Page 89 of Hack
"Well, shit." Carter glanced up.
"What?" Archer asked.
"It seems the woman with Lyle gave a full statement of everything she knew." He focused on the computer, then started telling Archer what he was reading. "She remembers very little before Lyle took her. She thinks she had a brother and lived with her grandmother and mother. Once she was at Lyle's, he kept her locked in the pantry unless he wanted her. She said he'd told her he'd kill her like he had the others if she fought him, and even took her outside to show her where he'd buried two other girls."
"Fuck," Archer cursed. He'd really hoped Lyle hadn't taken them.
"She says he bragged about killing his parents when they'd found one of the girls in his room. He'd made it look like someone had broken in. Even his brothers believed it until he'd brought her home and Luis and Levitt had found her in Lyle's room. She said the brothers made Lyle leave. He'd gone to his grandfather's house to live, but ended up killing him and his three aunts a couple of days after being there."
"Aunts?" Archer asked.
"Just a sec, let me look." Carter seemed to be scrolling through the report. "Well, I didn't see that coming." He glanced up at Archer. "Seems that Lyle wasn't the only fucked up one."
"What did you find?" Archer wanted to go around and read for himself, but he forced himself to stay where he was and let Carter tell him.
"Seems the grandfather, Mark's father, wasn't a polygamist after all. The three girls he claimed as wives were his daughters. From what this girl heard, when Mark refused to follow in his father's footsteps and have sex with his sisters, he was kicked out of the house and cut-off from the money. It was shortly after Lyle was born when the grandfather moved from Atlanta to Saluda, North Carolina and bought the ranch. Somehow, the grandfather kept in touch with the boys behind their father's back. She said that Lyle had never seen his grandfather in person until she'd gone with him to North Carolina."
Archer tried to follow. "How could they keep in touch? It wasn't as if there were email or cell phones back then, at least not that Lyle would have."
Carter shook his head. "I don't know."
"So Lyle kills his grandfather and his aunts and takes over the property?"
"Seem so. He'd bring girls home and make her take care of them, telling her this was her family. She didn't know any better, so she did what he told her to. She said the few times she questioned him, he'd beat her and threaten to kill her, and twice, he'd killed girls she had formed somewhat of a friendship with just to punish her."
"What the fuck?" Archer was horrified.
"She says Lyle was all about everything being perfect. He had to have his food two inches apart on his plate, his clothes a half an inch separated on the hangers, his shoes two inches apart in the closet. If she messed anything up, he'd beat her."
"My God." Archer felt sick.
"It goes on to say that Lyle hated babies, and when two girls got pregnant by him, he'd killed them before the babies were born, then decided that he would only keep the girls until they started their periods, then get rid of them. Rebecca, the woman with Lyle, said she'd gotten pregnant once, and that when the baby had been born, Lyle killed it in front of her as a warning not to let it happen again."
"How the fuck could she control that?" Archer was furious.
"She said she didn't know how it happened, but luckily it never happened again." Carter was pale as he continued reading.
"She wouldn't know anything about reproduction unless he explained it to her. She was what, seven when he took her?"
"Yeah." Carter sighed.
"The FBI found a mass grave in the back area of the ranch. Says she showed them where it was. There was one male, assumed to be the grandfather, one baby, and six females of varied ages there. They also found two bodies in a grave on the property where Luis and Levitt now live, Lyle's old home. Both children."
"How the fuck did all this happen and no one knows about any of it? How do you hide something like this?" Archer's hands were in fists in his lap.
"Levitt and Luis both knew. Rebecca said they'd come to visit, bring supplies to them, and even took advantage of the girls that were there." Carter swallowed hard.
"Fuck." Archer pinched the bridge of his nose. "They arrested them, right?"
"Yep, both are being held as accomplices."
"And Rebecca?"
"She's at the State Mental Hospital for evaluation. She's met with her brother, but her mother and grandmother have both died." Carter pushed the computer back. "There are more notes, but I can't read more right now."
Archer didn't want to think how this was all affecting Carter. His daughter had been one of the girls kept there. Reading through the details had to be like someone twisting a knife in his gut. "You want to get out of here for a while? Go for a drive or something?"
Carter nodded, taking a second to turn off his computer. "Yeah, fresh air would be good." He stood.
