Epilogue Two
CHIEF MATTHEWS
"Victor, tell me again, exactly how you saw it."
Merchant's temporary partner spouted off an incredible story, a large man packing a truck in the dark of the night.
Several men worked around him, money passing hands, eerie laughter echoing in the wind.
It was the same kinds of stories that so often walked through my door, the ones that proved The King was real.
And yet, we still didn't have a description of the man who was constantly running his operation through Primrose.
I had had my suspicions about Merchant but time and time again, he proved them wrong.
And now that Victor had seen this silhouette of a man tonight when I knew that Merchant was home just confused me all over again.
I growled into the earpiece and hung up, pacing the foyer of a house I had never been able to call a home.
Nearly two decades ago, my wife and my son had been my entire life.
But then Runo began exhibiting symptoms too dangerous for me to handle.
Even with my little bit of pull, I couldn't protect my family—not when my wife was also suffering from HMD.
When Runo was officially diagnosed, I knew it was only a matter of time before he would have to join the same four white walls my wife did.
Until he disappeared and brought me Finn.
Killian was a welcomed surprise and while I chided him for his choices, I prayed he was the version that came home to me. Never in a million years did I think that Finn would ever resurface. And now that Runo once again was walking the streets, I feared for the future of Primrose.
Because for the first eighteen years of my son's life, I made sure no one knew the truth. I buried every last clue and every last body. No one was going to ruin my family.
Needing more, I ripped open the basement door, wary of stepping into Finn's personal space.
I had never ventured down there before but it was time to understand the inner workings of that child.
Heaving out a heavy sigh, I rushed down the steps, appalled at the scene before me.
A board spanned the length of the back wall, faces of people I knew and loved.
Even those where the faces had been carved out, I recognized them as Finn's first targets.
The newest ones had disappeared recently and I just knew that it was Runo's doing.
I stepped forward, sniffing at the dense air in the basement, confused as to why the stench of death met my nose.
I flicked on a light, a cry tearing from my throat at the mangled, decaying body lying on Runo's bed.
A note leaned against it, my name written in calligraphy that was wholly Runo's.
Terror ripped through me as I grabbed the note, knowing that whatever game he was now playing would mean the end of Primrose.
Dad!
I thought you might like to know I'm back.
I also left you a present.
You remember Carlie, right?
I do. She was our first.
All my love,
Your Runo.
Our first. It was nearly 13 years ago when I discovered the poor girl at the mercy of my son's hands.
The city we had settled in ran article after article about the missing woman.
Tales of her beautiful legacy poured through the news.
To this day, I still had no idea why Runo had killed her.
I should have turned him in then. I should have had him locked up.
Instead, I told him that everything would be alright.
That I would protect him. And so I did, by burying her and never speaking of her again.
It wasn't the last time I kept Runo from paying for his crimes.
My phone vibrated and I fished it out of my pocket, my heart dropping into my stomach.
Dad, you remember the games we used to play right? Let's do it again. I called in an anonymous tip to the precinct that there was a foul smell at the house. You probably only have twenty minutes to make Carlie disappear. Good luck!
The games. I remembered those. The ones where Runo would threaten my livelihood in exchange for protection.
They started nearly a year after Carlie's death but I was already fucked at that point.
Carlie's death was on my hands as were a few others Runo had killed.
If I tried to turn him in, he would turn around and spill every last crime I had participated in.
And that couldn't happen.
Because protecting my family and my image was everything.
Maybe a little bit of that psychosis was hereditary after all.