C | Chapter 11.1 | Conclusion | Crack in the Perm

“Here we are.”

The charred remains of Winchell House had already turned into something resembling a haunted house. Even under the bright spring sky, a gloomy mist seemed to linger solely around it. The front gate was tightly shut, with a sign reading [Private Property. Restricted Access] hanging by a chain.

Leo remarked, “It must have been quite a place. Before the fire, I mean.”

“Well, my stepfather was rich.”

To a ten-year-old, Winchell House had looked like a castle out of a fairy tale. The new dad who welcomed him with open arms had been a kind king. Ian recalled his heart swelling with anticipation for a picture-perfect new life awaiting him.

Behind him, Tim Hogan couldn’t suppress his outrage and muttered, “That kind of scumbag did such things to a kid…”

As Ian’s face contorted with a dark expression, Leo glared at Tim Hogan and patted Ian on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Ian. He’s dead.”

“…Yeah.”

Yeah. Leo had killed his stepfather. For him. On his behalf.

And with that, the pain that twisted his heart cruelly began to fade away, as if by magic. The Revenant killing his stepfather hadn’t just brought closure. It helped heal the scars and pain that lingered far longer than the event itself. The Revenant had remade his heart, torn apart by his stepfather. The only reason Ian could breathe freely now was because of the Revenant. So, it was okay.

“But… how do we get in here? Isn’t this breaking and entering?”

Leo Sebastian’s voice brought Ian back to reality through his thickening thoughts of nostalgia.

“We’ll have to climb the wall. There’s no other way. The fire wasn’t long ago, so the alarms shouldn’t go off.”

Leo chuckled at the surprisingly straightforward answer. “It’s weird hearing you say that. Wasn’t stuff like this usually my line?”

He was referring to the mischief they’d often caused back at Rose Holman.

“If I thought you were wrong, I wouldn’t have suggested it. Remember why we were friends?”

“Wait—so, you remember things about me, too?”

“More or less.”

Ian headed straight to the wall. The smooth wall looked difficult to scale with just his bare hands, and Ian hesitated with a troubled expression. Tim Hogan, the tallest in the group, shrugged and stepped forward. He still wore an awkward expression from his earlier slip-up, and even as he reached out to Ian, the same look lingered.

“If you don’t mind, I can give you a boost.”

“What? That’s cutting in line!”

Leo grumbled that Tim was pretending to be a gentleman. Ian, realizing that Tim Hogan had been especially careful around him ever since learning about his past, felt a mix of guilt and gratitude.

“Alright. Thanks.”

Tim Hogan carefully lifted Ian by the waist, helping him over the wall. Though he groaned a bit, he managed to get Ian up, given Ian’s surprisingly light and nimble frame. After sending Ian up first, Tim Hogan and Leo started bickering.

“Next up, it’s me! Do I have to lift you, too? Damn, are you playing favorites here? Obviously. Wouldn’t you? Damn, I’ll just get up there myself. Ian, give me a hand. No, help me first. Get your hands off! Who do you think Ian’s best friend is? Seriously, why bring that up now? Who cut in line first? Typical hackers, no one else understands you anyway. Don’t make it sound like hackers are mentally unstable! You’re an actual nutcase, Sebastian. Aren’t you the one who actually ended up in a mental institution? That was in place of jail time! And the police still flag you as a probationary psych patient. And you’re one to talk! I’m more upstanding compared to you. Sure, you are. Living off mental patients….”

From atop the wall, Ian finally snapped as he watched their endless back-and-forth. “Want me to just go in alone?”

Eventually, the two played rock-paper-scissors. After losing, Leo looked like he was facing his death as he hoisted the considerably heavier Tim Hogan. In the midst of breaking into a private residence, the two had little sense that they were committing a crime or helping each other with one. They finally clambered over the wall, bickering and kicking all the while.

Even the process of curling up to safely jump down led to some arguments. Leo insisted that Tim Hogan, with his “cushion-like belly fat,” should jump first and catch Ian with his stomach. Without further ado, Tim Hogan shoved Leo off. Leo landed on his back, reluctantly becoming a shock absorber for the others, though he was far from pleased about it.

