Chapter Eleven
The revelation was horrifying. It was always a tragedy for a parent to outlive their child, but to have your own child experience something so violent…so traumatic—I couldn’t even imagine what Abraham must have went through. When I had asked Abraham about Julia, he became distant. Now I knew the reason why.
“What happened?” I asked. My heart sank into my stomach and hot tears collected at the corners of my eyes knowing Abraham suffered through such a tragic event.
“Three days before the election, Julia disappeared from her home late in the evening. She was playing outside on their large family estate and when the servants went outside to call her in for supper, she was gone,” Shadow said. “The Constantine estate was searched thoroughly but there was no trace of her. She had vanished.”
He paused and looked into his empty glass. “There was a mutual agreement between Abraham and my father to suspend the elections until Julia was found. Using the vast network of the Midnight Society, almost every police officer in the city was tasked to find her. It was a grueling search and emotions were running high. Everyone clung onto that small glimmer of hope that she would be found, alive and well, including Calisto and I.”
“Two days later, her body was discovered in an abandoned shed on the farmlands in the outskirts of the city,” Shadow swallowed hard. “I remember eavesdropping on a conversation my father had with my mother the night Julia’s body was found. I’ll never forget what he said—‘I never knew a human could scream like that,’ referring to Abraham after seeing the body. That night was the first time I ever saw my father cry.”
“Shadow…” I began to say, but I found that all words escaped me at the moment.
“When the autopsy report came back, they said that her larynx was crushed and she had been sexually violated by a metal instrument. There were no traces of any DNA, which made it difficult to identify the sick piece of shit that raped and murdered her.
“My father agreed to suspend the elections completely until this matter was dealt with. He vowed to hunt down Julia’s killer and make him suffer for what he did to the Constantine family. My father led his own personal investigation into Julia’s murder and it became an obsession for him.
“Weeks later, another tragedy struck the Constantine family. Abraham’s wife was suffering from depression, wracked with guilt over her daughter’s death. One night, she took her own life. Abraham found her in the bathtub, wrists sliced open with a steak knife, her eyes open and still red from tears.
“This was enough to drive Abraham to madness. For the next six months, he was a recluse. He didn’t leave his house. He was horrified and devastated. Lord only knows what went through his head during this time—what ghosts haunted his thoughts.
“My mother and father were there every night to check on him, worried that Abraham would follow in his wife’s footsteps. Understandably no one could help ease his pain.
“Meanwhile, the investigation continued. Nine dark months passed without a single break. My father was giving up hope. His obsession to find Julia’s killer was taking a toll on both his physical and mental health. He had trouble sleeping, and often spent long, bleary-eyed nights staring at Julia’s picture and scouring over case files, which he had scrutinized thoroughly. As well, he had grown distant to us, his children.
“I suspected that he was afraid to look at us, terrified by the idea of us becoming victims like Julia.”
“Please tell me this isn’t one of those unsolved mysteries,” I said. “Poor Abraham.”
Shadow nodded.
“Nine months after Julia’s body was discovered, there was another rape, a seven year old girl similar to Julia’s physical profile—brunette hair, blue eyes, delicate white skin. Luckily this girl managed to escape, scraping some of the bastard’s skin underneath her fingernails during the initial struggle. The girl’s physical descriptions of the man fit the picture that the criminal profilers painted: a forty-year old white male, heavyset and with a speech impediment. The sick fuck tried to rape her with a brass cane. The DNA results lifted from underneath the girl’s nails confirmed his identity as well.
“His name was John Taluzzi, a contract worker that did yard maintenance for not only Abraham’s estate, but my father’s as well. When my dad found out, he used all his influence down at city hall to persuade the police to turn a blind eye to this pedophile while the Midnight Society extracted its own brand of justice on him.”
“Why not let the police handle it?” I asked. “Send this degenerate to prison where he’ll never bother anyone again?”
“The system is flawed,” Shadow spat. “They protect child molesters in prison, giving them private cells so that the other inmates can’t get to them. Tell me this; in what lifetime do these sick pieces of shit deserve to be protected?”
