Page 5 of Nathan
I wondered if Atlas had told Jolene about the hundreds of other recordings we burned that night.
“Did you watch it yet?” Atlas asked me.
River narrowed her eyes. “Of course Nathan didn’t watch it. He promised that he wouldn’t watch it alone.”
Jolene was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Atlas but leaned forward. “Nathan. Do you know what’s on the tape?”
“No.” I clenched my jaw, holding back the bombardment of bad memories that popped into my brain. My sister Lumi was quick to reach out and place a hand on my shoulder before she answered Jolene for me.
“We think it might be the recording that Jim Maddox used to blackmail Conor O’Brien. Did Atlas tell you that sad story?”
Jolene frowned. “Some of it.”
Liv pulled her legs up under her on the sofa. “It’s part of our family’s background, so if you’re serious about marrying Atlas and becoming one of us, we might as well tell you what happened.”
“I’m ready.” Jolene leaned back into Atlas’ arms and listened as Liv began telling.
“I’ll give you the short version. You already know that Atlas and Maximum’s biological father, Conor O’Brien, was a cult leader who manipulated people. His specialty was brainwashing his followers into becoming his puppets. He did too many twisted things for me to mention all of them, but it should tell you something that River’s mom is still in a psychiatric hospital because of Conor’s sick mind games.”
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” Jolene angled her head with a sympathetic glance at River before Liv continued.
“Anyway, when Nathan was five, his mom, Sandra, tried to escape Conor and the cult. She fled to Liverpool in England, where she rented a small room above a sketchy bar. Sadly, Conor found her and…” Liv paused, and with her brow lowered, she looked to me. “You’re okay with me telling Jolene what happened, right?”
The old familiar ache in my heart didn’t stop me from mumbling a low “yes.”
“It was the cruelest thing you can imagine. From what we know, Conor held a knife to Nathan’s throat and threatened to kill him if Sandra didn’t do exactly what he asked her to do. To save Nathan’s life, Sandra was forced to write a suicide note dictated by Conor and swallow enough pills to kill herself.”
My palms got sweaty, and I moved in my seat with nervous energy.
“Do you remember any of it?” Jolene asked me in a soft tone.
“No.”
“From what we know, Nathan was sleeping,” Liv explained. “Anyway, what Conor didn’t know at the time was that the pub’s owner was another morally bankrupt man called Jim Maddox. Jim had a side business of blackmailing people. He would record what went on in the upstairs room that he rented out and get people to pay up to cover their indiscretions.
“When Maddox saw what Conor did to Sandra in the recording, he didn’t go to the police like a normal person. Instead, he saw a chance to make big money by blackmailing O’Brien. I’m not sure why he thought messing with a killer would end well.”
“What happened?” Jolene asked.
“Maddox offered Conor the recording for money, and the two men met up in Liverpool. No one ever saw Jim Maddox alive after that.”
River interrupted. “There’s one thing I never understood. That night we were rescued from the Red Manor, you know, after the mass murder…”
“Yes?” Liv waited for the question.
“I’m just confused about what set Conor off in the first place. What made him panic and kill everyone? I know it was the same night that the English police found the remains of Jim Maddox, but how did Conor know he was about to get arrested? Did someone tip him off?”
Liv nodded. “We believe so.”
“Someone must have contacted him,” I agreed.
River stood up from the armrest of the chair I was in and paced the floor. “But what evidence did the police have that it was Conor who killed Maddox? The man had been dead for almost a decade.”
Liv frowned. “I forget how young you were, River. We must have spared you from too many details.” Her eyes moved to me. “Nathan, you remember, don’t you?”
In a matter-of-fact tone, I shared what I could recall. “The police found Jim’s body buried in a large slab of concrete. His sister had informed the police that if they found his body they should look for a recorder sewn into Jim’s jacket. It turned out that the recorder contained the confrontation, from the beginning when Jim said he had evidence that Conor murdered my mother to the end where Conor killed, robbed, and buried Maddox.”
“Wow.” Jolene pushed her hair behind her ears and looked straight at me. “Is that the tape that you found at the Red Manor?”
