Life Was Known - 4. Chapter Four: Joseph Carter

Chapter Four: Joseph Carter

James and Ashe closed shop early.

“You’re saying that this is Noah?” Ashe asked skeptically, looking at the child that spun himself on a bar-stool.

“Believe me, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this since yesterday- I… there’s no other explanation than… it being him,” Liam said. James leaned forward on the bar.

“Alright, so if it’s true, there ain’t no kids missing around here,” he said. Liam nodded.

“I know. So either we’re too late, or it hasn’t happened yet. Or, it hasn’t been reported.”

“So wait, how is this kid Noah?” Ashe asked, still staring at the ghost child. Liam sighed.

“...He has his birthmark, his eyes, he says things that Noah used to say, he… said something about the day he disappeared that only we knew. And,” Liam stopped the child from spinning to grab one of his hands, “he dug his way out of Noah’s grave. I saw it.”

Ashe looked at his brother, who gave an honest shrug and shook his head, probably thinking something like “this didn’t happen back in my day”. The redhead looked back at Liam. “So what are you gonna do?”

Liam breathed. “Try and stop him.”

“How the fuck do you think you’re gonna stop a serial killer, huh?” James said, making… Noah, look at him. Liam tossed a hand up.

“Somehow.”

“James is right, man,” Ashe said, “This sounds pretty weird. Like, really pretty weird. Like, tripping on drugs weird.”

“It’s not weird, it’s stupid,” James said. Liam shook his head.

“If you guys aren’t gonna help me, I’m gonna do it my-”

“Oh, woah- that kid’s bleeding,” Ashe said suddenly and pointed at Noah. They all looked at the boy and it was seen that he had a bloody nose. The boy looked at the men before touching his nose and looking at the blood. He looked at Liam with his special eyes.

“...Ow,” he said. Then, without warning, he suddenly passed out and fell off of the bar-stool. The brothers came over from around the bar and Liam picked Noah up from the floor.

“Dude, what the fuck!” Ashe exclaimed like the kid were dying. His brother pushed him. Liam shook his head.

“I don’t...” he didn’t know what to say. What happened?

“Alright,” James said, “We’re going to the house- come on.” He walked to the front door and Ashe put a hand on Liam’s back.

“...Come on.”

They all got in Ashe’s car because it had an extra seat and drove to he and James’ apartment. They shared it, because James couldn’t risk Ashe getting into any bad trouble. Once there, they all headed inside.

The apartment was cleaner than Liam’s house, but there was still beer that littered the place, and the room stank like it was born in cigarette smoke. One more cigarette and James would probably have cancer.

Liam lay Noah on the couch in the main room and James got something for him to clean the boy’s nose, because Ashe was dumb and didn’t know what to do.

“Take off his coat, give him some air,” James said. Liam unzipped the coat and pulled it off of the boy, dropping it to the floor. Ashe pointed from where he stood over the couch.

“...What’s that?” he asked. Liam looked at where he pointed and rose his eyebrows.

“...I don’t… know.” He hadn’t noticed before, but now that Noah was stripped of hiding in over sized clothes, it appeared that there was bruising on his wrists. That wasn’t there before.

“Anyway,” James said, “We should let him rest. And figure out what the hell is going on.” Ashe nodded.

“Agreed.”

Liam watched Noah for a moment before looking at Ashe and James. “...You guys believe me?”

Ashe laughed wildly. “Um, no? How the hell does anyone believe that? Like, what the fuck?”

“Shut up, asshole,” James smacked his brother upside the head. “It doesn’t matter if we believe it or not. What else you got?” he asked Liam.

Liam gave a breath and sat in a chair. “I looked up Noah’s case yesterday.” Ashe and James looked at eachother when he said that, because they knew that it was a touchy subject, especially because yesterday was the anniversary of Noah’s death. Liam saw their faces but continued anyway. “And he was kept alive for two weeks before that bastard killed him. So, if he’s got another kid, we have two weeks to find him.”

James and Ashe were quiet for a while before they both took their own seats. James sat back. “What did he do to him?” he asked. Ashe looked at his brother and gawked in shock at how he even asked that, but shook his head and let it go.

“...Kept him tied up and tortured him. Starved him. ...Hurt him.” Liam knew Noah’s case more than the Dewsome case. Noah was his only brother, after all. The coroner found that he’d suffered third degree burns to his chest and back, and had been whipped repeatedly. He’d also suffered cuts and shallow stab wounds, of four inches or so, to the abdomen.

“Then I’d say we don’t have the luxury to ignore something like this, fake or not. If there is a kid in trouble, he’s gonna have one hell of a bad time.”

“And we only have two weeks to find him.”

