Afterthoughts (18 page)

“
All in good time, my
child, I will tell you everything. But not now, now you have to
suffer a while. You have to pay for all you’ve done,” he said as he
stood and crossed the room toward her.

“
Leave her alone! Can’t
you see she’s suffered enough? Look at what you’ve done to her,”
Junna pleaded.

“
Quiet! I’ll deal with you
later,” he yelled at Junna and picked up the bread and threw it at
her.

“
I’m not afraid of you
anymore. Paige, don’t listen to him,” Junna screamed.

The man stood up and in one swift
move, crossed the room and hit Junna in the face, causing her chair
to fall over and knocked her unconscious.

“
I’m sorry you had to see
that dear Paige. She doesn’t want to see you suffer like I do. Just
look at what you’ve done. You murdered your
sister’s
husband and son. You caused
your
sister
to
step out in front of the bus. I just wonder what you had in store
for her if she hadn’t taken care of that little problem for you.
Then, you had to knock off your lover’s lover. How quaint is that?
Tell me Paige, just why you did it all?” he turned and paced the
room. “Aileen I can understand. Oh wait the Steckler house. That’s
what you wanted. You knew it would go to you didn’t you?” he
laughed uncontrollably. “Hmmm, poor Senator Steckler. It’s a good
thing he didn’t have any family. You would have killed them off too
so that you could get what you wanted. Were you really that jealous
of Sarah and Anthony’s marriage?”

“
Who are you?” Paige asked
again.

“
I told you … all in good
time, my little pigeon. All in good time,” he laughed as he turned
and walked away from Paige.

Paige wished she could see him better.
The dark room kept her from seeing much of anything. She wondered
why he had such an interest in why she had killed so many. What did
he have to do with any of it? She tried to think about him and find
him in the collective conscious, but she couldn’t concentrate hard
enough. All of the pain, both emotional and physical kept her from
being able to think clearly.

Her thoughts turned back to the
murders. How could she have been capable of killing those she loved
most? What else could she be capable of?

He turned back toward her, “I have
been watching you most of your life. You’ve had your perfect little
world and you never appreciated any of it. It just wasn’t good
enough for you, was it?” he paced circles around her, speak low and
evenly. “You never had true love. You are incapable of giving it,
so that makes you incapable of getting it and you are jealous of
anyone that has it.” He cleared his throat and continued, “That’s
why you did it all isn’t it? Jealousy? You had no reason to kill
Aileen until David, did you? You couldn’t stand anyone else having
what you wanted.”

Paige was speechless, numb. She felt
worthless. She had given up.

“
Please, please, just kill
me. I deserve it.” With that said he raised his hand and hit her
across the face. Her world drifted slowly, quietly away from
her.

Chapter 34

John Waters sat down again to review
the tapes from Gellendale Estates. As he watched the video, he
studied the woman running to and from the house. Her long brown
hair was in a pony tail under a black baseball cap. He rewound the
video several times and watched each move carefully. He could see
her pick up a planter on the porch and throw it through the glass.
“Wait!” he said as he backed up the tape once more noticing a last
second move on the perpetrators part just before she entered the
residence. He watched it again. “Yes, that’s it,” he rewound it one
more time. “That’s it! Adam, come here!” he yelled through the
station.

A moment later, Adam appeared in the
door way. “Yeah, chief?”

John rewound the tape yet again. “Look
at this. Tell me what you see,” he showed the tape to Adam three
times before he saw it too.

“
Her hair fell off! She
caught it before it came off completely, but her hair fell off!”
Adam declared.

“
Thanks Adam. I just
wanted to make sure someone else saw that too.”

“
No prob, chief.” Adam
started to walk out of the room but turned toward John, “So the
perp didn’t have long hair.”

John thought about this for a while.
Maybe this was someone setting Paige up? Still this was not
conclusive proof. Paige had access to the motorcycle. It was next
door. It was returned nearby. Or was that too easy? He could
understand if the motorcycle had been found in the Ohio River but
not around the corner. Or was that the way was she wanted it? She’s
a cop. If things looked too good to be true, that would make it
look like a set up and she could try to get off. “She’s smart like
that,” he said out loud. “She could have planned it that way, wig
and all. But why?” Just then the thought of the estate went through
his mind. Could she have done this to get the house? Why would she
kill everyone she had in her life? That just didn’t make sense. Or
did it? Besides, she already had the house. Why this? Why
now?

John walked back and
forth. He then replayed the tapes. “
The
hair, what’s up with the hair?”
he thought
as he continued his pacing.

Chapter 35

Jay felt like he had been hit by a
tornado. His whole world was spinning. The cloud of doubt was still
hanging low about him. Could Paige be capable of such things? Did
she devise the entire plan? Was her memory loss part of the whole
thing? And Junna? Did she make her up? Is this all part of an
insanity defense to try to get away with murder? What if it is all
true? As unbelievable as it seemed, could it all be
true?

He paced around the kitchen rubbing
his temples. He wanted to believe her. How could he? “Mind
reading,” he mumbled to himself. “Mind reading? Collective
conscious? What the hell is going on?”

In his mad dash from one side of the
room to the other, he knocked the newspapers off of the kitchen
table. “Shit,” he whispered as he bent over to pick them up. As he
placed them back on the table, the piece of pink stationary fell
out of the pile. He picked it up and read the neat hand writing
again.

Dear Paige
Aldridge,

I am writing to you because
I know what you have been going through. I know about your memories
of the dark room. If you want some answers, please think of me when
you are alone and I will be there.

