Freaks Must Die by Joel Goldman

Author:Joel Goldman [Goldman, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612180229
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2012-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Tell me about the kidnapping,” Matt said.

She let out a deep breath, jamming her hands in her jeans pockets.

“It happened early Friday morning. Jacob and Andy were at a playground on the east side of Central Park near Seventy-Ninth Street. It’s just a few blocks from where they live. Jacob likes to take him there early in the morning before the other kids get there.”

“Because Andy’s different?”

“Yeah, the other kids are pretty brutal.”

“How different? What kind of freak is he?”

“Andy is a shedder. Every six months or so, he sheds his skin, like a snake. His skin dries out and gets all flaky and scaly. He itches like crazy and pretty soon he starts rolling around on the ground until he wiggles out of his skin. When he’s done, he’s as smooth and pink as a newborn baby.”

“What happened on Friday?”

“Jacob told me two men showed up out of nowhere. They grabbed Andy and told Jacob he’d get a call at the store with instructions and that if he wanted to see his son again, he’d leave the cops out of it.”

“How did you end up being the one to deal with the kidnappers?”

“Jacob asked me to do it. He had a bad heart and was afraid of the stress.”

“Then why did he take the diamonds to Pennsylvania?”

Carrie sighed. “He insisted. I begged him to let me go, but he said it was too dangerous.”

Matt remembered how frightened and pale Jacob had been, how he was sweating and struggling to breathe. It was impossible to know whether Jacob would have survived the ransom exchange if he hadn’t intervened. And it was equally impossible for Matt to ignore the likelihood that his intervention had escalated the stress on Jacob’s heart just enough to kill him.

“Do you have a picture of Andy?”

She fished her cell phone out of her pocket, scrolled through her photos, and handed the phone to Matt. The picture was of a towheaded boy, five or six years old, smiling for the camera, looking for all the world like any other kid—bright eyed, carefree, and normal.

Except for the red, scaly skin stretching from his hairline across his cheeks, nose, and mouth like a mask. The scales extended past his chin and down his neck before disappearing beneath his collar. Matt tried to imagine a day spent in Andy’s skin but couldn’t.

“Ellen Trantham told the sheriff’s detective in Pennsylvania that she and Jacob didn’t have any children. Why would she do that?”

Carrie shrugged. “Having a kid that’s a freak isn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially if you try to keep it a secret.”

“I get that, but could she have been embarrassed or ashamed enough to let the kidnappers kill Andy?”

Carrie looked past Matt for a moment, shaking her head and sighing. “Mothers kill their kids every day.”

Matt had seen the stories on the news. One woman let her car roll into a lake with her kids trapped inside. Another locked her child in a closet and let her starve to death.

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