Eviscerating the Snake - The Complete Trilogy Read online

  “I could hear him rummaging through my truck and pulling out the small garbage bag I had in the back seat and the tearing of the duct tape mixed in with the sounds of the katydids chirping in the trees. The heavy humidity and the evening’s events just hung over me, clouding all my thoughts.

  “I heard Olin tromp off into the woods, the sound of his footsteps quick and heavy. I don’t know how long he was gone—maybe twenty or thirty minutes—when all of a sudden, he was standing at the back of the truck, covered in dirt and sweat, yelling at me to help him drag her to her grave. I don’t have an answer as to why I listened to him; it was sort of like I was on autopilot. I found myself putting my hands under her now stiff, thin shoulders and helping him lift her out of the truck. We walked for what seemed like hours in silence, not saying a word to each other, into the thickest part of the woods, and then Olin just stopped, dropped her legs and told me to bury her.

  “I held on to her shoulders, unable to lower her into the fresh dirt. Olin walked off, mumbling, and I just stood there, my own arms aching from holding her, my broken left hand screaming in agony now, but I refused to cast her aside like garbage. It was almost as if I knew that once she was put in the ground, all of it would become real, and if I just stood there and held her, it would remain just some liquored up nightmare that I would eventually wake up from.

  “Olin finally came back with our clothes as well as hers, along with her boots, hat, purse, the plastic bag, and the tape. He tried to get my attention to help him hold the bag open so he could throw all the items in, but I just couldn’t let go of her. I remember he grunted loudly and called me a ‘pussy’ and started shoving all of her belongings, as well as ours, into the bag. He was trying to seal it up with the tape, but it was so dark he couldn’t see well, and it kept sticking to his arms; he cursed every time he had to yank a piece off and it pulled his hair with it. I remember thinking then that he was the pussy for complaining about losing bits of hair. He finally got all the tape off of himself and around the bag instead. Then he threw all of it into the grave. I remember him laughing that we were going to be driving to his parent’s lake house in our skivvies to clean up and get a change of clothes.

  “I was still so stunned that I didn’t respond, and I guess he must have realized at that point that I was gone because he bent over and grabbed her ankles and pulled. He jerked her so hard that I lost my grip on her shoulders. Then he slung her into the hole with a loud thud and began pushing dirt in on top of her. The look on his face was so calculating, so calm…so normal…as though killing and burying someone was an everyday occurrence for him.

  “When that first handful of black, ugly dirt landed on her ruined face, I lost it. I started screaming, tears running down my face, and plunged headfirst into Olin, knocking him to the ground. I just kept hitting him over and over, oblivious to the pain in my broken wrist; my fists pounded any spot of his flesh they could reach, until my arms gave out, and I collapsed on the ground beside him.

  “Olin never said a word to me; he just stood up and began covering her with dirt again like I had never laid a finger on him. It was that cold, determined look on his face that made me realize there was nothing left for me to do but help him. She at least deserved to have someone that cared about her with her before she was covered up and lost eternally. I knew then, as Olin and I silently worked side by side, that we would be bound together forever by this, no matter how much I didn’t want to be. As we crouched over her, hiding her from the world forever, I knew that I wouldn’t go to the police because no one would believe that I didn’t have anything to do with her death; and since I had passed out for so long and had no memory of taking my clothes off, I wasn’t entirely sure that I hadn’t raped her as well.

  “To be honest, I felt that I needed to spend the rest of my life with this sorrow embedded in me, carrying it with me and etched permanently in my soul. I hoped that maybe my pain gave her some kind of justice.”

  ROBERT TURNED HIS RED-RIMMED eyes to Audra again, his voice dry and hoarse as he finished extracting the last bit of cancer from his soul.

