Exousia (Karass Chronicles Book 4) Page 22

  Fifty-Five

  Joe watched Sam during the search. He knew that Sam believed that he was responsible for all the things that had happened, and was frustrated with not being able to prove it.

  It pleased Joe to no end that Sam was frustrated. He might not be able to manipulate Sam’s thinking, but he could frustrate him.

  Sam, like most people, could not fathom how people could be made to believe things that weren’t true. Yet, Joe thought, it happens every day. Commercials peddle products for diseases no one had until the products came to market and people are sold the symptoms. The spread of lies and gossips that occupied so much of everyone’s life. Group mentality. Perception blindness. These terms were everywhere.

  However, people didn’t have time to worry about them. They were busy. Why were they busy? Because they were distracted and believed in the need to acquire. They believed in false authorities. Companies, medicines, religions, money, politics, the stock market. All manipulated. All an agreed upon perception.

  It made Joe laugh. He wasn’t doing anything that the culture hadn’t already promoted. It was just that Joe did it so much better. And he was awake to it.

  Joe knew that people were astonished at the synchronism of Lenny and Frank’s deaths. Ridiculous, he thought. It wasn’t synergistic. It was planned. Perfectly. Joe had decided that he might as well see if he could manipulate both of them even when they were so far apart. He didn’t see why not. Distance doesn’t mean a thing to thoughts. And he proved it.

  The timing was perfect. It might have been sloppy on his part to do it that way, but he wanted to try it out. What a thrill it had been to pull the timing off so succinctly.

  The suggestion to rush the guards even though they knew it would get them killed was buried within what they heard. Lenny and Frank didn’t have enough mental discipline to overcome his suggestions. Besides, it had been programmed in them years before when they were young and unaware. Add the fact that they were both filled with fear which made them very easy to manipulate.

  Neither of them had Grant’s innate ability or willingness to learn. Joe wouldn’t have been able to pull that stunt off with Grant. He was much too brilliant of a thinker. Grant had been a genius of manipulation and distraction.

  If Joe missed anyone, it was Grant. However, last summer Joe realized that Grant was going to be a liability. He was letting his personal feelings and his need for vengeance get in his way. Joe thought that it was interesting that Grant had hated the do-gooders because they had gifts. Gifts that were in the same realm, although not the same motivation, as Joe’s. He supposed that Grant was afraid and didn’t recognize his drive to destroy them as fear. But Joe did. If he had regrets, it was that Grant had to go. Grant’s reign was over.

  Joe didn’t have to manipulate Grant to do stupid things, like focus on revenge. He had done that to himself. All Joe had to do was kill him. Which was easy. Grant believed that Joe would never hurt him.

  Of course, Joe wouldn’t kill Grant himself. He used someone else. Lenny. Lenny was a handy tool to get the killing done. Lenny wanted Grant dead anyway. At least that is what Lenny thought he wanted. That idea had been planted in him by Joe.

  Joe sighed again. He didn’t want to leave Doveland yet. He had been looking forward to spending the next year with Craig. Joe didn’t have any hopes that he would swing Craig entirely his way, but Craig wanted a brilliant friend like Joe so much, it made him easy to deceive. Joe sighed. They would have had some great talks together. But it was not to be.

  However, the main reason Joe didn’t want to go away was his son. Even though Edward had been gone for forty years, Joe kept the hope alive that he would return someday. Joe knew it wasn’t because he loved Edward. Other than his mother, Joe knew that he had never experienced the love that other people talked about, nor did he want to. It was a distraction and a weakness.

  No, he wanted Edward to respect him. That’s what he wanted. And Edward never gave that to him. He was a mommy’s boy. It didn’t dawn on Joe that his son was like him. Joe had loved his mother. Hated his dad.

  Joe finished his scotch and left the glass on the desk. The housekeeper would clean up after him. It was time for him to go. And time for him to stop thinking about the past. He was going to leave it all behind the minute he stepped out his door.

  Still, he was a trifle irritated. He wouldn’t have to leave if Harold had done his job. That was a mistake Joe would have to own. He had made a mistake in trusting Harold.

  The women had died because they believed what Joe told them. He practiced different words and suggestions on each of them. They died one by one because Joe told them they were sick. He tried out a variety of suggestions to observe what the outcome would be. They had different symptoms. Different reasons. Different illness. Same suffering.

  He had eight canvases. It was beautiful. He was an artist.

  Then there was Harold. He had recruited Harold when he was just a boy looking for someone to act like a dad. Joe was happy to do that. However, Harold didn’t have the aptitude for what Joe had to teach the way that Grant did.

  So Joe gave Harold simple jobs. Harold helped with chores, and building the houses. However, once the women started dying, Harold stopped obeying without question. Still, Joe thought he could trust him. He put Harold in charge of taking the bodies away, explaining that it was a way that he could show the women respect.

  Joe told the remaining women he was sending their friends home to their loved ones. Instead, Harold was supposed to take them out into the deepest part of the lake and drop them overboard weighted down with concrete blocks.

