Something wakes me at 4am.
I’m not sure what is pulling at me. After AJ’s arrest Cami, Sera and I drove in complete silence back to the Days Inn. We’d gone our separate ways in absolute silence. I’d fallen asleep the minute my body hit the bed.
Until now.
I sit up for a moment and look around the room. Something tugs at me. I make sure my door is secure then I check the window.
In the parking lot Sera steps out of her RV. The rusted over door creaks loudly on its hinges–but that’s not what woke me. She steps into the night wearing black shorts, compression tights and a sports bra. She sets something on her fitness tracker and starts to run. Only the faint glow of street lights to light her path.
When things got stressful early morning runs became her norm. No headphones or distractions. Just alone with her thoughts. She’d gone on a lot of those runs when I asked her to help the Morris County District Attorney make their case against Helios. During one of those runs she’d decided to do it. I immediately scheduled an appointment with the DAs for that week. We never even made it to that first meeting.
I unsuccessfully try to sleep for the next hour. Eventually I roll over and grab my phone. I do a quick scroll through my e-mail and see a new one from Mark.
From Mark Kim <Mark.D.Kim@InnovativeFocusConsulting.com
To PLPrince09@gmail.com
Hi,
I know it’s late over there but I met with the DCEC for lunch. They aren’t looking to fund new candidates in the greater NYC region, but they are willing to partially support your career move to the city if you prioritize fundraising for them. No salary. They are offering $55K to help build your profile in the region. We are in full PR mode.
We can use the funds to build a non-profit and create lecture series focused on decriminalzing sex work and vice. Get you on some podcast or talk shows. Make viral moments. You’ll need to hire social media strategist.
I’ve also attached a list of literary agents who are open for meetings next week to talk about your memoir.
I know it’s not what you wanted but it’s a good deal. Not as good as taking the Midwest offer. The Midwest offer will get us to the White House faster. It comes with more money and support. It’s different but it’s where we need to be.
Let me know.
Please see my attached invoices. Party won’t cover those.
M
I forward the e-mail to Cami
Thoughts ?
Before I can hit send a text from Sera comes in.
Morning, pet. Let’s go for a drive. Meet me at 8. Now, put your phone down and get 2 more hours of sleep.
I look out the window and see Sera is back from her run. She’s leaning back against the RV and looking right into my window. I shut the light off and close my eyes.
+++
I end up oversleeping.
I rush through my morning routine and make it down to the lobby just after 7:45. Cami is in line at the makeshift coffee bar with Ms. Green.
“Cami told me you were there for the arrest last night.”, Ms. Green says, “Did he do it ?”
“No.”, I admit. “I mean the kid is guilty of something but not murder.”
“I agree”, Ms. Green says,”Mickie never mentioned having issues with someone like him.”
“Ms. Green and I are recording our interview in the conference room”, Cami explains, “Are you joining us, Paris ?”
“No. I…I’m meeting with Sera.”
Cami’s gaze shifts to the window where the RV is still parked at the back of the lot.
“Are you sure ?”, Cami asks, “Ms. Green was telling me that they haven’t found Mickie’s car. We’re going out to Elma Lake to look for it later today.”
Ms. Green doesn’t catch the look Cami is giving me. Of course they hadn’t found the car. It was the vehicle Mickie and Paige had hit Larry with. Who knows what they did with it to hide the crime.
“What kind of car was it?” I ask.
Ms. Greene smiles to herself, “2002 Celica convertible. Lime green. She restored it herself with a hybrid engine.”
A car like that would have stood out. I’d been in town just over a week and I don’t remember seeing anything like that. There weren’t too many places they could hide it. My phone alarm goes off. I look down to see it’s five minutes to eight.
“How about I meet up with you at Elma Lake to look for the car. I just want to make sure Sera is okay. Especially after last night.”
Cami glances at my alarm, “Just try to be back at noon.”
“I will. I promise.”
+++
Sera is waiting by my car in the same flannel and jeans I’d seen her on my first day here.
“Keys”, she says and I give them to her. Before we pull off she takes my coffee and pours it out the window.
“Sera, that was decaf.” Well it was half-decaf.
“Don’t lie to me. Bev doesn’t brew decaf.”
