Nick: Justice Series (9 page)

“Yes.” Nick lifted Addie’s chin up and looked down at her. “They can move things, pick things up. Their anger can kill people, control them too. Once they are a group with a human to feed them, and one as evil as Ellen—she’ll be able to feed an army—they will be nearly unstoppable.”

“What does the house have?” When she asked, Nick told her he didn’t understand. But she looked at Mitch. “You said the house had a secret. What is it? I have some too, but what does the house have to do with this?”

Everyone looked away but Mitch. They all knew what the house held. And since Nick had ever been in it, he had no idea. But when Summer stepped forward and nodded at the book, he knew that it was going to be very bad.

“I don’t know about that house, but I got a secret I have to tell. There was a lot of them babies that died when the sickness came around. Some of them just up and went to sleep one night and didn’t open them eyes again. Some, not many, got too weak to take the tit, and they more’n likely starved then died from the sickness that was takin so many. But there were a few of them that just…them parents just couldn’t stand the fact that some of their own were darkies.” Nick felt the hair on the back of his neck dance as she continued. “We was just slaves, you know. Not having any kind of life to go on with without the family that we worked for. When they told us to do something, we’d have no choice but to do it lickety-split like or be put to the tree. That whip…once it bites into your back, you never forget that pain.”

“What happened?” Nick didn’t want to know. He had no idea why he asked her the quiet question, but he did. And once he did, he also knew that she was going to answer him.

“There were three of them babies born to the master. One to the missus too, but he was so dark that it mattered little to the house. One of them was my sister’s child, but she done already died when she birthed him. There was one that was birthed to the woman that did the baking too. She had herself a right fine boy, too. But he was light, too light to say he was another darkie’s son.” Nick watched her face. “Mine was a girl child. Blonde hair with these pretty little curls. Skin like cream it was so soft and white. And her little body, it just hummed with goodness and health. I’d get to see her all the time running up and down the big halls. Just like she was one of them. Then the sickness came.”

No one said a word for several minutes. Summer stood near the door and looked out into the yard. Nick was sure she was going to run, not finish the story and leave them with only half of it. And he was pretty sure he’d be all right with that.

“He brunged her to me that night. Me, I was so sick that I knew I was minutes from meeting the Lord myself. But the master just brunged her into my hut and said ‘Kill her.’ Like she was nothing more than a hog that was to be butchered on a spit.” She didn’t turn around, but pulled a locket from under her dress and kissed it. “She weren’t sick. Not one bit. But the others were in the house. The missus had done went over. The boys, his only ones, had already died the week before. The house was near gone. But he didn’t want her no more, he told me. ‘Kill her,’ he said to me. And left.”

Addie wiped at the tears streaming down her face. Aster left them, her body nearly doubled over with her apparent pain. Aster had always been so tender hearted when they found other ghosts, Nick was sure this was very painful for her as well. But Summer just stood there staring out the window.

“I nearly just let her go on back to the house. I was too sick to care for her anyways, and if he beat me for it, then I would be just as dead. But she sat by my bed and wiped my head with a dirty rag. Singing some tune she’d no doubt heard from the missus of the house. And all I could think of was she had to die or I would.” Summer turned then and laid the necklace on the table. “I had to do it, can’t you see? I gots me no choice when I’m told to do something. I have to do it or face the whipping tree. So I pulled her to me and with the last of my energy, I pulled that thing around her neck until she was dead. Her little body…her little body just went all limp in my arms, and I done killed my little girl.”

“Oh my God.” Izzy sobbed into her towel and Jake held her. Steele and Kari were huddled in the corner, and Nick could see that Kari was crying as well. Addie had her head on his chest, her entire being racked with the power of her own sorrow at what had been done. Summer moved to the door then, and he knew as surely as he was standing there that they’d never see her again.

“There’s some babies there under that there house. I seen them a few times. Not from my time when it mattered little if a stillborn or two got itself buried without a marker to show it was there, but them babies were killed all the same.” Summer turned to them, and he could see all the rawness of the illness that had taken her life, as well as the pain of what she’d more than likely done. “It holds them there. Like a mother holds a child to her breast, it holds them. They can’t be moving on like they should. Once they find them others there, they’ll use them babies like a fire. They’ll burn them up and they’ll be lost forever.”

