Page 68 of Heal
"We're okay. Jeff wants me to stay with him tonight, so we'll both be in his room." Lisa put an arm around Jeff's shoulder.
"Is that okay?" Jeff asked nervously.
"Of course. I want you comfortable. You both know where my room is if you need anything. I'll leave the door open a crack so you can wake me if you need to. If you wake up before I do, there's cereal in the kitchen and you can turn on one of the TVs. Remember, this is your home now. Make yourselves comfortable."
"Thanks." Lisa turned to Parson. "Thanks for putting us here."
Parson laughed. "I didn't have a choice. Beau insisted you guys were meant to be a family. You guys sleep well."
"Night." Lisa turned to go.
"Night, Beau, night, Parson." Jeff waved as he followed his sister upstairs.
"Part of me says go tuck them in, the other part says to give them space." Beau sighed.
"I'd give them space for now. In time, as you grow closer, then you can tuck them in. I don't know, maybe Lisa's too old. Ask Faith if her dad tucks her in still," Parson suggested.
"That's an idea." Beau turned to face Parson and took his hands in his. "So, what's on your mind? It's been driving me nuts all day trying to figure out what's important enough to schedule a talk."
Parson sighed, pulling his hands back gently.
"Oh, that's not good. No hand holding for this? It must be serious." Beau tried to joke, but he was really worried now.
"It could be. I hate I even have to ask you this. I want to say I know you well enough to know you would never, but then the more I think about it, why wouldn't you? Hell, I might if the circumstances were right." Parson ran his fingers through his hair as he let out another sigh.
"Shit, what are you talking about? It can't be that bad." Beau stared at him.
"Albert Johnson. I overheard my boss talking today that the police had come in and talked to him. Seems he was attacked the other night, the same night I gaveyouhis name."
"What are you saying, Parson?"
"Was it you? Did you attack him?"
Beau hesitated, which probably gave him away, but he thought about his career, about the kids finally having a home, about everything that was going on in his life. He couldn't tell the truth. "No, it wasn't me."
"You expect me to believe the man we identified just the other day is attacked and you had nothing to do with it? He was surgically castrated, Beau. Only a doctor could do something like that."
Beau stood, pacing the floor as he tried to figure out what to say. He should have known that Parson would find out somehow, but the thought hadn't even entered his mind. He didn't want what he had with Parson to end, but this was something that could easily cause him to walk away. Beau couldn't blame him for that. It was a lot to learn about, a lot to digest. Not everyone was okay with violence, even if the reason was just. "I know about the attack."
Parson's face paled. "Beau…"
Beau stared up at the ceiling for a minute, taking a second to sort his thoughts. When he looked back at Parson, the hurt in his eyes nearly broke his heart. "Listen, I'll explain everything, but I'm trusting you with stuff I've never told another person. I don't want to lose you over this, but I understand if it's too much for you. I can't give you a lot of information, because there are others I have to protect, but I'll tell you as much as I can."
Parson nodded.
Beau sat back down beside him, but didn't reach for him. They needed space for this conversation. "So, there is a team that hunts down pedophiles. They take out the worst of the worst, the men and women who have offended after being arrested before, the people who run the sex trafficking rings. They find men like Albert, who have hurt a lot of children and proven that they are a danger to society. As of this morning, there were videos of Albert with forty-two different children. The youngest looked to be around three, the oldest was probably around Lisa's age. Hell, Lisa could have been his oldest victim for all I know. There are several videos on the dark web of Albert with both Lisa and Jeff."
"You've seen these?" Parson looked like he was going to be sick.
"God, no. Thank God I don't have to search through the dark web for that shit. I couldn't handle that. What I see in the hospital is bad enough." Beau shook his head. "There are members of the team who are a hell of a lot stronger than I am who weed through the photographs and videos to identify the pedophiles."
"And these are the same men who attacked Albert?"
Beau closed his eyes, hoping he wasn't putting the whole team at risk sharing all this with Parson. "No, there are others on the team who do that. They go out and make sure that these men and women can't hurt another child."
"Women? How do they… No, I don't even want to know, do I?" Parson bit his bottom lip.
"No, you probably don't. I'll tell you if you want to know, but all that matters is these people are stopped. Castration for the men doesn't kill them, but it severely changes their bodies due to the lack of hormones. It makes them weak, thin, sick. You can research eunuchs online to get an idea. Anyway, once the team goes in and does that, they also leave behind all the evidence of the person's crimes. The team is careful to lead the police to the evidence so that there are no claims that the team falsified anything. The police's sex crime unit takes that information and searches the dark web to find everything they need there. The team has a one-hundred percent conviction rate. Everybody the team has gone after has gone to prison."