They entered the burned-out shell of the house. Inside, blackened with smoky traces of fire, the house looked just as Ian remembered it, though it felt entirely different.

The darkness of ignorance was disorienting. Though they had finally arrived, Ian had no idea what to look for. Tim Hogan and Leo seemed similarly baffled as they looked around the house, now full of scorched furniture and items scattered about haphazardly. Both sighed in frustration.

“No, but there must be something. That lawyer wouldn’t have just left things here. That’s why we’re here in the first place, isn’t it?”

Trying to lift their spirits, Leo took the lead. Though Ian was the one who first suggested coming, he now felt guilty about dragging others into a mystery even he didn’t fully understand.

“The problem is we don’t know what it is we’re looking for. And after Lloyd Gillen bought the house, he had time. He might have already cleaned up.”

“Then let’s at least look for traces of the cleanup. We can’t just sit here, can we? There’s something in this house that you don’t know about yet, Ian. You don’t want to ignore it, right?”

“…Yeah. I really want to know. I don’t think my mom will find peace if I remain in the dark.”

“Then let’s search. We might find something. Or at least, maybe we’ll discover evidence of your stepfather’s abuse, which could help someone. You know, like mitigating circumstances?”

A wave of emotion welled up in Ian as he listened to Leo speak more decisively than he did. Unconsciously, Ian reached for Leo’s hand and squeezed it.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Heh, no problem.”

Leo squeezed Ian’s hand back. Tim Hogan fidgeted, clearly wanting to join in, but didn’t touch Ian. Instead, Leo patted him on the back, as if on Ian’s behalf.

“Let’s get started. This house is huge. It’ll take forever.”

“Yeah.”

After discussing their plan, they divided the house into areas and each took a different part. Ian took his stepfather’s study, Leo took the first-floor bedroom, and Tim Hogan, being the oldest and the only one without any history of mental illness, was assigned the basement.

***

“Ian, are you here?”

Rummaging through the study yielded nothing of interest. Most of the books that had been there would have made excellent kindling during the fire. Ian ended up back in his own room on the second floor, sifting through the ashes and soot. While he was at it, Leo approached and called out to him.

“Yeah. There was nothing anywhere else. I can’t tell what’s what with everything burned.”

“Same here.”

Leo held up a charred hard drive. “I pulled this out of a desktop in the bedroom, but with it burned like this, even the CIA tech team couldn’t recover anything.”

“Nice job. How’d you get it out?”

“The casing fell apart when I hit it. But maybe there’s something in your room? This was where you spent your time, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Just then, Tim Hogan climbed up the stairs with the creaking of broken steps. “So, what, I get sent to the basement alone, and you two are up here goofing off?”

“Not at all. I just got here. Did you check the basement properly?”

“There was no real checking to do. It’s mostly collapsed; it’d be too much for just me. You’d need at least a flashlight to even try. Anyway, aren’t you guys hungry? Let’s order a pizza or something.”

Leo sneered, amused. “Ordering pizza while breaking into a house? Are you serious?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t feel like sneaking in since this is Ian’s house. Should I go out and buy something?”

Ian nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably better. We’ll be here a while longer. We need a flashlight, too. And something to drink.”

“Alright. I’ll be back.”

After Tim Hogan left, Ian and Leo picked a relatively clean spot to sit down.

“Let’s take a break. This house is huge.”

“Tell me about it. How’d you survive here alone?”

“After my stepfather died, I barely used the first floor. After my mom passed, I only used my room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. The other rooms were all locked up.”

“Hm… So maybe there’s something in one of those rooms? It’s easier to hide things in places that aren’t used daily.”

“Maybe.”

“Once the pizza’s here, let’s eat and check out those rooms. There might be something in there.”

“Yeah. I can’t deny that.”

With that, Leo flopped onto the floor. Ian scolded him for lying down on the dirty ground, but Leo merely turned his head and suddenly exclaimed,

“Hey, look at that.”

Leo pointed to something small and pink glinting in the blackened pile of ashes.

“What?”

Ian got up and followed Leo’s gesture. He reached into the remnants of the fire and pulled out his mother’s enameled jewelry box with gold trimmings.

“Oh, right. This was still here.”

Ian’s expression grew somber. One of his most painful memories was the suspicion that maybe even his mother had known something.

