DS Fisher puts his gun down and moves a few steps closer to Raymond.
“Come on, man, step down from there. There’s no need to take a risk.”
“Stop right there or I jump. I have nothing to lose.”
He knows about auntie and the cellar. What …?
“Are you saying you killed my aunt?”
“Your aunt, my aunt, who cares, you stupid woman. Who else do you think ditched her car and threw her into her cellar? She found that piece of torn brake and threatened me. Me! Arrested for the murder of Eugene and Sarah? I didn’t have a choice, did I? Good riddance, she was a lousy aunt anyhow.”
I try to comprehend what he’s telling me.
“You killed my parents and Aunt Amanda?”
He cackled. It sounded like the laugh of the Joker in the Batman movies, chillingly crazy and eerie at the same time.
“You didn’t know? Did you really think our family is so clumsy that they all die accidentally?”
“You intended to kill me when—you are a monster.”
I step toward him but Scottie pulls me back.
Raymond laughs hard.
“Finally! You are not the brightest mind, are you? You never were. And still, mother kept you while I had to live with the Feldmans.”
Mother kept me and not him? What does that mean? Raymond is my brother? August? It can’t be. An avalanche of images and emotions washes over me. My heart is exploding with feelings of anger, regret, pity, and deep sadness. My brother?
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know they hurt you so much.”
I take another step and offer him my hand.
He scowls and hisses like a rattlesnake and leans away from me as if the compassion I’m offering is poisonous.
“Nobody can hurt me.”
I shriek in horror as he loses his balance and swirls his arms through the air. His eyes full of surprise, he doesn’t even make a single sound as he tumbles the fifteen yards to the ground.
I race to the battlement as if I could pull him back. All I see is Raymond lying lifeless on the ground, surrounded by his stunned followers. The lady with the white hair at his side, weeping. I turn around and land on Scott’s chest, sobbing.
“Scott, he’s dead and it’s my fault.”
“Never say that. He always had the choice to step away from the ledge.”
“Look after her.”
DS Fisher calls out to Scottie and hurries down the stairs.
“I need to see him. Maybe…” I don’t finish my sentence and rush after the police officer.
On the pathway below the tower, a small group of people has gathered staring at the lifeless body of Raymond. DS Fisher calls for the ambulance but I know there is no help. The paramedic kneels at Raymond’s side and shakes his head.
“I’m sorry, he’s gone. Nothing we can do here.”
A middle-aged woman in the uniform of the kitchen-crew of the Community hall pushes through the crowd and falls to the ground next to Raymond.
“August, Gustl, darling, oh no!” Her wailing doesn’t stop even when two men lead her away.
Raymond’s head lies in a pool of blood, his eyes lifeless. His face has lost the grooves of evil he wore before he fell. I like to think that in death, he paid for his sins and reconciled with his maker.
Sitting on the steps of the ambulance, I shiver, unable to decide whether to cry or be relieved that the ordeal is over. I can’t take my eyes off the paramedics who put Raymond’s body on a stretcher and cover him up. Scottie puts a blanket over my shoulders.
“You are in shock, darling.”
“I can’t believe this nightmare is over.”
“Trust me, it is.” He pulls the blanket tighter. He might be right but I know that my mind will replay the scene on top of the tower over and over again looking for ways of how it could have ended differently.
“He was my brother, Scottie. My brother. I can’t imagine what he’s been through that turned him into this twisted being.”
Tears are running down my cheeks.
“Do you think he killed your parents, your aunt, and would have destroyed you if he could, all because your parents gave him up to Sebastian Feldman?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps. I guess we’ll never know for sure. He sounded bitter about it. Who knows what his childhood was like growing up in this perverted cult.”
We watch the families being led to the buses. There was no further resistance. The moment their leader was dead, the will to fight—if there was any—had left Gateway’s people.
Rena is running toward me and throws herself into my arms.
“I was so scared he would hurt you.”
“You don’t have to be scared anymore, sweetie, all will be well and we have to thank you for it.”
She looks at me, skeptical as if she’s unsure what to say next.
“Are you going home now?”
First I pull her onto my lap and wipe her hair out of her eyes. Then I nod.
“Yes, Scottie and I are going home now. I thought you might like to come with us. What do you say?”
“Me? With you? Forever and ever?”
“Yes. Would you like to have Scott and me as your parents?”
“I would like that very much.”
“That’s very good because we always wanted to have a little girl like you.”
I put another blanket around her. The evening air is chilly and damp and Rena only wears a light dress that doesn’t give her much warmth.
A woman with a pin from social services comes toward me.
“Thank you very much for risking your life. We have our work cut out for us in the near future. All these poor children.”
“Rena here is an orphan. Her parents died a few years ago. We would like to have her stay with us. What do we need to do to put in motion the adoption papers?”
“She’s a lucky girl to find such great parents. Would you like
