An hour later, Corey found out that was pretty much the case. Most of the people he worked with were more upset that he hadn’t told them that the murder in his building had taken place in his apartment than they were about why the stalker had targeted him. Not, as he had to explain more than once, that he knew why he'd been targeted. “After all,” he told Mr. Zimmer when he asked, “I never even met the man.”
Silas wasn’t due to work until Wednesday, much to Corey’s relief. He wasn’t certain how he’d be able to face him, all things considered, or what he’d say. But at least he’d have more time to figure that out. So when he got to the parking lot that evening and saw Silas leaning against his car, Corey stopped dead. His first thought was that the man had come to finish what his brother Travis had started.
Silas must have seen the fear in Corey’s expression, because he held his hands out from his sides as if to show he wasn’t armed. “I just want to talk to you,” he called out.
Cautiously Corey approached him. “I’m listening.”
“I feel awful about what my brother did to you.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Corey protested, again feeling sorry for him.
“In a way, it was.” Silas began pacing. “He’s, well, crazy. He’s also very protective when it comes to me, because we’re the only two left in our family. Over Christmas, while you were gone, I said some things to him.” He stopped pacing, staring down at the ground. “It was Christmas Eve. We celebrated by going out to a club. One of the ones he liked. I got very drunk and started talking about how lucky you were to have parents and… and siblings to celebrate with and all I had was him.” He looked up at Corey. “I was jealous of you being able to sit down to dinner with people you loved, open gifts given to you by people who cared about you. And there we were in some damned bar getting plastered on cheap beer.”
“He took that to heart,” Corey said softly.
Silas nodded. “I didn’t know it. He never said a word. But he must have. Why else would he have gone after you like that? I think… I think he saw you as competition for my… affection, for lack of a better word. He’s the one who brought me up, and there I was saying—implying—that I wished I was you.”
“So he decided to make me as miserable as he felt.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I wish I did.”
“He said I belonged to him.”
Silas frowned. “He did?”
“Yeah. I wonder….” Corey leaned against the car and drummed his fingers on the fender in thought. “He was angry at what you’d said, but he couldn’t take it out on you because he loves you. You said he raised you and protected you. You ‘belong’ to him because of that. But he also couldn’t let his anger out on you—because of that. So he transferred it to me. He made me, in his mind, the ungrateful brother who deserved to be punished. Then, when he saw me with someone else, they had to be eliminated. I was his and no one else’s.”
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