“Bev hasn’t been at the hotel in two days. She’s afraid she’s next.”
Sera shakes her head and gets into the driver’s seat, “Maybe she should be.”
“Sera.”
“She grew up here. She’s known Larry her whole life. She knew Paige and Mickie hit Larry and didn’t say shit.”
“Speaking of…have you talked to AJ or Larry since last night ?” I asks as she adjust the seat and mirrors.
She tenses a little, “Larry doesn’t want to talk about it. He just wants AJ out. Made him sleep on the roof last night. I can’t blame him. ”
“There is no way AJ is the copycat. I mean he couldn't have dug up the body from your flower bed and moved it, he was at the bonfire with Cami.”
“Maybe he has a partner.”, Sera reluctantly speculates, “He’s actually on the roof all the time– he could have seen me bury the real Severance Stalker if he had binoculars.. He could see everything that goes on in this town and not say a damn word. Kid has a good poker face”
I consider what little I know about him.
“He’s an opportunist not a murderer. He stole that shit from the victims’ houses– No question. If he saw you kill someone, he would have blackmailed you a long time ago for money or weed.”
She considers this and slides on her sunglasses. I hadn’t seen her drive in so long I forgot how good she looked doing it. Relaxed and laid back with a tensed arm on the wheel that made her muscles stand to attention. I was starting to appreciate the half-sleeve tattoo. Maybe I’d been wrong about body modifications.
“Where are we going ?” I finally ask.
She doesn’t say anything as we drive out of town. She speeds up when we hit the parkway. About 10 miles outside of Aberdeen she pulls off an exit. In the distance I see what looks like a huge barn with a large blinking neon sign.
Unlimited Adult Toys and Clothes.
“Let me guess, is this somehow really a brewery ?”
“No”, she says, “But they sell discreet cameras I can use for security. They also have a very impressive selection of vegan leather BDSM equipment.”
“Should we really be doing this right now?”
“It’s called multitasking”, she says, “I can’t help you without the right equipment. Now go.”
“This place seems like it might be expensive.”
Sera turns the car off. “They have cameras that will make me safe from another intruder and the equipment will help me do my job. I can’t fix your kink shit if I can’t fuck you up a little bit. There is no price on that.”
"I see what this is. So…Financial Dominance is a hard limit for me. This got me kicked out of a forum once, but FinDom is just a new name for sugar babies. I mean it’s a fine way to make a living but has no place in the BDSM subcultur–
“Enough, Paris. I didn’t ask for one of your insightful little lectures.”
“Sera, I don’t think now is a good time to work on my kink shit.”
“I don’t like being questioned, Paris.”
I reluctantly take off my seatbelt, “Here is the thing. I was laid off before the campaign. I’ve got this offer from the party but nothing has been finalized. My liquid funds have kind of been tied up–”
“How the fuck did you even afford to get out here?”
“I have one credit card that hasn’t been maxed out. Once I get all my upside down mortgages worked out, pay my staff, transfer a few credit card balances and catch up on my student loans…I should be in a lot less debt.”
Sera rolls her eyes and gives me her card holder. Her license is somehow the best picture she’s even taken. She has $300 in cash, a VISA credit card, a bunch of gym membership cards and one Amex Black Diamond companion card that I’m sure is courtesy of her long term sugar daddy, Dom Hidalgo. I take the VISA.
Unlimited Adult Toys and Clothes was probably an actual barn in a past life, but now it is stacked from top to bottom with merchandise. It's nothing like the trendy adult boutiques or showrooms I usually shopped at. A thin guy behind the raised counter eyes me as I make my way down the aisles.
It’s an extensive collection and (as I suspected) the prices are not cheap. They have a pretty impressive vegan leather section, which I guess isn’t surprising for this region. The voyeurism section is a little unnerving. I grab 6 mini wireless cameras.
It was so fucking dark in this place I had to put out my glasses to read the fine print on the tags in the BDSM aisle. I’d always leaned towards bondage and emotional masochism but the more time I spend in the aisle– the more I start to consider impact play.
Once I find everything I think I’ll need I head up to the cashier. The cashier gives me a sidelong glance and I get the feeling it’s not about all the purchases I’m making. He’s been staring at me this whole time.
