Her Last Day (Jessie Cole #1)(70)

Natalie didn’t move.

“I know you do,” he said before he returned to his place behind the decrepit man.

Zee watched all three people, her gaze darting from Natalie, to the old man, and finally back to Forrest. Waiting. Watching. The clowns had known all along where Forrest lived. They had danced and pointed, telling her which way to go when she was lost. It all made sense now. This was a circus, all right. And she was the only spectator.

“Ask him!” Forrest shouted, making Zee jump.

Nobody else moved.

The tip of the leather whip hit the old man’s shoulder, splitting him open. His cry of pain came out, sounding like the screams of a dozen people.

Natalie frowned.

Finally. Something.

The snap of the whip had worked this time. Natalie buried the rest of her food beneath a pile of straw and then crawled to the door of her cell, where she could get a better look at what was going on. “Stop it,” she said in a tiny voice.

Zee wasn’t sure if she was telling the old man to stop screaming or telling Forrest to stop hurting him.

“Leave him alone,” Natalie said, looking at Forrest now.

Forrest’s eyes narrowed. “Ask him the question.”

“Old man,” she began.

“His name is Dog.”

“Dog,” she said, “why did you beat and torture your only son?”

Dog grumbled and mumbled. Zee could tell that he was really trying to answer the question, which surprised her.

The whip snapped again, slitting open Dog’s other shoulder.

This time he howled.

It was the same piercing cry Zee had heard many times before. There was no other animal inside his cell. Dog was one and the same.

The expression on Natalie’s thin face was a mixture of horror and rage as she cried, “Dog! Look at me!”

The silence was deafening.

And once again Forrest raised his arm, ready to strike again.

Unable to take any more, it seemed, Natalie began to shake the bars as she shouted, “What did you do to your son?”

She shook the metal bars so hard, Zee thought she might break right through.

“He took her from me,” Dog said at last, his voice hoarse. The clarity of his words surprised everyone, including Forrest.

“Who did he take from you?” Natalie commanded.

“My wife.”

“You were jealous of your own son?”

Forrest looked tense.

Dog began to cry, his eyes like leaky faucets, his entire body trembling.

“You didn’t like the attention your wife gave your son,” Natalie said, “so you tortured him?”

Dog growled. Gone was the sadness. His eyes widened, and his nostrils flared. “She only loved him! Everything she did was for him! I hated him. I wished he was never born. But when I harmed her little boy, her prized possession, she grew angry. And that anger was directed at me . . . only me.”

Forrest looked at Natalie in confusion.

“He preferred your mother’s anger and hatred over nothing at all,” Natalie told him.

“Is that true?” he asked Dog.

Dog’s head bobbed.

Forrest’s expression changed suddenly, and Zee wasn’t sure what he was thinking as he furiously worked to unchain Dog. Once that was done, he shoved him back into his cell, shut the door with a clang, and secured it tightly.

“He could have had both,” Natalie said as Forrest blew out the lantern and walked away.

Forrest got as far as the steps before he turned and said, “What did you say?”

“Babies need a lot of care,” Natalie told him. “If your father had been patient, he could have had both your mother’s love and his son’s love.”





THIRTY-EIGHT

Not long after Colin had left, Jessie grabbed her purse. “Come on,” she said to Olivia. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“To Woodland. I want to look Arlo Gatley in the eyes when they take him away.”

“Why?”

“It’s something I need to do.”

“What if he’s dangerous?”

“If the police haven’t arrived, I won’t get out of the car until he’s in handcuffs.” Jessie didn’t want to freak Olivia out, but there was no way she was going to leave Olivia home alone. “I always carry pepper spray,” Jessie told her, “and we can bring Higgins along for the ride, too.”

Olivia jumped up from the couch and grabbed the leash and a couple of treats for Higgins.

They had been on the highway for at least five minutes when Olivia turned to Jessie and said, “Are you all right?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You don’t look well, for one thing. I’m worried about you. The cut on the side of your face looks kind of puffy and swollen.”

“Don’t worry. I’m taking antibiotics. I feel fine.”

“I overheard some of your conversation with Colin, and I think he’s right,” Olivia said. “You should be concentrating on making sure you don’t go back to jail. I’m scared.”

Jessie’s heart sank. “I’m sorry I’ve worried you. I don’t want you to be scared, okay? Two different women have agreed to testify against Parker Koontz in court. Everything will be fine.”