Broken (14 page)
Authors: J. A. Carlton
“I don’t wanna, Mike,” Eric whined in a voice that was so close to the one he’d use when his mother took them out for day trips when they were children that it sent chills up older brother’s spine.
“You have to.”
“Well, shit…” he cursed, laying his hands on Mike’s shoulder, “you know she’s balled almost every man from here to Bakerstown, she can’t help herself, you know that.”
Sandy’s copious affairs were no secret, but what he’d learned actually made so much sick sense he wondered how neither he nor Carl had ever suspected anything.
Eyeing the youngest sibling curiously, fighting his sense of failure as an older brother, he shook his head, wanting to know how Eric could be so much more together than he outwardly seemed, and how Randy, who appeared so on track, could have become the monster he was accused of being. “How can you…?” he started.
“What? Forgive her?” Eric asked.
Mike nodded.
The corner of his mouth turned up and trembled, he swallowed hard and shrugged, “she gave him to me.”
Mike felt sick to his stomach, but wrapped Eric into his embrace, “He’s your
brother
.”
The young man nodded, sniffing, and looked into Mike’s confused expression, “I don’t know how not to be in love with him.”
Eric headed to the front door, stopping in front of Sandy. He looked into her eyes frowning and reached up, part of him wanted to give her comfort, but he couldn’t. “I
do
love you mom. I just hate that you drove Randy away from me,” he bolted from the house before she could try to reach out for him, then hopped into his car speeding toward the Sheriff’s station.
--
Crossing the parking lot, Eric wove his way through dozens of townsfolk; people he’d known all his life, people who’d continued to accept him without question when his sexual preference became public knowledge, were now whispering behind his back.
You should have come to me, Ran, I would have helped you.
Inside the building, men and women stood in front of a map of the town tacked up onto a cork board. Areas were marked with different colored push pins indicating the most likely places that Randy might have taken Sam, and their search status.
There was no question which one was Sam’s boyfriend. Eric just had to look for the guy who looked like he felt.
“Detective Edwards?” he asked from behind the cop and a gigantic man he assumed was his partner.
“Yes?” they said at the same time.
“My name is Eric Custon, I’m one of Randy’s brothers.” He took a deep breath and sighed, “Can we talk? Somewhere kinda private?”
Jase motioned to a table at the far corner of the main room and followed the young man to it with Pete at his side.
Eric sat down, reaching into his jacket pocket absently before coming up with a small notebook and a pen, “We think dad had a heart attack tonight. Mike said I should talk to you.”
“What about?” Jase asked, taking a seat across from the boy, despite his obvious frustration over the interruption.
“About maybe why Randy is the way he is,” his lips trembled around the words and his hand shook as he started to make a list.
“Go on,” Pete prompted.
“Far as I know, Randy never really liked girls,” he glanced up, reading their puzzled expressions easily, “in the sense that I think he’s a misogynist.”
Captain Zegler walked over, stopping Eric in mid-sentence. “They’re ready to go Edwards.”
“They starting at the Backer house?” he asked anxiously, glancing at the list of what looked like locations the kid was making.
He was torn. The dogs would smell her and lead them right to her, but what if they hadn’t gone near the house? What if he wasted time with the dogs when this kid could maybe give him a potentially hot location?
Captain Zegler nodded.
“Shit,” he decided to split the difference knowing it would take them a good ten minutes to get to the Backer cabin if they drove the speed limit. He could put the pedal to the floor and meet them there almost at the same time if he didn’t waste too much time here.
“Pete and I’ll follow in five minutes.”
Jase watched the Captain leave with the K-9 units then returned his attention to the young man who breathed deep and rubbed his face with his hands before continuing.
“I always just figured it was passive, y’know?” he shook his head, “I don’t know where he took her, I really don’t. I wish I did, Sam’s a nice girl.” He sighed shakily.
Knowing his time, and the attention of the detectives was limited, he jumped right in, wondering if what he was about to divulge would repulse them as it had Mike, or if maybe it wouldn’t even faze them. More importantly, though, he wanted to get to the hospital and find out how his dad was doing.
