Her Only Hero

Chapter 32

By the time the police approach us again, Wyatt had moved to lean against the wall of the house beside the front door. Axel rests back, almost lying down, his shoulders pushed against the post holding him up. Jonah snores lightly. I moved halfway down the stairs to lean again a railing post like Axel had done at the top.

I watch Misty sat on the bottom stairs, sorting and playing playing with flowers she picked from the garden beside the stairs.

She drifted off to sleep for less than a minute and jumped awake like she had done in the car. "I want to leave," she told me, her voice weak and soft.

"I know," I said, wanting the same thing. "Soon." I had no idea if I was lying to her or not, but I wanted to believe it as much as she needed to hear it.

She stood up, explaining that she didn't want to sleep here, and made her way to the bottom of the stairs. As she started picking the flowers from the ground, I warned her not to disappear from my sight, and after collecting a handful, she sat on the last step. Picking the petals off. Sorting them into several small bunches. Wrapping and weaving their stems together. Anything to keep her distracted and awake.

Choosing the four best looking flowers, she handed them out to us. Axel took his and rested it on his knee. Wyatt held onto his for a while before he sat it down next to him. She placed Jonah's on top of his slinged arm and it hasn't moved since. And I still fiddle with mine between my fingers.

The fragile stem has split and bent. A single petal fell between my legs minutes ago.

She's counting the ones she has left when an officer walks over to us to tell us we can leave.

"Someone will be in contact with you later," he says, "if we need answers to anymore questions or we need you to update your statements, but for now you're good to go.

Axel stands and gives Jonah a small nudge on his good arm with his foot to wake him up. Opening his eyes and looking around, Axel tells him, "We can leave now."

Before the policeman walks away, I catch his attention and ask if we're in trouble or can expect any kind of punishment or consequence.

With a warm half smile, he reassures us that although there will be an investigation we shouldn't have a problem unless they find proof that we're lying or believe we had intent to kill.

He walks with us back to our car and explains the situation after letting us know that we can't talk about it with anyone.

After hearing all the information we've given them, everything seems to make sense and line up with everything they have suspected for months.

He tells us that they've been investigating Nathan and Chris for a while now for multiple crimes. Apparently, they are both suspected for multiple thefts and for fraud. Chris has been on their radar for a while, suspected for several beatings and even a couple of missing people and an unsolved murder of a man two years ago.

I can't help my slack jaw as I listen to him talk as if he's explaining a math equation.

With no evidence able to convict them, and no witnesses or victims coming forward to testify in court, they've never been able to catch them. They suspected they had a safe-house somewhere, but they were never able to locate it or prove it. So, the investigation always came to a stand-still.

They believe the forest where the two of them lie now, hold at least two missing people under the earth. A team will be brought out later to search for bodies and other pieces of evidence.

We're lucky to be alive, I hear him saying under his words. I believe it.

If everything they say is true, we were in a lot more danger than we thought. Nothing would have stopped him. We would have been his next victims he had to hide.