“What happened after he took her upstairs?” Phoenix asked.
“Jed had me get the tape from his bag - to cover the kid’s mouth. I didn’t know why he wanted his mouth covered because the kid wasn’t making any noise…all he was doing was crying. I didn’t want to do it, but Jed put the gun to my head so I did. The way the kid looked at me,” I whispered. I wiped away the tears that began to fall again. “But I couldn’t help him. I…I didn’t know how to tell him that. I was such a fucking coward.”
“You were a kid-”
“Yeah, but so was he!” I said angrily. “I knew what Ricky was like, but I got into that car anyway. I did everything he told me to do because I was more afraid of him than anything else. Even when he wasn’t in the fucking room, I was still scared shitless.” I tried to calm myself down so I could finish my story and get the hell out of there.
“When the father didn’t tell Jed where the safe was, he pulled out his knife and put some tape over the father’s mouth. I thought he was going to stab him. But then he went after the kid. I tried to stop him, but he pushed me aside and when I grabbed his arm, he knocked me down. I was too out of it to do anything after that. He started slicing the kid up…to make the father talk.”
I felt rather than saw Phoenix’s hand on my knee as he pushed some tissues into my hand.
“The father was screaming, even with the tape. And I could hear the woman upstairs…it was a fucking nightmare. When Jed finally stopped and let the father talk again, he started begging Jed not to hurt his wife and kid anymore. That he’d do anything. That was when I knew there was no safe…there never had been. Jed actually agreed with me when I told him that. I thought it was over…”
“But it wasn’t,” Phoenix ventured.
I shook my head. “He slit the guy’s throat,” I whispered hoarsely. “Like it was nothing…like it was something he’d done a thousand times. The kid started screaming, but he still had the tape on his mouth. I threw up, but there was nothing in my stomach anymore. My brother came downstairs…he was covered in blood. The woman had stopped screaming.”
I stopped because I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Everything hurt. My eyes, my nose, my wrist, my stomach. “My brother and Jed started arguing. I still couldn’t process what was happening. My only thought was to get help. So when Jed and Ricky weren’t looking, I picked up a cordless phone from the table behind me. Ricky went back upstairs to deal with some evidence he was worried about. Once he was gone, Jed started tearing up the rest of the room…I don’t know why.”
“Probably so the cops wouldn’t zero in on just the paintings and realize a wall safe had been the target.”
“Why would that matter?” I asked.
“Because a wall safe isn’t a common thing. It would have led the cops to believe it was an inside job…that someone who knew the family and knew they had a wall safe had told Jed and Ricky about it. By trashing the room, Jed was making it look like a regular robbery.”
I nodded in understanding. I hadn’t even considered that. “While Jed was doing that, I dialed 911, but kept the phone pressed against my back so he wouldn’t hear the operator talking. I was hoping they’d be able to trace the call or something, like they do on TV. To this day, I don’t know if it worked. I wasn’t paying attention to Jed, so I didn’t see what was happening until it was too late.”
“He went after the boy,” Phoenix murmured.
“Yeah. He began stabbing him. I forgot all about the phone, but before I could try to stop him, Ricky came back into the room.”
“He saw you with the phone.”
I nodded. “He didn’t say anything,” I said softly. “He didn’t even look pissed…he looked almost glad. Like when he’d been talking about all the money we were going to steal. He walked over to me, not even looking at what Jed was doing to the kid once. He just took the phone from my hand, hung it up and then he stabbed me.”
I could feel the scar on my side tingling, though I knew it was likely just my imagination.
“If Jed hadn’t stopped him, he would have killed me for sure. Jed told Ricky there’d be too much evidence to cover up. Ricky told Jed to take me out of the house while he cleaned up the evidence…I was still conscious and able to walk, but I was bleeding pretty bad. I saw Ricky grab the bottle of bleach he’d taken upstairs with him, so I assume he used that to get rid of my blood.”