Brian Freeman - Thief River Falls

“Listen to me, Purdue, that first scene takes place in a cemetery,” Lisa said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Does that mean anything to you?”

“Like what?”

She tried to decide how much to tell him. To get answers without scaring him any more than he was. “I talked to a girl who was in one of the town cemeteries two nights ago. That was the night you came to my house. She says she saw someone in the cemetery, and she thought they were burying a body. I was just wondering if that stirs any memories for you. You know, like the boy in my book who was put underground.”

His brow furrowed. “No.”

“Nothing at all?”

“I don’t think so.”

Lisa didn’t sense any deception from him this time. Purdue didn’t remember what had happened to him, and if he’d been injured — if someone had struck him — then the trauma had blacked out his memories. So maybe he’d been at the cemetery and maybe not. There was no way for her to be sure.

“I’m going to say a few names to you,” Lisa said, “and I want you to tell me if you’ve ever heard any of these names before.”

“Okay.”

“Fiona Farrell.”

Purdue shook his head. “No.”

“What about Nick Loudon?”

“No.”

She hesitated. “Denis Farrell. What about him?”

“I don’t know any of them. Who are they? What do they have to do with me?”

“Well, I don’t think they had anything to do with you. Not until two nights ago. After that, I’m not so sure.” Lisa reached into her pocket for the photographs she’d taken from Fiona’s house. She took the wedding picture of Fiona and Nick, and she extended it to Purdue with her thumb covering Nick Loudon’s face.

“How about this woman?” she asked. “Do you know her? Have you ever seen her before?”

“No.”

Lisa moved her thumb away from the photograph. “What about him?”

Purdue’s face changed instantly. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he couldn’t bear to stare at the man, as if his picture brought back memories of blood and death. Lisa knew. She’d suspected all along, ever since she’d heard about the murder of Fiona Farrell, ever since she’d found out that Nick Loudon was missing.

“That’s him, isn’t it?” she asked softly. “The man by the river? The one who looked like a football player?”

Purdue nodded.

“He’s the one they tortured and killed?” Lisa asked.

The boy nodded again. He still hadn’t said anything.

Lisa had one more photograph in her hand. It weighed hardly anything, and yet it felt heavy. “There’s one more picture I want to show you, Purdue. I think this one may be hard for you to see, but I need you to look at it, and I need you to tell me if you know this man. If he was there by the water that night.”

Still the boy said nothing.

She took the picture, and she covered up Gillian’s face so that only her husband was visible.

Denis Farrell.

The county attorney of Pennington County.

She held the picture in front of Purdue’s face and watched terror crease his features, washing away his innocence, bringing back that night as if he were in the midst of it again. As if they were holding him as he struggled to escape.

He knew the face. He knew Denis Farrell.

“Purdue?” Lisa murmured as the silence stretched out. “You have to say it out loud.”

He pointed at the photograph with a trembling finger.

“Kill the boy.”

“It was this man?” Lisa said.

She got off the sofa and shoved the photograph back in her pocket. She found herself moving restlessly around the room, touching all the little objects that made up her past. “He was the old man in charge? He was the one who told the others what to do?”

Purdue nodded. “Yes. He found me by the water. He pretended to be nice, but he wasn’t. He asked me all sorts of things about who I was and where I came from, but I didn’t trust him. He said the police were going to take me somewhere safe, but then I heard him say it to the others. Kill the boy. He didn’t think I heard, but I did. He said it like an order, and then he walked away. He had a limp. I remember him limping when he left the others behind with me. That’s the last thing I remember.”

“Thank you, Purdue. I know that was hard for you.”

“Who is he?”

Lisa asked herself how she could describe Denis Farrell to someone who didn’t know him. Her judgment was colored by the fact that she’d never liked him. She resented the power he’d had over Danny and the way he’d tried to control both of their lives. Obviously, he’d done the same thing to Fiona. Denis expected the world to bow to him, and when it didn’t, he needed to lash out at whoever stood in his way. For most of the past twenty years, that someone had been Lisa. The weight of his grief had fallen on her.

Even so, she felt sorry for him. Deep down, he was a sad old man caught up in his grief, and she of all people knew that grief could change someone. Turn them into someone new, twist around their minds until they didn’t even recognize themselves. It didn’t excuse what he’d done, but she wouldn’t have wanted to walk in his shoes.

“He was Danny’s father,” she told the boy.

“Your Danny?”

“Yes.”

“But... why would he hurt that man? Why would he hurt me?”

“Because that man hurt his family, and he was angry,” Lisa said. “I understand that. I know how he feels. But Denis crossed a line, and now I have to find a way to stop him.”

“How?”

“I need to go out again,” Lisa told him.

Purdue got off the sofa and ran to her. “No! No, Lisa, don’t do that.”

“I have to.”

“If you go out, we’ll never see each other again. I know it. Something will happen. Don’t leave me alone!”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Purdue.”

“But I want to stay together. I want to stay with you. Let’s go away! Let’s go to Canada! Both of us. Take me there, take me away from here, and we’ll be safe. We can cross the street and hop on the train. Just like I did.”

Lisa shook her head. “Denis won’t let us leave. If we go, he’ll keep looking for us. Sooner or later, he’ll find us — he’ll find you — and I won’t let that happen. I need to stop him. I need to put an end to this. That’s the only way to protect you.”

The boy buried his face in her chest and hung on to her. She could tell that he was crying silently. She held him, stroking his hair, trying to comfort him. Then she felt his little body stiffen with resolve, and when he separated himself from her, he looked older than his ten years. He had that serious, quizzical face again, the face that seemed to understand the world better than she did.

“I told you that I would never be able to leave this place,” he said.

“Don’t talk like that. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I won’t let it.”

“Something bad already did happen. I’m only here to run away from it.”

“I can’t change what happened to you before,” Lisa said, “but I can fix this. I just need to gather more evidence against Denis. He’s a powerful man, so I need something that will make people listen to me. Things I can take to Will at the FBI. I need to be able to prove what really happened.”

“So where are you going?”

“I’m going to find the place where you were hiding two nights ago. I want to see if they left anything behind. Anything that proves what they did to that man.”

“How are you going to find out where I was?”

“Well, actually, I’m pretty sure I already know. Denis owns a cabin by the river. Danny and I used to sneak in there all the time. I’m sure Fiona knew about it, too, and if she did, then so did Nick Loudon. I’m betting that’s where he went.”