Paul Cleave - The Laughterhouse

“So your dad let James go, and they got him a flat in town where he would live alone, under the condition that once a week he had to go and see your daddy.

“The thing is, girls, your daddy shouldn’t have made friends with such a bad man, nobody ever should, because that man wasn’t cured at all. Within a week of being released he did the same thing to my daughter that he did to Tabitha, only the police didn’t know where to look because James brought her here,” he tells them, and he spreads his arms in a gesture that shows here is this room, that here is this entire building. “He kept Jessica here-that’s her name, by the way, he kept her here and hurt her and the police knew who they were looking for but they didn’t know where to look, and when they did know it was too late. When he was finished with Jessica he took a knife like this one,” he says, moving the knife so each of them can get a good look at it, “and he stabbed her nineteen times,” he tells them, “and her life and all her blood and everything she ever would have become seeped out onto the very floor you’re resting on.”

Melanie is asleep. Katy’s chin is dipping down to her chest. It’s hard telling the story-it’s making Caleb feel sick. For fifteen years he’s visualized the moment his daughter died. He’s visualized the six hours of hell before it, the abduction, the fear. Every topic leads his mind to his daughter somehow. Everything he sees or hears can be linked back to Jessica in only a few steps. It’s like seven degrees of separation. At dinner he’ll see a knife and think about his daughter. He’ll see a child on TV or in the street. He’ll see an ad in the newspaper for children’s clothes. Eating steak makes him think about the slaughterhouse. The cold weather, policemen, TV shows, speeding cars, abusive old women-they’re all just a step away from visualizing this nightmare. There is no off switch. His daughter lying naked and dead on the floor, even though he never saw it, is an image he can’t shake. The last thing she ever saw-he can’t shake that either.

“And your daddy,” his voice lower now, “he could have stopped that from happening. He was the one who told everybody James could be cured. He’s the reason my little girl was killed. It wasn’t just my daughter who died. My wife was so sad at what happened that she died too, and so did our baby boy who was so tiny he was still inside her. Your daddy took my family away, and that’s the reason,” he says, looking over at the doctor, “I have to do the same thing to him that happened to me.”

The glass falls out of Katy’s hand and smashes on the ground. Stanton reacts to it, and Octavia wakes up. Melanie and Katy stay asleep. Octavia looks at her father, then at her sisters, smiles, then frowns, then cries.

“There’s been a development,” he says, looking over at the doctor. “The police know you’re missing, and soon they’re going to figure out it’s me who has you. I wanted to finish things out here tonight, but there’s no time for that now. So the plan has to change. Instead four of us are going to go for a ride.”

The doctor is struggling against the plastic ties, his face still purple. Octavia’s cries are getting louder. And more annoying. He looks at her and her face is scrunched into an evil little grimace, her eyes closed tightly and her mouth puckered open. She inhales deeply, then lets out an even louder cry.

“It’s okay, your daughters are okay,” Caleb tells Stanton, having to talk loudly over the baby. “Now I know I told you earlier I was going to kill your family, and that hasn’t changed. I’m going to assume your addition is better than your diagnosis, so when I said the four of us are going for a ride you know that means somebody has to stay. We’re going to cull the group a little. I’m the driver and the man looking for revenge, so I’m essential. You’re essential too. The girls, well. . Goddamn it,” he says, Octavia, breaking his train of thought. “Shut up, will you just shut up?”

She gets louder. He unstraps her from her seat and checks her diaper. It’s wet. She’s probably hungry too. He bounces her up and down and her crying only gets louder.

“Sssush,” he tells her, rocking her gently. “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to have to wrap duct tape all around your face,” he says, knowing she doesn’t understand him, and knowing he wouldn’t need to use that much tape. “Come on, Octavia, shush now.”

She hiccups then throws up on his shoulder, then starts wailing again. He puts her back into her seat and straps her in, then carries the seat outside. He rests her in the sun and walks back into the office. He uses a wipe to clean his shirt and carries on talking to Stanton.

“Only two of your daughters are essential, and to me each of your daughters holds the same value. The question is, what value are they to you? One can stay here, and two can come with us. It’s your decision. Oh, and I should add, the one who stays behind-she has to die.”

One of the girls gasps from behind him. He turns to look at them. They’re both still sleeping. At least he thinks they are. Maybe one is having a bad dream. He crouches down and rocks them. Maybe one of them is faking.

“Are you awake?” he asks Katy, then he asks the same of Melanie. “If you’re faking, now is the time to tell me. If I find out you’re awake I’m going to hurt you.”

Nothing. Well, if one of them is faking he’ll know in a few minutes’ time, that’s for sure.

He turns back to Stanton.

“I promise you, the one who stays won’t feel a thing. And the others won’t even know who you picked. None of them have to know you were picking favorites.

“So, Doctor, who’s staying and who’s coming? I’m not an unfair man,” he says, and he can still hear the baby screaming outside. “I’ll give you two minutes to decide. You don’t have an answer for me in two minutes, I start cutting off Katy’s fingers until you do,” he says, and Stanton’s grunts get louder, the veins are standing out on his forehead as he struggles to break free. He sounds like he’s choking on his tongue. “Somehow I don’t think you’ll let me get through all those fingers, because if I do then I start on Melanie. Then I go to work on their feet, and by the time you finally make a decision there won’t be anything that I haven’t cut off. It’s going to happen, Stanton, it’s going to happen no matter what,” he says, his voice calm and steady, and for a moment the doctor stops struggling as all the color drains out of him, no doubt his mind filling with images of what’s to come over the next few minutes. He looks up at Caleb, his eyes pleading for him to stop all of this. Caleb reaches down and grabs the duct tape, ready to pull it away. “I’m a runaway train you can’t stop, Stanton-all you can do is push some of your family out of the way. Save your daughters some pain, save yourself from having to see what a pile of fingers and limbs looks like bleeding all over the floor because it’s not going to be pretty. Don’t waste time on thinking you can save them all because you can’t. You really, really can’t. You’ve got a big decision to make. Two minutes to decide which one of your daughters doesn’t get to walk out of here alive, that’s all you have, Doctor, because the train has already left the station.”

The address the probation officer gave Schroder for Caleb Cole takes me into a part of town where the streets are full of potholes and cracked sidewalks. It’s three-thirty and I have an hour and a half before meeting Dr. Forster. I swing the car around a dead dog and then another dead dog a block later; maybe they’re throwing themselves into traffic like lemmings to escape. I’m the first one to arrive, and since I’m in a patrol car, I stop at the end of the block. I don’t imagine Cole is home, but I hang back because sometimes your imagination can get you into trouble. A few minutes later Detective Kent arrives, and a minute after her comes the Armed Offenders Unit. It’s the same unit as before. They probably made it back to the station earlier and got told to hang around because things were getting interesting. They start planning their entry. They choose one of the scenarios they’ve practiced time and time again, one that involves a complicated unknown-they’re dealing with a man who may have three children and their father hostage in there. They seem disappointed they didn’t get to shoot anybody earlier, and seem hopeful things will be different this time.