Karin Slaughter - Blindsighted

"Why?" Sara asked. "Do you think I could forget something like that? She was a baby."

He shrugged.

"Did you do that to her?" Sara asked, recalling the brutality of the home abortion. Derrick Lange, her supervisor, had guessed a clothes hanger had been used.

She said, "Were you the one who did it?"

"How did you know?" Jeb asked, a defensive edge to his tone. "Did she tell you?"

There was something more to what he was saying, a more sinister secret behind his words. When Sara spoke, she knew the answer before she even finished her sentence. Taking into account what she had seen Jeb was capable of, it made perfect sense.

She asked, "You raped your sister, didn't you?"

"I loved my sister," he countered, the defensive tone still there.

"She was just a child."

"She came to me," he said, as if this was some kind of excuse. "She wanted to be with me."

"She was thirteen years old."

" 'If a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, and see her nakedness and she see his nakedness, it is a wicked thing.' " His smile seemed to say he was pleased with himself. "Just call me wicked."

"She was your sister."

"We are all God's children, are we not? We share the same parents."

"Can you quote a verse to justify rape? Can you quote a verse to justify murder?"

"The good thing about the Bible, Sara, is that it's open to interpretation. God gives us signs, opportunities, and we either follow them or we don't. We can choose what happens to us that way. We don't like to think about it, but we are the captains of our own destinies. We make the decisions that direct the course of our lives." He stared at her, not speaking for a few beats. "I would have thought you learned that lesson twelve years ago."

Sara felt the earth shift under her feet as a thought came to her. "Was it you? In the bathroom?"

"Lord, no," Jeb said, waving this off. "That was Jack Wright. He beat me to it, I guess. Gave me a good idea, though." Jeb leaned against the door jamb, the same pleased smile twisting his lips. "We're both men of faith, you see. We both let the Spirit guide us."

"The only thing you both are is animals."

"I guess I owe him for bringing us together," Jeb said. "What he did for you has served as an example for me, Sara. I want to thank you for that. On behalf of the many women who have come since then, and I do mean come in the biblical sense, I offer a sincere thank-you."

"Oh, God," Sara breathed, putting her hand to her mouth. She had seen what he had done to his sister, to Sibyl Adams, and to Julia Matthews. To think that this had all started when Jack Wright had attacked her made Sara's stomach turn. "You monster," she hissed. "You murderer."

He straightened, his expression suddenly changed by rage. Jeb went from being a quiet, unassuming pharmacist to the man who had raped and killed at least two women. Anger radiated from his posture. "You let her die. You killed her."

"She was dead before she got to me," Sara countered, trying to keep her voice steady. "She lost too much blood."

"That's not true."

"You didn't get it all out," she said. "She was rotting from the inside."

"You're lying."

Sara shook her head. She moved her hand behind her, looking for the lock on the window. "You killed her."

"That's not true," he repeated, though she could tell from the change in his voice that part of him believed her.

Sara found the lock, tried to twist it open. It wouldn't budge. "Sibyl died because of you, too."

"She was fine when I left her."

"She had a heart attack," Sara told him, pressing against the lock. "She died from an overdose. She had a seizure, just like your sister."

His voice was frighteningly loud in the bedroom, and the glass behind Sara shook when he yelled, "That is not true."

Sara gave up on the lock as he took a step toward her. He still held the knife down at his side, but the threat was there. "I wonder if your cunt's still as sweet as it was for Jack," he mumbled. "I remember sitting through your trial, listening to the details. I wanted to take notes, but I found after the first day that I didn't need to." He reached into his back pocket, taking out a pair of handcuffs. "You still got that key I left for you?"

She stopped him with her words. "I won't go through this again," she said with conviction. "You'll have to kill me first."

He looked down at the floor, his shoulders relaxed. She felt a brief moment of relief until he looked back up at her. There was a smile at his lips when he said, "What makes you think it matters to me if you're dead or not?"

"You gonna cut a hole in my belly?"

He was so shocked that he dropped the handcuffs on the floor. "What?" he whispered.

"You didn't sodomize her."

She could see a bead of sweat roll down the side of his head as he asked, "Who?"

"Sibyl," Sara provided. "How else could shit get inside her vagina?"

"That's disgusting."

"Is it?" Sara asked. "Did you bite her while you fucked the hole in her belly?"

He shook his head vehemently side to side. "I didn't do that."

"Your teeth marks are on her shoulder, Jeb."

"They are not."

"I saw them," Sara countered. "I saw everything you did to them. I saw how you hurt all of them."

"They weren't hurting," he insisted. "They didn't hurt at all."

Sara walked toward him until she was standing with her knees against the bed. He stood on the other side, watching her, a stricken look on his face. "They suffered, Jeb. Both of them suffered, just like your sister. Just like Sally."

"I never hurt them like that," he whispered. "I never hurt them. You're the one who let them die."

"You raped a thirteen-year-old child, a blind woman, and an emotionally unstable twenty-two-year-old. Is that what gets you off, Jeb? Attacking helpless women? Controlling them?"

His jaw clenched. "You're just going to make it harder for yourself."

"Fuck you, you sick bastard."

"No," he said. "It'll be the other way around."

"Come on," Sara taunted, clenching her fists. "I dare you to try."

Jeb lunged toward her, but Sara was already moving. She ran full force toward the picture window, tucking her head as she broke out the glass. Pain flooded her senses, shards of glass cutting into her body. She landed in the backyard, tucking as she rolled a few feet down the hill.

Sara stood quickly, not looking over her shoulder as she ran toward the lake. Her arm was cut across the bicep and a gash was in her forehead, but these were the least of her concerns. By the time she got to the dock, Jeb was close behind her. She dove into the cold water without thinking, swimming under the water until she could no longer breathe. Finally, she surfaced ten yards from the dock. Sara saw Jeb jump into her boat, too late remembering she had left the key in the ignition.

Sara dove under the water, pushing herself, swimming as far as she could before surfacing. When she looked back around, she could see the boat coming toward her. She dove down, touching the bottom of the lake as the boat sped over her. Sara turned underwater, heading toward the rock field lining the far side of the lake. The area was no more than twenty feet away, but Sara felt her arms tiring as she swam. The coldness of the water hit her like a slap in the face, and she realized that the low temperature would slow her down.

She surfaced, looking around for the boat. Again, Jeb came at her full throttle. Again, she ducked under the water. She came up just in time to see the boat skimming toward the submerged rocks. The nose of the boat hit the first one head-on, popping up, flipping the boat over. Sara watched as Jeb was thrown from the boat. He flew through the air, splashing into the water. His hands clawed helplessly as he tried to keep himself from drowning. Mouth open, eyes wide with terror, he flailed as he was pulled down below the surface. She waited, holding her breath, but he did not come back up.