  “Olin has held this over my head for years, using it as his leverage, his ‘ace in the hole,’ to get me to do whatever it was he wanted. I never should have let him have this hold over me for so long. And yes, Audra, I did know exactly what happened to you that night; I knew it would happen when Olin announced to us all earlier in the day that he would ‘handle’ your promotion to partner that we had all just voted on. You had spurned his advances for way too long and then ignored his attempts to humiliate you and make you quit. I remember feeling sick to my stomach when he was the one that suggested that you be made an equity partner after Piper’s slide into insanity and her hasty departure, rather than Edgar, who really should have been next in line. I knew that his ultimate intent was to hurt you, not reward you.

  “But maybe you can understand now why I just couldn’t bring myself to open this locked room in my soul again. To confront him about you would have just made him bring Gina up again, as you saw in the email about Sprigg, and I would have been forced to keep quiet anyway, so I let it be. For that, I am so very ashamed, and I’m truly sorry,” Robert said, beseeching Audra with his eyes as they begged for absolution from her.

  Audra didn’t have a chance to answer as Detective Ronson moved over in front of Olin and said, “Olin Kemper, you are under arrest for the murder of Gina Milligan. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand your rights as they have been read to you?”

  “He is a crazy, lying drunk, and you are going to take his word about that slut and arrest me? She disappeared a long time ago! We had nothing to do with that!” Olin yelled, the shock and horror on his face evident.

  “Olin, they found Gina’s grave. Your clothes and DNA were also found there, along with Robert’s clothes, which will contain his DNA as well, I’m sure”

  “My DNA? Well, Detective, you have the wrong man! Your match is to someone else, not me! You couldn’t have tested my DNA, you have no sample! This crazy bitch has sent you on a wild goose chase!”

  “Actually, Olin, I gave Detective Ronson your DNA last week so he could match it with what they found at the crime scene. There was plenty of it on my clothes from the night you raped me. Good thing I had the foresight to save them, locked up and sealed tight. The ironic thing is that I planned on using them just to bring myself justice, but it turned out that I was actually bringing justice to a sweet, innocent girl that I’d never met before, allowing her to use my voice to finally bring herself, and her grieving family, justice and closure after all these years. At least she and her family can rest in peace now.”

  “And just in case you have any thoughts of trying to wiggle out of it by claiming the DNA on Audra’s clothes is not yours, we have probable cause to take you in and obtain fresh DNA samples from you both to match against the samples found at the crime scene,” Detective Ronson added. “Either way, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that you won’t be hurting any more women for a long time!”

  Robert just hung his head in dejection as the two officers beside him put him in handcuffs and read him his Miranda rights, then led him out of the conference room. Physically and emotionally drained, he almost seemed relieved that he had exorcised this poison out of his system. He looked at no one as he left the room.

  Olin, realizing that his entire world had just crashed down upon him, had not said anything else, his legal mind racing as he desperately tried to think of what he was going to do now, but he couldn’t. They had her remains, his DNA was there, and fighting that would be impossible. He couldn’t believe that after all this time, all these years of hard work and struggle had just been yanked from him in less than an hour, and that skinny, waif-like bitch, Audra, orchestrated all of it.

  Then, for the final time, the video screen lit up agai
n as the black and white image it displayed of the parking deck came into focus. Audra moved over next to Gabrielle as the tape played, lightly putting her hand on her shoulder. The entire room watched as Olin followed Gabrielle out to her car, then pinned her to it, and then brutally grabbed her face, Gabrielle’s fear evident even through the blurry footage. Carl and Eric both cringed as the image of Gabrielle bringing her knee up hard and fast into Olin’s crotch played, and Nicole let a smile cross her lips as Gabrielle finished Olin off by kicking him in the chest and knocking him backwards into the car next to him. Under her breath, Nicole said, “You should have run the bastard over.”

  Detective Ronson walked over to Gabrielle. “Ms. Lincoln, do you wish to press charges against Mr. Kemper for assault?” Gabrielle never wavered, her eyes locked firmly on Olin, as she said, “Yes sir, I do.”

