Cryptid Girl — Chapter 31

Copyright 2013

A novel by Mystery Jones

Art by Terrill Chappell

Paige sat in the visiting area of the Emergency Room at Creighton Medical Center. She didn’t know the exact status on either Wes or Lorna, but she hoped that Wes was going to be alright. Lorna’s fate was up in the air.

The whole situation was unreal. Paige dug her elbows into her knees and buried her face in the palms of her hands. It can’t end like this. Lorna can’t die.

She slid her palms off her face and onto her temples and held them there. She looked down at her knees and noticed the kneecaps of her blue jeans were stained dark red. Hard to say if it was Wes’ blood or Lorna’s. Maybe both.

“Stoltz. The guys told us we’d find you here.”

The voice was familiar. It was Detective Diana Walsh. Paige looked up to find Walsh and Nelson standing over her. They both looked tired and disheveled, and she supposed one of the cops at Wes’ house had called and awakened them from their sleep so they’d be on top of the latest events regarding the McHaley murder streak.

“We just came from Wesley Jankowski’s house and saw what went on over there. The officers there said you must’ve slipped away on one of the ambulances before they could question you.” She paused. “We know that was your gun the guys bagged at the crime scene.”

There was no use trying to deny it. She needed to stick with the story Wes told her to. “I shot Lorna.”

The detectives exchanged glances. “What happened?”

She looked up at the detectives. A tear slid down her cheek and she brushed it away with the back of her hand. She hated to cry, and now was not the time to get all emotional. “Lorna didn’t know what she was doing…I shot her in self-defense.” Paige wiped another tear from her cheek.

“Stand up and turn around,” Nelson commanded. “You’re under arrest.”

“Again?”

“You just admitted to shooting your best friend,” Walsh replied. “This is a huge mess. Until we can sort out all the details concerning exactly what happened, you and McHaley are both going to jail. Unfortunately, she may not make it.”

Paige did as she was told, and Walsh frisked her body and cuffed her wrists behind her back.

It was déjà vu from a week and a half earlier. Walsh took hold of her upper arm and escorted her out of the Emergency Room. She took her to the same car she’d been placed in during her first arrest and helped her into the back seat.

“I’ll stay behind and check the status on McHaley and Jankowski,” Nelson said.

“Sounds good. I’ll call you after Stoltz and I have had some time to chat.”

Walsh got behind the wheel of the car and they headed toward the police station.

***

By 3:00 in the morning, Paige was back in an orange uniform and carrying her sheet, blanket, and pillow to her cell. The corrections officer led her to the same one she’d occupied just four days ago and opened the door. A light flicked on and her former cellmate, Amanda, woke up and shielded her eyes.

“Guess what, Blake?” the officer said as Paige filed into the cell. “Your buddy is back.”

Paige spread her bedding out on the bottom bunk and lay down.

“Paige?” Amanda said. “What happened? What are you doing back here?”

The light went out and the cell was dark. A few faint beams squeezed in from the slit of a window in the door.

“I don’t wanna to talk right now,” she replied. “Go back to sleep.”

Amanda let out a frustrated sigh. She flopped back down on her bunk.

Paige turned onto her side and faced the cinderblock wall. She was exhausted and wired all at the same time. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her guilt weighed on her like a heavy anvil. She shot Lorna. Three times. Then sealed her fate by planting a weapon at the scene. But was there any other way? What else could she have done?

She didn’t want Lorna to die, but El Chupacabra had to be stopped. What if Lorna lived? Wouldn’t the beast inside her continue its killing spree? Even if she did pull through, she’d be facing multiple murder charges. No matter what happened, Lorna’s life was over.

The tremendous number of lies she’d just told Detective Walsh pooled in her mind. Walsh grilled her with questions over and over until she was so tired she could have passed out right there on the table in the interrogation room. She led the detective to believe that Lorna was not only a bitter, scorned fiancée, but a raging lunatic as well. Walsh didn’t buy into the idea that a hunting knife was the attack weapon in all five murders. She suspected there were more weapons somewhere, and she wanted to know how a tall, slender woman like Lorna could have overtaken a strong and healthy man like Wesley. And Walsh still didn’t have an answer as to how Lorna was taking the blood from her victims or why the clothing she was wearing was in shreds.

Paige wasn’t sure Walsh believed any of her story. If she didn’t, she was screwed. If the cops ever figured out that she and Wes altered the crime scene, she’d be in even deeper trouble than she was right now.

Then there was Wesley. She had no idea what was happening to him at the hospital, but she hoped he’d be okay. She didn’t want him to bear any of the blame for the horrific mess, and she vowed to protect him no matter what. Even if the knife planting was exposed.

She thought about all the lives that had been destroyed throughout the chaotic mess. Mason, Jeannie, and the entire Hollister family. Carolyn Austen and the others. Lorna’s life was destroyed no matter if she lived or died. She had no idea how Wesley would fair with his injuries. And as for her, there was no way to predict if all her lies would stand firm or tumble down around her. If they crashed, prison time was a guaranteed consequence. If they held strong, she’d walk away free of blame from the whole shitty experience. Regardless of which happened, her life would never be the same either.

Paige wiped tears from her eyes. Her worst nightmare couldn’t compete with this horrific, unescapable reality.