The House On Tuller Street

Chapter 20:

Kael was already moving.

"Taz. Car. Now."

"Kael—" I said.

"Stay here."

"Kael, I'm coming with you."

He turned around. "No."

"Then you're not going."

He stopped.

We were standing in the living room of his house with a burnt card in his hand and my mother in the kitchen and my daughter asleep upstairs.

"Ella," he said. "That house is a trap."

"I know it's a trap."

"Then why the hell would you want to walk into it?"

"Because whoever wrote that card is inside and they're asking for help." I pointed at the card. "That's not Silas's handwriting. That's somebody on the inside. Somebody who's been watching me. Somebody who put that card in with those flowers."

"Or somebody who wants us to think that."

"Maybe. But we're not gonna find out standing in your living room."

Kael's jaw worked.

"You stay in the car," he said.

"Kael—"

"You stay in the car, you stay behind me, you do exactly what I say, when I say it. And if I tell you to get down, you get down. You don't ask why. You don't argue. You get down."

"Fine."

"Say it back."

"I stay in the car, I stay behind you, I do what you say, and if you tell me to get down I get down."

"Good."

---

The drive took eleven minutes.

I sat in the back of the SUV with Kael in the front passenger seat and Taz driving and two more bikes behind us.

The streets were empty. Two in the morning. Ridgemont was a city that closed down at night.

Tuller Street was a normal street. Little houses. Little yards. Porch lights.

And at the end of the street, one house with a red door and a garden full of roses.

My mother's house.

My house.

"Rook's already here," Taz said. "He's got the back covered. Hatch is on the south side. Nobody's come out and nobody's gone in."

"Any lights?" Kael said.

"One. Back of the house. In the garden."

Kael turned around.

"You stay here," he said.

"Kael—"

"You said you'd do what I say."

I sat back.

"Fine," I said.

He got out.

---

I watched him walk up the path.

He moved differently out there. Not the man who sat on the floor and drew purple dinosaurs. Something else. His shoulders were set and his hands were loose and his head was turning just slightly, left and right, taking in everything.

Rook came out of the shadows of the porch. He was a big man with a beard and a flat face. He said something to Kael. Kael nodded.

They went up the steps.

The door opened.

They went in.

---

I sat in that car for four minutes.

I counted.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Then I got out.

Taz said, "Ella—"

"Don't."

"Ella, he said—"

"I know what he said."

I walked up the path. Across the grass. Up the steps.

The front door was open.

I walked in.

---

The house smelled like old wood and dust and something else. Something sweet. Roses.

The living room was dark. There was a couch. A lamp. A little table with a doily on it. My mother's house.

I walked through the living room. Into the kitchen.

My mother's kitchen. Yellow curtains.

I stopped.

The curtains were the same.

She'd bought new ones at some point. Yellow. The same kind she had when I was little.

I stood there in my mother's kitchen at two in the morning and something in my chest did a thing I didn't expect.

"Ella."

I turned around.

Kael was standing in the doorway. He looked furious.

"I told you to stay in the car."

"I know."

"Ella."

"I know. But I'm here. And you're not gonna yell at me because there's a light on in the garden and I want to know why."

Kael looked at me. Then he looked past me, out the kitchen window.

There was a light on in the garden.

---

The garden was small.

A patch of grass. A stone path. Bushes. And roses.

Twenty-four white rose bushes planted in a row.

And under the big tree at the back, there was a hole.

Dug. Fresh. Dirt scattered.

"There," I said.

We walked out.

Rook was already there. Hatch was standing at the fence. Two men were at the corners of the yard.

And sitting on the ground next to the hole, with her hands tied behind her back and her hair in her face and a bruise on her cheek the size of a fist, was a woman in a hoodie.

Kael crouched down in front of her.

"Wren," he said.

She lifted her head.

"You know me?" she said. Her voice was hoarse.

"Your name. That's all."

"You're Kael."

"I'm Kael."

"He said you'd come."

"Who said?"

The woman looked at me.

"You're her," she said.

I didn't say anything.

"He was going to kill me," she said. "He was going to kill me and bury me in this garden under the roses. He said nobody would ever find me. He said the roses would grow out of me."

"Who is he?" Kael said.

"You know who he is."

"Say it."

"Silas Kane."

Kael stood up.

"Where is he now?"

"Gone. He left an hour ago." Wren coughed. It sounded bad. "He left me here. He said he was going to make you come to the house. He said he was going to make you come and then he was going to make sure you never left."

"He didn't stay to make sure."

"No. He said it wasn't necessary. He said the trap was already set."

---

Kael cut her loose with a knife.

She sat up. Rubbed her wrists. She didn't stand.

"The deed," I said. "My mother's deed. Is it in the box?"

Wren looked at me.

"There's no deed," she said.

"There's a green metal box—"

"There's a box. There's no deed in it."

Kael said, "Where is it?"

"He has it. He's had it for three weeks. He had it the day he came to the door and told her the lease was up." Wren looked at me. "He wanted me to dig it up. He wanted me to dig it up and burn it and bury the ashes in the roses. He wanted to make sure you could never prove the land was yours."

"So why didn't you?"

Wren didn't answer.

"Wren," Kael said.

"I didn't do it because I'm not a bad person," she said. "I'm a person who made bad choices. There's a difference."

Kael crouched down in front of her.

"You worked for him for six years."

"I worked for him for six years because he gave me a job when nobody else would. I was nineteen. I had nothing. He gave me a place to sleep and money to eat and he didn't touch me. That's more than anybody else in my whole life."

"But you didn't burn the deed."

"I didn't burn the deed."

"Where is it?"

Wren looked at me.

"I mailed it," she said. "Three days ago. To a lawyer in the city."

"What lawyer?"

"A man named Solomon."

The garden was very quiet.

"He's got the deed," Wren said. "He's had it since Tuesday."

---

Kael was already on the phone.

"Solomon. Deed. Now." Pause. "A woman named Wren mailed it to you three days ago." Pause. "Thursday. Tuesday. Whatever. Look in your mail."

He was quiet for a long time.

Then he said, "It's there."

He hung up.

He looked at me.

"It's there," he said. "He's got it. It's in the trust. It's got your father's name on it and your name on it and a stamp from the county and it's — it's real."

I sat down.

Right there in the garden. On the grass. Next to the hole.

"It's real," I said.

"It's real."

"We can prove it."

"We can prove it."

I put my face in my hands.

And then I heard something that I hadn't expected.

Wren said, "There's more."

Kael said, "What?"

"There's something you need to know. About Damon."

I lifted my head.

"What about Damon?"

Wren looked at me.

"Silas didn't just find him," she said. "Silas found him when he was sixteen. He paid for his education. He set him up. He introduced him to you."

The world went out from under me.

"What?"

"When you were nineteen. At the bar. The one on Fourth Street. Silas is the one who sent Damon there. Silas is the one who made sure you met."

I sat there in the garden.

"He sent Damon," I said.

"He sent Damon."

"To me."

"To you."

"Why?"

Wren looked at me.

"Because he needed you to have a baby."

Chapter 20 Ends.