“I swear I’m not the Severance Stalker”, I say handing over a gift-card I’d had for six years and my credit card.
“Yeah. I know.” He says like he was expecting my statement.
“You do ?”
“I thought maybe you were a G-man or something. Cause of the fit.”
I had cycled through my smart business casual and gone back to my travel suit.
“Not exactly. My colleague and I are actually in town working on a podcast about the stalker.”
“No fucking way. You should interview me. I saw him…the stalker..”
“What ? When ?”
“A whole ago. He came in here and cleared out our discount bin of DVDs. Boomer.”
“When was this?”
“Over the summer. July.”
Okay. So this guy saw the real Severance Stalker.
“How did you know it was him ?”
“He had this bag with framed pictures that didn’t look like his family. Then I saw this Severance Stalker post online. One of the victims was for sure in that photo.
I close my eyes and try to picture the timeline. The real Severance Stalker had been in this shop before he attempted to kill Sera. Maybe he met the copycat here ? Maybe he first saw Sera here.
“Do you have security footage ?” I ask
“Naw. We don’t have cameras. Customers get freaked out.”
“Was he alone ?”
He thinks on this, “Someone for sure drove him here. I heard a car. They were parked out of view.”
The guy reaches under the desk and dumps out a bag with nickels, quarters, and a thin gold medal, “He paid with this shit and 6 oz of Blue Root. He creeped me out so I accepted the trade.”
I reached for my glasses cloth and picked the thin medal out of the pile.
“That’s not real gold. Just coated”, He says.
“Why didn’t you tell the cops.”
He looks around.
“My boss wouldn’t have liked me doing trades.”
“I’ll give you $20 for this.” I said holding up the medal.
I give him a $100 bill from Sera’s wallet and he reluctantly makes change.
“It doesn’t belong to any of his victims so I doubt it will be worth anything.”
I suddenly understood why he had really held on to these things. He was hoping to cash in on memorabilia one day. He was wrong though. This medal belonged to one of his victims. It just belonged to the victim that lived.
+++
I jog back out to the car. Sera is in the passenger seat looking through my phone. I instinctively feel my pockets.
“Fuck. Sera.” I take the phone from her.
“You just worry about driving. Subs don’t have privacy. There is nothing good on here anyway. You are so boring, Paris.”
“Not even my Happy File.”
“I saw that. You are so pathetic.” She says but I can tell she doesn’t mean it. I pull out of the parking lot slowly.
“…are you upset you aren’t in it ?”
Of course I was nowhere to be seen on her photo walls.
“I get it.” She says. “ I can’t imagine a picture of your ex-wife would make you feel happy.”
“….I had this one picture of you.”
“Really ?”
“The photo shoot you had about a week before the invasion ? The proofs must have arrived when we were in the hospital. I randomly found them 3 years later in my desk. I feel like that was our last good moment together. I didn’t even appreciate it.You were laid out on a table wearing a fucking G- string and I was in the corner answering emails.”
“You were always so busy trying to save the county”, she said , “I don’t even know why you came to that photoshoot.”
“ I didn’t want you to have to manage the photographer. I think I pissed him off.” I actually know I pissed him off. He didn’t artistically understand how slutty could be sensual or sexy.”
“You always knew what looked best.”
“There is this one shot.You were you're laying on your stomach with one foot up. I’d moved your g-string to hook on to the end of your heel. I remember thinking it would be like a 90’s centerfold. It came out really good.”
“How many times did you jerk off to that picture?”
“Zero. I looked at them once and everything about our last few weeks together came crashing back. I burned them.”
“What a waste”, She says running her hands through her hair, “I looked so fucking good back then.”
“You somehow manage to get hotter with each decade.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know”, I hyperfocus on the road, “ You know me. I’d be attracted to you no matter what you looked like—oh shit.”
I pull over. I’d been so busy flirting I’d forgotten about the break in the case.
“Fuck. I forgot. Look at what the store clerk had.”
Sera tried to touch the medal but I pulled it back.
“I’ve been looking for this.” She says, “I thought I lost this. Wichita Falls Semi-finals. I actually got first place. The clerk took it? Is he the–”
“No. The real Severance Stalker traded this in for porn a month before you killed him.”
