Love Gone (8 page)

Since she’d left Nashville after high
school and moved to Boston with a friend, she’d never returned.
Honestly never even thought about going back. Why would she? Her
mother and her weren’t close and Mac had been her world from that
point forward.

Together they’d moved to Maine,
following the fishing trail, and from there they’d come to Alaska,
in further pursuit of the fishing jackpot. A jackpot they’d never
found, although their life here was a nicer one than in the lower
48, as the locals called all the states that weren’t
Alaska.

But, she couldn’t just pick up that
life where they’d left off. When that man and his daughter had
pushed their way into their home they had ended any hope of letting
them return to anything that bordered on normal.

What was normal anymore anyway, she
wondered idly, letting the painkillers have their way with her
thoughts and feelings. They needed Mac to be normal. She needed to
still be pregnant with Mac’s baby for normal to exist and neither
or those things were possible. Therefore, normal wasn’t possible.
And if normal was impossible, then maybe other things that used to
be impossible were now possible. And that meant going home to
Nashville and Myra. Maybe it was time for Liam to meet his
grandmother.

CHAPTER 11

Liam gingerly set first one foot then
the other into his room. The door was hanging from the hinges and
looked covered with the white dust the police had used to try and
search for fingerprints or anything that would give them a clue
about the people that had murdered his dad, killed his little
brother, and effectively ended his life as he knew it.

Bet they didn’t find anything useful
though, Liam thought has he stood in the middle of his room just
looking at the chaos he used to find comfort in.

At first the police thought that his
room might have been tossed because the bad guys were searching for
something to steal or maybe the reason behind why they were there
at all.

“Did you know this girl son?” One of
the cops had asked Liam about Emily.

“No.” He’d told them over and
over.

These cops wanted to believe that he’d
known Emily, maybe even had a relationship or an argument or
something with her at school, which had led to the attack. The
truth was even more pointless. It had been an accident. An innocent
fender bender, nothing more, he’d explained endlessly.

He didn’t know her. He didn’t know her
father and neither did his parents. And, oh yeah, for the record,
his room always looked like that, they hadn’t ransacked it to look
for anything.

It was the first time he’d been
grateful that his mom was out of it in the hospital because she
would have been mortified if she’d known that his room was so messy
even the cops couldn’t believe it wasn’t the result of a crime
scene.

His parent’s friends, Lisa and Bill,
their neighbors, had stood by him through it all.

Yes, he’d come running to their house
the night of the attack, screaming that someone was hurting them.
They’d called the police and Bill had come running with his gun.
The whole thing had happened in less than an hour, as hard to
believe as it felt to him.

They hadn’t recognized the two
attackers. Didn’t know the girl, Emily, from around town or school
or any of the community events the kids put on.

No one knew them. Maybe a couple of
drifters looking for trouble and money? Maybe escaped psychotics
from the lower 48? No one knew.

Liam hoped they’d rot in hell. Where
ever and whoever they were.

But right now he had to get his
clothes and he wanted to get the hell out of here sooner rather
than later. Just standing in this room was bringing all the terror
and confusion of that night back. He looked at the broken window
and its torn screen and saw that someone, probably Lisa, had
attempted to tape a black garbage bag over the gaping hole so
weather wouldn’t get in and ruin the carpet. As if it mattered what
this room looked like. He never wanted to sleep in it
again.

He grabbed some clothes off the floor
and stuffed them in the black duffel he used for his gym clothes. A
T-shirt, a flannel, a pair of jeans, some underwear and socks. That
would have to be enough. He didn’t want these things, any of them,
to come with him out of this room. He felt like they should be
frozen forever on the floor, waiting for a kid named Liam to come
in and kick them around in an attempt to find a video game or a CD
that was buried underneath. He used to be that kid, but he never
would be again, he knew.

The bag slung over his shoulder now he
backed out of his room, careful not to touch anything he didn’t
have to and found himself walking to the head of the basement
stairs. The last place he’d seen his mom and dad
together.

Staring at the steps he remembered the
look in his mom’s eyes as she leaned over his dad, whispering in
his ear. She had looked at him like she didn’t care if he still
lived and was scared. She chose his dad. He saw her do it and he
knew she’d seen him see it. He felt different about her.

Oh, he knew that his parent’s have –
HAD- he reminded himself sternly, a strong, almost otherworldly
bond – but to see his own mother choose his father, almost as if
she would have rathered that it be Liam on the floor and his father
standing in his place. It was enough to break him, he thought. He
didn’t want it to, but standing at the stairs where his father had
taken his last breaths in this house…he felt something crack deep
inside.

Goodbye to the kitchen where he ate
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after school when his mom was
running late getting home. Goodbye to the living room where he’d
gleefully spent every Christmas morning that he could remember,
ripping open packages and laughing with joy over the small treats
his parents had sacrificed to afford for him.

She hadn’t told him they were leaving
in so many words, but he overheard Lisa and Bill discussing his and
Faith’s situation in their bedroom when they thought he was fast
asleep in the guestroom and it seemed that the general consensus
was that they weren’t staying in Ketchikan. Nashville seemed to be
the city they were headed to, although, again he didn’t know for
sure.

God damn it mom, he wasn’t a kid, he
thought angrily as he took one last look around. He didn’t want to
be here either. Every knickknack and creak of the floorboards
screamed out, “guilty.”

It was all he could do not to fly
apart at the seams with regret and guilt. If only he hadn’t begged
his mom to drive that night. If he’d backed off when she’d first
said no, his dad would still be here riding him about joining
afterschool sports instead of the drama club, and his mom would be
refereeing between them like she always did. All it took was one
bad decision – gas or brake – for everything to fall apart; for his
whole life to change.