  “We will need a copy of the tape for evidence, Ms. Tanner,” Detective Ronson said as he turned back to Olin. Audra just nodded her head in agreement as the officers led Olin out of the room. Audra still stood next to Gabrielle, and their arms encircled in a show of strength and support for one another as each woman stared at Olin with mixed emotions displayed across their faces. As Olin reached the door, he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes fully focused on the two women that crumpled his empire and ruined his life. He wanted to ingrain their faces into his mind so that as he plotted his revenge, he would remember this day and how he felt. He shifted his focus to Audra directly, desperately trying to see through the exterior frailty to what made this bitch tick and how she had the brains and knowhow to figure the tangled web of his life out.

  Audra instinctively understood the look behind his questioning eyes as she answered his unspoken thoughts. Her lips curled into a smirk, and she said, “I learned how to track snakes.”

  Audra hugged Gabrielle as Olin was finally gone from their lives, the bond between the two women sealed now, as everyone else just sort of stared oddly at each other, all at a loss for words and not really sure what to do next. The past hour had brought all of them to their knees more than once and seemed to lock their tongues to the roof of their mouths as their lives had been flipped upside down and then set upright roughly once more.

  Audra nodded to Gabrielle, who took her briefcase and left the room, and then she turned her attention to Lily, who had been sitting in the corner of the room the entire time, not saying much other than a few gasps every now and then, her face so pale that the name Lily truly fit her. Audra walked over to her and said calmly, “Lily, you’re fired. Gabrielle will meet you in your office to help you gather up your belongings and leave, immediately.” As Audra turned to walk away, she thought of one last item to add and turned back. “Oh, and please do not ask for a reference, because you will not like the one I give you. Might I suggest a different career path other than human resources? It is definitely not your cup of tea.”

  Lily didn’t say a word; she knew the reasons that Audra was letting her go and honestly, she wanted nothing more than to get out of that place and never look back. She stood up and really looked at Audra for the first time, seeing the strength that was behind the feeble body and haunted eyes and just ever so slightly shook her head, marveling at her performance today as she quickly left the room.

  Audra walked over to the phone in the corner and called the receptionist, asking her to call building maintenance to come and clean up the conference room, which was now beginning to reek of vomit, blood, and the sweat that had been exuding from everyone’s pores for the last hour. She hung up and turned around to face the inquisitive glances of all of her subordinates, their eyes boring into hers. Carl was the first one to speak as he walked over to her, his hand extended as he reached out to clasp Audra’s boney one in a show of solidarity.

  “Apologetic words will never be enough, Audra, so I am not going to even try; honestly, I wouldn’t know where to begin. I will say, though, that what you have done today was quite possibly, the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, bar none. I think I speak for all of us when I say ‘thank you’ and that you have our one hundred percent support and backing for whatever direction you choose to take us in. God knows we have already been down the wrong road for entirely too long.”

  “Thank you, Carl. I do appreciate that,” Audra said as she looked around the room one last time before walking out. “I have some things to take care of immediately, with the first one on the agenda being to clear out Olin’s office, so I will be unavailable for a while. But we will all need to get together again before the end of the day to discuss our press conference that is scheduled for tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.” And with that, she turned on her heels and quickly trounced out of the room and to the elevator, forcing herself to walk and not sprint. When she reached the twenty third floor and the elevator doors opened, the room immediately became hushed as the employees all stared at her from the cubicles, the rumors already flying about what had happened in the conference room. Audra smiled lightly and didn’t say a word. She was not ready to address them just yet, so she headed straight to Olin’s office, shutting the door quietly behind her.

  She stood in the center of the room and looked around, her eyes settling on his gaudy artwork adorning the walls and his prized collection of Waterford crystal that glimmered in the sunlight, finally resting on his oversized desk and chair, which she knew made up for numerous other shortcomings that he had. She made her way over and sat down and gazed out the window, exhaling deeply. It was finally over, and the heavy tumor she had drug around inside her soul for the last five years had finally been removed, allowing her to begin to relax and breathe for the first time in years. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer to her son, promising him to restore his room now that she was finished, and she leaned back in what was now her chair.