“Motherfucker.”
“Sera, don’t you see what this means ? When the real stalker attacked you—it wasn’t his first time in your house. He’d been there before. Who knows how many times.”
Sera’s house was so disorganized she would have no way of even knowing someone had ransacked it. Sera seems to think back to the summer.
“I was out of town in July. I was in Boise. I got delayed and came back a few days late. He could have been in my house then.”
“He came back for you. I don’t think he did that with anyone else.”
She slides a lighter of her pocket and lights up.
“Sera this is a rental–”
“Just roll your fucking windows down.”
“Sera. Do you know what this means? If the real stalker was watching you and the copycat has also been watching you that means–
“Two murderers have been after me. Who the fuck did I piss off.”
+++
I’m not much help with installing the camera. I don’t do much more than hold the ladder while Sera positions them outside and inside her house. The lack of walls in the house makes it easy to find vantage points. Every now and then Sera’s gaze goes to the window facing Larry’s house.
“Should we check on Larry ?” I ask. Sera seems surprised that I noticed her lingering glances out the window. She pointedly ignores the question.
I turn the cameras on and they light up on Sera’s tablet. We put cameras in her garage, porch, front yard and backyard.
“They are motion activated. The sound is probably crappy but we should probably watch what we say around them. Just in case.”
Sera studies the camera feeds, “I hate shit like this.”
What would she say if she saw the state-of-the-art 15 camera set-up I had at my townhouse. If we’d had a better security system at our Harrison County house, maybe the invasion wouldn’t have happened.
My phone chimes and I glance at the message from Cami.
Almost noon. Heading to Elma Lake with Ms. G. Where are you ?
“Shit. I’ve got to go. I promised Cami I’d help Mickie’s mom look for her car.”
Sera rolls her eyes, “Who cares about that car. It’s not like Larry can get any justice.”
“Mickie and Paige made a mistake. But they are still victims. Are you going to be okay by yourself ?”
“Is that a real question ?”
She gestures to the gun case partially hidden under clothes and beauty supplies. Her gun case had also been glitter Modge Podged beyond recogniton–likely a hers and hers project Sera and Paula did together.
“Sera”, I tell her, “Don’t use that unless you have to. Promise me.”
“No promises.”
+++
Ms. Green seems more at ease when I meet up with her and Cami outside the Days Inn. A trailer is attached to her Uhaul. She seems determined to find Mickie’s car.
“Are you good?”, Cami asks me as we hop into my CR-V and follow Ms. Green to Elma Lake.
“Yeah. How did the interview go.”
Cami thinks a minute before speaking, “ I got a lot of great sound clips. Mickie sounds like someone I would have really liked. I think this podcast might be a real project for me.”
“You know…the other day Ms. Green got a little testy when I mentioned Sera and The High Noon. DId she say anything about that ?”
“No. All she knows is Mickie was having a great time here. She was really outdoorsy and loved nature so this place was perfect for her and Paige’s research. They were also semi-retired sorority girls so they liked to party all weekend in the bigger resort towns or the bonfires.”
Elma Lake was about 20 minutes from Severance. To get there you had to pass by the boatyard. I slowed as we passed by and observed the place where Larry had been hit. There was a slight hill, so if you didn’t know the boatyard’s crosswalk was there–you could easily speed through it. Locals probably knew to slow down.
Paige and Mickie weren’t locals.
Mickie could have been drunk the night she hit Larry. They probably thought they killed him and drove off. They panicked and turned around. They went back into town. They caught Bev’s attention and confessed to her. They had no idea Mia Felton had filmed them.
“I wonder why Bev didn’t say anything about the hit-and-run. She didn’t know Mickie and Paige were murdered that night. She could have turned them in.”
“It seems like she is afraid of something.” Cami says.
“Was the copycat killer waiting for them when they got back? It can’t be a coincidence he was waiting for them.”
As we get closer to Elma Lake the road narrows.We are surrounded by dense forest on all sides. We finally reach a clearing and I turn toward the cabins. I turn another corner and I get my first view of the lake. The water is a mesmerizing dark blue surrounded by tall full fir and hemlock trees. It’s vast and cuts into the hills and mountains.
