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CHAPTER SEVEN

Noel

Phoenix stared at the tabletop, his finger brushing over an imperfection in the wood. His voice was level as he recounted that night.

“I was leaving the mall with my friend Diane. We’d had to pick up new shoes and leotards for our class.

She was parked somewhere different from me, so we split off.

When I got to my car, I hit the button, it unlocked, I gripped the door handle, and pulled.

I remember someone pressing against my back.

His hand covered my mouth, I felt a prick in my neck, and then I was out. ”

The guy had injected him with something. It could be nothing, but if he’d gotten his hands on a drug that wasn’t easily accessible, that could be used to track him down.

“Do you know what drug he used?” I interjected. Agent Rose glared at me, likely because he was promised we wouldn’t talk, but fuck him.

“No, it was the only time he ever used it.”

I relaxed in my seat, and Rose continued. “When you woke up, were you in the same place where those hikers found you?”

“Yes, I never left there.”

“And when you got there, were you alone or were there others with you?”

Phoenix bit his bottom lip briefly. “Guy and a girl.”

He’d been found alone, so the other two were likely victims we’d already seen in the media.

“Mr. Briar, if I showed you some photos, could you tell me if you recognize any of them?”

He nodded, and Agent Rose removed pictures from his bag. A quick glance proved they were the photos likely used for the missing persons, so they weren’t graphic.

He laid out the pictures of Kimberly Henning, Richard Bells, Henry Miller, and Rochelle Hammer.

Phoenix looked at each one carefully. I wasn’t sure how exposed he’d been to the other people in that shed with him and if he’d even be able to identify anyone.

His brow crinkled as his finger glided across all four photos. He stopped at Henry’s but then pulled away.

“No.”

“No?” Rose was shocked. “Did you see the faces of the other two that were in there with you?” Phoenix nodded again. “And none of them are any of these four?”

“Why?”

“This is Kimberly, Richard, Henry, and Rochelle. All of them were killed by the man who took you.”

Phoenix pursed his lips. “I had a feeling he was going to kill them.” It was said in such a haunting, detached way that if I hadn’t known he was a victim I’d have wondered if he were behind it all.

“And you don’t remember their names?”

“No.”

Agent Rose took out another photo. “Do you know her?” He showed him another missing person’s photo.

This time Phoenix’s eyes widened. “Yes. She was there.”

This must have been the last victim found. Her name was Jennifer Fenberg, and she was discovered in Kindley Park across town. Same as the others, she’d been dressed like a doll, posed on the ground with dead flowers all around her.

“Do you remember how long you were there prior to her being removed?”

Phoenix looked at the ceiling…calculating, I suspected. “A month, I think. I tried to track time. It was hard, though.”

“And was the other person, the man, taken after her?”

“Yes, but he was there maybe two months with me. They’d both been there awhile before me, I think.”

Agent Rose took the photos away, wrote something down, and then continued. “Can you tell us anything about the man who took you?”

We knew it was a man because Phoenix was referring to him as such, but that could be what he’d wanted Phoenix to think.

“He had a deep voice, was tall and wide. Like Shep, but I knew he had short hair. One time his hoodie fell, and I saw short black hair.”

“What about his face?” Rose asked.

“I don’t know what his face looked like. He wore this mask. He had different kinds, but they were all painted to look like porcelain dolls. They were quite beautiful.”

This man wasn’t stupid. He knew in the back of his mind that there was always a chance his victims could escape, and he made sure that if that happened no one would be able to identify him.

“Black hair.” Agent Rose sighed. “Eye color?”

Phoenix cocked his head. “Maybe green, maybe blue. Light, though—I know that much.”

“One in five hundred people have black hair with blue eyes, rarer for green eyes. It’s actually something to go on,” JJ said.

“Perhaps.” Rose wrote more things on his pad. “Did he ever talk about what he did with the two people when he took them away?”

“No. I inquired once, but he told me to mind my tongue.”

Agent Rose looked over to Aziza before asking his next question. “What kind of things did he say to you?”

Phoenix’s shoulders slumped, and his knee began to move up and down. “Just the truth.”

“And what’s the truth, Phoenix?”

He swallowed, wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. “About who I am, what I am.”

Agent Rose had to tread very lightly because if he didn’t structure every question carefully, he could do more damage to Phoenix’s mental state.

“What did he say you were?”

I glanced at Aziza, and all her focus was on Phoenix.

“You know, you see it. You look at me,” he whispered.

“I’m pathetic. A person chasing an uncatchable dream, too stupid for this world, and there’s nothing worse than someone who thinks they’re beautiful.

Because I’m not. I try to trick the world into thinking I am.

That’s my dumb brain, though. Not pretty, not smart. Pointless.”

Hazel went to grab Phoenix’s hand, but he pulled away and looked at her sharply.

“No, Hazel. Don’t say I’m none of that. He said that people lied to me my whole life because they felt bad for me.

Poor little gay boy, wanting to be a ballerina.

Wanting my face on billboards. My vanity is unjustified.

My face doesn’t thrill, it’s made for pity, remorse.

Everyone always lied to me. For what? He told me the truth, made me understand what I am. ”

Tears poured from Hazel’s eyes, and Phoenix wasn’t better.

“That’s enough,” Aziza interjected.

“I have a few more questions.” Rose faced her, not even affected by Phoenix’s breakdown.

“And she said he was done,” I stood, reached for the recording, and hit Stop.

“Don’t touch my things.”

JJ walked over to the study door and opened it. “It’s time for you to leave, Agent. If or when Phoenix wants to speak to you again, you’ll be informed. For now, you have a lot of information. Go do your job.”

It took a few seconds, but Rose obviously realized this was done and stood, gathered his things, and left the study. Aziza sat where he’d been and spoke softly to Hazel and Phoenix.

“I bet you’re quite tired after that.”

Phoenix nodded. Hazel was trying to compose herself.

Aziza smiled softly. “Is it okay, Phoenix, if I walk you to your room? No talking, I promise. I just think some rest will do you good, and I want to give you my number in case you need me.”

She was very good at what she did. Phoenix easily agreed, and I watched as they both left the study. JJ had made sure the agent was gone, leaving me with Hazel.

I sat in Phoenix’s vacated seat. “You okay?”

“No. He’s none of those things that monster said, Noel.”

I squeezed her hand. “I just met him, and I already know that.”

A soft sob escaped her, and I handed her a tissue. She took it and blew her nose. When her desperate eyes met mine she asked, “What do I do?”

“We find out exactly how we undo everything that asshole put into his head.”

“I’m scared.” Her voice shook.

“We won’t let anything happen, and we’re going to fix this. Fix him.”

She grabbed me and hugged me tighter than I’d ever been hugged. “Thank you.”

I hoped I wasn’t making broken promises, but one thing I knew was that if I ever came face-to-face with this Marionette Maker, I was going to enjoy showing him what pathetic really looked like.