“I don’t know when he decided it was wrong, or why, or even how. I know
I
didn’t know why it was until later, but I knew it wasn’t my fault. What I
can
tell you is that he hates her. I think...” he tried to explain while fighting his heartbreak. “It was okay when it was just us, y’know, but when he found out she was sleeping around, it should’ve been just us.” he sniffed and wiped his eyes. “God, he hates her so much, but I think its cause he loved her so much once, I don’t know.”
“Eric, slow down, what are you trying to say?” Jase asked, casting a curious glance at Pete.
“I’m trying to say that, maybe the reason he hates girls is because of how she raised us, the things she taught us to… do… to...
with
… each other…” he took a shaky breath, “how she taught us to make love with each other… and her,” he blurted quietly.
Jase felt sucker punched and seemed to fall back into the chair. “Ooooh, shit. Eric, how long did this go on?” Pete asked gently, noticing that his partner had lost what little color he’d regained at the hospital.
The young man shrugged, his black biker jacket rising and falling like a load of bricks on his shoulders. “All my life. Randy once told me it’d always been like that for him, too. He told me he was so afraid that mom would stop loving him once she brought me home from the hospital, but she didn’t,” he kept his eyes down, he didn’t want them to see how deeply the memories affected him. “I remember one time, Randy was maybe in first grade or something, was probably just a pee hard on or something, but I can remember watching her work on him, she said she was kissing it to make it go away.”
“Oh geez,” Jase sighed.
Pete groaned.
“When she was done, she came to me, said she didn't want me to feel left out. Randy was crying, then I started crying ‘cause he was and I didn’t know why, ‘cause well,” he blushed magenta but continued anyway. “When she was done he was still crying, so she picked him up and put him in bed next to me, then stuck her tit in his mouth to shut him up, all the while she was, she was playing with me. Down there. Shit,” he groaned pressing his face into his hands. “That’s one of my first memories,” he admitted. “She always told us it was something that made us special. God help me, but,” he shook his head, “I liked the idea of being special.” He covered his mouth, breathing shakily. One by one, tears plopped from his chin onto the notebook.
“Eric, it’s not your fault.” Pete assured the despairing young man.
“Mike said I should tell you, he said maybe it would help you find her.”
“Was it, did she ever take you guys anywhere else besides the house, where she molested you?” Jase asked.
Eric nodded and handed over the list, “Lots of places. This is all of them that I can remember right now. There were walks in the woods, Trainor’s pond, picnics, sometimes even at the movies she’d wear a dress and put our hands between her legs. My mom has a problem, she’s like, there’s no switch in her mind to stop her when it comes to sex, she can’t shut it off.” He tried to explain. “Show her a hot dog and she gets turned on, y’know? And once she’s on, she can’t shut off, that’s why dad always looked the other way at her affairs.”
“Did he have any idea what she was doing to you both?” Pete asked.
Eric shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. If he had, I don’t think he would’ve had a heart attack tonight. I just couldn’t handle keeping it inside anymore, and he and Mike heard.”
“Which one popped you?” Jase asked, pointing at his split lip.
“Mike,” he chuckled, “he didn’t want to believe it, but it’s okay, man, he’s my brother, he didn’t mean it.”
“You don’t wanna press charges?”
“No! It’s okay. I would have done the same if the situation was reversed,” he admitted.
On the far side of the room, half a dozen men and women walked in, drawing Eric’s attention. Jase and Pete turned as one to have a look. “You know them?”
Eric nodded, “Sorta, they work estate security for the Caffey’s, about a mile away from Doc’s place, where I live.”
“Caffeys?” Jase questioned.
“Doc’s place?” Pete asked, then eyed his partner, “It’s the Caffey woman who’s Sam’s biological mother, right?”
Jase nodded, starting to understand now how she might have come to fall on Randy’s radar.
