Chapter Eleven
As Roger Cooper came into the kitchen, he was followed by Jesse’s mother Emily.
Jesse was glad to see them both alive and unhurt.
“What did you mean he arranged an accident? When was this?” Jesse asked his parents.
Roger looked at Emily and then they both looked at Jesse and Sebastian. “It happened so long ago I had almost forgotten about it.” Emily began. “At the time, we didn’t realize just what happened, but earlier tonight when Ethan called us, suddenly it all made sense.”
“Excuse me,” Sebastian interrupted. “You said Ethan called you? When did he do that?”
Emily looked at Sebastian. “After he talked to Jesse the other day, he called us to let us know what was going on. At first, we thought you were wrong about Tucker, and then we began remembering little things that happened when the two of you were growing up. When you two boys were about seven, Joyce and Ethan were going to have another baby. They were so happy and they picked a weekend at your granddad’s to let everyone know. She must have been about four months along because she was just starting to show.” Emily paused and began pacing. “How could we have been so blind all these years?” she asked as she wrung her hands. “Getting back to what happened, we were all out in the yard, Ethan and your Dad were helping Grandpa in the barn. Joyce was taking them a pitcher of lemonade when I heard her scream. By the time I got down to the barn, Tucker was standing there in the doorway and the others were lying on the ground. He had pulled the handle and dropped a ton of hay on his mother, from the loft. Roger, Ethan and Grandpa were up in the loft. They fell through the floor when the floor dropped out from underneath them.”
Emily looked over at her husband. “When we got the hay off of them, your dad had been stabbed by a pitchfork, Ethan’s leg was broken from the fall, and Joyce ended up losing her babies. They had just found out that she was carrying twins. The fall broke your Grandfather’s back. He ended up in a wheelchair for the next two years.” Emily buried her face in her hands for a moment, and then looked at her son. “We thought at the time it had been an accident, now we know it wasn’t. Tucker had tried to kill his parents. And he didn’t care who else got hurt in the process.”
Jesse shook his head. He hadn’t thought about the incident again until just now, like everyone else he thought the incident had been an accident all this time. He wondered what else about Tucker he’d forgotten or was mistaken about. “Do you really think he’ll take them back to the farm?” Jesse asked his parents.
Roger nodded. “The farm is about the only place I can think of that he knows that well and is comfortable in. Over the last ten years, we’ve noticed little things that were changed in small ways when we go out there. At first we thought someone was living there, and then about five years ago, we found out that Tucker had just been there.”
“How did you determine that?” Sebastian asked.
“Joyce found one of her father’s chess sets missing,” Roger answered this. “She was devastated because Tucker had been fond of that particular set. Anyway, when we searched the rest of the house she found it, hidden in Tucker’s old bedroom, under the bed. She left him a note that day and when we went back a couple of weeks later the note was gone.”
“Tell them what happened to the chess set,” Emily demanded.
Roger looked a bit uncomfortable at her tone. “Tucker had destroyed the chess pieces and hacked up the board. It had been a beautiful chess set, until he destroyed it.”
“Why did he destroy it?” Sebastian wanted to know.
Emily looked at him. “Because Joyce told him that he could have it. Her note said that because he got so much pleasure from the chest set she wanted him to have it.”
“I don’t understand.” Sebastian was confused.
Emily looked at her husband before she continued with the rest of her story, “Tucker destroyed the chest set because it represented a fond memory of his childhood and because it was a gift from his mother. He left her a note along with a knife driven into the black queen. The note said that he didn’t want anything from anyone that would treat their son the way they treated him. He blamed them for what happened in his life after the incident in school. Joyce and Ethan were going to make him take responsibly for throwing acid in that poor boy’s face. Now he’s got his parents and his two brothers and God only knows what’s going to happen to them.”
“He’s only about an hour ahead of you. Can you beat him back to the farm and stop him?” Roger asked Jesse.
Jesse looked at Sebastian and shook his head. “He knows the river too well. We have to wait until daylight to start out. He’d be there long before then,” Jesse explained to his parents.
“He’s traveling by boat?” Roger asked.
Jesse nodded. “We thought we had him, but he managed to slip past us a day or so ago.”
“We had him at the farm earlier today but he managed to get away from us then too, didn’t he?” Sebastian pointed out.
Jesse shot Sebastian a dirty look. He hadn’t wanted to be reminded about that and he certainly didn’t want his parents to know what he’d done.
“We could drive, if we could borrow your car.”
“I travel up and down the river all the time. I could take you back up river,” Roger volunteered. “If he’s on the water that would be your best chance of catching him. If you drive, you might beat him to the farm but you might miss the chance of catching him without putting anyone else at risk. If his family is with him, he might be willing to leave them unharmed in order to escape.”
