Chapter 17
My parents met me as if I was the proverbial lost son. I guess they thought Brooke had killed me too. Chief Harris told them about the accident and that Brooke had been taken to the medical center. It was my mother’s day off otherwise she might have been the nurse taking care of Brooke.
Amy wouldn’t let go of me, when I sat down on the sofa with a big sandwich and a glass of apple juice, she cuddled up to me and held on to my arm as hard as she could. My parents sat down with me after the Chief and Agent Willcrow had left.
‘John, Chief Harris told us a bit of what you told him about Brooke and her claim to being innocent to the murders. Do you believe her?’ said my mother.
I finished eating my sandwich, just to get some time to think before answering.
‘I do believe her, as far as not killing anyone. She confessed to me she did have a sexual relationship with her younger brother.’
‘Oh god, that’s horrible.’ My dad said.
My mother cleared her throat.
‘Actually James, it’s not as usual as an older brother abusing a younger sister, but it does happen. Remember that seminar I went to last year, about how to treat victims of child abuse. Well, the psychologist said that there were cases where one abused child would then abuse a sibling. In some cases it was in search of sympathy, or love, it wasn’t forced abuse.’
‘Really, I had no idea. That’s only shows what evil people are capable of.’
‘Talking about evil, did Chief Harris mention Lauren?’ I asked.
‘He did say she was the one who drove you off the road,’ my dad said.
‘Yes, and she is still around. Brooke told me what she did to her parents and brother, and to the uncle and his family. Anyway, I think we should be extra careful, because she could be lurking around here, planning something.’
Amy had fallen asleep on my arm so I had to wiggle out of her arms and then I lifted her up. My mom smiled at me as I walked passed her taking Amy upstairs to her bedroom. I thought that hearing Brooke’s story of her childhood had made me re-evaluate mine. All the things that I didn’t appreciate and had taken for granted now meant a lot to me, like putting my little sister to bed, for example.
After tucking in Amy I went to my room. I wanted to take a long hot shower and lay down. My body still hurt from the crash, even though I didn’t have any serious injuries. There was a message on my computer that I had received an email. I clicked on it, and a video clip began downloading. I continued to undress. Then a voice came over the speakers.
‘Hello, John.’
I turned around and looked at the monitor. There was Lauren, in the same clothes as I had seen her in earlier.
‘I hope this video doesn’t catch you at a bad time. I just wanted to let you know that I am happy you are OK. I was watching when the police and the FBI man arrived at your house to drop you off. I was a little disappointed that my sister Amanda survived the accident, sorry, that’s Brooke to you. I was hoping that little bitch would be dead by now. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I was thinking of you. Take care now, kisses.’
The screen went black. In the video Lauren had been standing in front of the camera, but the light was from behind her, making it almost impossible to see her face.
I called Chief Harris office, luckily he was still there.
‘I got a video from Lauren, if you give me your email, I will forward it to you.’
He gave me his email, and told me he would call me back after watching the video.
‘John, Chief Harris here, Agent Willcrow is also here, we are on speaker phone.’
‘OK. What do you make of the video?’
‘Willcrow here, I think she wants something from you. She doesn’t say it, but why else email you a video?’
‘I have nothing she might want?’
‘What if she wants you? Remember, you look very much like her brother.’
‘Yeah, like that’s going to make me feel better. She shot him, didn’t she?’
‘There is nothing we can do now, I will send the video to FBI headquarters for analysis, and maybe they can find something that will tell us more about her motives. They have some very advanced voice and imaging equipment there.’ said Agent Willcrow.’
After the call ended, I finally got to take my shower. While the hot water relaxed me, I thought back to the video. I didn’t feel Lauren was stressed or under any pressure, although it was difficult to see her face, the sound of her voice was very cold and calculating.
While I was drying myself, my cell phone rang.
‘Hi, it’s Brook.’
‘Brook! How are you, where are you?’ The words poured out of my mouth.
‘I am still at the medical center. They decided to keep me over night because of the concussion. How are you?’
First, I thought of telling her about Lauren’s video, but decided against it. She had enough to deal with for one day.
‘I’m fine, just got out of the shower, getting ready for bed. I am so tired.’
‘You poor thing. Anyway, I wanted to know how you are. Tomorrow Chief Harris and Agent Willcrow will pick me up, I have to go to the police station to make a statement, and then they want me to see a psychologist. Hopefully, if everything goes OK, I should be out in the afternoon.’
I had an idea.
‘What if my dad and I come and pick you up, you could stay with us for now.’
‘Are you sure that’s such a good idea? I mean, your dad doesn’t seem to like me very much.’
‘Don’t worry about it, I will handle them. I have told them most of what you told me, so they are more understanding.’
‘OK. I got to go; they only gave me a few minutes on the phone. Take care, I love you.’
‘Love you too, baby.’
After we hung up, I went downstairs and asked my parents if it was OK for Brooke to stay with us. First my father was against it, but my mother made him understand why Brooke might benefit from a stable atmosphere.