  This is where Joe admitted that he had made a mistake. He hadn’t checked up on Harold. Four women never made it to the lake. Harold had taken the easy way out and buried them. He had just been a teenager. Joe should have checked on him.

  Still, it wasn’t Joe’s fault. All of the extra deaths could have been avoided if only Harold had come clean and told him. Harold would still have had to die, but no one else would have been harmed.

  After the women, Joe had kept most of his killing out of Doveland. He was preserving the town for his son. Now that everyone who knew anything about Joe’s past was dead, he could leave Doveland alone again, so Edward would see the beautiful town his father had helped to make.

  Yes, Joe was tired. It was time for him to go while he was still loved. People might have their suspicions of him, but there was nothing to prove what he had done. He was not a serial killer. He didn’t collect trophies. He was a healer. His research into healing was helping people all over the world.

  Craig would convince his friends to let it go. Joe was safe. That meant they were too. For now anyway.

  Joe picked up his overnight bag and turned back to look at the home that he loved. He had already sent everything else that he would need ahead to his house in Morocco. Anything else, he could buy when he got there.

  The car he had hired to take him to the airport was waiting. He locked the house and put the key under the mat. There was nothing for anyone to find in the house that meant anything to him. The housekeeper would look after it for him. If his son ever came home, he would know to look under that mat for the key.

  Opening the app on his phone, Joe checked the cameras one last time. He would be watching and waiting.

  Fifty-Six

  As Hank and Melvin drove up the recently graveled driveway, neither of them were surprised to see Emily sitting on her rock, her ever-present backpack beside her.

  On the other hand, she was surprised to see them. She was even more surprised to hear them laughing as they drove up. Her heart lifted at the sight of two of her favorite men.

  Before they were even out of the truck, she had raced across to meet them, practically knocking Hank over as she hugged him, and then Melvin, and then back to Hank. As Hank hugged her back, she burst i
nto tears burying her face in his soft flannel shirt.

  “I’m so sorry, Hank. I am just so happy to see you both. These aren’t tears of sadness. Really.”

  Hank took out his handkerchief and dabbed at her tears, trying not to cry himself.

  With a voice rough from emotion he said, “It was Melvin. He had a bug up his butt to get out here. Fast. Like now.”

  Emily went back to hugging Melvin who took it all in stride, in spite of the fact that he had little or no experience at being embraced by young women.

  “You must have heard me wishing, Melvin,” Emily said pulling back and looking at his kind face.

  “I wished for company, and here you are. Oh. I just realized that you have never seen the hill. Well, at least not like this.”

  “Nope, I haven’t,” Melvin answered. “And I want you and Hank to walk me through the whole thing and tell me what you are planning to do with it all,” Melvin said, sweeping his arm to take in the whole hill.

  “Yes!” Emily said, pumping her arm. “But I need Hank to fill in details. Besides, I think you have a small surprise for me, Hank?”

  Hank’s face turned red as he looked down at his boots. “Wasn’t expecting you to be out here so soon given what was happening. I thought we might be further along, but yes. I do have a little surprise for you.”

  “Well, let’s get to walking,” Melvin said. “Tell me what is happening here.”

  For the next hour, Emily and Hank took Melvin through the whole project. Hank’s surprise of the partially built deck made Emily happier than Hank could have imagined. She told him that now she could plan an outdoor dance to be performed on the deck for the town during the summer camp week.

  She thought she would get Valerie and Tina involved. It might help take their minds off of what had happened with their husbands. She knew that Tina’s daughter Lynn had decided to take dance with Hannah, and perhaps the boys would come to class too.

  When Hank and Melvin guffawed at the suggestion, she reminded them that dance was no longer considered sissy. It had never been. But at least people were starting to wake up and notice. Had they watched “So You Think You Can Dance” lately? “Or even Dancing With The Stars?” Gone to a performance of any dance company? Any at all? When they said they hadn’t, she made them promise to come to her house and watch some dance shows with her that she had taped. They would change their mind after they watched the men and boys dance. After a few hems and haws, they agreed.

  When Emily asked Hank when he thought her house on the hill would be done, he assured her that they would finish the outside before winter set in. If she wanted to, she could then move in while they finished the interior over the winter. He suggested that Emily get Mandy in on the project because her sense of design would add just the right touches on the project.

  After the tour of Emily’s dream, the three of them stood near her rock and looked back towards the village. Emily pulled a pair of binoculars from her backpack and handed them to Hank. Looking through them he could see Dr. Joe’s house from where they stood. It was distinctive with its slate gray tin roof.

  “What are we going to do about him?” Emily asked.

  It was Melvin who answered, “Stand together in love,” he said.

  Emily and Hank looked at Melvin and nodded in agreement.

  If Dr. Joe had been looking up at his hill, he might have seen them, standing together, Emily holding hands with Hank and Melvin, and realized that perhaps he might not win after all.

  But, he didn’t see. He had already left town.

