Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 60576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 303(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 303(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
My chest burns, but I say nothing.
“We knew he had a family, knew about you. You were only young when I met your father, maybe four. He kept the life he was leadin’ with us away from the life he had with you. It was nothin’ secret, I think it was just somethin’ he wanted for himself.”
The lies go back so long, it’s hard to wrap my brain around what I’m hearing. Did I know my father at all?
“When the murders started happenin’ in town, of course, everyone was interested. Suddenly the place we called home was upended into turmoil. I didn’t know it was him, not for a long time. I was troubled, mixin’ with the club and doin’ shit I shouldn’t have been. He was tryin’ to help me, tryin’ to get me out, but I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want to hear it.”
My heart is racing, but I don’t say anything. I just keep listening.
“It was a complete mistake that I caught him in the act. I followed him, hopin’ to talk to him about a drug issue I was havin’. He had just left the house after seein’ Caleb, and so I got in my car and followed him, hopin’ to catch him before he went home. But he never went home. He picked up a woman. Had this feelin’ in my gut, like I already knew, but I kept following him anyway.”
I’m not sure I’m ready to hear this.
“He took her to an old, abandoned house in the woods, and when I snuck up to that house, I saw somethin’ I never wanted to see in my fuckin’ life again. The shit he was doin’ to that woman will haunt me for the rest of my life. I ran, but not before stumblin’ over a pile of logs. He heard it and came running out, catching me. For a second, I thought he was goin’ to fuckin’ kill me, too.”
I’m holding my breath, scared to breathe, scared about what he’s going to say next.
“He pleaded with me, told me why he was doin’ what he was doin’. I was goin’ to the cops, I was goin’ to tell them everything, but...fuck...I don’t know. He was the only person in my life that had been a solid. I needed him, more than I knew, and so I fuckin’ didn’t say anything. Pleaded with him to stop, he promised he would, and I trusted that.”
We both know he never stopped.
“Caleb found out and one night decided to follow your dad. Caleb wasn’t as trusting, and rightly so. He caught him in the act again and called the cops. But things went terribly wrong. Your father framed Caleb, making it seem like he was the one who called and that Caleb was responsible for the killings. He even tackled Caleb to the ground, so when the cops arrived, he appeared to be the hero.”
I’m struggling to understand what I’m hearing.
This can’t be right.
“The cops arrested him, and for a while, everyone thought Caleb was the Shadow Butcher. Surely you remember it all being over?”
I swallow. I do remember them arresting someone, but I was young and honestly, so distracted in my own world that I didn’t pay a great deal of attention. Not until I found out the truth, that is.
“Your father told me Caleb had been imitating him, that he had followed him and caught him in the act. He convinced me Caleb was in the wrong, so I did nothing to help. Caleb tried to tell the cops he was set up, but he was a young, troubled man and your father a respectable citizen of the town. Who do you think they believed? The worst part? I believed your father, thinking Caleb had taken a dark path for attention. It wasn’t until the killings continued and your father was caught that I realized the truth.”
“Did Caleb get out?”
Wolfe nods. “Yeah, but I couldn’t find him. He disappeared. Then, he got done again for possession of drugs and armed robbery and was put back in prison. I had a couple of things happen just before he went away, and I suspected he was comin’ back lookin’ for revenge, but when he got locked up, I stopped thinkin’ about it. That is until you came into town.”
“That’s why you wanted me to leave?”
“I knew you would cause a stir, and that stir would draw his attention. Didn’t know what he was capable of, but I knew that one day, he’d come lookin’ for revenge. With you and I in the same town, it was a perfect storm and as I suspected, he came hunting.”
My heart is racing as I try really hard to process this story.
Wolfe is telling me that basically, he saw my father as a role model and then my father betrayed him and Caleb in the worst possible way, now Caleb wants revenge on Wolfe for not telling the truth. How do I fit into that? Is it purely because he can’t get to my father, so he wants to get to me?