quiet. I didn’t want to deal with the spectacle that would come from telling the truth. I didn’t want my parents stealing any more life from me than they already had, and in that self-absorbed decision I was a part of something that I will carry around with me for the rest of my life.
After my recovery, when on the verge of being released from the hospital, Agent Carlson came storming into my hospital room and threw a handful of pictures onto my bed. They were crime scene photos, and I remember turning away at the sight of a dead girl sprawled out in a puddle of blood. Agent Carlson put her face close to my ear and hissed, ‘Delanie Morrison, a twenty-one-year-old waitress, was murdered last night on her way home from work.’ She pointed to a picture of the girl’s thigh, which had the number twenty-four carved into it. ‘Every number after twenty-three is more blood on your hands,’ she told me.” Piper’s eyes were spilling over with guilt and tears.
“She was right, I could have prevented that murder and because I didn’t, made me just as guilty as my father. That idea destroyed me.” Remembering the day she had found out about Delanie was harder for Piper than the day she had almost died. She had never felt more alone, more immoral and guilty in her entire life. She felt the air in her lungs turning to gravel. She wanted to pull open the door of the truck and jump out. She begged Bobby to pull over.
When the truck came to a stop in a small clearing on the side of a quiet stretch of road, Piper pushed the door open and jumped out, gasping for air. Bobby ran around the truck to try to calm her in any way he could. What she did next took him completely by surprise.
Piper unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down slightly on one side, exposing her upper thigh. Bobby’s heart broke at the sight of a large, circular raised scar from the number twenty-three carved in her leg. He had asked for the truth and assumed it would be murky and tainted in some way. But he never imagined anything like this.
“I could have stopped him, but instead I kept my mouth shut. After I saw those pictures of Delanie I told Agent Carlson everything. I promised to testify against my father and do anything I could to make sure he was brought to justice. It didn’t matter though, nothing would bring back Delaine, give her parents back their child.” Piper was frantic and her words were hardly coherent.
Bobby came to her slowly. He took her hand from the top of her jeans brought it to his mouth and kissed it. He touched the raised skin of her scar and stared into her eyes. “That was not your fault. What Carlson did was a technique to get you to give her what she needed. They literally train you on this stuff, on getting victims to talk. Your father was the murderer. The blood is on his hands, not yours. The important thing is that you told her everything you knew and they were able to catch him. You did the right thing, and it’s understandable that it took you a little time to process it all.”
“You don’t get it! I’m here in North Carolina because they haven’t caught him. I waited too long, and he had time to run. Someone leaked to the press there was a break in the case and they were pursuing a person of interest due to an eyewitness ready to testify. He is one of the most wanted men in America and no one can seem to find him. I was put in witness protection until he’s apprehended, and I can be called to testify against him. He’s still out there.”
Piper wrapped her arms around Bobby’s waist and rested her head on his chest. Carrying this burden alone for the last two years had been suffocating. Knowing she could say this all aloud and someone would still be there to hold her was liberating, even if the rehashing of her mistake was painful.
“Piper, I’m so sorry that you had to go through all that, and you’ve spent all this time blaming yourself. You’re not alone in this. I’m still here, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry I doubted you, but I’m glad you told me. Living with that burden by yourself is too