“If!” Ashe cried, looking at the two like they were alien. “If all of this is even real! There ain’t even a kid missing!”

“None of them went missing from the same town, idiot!” Liam called out his friend. “And they’re all worthless kids! If he’s already missing, his deadbeat parents probably don’t care enough to report him, or the police think that he just ran away!”

“Yeah, Ashe,” James smiled smugly, “You’re trying to pick a fight with a guy that writes crime for a living.”

“Shut the hell up, douche bag,” Ashe muttered. Liam closed his eyes.

“It’s gonna be hard to find out if a new kid is missing, because the cops’ll probably just blow him off. And none of the kids were taken from the same town.”

“...Don’t they say that killers have like, some kind of geographical ritual or some shit?” Ashe asked stubbornly. Liam looked at him and blinked.

“...Yeah, they do. Get me a piece of paper,” he said. Ashe clicked his tongue and got up to get a notebook and pen, handing them to his friend. Liam took them and looked up the towns of the missing children online.

Writing them all down, there was a vicinity around them. There were three towns that could be the home of the new victim. And that meant that somewhere, in this hand drawn map, was the home of the killer.

Liam circled the town names and looked at the brothers. “These places- these are the guy’s hunting spots.” Ashe sighed and got on his own phone, searching something and scrolling. He scrolled until his eyes widened, and he looked back at Liam.

“...Um… there… is, one,” he said. His brother looked at him like he were lying, and Ashe showed them his phone. James took it and read allowed.

“Joseph Carter, missing since yesterday. Didn’t get home from school.”

Liam pointed. “That’s the MO. What town?”

James recited the town. “It’s an hour and a half away. Pretty shitty place.”

“Well… I guess we’re gonna have to go there.”

“No, no we, Liam!” Ashe whined. His brother threw the TV remote at him.

“Stop bitching.”

“Fuck you, asshole!”

“Ashe, knock it off!” Liam scolded. “The kid’s sleeping, jeez. And fine, fuck you if you don’t wanna go. I don’t mind.”

“Liam...”

Liam shrugged his friend off. He looked at Noah. The boy was still sleeping, but his nose bleed had stopped. James spoke up.

“It’d probably be best if you left the kid here when you left,” he said. Liam looked at him. “I won’t leave him with Ashe, I’ll watch him. ‘Tell you if anything changes.”

Liam pressed his lips together. “...Is this really smart?”

“Nothing’s smart. So take Ashe’s dumb ass with you.”

“James, I’m not going!” Ashe yelled.

l.l

“You blew me off of drinks but need money?” Carlos asked, quirking a dark eyebrow at Liam. Liam sighed.

“I need to finish that book- the deadline’s coming up. Sorry.”

Carlos shrugged and shook his head, pulling out his wallet and sifting through his paycheck. Ashe watched over Liam’s shoulder like it were a girl’s ass. Carlos pulled out some bills and held them out to Liam, who took them and put them in his pocket, away from Ashe’s invading eyes. “What do you need money for?” Carlos asked his friend.

“Gas. I need to talk to the Dewsomes about some stuff on the case,” Liam lied. It wasn’t a total lie; he needed gas money to get to the town Joseph Carter had been snatched from.

“Well, don’t do whatever shit Ashe offers you.”

“Hey, I don’t do drugs, alright? That’s all Sam’s nasty ass,” Ashe defended. Carlos rolled his eyes and put his wallet up.

“Be careful, I heard there’s some black ice outside of town.”

Liam nodded and waved. “Thanks, Carlos.”

“No problem.” Carlos looked at the two before going back into his house. Ashe looked at Liam.

“Can I have like, a twen-”

“Hell no,” Liam scoffed and went to his truck. Ashe disappointingly followed. He’d taken Liam to get his truck from the bar and left his car out front, because he wouldn’t get a ticket because he worked there.

Once they were in the car, Liam drove them to get gas and snacks before making the drive to the town. And Carlos didn’t lie, there was some black ice that made the drive a little shitty.

But, they got to town. Driving through the neighborhoods, there were some missing fliers for Joseph Carter. He’d not come home after school yesterday; brown hair and eyes, he was freckled. And just ten years old.

“What are we doing here?” Ashe asked, looking at the passing houses. “You’d better not talk to that kid’s parents.”

“Why not?”

“Um, because they’ll think you’re crazy? Who wants to hear that their kid’s been taken by a serial killer? Honestly, Liam, this is crazy.”

“Even if it’s crazy, it’s wrong to let this happen again.”

Ashe looked at his friend. “Liam, I know you’re still upset about Noah- I was there when you were getting into trouble! I saw all of it! You have to let this go.”