“It… didn’t burn.”

“Yeah. I guess it’s made of material that doesn’t burn easily.”

With a click, Ian opened the dirty jewelry box. Something small fell out of it.

“Huh?”

“What’s this?”

Both Leo and Ian froze. Inside the box was a tiny camera, like the ones hidden in teddy bears to monitor babysitters.

“Why… why is this in here?”

Ian gasped, feeling his heart race.

“Did Mom…? Did she know? Why would she…?”

What had his mother known? What had she planned to do with that camera? The questions grew, suffocating Ian. Just as he was about to drift into the void, Leo grabbed him firmly.

“Ian! Breathe. Let’s think this through. You said this was on a shelf in the closet, right?”

“…Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.”

Standing by the now barely visible closet, Leo traced where the hidden camera would have been pointing.

“Your bed.”

“…”

Ian had no words. All he could do was repeat “Mom, Mom…” as tangled emotions of grief, resentment, hatred, and affection collided within him, leaving him in utter turmoil.

After a moment’s thought, Leo spoke up again. “Ian, what did your stepfather do for a living?”

“What he did… for a living?”

“His job. Was he a cop or something?”

“My stepfather…”

Ian frowned. What had his stepfather done? What kind of person had he been?

“Don’t you remember anything about your stepfather, Ian?”

“Well… no. I guess not.”

“Why? You remember everything else. Is there a reason you can’t remember anything about him?”

Ian didn’t know. He reached into the fringes of memories he’d tried so hard to repress. His stepfather… his stepfather…

Before he could sink too deeply into those thoughts, Leo held him up.

“Stop, Ian. Let’s figure it out ourselves. What could be left about your stepfather?”

“Oh, maybe downstairs… like his bedroom or something.”

“There was nothing in the bedroom. And you checked the study, right? Could it be in the study?”

Leo helped Ian up and led him downstairs to the study. Without realizing it, Ian clutched the jewelry box, unable to let go. Once in the study, Leo examined the area around the desk and bookshelves. He quickly recognized the half-filled shelves with thick books, all with the same binding.

“These are law books.”

“Law books?”

“Your stepfather was probably in the legal field. People who keep law books at home tend to be judges.”

“…”

Could it be? Had his stepfather been a judge? Then Lloyd Gillen wouldn’t have been just any lawyer hired by his stepfather; he’d have been a friend or something similar. Ian remembered that Lloyd Gillen had started visiting the house quite frequently when he was around ten…

Noticing Ian’s dazed expression, Leo swallowed hard.

“Ian, are you listening? Do you know what I’m thinking?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“Your mom must have installed that camera.”

“My mom… why…?”

“Because no one would have believed her.”

“…”

“You said the police suspected you, right? They thought you were acting suspicious because you kept changing your story and figured your relationship with your stepfather wasn’t good because of drugs. But that wasn’t true, was it? And that always struck me as odd. Why would the police so readily assume you’d been getting drugs on your own? You were fifteen, living in a fancy suburban neighborhood. To get drugs, you’d have to go to the Harem District or even further to the college areas. Wouldn’t it make more sense to first suspect the people around you? And the drug you were given wasn’t a highly addictive narcotic; it was a date rape drug.”

“That… that’s…”

“No one would have believed that your stepfather abused you. Not the police, not anyone. They wouldn’t have even considered it, not even after he was murdered. Because he was a judge. I think your mom installed that camera to gather evidence. To protect you.”

“…”

Ian’s heart pounded. Leo’s voice sounded far away, like the distant rumbling of a train, faint now but ready to grow louder and crush him at any moment.

“I don’t know what exactly your mom did. But if she was anything like my mom, I think she would have done anything she could to protect you. My mom is like that, too. Even when I was hopelessly obsessed with hacking, she’d lay out food on the table and wait for me to come down. After staying up for three days straight, when I was starving and finally went out, there’d be a warm meal waiting. Though she’d leave a note next to it saying, ‘Go die, you little punk.’”

Without even cracking a smile, Leo looked intently into Ian’s eyes.

“It’s your decision, Ian… but judges hold an immense amount of power in a small town like this.”

Unless his mother came back from the dead, there was no way to be sure of the truth.