Beatrice followed the car up to the warehouses. It was Sunday, everybody else was at church. She had camped outside of their home for the last couple of nights. Waiting for the shark to bite.
And they finally did.
She kept a good distance between them. Waited until they had parked and left their car to approach. Her tires sounded so loud on the gravels. Beatrice allowed herself a minute to breathe before taking her phone out of her pocket again. She dialed her favorite number.
« Hey love, » her mother answered on the first ring, like she always did.
« Hey mom, » Beatrice smiled in the receiver.
« Are you okay ? You came home late yesterday and left so early- »
« Mom ? » Beatrice cut her worried mother off.
« Yes ? »
« June Dylan is innocent. »
There was a heavy, tense silence as she let her mom gather herself.
« Bea- »
« I've found the real murderer, » she added. « I'll bring you the truth, » she choked out, feeling her raw emotions bubble to the surface. « Kelly will finally find peace. »
« Beatrice, love, wh- »
« See you later. Love you. »
She hung up before her mother could add anything else.
—
Sawyer ran over to the trailer park. Thomas's car was already there and the door to June's house wide open. He felt his heart breaks at the dread painted on Thomas's face.
« It'll be okay, » he took his brother in his arms and tapped his back firmly. « They're okay. »
« Get settled, » Thomas pushed him away and forced him down the sofa. « Track Liz. She has her phone and the chip yo- »
« It's off, » Sawyer winced. « In reparation after she let her phone fall in the pool last we- »
« Sawyer, » Thomas cut him off in a dead serious voice. « I'll burn everything down. I'll turn the fucking country upside down. Find my daughter and wife. Now. »
The boss of Cerberus knew there was no point in trying to reason his best friend. The visceral fear pouring out of the man, the tense way he held himself in, ready to pounce any moment, this was a man barely restraining his homicidal urges. So Sawyer sat down and turned his computer on.
—
Kate Benson was still staring at her phone. An awful feeling rising in her throat as she remembered her daughter's voice. Her words. Her tone.
« Are you okay, dear ? » Georges looked down at her in worry and before she could put what she feared in words, her phone rung again.
« Hello ? » Kate rushed to answer believing it was Beatrice.
« Mrs Benson, » an unfamiliar, young voice greeted from the other end of the line.
« Who is it ? » Kate frowned and felt the ugly apprehension grow.
« My name is Elizabeth Oswald and I think my mother is after your daughter. Again. »
—
Thomas stood behind Sawyer, somber and silent.
Thousands of thoughts rushed through his head at once and he couldn't manage to focus on a single one.
He had let her down. Again.
He barely registered it when someone burst into the trailer.
« Gentlemen, » the police captain they were used to dealing with walked in with an apologetic smile on his face.
Thomas didn't move an inch. He watched him and half a dozen of his men step inside, look around June's intimacy in morbid curiosity. He didn't move.
The Bensons walked in too. The mother crying. It was loud and ugly. The father stood by her side, eyes empty. Thomas didn't move.
« We're looking for June Dylan, » the captain announced.
« Why ? » Old Joe stepped around the Bensons to stand beside Thomas and Julian. On June's side.
Thomas felt the back of his eyes burn. Twenty years ago, she had stood all alone while he sat on the Bensons' side.
« Just tell us where she is and we'll let you know, » a young officer stepped forward arrogantly.
And it was all it took.
Thomas pounced. He punched the man in the face, felt the crack under his knuckles but it wasn't enough. He punched again. And again. Until all his colleagues finally reacted and jumped on him.
« You should order them to stop, » Sawyer told the captain while watching the scene.
« They're only defending themselves. »
« I'm not worried about him, » Sawyer shrugged and went back to his screen.
« Stop, » Kate Benson shouted, bringing the blood covered Thomas out of his trance.
« She's innocent, » he simply told her and let the unconscious officer he held fall down.
« I have your daughter on the phone, » the woman sobbed and handed the device to him.
Thomas stared at it for a second before reaching his dirty hand to her palm. He choked on a sob at the number he saw on the screen. The call had been going on for over twenty minutes now.
« Liz ? Pumpkin ? » He raised it to his ear. He heard the sound of driving, the sound of her heavy breath. But she didn't answer. « Please, princess, answer me. »
« You need to hear this dad, » she cried softly.
« Elizabeth, plea- »
« I'm there. I'll put you on mute, » she cut him off. « But keep listening. »
Thomas called her in panic. Shouted her name as he heard her stop the car and get down but she kept walking and didn't react.