“What an amazing view.” I say more to myself.
“It’s that one”, Cami points to one of the smaller cabins that’s set farther back into the forest. It has a less majestic view of the lake.
It’s quiet out here by the lake. Quieter than Severance even.
“I can’t go inside”, Ms. Green says when she gets out the car. I don’t blame her. I highly doubt a crime scene clean-up crew has been through. The cabin was owned by a conglomerate that was in no rush to put this property back on the market.
“You don’t have to”, I reassure her.
We split up and walk around the property. I find a few errant pieces of police tape and hide them out of view from Mrs. Green.
“Hey”, Cami whispers when Mrs. Green is out of earshot, “Maybe Mickie pushed the car into the lake to hide evidence of the hit-and-run.”
“That’s not a bad idea–”
“I found it”, Ms. Green shouts, “I found it. Look.”
Cami I wade through the dense forest to where she is standing. There is a glint of bright green hidden among a few fallen branches. It looked like someone had driven the car a couple of feet into the forest. Young trees have been knocked over to cover it. The doors are missing along with the rear lights. The back bumper is hanging off. It’s covered in leftist and liberal stickers.
“Well. Most of it’s there”, Ms. Green says.
“What the hell”, Cami kneels down in front of the vehicle, “Paris look.”
I clock the same thing she does. There isn’t a single dent on the front bumper. No blood. No sign that this car hit Larry.
“What’s wrong”, Ms. Green asks.
“Oh”, Cami starts, “Um…the keys. They aren’t in here.”
Ms. Green turns to the cabin, “I suppose they are in there…”
“We’ll take a look”, Cami offers.
I follow Cami to the cabin. The door is unlocked and eases open. There is a foul biological smell. Dried blood coats the floor and I imagine there is plenty more in the bedrooms where the attacks took place.
Cami turns to make sure Ms. Green is out of earshot, “The front of Mickie’s car looked fine. There is no way she hit Larry with it.”
“Maybe she backed into him. That could be why the back end is missing.”
“That doesnt’ make sense,” Cami looks around, “ I think I see the keys on the counter. I can’t believe the cops missed the car —ow. Fuck.”
“Cami, what’s wrong ?
“Ugh”, Cami holds up her foot. Something shiny sticks out of the flat soled shoes. She shakes it free. A silver object slides across the floor.
We both kneel down to peer at it.
“What a strange looking cross”, she says squinting at the broken pendant. It’s a well-sized cross with rays of lights and a small sun above it. The edges of the cross are sharp enough to draw blood.
“It’s an Order cross.” I realize.
“A what ?”
“You remember the cult we were talking about ? The Order of The Angels. This is an Order cross. Sera…has one just like this. I’ve seen it in all her pictures.”
Cami narrows her eyes, “Sera was here ?”
“I don’t know.” I grab a plastic bag from the kitchen and gently place the cross inside.
Ms. Green is ecstatic to get the keys. We help her maneuver the small car out of the forest and hitch it on the back of the U-Haul. She takes her time running her hands over the car.
“I can bring the stuff out of the cabin”, Cami says, “Is there anything you want me to look for,”
“No”, Ms. Green decides, “This car is all I need. This and a meeting with the Sheriff.”
There is an uneasy silence as Cami and I get back into my car and follow Mrs. Green back to town.
“If that is Sera’s pendant we have to rethink things”, Cami says.
“Sera is not doing this.”
“Maybe she and AJ had formed some sort of folie à deux situation. Two people with boatloads of trauma creating their own deluded moral system. He seems conniving enough and she could have easily handled the physical part”
“She wouldn’t hurt anyone. Not after what we went through.”
“Unless what you went through changed her. She might not know she’s doing it. Trauma does that.”
“Cami you’re wrong.”
Cami seems to think hard before speaks, “Is that logical Paris thinking or the Paris that was in her RV last night ?”
I relax my shoulders. The way she said it felt accusatory but I wasn’t hiding anything. Yet I still felt uneasy.
“I told you. I’m working on my kink shit. It’s business really.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be doing this with your ex-wife. It might be all business for her but you…feel a lot Paris. The way you look at her—“
“I look at her that way because of how things used to be. She is the love of my life. It’s over and I’m trying to accept that.”
