he thought to
himself as he paced around his office.

He walked around his desk.
Looking at Paige’s office, he decided to go inside and look through
her things. She would have to be pretty stupid to leave any
evidence around that would implicate her in anything. She’s been
pretty smart so far. He rummaged through all of the drawers, and
all of the papers on her desk. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“Hmm,” he mumbled.
“The Steckler file.
Admiring your own work little girl?”
he
thought as he flipped through the file and came across the picture
of Paige in the mirror at Anthony’s murder.

“
Smiling, I see. Why
didn’t I notice that before?”
He gathered
up the file and headed toward his office to mull through it with
the new suspects on his mind.

Jay returned with Harry. He wandered
around Paige’s kitchen, looking for any clue, any sign of what was
going on. Should he believe Paige? Was she really in need of
psychiatric help? Did she really kill anyone? He was so confused.
Was Paige using him as her insanity defense or did she truly
believe what she was telling him?

He sat down at the kitchen table and
starting going through the stack of mail and newspapers that had
piled up over the last few weeks.

He then found the pink envelope.
“Junna? Are you for real? Or is that another part of Paige’s
scheme?” he yelled as he threw the envelope across the
room.

“
Paige, if you are a
reader, read me now! I don’t know what to think. There is so much
spinning around in my head. I’m hearing things about you I don’t
want to know and sure as hell don’t want to believe. I don’t know
what to do. I don’t know how to help. And … where in the hell are
you?”
he screamed the words in his mind as
if he were trying to let people in China hear him.

He looked in her refrigerator and
found a beer and downed the whole thing. Realizing it was only ten
o’clock in the morning, he chuckled, grabbed another one and downed
it too.

Chapter 33

Paige sat in the dark room. She was
unbelievably exhausted and her head was pounding as if freight
trains were running through it.

She still tried to think. She was
trying to remember anything as she thought about Anthony. She could
feel her hands around his neck and she remembered as the life
drained out of his face and he fell to the floor. She had done it.
She killed her sister’s husband. Unbelievable pain and grief
consumed her. Then she could see as she was helping the very
drunken Richie stand on the ladder after putting the rope around
his neck. She remembered kicking the ladder out from under him. “My
sweet little Richie?” she whispered. Nausea swept over her and she
felt faint. “Wait!” she whispered. “He said I killed three? Who was
the third? He said Sarah had killed herself. Who is the third?” she
questioned as the dizziness took over her senses and her world once
again turned black.

She dreamt of Aileen. Aileen was
walking out to the barn as she always did early in the morning to
check on the horses before anyone else stirred. She felt the weight
of the shovel in her hands. “No!” she screamed and woke
up.

Junna was watching her, “Paige … Paige
… don’t let him do this to you!”

“
Who? What’s he doing to
me? I killed them. I killed them all!”

Paige was screaming.

“
No … Paige, listen to me.
That’s not what is happening.”

“
I felt everything. I saw
it happen. I’ve killed them all!” she screamed at the top of her
lungs. Not having any tears left, she didn’t know what to think.
She just wanted to wake up. These last few months had to be a dream
and she needed to wake up from it now. Thoughts of death running
through her mind made her believe she needed to die. The world
needed to be rid of her filth. What had she done? Why did she do
it?

“
That’s right. You did you
naughty little girl,” the deep voice came from the corner by the
window. “You will pay for this my child. You will pay.”

“
What do you get out of
this?” she asked him. “Who are you and what do you want from me?
Please, if you want to kill me, do it now. I deserve it.
Just do it now
!” She was
getting hoarse from all of the screaming and her words were
becoming inaudible.