When Smiles Fade (12 page)

Having witnessed Jake’s death, Emma felt invigorated. It was a feeling she wanted to hold on to forever. She stared down at his broken body and watched as the blood gushed from behind his head and spread in a circle around it. Her heart raced and she felt like an angel soaring through the sky. It was the same euphoria she had experienced when she told her father about the rat poison she’d fed him over the preceding weeks and watched his eyes widen with horror as he sucked in his final breath. Then she pushed all her feelings aside and focused on finding Gracie.

Emma quickly picked up the bottle of whiskey and the two plastic cups they had used and raced around to the front where Brianna was waiting for her. She slid into the passenger seat of Pam’s car.

“Floor it!” she urged her friend. “We need to get back to my house as fast as possible. Gracie is in the basement.”

“How did you get him to tell you?” Brianna asked, intrigued. “Where is he?”

“There’s no time for that now, Bri!” Emma scowled, unable to hide the panic in her voice. “Gracie may be dead. Just drive and hurry!”

Brianna knew that Emma wasn’t messing around. She drove as fast as she could without losing control of the car. She had barely parked when Emma jumped out and started running toward her house. Brianna followed her inside and down into the basement.

At the bottom of the rickety stairs, Emma came to a halt.

“What? Do you hear something, Em?” Brianna asked, unable to mask the fear in her voice.

“No, I need to get a flashlight. We have no idea where she is down here.”

Emma reached down to a shelf that hung at the bottom of the stairs and found the flashlight. Its beam of light made everything appear spooky as it shone across the dirt floor. Emma flashed the light around the walls of the basement, but saw nothing that gave an indication of her sister’s whereabouts. All of the old appliances, furniture, and damp boxes seemed untouched. As they began walking to the other side of the basement, Brianna hung onto Emma’s arm. Suddenly she stumbled.

“Watch where you’re going, Bri.”

“I can’t help it, Em. I can’t see a thing.”

Emma shone the flashlight on the floor in front of Brianna and noticed a piece of garden hose sticking out of the ground. “You must’ve tripped on that,” she told her friend. “Be careful.”

Emma took a couple of steps forward, then stopped abruptly. She turned back to the garden hose and dropped to her hands and knees. She put her ear to the hose. She could hear a faint sound. Not a movement, but a sound so soft she couldn’t know for sure if it was indeed a sound. Frantically she began digging at the dirt with her bare hands. Brianna quickly joined her, beginning to panic as she realized what they were digging for. They kept removing the dirt over a small area until they hit a piece of plywood that was buried about four inches under the surface, the hose sticking out through a hole in the wood. More frantic than ever, the girls began clawing the dirt from the six-foot-long piece of wood. After what seemed an eternity, they pried the wood up.

Underneath it, in a shallow grave, lay Gracie. She was utterly still, her face drained of all its natural color and her eyes closed.

Emma leaped into the grave and felt for a pulse, her fingers racing around her sister’s body, feeling her wrists and moving up to her neck. There, she felt the slight bump of a pulse beat against her finger. She put her face close to Gracie’s mouth and felt a tiny puff of breath tickle her skin.

The girls picked her up gently and carried her over to Brianna’s. They placed her in a tub of warm water, gently removing all the dirt from her nostrils and her mouth. Then they cleaned up her face carefully and gently bathed the rest of her body. The two-day-old wounds on her body revealed how severely Jake had beaten her before burying her alive. As they bathed her, they gave her small sips of water, most of it dribbling out the sides of her mouth. When they were finished they put Gracie in Brianna’s bed and stayed awake all night by her side, making sure she sipped water and willing her to live. They didn’t know it then, but they had saved her life. Badly wrecked though she was, Gracie would survive.

Once things were under control, Briana asked, “So what happened with Jake?”

Emma was blunt. “He got drunk. He slipped and fell into the pool. The pool was empty, so he sunk pretty quickly.” She grinned from ear to ear. “I doubt he’ll be a problem anymore.”

