House of V (Unraveled Series) (29 page)

He was definitely the man in the
video. Judging by the way he moved and the wrinkles on his face, he was in his
early sixties and wholly not what I’d anticipated. I searched his face,
expecting to recognize the man that wanted me, but I had never seen him before
except for a younger version. His skin was pale and his hair dark, just like
the little boy from the picture.

“I see the disappointment in your
eyes,” he said as he walked toward me. I hunched my body in a defensive
position and held the knife high so he could see it.

“Don’t you dare come
closer.
I won’t do anything you ask until I see Sister
Josephine,” I warned, looking down at the chains.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” he
asked. “I know it’s been awhile, but I thought you might remember me.”

I shook my head as I studied him. I
tried to focus my attention on him, but all I could think about were those
chains and how I wanted nothing else than to see Sister Josephine in them. At
least I would know where she was.

“It’s a shame really that no one
remembers me. I’m so forgettable to most people, but I won’t be after tonight,”
he said with a sordid smile. He stopped and clapped his hands together.

“What’s tonight?” I asked.

“Tonight is the night that you
repay me for all that I’ve lost. For all that Holston Parker has done to my
family and me. What you did to my son.”

“I don’t know what business you had
with Holston, but I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t even his daughter. I
killed him. As for your son, I have no idea who you are talking about,” I
explained, feeling the flush of heat rise in my chest. I wasn’t going to go
down for Holston’s mistakes. I had already dealt with his demons for too many
years, and he was gone now. Nothing should be left.

“Ethan.”

The name shot through my body like
a spear, tearing at every corner of me.

“So you recognize that name, huh?”
he said. “Ethan’s dead father has been resurrected.” He held his arms out in
the air as if he was Jesus Christ himself.

“But you were supposed to be dead,”
I whispered. I remembered Ethan moving in with us for a few months when I was
young before he left, allegedly adopted by a woman across town.

“Resurrected,” he said again.
“Except I’m not a religious zealot like Sister Josephine and
Holston.
They both found God to deal with their demons except Holston’s
path was a little
-
”
He stopped short.

Silence.

“Psychotic.”

Damn, I wholly agreed with this
bastard on that point.

“You see this scar on my neck?” His
thin finger pointed to his neck, but all I saw were shadows. “I have Holston to
thank for that. He thought he got rid of me that night, but hell, I just kept
on ticking. I’m like the Energizer Bunny.”

Silence.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” he
asked. “Some things never change. You didn’t say a word that night either when
you watched your father slice through my neck.”

I scanned my memories, trying hard
to remember anything with Holston and this man.
Nothing.

“Did you have to throw your teddy
bear away, Ms. Parker?”

My teddy bear.

Suddenly, the memory of my
red-soaked hands came back to me. It was the night Sister Josephine had taken
me in. She had thrown the crimson-stained teddy bear in the garbage despite my
tearful pleas. She had washed my hands over and over, explaining that it was
just a bit of food coloring.
The teddy bear
was ruined and couldn’t be washed
, she had said. The stains were set too
deep. It hadn’t been food coloring, though. It had been this man’s blood on my
hands.

“You were small then when I saw you
last. You were playing with a little white teddy bear, dancing it across your
legs. You looked up at me and waved before Holston sliced through my neck. He
didn’t know you had gotten out of the car.”

I shook my head slowly, trying to
shake the memory from my head, but it came flooding back to me.

“Ta da,” he said as he threw out
his hands. “Not dead. I got away, but not before Holston took Ethan. And I
almost got Ethan back. I was so close.” He said those last words with fierce
longing in his voice. “But then, somehow, Ethan had disappeared, and I lost him
for good.

“I left Appleton then.
Moved to Texas to start over.
Life went by, and I hopped
from one town to the next until I decided to head back to Wisconsin to try to
find Ethan ten years ago. That’s when I met Erica,” he said. “Got married and
got a real job. I was a sucker back then. That’s what a woman will do to you.
She’ll make you do things that you’ll regret, like not fight to find your son.”
His eyes narrowed on me.