Summer went out of the house, fading from the room she’d been in to nothingness on the other side. There was no trace of her walking across the yard. Nothing to show that she’d been in the kitchen with them only minutes before but for the locket. Nick looked at it, the lock long since broken, and the little girl’s face that stared back at him. The hank of hair was as yellow as the sunflowers that Izzy grew in the late summer to feed the birds in the fall.

Addie picked up the book. She stared at him as she placed it in his hand as well. He felt the hum of it just like he’d put his hand on top of a speaker with a lot of bass pounding through it.

“Is there a way for us to defeat the army that is being gathered?”

The book hummed more…his fingers burned with it. When he moved his hand away, the book opened in Addie’s palm. The words written on the white page were written in a red so red that it looked like fresh blood.

“Love conquers all.”

Chapter 9

Ellen moved through her new home. There was something so…well, appealing about the place. The green appliances were sort of an eyesore, but she could live with them. They’d taught her how to cook in the home, but she’d never really enjoyed it. Not that there was any food in the place, but that was fine too. She’d figure something out. But she had several cell phones to use, and she was excited to figure them out. Perhaps she’d order a pizza, a rare treat for her while she’d been inside.

Picking out the bedroom that she was going to use, Ellen put her things in the drawers. She didn’t have much, but she’d managed to steal her some nice things. A pair of pretty shoes, a coat for the winter months, and she had five shirts. And what she loved about them the most was that they didn’t have the name of the home stamped on them with her last name and her room number.

The voices began almost the moment she entered the kitchen again. Ellen had always heard them, and for the most part thought they were real. Of course, the doctors at the home had told her that they weren’t, so she’d just talk to them with her mind and not her mouth. It had been what they’d wanted, and to get what she wanted she did as they demanded. It had gotten her out, after all.

“I’m here, you fucking bitch, listen to me.” Ellen looked in the direction of the voice and could see something, but was not at all sure what. “Just concentrate. Christ, you’re as bad as that other fuck that I tried to work with.”

“I’m not a fuck, and you should keep your tongue behind your teeth.” She’d heard that in a movie once and had always wanted to use it. “
You
have to concentrate or I’ll never be able to see you. Just think of yourself as being whole for me.”

His laughter made her smile. She’d heard that sort of laughter before. Some of the others in the home, the insane ones, would laugh like that when they had something going on. Usually they’d pissed themselves or were about to come. They’d masturbate at the drop of the hat sometimes.

He faded in and out for a few seconds, but enough for her to find him to touch him. When she did, the power that came from him nearly had her climax. It was like…wow. He seemed to have felt it too.

“You’re not dead and you can look at me.” She nodded and moved away from him. There was just too much of him in the big kitchen, and she felt dirty at the same time, a feeling she’d never felt in her entire life. “You’re not bad looking. Could use some cleaning up a bit. Who chopped off your hair?”

“I did. It was getting in my face. And they wanted too many cigarettes to cut it for me and I was trying to be good. I don’t suppose you have one, do you?” He actually checked his pockets. “You’re not too bright, are you?”

His anger nearly had her laugh again, but she could feel him. Not just his energy but everything about him. When he was close enough that she could touch him again, she put her hand over his cock and his on her breast. She asked him if he could use it.

“No. And don’t think I want to either.” He rocked into her hand and then backed away. “Why is it you can touch me and nobody else can?”

“I’m insane.” She laughed then and watched his face. “I have all the paperwork to prove it too. Spent a long time in a home for the insane. And if I wasn’t really careful every day, I would have been the only one there after the first day. But to get out for good, I had to show them I was no longer a threat to the world. Of course, I had me a little dirt on a certain person that really helped me, but I’m out now and that’s all that I care about.”

“Are you? A threat, I mean?” She told him she hoped so. “Good. I need me somebody like you. I got me a few buds and we’re making some plans. I got me a bastard stepson that killed me, and I want him dead too. I figure I can have a shitload more fun with him if’n he’s dead.”