Briana leaned over to give her friend a high-five. “Fucking asshole, Jake!” she exclaimed. “I guess he decided to mess with the wrong family.”

Shortly after three in the morning, Gracie opened her eyes and gave Emma a small but encouraging smile. Emma started to cry. Her sister was still fragile, but at least she was alive. As Gracie closed her eyes again to embrace sleep, Emma and Brianna did the same, lying on either side of her and keeping her safe.

The next morning, Emma went over to her house and found Valerie sobbing.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, her voice devoid of feeling.

“Jake didn’t come home last night,” she bawled. “What if he’s left me for another woman?”

Her hatred for her mother almost unbearable by now, Emma lashed out, “You stand here crying over that dick, Jake, but you aren’t worried about Gracie? You’re pathetic! And you call yourself a mother? You’re a conniving bitch!”

“Oh, the only thing you ever think about is Gracie. She is a very unhappy girl. In fact, she’s miserable most of the time. Maybe she’s happy now. Did you ever think of that, Emma?” Valerie asked weakly, trying to be manipulative.

Emma put her hands on her hips and squared off against her mother. “Hmm, let’s see,” she said, pretending to ponder. “I have to think about Gracie because you never do. You didn’t ever think about either of us. All you did was sacrifice us to keep your men happy. And what else? Oh yeah! You’re rotten to your core and only care about what you think is best for you! You’re well aware of the horrible things that have happened to Gracie and me since we were born. Yet you continue to worry about how your man feels. You’re as much to blame for everything as they are and you
know
it!”

Emma turned her back on her mother and went upstairs to shower. She would deal with Valerie, but not until Gracie was well enough to be moved. She and Brianna needed to figure out what they were going to do next. They would run—that was for sure—but they hadn’t decided where they would go. The good news, they had told each other while holding vigil over Gracie, was that they had gotten those fake IDs, which would help them get started.

The next day, while Emma was in her bedroom sorting through the clothes she would pack for Gracie and herself before they left, a loud knock at the front door made her pause. Coming down the stairs to investigate, she froze at the sight of two policemen standing just inside the door.

“We aren’t really sure what happened,” one of the officers was telling a sobbing Valerie. “His blood alcohol level was point two nine. He may have lost consciousness or tripped. That level of alcohol would severely impair his motor skills. Best we can figure is that he didn’t realize he was at the edge of the pool and toppled over when he took a step forward.”

Valerie went on whimpering as she collapsed against the officer’s chest and hung onto him. Embarrassed, he looked up at Emma, silently imploring her to come down and take charge of her mother. To stifle her laughter, Emma bit the inside of her lip until it started to bleed.

“I guess Jake is dead?” she asked the officer, prying loose her mother who was clinging to the police officer like a barnacle.

“Yeah, it’s really tragic,” he replied gravely. “Sometimes the good ones get taken. Jake was a good man. He helped a lot of kids in this area. He’ll be sorely missed.”

Emma nodded and nudged her mother over to the sofa. Then she went back to the officer. “Is there anything else?” she asked politely.

“No, honey,” he said gently, “we just felt we owed it to Jake to let all of you know. You take good care of your mom now.”

“No worries, Officer. I will definitely take care of my mother. Thanks for coming,” Emma convincingly stated.

Emma had every intention of giving Valerie the kind of attention she deserved when the time was right.

Over the next two days, Gracie began to regain her strength. She was on her feet now, walking around Brianna’s house. She was also eating regular meals that Emma cooked for all of them, and watching her get back to normal comforted Emma and Brianna. By the time Gracie was feeling better, their plan was fully baked. There was only one other thing to deal with before they left home and started their new life.

Emma walked with purpose as she went back over to her house to say goodbye to Valerie.

Valerie was in the kitchen making herself lunch. Emma walked in and sat down at the table, her gaze unwavering as she stared at her mother. Valerie sat down across from her and took a bite of her sandwich.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you staring at me?” she asked.

Emma smiled. “Well, I was just wondering how a woman, a mother, actually, can sit here like everything is normal and gorge herself on food, when she knows that her child is buried alive in the basement in a shallow grave. Not knowing if she’s still alive.”