“Then why did you come here at all ? You didn’t need to see her to get divorced.”
“Because… I don’t know.”
“Paris, she left you.”, Cami says looking at the bloodied cross, “You never went after her. She never came back for you. There was a reason for that.”
I take a deep breath. I remember every grueling second of our last few weeks together.
“We were in such a bad place”, I admit, “We just needed to heal on our own. I think that was the right thing to do at the time.”
“ So you still aren’t over her ? Was I just a Band-Aid?” Cami says, “Is that what our relationship was. Is that what our marriage would have been ?”
“No. I—-are you rethinking my proposal ?”
“I’m considering it. That New York offer is shit, but you seem pretty set on going. We might as well do it together.”
“It’s that bad ?”
“Strategically ? Yes. You need to take this Midwest offer”
“What would that mean for us ?”
“I don’t think there would be an us, Paris. Long-distance and law school don’t exactly mix.”
“Right.” I can’t think about this right now. This could wait until later. I put the cross in my pocket and speed towards Sera’s house. I needed answers.
+++
Muted rock music blares form Sera’s garage when Cami and I pull-up. We knock as hard as we can but she doesn't answer.. She is either ignoring us or can’t hear us.
After 10 minutes the music abruptly cuts off and the garage door slowly opens. A man in Dockers and a navy pul over walks out with a gym bag slung over his arm. He smells like Sera’s organic soap. He gives Cami and I a tight lipped smile before getting into a car parked down the street./
Inside the garage Sera is taking off a form fitting leather vest and slips on an oversized T-shirt with Pink Paradise written in neon letters. She’s fiddling with an oversized earring that seems impossible to put in without a mirror.
The garage smells vaguely like bleach and disinfectant. She made her clients clean up. That was new. It was a great way to be more time and labor efficient. It was probably great for clients who had servant fantasies. She puts the garage door down once we are inside.
“What.” She says coldly. Her skin looks brighter, smoother over and a little glossy.
“We…found ”, Cami says looking around the garage. She’d never been in a dungeon before. Some of the drawers are wide open exposing choice whips, hand restraints, leads and electric equipment neatly labeled with the names of individual clients. I take it that client had been a hardcore masochist. Sera abruptly closes the drawers.
“You looked scared last night”, Sera kneels down to Cami’s level.
“I was just worried about AJ. The cops around here seem a little unhinged.”
Sera tilts Cami’s head up so she’s making direct eye contact.
“Dont’ worry about that. I can protect you.”
“You can’t intimidate me”, Cami says.
“I’m not trying to.” Sera says.
“Then what are you trying to do”, Cami stubbornly folds her arms.
Sera tilts her head slightly, “You’re not just a little bit… curious ?”
“No.”
Sera deflates a little and gets down on both knees. “Help me with this.”
Sera holds out the earring she’d been trying to put in. Cam tries to communicate something with me via glances as she fastens the chain earring to the top and bottom of Sera’s ear.
“There.” Cami.
Sera adjusts the earring and slowly stands, “Paris, Maybe you don’t have a type.”
It takes Cami a minute to realize she’s fallen just a little bit under Sera’s Dominant spell.
I hold up the plastic bag with The Order cross in it ,“Does this look familiar, Sera?”
She squints at it.
“Where did you get that ? Is that blood ?”
“We found this in Paige and Mickie’s cabin.”
“Fuck.”
“Is it yours”, I ask her though it’s more of an accusation.
Sera suddenly bolts into her house, by the time Cami and I make it inside Sera has overturned her nightstand drawers. She throws handfuls of tangled jewelry and vibrators onto the floor. She sorts through the mess and eventually untangles an order cross that is identical to the one I’m holding.
“Mine is right here. That’s..fuck....”
“What ?”
“The Order cross you found belongs to AJ”, she says, “Only 4 have ever been made like this. White gold. Sharp edge.”
“Why does AJ have an Order Cross ?”
Sera sits against her bed, "I gave it to him. Some of us did Secret Santa four years ago. I forgot to get him anything so I pulled this from my box of keepsakes. Hippy made them. He didn’t even know what it was but he wore it all the time. I think the Spirits called to him somehow.”
