37.
~ "He gets it from you." Norma said callously.
"No, he gets it from you." Alex said with an amused smirk. "I was never that smart when I was his age."
Norma rolled her eyes and smiled. Julian's unquestionable intelligence had been scary and perplexing at first. He'd been slow to talk, but when he did, he formed complete sentences and was well understood. His mother had worried he might be learning disabled because of how his mind worked, but he'd always excelled in shapes, colors, numbers and letters in pre-school. It had all come so easily to him.
When he entered grade school and moved so quickly ahead of the other kids, he'd been tested, and enrolled in the advanced courses. His parents not allowing him to skip any grades. The school had advised them to continue with piano by a more skilled teacher. Norma's own home schooling was fine for a seven year old, but he was already better than her.
The fancy private school had been a worthwhile choice. It had programs to help her son succeed. Encouraging the Romeros to send him to space camp or to overseas summer programs. All of which they had refused to do. Let Julian be a kid for a little while longer and more importantly, stay close to home.
"I guess we should have expected this." she admitted finally. "That he would figure it out."
"Must be nice to have one of those kids who sits in front of the TV, plays video games all day and doesn't ask questions." Alex smiled. "Our kid thinks he's Sherlock Holmes."
"Well, what are we going to tell him?" Norma whispered. Julian was at school and they had the apartment to themselves but they never discussed Norman Bates. It was almost taboo.
"The truth." Alex said. "You have a son names Norman from a previous marriage, and there was a… falling out. He didn't like the fact we got married. It's the truth, Norma."
She shook her head.
"You said he called up to the motel. Spoke to Norman." she sighed. She could feel a horrible anxiety swell in her stomach.
Alex shook his head.
"No, he said some old woman answered the phone. Probably the manager Norman has running the place. For all we know, Norman doesn't even own it anymore." Alex said.
"We can't tell him there was a simple falling out over my marrying you." she said bitterly. The memory of their last supper together resurfacing in her mind. Norman's anger and Alex refusing to leave her alone with him. Finding Audrey Decody's suitcase, Norman refusing to see her at PineView, sending back her letters for more than a year.
Norma felt her lower lip tremble. She had wanted so badly for Norman to see and hold his baby brother. For her three sons to have a good relationship with her and Alex. For things to be as perfect as they looked in her locket.
Things were never as perfect as they looked in photographs.
"Maybe… maybe he's gotten better." Norma said softly.
"You want to take that chance?" Alex asked. "It's not just your life or mine anymore. We have to think about Julian."
She looked at him coldly.
"I'm always thinking about Julian." she said warningly. "I abandoned one son to save another."
~ Julian Romero didn't like confrontation and knew his parents would talk to him about Norman Bates as soon as his mother walked him home after school.
During his study hall hour, he left to go to the bathroom and called the Bates Motel again. He wanted to talk to Norman. Just hear his brother's voice; get his side of the story. Did Norman even know he existed?
There was a sharp angry recording snapping at him and saying that the number had been disconnected.
Julian scowled at his phone. He was perched on the handicapped toilet of the boys bathroom. No one ever came in here this time of day. It was too close to the teachers lounge and not safe for being loud.
He wasn't deterred and went back to the web sight for Bates Motel, maybe he could email Norman, only to see it had been taken down as well.
What he found however… had to be a mistake. A colossal mistake. Norman Bates' name was all over the news along with that pretty Madeline Loomis lady who looked like his mother.
Julian read over the attention grabbing headlines.
'Murder at small town motel: motel owner in custody.'
He read the story about how detectives had found the diary of the missing Madeline Loomis in her home. The diary apparently detailing a long affair with Norman Bates and that Norman had lied to police about it. How, when police went to arrest him, they'd found the body in his home of an unidentified woman and strong evidence he'd killed a runaway girl and a local woman. All his victims were unnamed so far and the police were trying to track down family.
Julian read every article he could but the case was shrouded in mystery. Even the press didn't know what exactly had happened.
~ Alex and Norma were still in their kitchen talking about what to tell Julian when he called her cell phone, claiming to be sick and asking her to pick him up from school.
~ "Something you ate?" his father asked as Julian walked between his parents on their way back home.