Valerie’s eyes bulged with fear. “It-it wasn’t me, Emma,” she stammered. “Jake was just trying to teach her a lesson. He warned me that if I went down and dug her out, he would put me in there and make sure that no one ever found me.”

Emma shook her head slowly in disbelief. “Right, I should have known that he’d threaten to do something to you. After all, you’ve sacrificed the two of us your whole pathetic life. It never mattered to you how sick or twisted they were as long as you could go on living in Bizarro World! Well,” she continued, “now that Jake has been dead for almost three days, did it dawn on you once to go and get her? Make sure she’s still alive?”

Valerie quickly rationalized in her head that her youngest daughter wouldn’t have been punished if she’d just behaved. Gracie was forever trying to avoid Jake and she knew that he hated being ignored or disobeyed. As Emma’s words began to sink into her thick head her nervousness started to rise to the surface. Emma enjoyed watching her mother squirm.

“How did you know that she’s down in the basement?” Valerie finally asked.

Emma leaned up on her elbows. “Jake blurted out everything when he was trying to have sex with me. I don’t know, he said something about you being a dried-up prune and how he wanted young girls. You remember Jake, the fucking saint? The great guy who helped kids all the time? Well, you see, when he thought I was going to let him fuck me, he told me where Gracie was and I dug her out just in time or she would have died. Now here’s what’s going to happen, so listen carefully. Gracie and I are leaving and you will
not
look for us. You will
never
tell the police that we ran away, because if you do, I will tell them the things you let Pepper do to me. Also, Gracie will tell them how you stood by silently as Jake beat the fucking shit out of her, then buried her alive in your own fucking house! So unless you want to spend the rest of your miserable life in prison, I suggest you keep your mouth shut. Forever. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“Yes,” was all Valerie could whisper.

Emma got up from the table and moved away until she was behind Valerie and beyond her range of vision. Then she picked up the wooden cutting board from the kitchen counter and brought it crashing down on her mother’s head. Emma stood for a few moments, staring down at the woman lying unconscious on the floor. Then she took out their sharpest steak knife from the kitchen drawer and ran it over her mother’s face in several directions, each cut about an inch deep, enough, she knew, to leave her scarred for life.

Emma got down on her hands and knees. While Valerie was still unconscious, she whispered into her ear that was now filled with blood running down from the cuts on her face, “You thought you could use your beauty to escape the life you forced us to live. Well, now you will never be beautiful again. You left your baby down in the basement of your own home to die. You really don’t deserve to live. These cuts on your face will be a daily reminder of the ugly, ugly person that you really are!”

She stood, grabbed the clothes she’d packed, and left the house that had been a prison her whole life. Emma believed everything bad that could happen to her and Gracie was being left behind them.

Emma and Brianna hustled Gracie into the car. They had decided to drive toward Philadelphia and see where the road took them. They had over $400, most of which Brianna had stolen from Pam’s secret stash of money. As they left Chain Street, Emma felt renewed. She had her best friend and her sister by her side. As the car merged onto the Schuylkill Expressway the girls turned up the volume on the radio and sang along with Madonna to “Like A Virgin.”

They drove down the expressway with no specific destination in mind and found themselves on I-95 North. In a short time, neighborhoods began to appear. They turned off the highway and onto Somerset Street, driving until they reached Kensington Avenue. It was obviously not the best part of town. They noticed many kids roaming the streets, some of them their own age. The three girls were shocked at the way many of the girls strolling the streets were dressed. One Latina, for instance, who looked no older than fifteen, was wearing shorts so skimpy that her whole ass hung out of them. She had teamed them with a barely-there shirt and worn-out calf-length high-heeled boots. Considering that it was no longer summer and the slightly cool weather didn’t warrant revealing clothes, Emma and Brianna figured she was a hooker. Despite their misgivings about the neighborhood, they decided this was one place where they could blend in and not draw attention to themselves. Their luck, rather than their sense of direction, had drawn them to the heart of Kensington.