Page 54 of Night So Silent
“Why didn’t you just come in?” I sniff. “Why did you knock?”
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Scare me—” I scoff, unable to even finish the sentence. I take a deep breath, trying to compose myself. “What now?”
“Now I call the sheriff.”
He’s so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. Then again…
“YouknewCaleb was here.” I knit my brow. “Why didn’t you say anything? Was it because of those texts? What did they say?”
“I knewsomeonewas here before I saw the texts on your phone. Regardless of who he was, I thought it better you were preoccupied with Lutz’s stories. I realize you might disagree.”
I just blink. Was it better for me to believe that a mythical monster was stalking the property rather than a dangerously broken and maladjusted man? At first thought, I think not. But, then again, maybe it was.
Selfishly, I’m glad. This way, there was only Sergei, with no other human within miles to ruin my time with him.
“They’re going to want to talk to you,” he tells me a few minutes later when he gets off the phone. “Just tell them what you saw.”
I hear the sirens before I see the lights, a brigade of sheriff’s SUVs winding up the mountain and coming to a halt at the edge of the yard. Sergei goes outside to meet them, leaving me on the sofa. I glance down at my hands, which have finally stopped shaking. Not long after, a deputy with black hair twisted into a tight bun at the base of her skull makes her way up the steps and knocks on the door.
When I let her in, she introduces herself as Deputy Dorsett and asks me to tell her what I saw, just like Sergei said. And I do; the prints in the snow, the front door left open, the sounds on the porch, someone trying to open the door, and the figure in the trees. Then I tell her about Caleb; the break-up, the aggressive texts, what Clay said about feeling like someone was in my house, and then what Katie told me about Caleb in her voicemail.
“He yelled and then kind of fell over,” I explain when I get to what happened outside. “When he let go of me, I ran inside and locked the door.”
“What happened after that?” she asks, jotting down more notes. “Did you go back outside?”
I pause, replaying the events in my head like a movie.
Tell them what you saw.
Should I tell them the rest of what I saw? Did Sergei tell them what he did afterward? The only thing more traumatic than what just happened would be if they cuffed him and took him away when it was that asshole, Caleb, who did this.
And got what he deserved.
I’m about to do just that, but then I hear a different set of words come out of my mouth. “I didn’t open the door again until I knew it was Sergei, until I heard his voice.”
Silence is the ironclad protection that follows such an act of devotion. And he’s the one I want to remain silent with.
Deputy Dorsett finishes her notes and walks into the dining room to make a phone call. I space out for a few minutes until I see her move back into my periphery.
“Your friend was correct.” She strolls back across the living room. “Columbus just confirmed a warrant was issued for Caleb Albrecht after he ambushed his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend at her home.”
Letting out a long, slow breath, I lean back against the cushion and draw my knees up.
“I’m going to let Deputy Hilson know that we’re done here,” Dorsett continues. “Are you sure you don’t want to get checked out by the paramedics before they leave?”
What she means to say is that they need something to do since they’re not busy with anyone else.
But I shake my head. “No, no, it’s alright.” It’s not, but I’m not in shock and I’m not in any physical pain, so any help I might need won’t be found in the back of an ambulance.
She gives me her card and heads back out into the wintry night, leaving me alone once again. As soon as she’s gone, I get up and scurry over to the window. Peering out from behind the curtain, I search the darkness, split by the flashing emergency lights and the lamps on the shed. Sergei stands with his back to the wood planks, another deputy squared up in front of him. But I can’t tell from his stoic expression what’s going on.
Per usual…
However, the longer I watch, the more apparent it becomes that my worries won’t come to fruition. The deputy reaches up and gives Sergei a nudge in the arm and then turns around with a wide grin, as though he’s laughing at a joke. The corner of Sergei’s mouth curls slightly and he follows the deputy toward the boulders at the edge of the yard.
They wait as a stockier, muscular man with short black hair emerges from the boulders, hiking back up the hill attached to safety ropes. Even in the dim light, I can’t help but notice that he looks familiar.