I had no answer for him.
“My father, along with some of the more unruly members of the Midnight Society, hunted Taluzzi down, beat him senseless, and brought him to an abandoned factory where he was chained up like a dog. They tortured the pedophile some more, until he finally confessed his crimes. The filth described every detail of Julia’s rape to my father.”
“The Midnight Society tortured him?” I asked, frowning.
“Yes,” Shadow replied, his voice full of conviction. “He deserved far worse than he received. Julia was innocent. Julia was a ray of light in a grey, overcast sky. Julia was the first person outside my family to care about me.”
“I’m sorry Shadow,” I said. “Sometimes it’s hard to dig up the past. You don’t have to finish the story if you don’t want to.”
Shadow shook his head. “It took a long time for me to get over Julia’s death, but knowing that John Taluzzi was captured and dealt with helped me through the grieving process. I’m thankful that the demons that haunt me now don’t include Julia’s restless spirit. Sometimes, only death can make things right.”
“It’s sad that you think like that,” I said, disagreeing with Shadow’s skewed sense of justice. It had always been my belief that no single person could make the decision to end a person’s life, no matter how much they deserved to die. Law and order just didn’t work that way.
“The legal system has failed too many times,” Shadow said, swirling a single drop of whiskey inside the empty glass before setting it down on the table. There was a brief pause while he collected his thoughts. “When Abraham was told that his daughter’s killer was caught and chained like an animal, he finally decided to leave his house for the first time in over six months. I still have the newspaper clippings with photos taken of him stepping outside. His hair and beard, once a chestnut brown, was now grey and brittle. He looked frail.
“I’ll never know what happened that day in the abandoned factory. I do remember my father coming home and telling my mother that it was finally over. It is every father’s right to avenge the murder of their child, and he was glad to give that precious gift to Abraham.”
“Abraham killed that man, didn’t he?” I asked, despite knowing the answer already. I just couldn’t picture that sweet old man harming anyone. However I could sympathize with the rage he must hav e felt towards Julia’s killer.
Shadow ignored my question and continued on with his story.
“With Julia’s death finally avenged, it was inevitable that the lingering question about the Midnight Society’s leadership would resurface. When my father met with Abraham to discuss reopening the elections, Abraham responded by withdrawing his right to the Society’s throne. He told my father that with Julia and his wife’s death, the Constantine line was coming to an end. From that point on, the Tremaine’s would have complete leadership over the organization and that Abraham would stand by my father’s side as his trusted advisor, his loyal friend, and as his brother. We were the only family he had now.”
I was flabbergasted as I took in the entire story.
“I guess that explains the bond between Abraham and yourself,” I said.
“He’s family to me,” Shadow replied. “It’s just unfortunate that it took the death of Julia to unite the Constantine’s and the Tremaine’s so closely together.”
“You were five at the time. How do you remember all the details?” I asked.
“I found the case file when I was nine and read every word in it and studied every picture. It’s impossible to keep secrets buried within the organization. Someone always has a file of secrets to share.” Shadow rose from his chair, picking up his empty glass. “You look like you can use another drink,” Shadow said. “How about we have one more and then we head out for dinner. We have reservations at one of the most exclusive restaurants in the entire city, the Black Swan. Everyone’s talking about it.”
“It’s not on the tip of my tongue,” I stated.
“Anyone who pays six figures in taxes is talking about it,” Shadow corrected himself as he walked over to the bar. He waved Collin over and placed his order.
As we waited for our drinks, Shadow turned to me and whispered into my ear, his gentle breath sending shivers throughout my body. I felt myself go wet as I breathed in his scent.
“Everything I told you about Abraham, keep it to yourself. Though everyone knows about his past, we’ve kept it long buried. The old man seems happy now, though you can still see that from time-to-time he feels the hurt all over again.”
I nodded, “Of course.”
Collin returned and handed me vodka with two limes.
“You remembered,” I smiled at Shadow.
“Some things I can never forget,” he stated. Though his voice was calm and playful, he looked at me with dark, haunted eyes.
I knew he wasn’t referring to my drink.
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