Junna Breck

His hands shook as he read the letter
over and over again. “Okay, Jay. What are you going to do with this
one?” he asked as he paced more and continued to read the letter.
The phone rang causing him to jump out of his skin.

“
Jay Vittidini,” he
answered.

“
Jay, it’s Adam. I think
we have something.”

“
Spill it!”

“
We can’t find a Junna
Breck, but we did find a Junna Brooks. She lived here in Louisville
at some point.”

“
How do you know it’s the
same person?” Jay questioned.

“
Here’s the thing … first
of all, how many Junnas could there be?” Adam half chuckled making
Jay start to lose his patience. “We found a picture of her in an
old edition of the Courier-Journal. As I was looking at it, Hannah
looked over my shoulder and recognized her. She said that Junna had
dropped off an envelope for Paige just before she came back after
Sarah died. I figured it had to be the same person.”

A giant wave of relief washed over
Jay. It was true! Junna was true at least. This gave Jay some hope.
“What was the story about? In the Courier-Journal?”

“
Just some story about
growing up in The Tree House. Evidently Junna was orphaned or
abandoned or something at the age of six. Let me see … nothing too
out of the ordinary. Just what life was like there … what food they
ate … um … games played … looks like she was helping raise money
for the orphanage.”

“
Anything else?” Jay asked
hopefully.

“
Not in this? I’m doing a
search now on Junna Brooks. We’ll see what else that turns up and
get you a good address.”

“
Thanks man. What about
Hannah? Is she there? Can I talk to her?”

“
Sure thing. Hold on a sec
…”

Jay waited for the answer. “Hey, Jay,”
Hannah’s cheery voice answered.

“
Morning, Hannah. I have a
question about Junna Breck, Brooks whatever her name is. What
exactly did this Miss Junna drop off for Paige?”

“
Only a pink envelope
marked Confidential across the back. She just handed it to me and
asked that I give it to Paige when she returned.

That’s really all I
remember.”

“
Thanks, Hannah. I
appreciate your help. Pass me back to Adam, will ya?”

“
Sure,” she handed the
phone to Adam.

“
Yeah, Jay?”

“
You will let me know as
soon as you hear anything … anything at all?”

“
Will do! … Oh, I was just
reviewing the tapes from Gellendale Estates. John had noticed that
when the lady was breaking in the house, her hair started to fall
off. She caught it just before she entered the house. Just thought
you should know that it looks like our perp didn’t have long hair
after all.”

“
Thanks man. I really
appreciate it,” Jay took a deep breath and blew it out
slowly.

He hung up the phone and ran back to
the table. He rummaged through the pile of papers again and found
the pink envelope marked Confidential. “Paige, I will help you.
Please read me now,” he thought.

“
I’m on your side. I will
help you. I believe in you and I love you. Hang in there Paige.
We’ll figure out all of this, together.”

Chapter 36

Paige woke once again. This time she
was in the alley. “What do I do?” she said breathlessly as she
stood up, legs shaking. She looked at her wrists. They were bruised
and bleeding. She looked at the rope lying at her feet. “I’ve done
this to myself. How long have I been gone this time?” She asked
herself as she picked up the rope and started down the alley. She
remembered leaving before, almost two years ago. “I have to
confess. Turn myself in,” she repeated over and over again. As she
neared the street, she saw Tom driving by in his cruiser and she
flagged him down.

“
Jesus Christ, Paige.
What’s happened to you?” he said as she climbed into the front
seat.

“
I’ll explain it all
later. Will you take me to the station?”

“
Sure.” Tom drove off;
neither of them saying a word the whole way.

Paige walked into the station,
straight into John Waters’ office and shut the door behind
her.

After closing his dropped mouth, John
asked her to sit.

“
I’m here to confess.
John, I can’t remember everything but I believe I murdered Anthony
and Richie Steckler, and now Aileen Childers.”

There she said it. It’s out there now
and she will pay for what she’s done.

John’s mouth dropped again. “What are
you talking about?”

She held up her wrists. “See, I’ve
done this to myself. I’ve evidently planned to tell you I was
kidnapped again.”

“
You’re not making sense.
Slow down and start from the beginning,”

John responded in total
disbelief.

“
This is what I can
remember. I strangled Anthony. I remember seeing him die with my
hands around his neck. I can see the rope in my hands as I tied it
around Richie’s neck then kicked the ladder over.

I can feel the shovel in my hands as I
hit Aileen. I remember rubbing ropes around my wrists to make them
look like this!” Everything spilled out like water from a pitcher.
“Lock me up before I do anything else,” she begged as tears
streamed down her face.

John stood up and walked to her, “Are
you sure you want to do this? You’re lawyer is not
here.”

Paige nodded and John helped her
stand. He placed the hand cuffs carefully around her wrists as he
read her rights to her.

As he led her out of his office, the
whole station stopped in their tracks to watch. Jay burst through
the door as John sat her down in front of Hannah to be booked. She
looked up at him and saw the confusion in his face, “I’m sorry,
Jay. I’m so sorry.”

“
What’s this all about?”
Jay demanded of John. “You have no proof!”

“
Jay, calm down. She’s
come in on her own. She’s confessed to all three
murders.”

“
What?” puzzled, he sat
immediately down in a chair next to Paige.

“
What are you
doing?”

Paige struggled to speak. “I remember
things. Things I shouldn’t remember. Jay, I remember killing them
all and I don’t know why I did it!”

“
I have to lock her up,
Jay.” John placed his hand on Jay’s shoulder.

The look of disbelief on his face
matched that of Jay’s. Hannah had not yet moved.