HUSHED SILENCE

CHAPTER TWO

He was known as the bow killer. How iconic. He stalked his victims, befriended them , killed them then he positioned them in the bowing position. He was always In control. And he liked how he controlled his story. Did they call him the bow killer because he left them in the humiliating position or did they call him that because he left a bow at the crime scene? He did not care. All he cared about was that he fancied the name bow killer and he had it.

He slowed down his battered truck and cursed. Two months without popping a pill. Who said anything about being clean? He reached at the back seat and took the envelop. Inside it were dozens of pills. He did not know what type of pills they were and quite frankly, he did not care.

His father had always been an abusive son of a b***h. He had never cared about him and he never pretended to. He would sleep in the whole day and he woke up at night. It was as though he was allergic to the sun. What was he a vampire? Yelling insults at his stupid mother, frank would drive down to the local pub and drink himself to stupor. He would then find his way into the house and kick his ass just for the fun of it.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. He would whisper to himself. And true to his words, he grew stronger. He could shelter any beating. His hate towards Frank and his slut for a wife grew stronger as well.

“ Mother, why do you always lock yourself up at night?”

Eight year old him had asked. His mother looked at him and smiled. Her eyes were weary and her skin was wrinkled. She was barely forty years old. Why the hell did she look older than the sixty eight year old granny that used to give him cookies?

“ Son, you are a strong, young and handsome man. You have many years ahead of you. And you will find yourself a beautiful young lady. Promise me to look after her. And I swear if you ever lay a finger on her I will rise from my grave and put you down myself.”

He had nodded and walked out to play alone. Nobody ever wanted to play with him. Let alone talk to them. They were the outcasts. People pointed fingers and whispered about them. He smiled and they looked away.

“ mommy, I smiled and that old lady frowned. Do I have something in my teeth?”

“ No honey. Maybe you did it all wrong. Don’t worry, we will work on your smile.”

He was older now. He knew his mother had been locking herself up so that he could get the ass whooping instead of her. He knew she did that because she thought he was a man therefore stronger. Ever heard of an eight year old being called a man? He knew people grimaced when he smiled because they thought he was disgusting. How come the i***t was smiling? And worst of all, he knew his mother had lied to her. Strong? young? Sure. Handsome? Not so much.

The voices in his head started to hum again. His hand shook and his body weakened. One, three, five, seven, nine…

He trailed. It was a habit of his. Every day his father slapped him across the face and kicked him across his gut, he counted. He had started off at counting normally. Two weeks later he decided to count the odd numbers. To him it was the measurement of pain. The distraction of pain and the pain itself. It kept him sane and alive. It made him who he was

What is the difference between pain and pleasure? He had always wondered. And his answer was always the same. The ability to tolerate it.

He revved his engine and drove past the precinct. He had a woman to stalk.

***

Wayne sat at the desk and sighed. What was wrong with him? How had he ended up there? His wife had called him paranoid. His mother had told him to stay put. He had gotten in his new blue sedan and drove to the precinct. It wasn’t irrational, it was love. Who could blame a man in love?

“ Sussie, I know this is inhumane of me. But I have a favour to ask.”

Susan exhaled loudly and pulled a chair for her to sit.

Three years down the line and the man still affected her. She remembered the day her mother had died. Wayne had cradled her to sleep. He had helped her with the burial arrangements and had called all her relatives to inform them of her mother`s demise. When she had broken down, he had held her in his arms until she stopped sobbing. But when she was happy, excited to spend her honeymoon and the rest of her life with her pillar of strength, he had packed and left. Without as much as a goodbye.

“ You do not get to call me that. It`s Detective Susan.”

Wayne sighed and nodded.

“ I think my kids have been kidnapped.”

Susan stilled. Did she hear him right? Kids? He had kids? When she was living with him he was always at home. There was no sign of him having kids. Did he have them before or after their marriage?