  Although she had rehearsed this day, this moment, over and over in her mind for years now, actually experiencing it was a strange mixture of an exorbitant high coupled with a sense of deflation, like the way she remembered feeling as a child when the last Christmas present was opened, knowing it was all over. The only difference was that she didn’t have to wait another year for Christmas to roll around, for she would now have her plate full each day as she stepped into this new arena of her life as managing partner.

  She fought back the tears of joy and sorrow that welled up inside her as she opened her eyes and stared at Olin’s rug. No, not Olin’s rug; it was hers now, and in a strange way it always had been; her old life was forever trapped between its delicately woven fibers. She allowed herself, just for a few seconds, to remember that night, and as she did, she felt the pressure valve in her mind tighten. Even though his control over her life was over, her mind still wouldn’t let the memories escape completely since she had forced herself for years to keep them contained in that small space.

  She stood up and walked over to the rug, burying her spiked heels deep in its dense fibers, and stood there for a few moments, letting the sense of accomplishment and relief wash over her as she stood, triumphantly, on this colorful platform of shame; and then she smiled and flipped open her cell phone and called Gabrielle. “Gabrielle, please have someone come and remove this rug immediately. I have always detested this vile thing.”

  FOUR DAYS LATER, AUDRA sat in her car sweltering as the hot sun beat down through her windshield, gathering her thoughts before she stepped out onto the hot pavement. As she looked out of her side window, she noticed the parking lot was packed with numerous vehicles and people milling about outside the front entrance, most dressed in jeans, t-shirts, and cowboy hats, plus a small contingent in black. She momentarily felt out of place in her bright green ensemble before remembering that she had chosen the color she did to signify rebirth and the start of a new life.

  She noticed her hands were shaking slightly, as this was the first time she had been at a memorial service since her miscarriage years ago, coupled with the fact that she was about to meet Gina’s family for the first time. As she reached over to gather h
er purse and pick up the flowers she had brought, she remembered that she needed to put her cell phone on silent. Just as she was reaching for it, the thing began to chime, and she almost jumped out of her skin. God, I really am nervous, she thought to herself.

  She smiled awkwardly as she looked down at the number, and she answered. “Good morning, Detective Ronson.”

  “Good morning, Audra. I hope I’m not calling you at a bad time?”

  “Well, actually, I’m trying to gather my nerve to get out of my car and introduce myself to Gina’s family, but so far, I’m not having much luck!” Audra said, shocked that she felt heat rising in her cheeks at the sound of Detective Ronson’s deep voice.

  “Why, Ms. Tanner, are you trying to tell me that you are nervous? I’ve never in my life met such a strong woman!” Detective Ronson said, feigning shock and pouring on the Southern accent in his attempt to lighten her mood.

  “I just don’t know what to say to them, that’s all! They have suffered so much for so long,” Audra said, trying to keep the sadness out of her voice.

  “Would it help any if you had an introduction, rather than just going solo?” Detective Ronson replied.

  “That would be, well, wonderful, and much appreciated,” Audra said, grateful that she didn’t have to walk in alone. She then heard the click in her ear as she realized she had lost the call. At the same time, she heard a light tapping on her window. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Detective Ronson standing there, and she couldn’t stop the smile that crossed her face nor the blood that flowed into her cheeks when she noticed he was wearing a green shirt.

  She opened the door and handed him the flowers she had brought, and he extended his hand to help her out. They walked silently to the entrance as Audra thoroughly perused the crowd through her dark sunglasses. Detective Ronson opened the door to the sanctuary and stood beside Audra as she signed the guestbook. He lightly touched her elbow, and she looked up at him as he motioned with his eyes to follow his lead. Audra’s heart began to beat faster as she walked next to him into the sanctuary and they made their way up the aisle, stopping at the front row. Gracing the altar was a large picture of Gina, obviously taken many years ago, sitting atop a beautiful black horse that was grazing in a field of daffodils that looked oddly familiar. Gina’s smile came right through the picture, almost as if her vibrant energy had left the image and was now surrounding the mourners at her memorial, breaking through their sadness and supplying them with renewed energy. The thought of Robert’s description of her electrifying presence crossed her mind.