I swallowed hard, trying to avoid
his words. “Where is Sister Josephine?”

He waved his hand in the air,
dismissing me. “Josephine’s fine.”

“I want to see her.”

“Not until we’re done having our
little conversation here,” he said. “By the way, my name’s Derek
Schuh
. I think it’s only proper to get acquainted to the
individual that is going to take your life.”

“Well, good thing you already know
my name,” I replied.

He raised his eyebrows and let out
a small whistle. “We got a pistol, just like her father, ladies and gentlemen.”

“Not my father,” I muttered as I
gripped the knife tighter.

“Not your biological father, but
your father in every other right. You see, I missed that opportunity with my
own son. Your father took him from me,” he said.

“Holston took his life. I didn’t.”

“And now it’s my turn to take
yours.
Tit for tat.
He took my son. I’ll take his
daughter.”

“What about Sister Josephine?” I
cocked my head, holding the knife steady. The twenty minutes had to be close.
If I could simply keep the conversation going, Sanchez and his crew would show
up any minute.

“Sister Josephine
this.
Sister Josephine that. She’s the one that started this all in the
first place,” he said. “It was actually over there, on the outside of that
wall.” He pointed to the far side of the building.

“Sister Josephine is quite the
contradiction,” he continued. “But you didn’t know her when she was a little
girl like I did.”

The black and white photo back at
the cottage flashed through my head.

“She was a spiteful little thing.
Quite the devil, if you ask me. I think it’s rather humorous that she ended up being
a nun,” he added as he put his hand behind his back and retrieved a handgun.
“No men would probably take that wicked thing, so she had to turn to the only
thing that would; the Church.”

He waved the gun in my direction,
swirling it around in the air until he aimed it at my head. My heart stopped.
He pulled his hand down and rested the gun on his thigh.

“Did you honestly think I’d let you
off that easy?” he asked with a small laugh. “Now back to
Sister
Josephine. Do you want the long version or short version?”

“I want to see
her
, otherwise, I will cut your throat, but this time, I’ll finish
what Holston couldn’t,” I warned, rotating the knife in my hand. I couldn’t
stand here any longer, listening to his sob story, without seeing Sister
Josephine.

“So violent,” he said with a drop
of his head. “Are you sure you aren’t Holston’s biological daughter? The
resemblance is astounding.”

I was silent, but I felt the cut
sear my skin. I was not his daughter.

“Okay,” he said as he put his hands
up. “I’ll concede. Now that I have you, I’ll keep my end of the bargain. As you
can see, I’m a fair man, unlike Holston.”

He picked up the spotlight from the
ground and pointed the beam to my left. I followed the light to see Sister
Josephine with a rope around her waist, sitting on the ground next to a
machine. She looked up in a haze, her head barely reacting to the light. Her
hair hung over her eyes and a large piece of duct tape covered her mouth.

She was alive.

I lunged toward her and slid on the
ground to meet her body. Derek’s laughter filled the warehouse as I scrambled
to pull Sister Josephine’s tape off her mouth. Her skin was a ghastly white hue
and felt clammy, void of life. I fumbled to take hold of the rope and hacked
through it, making quick movements until I saw it.
A fresh,
eight inch gash along her arm that trickled blood.

No, no, no.

I sawed faster until the tension on
the rope released, and Sister Josephine fell into my arms.

“She deserved it,” he said behind
me. “She made a fool out of me. Those kids tortured me and called me names. If
Holston hadn’t come to her rescue that day, I would have made her pay for what
she did to me then.”

I stayed crouched, holding Sister
Josephine as I desperately tried to close the wound. I held it with my hand,
feeling the warmth of her blood flow against my skin. It wasn’t going to end
like this. Sister Josephine didn’t deserve this. It
couldn’t
end like this.

I turned back to the beam of light
to see Derek standing behind it. He held the gun in his other hand.

