Suffer II (17 page)

Emily awoke in a panic the next morning, but it only took a few moments to regain her composure. She looked at the clock and realized she had been asleep for ten hours. Bullet was right. She slept well.

After checking on her mother and eating a large breakfast, she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so good. Rested and with a full stomach, she was optimistic about her day. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt that either.

With the belief that her horrible ordeal was over, she took her time going into town and running errands. When she returned hours later, everything was in order. He was keeping his word.

She found it ironic that the only person who seemed to give her any comfort and peace was the man who terrorized her for weeks, the same man who admitted to setting her up and destroying her life. She didn’t care. All she cared about was that it was over.

Throughout the day, she kept looking at the tiny red dot on her arm where he injected her with heroin. By sunset, any evidence of that moment had all but disappeared. With everything she had endured since the party that had changed her life, allowing him to shoot her up with heroin seemed inconsequential.

A sense of anxiety moved through her as the remaining daylight surrendered to darkness. It was the time things started to go bump in the night. It had been the normal routine for weeks, and she knew it would take some time for her to adjust to the silence. With the knife back on the table beside her chair, she attempted to lose herself in a movie on TV. When it ended, she heard familiar footsteps walking up the back stairs.

“How you feeling?” asked Bullet, seeing Emily standing at the back door.

“Rested,” said Emily.

“Good, good,” said Bullet, reaching for the handle of the screen door. “Mind if I come in?”

“No,” said Emily, taking a seat.

“I told you it would make you feel better and help you sleep,” said Bullet, sitting in the rocking chair. “Made you forget some things too, didn’t it?”

“It did,” said Emily.

“Well, I’ve got some good news for you,” said Bullet, smiling at her. “I talked to the judge today. I told her we scared you good last night. I said another week or two should put you in the nuthouse. She agreed and said we don’t need to mess with you anymore after that.”

“So it’s over?” asked Emily.

“Looks like it,” said Bullet, taking out the tin box. “I bet I can talk her down to a week instead of two.”

“Oh, no,” said Emily, holding up her hand. “I don’t need that tonight. I won’t have a problem sleeping now that I know nothing is going to happen. I have you to thank for that.”

“That’s not our deal,” said Bullet, leaning back. “It’s one or the other.”

“What do you mean?” asked Emily. “I – I don’t understand.”

“You either take another little hit or I gotta call my dogs back,” said Bullet. “That’s just the way it is.”

“Why do you want me to take it?”

“That’s the thanks I get for helping you?” said Bullet. “You’d be a fucking trainwreck right now if I didn’t give it to you. That shit ain’t cheap either. I paid for it out of my own pocket so you’d feel better.”

“I do feel better.”

“Look,” said Bullet, taking a breath. “You’re not leaving me any choice here. I still work for the judge, and she’s one crazy, messed up bitch. If she finds out I ain’t doing nothing to you, it’s my ass and I need to cover it.”

“I still don’t understand,” said Emily, becoming upset.

“Dang,” said Bullet. “I thought you was smart.”

“Not lately.”

“All right, I’ll break it down for you so you know where I’m coming from with all this. The judge wants you all fucked up so nobody will believe your story about her son. Are you with me?”

“Yes.”

“So she hired me to screw your life up, which I’ve done, right?”

“That’s an understatement, but yes.”

“Okay, then. Nothing will make the judge happier, or end this faster, if she thinks you’re hooked on heroin for real. And that’s what I’ll tell her. I’ll tell her I got you to shoot up, and now you’re doing it all day long. But you won’t be, you see. You’ll just be taking it once before you go to bed.”

“Why can’t you just tell her without me having to do it?”

“That ain’t gonna work,” said Bullet. “She’s smart. Real smart. What if she wants to see for herself and comes with me tomorrow night, huh? Maybe she’ll make you take a drug test or something to prove it? I’m telling you, she’ll find out. If she does find out I’m lying to her, I’m a dead man, and you and your mama are dead too. I guarantee it. That woman will kill us all to protect her precious little asshole son. That’s why you have to do it yourself tonight. Just in case she wants to see that you know how to do it.”