“Slow down there, buddy. What do I get out of this? And if I learned nothing else while locked up, it was to always look out for number one.” Ellen watched his face. He really was stupid. As he worked out what she was talking about, Ellen made a list of things she was going to need. Food was a must. She could go a long time without most things, but no food would kill her. And she had to find a way to bring people out here. There was no way she could show her face around the area for a while yet, if ever.

“I got me a crew.” She nodded and looked around the room. “They’re like me. They have an ax to chop up, and we’re going to get all that done before somebody comes and zaps our asses away.”

“And this crew of yours, what do they want? Another stepson to kill? Or perhaps someone that I might have some fun with?” He looked around the room, then back at her. She wanted to get up and hit him, but knew that other than pissing him off more, he’d still be dumb. “I have to have something from them as well. What is it that they plan to give me for helping them with their little…problems?”

“Nick, he’s got money I bet. That kid would have a stash all the time. Took me months to find some of them, but he had them. Him and that sister of his would hide shit from me all the time. And me giving him all that I had.” Ellen would just bet he did. “And that mother of theirs was just as bad. She’d be hiding her stash too, but hers were more of the dope kind. I had that too, but I couldn’t have controlled her much if she had her own, now could I?”

Ellen had no clue what he was talking about. She knew about dope, of course. Living where she had, it would be hard not to. But the rest? Why any woman would want a man like this one to control her was beyond Ellen.

“So you want this Nick person dead. And the others? Who is it that they want? And you should know, I’m going to take the names, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to act on them all. I have needs too. More than you dead can give me.” He nodded, the smile on his face showing her that he’d not been a very cleanly guy either. “I like to cut and see it bleed. But they have to be able to feel it, beg for their lives before I kill them. I’ve been without for a very long time, and I need to make up for lost time.”

“Yeah, we can bring the living to you. No problem.” Ellen watched as he looked around the room. She was sure the others were asking him how the hell he was going to do that. “We’ll have to work on it some. I’ll give you the list and you think of the payment. And we’ll work on getting you paid. That’s a good partnership. You and me, we’re going to do a lot together.”

No they weren’t, but she said nothing to him. The list of names started then and she had to write quickly. There were families that were named, a few of them even named a couple of cops. As the list grew, she thought of all the things she was going to need to make this happen. First of all, how was she supposed to get rid of all these bodies once they started to pile up? A bulldozer she’d seen on television once would work out. When Dane told her that was it, she counted them.

“Twenty-four. How many are in your crew?” He told her. “Christ, that’s more than three each. Seven dead men and you want me to take care of twenty-four.”

“Twenty-five. Don’t forget my stepson.” She added his name to the list. “And once you start killing them off, we can turn them to help us. That’ll make it more and more all the time. The dead don’t got nothing else to do, they might well join us.”

“Sounds like a plan.” A stupid one, but he did have a plan. If these people had avoided being killed by the idiots with her for this long, there was little hope of her getting to kill them all. And she was looking forward to having some fun. “I need some food. Meat, potatoes. And a pizza. I want you to have one delivered to here. I’m going to give him a nice tip when he gets here.”