“Tell me,
Evie
,”
he started. “How did it end for Ethan? Was he in pain? Were you there when he
took his last
breath
?”

I was silent, yet the wrath coursed
through my body. Ethan had died saving me, and I wouldn’t let his death be in
vain. I wouldn’t leave this world with Sister Josephine’s blood on my hands.

“I won’t let you off that easy,
Evie
Parker. You’ll pay for the debt of your father with an
excruciating death. You’ll beg me for mercy,” he said as he lowered the gun
toward my feet.

I exhaled, the number one beginning
to form in my head, but I didn’t finish my mantra. I sprung forward at him with
my knife, thrashing to make contact when I heard the gunshot ring in my ears. I
rolled to the ground, expecting to feel the pain tear through my body any moment,
but instead, I felt nothing except a hard impact to my shoulder from the
ground. The light swung in the air until it crashed to the ground, clattered
against the concrete, and spun in the opposite direction.

It was followed by the thud of his
body.

“Go, go, go,” a man’s voice echoed
against the walls. Footsteps padded throughout the warehouse, led by half a
dozen small beams of light.

I was still crouched over when I
felt the hand on my back.

“
Evie
,
are you okay?”

I turned to look into the wrinkled
eyes of Sanchez in the glow of his flashlight. I nodded my head, but pointed
behind me and managed to whisper her name, “Sister Josephine.”

“We know. We’re on it,” he said as
he waved his hand and motioned toward Sister Josephine. Three officers were
already there, wrapping her arm, and dispatching the call for an ambulance.

“She might not
-
”
I started, unable to finish
my sentence.

“She’ll make it,” he said as he put
his arm around me and pulled me into his chest.

I let him hold me and put my head
against his arm, allowing the odd sensation of welcomed protection overcome my
body.

“She’ll be wherever she is supposed
to be."

18

June 22, 12:00 p.m
.
Appleton, Wisconsin

The rain trickled against the canopy
overhead as the bagpipes blew their melancholy tones. I hung my head down and
folded my hands in prayer as they lowered the casket into the ground. Closing
my eyes, I inhaled deep to feel Sister Josephine’s rosary rise against my
chest. A hand pulled against my own, and I looked over to see my sister’s sympathetic
smile. I returned a small nod that told her that I was going to be okay. That
everything
was going to be okay.

I felt another pull on my other
hand except, this time, it was lower. The small bony fingers of Sister
Josephine wrapped around my own from her wheelchair. I gave her the same nod as
the trickles of the rain from the canopy began to slow. The low hum of the
bagpipes stopped as the casket of Father
Haskens
came
to rest deep below the surface.

“Thank you for coming.” The
presiding priest nodded as he held his hand up high. “May you go in peace to
serve the
Lord.
”

The crowd of parishioners outside
of the canopy shuffled away, allowing the rest of the congregation huddled
underneath to disperse. I looked over to see Ann and Michael Jones still
standing on the other side of the burial site. Michael had his around Ann’s
waist, and they both stared at me with a sort of longing I couldn’t describe.
Fearful, I guessed, that they would lose me yet again.

My eyes moved over to Mark and Ben,
who faced each other, talking quietly in their suits with Sanchez, who was
wearing his police uniform and aviators, despite the fact it was raining. They
were here for me, just like family and friends should be.

“I’ll see you inside, okay?”
Delaney asked as she gave my hand a squeeze. She let go of mine and replaced it
with James’s hand. “Everyone plans on being there.”

“Sure,” I replied with another nod.
“Even though it’s not my usual thing.”

“Get used to it. This is a family
thing,” Delaney said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. Nothing has changed in the
last twenty-four hours since you have been asking.”

“I don’t need to watch you, do I?
As your attorney?”
James chimed in.

I flashed him the same crooked
smile I had given him back in the interrogation room two days ago in Milwaukee.

“James,” Delaney scolded as she hit
him lightly on his arm. “We’ll see you inside.”