Chapter 24 - Caleb
CALEB
The police insisted that Basia and Mrs. Langford get checked out by real doctors. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, both women are healthy and whole. Detective Mann has been questioning us for what feels like hours as we wait for Wheeler to get out of surgery.
The governor seems slightly annoyed, but I think that might be hiding embarrassment—if the stalker is to be believed, Governor Langford dismissed a lot of cruelty and suffering.
“Who was he?” I ask the detective. Basia is leaning against me, her arm around my waist—something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by her eagle-eyed father, even as he’s preoccupied with soothing his wife and answering the detective’s questions.
“Thanks to the birth certificates your colleague uncovered,” Mann begins, “we’ve identified him as David Waterbury.”
“Waterbury,” Basia repeats with a shiver. “Like the woman… Ana Danbury.”
“Exactly,” the detective confirms grimly. “They were found near enough in time and location that we hypothesize they were somehow connected.”
I grunt. “No shit. He said there was a cult. There are whispers about it on the darkest parts of the internet. Your investigations into it keep being impeded and have been for years. It was her body parts he sent to Basia for a reason.”
Mann’s face turns slightly purple as his nostrils flare. “I did the best I could with the leeway I was given.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. “And what about Danbury? Does he have her locked up somewhere, missing pieces and starving?”
Mann rubs a hand down his face. “Now that we know who he was, we found where he was. And Danbury’s remains in the basement of the shithole apartment building he was living in.”
Basia gasps and buries her face in my chest. We suspected she might be dead, but it sucks having it confirmed. I rub her back absentmindedly, my gaze going to her father.
“Why did you dismiss the investigations?” I ask mildly, trying not to alienate my future father-in-law.
Langford looks at his wife, a few steps away, locked in a conversation with Morgan—who insisted she come and see Basia’s well with her own eyes—and Damien. Then he releases a weary sigh.
“The case was misrepresented, I see that now. I was told these kids were orphans from a meth lab bust in the area, confused and maybe even addled. I dropped the ball, and now my wife and daughter almost paid the price.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” Basia sniffles, pulling away from my chest to look at her father. “Don’t blame yourself for what these sick people did.”
Langford gives her a weak smile. “Thanks, honey. But I see now that this goes way beyond a patch of Massachusetts. Children with similar tales were found all over the country. I’ll personally make sure the FBI takes a long, hard look into it.”
“Just be careful, Tom,” Katarzyna says as she sidles up to him. He takes her under his arm, mirroring my position with his daughter. “These people are clearly dangerous.”
“So, that’s it?” Damien asks in his low, serious tone. “The threat has been eliminated?”
I scoff, shaking my head. “I don’t think it’ll fully be over until these so-called prophets are taken out. The Sanctum of Ash seems to have their corrupt fingers everywhere.”
“But the Langford family is safe now,” Mann buts in, possibly feeling sidelined. “You were targeted by a sick individual, not some shadow organization.”
“No thanks to you,” Morgan says sharply. “Basia saved herself. And Killian Cross saved Mrs. Langford.”
“Call me Kasia, please,” Basia’s mom interjects, warmly.
Mann blinks at Morgan, probably not expecting a talking-down from a petite, curvy pregnant woman.
“Hey, it was all the self-defense classes we took,” Basia says to Morgan, trying to defuse the situation.
Morgan snorts. “Yeah. We went to like three? And then these two barged into our lives.” She uses her thumb to point at me and a smug-looking Damien.
I watch Mann quietly step back to where some uniforms are talking. Coward.
That’s when the doctor comes out, wiping his brow. Coleman jumps up from where he was leaning against the far wall, sprinting over.
“Matilda Wheeler’s family?” the doctor calls, looking at our rag-tag bunch curiously.
“We’re here for her,” the governor says, making the surgeon do a double-take.
“Governor Langford!” he exclaims, and Basia groans quietly. My lips tug up into a smile. She’ll be alright.
And so will Matilda Wheeler.