Dane laughed again. She was sure he didn’t get it, but she didn’t care. Ellen was going to have fun and the sooner the better. When he started cursing, a nice string of them, she stood up and looked in the direction that he was looking. And there she saw him. Christ almighty. The dead guy was gorgeous.

~~~

Joel watched the woman stare at him like he was a lean steak. He felt…well, he wondered if he had ever felt less like a person and more like a thing in his life. He had no idea how he’d managed to get here, but all he’d done was think of Dane and there he was. And the woman standing on the front step looked like she’d been expecting him. Dane, however, didn’t look happy at all.

“You just left me there. All by myself. How the hell am I supposed to figure this crap out without help?” Dane told him that was the fucking point. “You said we’d find her for me. And I’m going to help you find your son. We can part ways when we’re both satisfied.”

“What’s her name?” Joel looked at the woman. He knew that she wasn’t like him. But there was a circle around her that made him think of evil things. It was black and red with streaks of what appeared to be animals running around her. “Her name? The woman that you want found and killed.”

“Her name is Addison West. She’s my fiancée. She ran off and left me at the altar a few years back. I’m Joel Delaney. Who are you?” She told him and he took a step back. “Ellen Wooten, the child murderer?”

“That’s me. How’d you know? I mean, none of these idiots have a clue who I am. I think they have it in their head that I’m just a wimp and they’ll have to do all the work.” Joel looked at the seven or so men standing with Dane. “I’ve been locked up for a while and I have a lot of time to make up for.”

Joel nodded before speaking. “Did you really do that? All those things that the newspaper said, did you really do all that to those people?”

“I’m sure I did. What did they call me? When I was locked up, I wasn’t allowed to read the papers.” Ellen was excited. Someone who’d not just heard of her, but actually might know something too. “I had to act like I didn’t care. You know, make them think I was over whatever it was that had led me to kill them all. It was hard at first. Then I made it a sort of game. Only three times in all those years did I slip up. Nobody ever knew, of course, that I killed those people, but they’ll find them soon enough, I guess. I heard they were tearing the place down.”

“Is that how you got out? You slipped through the cracks?” She shook her head. “Then how? I’m sure that…that with your reputation, they wouldn’t have just let you go.”

“Oh yeah?” She sat down again in the kitchen, and was thrilled beyond words that he came in the kitchen with her. “I might have had a few things hanging over the woman who typed stuff up. She had a problem and I took care of it for her. Best whole night of my life, I’ll tell you that. So she had no more problems and she had to let me go. Had all the right things signed off on and out I was. What did you do to be in the predicament that you’re in? Fuck another man’s wife? Or did you piss off some investor that done you in?”

“I was killed by one of us. A ghost protecting his own.” She nodded. “And you? What will you do first now that you’re out?”

“First? Oh honey, I’ve already sharpened my claws, so to speak. I’ve killed over a dozen people already, and I’ve only been out for a few months.” She leaned back in the chair and wondered if she had time to tell him what she’d done. It had been such a letdown when she’d told the doctor when they’d first arrested her. “I took care of the little typist when she got off work that night. It wasn’t as much fun as I’d remembered with her problem. But she told me when she was in the parking lot that she was having second thoughts. That maybe I shouldn’t have been freed so readily. I wasn’t going back inside. Not after getting out for only one day. I’m not stupid, you know. I know that they’re going to find me and kill me, but I don’t really care so long as I can do that with a smile on my face and blood on my hands.”

“You killed her.” It wasn’t a question from Joel, but she answered him anyway. “I thought you had a deal. You got out if you took care of her problem.”

“I told you, I wasn’t going back.” Her temper got the better of her for a couple of seconds, and she took a deep breath before talking again. “Don’t you want to know what I did? Everybody usually asks. But I’ve never been able to tell them before.”

“Sure. Tell me. I’d love to hear it.” Ellen wasn’t sure he did, but she nodded. “Start with the murders at your house. I want to know all the details from that. They said that you were immature when you started out, but when you got to the Weeks family, you had perfected it. That was something I remember my friends saying about it. How you’d learned your craft so quickly.”

“I didn’t learn it all that fast. I had been practicing on the animals around the neighborhood. Cats and dogs mostly. Then I started out on bigger things that I could find. There was this homeless guy that I killed, but I don’t think that should count. He was almost dead anyway.” He had been when she’d gotten him to the family shed. “My dad was very unhappy with that mess.”

She told him about her mom and dad. Then she moved on to her first neighbors, the Jeffersons, and finally the Weeks. That was where she’d had the most fun and where she’d been caught. Ordering a pizza had been her downfall, or she might have been out all this time.

“One of the boys, Bart, let me in. I told him that I needed to talk to his mom and he just rolled his eyes at me. He was dead before he hit the floor, his blood spraying all over the walls of the staircase. I entered the den and was surprised to see a party going on. And they’d not invited little old me.” Ellen laughed then. “Mrs. Weeks just stared at me for several long seconds. It never occurred to me that she was seeing the blood of her son. But Mr. Weeks came at me, asking me if I was all right. Were my parents all right?”

“And what did you tell him?” She looked away from Joel. This was her memory, and she wanted to tell him in her own way. He told her to go on and she told him to shut up.