"No." Julian said. It had been nice that both his parents had come to collect him. It had made him feel safe. Made him feel protected that they came together and were walking with him out of school. His dad hadn't been able to come to his school because the teachers kept flirting with him, and Julian showed him the art project he'd done that was in the display case.
"What's going on, honey?" his mother had asked.
Julian looked away from her. He loved his mother but she was formidable. Almost as if she'd been the one who had been a cop and not his father. His dad was lot more easy going and it was to him he handed over his cell phone; the article about Norman Bates already on the screen.
"What?" his mother questioned when she saw the lines crease sharply over his fathers' face. It was as if a shadow passed over him and he wasn't the happy man with no real troubles Julian had always known.
"I found it today." Julian explained. "I tried to call, but the number was disconnected."
"We need to get home." his father said in a shaky voice.
"Alex, what is it?" his mother asked.
"It's going to be okay." his father said and Julian knew it was very serious. He'd only seen his father this worried once before. There was a horrible riot last year after some political unrest and his father and mother had been very scared, although they never admitted it to him.
"Dad?" Julian asked. He wished he'd never found the article. This was all his fault. If anything bad happened now, it was because of him.
"We need to call Dylan." his father said.
~"Everyone will know his brother is a killer." Alex said darkly. They had sent Julian to his room with and took his cell phone and laptop away. Dylan had been called and informed. He'd been just as horrified to learn what had happened.
The recent recall election, another mass shooting a few days ago, had bumped Norman Bates down the news chain. If it wasn't for the pretty face of Madeline Loomis, it might not have gotten any national coverage at all.
Still, what if reporters besieged them? Splashed their faces all over trash magazines as the family of a killer?
"It's already been a few days. No one has come for us yet and we had no idea." she reminded him. She felt a raw, unnatural panic at what she'd read. It couldn't have been her son. Not Norman. That Madeline girl looked so much like her to; enough to give her chills. He was having an affair with a girl who looked like a younger version of her. What kind of person does that?
"He's killed at least three women that they know of. Maybe more." Alex sighed.
"I know." Norma said. "But as far as Sheriff Greene and Norman knows, we're divorced and Julian doesn't even exist. Right?"
"If Julian found Norman, the press can find us. Find him." Alex sighed.
"Maybe." Norma nodded. "If we pull him out of school, runaway, then we'll always have this hanging over our heads. Let's just wait. Wait and see."
"You're hoping Norman will ask for you." Alex said.
Norma blinked and shook her head. She refused to answer.
~ Norman Bates sat in the interrogation room, but he wasn't really there. Not really. In reality, he was in some sort of dark tunnel where he could barely see the lights of the interrogation room. Where no matter how much he shouted and screamed, no one could hear him.
Mother was speaking for him now. She was in control and telling the detectives everything. Everything she'd done to Earnest, Madeline, Penny and the old woman Norman had thought was Blair Watson come back to him.
Mother even told them about how she'd cut the real Blair Watson's throat and bashed in Bradley Martian's skull. How she'd dumped Emma's mother's body into the bay when she had the audacity to come up to the house.
Mother confessed to everything and there were days Norman hadn't realized she'd been in complete control. Days when he'd been sleeping and unaware of what he'd done. How long had this been going on? How long had be been a zombie in his own life?
The worst thing to hear was how Mother had strangled Rebecca and stuffed her in the freezer. How she'd surprised Rebecca in her sleep and killed her.
From his dark tunnel, Norman cried over all of it. He couldn't protect Mother anymore. Not if she was going to confess to everything.
'What's crying going to get you?' came a familiar voice from the darkness. 'Crying gets you nothing.'
Norman looked up and saw the dim outline of Rebecca in her antique tiara and red fox collar. She looked like herself again. Smiling her clever smile. She looked happy. He hadn't seen her happy in a long time and he felt the tightness in his heart ease.
"Oh." he said at seeing her little smirk. "It's you."
'It's me.' Rebecca said comfortingly.
"I was so worried about you. Where did they take you?" he asked.
'Norman.' she said dryly. 'You know I was never in that freezer. Right? I was never in that basement.'
Norman looked away.
'It was just my body. Like those stuffed birds of yours. It wasn't me.' she told him. Her voice just as strong and smart as always.
'Norman, look at me.' she ordered.
"No."
'Norman, you're in a lot of trouble here and I want to help. So you need to listen to me.' she said harshly.
