him.’ A nervous chuckle escaped Ricky’s lips. ‘He used to watch her a lot. . in a weird way.’
Rhonda cocked her head. ‘What does that mean?’
Ricky’s eyes moved from her to Hunter, who kept his face steady.
‘Andrew told me about this secret hiding place he had. And I know he used to spend a lot of time there.’
Hunter knew that a secret or special place wasn’t uncommon amongst kids. Especially ones like Andrew — sad, quiet, with few friends — the bullied ones. It’s usually just an isolated location where they can get away from everything and everyone that upsets them. A place where they feel safe. But if a child starts reverting to it more and more, it’s usually because they feel the need to increase their isolation — from everyone and everything. And the consequences can be severe.
‘That’s not so bad,’ Rhonda said. ‘Me and my friends used to have a secret place when we were kids.’
‘Not like Andrew’s,’ Ricky countered. ‘At least I hope not. He took me there one day.’ A muscle flexed on his jaw. ‘He made me promise to never tell anyone.’
‘And. .?’ Rhonda asked.
Hunter waited.
Ricky’s eyes moved away from both of them. ‘I’d pretty much forgotten about that place.’ His stare returned to Hunter. ‘His secret place was this secluded bit in the attic in his house. Their attic was packed with boxes and boxes of junk and old furniture. There was so much stuff piled up that it created a wall, a partition of sorts, dividing the attic into two separate spaces. If you went up there via the stairs in the house, you could only see one of them. The other one was completely hidden behind this barricade of stuff. You couldn’t even get to it, unless you started moving things. And you’d have to move a lot of things.’
‘And this hidden space in the attic was Andrew’s secret place?’ Rhonda asked.
‘That’s right.’
‘But you just said no one could get to it,’ she challenged.
‘Not through the house,’ Ricky clarified. ‘Andrew used to climb up the trellis on the outside wall and get in through this tiny round window on the roof.’
‘The roof?’
‘Yes. He was good at it too. He could climb that wall like a real-life Spiderman.’
‘So what was so strange about his secret attic place?’ Rhonda asked.
‘It was directly above his parents’ bedroom. He said that when they were in the room, he could hear everything.’
‘Oh my God.’ Rhonda pulled a face. ‘You think he used to listen to them while they were doing it?’
‘More than that. You remember his house, right?’
She nodded.
He turned towards Hunter. ‘It was an old-style wooden house, with high ceilings. Andrew had scraped away at the gaps between some of the wooden planks in the attic’s floor, at different locations. I know because he showed them to me. Through them he could see the entire bedroom. He used to spy on his parents.’
‘No way,’ Rhonda said with wide eyes. ‘That’s just nasty. What a pervert.’ She cringed.
‘But what freaked me out about the place,’ Ricky continued, ‘was that in this little corner I saw a few cotton balls and rags stained with blood.’
‘Blood?’ Hunter asked.
‘Blood?’ Rhonda repeated.
Ricky nodded. ‘I asked him about it. He told me it was from a nosebleed.’
Hunter frowned.
‘When Andrew was younger he’d got really ill with flu, and that somehow messed up the inside of his nose. I know that’s true because it happened in school a few times. If he started sneezing or if he just blew his nose a little too hard, blood would go everywhere.’
Hunter sensed Ricky’s uneasiness. ‘But you didn’t believe the bloody cotton balls and rags came from his nosebleed, did you?’
Ricky looked at his sister and then at the paper clip he’d been fidgeting with. It was all bent and out of shape. He lifted it up and showed it to Hunter. ‘I saw some of these on the floor next to the cotton balls. They also had blood on them. Maybe he was picking at his nose with paper clips, who knows? As I said, he was stranger than most. I didn’t know what was going on, but the whole place felt creepy. I told Andrew that I had to go home and got out of there as quick as I could.’
Hunter knew why the bloody cotton balls, rags and paper clips — Andrew was self-harming. He was substituting pain for pain, trying to take hold of his suffering. He couldn’t control the emotional pain he went through every time his parents argued, so, to disconnect from that hurt, he created his own, by inflicting his own wounds. That way he could calmly watch himself bleed, detached from his own suffering and his underlying rage. It was a pain he could completely control, down to how deep the cut was, and how much he’d bleed.
Ricky paused and rubbed his face with both hands.
‘Look, I know Andrew was a little weird, but most 10-year-old kids are in one way or another.’ His eyes moved to Rhonda. ‘Some of us still are.’
She flipped him her middle finger.
‘But he was a nice kid,’ Ricky continued. ‘And if you ask me, I think that what his father did was a very cowardly act. Andrew never had a chance. He didn’t deserve to die.’
Everyone went silent.
To Hunter, all the pieces were starting to fall into place.
Ninety-Seven
The room he was in was illuminated only by candles — twelve in total. Their flames flickered in an unsynchronized dance, bouncing shadows against the walls. He raised his eyes towards his naked body reflected in the large wall mirror. Bare feet on a cold cement floor, strong legs, broad shoulders, athletic body and icy cold eyes. He stared at his face for a long while, analyzing it carefully before twisting his body left, then right, checking his back.
He walked over to the table on the corner and picked up one of the many pre-paid cell phones on it, dialing a number he knew by heart.
It rang twice before it was answered by a calm but firm voice.
‘Do you have the information I asked you for?’ he asked, his eyes moving to the workstation in front of him.
‘Yes, it wasn’t a problem.’
He listened carefully.
The information was more surprising than upsetting, but his face displayed no signs of anxiety. He disconnected and ran his right hand over the large blood-coated needle and thread he’d left on the workstation.
He’d have to change his course of action, adapt, and he didn’t like change. Deviating from well-laid plans meant increasing his risk, but right now, he wasn’t sure it mattered any more.
He checked his watch. He knew exactly where she’d be in a few hours’ time. The information had been so easy to come by it made him laugh.
He faced the mirror once again and stared deep into his own eyes.
It was time to do it again.
Ninety-Eight