“I can’t believe we are in cult territory.” Cami ponders this, “This is really hitting all the podcast sweet spots.”
“The Order is not a cult”, Sera says pushing herself up to stand, “It was a beautiful religion before the communist, war, American capitalism and Helios Thantos ruined it”
Cami turns her recorder on, “But could the cult be involved somehow ? Weren’t they involved in what happened to you in Connecticut. “
Sera and I trade glances.
“No”, she says, “Helios always said he never sent the brothers to kill us and they came up with the idea on their own to impress him.”
“Do you believe that?”
“I believe a version of it”, Sera says, “The Order has been dismantled for almost a decade. Helios fled the country years ago. If he was back I’d know.”
“I suppose”, Cami says, “We should question AJ again?”
“Leave me out of this”, Sera says heading to her backyard.
“I’ll give him a call”, Cami reaches for her phone, “See if he wants to do an interview now.”
I follow Sera outside, “You’re a part of this. You can’t walk away.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything to you”, Sera says, “Things were good for me here. Now things are tense between Nate and Scott. Larry refuses to give AJ a second chance and the kid might get framed for these murders.”
“What if he did do something.”
Sera’s backyard is immaculate. Even in November the grass is perfectly trimmed and still a little bit green. She’d even taken the time to replant the mums. During our marriage I’d always done my best to make sure everything was taken care of for her. It was my form of worship and I’d hoped one day she wouldn’t have to work…but we never got there.
I don’t think I ever appreciated how well Sera took care of the things she was given. Her friendships, her lovers, our old house, her business and even the community we’d been a part of it. Yet, she’d made the choice to let our marriage burn. Maybe there was a good reason for that.
“Paris”, Sera’s voice goes down to a whisper, “The night of Larry’s accident we all had a hard time finding AJ. Mia and Madison drove him to the accident and then he disappeared. He showed up at the hospital late and he seemed really shaken up. I thought it was because of Larry’s condition.”
“What do you think now ?”
“ That I should have never gotten you involved in this.”
“You also should have never killed a serial killer and hid the body in your backyard.”
“I don’t regret that”, She says and there is an edge in her voice that chills me a little,“I couldn’t be a victim again.”
Cami swings the back door open, “Hey. AJ is on his way over…and he’s not alone.”
I peer into the front yard and see AJ making his way over with a woman in plaid coat and oversized bag. Sera gestures for us to go outside and wait on the porch. AJ and the woman wait by the fence. There is an awkward silence as we all face each other. For a while the only sound is the wind chimes.
“Hi. I’m Lydia Dupont”, the woman says with a smile, “I’m AJ’s attorney. “
Fuck. He was serious about me not being his lawyer.
“I’m here to ask that Mr. Prince and Ms. Mitchum no longer speak or harass my client about current events in Severance.”
“We were not harassing him”, Cami says.
“How the fuck can you afford an attorney”, Sera demands.
“I can’t”, AJ says like it should be obvious. It seems he would rather go into debt than have me defend him.
“Scott stood up for you last night because he believes you are innocent. What the hell do you need a lawyer for ?” Sera asks.
He looks at Ms. Dupont before speaking and she slightly shakes her head. AJ keeps quiet.
“The fuck”, Sera continues, “You are in deep shit. Paris is a good lawyer. He is the only one who can help you.”
AJ stiffens but says nothing.
Ms. Dupont breaks the silence, “I guess we’re all done here. Please know if you move forward with publishing any audio stories about my client–we will sue.”
“Wait”, Cami says reaching into my pocket for the cross. She crosses the yard and hands it to AJ, “I think you dropped this.”
When he sees what is in the bag he drops it like it burns.
He lifts his t-shirt sleeve and reveals a thick red and black cord with an Order cross attached to it.
“No. This one must belong to someone else.”
+++
So whose Order Cross it it ?
The part about Sera and Paris going to the Unlimited Barn was one of the first things I wrote. I brought the happy file back in the first chapter. When I originally wrote this they were coming back from somewhere but I didn't know where. Originally I didn't want there to be any scenes set outside of Severance but I kind of got away from that.