Jesse raised his eyebrows and looked at Sebastian. “It makes sense. If we give him too much time to plan his next move, he won’t hesitate to slit their throats. Besides, he wouldn’t expect us to travel at night. We could be there shortly after he docks.”
Sebastian nodded. “Let’s go then. I want to get there before anything happens to Wyatt.”
“Who’s Wyatt?” Emily asked as they headed out the front door.
“Wyatt is my six year old son your nephew took hostage a few days ago. He’s one of the reasons I’m here.” Sebastian stiffened up as he stated this
“What is the other reason?” Emily asked.
“Tucker murdered my wife almost three weeks ago.”
Emily looked shocked.
When they all got back to the boat, Sebastian noticed something different about the vessel. “Damn it,” he swore as the others noticed the same thing. The boat was listing to one side. They all moved to the side of the boat that was too far in the water and discovered that someone had rammed the side of the boat, damaging the boat’s integrity. There was no way they could go anywhere in this boat. Jesse looked at Sebastian and they both had the same idea.
Then Jesse’s eyes got huge. “Kelly,” he whispered as he ran on board to search the boat. Shouting her name there wasn’t any answer. Tucker had rammed the boat to prevent them from following him. They had just missed him again.
Emily looked at her husband then they both looked at Sebastian. “Who’s Kelly?” Emily wanted to know.
“She’s one of Tucker’s victims we rescued a few days ago.” Sebastian admitted. “And I think your son likes her, a lot.” He hesitated. “Tucker might have just gotten her back.”
Jesse joined then with rage in his eyes. “She’s not here. He must have taken her again.” He glared at Sebastian, they both knew what would happen to her if they didn’t find Tucker and fast.
Sebastian looked over at Roger. “You wouldn’t happen to have another boat would you?”
Roger nodded. “As a matter of fact I do. It’s only a pontoon but it will get us to where we have to go.”
“Where is it?” Sebastian asked.
“Why don’t we go get it and Jesse, and Emily can wait here,” Roger suggested.
Jesse nodded his agreement and watched as Sebastian and his father left the dock.
Emily folded her arms closer to her chest. The evening air had a chill in it that had nothing to do with the weather. “What’s going to happen?” she asked her son. “To Tucker I mean.”
Jesse looked out at the river rather than at his mother. He didn’t want to be the one to answer her question. He didn’t want to be the one to tell her that he might have to kill him.
“Did he really kill that man’s wife?” Emily finally asked. “And who the heck is Kelly? Does she mean something to you?”
Jesse nodded. “Her name was Carolyn. Tucker murdered her just to get Sebastian to come after him. He wanted him because he decided that Sebastian was the best he could find.” He paused then added, “And yes, Kelly means something to me. I have to get her back alive.”
“What did you mean the best what he could find?” Emily frowned.
Jesse looked over at his mother. “The best cop, he claims. You see, no one has been able to catch him all these years and Tucker decided to make Sebastian come after him by killing Sebastian’s wife and taking his son hostage. This gives Sebastian a motive to keep coming after Tucker until he finally catches him. At least that’s what Tucker told Sebastian yesterday.”
Emily gasped. “Oh, my lord.”
Jesse nodded and looked back at the river. “We may never know just how many others Tucker has killed over the years. We know of at least seven women and two, maybe three men.”
Emily frowned. “Why did he kill the men?” She knew in her heart of hearts she didn’t really want to know but she had to ask.
“He finds someone that has something he wants then kills them and takes over their lives. He’s done that at least three times, maybe even more than that. It’s at least three times that we know about.”
“What are you talking about?” Emily asked.
“He has assumed at least three different identities in the last year. One of the men was a boat salesman from New Orleans; another was a computer troubleshooter from Myrtle Grove, Louisiana. At the farm, we found more than one other form of identity. We haven’t had time to check on those yet.”
“Why would he do something like this?” Emily wrung her hands together with worry.
Jesse shrugged. It was hard to say why anybody does anything they do. Tucker had gotten very good at hiding from the law and everyone else for that matter.
An hour later, they were on their way up the river. Emily was strangely quiet and Roger kept looking at her. He could only imagine what she had found out while they were gone.
The river was calm and serene that night and the gentle rocking of the boat was making Sebastian tired. He fell asleep before long and Jesse was glad. He needed the rest.
Tomorrow was a day that Jesse wasn’t looking forward to. Nobody knew what they were going to find once they got to the farm.
“What on earth did you tell your mother?” Roger asked Jesse when he noticed that Emily had fallen asleep and they were the only ones awake.