Norman held back tears and looked back at his friend. She was looking at him kindly. Or at least as kind as she knew how to be. Kindness had always been difficult for her, although she did try.
'I know you don't think this is the way, but you need to leave that old hag in charge. Let those doctors and whoever wants to talk to you, talk to her. Let them see how much she controlled you. That she did it. That she did everything.' Rebecca said smoothly. Her voice relaxing and soft.
"Why?" Norman asked.
'So that they'll put you in a nice mental facility and not a prison.' she said.
"No. Not county." Norman said. "I… I can't go back there. Crazy people doing crazy things!"
'Well, I hate to break it to you,' Rebecca hissed hatefully. 'But you're not exactly sane, Norman. And a mental hospital is a hell of a lot better for a man like you than prison. You know what they do to men like you in prison? Especially men who think their other personality is a woman? Take a guess, Norman. You won't like it.'
Norman could feel that a panic raging in him, the same ugly panic Norma Romero would later feel.
He looked at Rebecca and nodded. She'd never lied to him before. Never steered him wrong. She had always looked out for him. Even after she died.
"What to I do?" he asked.
'Stay here with me.' she said calmly.
"It's so dark."
'No, it's not.' she said and if by magic, their dark tunnel slowly illuminated to life. He was back home. The lonely house on the hill by the motel in high summer with grass growing wild and hot.
He turned to look at the house and saw it wasn't the old dilapidated structure in need of a paint job. It looked brand new with fresh yellow, the color of buttercups and white trim. The color he'd been wanting to paint the motel for so long, but could never seem to find it. Never seem to make it work.
Madeline was there, sweeping the front porch and wearing his mother's blue and white dress; She was smiling.
'We can stay here for as long as you need to, Norman.' Rebeca said. 'You'll be safe here.'
Norman looked at his friend as saw the pretty lady she must have been before he knew her. Her clothing just as smart and trim as she was. She smiled at him and he felt happy.
"Is… Mother here?" he asked.
'No one is here that you don't want.' Rebecca said. 'Nothing will happen here you don't want.'
The summer afternoon was beating down hot on them and Norman could smell the wildflowers and the salt air of the ocean. no one else existed in the world and the three of them were alone, safe and happy.
~ On the other side, Mother kept talking to detectives. It was still Norman Bates' body, but her cackling voice was proclaiming that:
'Norman Bates was a useless mama's boy who wasn't good for anything and those people had to die.'
To the White Pine Bay detectives, Norman Bates looked and sounded sinister with the way his voice pitched and became graveled. Almost as if he really was an old woman. He even sat in a more feminine posture and didn't recognize Sheriff Greene who'd seen and spoken to him almost every week or month for the past decade.
Doctor Edwards was called in, as well as another doctor of mental health appointed by the state. A hard looking man who didn't believe Edwards' theories about dueling personalities.
"Norman Bates should never have been released from PineView." the new doctor roared. "All those innocent lives are on your hands."
Eventually, right around the time a positive ID was made on Rebecca Hamilton and Norman Bates' crime was finally making national news for keeping her locked in his basement freezer for a decade, Sheriff Greene finally managed speak to the former Sheriff Alex Romero.
~ Greene had tried to find Alex Romero. Tried to find Norman's real mother to. It had been a harder job than she'd expected. Alex Romero had no social media account and his employer Wayne Warren, ran his business offices and bank out of Delaware. There was no known address, not even an internet IP or cell phone in his name. Had he died in the past ten years?
Worse yet, Greene could find nothing at all on Norma Bates. No divorce record or death record.
Perhaps if she'd been as clever as Julian, she could have realized that Norma and Alex were still married and living within driving distance of White Pine Bay. That Norma had taken Alex's name and that Mr. Wayne Warren had issued them company cell phones and internet.
They didn't have a record of an address because they had their apartment provided for them as apart of their employment, and all of their income taxes and payroll went through Warren's company in Delaware, Alex's name only.
If Greene had gone through the trouble of taxes, voter registration, insurance for Norma's car, Julian's birth records, school records, even a check on library books, she would have found them. But she was a small town Sheriff; hardly FBI material. She didn't have the resources to do such a background check.
It wasn't until the body in Norman Bates' basement was identified that Alex Romero called Sheriff Green and asked to speak to her.