Liam didn’t look at Ashe. He turned on the radio to drown the man out. “I’m not letting another kid die like that,” he said. Ashe shook his head and looked at the road.

The Carter house was in the trailer park. It looked pretty bad on the outside, rust and moss growing on the sides and the porch falling in. There was a dog chained up that barked when it saw the truck roll in. Ashe looked at Liam.

“I don’t think they’re here.”

“You’d say that.” Liam parked the car and got out to walk up to the trailer, stepping up to the porch and knocking on the door. The dog tried to get him, slobber flying from its mouth as it barked and snapped at him but alas was held back. Ashe came up the porch behind Liam and put his hands in his pockets, waiting to see if anyone really was home or not. After all of the knocking, no one answered. “Hello!” Liam called. “Anyone home?” He looked at the windows, which were covered with tin foil.

No one responded. Ashe looked at Liam. “...I told you so.”

Before Liam could gripe at him, his phone started ringing. He pulled it out and answered it to James. “Hey.”

“Hey. Y’all better get back here, something’s going on with the kid. Weird.”

“...What kind of weird?”

James was quiet for a second, like he was preoccupied. Probably with whatever was going on. “Just… you need to see it yourself,” he answered eventually.

Liam looked at Ashe. “...We gotta go back.”

“We drove all this way for nothing?” Ashe scoffed. Liam narrowed his eyes.

“You didn’t want to come over anyway.” He hung up his phone and put it away before hopping off of the porch. Looking at the dog again, he saw that its food bowls were empty. If someone was leaving home, they would make sure their animal had something to eat. Liam looked back at the trailer as Ashe came down after him. “...Something’s wrong,” Liam said and stepped back up the porch. Ashe scoffed again.

“Like what?”

Liam tested the doorknob- it was open. He turned it and pushed the front door open before stepping inside. Ashe groaned.

“Liam, stop.”

“Shut up,” Liam said absently, looking around the living room. The trailer stank like stale smoke and dog piss, and the lights were on. The living room was a hoarder’s nest that stretched across the sofa and floor, of things like lamps and other random junk that probably didn’t work, but whoever kept them insisted on their valency. The television was on, playing the news, but no one was in the living room to listen to it. Another sign something was wrong: who leaves on the lights and television?

“Liam, stop!” Ashe grabbed Liam’s arm, but his friend wretched himself free and walked through the living room to the kitchen, which had its light on as well.

Immediately, the smell of rancid food hit their noses. Dirty dishes piled in the sink and stacked over the counters, leaving no room for any sort of home cooking. Flies buzzed in the room, but few were hovering over a dirty pot of molded, rotten soup. Maggots crawled on the floor around the trashcan. The rest of the flies took their proper place on the body that sat at the kitchen table, slouched in a chair. Ashe freaked out.

“What the fuck! What- is that real? Liam!”

Liam swallowed down his own shock and stepped carefully to the table. The body was of an adult male. On the table, an open bottle of scotch. On the floor where his arms rested at his sides; a gun. In the back of his head, a bullet wound. An exit wound, determined by the blood splatter on the wall behind the man’s body.

A suicide.

“U-u-uh, yeah, he’s really fucking dead!” Ashe yelled, making Liam look at him. His friend was on a phone call with the police, apparently calling them sometime during the panic. Liam looked back at the body.

The blood was dark and clumpy, coagulated. And his skin looked pale, his fingers and hands to his forearms marred by purple blotches- lividity, a time stamp. He’d been there a while.

...Why kill himself? On the table in front of the man’s body was a picture of a boy, just a normal school photo. The boy was smiling, though. Joseph Carter. This man was his father.

Noah.

Liam looked at Ashe, who was still freaking out to the operator. “Ashe, we have to go,” he said. Ashe looked at him with wide eyes.

“Huh?”

Liam snatched his friend’s phone and hung up before rushing back out of the trailer. Ashe ran after him. “Liam, what the hell are you doing! We have to wait for the police!”

“They’ll want to keep us for questioning! Something’s happened to Noah!”

“Noah? Liam, that isn’t Noah!” Ashe cried in disbelief. “Noah’s dead! I don’t know what that is!”

Liam looked at his friend and grabbed him to drag him to the truck.

l.l

Noah looked beaten. There were bruises on his face and his bottom lip had been split. Liam looked at James.

“...What happened?” he asked. James shook his head.

“I don’t know. They just showed up.”

Noah suddenly gasped awake and sat up on the couch. The child looked around the room before his eyes fell onto Liam. Without warning, the boy started crying. Liam walked over to the him, leaving Ashe to tell James what had happened at the trailer, the man’s voice quick and shaky- he had never been one for horror movies.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Liam asked Noah. The boy wrapped his arms around the man and bawled. He couldn’t get any words out. Glancing back at his friends, Liam saw that James was taking Ashe away to the kitchen so the man could calm down, though James wanted very much to know what was happening with Noah.

