It Ends With Us

13.

Buck

As soon as the line went dead, I rushed to the 'Find my Family' app to see where the call came from before he went off the grid again. It looked like he was out in the middle of nowhere, but my phone was still able to generate the coordinates of his location. I dialed Chimney's number as I hit the gas. I didn't give him a chance to speak when he picked up. "Chim, don't talk, just listen. Eddie just called me. I'm going to send you the coordinates of his location. Give them to the police and have them meet me there. And tell them something's about to happen. Something bad, something you can't take back." I hung up before he could say anything.

I don't know what Eddie has already done or what he was planning to do, but I wasn't going to wait to find out.

**********

I arrived before the police. The coordinates brought me to an abandoned farm. A huge barn with faded red paint stood before me. Maddie's car was here. I jumped out of my truck and started running. I didn't know what I was going to find when I went into the barn, what I expected to see. But what I did see was Maddie, gagged and chained to one of the support beams, blood running down her forehead, tears running down her cheeks. She was shaking. "Maddie," I whispered. "Where is he?"

"Evan." I whirled around and there he was.

"Eddie. Please. Just let my sister go, okay. The police are already on their way, okay?" I stepped closer to him and he stepped back.

"You're too late, Evan. I'll be dead before they get here," he smiled sadly at me.

"Eddie, what did you do?" I asked carefully, trying to take another step towards him. He let me this time.

"I took something to make the pain go away." He looked sluggish. Drugged. Like I only had minutes left to talk to him. "You wouldn't even let me explain," he whispered, a single tear running down his cheek.

"Explain, okay? Explain now. Just keep talking to me." My phone beeped. I reached for it and that was the first time I noticed that he was holding a gun.

"Don't," he said, pointing it at me.

I put my hands up slowly. "Eddie, just put the gun down, okay? Let's talk about this."

Don't listen to him, Eddie. He's playing you.

No he's not, Eddie. Just hear him out.

"Both of you shut up!" he shouted. He was no longer pointing the gun at me. He was pointing it at his own head now.

"We didn't say anything." I looked at him, confusion evident on my face.

"They won't stop. The voices won't stop. Please, Evan, make them stop," he cried, clutching his head, all while still holding onto the gun. He fell to his knees, crying. "Please make them stop," he whispered.

He was shaking now. "Eddie." Then he started foaming at the mouth, before passing out.

"Eddie!" I started to run over to him, but I was too late.

"Freeze! LAPD!" I did as I was told. "Show me your hands!" I obliged again.

"Please help him," I cried to them.

"Dispatch, this is 727-L-30. I have the suspect and two victims who need medical assistance," the officer said into her walkie before looking at me. "Sir, I'm Sergeant Grant. Can you tell me what happened here?" I told her what happened as I watched the paramedics roll in and rush over to Eddie.

"Sergeant, I think he has Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder." I turned and saw Maddie, no longer gagged or chained, walking towards us with another officer. I'm assuming they freed her. Her lip was busted and there was a giant gash across her eyebrow, blood still oozing out of both.

"What makes you say that?" she questioned

I looked over at Maddie, realization suddenly dawning on me. The hot and cold, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde routine he was always giving me. I don't know how I hadn't put it together before. All those times he didn't seem like himself, like he was a whole different person...he was a whole different person..maybe even several. "Oh my God," I whispered. Maddie was saying something to the Sergeant, but all the words were muffled in my ears. Eddie, my Eddie, was struggling and I didn't even see it.

"Ready for transport!" I recognized that voice. I turned to follow it.

"Hen!" I yelled, running over to her.

She looked up briefly before continuing to work on Eddie. "Buck, stay back."

"No!" I shouted.

"Buck, you need to stand back and let us do our jobs," she said back sternly. I nodded stubbornly at her and took a few steps back, still watching Eddie's convulsing body.

Everything after that happened so fast in real life, but for me, it happened in slow motion. The fire captain (Nash, his jacket said) barked out orders to Hen and the rest of their crew, but I couldn't hear anything past the ringing in my ears. I watched as they put Eddie in the back of the ambulance. I raced to the ambulance as they began to shut the doors. There was no way I was leaving him, not now. Not when he needed me. Not when his life was hanging in the balance. I attempted to jump in the back with him, but someone stopped me. I would've thought it was Hen if she wasn't already in the back tending to Eddie. I turned to see whose hand was on my shoulder. It was Sergeant Grant. "Sir, I'm going to need you to come down to the station with me. I need to take your statement."

I looked between her and the ambulance. She must have sensed my hesitation, because she told me gently, "We can have someone drive you to the station and then to the hospital. I don't think you should be driving anymore tonight. You can pick up your truck in the morning. "

"What about Maddie?" I turned to where Maddie was previously standing, but she was gone.

"A second ambulance took her in. She was pretty beaten up, so they wanted to give her a more thorough examination at the hospital. They'll take her statement there."

I nodded my understanding before following her to her squad car and climbing into the back of it.

We rode the entire way in silence.

**********

"You said this wasn't the first time Mr. Diaz has exhibited...disturbing behavior?" Sergeant Grant asked me when we got to the police station.

"That's right." I recalled to her the day he came home and the fight we had, along with the time he hacked into my computer to switch Christopher out of my class. "Listen, I don't want to press charges or anything and, given the circumstances, I don't think my sister does either."

Before she could answer me, another officer came in, handed her a file folder and whispered something in her ear. The Sergeant looked up alarmingly. "Are you sure?" The officer nodded in response. She turned to look at me again. "I'm afraid that's no longer up to you, Mr. Buckley."

My heart sank. I had no idea what she was about to say, but I knew it was going to be bad. "Why?" I gulped. "What's wrong?"

"Because," she paused, tossing the file on the table in front of me. "Eddie Diaz murdered his wife."