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“Please,” Wren whispered desperately as she wrapped her arms around her abdomen. “Please don’t tell anyone. Jonah is already so sick, and I can’t have him grow up with the…”
“With the stigma of being the biological son of a serial killer?” Brook shook her head as she leaned forward and collected Jacob’s photograph. “I would never do that to your child, Mrs. Cary. All I want from you is to know every little detail of your encounter with my brother.”
Wren took time to study Brook, as if she were ascertaining just how much she could trust a stranger. It wasn’t like she had any other options.
“He was sitting at the bar when I walked in,” Wren shared as she somehow managed to hold herself even tighter. Brook had observed the way her sweater stretched over her shoulders. “I took a seat on one of the stools. My husband called me, angry that I hadn’t taken his advice to fly out earlier in the day. We fought, as usual. By the time that I hung up, the bartender had set a martini down in front of me. It was courtesy of…him.”
Brook had noticed almost immediately that Wren couldn’t bring herself to mention Jacob by name. Who could blame her, really?
“He told me that he’d ordered me a drink to brighten my night. I think I mentioned something about there not being a bright spot in my life for quite some time, and then the conversation turned to books. I love to read, and we connected over the fact that books can be an escape from reality. He seemed so…kind.”
Brook’s stomach lurched at such a description of the monster who had shared her childhood. Kind was not an adjective that should ever be used in the same sentence as her brother.
“Any book in particular?” Brook asked, wanting as many details as possible of the conversation in question. “Any specific passages? Authors?”
“No.” Wren cleared her throat. “After my second martini, I asked if he would return to my room with me. It was obvious to me that he had no idea that I was married to the infamous Senator Cary. We had sex, and then he left without another word.”
Brook camouflaged her disappointment. She’d been hoping to gain so much more out of this discussion. She met Wren’s gaze without any judgement.
“Thank you for your honesty, Mrs. Cary. I give you my word that you have nothing to worry about when it comes to my knowledge of the truth. It’s your story to tell, if and when that time ever arrives.”
Wren exhaled rather shakily as she vigorously nodded her understanding and appreciation. The color still hadn’t returned to her face, but she had loosened her arms so that her sweater relaxed against her skin.
“Why do bad things happen to good people?” Wren asked figuratively after Brook stood from her seat. “When I was young, a friend of mine went missing at the age of twelve. Gone. Vanished into thin air. She used to pick up pennies on the sidewalk and give them to the animal shelter in my hometown. I don’t know why that stuck with me all these years, but I think of her often. Both of my parents died in a car accident before my twenty-first birthday. And now my Jonah. Such a sweet, sweet little boy. It’s so hard for me to fathom how such pure innocence can be born from sheer evil. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the tainted one.”
Brook had only remained near the table out of respect for Wren’s musings. Had she walked away when she’d initially stood, she might never have heard the most interesting part of Wren’s reflections. According to Wren’s background check, she had been born in northern Illinois, around three hours south of where Brook and Jacob had been raised in their childhood home.
“Mrs. Cary, what was the name of your friend?” Brook asked guardedly.
“Stella Bennett.”
Brook relaxed somewhat, not recalling such a name from when she was young.
“Stella went missing in 1996. She was visiting her uncle near Peoria, and he took her camping one summer. For the longest time, the police thought that he had something to do with her disappearance, but they couldn’t prove anything, because her body was never found.”
Wren had no idea that she’d caused Brook’s chest to tighten to the point of pain. The year 1996 was pivotal in Jacob’s life. Brook had been able to trace that specific year as to when everything had changed for Jacob. He’d no longer been the brother who would color with her and listen to her knock-knock jokes. He’d become withdrawn after they’d attended summer camp, and it wasn’t long afterward that his friends had stopped coming by the house.
Brook had spent her entire life wanting to prove the latter of the nature versus nurture debate, because she couldn’t fathom her brother had been born to kill. Yet if she discovered that he was responsible for Stella Bennett’s disappearance, it could very well be that he’d come into his own that summer…that he’d always been that way, and she just hadn’t wanted to face reality.
“I was supposed to join her that summer, but I got sick right before our trip,” Wren shared with a sad smile. “I often wonder if Stella would still be alive if I’d been there. But then I think that maybe I would have died with her. I was also supposed to be in the car with my parents the day that they hydroplaned into a telephone pole. How long can one escape death?”
Once again, Wren didn’t expect a response. Brook couldn’t have given one if she’d tried, so she simply turned around and made her way back to Graham. He monitored her closely until she was mere feet away, which was when he stood and reached for her purse, purposefully leaving behind their coffees. He then rested his hand on her lower back and escorted her out of the cafeteria without comment, somehow knowing that she needed a moment of privacy.
Once they’d turned the corner, he stepped in front of her to stop their progress. He carefully took the photos from her hand and tucked them safely inside her purse, waiting patiently for her to process what she’d just heard from Wren Cary.
“Graham, I think I know what happened at summer camp in 1996,” Brook murmured as she leaned her head back against the wall. She closed her eyes, wishing it was just as easy to shut out the past. “And if I’m right, I have my answer.”
Nature versus nurture.
“Jacob Walsh was born evil,” Brook finally admitted as she lifted her lashes. It was as if she was opening her eyes for the first time in her life. “It’s no longer about nature versus nurture, Graham. It’s nature versus nature, and I need to win.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jacob Walsh
December 2023
Friday — 6:29pm