Liam woke up to Noah crying. He rolled in bed and looked at his brother, who slept across from him in the bedroom. “What’s wrong?” he asked through a yawn. Noah looked at him and sniffed.

“I had a bad dream.”

“Oh… Wanna sleep with me?”

Noah shook his head. Liam twisted his lips. “...What was it about?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Noah said softly. Liam watched his brother for a moment before closing his eyes again.

“I had a dream,” the boy cried. Liam put a hand on his head.

“...Of what?”

Noah didn’t tell him. He sat up on the couch and rubbed at the bruising on one of his wrists. He didn’t look at Liam, but he stifled his crying and sniffled before asking, “You didn’t find him. Did you?” Liam sat beside the boy on the couch. “...Tell me about the marks,” he said. Noah grabbed the coat and pulled it back on, zipping it shut.

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

“Stop cursing around me.”

“Then tell me, because I know you know.”

Noah looked at Liam before looking at the television, like he were trying to turn it on with his eyes. Liam nudged him and the boy pressed his lips together, huffing through his nose. He wiped his tears away with a coat sleeve.

“...I remembered when he took me.”

Liam gave the boy his full attention, like a detective who got his first good lead. “What?”

“When he took me. ...When you left me.”

“Race you!” Noah yelled at Liam, who gave him a look.

“Race where? Mom’s supposed to pick us up.”

“Well, genius, it’s been twenty minutes- if she was picking us up, she’d be here already.”

“He’s right, you guys should start walking. We’re all heading home,” said Ms. Lisa, the teacher on duty. There were just a few kids left, all the others being taken by their parents or the bus. Liam groaned.

“I don’t wanna walk today,” he said. Noah pat his brother’s arm.

“I’ll race you~” his twin sang. Liam rolled his eyes to look at his brother and groaned. Then he started running, leaving Noah in the dust. Noah laughed and ran after.

“I’m gonna beat you!” Noah cried enthusiastically, running after Liam, who was a pace in front. Liam looked back and stuck out his tongue. He looked forward just in time to hop over a rock jutting out of the road, but his brother wasn’t as lucky and tripped on it, falling onto the pavement. Liam laughed at his brother and kept running.

“I’m winning!” he called happily. Noah sat up on the pavement to look at his knee, a hole tearing in his jeans. He looked after his brother and called out a, “Liam, wait!”, but Liam was adamant on winning for once and kept running ahead.

“He put… something over my mouth and I fell asleep,” Noah spoke. Liam looked at the child’s bruised face.

“...And then what? What else do you remember?”

Noah stared at the floor before looking at Liam. “Nothing.”

“You don’t remember what he looked like? Smelled like? Sounded like?”

“No. ...I don’t want to.”

James came into the room with some pizza slices on a plate. Ashe had his head on the kitchen table, trying to fall asleep, a bottle of scotch in front of him. Noah took a slice of pizza and ate it slowly, still depressed. Until he was allowed to watch TV, which he put onto a dumb cartoon. James looked at Liam.

“Find out anything?” he asked. Liam looked at his pizza and shook his head.

“No. The guy used chloroform to knock him out.”

“What about the bruises?”

“Nothing.”

“Well,” James pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and taking a long, much needed drag. “I don’t think we’re gonna figure out anything for a bit.”

“Joseph Carter was taken yesterday,” Liam spoke, “So we have at least thirteen days to find him.”

James rose an eyebrow and nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of a while.”

“It felt like forever… with Noah.”

James blew out his smoke and glanced at Liam. “We’re gonna find him. Give it time.” He held his cigarette out to the man and Liam took it to take a drag, the nicotine numbing his rampant nerves.

“Fourteen years is time. He’s been doing this since 1978. That’s almost thirty years.” Liam took another drag before passing the cigarette back to James.

“You’re the one who’s so adamant on saving this new kid- you said Noah’s back, and that this guy’s a serial killer, and that he’s got a new kid; stop whining. You said all of that. Stop trying to back out.”

Liam looked at James, who smoked the cigarette like it was nothing. “I don’t even want to believe myself.”

“Well, you don’t have to believe it. Ashe don’t believe it, and he followed you into a dead man’s house.”

“Do you believe any of it?”

“Yeah,” James said and looked at Liam, “I do. But that doesn’t matter. Because my dead brother didn’t come to my doorstep and tell me that a kid was gonna get kidnapped. Yours did.”

Liam sat back in the couch and looked at the TV. Should he believe it?