  *******

  Emily asked if she could go along to see the bike path. By then, the three of them were hungry, and even though Melvin wouldn’t admit it, Hank could tell he needed to rest.

  They decided to stop in at the Diner for a late-afternoon meal. Emily would drive her car home and meet them there.

  On the way to town, Hank asked Melvin if he was sure he wanted to see the bike trail today, or perhaps wait until another time.

  “I know. I’m tired. But I do want to see where it starts, and then where it ends. We can walk the first part for a short way, and drive to the end because isn’t that back in Concourse?”

  Hank looked over at the old man and tried not to let his concern come through as he asked, “Is there a reason you want to do both these things today, Melvin?”

  Melvin looked over at him and didn’t answer, and Hank wisely didn’t pry any further.

  Emily had told Hank what she wanted to eat, so by the time she came in the door her portobello burger was waiting for her along with a side of fries and a diet Dr. Pepper.

  Over the winter, Barbara had worked with Alex until he had perfected the burger just the way Emily liked it, and it had become a hit among some of her younger customers. Even a few old timers had decided to try it and had given it a thumbs up.

  “Man, I am happy to see you,” Pete said to the three of them. “It was a rough night. We need some bright faces around here, and the three of you look pretty happy right now.”

  Emily laughed and told them what they had been doing. “We are planning to do good, Pete. That has to have an effect, doesn’t it?”

  Before Pete could answer, the bell over the door dinged, and Sarah walked in. Without talking about it, everyone picked up their food and moved to a booth so that Sarah could sit with them. When Alex came to take her order, she pointed at Emily’s plate and said, “That please.”

  As Alex went to put in her order, Sarah added, “I didn’t feel like cooking today. I’m beginning to see the value of living close to town. There is always great food and even better company just a few blocks away.”

  As they ate, no one talked about the night before. They chatted about the weather and Sarah’s garden. She needed some garden work done and asked if she could hire Johnny to help her. Pete and Hank said that was what they wanted for him. Work that made a difference.

  Before Emily left with Hank and Melvin, Sarah said, “Sam wants to meet with the council tonight. Emily, would you be there, please?”

  “What about the rest of us, Sarah? Shouldn’t we all be there? I think Sam is going to ask the same questions that we all need to have answered,” Pete asked.

  Sarah glanced up at Barbara who had come into the room as Pete asked the question. Barbara nodded in agreement.

  “You’re right, Pete. Would you gather the men, and I will gather the women. Instead of meeting at Grace’s we’ll meet again at Ava and Evan’s. There’s a bit more room, and that way we can watch over the children at the same time.”

  Seeing a cloud of concern come over everyone’s faces, Sarah added, “Be joyful, please. There is nothing to worry about right now.”

  As the booth was being cleared, Sarah walked over to Barbara who was leaning against the counter looking downcast.

  “I’m still worried,” Barbara said.

  “We can be vigilant and not be worried,” Sarah replied. “It’s a big difference. Have you ever watched how birds behave? Always vigilant. Always joyful. In fact, all of nature provides that example.”

  Barbara thought for a moment, then leaned over and hugged Sarah. “Vigilant and joyful. I understand.”

  As Sarah walked home, for the first time she felt at peace about her move to Doveland. She would always miss her home in Sandpoint, but her home now was just around the corner from everything that she needed.

  Fifty-Seven

  Tina put the sign out in front of the gas station on her way over to Valerie’s. Yes, it was a little strange to send people to a different gas station. But she had something more important to do than pumping gas. She had a friend to support.

  A new gas station, with shiny new tanks and the standard tiny store, had opened. It was down the road that led to the lake. It was only a mile out of town, so Tina wasn’t worr
ied that someone would run out of gas just because she was closed. She made the sign herself and taped it onto a sawhorse. It said: “Closed. Gas One Mile That Way.” An arrow pointed the way.

  Tina could see herself in the gas station window as she placed the sign. There she was in her baggy jeans and fly away brown hair that had seen better days. Plus she was too thin. She had always been thin, but now she was not looking good. The last month had been more stressful than she thought was possible. Years of hiding from Frank had taken a toll. Then Harold’s unwanted attention, which ended in both Harold and Frank dying, increased her stress level.

  Add to that, she and Valerie had briefly been suspected of killing Harold. As if. If she were a killer, she would have done away with Frank years ago.

  Tina hated what had happened to Harold and even to Frank. She hoped that they would catch who did it. Although Tina believed that it was Dr. Joe, she knew that there was no proof. She was open to being wrong. Besides, she didn’t want to spend any more of her life worrying.

  She pulled her sweater closer as she crossed the street to Valerie’s Bed and Breakfast, thinking that as terrible as it had been, she was now free. She did not need to mourn either man. But Valerie did, and that’s why she agreed to go with her today.

  Valerie was waiting at the door for her. She and Tina were dressed almost the same. Jeans, t-shirt, sweater. They were both thin, for all the wrong reasons. And although Valerie could have been Tina’s mother, they looked more like sisters. What surprised them both was that they had become good friends.