Page 33 of Absolution

“Kerry Jackson. I’m terribly happy to see you awake.” His voice is deep and husky. He sounds like a friend, like a father would. I suddenly miss mine so much my chest tightens, and I grimace from the pain. I wet my dry lips and give him my hand. It disappears completely in his large paw.

“Do you need anything? Water?” He looks around him and then back at me.

I shake my head. “No. I don’t need anything.”

“Are you sure?”

I have to bite my lips to not start crying as his kindness overwhelms me. “Yes, I’m sure. Thanks.”

“Miss Jackson, as you can imagine we have questions about what happened to you and your daughter. There are some inconsistencies in your story. For instance we’ve found you are divorced. There are no restraining orders or police reports. Yet you have told everybody your husband was after you. Why is that? I don’t understand.”

“I…” How can I tell? I can’t tell. I see Salvatore before me, the man who once ordered my death. I’ll be dead if I ever tell the truth. “I was stalked. I thought there’d be less questions if it seemed domestic.”

“Who stalked you?”

“A… man I met.” I ponder for a moment if I should lie, but no, better to stick close to the truth without ever telling the whole truth. “His name was Christian. Just a flirt on a stupid night out with friends. He got obsessed with me.”

“Do you have a full name for this Christian?”

I shake my head. “No, Officer, I have no idea what his last name was.”

“He stalked you?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“So you fled?”

I nod again.

“Has this been through a court? Restraining order? Anything?”

“No,” I mouth.

“Why is that?”

“Because I knew it wouldn’t help.”

Tremblay is quiet, narrowing his eyes slightly as he holds my gaze.

“What happened in the woods? Ray McGonaghan has been found dead outside your house. We’re investigating his death and can’t rule out homicide yet. Miss Jackson… we need to know what happened.”

“Homicide? But… What?”

“He had head trauma and a brain hemorrhage due to blunt force. There is no blood in his truck, and he walked quite far only to be found dead outside your house. It might be a coincidence. Or it might not.”

“Blunt?”

“Something, or someone, whacked him over the head.”

I see his body before me, see Christian, compassionless trying to rid Ray of his boots. Did he kill him? But even I could see that Ray had been dead for a while, and Christian was with me the whole time. Right?

For a moment I’m back there, tied up, crying. I fight against the memories. They hurt. “My… stalker. He found us.” My voice breaks, the pain too great. “But he didn’t kill Ray,” I add quickly.

He nods. “Go on.”

“I knew he would come after me sooner or later. I kept seeing him. Wherever I went, he showed up. That’s why I finally left the US. I thought I’d be safe.”

“And this was,” he looks at a notepad, “a little more than a year ago? Somewhere in all of this you had a child.”

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