“Ran’s head of security on the Caffey estate, well was,” Eric answered Jase first, then looked at Pete. “Doc’s place is where I live; I take care of the house and the animals when she’s traveling with the rodeo.”
With their questions answered, he had to ask one of his own, “You said Mrs. Caffey is Sam’s biological mom. Is she the product of an affair?” Eric asked.
Jase scowled at his partner, but reluctantly nodded. “Why?”
Eric shook his head, “That could explain why Ran went after her.”
“How do you mean?” Jase asked.
Eric sighed, “Look, what
she
did to us, well mostly to him, she punished us both through Ran, if either of us got out of line or didn’t do what she said, she took it out on him. It got to the point where he could handle almost anything, ‘cause God knew almost anything could set her off, y’know? I mean, too long a look, taking too long to get it up, whatever. But Ran always protected me, he took the beatings, the rapings, the days on end chained up in the cellar. But what I think turned him, what made him start hating her? It was when he caught her
cheating
, on
us
. Grandma had eight kids, six of ‘em, including my mom, from different guys she screwed around with.”
“ ‘Betrayer’,” Pete sighed.
Eric could almost see it all clicking into place for the detectives and was glad he could help, even if it was only to figure out why Randy took after Sam.
“Eric, real quick,” Pete started, “you said you live at Doc’s place, is Doc a vet?” he asked.
“Uh huh, mostly large animals, horses, cows, but she couldn’t turn away a mouse, man, she’s a great lady.”
“As a vet, she’d have drugs on the premises, right?” the larger man asked.
“Yeah, mostly antibiotics and stuff, she keeps it locked up though, and before you ask, I don’t have a key and I
don’t
do drugs, I’ll even…”
“Does Randy know you live there?” Jase asked.
“ ‘Course he does, he’s my brother.”
Pete scrubbed his face, “That explains the darts,” he muttered to Jase.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “How long has Randy been working for the Caffeys?”
“Couple years, he doesn’t like ‘em much,” Eric shrugged. “He says the husband’s an okay guy, but he doesn’t think real highly of the wife or the old woman. ‘Course then again, he doesn’t think very highly of most women at all so, no surprise there.”
Rising from his chair, Jase extended his hand to the young man, “Eric, I can’t thank you enough for this information, this could help, a lot.”
Eric nodded, shaking their hands in turn, “Good,” he wiped his cheeks dry. “Detective, don’t hurt him please,”
I love him,
“There’s more places than that, I just can’t think of them right now, when I do I’ll let you know,” he promised rising to his feet. “She really did love us, right? Right? It wasn’t something, it wasn’t ALL lies, right?” he asked.
“Maybe it was the only way she knew how,” the senior detective grimaced. His heart went out to the young man whose world, it seemed, had crumbled in the span of a few hours.
With Eric leaving the station, the detectives raced to the map with the list.
--
In his car on the way to the hospital, Eric passed a tiny break in the trees and an overgrown rutted path that seemed to amplify the queasy feeling in his stomach for a moment, before he grimaced to himself and thought,
it’s finally grown over. I wonder if kids still go there.
As he neared the glowing halo of red light at the hospital’s Emergency Room parking lot, something snapped inside the youngest Custon’s brain and he felt a nauseating tightening in his groin. He slammed on the brakes, wheeling hard to the left, bouncing the car viciously over the median in a wild u-turn. Once the vehicle was straightened out he pressed the accelerator firmly against the floorboard and cursed himself, “Holy shit!” he gasped sharply. “How could I forget?”
In just a few moments, that seemed to take forever, he returned to the overgrown path and jerked the wheel hard to the right, forcing the car up onto the curb where the undercarriage stuck and the engine whined in protest.
The car rolled forward another couple inches and kissed a good-sized tree just inside the canopy before he tossed it into park and sat staring for a moment, unsure of what to do.
Of COURSE, that’s where he’d take her! It makes perfect sense,
he thought indecisively, though his belly felt suddenly full of loose gelatin.
I’ll just go have a look, and if he’s there, I’ll come back and get the cops, yeah, that’s what I’ll do.