Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
"This has happened before, and you knew about it. You knew what he'd done and you brought him here anyway."
"Is that true?" Nicky asked, but he couldn't look away from Andrew to face his father.
Luther opened his mouth, then closed it again, expression bleak. Aaron only gave him a couple seconds to answer before snapping. "Get out of here," he said, and when Luther didn't move fast enough, screamed, "Get out of here!"
Andrew laughed as Luther retreated from the room. The door was too broken to close all the way, but Luther tugged it into place as best he could. Neil heard sirens in the distance. Andrew picked up on it a second later and glanced over his shoulder. He thought for a moment, then gave an expansive shrug and let go of Aaron. He peeled his armbands off one at a time and dropped them in Neil's lap.
He said something, but Neil didn't hear him. The pale shade of scarred skin was too familiar and too startling for him to not react. Neil grabbed hold of Andrew's wrist. He started to turn Andrew's arm over, sure he'd imagined things, but Andrew clamped his free hand down on Neil's forearm.
"Andrew," Neil started.
"Just so we're clear, I'll kill you."
The iron in his grip was at complete odds with the drugged smile on his face. Andrew wasn't bluffing. If Neil didn't let go fast enough Andrew would break his arm. Neil loosened his grip but spread his fingers as he did so. He felt the slight dip and bump of destroyed skin beneath his fingertips and felt his stomach drop. Andrew wrenched Neil's hand off his arm, but he did it in a way that kept his bared forearm turned toward himself.
"Get rid of those," Andrew said. "Pigs don't like it when people like me carry weapons."
Neil didn't have pockets deep enough to hide Andrew's discarded arm bands, so he leaned over and stuffed them between the box spring and the frame. He looked from Aaron to Nicky, but neither of them had noticed that exchange. Aaron was watching the door like he thought Luther might come back. Nicky was staring at Andrew's face, but his shuttered expression said he was a thousand miles away from all of this. They were Andrew's family but they were as oblivious as everyone else when it came to Andrew.
"Andrew," Neil said again.
"Do us a favor," Andrew said. "Let's no one talk for a while."
There was nothing else Neil could do but wait for the ambulance and police to arrive.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The emergency room at Richmond General Hospital was a crowded, roiling mess of resentment and sickness. The attendants at the desk tried regulating the mess as best they could, but there were too many people to be seen and nowhere near enough doctors. Neil was too far away to hear the attendants' words but he could hear their fraying patience in their tone. The strident protests and arguments of the would-be patients carried easier. Neil listened because he needed something to distract him from his thoughts.
Things had gone from bad to worse when Columbia's finest showed up at the Hemmicks' house. The first responders and paramedics arrived at almost the same time, but they were followed by two more sets of officers. Neil didn't know if they had nothing better to do on a Sunday night or if they'd come following the slip of Kevin Day's name over the police radio. Neil seriously doubted it took six cops to rule Drake's death as a justified case of self-defense. He wanted them to take statements, eyeball the obvious details of the gruesome scene, and shake Aaron's hand on their way out. The last time Neil saw Aaron, though, he was being led down the stairs in cuffs. Shortly afterward the police loaded an amused Andrew into the back of an ambulance and shipped him here.
Neil didn't know if this was sheer Fox bad luck, if he'd jinxed all of this by his very presence, or if rape and murder were always this complicated. He didn't know; he could barely think anymore. Instinct made him split up the group the only way he could. Kevin wanted to come to the hospital to wait on Andrew's release, but his face was too recognizable. The last thing any of them wanted tonight was to draw more attention to themselves. Neil sent him with Nicky to the station to wait on Aaron. He came here alone the second the police gave up getting anything out of him. He'd been here for almost forty minutes now. He was trying not to clock watch, but he couldn't help it. The crowd around him wasn't changing fast enough to be a proper distraction.
The man who walked through the sliding glass doors two minutes later was. Neil was on his feet before he knew he was moving. The sudden movement drew Wymack's attention, and Wymack stabbed a finger at the ground in front of him. Neil worked his way across the crowded room. Wymack barely waited for him to catch up before heading back outside. Neil hugged his coat tighter around himself and followed.
Wymack led him to a designated smoking section some twenty feet down the sidewalk. Neil looked at the plastic bag hanging off his elbow but forgot to ask when Wymack pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Neil held his hand out in silent request. Wymack arched an eyebrow at him and said, "Last I checked, you don't smoke."
"I don't," Neil said.
Wymack handed him the cigarette anyway and got another for himself. The wind was strong enough it took them work to get their cigarettes lit. Neil took a long drag to make sure the cigarette was actually burning, then cupped the glowing stick between his hands. The acrid smell of smoke, faint as it was on a night like this, should have been comforting. It wasn't.
"What are you doing here?" Neil asked.
"Kevin called me," Wymack said. "I brought Andrew some clean clothes."