Page 37 of Tangled Past
“There’s this smell,” she whispered. “It’s not just hay and rain. It’s something sharper. Like oil. Or metal. Like the inside of an engine.”
“Gun oil?” Asa asked.
“Maybe, I don’t know, but it makes my stomach turn even now.” Her voice trembled. “Then, he mocks her, ‘Vanessa Warren, come out, come out, wherever you are.’” She gasped. “Her name is Vanessa Warren. My mother’s name is Vanessa Warren.”
“You’re doing great,” Asa whispered. “What happened next?”
She flinched, even recounting it. “She told me to stay quiet, and then she went out to him.”
Asa stared at her for a long moment. “She was trying to protect you.”
“Yes.” Maya let what happened next unfold naturally. “There was a confrontation. My mother tried to reason with him,but his anger exploded. It seemed to echo around the barn. I hear the wind chime sound as it lands somewhere nearby, as if he threw them at her, maybe.” In an instant, Maya was back in that moment, terrified for her mother. “I dropped my rabbit. I wanted to scream, but I didn’t because my mom told me not to make a sound.”
Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. “I can hear them scuffling, and then she screams, but it’s cut off.” Maya wiped her cheek with the back of her hand.
“There’s another sound. Something struck hard, followed by a loud thud as if it hit the ground. Then everything is quiet until . . .”
“Until what?” Asa asked. The room seemed to hold its breath with her.
“He’s dragging her out of the barn. Her voice rises.” She’d peeked. Her mother told her not to, but she had. “I’m so afraid. I don’t know what to do until he shows up.” She looked Asa’s way. “Your father.”
“The dispatcher’s call. Loose ends in the barn. I think my father knew what was happening. That’s why he warned me not to follow him.”
She nodded. “Your father spotted me and started for me when he heard someone approaching. He told me to stay hidden, and then the shot came.” Her brow wrinkled, and she grabbed his arm. “Oh, Asa, he knew the killer.”
“My father knew the identity of the killer?”
“Yes, I heard him say, ‘You!’ I could tell from his tone he was surprised.”
Asa appeared to struggle to make sense of it. “What had my father gotten himself involved in?”
Maya had no idea. “The shot was so loud it hurt my ears. I snatched up my rabbit and held it tight. That’s when I heard you enter the barn. He kept to the shadows when he spoke to you,but after you left, he came over to me.” She shuddered. “Asa, he stopped right in front of me. I was so sure he could hear my heart beating.” Her hand went instinctively to her chest. “There’s this long pause, and then he leans down. I can see his hands now. Just his hands.”
Asa’s face had gone pale.
“He doesn’t pull me out,” Maya whispered. “He just says it. The part I remembered before. ‘Don’t say a word, little girl. You ever tell anyone what you saw, and I will come back for you like I did your mother. Do you understand me?’” The words shook, but they came clear.
“I nod,” she said. “I remember that now. I nod, but I don't look up. I stare at his boots because if I look at his face, I know I’ll scream. And I can’t. Because that would mean he wins. That my mom dies.” She drew a ragged breath. “Then he leaves. I hear the door bang against the side of the barn. The rain. And then . . . then your father’s voice, faint, telling me it’s going to be okay.”
Asa’s knuckles were white where his hands clasped. “My father was still alive.”
Maya hated having to share that part. “Yes, but only for a moment or two. He sounded so weak telling me to run. Only I couldn’t. I couldn’t move. I just clung to my rabbit and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t realize the killer had set a fire until I smelled the smoke. That’s when I ran. Thankfully, the roof had so many holes in it that the fire didn’t spread. I stood outside the barn, dripping with rain and shivering while your father was dying.”
Asa’s hand closed over hers, warm and steady.
Tears spilled over, hot and unrestrained now. “If I’d run for help, maybe your father would still be alive. Maybe they would have found my mother.”
Asa shook his head. “It was too late for my father, but we don’t know what happened to your mother.”
Maya did. In her heart, she believed the monster from that night killed her.
“I did what he said,” she cried. “I didn’t tell. I didn’t remember. I let my whole life shrink down to what he allowed.”
“You survived,” Asa said. “That was the assignment, and you passed it. Ruth and Samuel got a daughter because of that. I had the chance to sit here with you now and hear the rest of this story because of that.”
She squeezed his hand like a lifeline. “I remember his voice,” she whispered. “If I hear it again, I know I can identify him. Does that help?”
“Absolutely,” Asa said, his voice low and fierce. “I couldn’t identify him from his voice because it sounded like he was trying to alter it. But it’s possible that you can.”