Jesse shrugged. “She asked if Tucker had really killed Sebastian’s wife. I told her that he had.”
Roger was quiet for a moment. He knew what family meant to his wife, what it meant to him and he couldn’t think of one reason why this was happening to his family. “What else?”
“She wanted to know why Tucker was doing all of this.”
“What did you tell her?”
Jesse shrugged. “What could I tell her? I don’t know the reasons myself.”
Roger knew his son very well and he knew that there was something else bothering him right now. “What else is bothering you?”
Jesse looked at his dad and then out at the water. “I was just wondering what I ever did to Tucker that really ticked him off all those years ago. He said that we have issues to settle but I can’t think of what they are. I mean we had almost the same things growing up. Whatever I got, he did too. You guys treated us the same.”
“Maybe that was what the problem was,” Roger thought out loud. “We were so used to being twins that we treated you two boys like brothers and you weren’t. You were two totally different boys and we treated you the same.”
Jesse nodded. “I thought that too, at first. Maybe he resented being treated that way, but you know there comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to speak up. If something is bothering you, you speak up and tell someone about your feelings. Tucker never did that. At least, I don’t remember him doing that.”
Roger didn’t speak for a moment. “Maybe he did, but we just didn’t understand it.”
“You can beat yourself up about it all you want, but nobody did anything to make him a killer but himself. He had the choice to make and he made it a long time ag.” Jesse gazed his father.
“He’s still your cousin.” Roger pointed out.
“By birth he’s family, but he stopped being my cousin a long time ago. Anybody can accidentally hurt someone one time but Tucker goes out of his way to inflict pain and misery on people. He didn’t have to keep on killing, or even start killing but he chose to. He got good at it. He took pride in his work. He stopped thinking about us as family years ago. Now he’s just another monster that has to be stopped,” Jesse stated. “Sebastian won’t let him get away this time. By tomorrow, Tucker will either be dead or going to jail for the rest of his life, and I can’t really see him going to jail. Not after all of this.”
Roger was quiet as he thought about what Jesse said. He agreed with his son’s way of thinking and was saddened by the thought that Jesse could end up taking his cousin’s life. He knew it wouldn’t be a choice he wanted or one that he would relish, but he couldn’t ignore it either. Tucker had to be stopped.
An hour later, they had reached the half way point.
Sebastian woke up at one point and after taking his cell phone off his belt, he had turned over and went back to sleep.
Emily was still sleeping and Jesse had taken over steering the boat while Roger took a nap. He hadn’t minded traveling at night. While he didn’t know the river all that well, his dad told him what to look for and steer clear of. His dad told him to go steady and slow and he was doing just that.
Jesse was yawning when he heard Sebastian’s cell phone ring. He grabbed it quick and opened it. He heard Tucker’s voice call out Sebastian’s name. “What do you want?” he asked his cousin.
Tucker paused, and then began laughing. “So he didn’t kill you? That’s good, I thought he would have by this time.”
“Thanks, I think. Maybe I’m more use to him alive than dead,” Jesse told his cousin.
“So where is he?”
“He’s not here at the moment. Is there anything I can do for you?” Jesse asked.
“You aren’t the one that I want right now.”
“That’s too bad, I’m the only one you got.”
“Are you sure about that?” Tucker asked slyly.
“Are you talking about your parents and your brothers?” Jesse remarked.
“You followed me back home didn’t you?” Tucker laughed. “Did you like the surprise I left you at the boat? Or perhaps the surprise I didn’t leave behind?”
“That wasn’t very nice, you know,” Jesse bantered. “Ramming the boat. But I do have one thing to tell you, if you hurt Kelly I will kill you.”
“Hey, we have to do what we have to do. I didn’t want you guys to catch up with me, so I had to try and stop you.” Tucker reasoned. “And I didn’t know you cared about the girl.”
“We will catch up with you. You know that. It’s just a matter of time,” Jesse stated as a matter of fact. “Is she going to be yet another thing you take away from me just because I have her and you never did?”
“Maybe, but will you get here in time? Tick tock, tick tock,” Tucker hesitate then said, “But this one is one I had first, remember cousin? I had her first.”
“But you left her behind and I got her then. She’s mine and you can’t have her back again,” Jesse spoke quietly.
“We’ll just see about that, won’t we?” Tucker countered.
“Why are you doing this?” Jesse finally had to ask.
“This was something I’ve been planning a long time, but I had other things to do until now. When this is all over, I’m going to disappear and to do that, I needed money enough to live on. Don’t worry cousin, your time is coming and you won’t even see me until it’s too late. Maybe then people will finally stop comparing us. Maybe then when people look at the two of us they’ll see the real me and know that I’m not just the bad side of you.”