“I have to do it myself?”

“Yeah,” said Bullet. “It’s easy and it don’t hurt. I’ll show you everything.”

“I can’t do that,” said Emily. “I just can’t.”

“Well, you better find a way, sweetheart,” said Bullet. “Because that woman ain’t never gonna leave you and your mama alone if you don’t. You want her to leave you alone, right? This is how you make that happen, and it’s how I don’t end up shot and dumped in the swamp. This is your way out of this mess, Emily. You only have to do it once a night right before you go to bed, and it ain’t enough to get you hooked. I wouldn’t do that to you. I want this shit to be over too. I don’t like hurting nobody.”

“Do you swear?” asked Emily.

“I swear to God,” said Bullet. “We gotta make it look real. That woman wants to kill you. Don’t you understand that? She asked me to do it last week, but I talked her out of it. I said I didn’t want no murder charge and that I could make sure you’d never talk. I’m telling you, if I don’t do this, she’ll find someone else that will. And whoever she finds won’t give a shit like I do. They’ll just put a bullet in you and your mama’s head and walk away.”

“Okay,” said Emily. “Show me what to do.”

“Now you’re being smart.”

Emily’s hands were shaking when she took the syringe. Bullet knelt down beside her and steadied her. He showed her where to pierce her skin and find a vein. The dose was the same as the night before. He carried her into her bedroom after she pushed the drug and slumped back into her chair.

They repeated the process for a week. He showed her how to cook the heroin and load the syringe. After a few days, she no longer needed his help.

On the eighth day, Bullet didn’t show up. The night before, he left his phone number on a piece of paper in her bedroom beside her nightstand. She did her best to resist making the call. An hour later he was standing on her back porch.

“You okay, sweetheart?” asked Bullet, sitting beside her.

“I’m not feeling well,” said Emily. “I just want to go to sleep.”

“Sure,” said Bullet. “But I can’t give it to you for free no more. You understand that, right?”

“Of course,” said Emily, reaching into her pocket. “How much is it?”

“Twenty.”

“Okay,” said Emily, handing him the money.

“Here you go,” said Bullet. “Twenty gives you two doses.”

“I just need one for tonight,” said Emily, reaching out to him with the second baggie.

“Keep it in case you’re not better by tomorrow,” said Bullet. “I won’t be around for a few days.”

“Okay,” said Emily, putting it in her pocket.

“I’m meeting up with Judge Hall tonight,” said Bullet. “She’s probably gonna tell me we’re done with you.”

“I hope so,” said Emily. “I just want to get my life back.”

“I’ll make sure you do,” said Bullet. “I gotta take off now. Call me if you need anything.”

As he and Judge Hall had hoped, she called the next night after she took the second dose before breakfast. He told her he was out of town as he sat in his favorite chair in his living room a few miles away. Bullet wanted her to sweat it out for a day before he showed up with more drugs.

Twenty dollars a day turned into forty within the second week of her first hit. Forty turned into eighty by the end of the month. Emily took care of all the finances for her mother and had access to her father’s pension and savings account. Both were depleted by the third month. She would have to wait two weeks for the next deposit.

Bullet stopped coming to her house and made her come to his. She opened her jewelry box and took everything of value. She was ashamed as she stuffed the gold necklace that her father gave her on her fifteenth birthday into her pocket. It was the last one they celebrated together before he died. She couldn’t wait two weeks.

Little else mattered to Emily except for the next dose. She didn’t know when she became addicted and didn’t care anymore. All she cared about was the feeling it gave her. When she put the needle in her arm, all of her problems disappeared in a heartbeat. There was no worry or stress. There was only a warm release of everything that made her feel badly. Even the shame of letting herself become a heroin addict was powerless against the euphoria she experienced while being one.

“Hey, Emily,” said Brad, answering the door of his brother’s house. “Bullet said you’d be coming by. Come on in.”

