Spilled Blood

46

The rattle of the van awakened Julia Steele. They were moving.

She was blindfolded, but she could tell from the paler shade of darkness on her eyes that they had left the cold garage and were out in the daylight. The bumps of the road pummeled her body like tiny punches. Her seat was reclined. Her hands were tied securely and uncomfortably behind her back, but her feet were free.

She didn’t know whether to be afraid. The man who had taken her from her bedroom had been surprisingly tender. He’d apologized as he tied her up. He’d asked about her comfort. When it was obvious she was cold, he’d taken a blanket and positioned it gently over her body. His voice wasn’t cruel. Even so, she was a prisoner, taken against her will.

They’d spent the night in the cramped confines of the van. They were inside; she could tell from the quiet, and she’d heard the slam of a garage door. He’d been with her the whole time, in the driver’s seat. He hadn’t touched her. Despite herself, she’d fallen in and out of sleep, but whenever she awakened she felt his presence beside her, and she heard him breathing. As far as she knew, he hadn’t slept at all.

‘Who are you?’ she asked quietly.

He waited a long time before he replied. ‘You know who I am, Mrs. Steele.’

‘Aquarius.’

‘Yes.’

‘That tells me nothing,’ she said.

He was silent again. The truck rumbled on the road, but the pavement felt smooth, like a highway. She wondered where he was taking her. And why.

‘Aquarius is the water bearer,’ he went on.

‘I’m a Christian, not an astrologer.’

‘As am I.’

‘A Christian wouldn’t do what you’ve done.’

His voice remained measured and calm. ‘You’re not a woman to offer lectures on morality.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘You’re married to Florian Steele,’ he said.

‘So?’

‘So he created something evil and immoral. I intend to destroy it.’

‘Florian has done great things,’ she insisted. ‘People who would have starved in this world are alive because of my husband. Is that a sin? Are you one of those anarchists who believe we can go back to the Garden of Eden by wandering around naked?’

‘No.’

‘Then why do you have a vendetta against Florian?’

‘Your husband took away my life, and now I will take away his.’

Julia sucked in her breath. He said it with a matter-of-fact sincerity. ‘Who are you?’ she asked again. When the man next to her was silent, she said, ‘You’re not Vernon Clay. I’d recognize his voice.’

‘So you do know.’

‘What?’

‘You know what Vernon Clay did.’

Julia didn’t want to pretend anymore. They had made a mistake, but she had never dreamed that God would make them pay and pay and pay.

‘Vernon was insane,’ she told him. ‘Yes, it’s true, Vernon spent years poisoning the groundwater near St. Croix. It was horrifying, but we didn’t know it was happening. If you want to believe the deaths there were connected to the chemicals, so be it. When Florian found out about Vernon, he made sure it stopped. He got rid of Vernon, and he cleaned up the land.’

‘Then he covered up the truth. He lied. He cheated. He destroyed.’

‘What choice did he have? Let the company be wiped out by the actions of one deranged psychopath? Would that have been fair to the employees and their families? To the people of Barron? To the farmers?’

‘He killed.’

‘Florian would never do that.’

‘You don’t know him as well as you think. Or have you deceived yourself all these years?’

‘Let me go. Stop this.’

Julia struggled against her bonds, but they held her tight. She was angry now. She wanted to escape. She wriggled in her seat and tried to reach the door handle, not caring if she spilled out of the moving van on to the highway. She found the indentation in the door where it should have been, but the handle had been removed. There was no way out.

She sank onto the seat cushion, breathing heavily, kicking the underside of the dashboard in frustration. The man next to her didn’t say a thing. He made no move to stop her.

‘So why are you doing this?’ she asked quietly. ‘Are you related to one of the children in St. Croix? If so, I am very sorry. It may mean nothing, but our hearts broke with every death.’

Aquarius was silent.

Julia felt a shiver of fear for the first time. She realized that calm, tender men can also be deadly. ‘Tell me something. Be honest with me. Should I make my peace with God?’

‘You mean, am I planning to kill you?’

‘Yes.’

‘What you say to God is up to you, Mrs. Steele, but I have no intention of harming you. I need you to bring your husband to me, and then you’ll be free to go.’

She tried to decide if she believed him. She didn’t think he had a reason to lie. Not now. Then again, this man was intent on violence and revenge. He would say anything if it meant getting what he wanted. ‘Did my daughter figure out who you were?’ she asked.

‘Yes, she did,’ he acknowledged. ‘She was a smart girl.’

‘So you had to stop her from exposing you.’

She heard sorrow in his voice. ‘The only person Ashlynn wanted to expose, Mrs. Steele, was her father.’

‘That’s a lie,’ Julia snapped, but she remembered the light under Florian’s door in the middle of the night. She remembered finding Ashlynn at Florian’s computer. What was she looking for? What did she discover? Julia realized that Aquarius was right. There were some sins you couldn’t cover up. Sooner or later, they rose up to consume you.

It was as if he could see the workings of her mind. ‘You know I’m right, don’t you?’

Julia said nothing. She felt the van drift to a stop. The world around her was quiet. She listened, and she could hear the hiss of the wind, but she didn’t hear any other traffic. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.

He didn’t reply.

‘What are you going to do?’

‘You’re a Christian, Mrs. Steele, so you know the Book of Genesis.’

‘Of course, but what are you talking about?’

‘God looked around at the world He had created and saw that it was so corrupt, so evil, so wicked, that it was beyond salvation. He determined to destroy it so that humankind could start over.’

The man who called himself Aquarius reached over and removed Julia’s blindfold. She squinted at the light, squeezing her eyes shut. Even the gray day felt bright after a night of darkness. When she could see, she craned her neck to stare through the windows of the van.

She knew where they were. She didn’t understand.

And then she did.

‘Oh, dear Lord,’ she murmured.

Aquarius didn’t react. He reached for his phone and dialed. ‘Mr. Steele?’ he said when Florian answered. ‘You know who this is. It’s time we met.’