—
Beatrice slid inside the warehouse and looked out of the window. She remained silent and observed for a long while. Or maybe not so long. Time was a weird thing when one's whole life was tilting on its axis.
She looked at the person running a metal detector over the ground at the back. Any slight wavering in the static sound and the digging would start. Thirteen holes so far and nothing yet.
It felt good. Beatrice enjoyed the desperation pouring out of the improvised miner and watched them dig and dig. Their movements faster, messier. Time was running out and they needed to find the damn box. The one they would never find. The one that had gone in flames nineteen years ago right here, on this land.
It was time now. She had seen enough. Beatrice made to walk to the door, ready to finally get it all over with when a hand violently grabbed her t-shirt from the back and pulled. Another hand firmly kept her mouth shut.
« Are you crazy ? » A familiar voice muttered in panic in her ear and Beatrice's body relaxed in relief.
She turned her head to look at the beautiful worried face and smiled under the scarred palm of her best friend. They'd see it through together. As it should go.
« You cannot run after a psychopath on your own ! » June shouted in a whisper, throwing furtive looks around them. « Don't you remember what happened to Kelly ? »
Beatrice felt a huge rush of love for this impossibly strong and brave woman. She hated the time it took her to face her demons. Hated that this woman had to go through hell because her mind was too weak to bear what had happened.
« I knew it, » a voice cut in at a normal sound level and both women startled.
—
Elizabeth's soul sung in relief as she held her phone in hand. Everyone had heard June's words. Her threat to Beatrice.
« Let her go now, » she ordered her wide-eyed mother.
« What are you doing here ? » June's face paled, a look of pure terror taking over her expression. « You can't be here- »
« I won't let you do it again, » Lizzy's hand tightened around the device. The vast majority of her was relieved. It was finally over. They'd all realise how crazy it had been to allow this monster back into their lives, she'd go back to prison, probably for life this time, and they'd be free of her shadow forever.
And yet, another part was bleeding.
The small, tiny part she kept to herself. The one that had hoped to be proven wrong. The one that wanted to be won over by her mother, that wanted to be fixed… This one bled.
« You need to leave, » June shook her head in agitation. « Now. »
« I've called the police. They're on their way here, » Liz lied through the lump in her throat. It didn't matter. They were listening and she'll soon tell them the address. But right now, she just wanted to stand in front of her mother and hear it. « Now confess. »
« Liz- » Her mother froze and looked terrified as the door opened behind her.
« What is going on here ? » A vaguely familiar, nice voice asked.
Lizzy frowned and turned around as someone came to stand behind her.
« M- »
« Nothing, » June cut her off. « I- I- I was just showing Liz around with Beatrice. »
She was young, held no love nor trust for the shaking woman lying through her teeth. But something felt wrong.
It may have been the terrified look on Beatrice's face. Or the coldness of the arm that slid over her shoulders. Or the tears in her mother's eyes.
« Really ? » The man asked in a friendly tone. « How do you enjoy walking around a murder scene with the culprit ? »
« Dr E-Erting ? » Liz hesitated and met the man's eyes. His face was charming, his warm smile showing off two adorable dimples. But his eyes were dead. And staring straight at her.
—
Beatrice realised the second he walked in how much she had fucked up.
This wasn't someone you confronted. This wasn't a human being who had done a mistake. This wasn't a man who regretted his act.
This was the monster who had slit her sister's throat, stabbed her sixty-five times. This was the beast who had knocked her out and looked down at her to sigh in annoyance and dragged her by the hair upstairs and back to her room before pouring fuel all around the house.
Nothing good happens to curious kitten. That's what he had spat at her before closing the door.
This was a psychopath.
And she had just dragged back June Dylan, the innocent teenager's whose life had been stolen by him, into his claws.
—
« Robert ? » Mr Benson breathed out as they all stood over the phone, listening to every single words.
Thomas knew the second he heard June's panicked voice scolding Beatrice. He had long realized she was innocent. Had always been. But now others knew it too.
And now she was trapped somewhere with the crazy motherfucker who had ruined their life. With Elizabeth.
« Hurry up, » he gritted out through his teeth.
« I'm almost there, » Sawyer frowned and his fingers flew over the keyboard.
—
« We were a-about to leave, » June let Beatrice go and both women did their best to get up as naturally as possible.
But Lizzy saw her mother's legs trembling in fright. She knew the gynecologist did too.
« Come honey, » June gestured to her daughter but Dr Erting's hand tightened over her shoulder.
« You finally made up ? » The doctor's voice was still everything warm and kind.
« Y-yes, » Lizzy lied and prayed he couldn't feel the shivers running under her skin.