His mom couldn’t even look at him.
He’d visited the hospital the last two days and she had pretended
to be asleep every time he came into the room. He wasn’t a kid, he
thought again, angrily. He could tell when someone was faking and
she was. Faking that was. Her breath was jumpy and her eyelids
fluttered with the effort to keep them closed. Yesterday he hadn’t
even bothered to stay more than five minutes. Why make her keep up
the act?

“Bye mom,” he’d said when he’d left.
“I’m still alive, in case you were wondering or cared,” he’d added
childishly on his way out the door. He hadn’t turned around to see
how she’d taken that comment. It had been a stupid thing to say, he
knew it, but at the time he’d meant it. I’m still alive. He almost
had to remind himself these days.

His mom was getting out of the
hospital today though, and his dad’s funeral was this afternoon.
She’d planned it all with Lisa’s help from her hospital bed he
knew. Of course he wasn’t a part of those gruesome planning
sessions. Lisa and Bill had discussed it after hours, just like
everything else he’d managed to learn about his own life
lately.

He was supposed to be grabbing his one
suit to wear to the funeral, but he hadn’t been able to find it.
Hadn’t really looked, truth be told, but the thought of spending
more than a few minutes in that room were making him sweat and his
stomach clench up like he was going to start throwing
up.

His dad wouldn’t care. If he was
looking down on him, Liam knew that his dad would just be wearing
his disappointed face. It wouldn’t matter what he was wearing, his
dad wouldn’t care at all. Why would he? His son was a screw up. In
life. Behind the wheel. And now at his own funeral. Typical, not
surprising, and certainly nothing to get worked up over. He’d wear
jeans and a flannel like he always did.

As he walked out the front door and
started down the street, he thought he saw someone behind the house
out of the corner of his eye. Whirling he turned toward the person,
and shouted, “Who is that?”

No answer came back to him.

Scared now, but determined to see who
it was, he dropped his duffel onto the sidewalk and started back
toward the house.

“Who’s back there?” He shouted again.
His words hung like icicles in the cold air.

Suddenly a girl popped her head out
from the side of the garage. The same place their attackers had hid
their car the night of the murder.

“Don’t hurt me. I don’t have anywhere
to go.”

It was Emily.

“What the fuck?” Liam shouted as he
took a giant step back, arms up in defense, head swiveling for her
psychotic father. Was he going to be murdered today, like his
father?

“Please, don’t scream!” She pleaded
with him, advancing. “I ran away. He doesn’t know I’m here, please
don’t start screaming, I’m so sorry.”

“Help!” Liam screamed
frantically.

Emily started to run and then changed
her mind.

“Please! I’m not going to hurt you I
swear. I’m alone. I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Help,” he kept screaming and down the
street he could hear Lisa scream his name in answer.

“She’s here,” he shouted, keeping his
eye on Emily standing in front of him. “Lisa call the police, she’s
here.”

He didn’t know if Lisa would be able
to figure out who he was referring to, but after everything that
had happened he knew she wouldn’t hesitate to dial 911
immediately.

Emily just stood there. Apparently
she’d given up trying to convince him of anything. He kept her in
front of him and a clear line of sight in back of him. The last
thing he wanted was for her psychotic father to sneak up on
him.

Before he knew it, he heard Lisa
running up the street behind him.

“The police are coming, they’re on
their way,” she huffed and puffed. She was a solidly built woman,
but too many nights in front of the fire with rich comfort food had
left her plump and motherly.

“Holy shit,” she swore
uncharacteristically. “Is this the bitch that attacked you guys? Is
this Emily?”

“Fuck you bitch,” Emily cursed back at
her with a snarl. “I didn’t attack anyone, I tried to stop him.”
But like an animal who knows when it’s cornered she didn’t try to
run, just kept a space between them and her.

Wisely Lisa chose not to respond, but
she ran back to her house and grabbed her husband’s rifle in case
Emily decided that she didn’t want to be caught today after
all.

“I can’t believe this,” is all she
said as she kept the rifle trained on Lisa and Liam safely tucked
behind her impressive girth. “I just can’t fucking believe she came
back here. I should never have let you go into that house by
yourself. Your mom is going to kill me when she finds
out.”

Neither Liam or Emily answered
her.

Finally the police pulled in, sirens
wailing; the sound bringing the other neighbors out onto their
front porches to watch the show.

Liam wondered where they’d all been
when he’d been screaming for help that night. Or moments before,
for that matter. Up until the attack, he’d thought of their
neighbors as his parent’s friends – of course Lisa and Bill were
their closest friends, but he’d assumed that everyone on the cul
de’ sac was friends. After their lack of help, he considered them
nothing more than accomplices in his father’s murder. He said
nothing, but just stared at them standing around watching as the
police arrested the girl who had helped murder his
father.

CHAPTER 12

Faith threw the last suitcase into the
trunk of the car and turned to hug Lisa tightly. Liam sat in the
front seat and stared straight ahead out the window. He didn’t want
to say goodbye to anyone or anything else. He didn’t care about
Lisa and Bill, even though they’d been like temporary parents to
him over the last week, he didn’t care to even look at the house
where he’d spent the last ten years of his life. None of his
friends from school had gotten so much as a ‘see you later’ from
him. Most of them didn’t even know he was moving, just that his
father had been murdered. Everyone in the tiny town knew
that.

“Thank you so much Lisa. I don’t know
what to say. You and Bill have been like angels to me and Liam. In
fact, you probably saved our lives. I know Mac would thank you too,
and he probably is.” Faith said, tears springing to her eyes as she
hugged her friend. Would she ever stop crying?