All of their business was handled in the two-car garage they converted into a den. His brothers Eddie and Brad normally took care of the customers, but Emily was special. She was the only one allowed to use the front entrance and had access to the main house. Everyone else had to come through the steel security door on the side of the garage. Bullet was sitting at a desk in the back corner of the room.

“Hey, beautiful,” said Bullet, standing as she walked inside.

“Hi,” said Emily, looking down at her shoes.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” said Emily, pulling jewelry out of her pocket. “I don’t have any money, but I have these. They’re worth at least two hundred dollars. That should be enough to get me by until more money is put into my mom’s account.”

“No, sweetie,” said Bullet, sitting on the corner of his desk. “I ain’t no pawn shop. That opens up at nine tomorrow. I only take two forms of payment. Cash and pussy. Lucky for you, you have at least one of those with you now.”

“Wait. What?” said Emily, taking a step back. “No, I’m not having sex with you. That’s disgusting.”

“Really?” said Bullet, standing and walking back to his chair. “As good as I’ve been to you. I help you out, get the judge to leave you and your mom alone, and you call me disgusting. Fuck you! Get the fuck out of here! Come back when you can pay your way.”

Emily didn’t move. It was impossible for her legs to walk her out of the house without getting the drugs. She tried to fight it, but she lowered her head and cried.

Bullet smiled as he stood. He put out his cigarette and walked behind Emily. He pushed her to the desk and pulled down her pants. She leaned over as he pulled down his. Brad stood in the corner and watched as his brother took his payment.

When he finished with Emily, he returned to his seat and slid a small baggie towards her. She gathered herself and took the drugs. It was only enough to last her a day. Bullet leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.”

Brittany’s parents were expecting Kate and Evan. They weren’t expecting her to show up with Sheriff Lewis. As coffee was being served, Evan was given access to Brittany’s room. Her parents agreed to the search during a phone conversation with Kate the day before. He returned moments later with her laptop, digital camera, and a handful of data cards.

“That’s her old laptop,” said Jim, sitting on the couch next to his wife. “She has the new one with her.”

“Yes,” said Kate. “But this is the one she used during her senior year, correct?”

“It is,” said Jim.

Kate had told the Greenes that she needed the original email with the incriminating photos of Emily that Brittany had received from the anonymous sender. She knew there was no email and that the photos were downloaded from the digital camera. Kate was betting that she didn’t know how to completely remove them from the computer hard drive or a data card.

“I appreciate your help with this,” said Kate. “I agree there was no reason to bring up painful memories with Brittany here.”

“The sooner you find the truth to all of this, the sooner she can move on,” said Donna. “Our baby has been through hell with all of this.”

“I understand,” said Kate. “We both want the same things.”

“Did you know that Emily’s mom called us?” asked Donna.

“Yes,” said Kate. “I can’t tell you how much that meant to her. She’s been carrying a lot of weight over the years. You both helped her shed a great deal of it.”

“I had no idea,” said Jim. “It broke my heart listening to her apologize for everything that had happened as if it were all her fault. We did our best to tell her otherwise.”

“I can assure you it wasn’t her fault,” said Sheriff Lewis. “This town, including me, put most of that weight on her. I’ve learned recently that nothing is as it seems. You need to both understand that before we can move forward. We all played a part in this tragedy whether we knew it or not.”

“That sounds ominous,” said Jim, shifting in his seat.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Kate, smiling to disarm the sheriff. “Is Brittany still coming home today?”

“She is,” said Donna. “She’ll be home in a couple of hours.”

As the others continued their conversation, Evan was glued to the screen on his laptop. A cable connected his powerful computer to Brittany’s as he peeled back the layers of her hard drive. His suspicion that she used an editing program to doctor the photos was confirmed as multiple photos flooded the screen. Photos that Brittany believed were destroyed. More photos appeared when he defeated the password that she thought would protect the original copies on a data card.

Evan pulled his hands away from the keyboard and leaned back in his seat. Kate and the sheriff cut their eyes over to the laptop. The screen was shielded from the Greenes sitting across from them. They were no longer ahead of themselves.