« Oh ? That's good news, » he laughed. « Do you know how much you made your mother cry ? »
« Doc- » June tried to cut him off but he went on.
« I volunteered at the prison a long while so I've worked with your mother for a very long time, » he smiled proudly. « Come on. Ask me. »
« A-ask you what ? » Lizzy felt her heart try to beat its way out of her chest.
« Hmm, » he pretended to think before leaning close to her face to fake whisper. « Ask me about the time she hung herself in her room. »
« Stop it now ! » June shouted.
Lizzy's heart dropped and bile rose to her throat as his words echoed in her head.
—
Julian fell to his knees. The young man clutched at his heart before howling in pain.
Thomas wished he could feel anything, move anything, but he was dead. Everything turned to oblivion as a clear picture of June hanging from the ceiling in her orange inmate outfit appeared in his mind. It became clearer and clearer.
He couldn't move. Couldn't feel anything. But the searing pain burning through every fiber of his being.
—
« You shouldn't hide anything from your daughter, » the doctor tutted playfully. « Also, if I remember well… She was the one who made you do this. »
Lizzy's head slowly turned to her mother. June's face was pale and her brows were furrowed in despair. It softened a bit upon meeting her eyes, her chocolate eyes turning reassuring.
« Come here, love, » she repeated, desperately trying to keep her voice even.
This time Dr Erting let her go but Lizzy was frozen in place as something tried to break through her memories, viciously fighting her consciousness to get there.
« Please, Elizabeth, » June's voice broke a little as she begged.
Her legs moved on their own. Slowly. Very slowly.
« She finally had a chance to get out, » Erting sighed dramatically. « Her hearing was set for the day after. She never attended it. Because of a letter she received. » Lizzy's steps faltered halfway to her desperate mother who kept her arms out, open for her. « Oh, how she had waited for that letter ! You can't begin to imagine her joy. Her daughter had finally written back ! »
« Lizzy, please, » June pleaded with her but she was frozen as the words slowly came back to her.
« Imagine my surprise when they rushed her to the infirmary, blue in the face and barely breathing. They told me later on that she had ran to her room, overexcited with the letter she had just received but when she didn't come back out for lunch, the guards got impatient. They found her hanging from the ceiling. »
« He's lying… » June muttered but it was clear to all that she was the one lying. her whole face twisted around the smile she tried to force upon her face. Had she always been so bad at it ?
I would be really grateful to you if you would just die.
A tear rolled down her face as the memory finally broke through. A letter she had written after skipping school, all wet and bruised from her classmates' harassement. Her father had put June's letter on her bed and something had snapped in her upon seeing it calmly resting on her blanket. She had seen it as the source of all her suffering.
As a mother, you should always put your children's wellbeing first. I can assure you it'll make my life a lot easier if you just hung yourself in your cell.
The tears started falling faster and faster but the cruel doctor wasn't done.
« After twelve years of bravely gritting her teeth through the torture she was put through, » he sighed again. « You know, she was younger than you are now when she was thrown to the wolves. »
« Lizzy, » June called out in desperation. « Please ! Come to me ! »
« She was young, naive and so, so gentle. She didn't make it an hour before it started. The beatings, I mean, » he chuckled. « Your mother was lost, all alone, so little and fragile. And those hyenas pounced. I can describe it to you if you want ? »
« Elizabeth… » June's voice broke.
« I can tell you about the time they bashed her head into a sink just for fun. Both the sink and her skull fractured ! » He laughed cruelly. « Or about that time she got whipped with a wire after craft class for taking too long to get out. Oh ! They even made her eat roaches once ! »
« Please, stop… » June sobbed and Lizzy didn't know what hurt the most between his words and the humiliated, broken expression on her mother's face.
« I mean, » the doctor went on happily. « Even if she had done what she was accused of… No kid deserves to live through that. »
« Stop ! » Beatrice shouted and stepped in front of June in a protective stance. « She didn't deserve any of it… »
« No, she didn't, » the doctor agreed easily.
« But you… »
« Oh no ! I don't deserve it either ! Don't be so cruel. »
Lizzy didn't hear them. She was stuck on loop on his previous words. Her mother had been tortured. The woman who begged her to come to her, who looked so scared for her… The woman who had been cooking her favorite snacks for the last two years, which she never accepted, the one who decorated a room to her tastes, which she never visited… The woman who had loved her for the past eighteen years of her life… This woman's scars weren't from casual prison life. They weren't proof of her violent streak. They were signs of torture.
« Why ? » Beatrice choked out.