She looked at him and shuddered. Where the hell was her husband/ fiancé/ boyfriend?. She did not know him as her husband because she had been married to him for one night. She knew him as a long term boyfriend, a six months fiancé and a one week tormentor.He had tormented her in her sleep before she gave up trying to figure him out and signed the papers. As a husband? He had not find her worthy to be her husband let alone a father to the children she still hadn’t conceived.

“ You have children? How old are they? How many are they?” she whispered.

Wayne saw the pain in her eyes and wondered why he was there in the first place. He had thought she kept tabs on his life. Guess he was wrong. Unlike she, he knew when she reported to work on Monday. When she visited her father at the old meadows on Tuesday, where she and her colleagues went for dinner on Wednesday, the name of the chick flick she binge watched on Thursday and her drive to the St Agnes children`s orphanage on Friday. She usually spent her night in a motel near the orphanage and drove back home the following day.

He had loved her. That he was sure of. What he did to her though was inexcusable. She did not deserve that. He took a picture out of his jacket and handed to her.

“They are twins. Shawn and Hanna. They recently turned three.” He said with a lot of adoration.

She did the math pretty quickly. She had signed the divorce papers three years ago. It had finalized after two months. The bastard had knocked a b***h up a month before he showed his stupid face at her door. Was that the reason he showed up? Did the girl demand his hand in marriage and he decided to end one marriage and start another? Was he even married? She looked at his hand and saw the marriage band and wedding ring. All two at once? Wow…did he have a wedding chain as well? She guessed that the band and ring and possibly chain meant he was all in for the marriage.

Lucky woman.

She called Parker and asked him to take Wayne`s statement. Parker looked at her with concern in his eyes and nodded. Anything for Susan. She crumpled the picture in her hand and slowly made her way to her office. She was stupid. What had she expected? That he would stall his life and cry over her for centuries? Wayne had appeared at her door with a woman after six months. It made sense for him to settle down and start a family after three years.

She stared at the two smiling angels and cried.

A slap to the face would be fine but a stab to her heart? Again? She wondered why she always let her heart be broken.

Those could have been her kids. She would have made a great mother. Breastfed them , cleaned them, cooed them, cradled them and sang them to sleep. A tear fell from her eye and she stiffened. She wasn’t going to cry. Not over Wayne. Not anymore.

She sat at her desk and cried her heart out. Nobody was paying her to be a strong woman. Nobody expected her to be a strong woman.

Her mother had loved Wayne. She would talk to him for hours and every time they went to visit her on the weekends, she would wake up to find them making breakfast and yapping about like old friends. She would often tell her how she was lucky to find her soul mate and she couldn’t help but agree. Her mother would often ask Wayne to give her grandchildren already. She had not meant with another woman though.

She looked at the framed picture of her and her parents. They were all smiling as her father and she stared affectionately at her mother. It had been on the Christmas eve and they were wearing woollen sweaters. She had fake snow in her hair and a chocolate smudge on her chin. She couldn't have been happier. She had always prayed for a family like that. She had hoped she and Wayne would start a family and live harmoniously like her parents had. She hadn't known she was setting herself up for failure.

Her mother used to give her the best advice. If she would have been there she would have asked her to stop whining and to get off her butt.

“ Maybe you dodged a bullet. Real men are not easy to scare. Real men do not leave. Focus on what matters”

She heard a knock on the door and she sat up straight, wiping the tears with the back of her hand. It was going to be okay. Things always changed for the better. Time heals all wounds.

“Detective, we have just the received a call from south Carolina. We have found the family for victim F.”

She stood on her feet and checked the time on her wrist watch. It was ten minutes to midday.

“ Inform the lieutenant we are flying to South Carolina and meet me on the rooftop in five. The earlier we get there the better.” she ordered, checking her badge and gun before walking out.

“ Detective, make sure the lieutenant of the precinct in South Carolina has officers at hand to escort us to the victim`s family. This just became across the boarder investigation.”