Page 20 of Grave Kisses
“Can we go in?” I ask Jesse.
“Yeah. Come on, and we will explain more,” Jesse says to Collier.
When we step in, Collier raises an eyebrow. “No living room furniture?” he remarks.
“Well, someone died on the couch,” I say. “My father, I should add. Well, foster father, and then adoptive, but now dead… Sorry, I’m rambling.”
“Her father passed away last week. This is his home,” Marcus says. “His name was Alan Barnes.“
“So…” I say to Jesse.
“Go ahead,” she nods. We walk to the dining room, and I sit where I have everything to give the cops.
“So, I’m just going to dump all of this out, and then we can sort through it, okay?”
“Okay,” Collier says simply.
“When I was fifteen, I was lured here by Archer Barnes and his two friends, Kyle Jefferson and Daniel Delmar. They were eighteen at the time. They raped and tortured me. The other two ended up leaving, but Archer kept me tied up and brutalized me. The next day, Alan found me when he returned from a work trip. He took me to the hospital to be checked out and treated. Come to find out now through a letter that I found last night, he had done the same thing to his sister, who died six months prior. Apparently no one could prove it, but he admitted to it to Alan. Archer raping me was the last straw, and Alan completely cut him off and disowned him… Now, Alan left me a box of things in his safe and it’s flash drives of all the camera angles in the house when Archer raped me. We verified the video… He also left a spreadsheet of names of people that he thinks Archerkilled… Alan left me literally everything… A multimillion dollar company that operated under Vanderbilt Technologies. I own thirty percent of Vanderbilt also. Plus the house, cars, and so on… He is apparently going to try and sue me for it, but we have signed adult adoption papers prior to his death that haven't been re-filed yet after getting lost the first time, so he doesn’t have a case. I was afraid he would come after me, but then I woke up and found out my fucking apartment exploded because of a bunch of propane tanks in there. First, who the fuck would have that much? Either way, I am positive that Archer set the fire intending to kill me. I have proof of my rape, plus all of the other names…. So… yeah. If he was raping and killing people while living here before I came along, there might still be proof.”
“And we have your permission to search?” Collier asks me.
“Yeah,” I say. Bellamy sets a laptop down and pulls the flash drive of the rape and the spreadsheet out for Collier. I sit in silence and watch as he gets it pulled up. The sound of my bloodcurdling screams as he raped me suddenly coming through the speakers makes me jump up from my chair. You can hear the noises of the rape, him violently entering my body, and his skin slapping against my bare body. It’s so loud that I can’t think of anything else.
Smack. Smack. Smack. Smack.
Marcus covers my ears with his hands before bringing me to his chest. I instinctively wrap my arms around him, and he kisses the top of my head. After a few minutes, he moves his hands and holds my face between his hands.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“You’re welcome,” he says. His eyes drop to my lips, and I nearly lean in to kiss him but stop myself.
“Okay, so… He’s definitely going to jail for that,” Collier says. “I recognize several of these names, so I will have to pull the files. I think what I’ll do is have a team search the house and get someone out here to scan the ground to see if we can spot anything buried. We will do that down in the basement, too.”
“Can you prove he tried to kill me?” I ask. “I know it was him. It has to be.”
“We are working on that. Hopefully, I can give you something definitive soon,” he says. “You said you were a foster kid. Do you know who your birth parents are?”
“No. I’ve never been able to find out who they are.”
“Well, I’ll have your records pulled. I’d like to see if there is any connection there,” he tells me. “In the meantime, just keep your eyes peeled. You are already all over the news, so maybe being in the public eye will be good.”
“How is that good?” I ask.
“If the media is watching you, he will be less likely to come after you,” Julie says, and Collier nods.
“Ah. Okay,” I say. “Can I leave?”
“Yes. I will need to know where you're staying, though,” he asks me.
“54 Meadow Park Trail,” Marcus says.
“Got it,” he says, scribbling the address down on the small notepad in his hand. “You are free to go. We will seal this area off so you won’t be able to come back until we are done, just so we don’t throw anything off.”
“Okay,” I sigh.
I park behind Marcus and lay my head back. I am trying to think of how I got here. I feel like a bum, and I am dreading walking into his home. Not because I don’t trust him, but because I do. I trust him even though he was just helping Archer. I want to believe this isn’t a setup, but I’ve gotten used to the worst-case scenario.
The door comes open, and I look over to see Bellamy. “Come on,” he says, leaning down to unhook my seatbelt. I groan, and he pulls me out.