“I understand you two are looking forward to an engagement soon,” said Kate.

“Oh, yes,” said Donna, beaming. “I started bawling like a baby when Brittany told me she found out Conner’s been ring shopping. I’ve been praying for this for years. Those two are just meant to be together.”

“She’s been chasing that boy since elementary school,” said Jim. “She just wore him down like you did with me.”

“Oh, stop it, Jim. You did all the chasing and you know it.”

“Nothing is at is seems,” said Lewis, earning a scowl from Donna.

“Why do you keep saying that?” asked Donna. “What does that mean?”

“It means we’re about to tell you some things that are going to be incredibly difficult to accept,” said Kate.

“Such as?” asked Jim, taking his wife’s hand.

“Evan, could you explain to them what you just did?” asked Kate.

“Sure,” said Evan. “Most people think when you delete something on your computer it goes away forever. That’s not the case. Unless an operating system is completely removed, everything created or downloaded on a hard drive is still there. It’s just been covered up by new data. It’s possible to peel back those layers and expose the information underneath. That’s what I just did with Brittany’s computer. But the missing piece of the puzzle we needed was on this data card.

“There’s code imbedded in every bite of information stored on it. It’s basically a tag that shows were it came from and when. This card was used in Brittany’s digital camera. Every photo on it was taken with that camera.”

“The photos taken of Emily the night of the party weren’t emailed to Brittany the next day as she claimed,” said Kate, turning the laptop towards the Greenes. “They originated from Brittany’s camera and were then downloaded to her laptop twenty minutes later. You can see the date and time stamps on each photo.”

Jim’s grip tightened on Donna’s hand as Evan scrolled through each photo. There were dozens showing Emily fighting against Greg and Mark while they positioned her. It was easy to see that she was semi-conscious, but visibly upset. The last series of photos showed her unconscious and slumped over on the bed.

“Oh dear God,” said Donna, putting her hands over her mouth. “They raped her, Jim! Those boys raped Emily in our house!”

“There’s one more photo you need to see,” said Kate.

Donna gasped as Evan enlarged one of the photos. In the background was a large mirror above a dresser. In the mirror was Brittany holding the camera.

“I’m sorry,” said Kate. “We needed to be sure before we showed you.”

“I’m going to be sick,” said Donna, standing.

Brittany’s mother walked out of the room holding her stomach. Her father sat motionless on the couch. Nobody spoke, giving Jim the time he needed to comprehend what he had just seen. Kate could see his knuckles turning white as he clasped his hands together and lowered his head.

“I need a little help here,” said Jim, waiting to speak until his wife returned. “We need you to explain to us why this happened. They were best friends. How could my daughter do that to her? Why?”

Kate explained the events leading up to the drugging of Emily. She told them that Conner had stolen a kiss from Emily which sent Brittany into a blind, jealous rage. It was difficult for them to hear that their daughter was delusional and that she had fabricated the story about her engagement. It didn’t ease their pain or their anger.

“We listened to Emily’s mother apologize over and over again,” said Jim, clenching his teeth. “We sat there as if
we
were the victims of Emily’s self-destruction. All the while it was Brittany who was destroying their lives.”

“I’m sorry,” said Donna. “I just can’t believe our daughter would do all of that.”

“She didn’t do all of it,” said Lewis. “She just got the ball rolling. I was present when Greg confessed that she drugged Emily and paid him and Mark to sexually assault her.”

“Are you here to arrest her?” asked Donna, starting to tremble.

“That’s up to her,” said Lewis, causing Jim and Donna to pause. “She needs to admit to what she did and confirm our suspicions about the others who were involved. Those are the people we want.”

“Brittany isn’t directly responsible for Emily’s disappearance, but she needs to be held accountable for what she did,” said Kate, driving her point. “You need to hold her accountable.”

“We will,” said Jim.

“You both need to pay attention to what I’m about to say to you,” said Kate. “Brittany has one more chance to come clean and tell us everything. We know the truth, so we’ll know the second she starts lying. If she starts lying, her chance for any recovery from this will disappear as well. You need to convince her of that.”

