Paul Cleave - The Laughterhouse

“She’s struggling,” Barlow tells us, “I’ve got her talking but, well, things for her are going to be tough moving forward.”

“What-” I start, but he interrupts me.

“I believe I can give you the answers to your questions. You want to know what Cole said to the girls, and you want to know if they went anywhere else, or if she knew where else they were going.”

“And?” Schroder asks.

“She says he told them a story about a little girl named Tabitha. She says Caleb told them a bad man named James hurt her, and that her dad told the world James was okay and wouldn’t hurt anybody else. Evidently, Caleb explained a great deal to her. She understands that Tabitha was attacked, and she understands the man who did that went free because of her father, though she isn’t sure exactly how. She knows that man went on to kill Jessica Cole. She said Caleb made both her and Katy drink some cola and that it tasted funny, that he was really insistent they drink it, and then they fell asleep.”

“Why leave Melanie behind?” I ask.

“This is where it gets tough,” Barlow says, and his voice has a small waver to it. “You both have children,” he says, then looks at me and shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he says, “I didn’t think.”

“It’s okay,” I tell him.

He pauses for a few seconds, what I’m thinking he thinks must be an appropriate time, then carries on. “Melanie said,” he says, then pauses again, this time to compose himself. He smiles, one of those trying smiles people give when something is just too tough to mention. “Melanie said Cole told her father this morning that he was going to kill her and her sisters.”

Barlow plays with the collar of his shirt and isn’t looking either of us in the eye.

“She said it was going to happen tonight, out at the slaughterhouse. She said Caleb was keeping his voice down low so they couldn’t hear him, but she still heard bits of it anyway. She said he was going out for the day, but then he came rushing back in the afternoon and he seemed panicked. That’s when he gave them the drink.”

“He drugged them,” Schroder says.

Barlow nods. “Melanie could feel herself getting sleepy, so she knew she had been drugged, so she pretended to fall asleep. She heard part of the conversation Cole had with her dad before she actually did fall asleep. He told Stanton that they were going to leave one of the daughters behind, and the one left behind was going to have to die. It was up to Stanton to decide which one.”

We all take a moment with that idea. All three of us put ourselves into that impossible situation of having to choose who lives and who dies. My stomach and chest suddenly feel very empty. The back of my neck breaks out in a cold sweat. What would you make the decision on? How could you make it? You couldn’t-only it seems as though Caleb would have threatened violence or death to all of the children until Stanton made a decision. Even then an impossible decision. How do you choose?

You can’t.

You just can’t.

And yet somehow Stanton made it. He was strong enough to pick a name to save the others. Stronger than I could ever have been, perhaps stronger than anybody in this room. He chose a name to save the other two girls.

Nicholas Stanton is a man breaking down.

“Melanie cried out when she heard that, but continued to pretend to sleep. Cole said if one of them was pretending he would punish them, but she kept pretending anyway. She said she doesn’t remember much after that, just that she was really scared, then next thing she knew she was waking up in a hospital.”

“Poor bastard,” Schroder says.

Barlow nods. “You’re seeing it from his point of view, and of course you would since you’re a father. But look at it from Melanie’s point of view. She’s connected all the dots. The fake blood. The drugging. She knows Cole faked her death. Which means she knows she was the one her father chose to be left behind. She survived, but her world has fallen apart. She’s the one her father chose to die.”

“Bloody hell,” Schroder says. “Will she be okay?”

“Would you?”

“I guess not.”

“You think Cole is going to hurt the other daughters?” I ask.

Barlow stares at me for a few seconds while thinking about it. His head bobs up and down from left to right and back again. “Unlikely. He wrote I’m sorry across Melanie’s forehead. She said he was mean to her father, but kept trying to be friendly to her and her sisters, and he would only snap at them when he was really stressed. I think he genuinely feels bad for those children. But he’ll use them to get what he wants.”

“Which is?” I ask.

Barlow shrugs. “If it were just about killing Stanton, he’d have done it already. If it were just about making him think all three girls were dead, he’d have done that already too. He has an endgame, I don’t doubt that-I just don’t have any idea what it’s going to be, other than making Stanton suffer for as much of it as he can. Maybe he wants Dr. Stanton to get a little taste of what he went through all those years ago when he lost his daughter.”

“To what end?” Schroder asks.

Just then Melanie comes out of the office. She slams the door behind her and looks up at Barlow and Schroder and me. She’s crying. “I want to go home,” she says.

“You should-” Barlow says, then he’s interrupted by Erin Stanton coming out of the office.

“Melanie-” Erin says.

“You’re not my mother,” Melanie says, looking back, then to us she repeats “I want to go home. Only I don’t even know what home is anymore.”

“Melanie,” Erin says, lowering herself down to hug her daughter.

Melanie turns her back on her mother, and her mother sobs into her hands and stands back up. The boyfriend stands a few feet into Schroder’s office watching uncomfortably. He’s holding on to his helmet, probably thinking that this is all just too much for him.

“I want to go home.”

“Soon,” Barlow says, taking her hand. “I promise. But for now you need to wait with your mother.”

“She walked out on us.”

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Erin says.

“I don’t like her.”

“Don’t say that, baby,” Erin says.

“I don’t like my dad either,” she says. “He wanted me dead.”

“It wasn’t like that, Melanie,” Barlow says, trying to sound soothing.

“I know what it was like,” she says. “He was trying to do the best he could. He didn’t want any of us to die, but he did choose somebody and that somebody was me. I’m the one worth the least.”

“Come home with me,” Erin says.

“No,” Melanie says. “You’re even worse.”

Erin tries to embrace her daughter, but Melanie pulls away. “Come with us, Melanie,” she says.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Barlow says. “Listen, why don’t you go and wait back in the office,” he says to Erin, “and I’ll come in soon with Melanie and we’ll talk about things. Okay?”

“We don’t need some psychic telling us how to fix our kids,” the boyfriend says.

“It’s psychiatrist, you moron,” Melanie says.

Even Erin rolls her eyes at her boyfriend’s comments before disagreeing with Barlow. “She’s my daughter,” she says. “I think I know what’s best for her. She needs to be around family.”

“Right now she needs to be around somebody who hasn’t abandoned her,” Barlow says.

“Fuck you,” she says.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Barlow says, “but the fact remains she’s feeling vulnerable and abandoned and right now-”

“That’s why she needs to come home with us.”

“Give me some more time with her,” Barlow says. “It’s why I’m here. Let me help.”