“You’re not crazy,” Maggie said, intruding on his thoughts.
He had another surge of emotion. He loved this girl so much. He thought of the pills he’d jammed into his mouth. How could he have considered …
“Before we go on the trip,” Maggie said, “I need you to watch something.” She drew her laptop from her bag and placed it on the counter. “And if after you see it, you still think we should go, I won’t say another word.”
Evan was intrigued. “Of course, sweetie. What is it?”
Maggie tapped on her laptop. A video came up. She clicked play and Evan’s heart was in his throat at the image on the screen.
Charlotte. Alive. Standing in front of a cluster of computer monitors. Her outfit was familiar. Then it hit him. She was wearing the same sweatshirt as Maggie.
Then Charlotte spoke: “Dad, it’s me. I know it looks like Charlotte, but it’s me. And if I can do this in Toby’s garage, whoever called you could too.”
Excerpt from
A Violent Nature
Season 1/Episode 9
“The Smasher”
INSERT – LOCAL NEWS FOOTAGE
A reporter stands in front of razor-wire fencing surrounding a prison.
REPORTER
Bobby Ray Hayes pled guilty to killing seven women, a deal prosecutors took to give the families closure. But questions remain about whether the Smasher had more victims. The prison wouldn’t allow me to meet with Hayes in person, but they permitted us to talk by phone. Viewers are warned that what you’re about to hear is highly disturbing and not suitable for younger viewers.
CUT TO the reporter sitting in an office in front of a speakerphone.
HAYES （O.S.）
You want to know what I did to them?
REPORTER
No, I wanted to talk about whether there are other victims.
HAYES
When I was ten, my mom’s boyfriend would take me up to the old warehouse by the train tracks in Plainsville. Mom was real happy ’bout it, like I finally had a father, you know?
REPORTER
Was this Travis Fegin?
HAYES
Travis would bring some pot and beer and a bag full of melons. I was like, what in the hell he doin’ with the melons? But then we’d go up five stories, and drop the melons and bottles from the roof. Travis got the idea from some old late-night talk show. We’d have a good ol’ time laughing and watching stuff splatter on the cement. But then Travis would want to play another game.…
REPORTER
Travis Fegin disappeared when you were twelve.
Hayes snickers through the phone.
HAYES
Did he now?
REPORTER
Did you—
HAYES
So the first girl, the one ridin’ her bike home from school. I took her up there. You wanna know what I did to her before I chucked her off the roof?
REPORTER
I’m here to talk about whether there were any other victims. To give you a chance to—
HAYES
She was so young, so smooth, she didn’t understand.…
A GUARD’s voice bellows in the background.
GUARD （O.S.）
Get your [bleep] pants on!
There’s more yelling and then the sound of a dial tone.
CHAPTER 38
MATT PINE
The bed at the Adair Motel was as hard as he’d expected. Matt wrestled with the sheets, his thoughts jumping from his call with Keller, to the scuffle at the bar, to Jessica Wheeler. He shifted his eyes to the plastic alarm clock: 2:34 A.M.
Maybe he should go for a run. No, he should try to go back to sleep, but he was too wired. Possible foul play, Agent Keller had said. It was hard to get his head around that. Who’d want to kill his family? They wouldn’t have brought much money to Mexico. And who would kill a little boy? Maybe Keller would have some answers. They’d agreed to meet at the diner in the morning.
From there, he’d go visit his grandpa. Spend some time with his aunt.
Matt startled at a tap on the door. He sat up. Had he really heard that, or was it just his imagination? He clicked on the lamp, listened.
He padded in bare feet to the door and put an eye to the peephole, but no one was there. He stepped over to the heavy curtains and opened them a crack. The parking lot was dimly lit, but he didn’t see anyone. Maybe it was Ganesh or Kala or one of his other friends.
That was when he noticed something on the floor. Someone had slipped a folded sheet of paper under the door. A note wrapped in red string.
He scooped it up, pulled at the string, and felt a flutter of excitement in his chest:
MEET ME AT THE KNOLL AT 3 A.M. TONIGHT?
YES OR NO
CIRCLE ONE
Matt remembered circling yes on an identical note seven years ago in science class. He checked the time again: 2:39 A.M. He could borrow the Escalade from Ganesh, but he’d been drinking. He could wake up Curtis to drive him. Or, if he went on foot, he could probably make it. He examined the note again. Then he threw on his shirt and jeans and reached for his sneakers.