“You won’t get the chance,” Jesse told him. “Tomorrow is your day of reckoning.”
Tucker just laughed. “Well, it will be for some of us but when the sun goes down, we’ll see who’s alive and who isn’t.”
“You don’t scare me Tucker. Not anymore.”
“You were scared earlier today and I didn’t even have my knife out,” Tucker reminded him. “You almost wet your pants.”
“That was before I realized something about you.”
“Oh and what did you realize?”
“That you’re nothing but a coward. You hide what you really are by stealing other people’s lives. You hurt the people that love you the most and have turned your back on anything decent because you’re just too afraid to try.”
Tucker was silent for a long minute. “Are you through trying to bluff your way through this? If that’s what you believe, then it isn’t any wonder you haven’t caught me yet? I’ve given you plenty of opportunities over the years to stop me and you didn’t even know who I was until about four years ago, did you?”
“You can fool most of the people you come across, but you can’t fool me. I know you too well,” Jesse reminded him.
“You don’t know me at all, if you think I’m a coward,” Tucker grumbled. “I’m not afraid of you or anyone else and I’m not afraid to die either. Death isn’t something that scares me. If either of us is a coward it’s you. I’ve been watching you all my life. I’ve seen you back down from me over and over again. You never stood up for me when we were kids, you never once protected me against anyone. The last four years you’ve gotten braver but you still won’t look me in the eyes, will you? There have been times when I’ve stood right next to you and you never took the time to even notice I was there. To you and the rest of the world, I was invisible, well guess what cousin? I’m not invisible, I’m very real and I cannot be stopped.”
“You mean I wouldn’t lie for you, or take a punishment that was yours. Your actions caused the most damage, why should I protect you from that?”
“All I ever wanted was for someone to show me that they thought I mattered. I wasn’t just a pale shadow of you. You helped create what I became.” Tucker was angry and didn’t care if Jesse knew it.
“No you did that all by yourself,” Jesse told him quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“You made the choice to kill, not me. You made the choice to steal other people’s lives not me. You’re the one that turned your back on the rest of us, no one else did it for you.”
“I’m going to enjoy killing you tomorrow. We’ll see then who begs for his life.” Tucker snarled at him.
Jesse quietly folded the phone, cutting the call. He didn’t know if he could take anymore of Tucker’s wild rants.
* * * *
Jesse continued to steer the boat toward Hannibal. He wasn’t paying attention to the river behind him or he would have seen the swimmer following in his wake as he passed yet another river island. He didn’t see the houseboat moored behind the island. It was the same houseboat they had been looking for since they left Mississippi. The black color blended so well with the night sky that you could barely see it in the shadow of the island.
Tucker reached for the boat’s ladder and quietly hauled his body out of the water. It only took him seconds to see where everyone was. By pure chance, he had pulled his boat off the water just an hour ago. When he hung up the phone, he realized they were passing right in front of him. He recognized his uncles’ pontoon and he recognized his cousin standing at the helm. Before the boat completely passed his island, Tucker didn’t think about what he was going to do, he just dove into the water. It didn’t take him too long to catch up with the boat and a few minutes later, he boarded it. When he saw that everyone on the boat was sleeping except for Jesse, Tucker smiled.
He reached for the knife on his belt. The ivory handle worked so well before as a club that he walked right up behind Jesse and hit him with it. Jesse groaned and slumped forward. The boat rocked a bit then settled into a nice steady ride. Tucker grabbed his cousin’s hand and sliced it open just enough to bleed profusely. He wanted everyone to think Jesse was hurt. He smeared the blood around the steering wheel and dribbled it along the floor of the boat. Then he shut off the motor and broke off the key. He didn’t want whoever woke up first to catch up to them too quickly. His cousin had made him angry and he would make him pay for what he had said but he wanted to have a little fun with him first too.
Tucker grabbed his cousin by the arms and dragged him to the back of the boat. It would serve him right if he just dumped his body in the water and let him drown, but Tucker wasn’t feeling that generous tonight. Jesse had said some nasty things to him and he wanted him to see death coming. He wanted to bring his cousin pain and a lot of it.
Tucker and Jesse made very little noise as they slipped down off the boat into the water. Tucker grabbed his cousin under the chin and swam him back to the other boat. He was winded and exhausted by the time they got there and when he pulled Jesse out of the water, Tucker slugged him in the face. He knew he wouldn’t feel it but when he woke up his face would hurt. For now, that would have to be enough. Tomorrow would be the real test. It would all depend on who was still alive when the sun went down.