Page 80 of Lacey's Fight

“Rumors that the relationship between him and his mother was inappropriate in all ways,” Ghost confirmed.

“So sexual abuse?” Fish asked.

Ghost nodded. “Never confirmed, but suspected by pretty much everyone in the town from the cops, to the doctor, to the teachers.”

“No one did anything to get him out?” Fletch asked. As a man who has slipped seamlessly into the role of father to the little girl of the woman he’d fallen in love with, it was likely near impossible for him to fathom someone not stepping up to help a child in need.

“Some official reports were filed by the teacher after Mervin wrote a creative writing story for class that tipped them off. Doctor reported seeing some bruises and scars on the boy’s back. Both reported to the cops and called in CPS. Child protective services came out and did a visit, but Merv was adamant that no one had ever touched him and that he loved his mom and she loved him.”

“That was the end of it?” Beatle asked.

“Mom played it out like the boy was upset about his dad leaving and had taken some of the things the man sent him in letters and blown it up in his young imaginative mind. Even produced some letters supposedly from the father with some age-inappropriate things in them,” Ghost replied.

“So, CPS stepped back and believed that,” Fish said, shaking his head.

Ghost nodded again. “Told the mom not to let the boy read any more letters from his father and that was that.”

“Only it wasn’t,” Ben said. Letters from the dad didn’t explain marks on the boy’s body. The mom was the one abusing the child and whatever she’d put him through had turned him into the monster who had so viciously tortured Lacey and her sisters.

“It wasn’t,” Ghost agreed. “Things got worse after CPS became involved.”

“So why weren’t they called back?” Truck asked.

“Because it wasn’t at home where things got worse,” Ghost replied. “It was at school.”

“Teachers or peers?” Blade asked.

“Peers.”

“He was bullied?” Coach asked.

“Oh yeah.” Ghost’s face was grim. “Badly. You know how small towns can be, everyone gossips. Kids hear things, take them out of context, or only hear part of it, and they run with it. There were a few other boys in his class who made it their mission to torment Mervin constantly. Called him Merv the Perv, said he was in love with his mom and that they slept together in the same bed each night and had sex.”

“Probably not untrue,” Truck said.

“Probably. At school Merv had no friends. He was quiet, kept to himself, didn’t like sports so he was already on the outs with most of the boys, was of average intelligence but worked hard so he was considered a nerd. After the rumors that he and his mom were intimate no girl would date him, so he was truly alone. He worked odd jobs around the town from the time his dad bailed, went to work or right home after school, never got invited to other kid’s houses for play dates or birthday parties.”

“He was an outcast,” Hollywood said.

“It was just him and his mom, them against the world, no one to model appropriate behavior to him,” Coach added.

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Ben hissed. As sorry as he was for Mervin the boy who had been abandoned by his dad and left to be raised by an abusive mom, Mervin the man was a monster who raped and tortured at will.

“I’m not, man,” Coach said soothingly. “None of us are. Just trying to understand how Mervin Matthewson became The Master.”

“The bullying became physical around the time the boys hit their teenage years,” Ghost continued. “They’d ambush him as he walked home from school and beat him up, holding him down as they each took turns hitting him. Then they’d steal his clothes as he was changing after gym class, take pictures of him naked, and post them around the school. Break into his house and hide then jump out and attack him with a knife.”

“No one did anything to stop it?” Fletch asked, looking horrified. “I mean, I know school can be rough, and bullying exists, but this was the meticulous and planned stalking of a minor.”

“A few times teachers at the school brought it up with the boys’ families, and Mervin’s mother but it never went anywhere. Boys’ parents would assure the school that they’d talk with their sons, but that their precious children weren’t involved and it was the other boys. Merv’s mom said bullying was part of life and it would make a man out of her son.”

“Made something out of him all right,” Ben muttered, frustrated with everyone involved in the situation. If something had been done about the abuse and bullying he was enduring, Mervin Matthewson might not have grown up to become an evil monster.

“Right before graduation things escalated. Mervin was found in the parking lot of a movie theatre late at night unconscious and bleeding. He’d been sexually assaulted. Cops became involved that time, but Merv insisted that he had no memory of who attacked him so there was little they could do. Everyone knew it was that group of boys though,” Ghost said with a disgusted shake of his head.

“That’s what he wanted with the girls,” Ben said as everything clicked into place. “Why he wanted his own little army. He intended to train a bunch of girls to kill so he could send them in after the boys who tormented him. Even if they were expecting Merv to eventually retaliate it wouldn’t be with a woman. He sends in one of the girls, they seduce the men, then exact Mervin’s revenge for him, and he gets to sit back and be the one in control for once.”

A simple plan but an ingenious one.

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