“You think Emily is dead, don’t you?” asked Jim.

“We do,” said Lewis.

“If what Brittany did was the end of it, we wouldn’t be here,” said Kate. “She was just the beginning of a series of terrible events. When she tells you the truth, it’s going to be hard to believe. There are things that happened after that even she doesn’t know about. I’m hoping that, when she does realize the extent of the damage that she caused, the guilt and shame she feels will be a good start to her punishment.”

“And I’ll take care of the rest of it,” said Jim. “We didn’t raise her to be that way.”

“Good,” said Kate. “You certainly don’t want us handling the punishment for you.”

Kate and Sheriff Lewis spent the next few hours coaching Jim and Donna on how to approach Brittany without shutting her down. Kate requested that she do most of the talking. Brittany was more comfortable and skilled with lying to her parents.

They knew most of the story, but Kate needed Lewis and the Greenes to hear it from the source. There needed to be no questions about what was going to happen next. Kate needed everyone involved in Emily’s disappearance to stay either angry or scared. It was easy to determine which one Brittany was when she walked through the door.

“Come over here and sit down,” said Jim.

“What’s going on?” asked Brittany, looking at her mother.

“Listen to your father,” said Donna.

“I told you everything I know,” said Brittany, standing in the doorway and looking at the sheriff. “I’m sick and tired of this!”

“It’s not about that,” said Donna. “We just need to talk.”

“No,” said Brittany, turning around.

“Don’t you dare walk out of this house!” said Jim, booming his dominance across the room. “Get over here now!”

“So much for the coaching,” said Lewis, leaning over to Kate and rubbing his ear.

“I’m fine with this approach,” said Kate. “It’ll work.”

Brittany complied.

“This is never going to end,” said Brittany, walking past her mother and forcing tears. “Why are you making me go through this again?”

“It ends today,” said Jim, turning the computer screen towards Brittany. “And you cut out that wounded best friend horseshit and suck up those fake tears. Nobody here is buying it.”

“What are those?” asked Brittany.

“Stop it!” said Jim, causing everyone to flinch. “Stop lying to us! We know you drugged Emily and paid those boys to rape her. We know you took the photos because you took one of yourself in the goddamned mirror. If you don’t tell us the truth, you’re leaving with the sheriff and I hope he puts your ass under the jail. And you can use your phone call on someone else because your mother and I won’t answer. Tell us the truth, Brittany. This is the last time I’m going to ask.”

She had known her father as a gentle giant her entire life. Brittany had never heard him raise his voice to that level. Seeing the tears in his eyes and the sadness on his face is what made her pay attention to his words.

“Do you understand you’re going to jail if you don’t tell the truth?” said Jim, collecting himself and lowering his voice closer to a whisper. “But what scares me more is what this woman will do if you lie to her. She needs your help to find Emily and bring her back to Ms. Karla. I need you to help her so I can still believe that I have a daughter.”

Brittany broke down. Everyone in the room recognized the tears as genuine. They could also see the fear behind them.

“We know Judge Hall threatened you at the hospital,” said Kate, throwing her a lifeline. “We know she coerced you to remain silent and do her bidding. She manipulated you. Things got out of control.”

“I’ve already confronted her,” said Lewis. “She knows that we know the truth.”

“Because he did that,” said Kate, “you and your family are safe. She won’t come after you because it’ll bring too much attention to her. She’s done a very good job of hiding in the shadows until now. You don’t have to be afraid of her anymore.”

“Please, honey,” said Donna. “We’ll be right here beside you every step of the way.”

“There’s something else you need to know, Brittany,” said Kate, handing her Emily’s journal. “Emily and Conner never had sex. Tyler admitted he was wrong.”

Brittany wiped away her tears and opened the journal to the page with a bookmark. After a few minutes of reading, it slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor. It was the moment she realized Emily never betrayed her.

“I’ll tell you everything I know.”