Page 18 of Chains
I smiled.“Did you harm them?”
“I mean, I banged up the guys a little bit.Not a whole lot.Just smacked ‘em around.”
“And you made them confess.Without torturing them.”
“Like I said, I smacked the guys around and I scared them until one actually pissed himself.I guess you could call that torture in its own way.”
“And you think what you did to them was equal to what you accused them of doing to your niece?”
“What are you getting at, Ellie?”He didn’t look upset or impatient.Chains was genuinely curious, wanting to see where I was going.
“If what you did to those two people was revenge, wouldn’t you have killed them?Your niece died.You placed at least part of the blame on them for their financial practices.Yet you got them to admit what they’d done and made it impossible for the situation not to draw widespread attention.Not only that, but you surrendered and didn’t try to deny your own guilt.”I shrugged.“Sounds like someone trying to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else’s niece.”
He turned to look at me then, his steel-blue eyes searching mine as if trying to determine my sincerity.Whatever he saw there seemed to satisfy him because he nodded slowly.“Yeah.I guess you’re right.”
Chapter Six
Elvira
My phone rang suddenly, the shrill sound jarring in the peaceful garden.I pulled it from my pocket, frowning at the unknown number on the screen.“Probably a spam call,” I said, but something made me answer anyway.“Hello?”
The voice on the other end sent ice through my veins, familiar despite the years of silence.Cultured, smooth, with that slightly condescending tone I’d know anywhere.“Elvira?My little witch?It’s your father.”
The phone nearly slipped from my suddenly trembling fingers.Chains must have felt me stiffen, because his arms tightened around me in silent question.
“Dad?”I whispered, my voice sounding strange to my own ears.All the peace of the garden shattered in an instant, replaced by a roaring in my ears and a sickness in my stomach.Across from me, a carved pumpkin grinned mockingly, its jagged smile a reminder of all I’d tried to escape.
“I should give you some privacy,” Chains said, his voice cutting through the shock that had frozen me in place.“Need a drink?Apple cider?”I nodded numbly, barely registering as he squeezed my shoulder and stood.I wanted to tell him not to leave, but I couldn’t seem to voice the request for the daze I was in from the mental throat punch I’d just received.The crunch of his boots on fallen leaves faded as he walked away, leaving me alone with the ghost from my past breathing on the other end of the line.
“Elvira?Are you still there?”My father’s voice carried that familiar lilt, the cultured tone that had charmed patients, colleagues, and juries alike.And so Goddamned smug.Funny.I guess I’d been too young to recognize it before, but I could hear the condescending note in his voice now.Hell, I’d heard it as a child too.I just didn’t understand.
“I’m here,” I managed, rising from the bench on unsteady legs.“I just… I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
“Of course not,” he said, a touch of gentle reproach warming his words.“It’s been quite some time, hasn’t it?Too long, really.A father shouldn’t lose touch with his daughter.”
I began pacing between the mums and gourds, dead leaves crunching beneath my shoes.My free hand twisted in the hem of my sweater, a nervous habit I thought I’d outgrown.
“How did you get this number?”I asked.
“Oh, your grandmother kept me updated before she passed.”The easy lie slid from him like silk.Grandma would have sooner swallowed glass than speak to him.“I’ve been following your life from afar, my little witch.I’ve always been thinking of you.”
Little witch.The childhood nickname struck me like a physical blow.He’d called me that when I was small, before everything fell apart, when I’d follow him around the house in makeshift costumes pretending to cast spells.
“What do you want, Dad?”My voice sounded steadier than I felt.
“Can’t a father simply want to reconnect with his daughter?”A pause, perfectly timed.“I’ve been released early.Good behavior.”
My stomach dropped.“Released?But you had at least four more years on your sentence.”
“The system rewards rehabilitation, Elvira.”His tone shifted to something more serious, more sincere.“I’ve changed.Done a lot of soul searching.The man who made those terrible mistakes isn’t who I am anymore.”
I stopped pacing, pressing my fingertips against my closed eyelids.How many times had I imagined this conversation?In some versions, I screamed at him.In others, I hung up without a word.In none of them did I feel this uncomfortable mixture of anger, longing, and suspicion.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” I told him honestly.
“Nothing at all,” he assured me.“Just listen.I’ve been thinking about our last days together, before… well, before everything went wrong.Remember those Halloween parties we used to throw?How you’d help me carve the pumpkins?”
Despite myself, I smiled at the memory.My father’s hands guiding mine, teaching me to follow the patterns.“I remember.”
