by Jason Mason
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Edmonton Suicide Prevention society.
Chapter 21
The Final Kill
“So that’s it,” Baker said to himself as he turned back around to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Seeing nobody he started making his way towards the open doorway leading into the living room. As he crossed in front of the stairs he heard another shotgun blast and immediately felt the stinging pain up and down his left shoulder and hip.
“Faaaaaa,” he screamed as he dove forward through the open doorway.
He did a complete front roll as he extricated himself from the doorway, then got up and ran to the back of the living room, away from the doorway. He pointed the shotgun into the opening and read the bead of the weapon so that he was aimed dead in the middle of it.
“Get out!” a woman’s voice screamed through the air at Baker.
Looking around he caught sight of the woman who yelled at him. She was blond, wearing a ratty blue dress and a collar of some sort was wrapped around her neck attached to a chain. Looking closer at the woman the realization of who he was looking at hit him like a ton of ice chips.
“Mary?” he asked quite stunned. “Mary… is that you?”
“Get out,” she hissed. “Things were right and you’re ruining it!”
“Mary!” Baker yelled as he looked back at the doorway. “I’ll get you out of here, okay? I promise.”
“Mary is dead. I am Sophie,” the woman replied.
Looking back at her to make sure he wasn’t just seeing things he confirmed her identity. It was easy for him to tell there was no doubt this angry woman was Connie’s sister. After all this searching Mary was still alive!
“No, you’re Mary. Sophie is the one that’s dead, I just read it in a newspaper,” he told her. “You’re just brainwashed.”
“No, Mary died,” she answered with a smile. “I saw her die. I watched her die. I smelt her body burn all night.”
Baker looked back at her and wondered what Elijah could have possibly done to her to mess her up this badly. He felt so relieved that she was alive, but now he was worried about how long she was going to take to recover. And that was only if he survived tonight anyways, the killer had a gun and at least two more confirmed kills than Baker’s zero. In fact he shouldn’t be looking over…
BAM!
The shotgun blast echoed through the room, and though Baker wasn’t hit he could feel the wind rush by him, or maybe it was the concussion of the blast. He didn’t know. But he dashed from his spot across the living room and into the kitchen, he looked back to see the hole in the couch left by the last shot.
“Eli! He went into the kitchen,” Mary yelled.
“Shut up!” Baker yelled back from the kitchen.
Another shot blasted half into the wall and half through the kitchen doorway. Baker could tell the man was either using buckshot or birdshot, and assumed that it was buckshot from the damage the rounds inflicted.
“You’re ruining this for everyone, lawyer” Elijah yelled out. “I lost my Sophie years ago but now that I finally got her back you’re trying to take her away.”
He looked over at his sweet little Sophie still chained to the wall. Unfortunately from her angle she couldn’t see into the kitchen but she was still able to help him as best she could. Maybe now she is right. If she wasn’t she wouldn’t be helping him, right?
“My little Sophie,” he told her reassuringly. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll kill this man and then we can leave for our new life together.”
“You promise?” she asked.
“I promise,” he replied. He then turned his attention to the kitchen as he chambered another round.
“You’re not a killer, lawyer, I know that. You’re weak,” Elijah shouted. “I am a killer and you know that. But I’m going to be really nice to you because I have to get moving. From the kitchen you’re in you can get right through the laundry room out to the back door. If you go out that door you can make your way back to your car, or hell, even to my car that you smashed, and get out of here. That way you don’t die. Pretty good deal right? I’ll even give you ten seconds to do it.”
“You promise?” Baker asked back from the kitchen.
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” the killer shouted back winking at Sophie. Then he started counting.
“One,” Elijah said then immediately jumped through the doorway of the kitchen and took a shot directly at the back door hoping to catch Baker running towards it. But he had no such luck as the lawyer didn’t run. He didn’t take the bait.
“You’re smarter than you look,” he said. “Did they teach you that in law school?”
Hoping to get a response, Elijah was a bit disappointed when he didn’t. He scanned the room and looked for options of places that the lawyer could be hiding, angry with himself that his house was such a mess that there were many places to hide. Sophie was supposed to clean that up, but she wasn’t allowed off her chain yet so it was mostly her fault.
There was a doorway to the left to go back into the hallway by his stairs, but he would have been able to see him running if he went there. There was also the laundry room but unless he was hiding on top of the washing machine in the corner, he wasn’t going to be in there. Elijah was in a small dining room that abutted the kitchen, and could see two rows of cabinets the man could have hid behind. The first one was by the door to the hallway and was significantly smaller than the other. The other was long and… and he could see just the tip of the lawyer’s shoe sticking out from behind it.
“You know, I’ve only killed one man before. I’ve killed plenty of women, more so then ever these past few weeks. But there was only one of them I’ve ever regretted killing and that was the first one I ever killed.”
He took another shot over the counter to ensure the lawyer kept his head down as he chambered another round. People are afraid of gunshots. Just hearing them go overhead is enough to stop even a brave man from sticking his head out and tying to return fire.
“You probably saw the obituary. I killed her. I killed Sophie. I put the drugs in her hand and told her the world would be better without her. She was crying and told me that I was wrong, and that I would miss her if she was gone but I didn’t believe her at the time,” Elijah said as he approached the edge of the counter. “But she was right, Sophie is right. Sophie is always right. I did miss her and I shouldn’t have killed her. Why should Sophie die when so many worse women get to live, right?”
He placed the end of the shotgun at the edge of the counter. All he would have to do now is make a slight movement of the barrel and the lawyer was dead. Baker was sweating so nervously that he had to blink his eyes rapidly just to be able to see. Yet still, he remained silent.
“Of course, I’m making up for that now. I have a new Sophie, and she’s right. And we’re going to go away together very soon. Of course, none of this will matter to you because you’ll just be a mess on my floor for the police to come clean up. But I’m telling you this anyways because you’re the last piece of Sophie’s old life we need to get rid of for her to be right.”
With that the barrel moved ever so slightly to the left and the 16 gauge buckshot was fired, not going far enough to spread at all, unlike the shot from the top of the stairs. The lawyer didn’t even make a sound, didn’t plead for his life or anything. To Elijah it was a little disappointing. He wanted a more satisfying ending.
“Sophie we’re going to be leaving soon,” he shouted back at her as he took a step to see what kind of mess the lawyer made on the floor.
Unfortunately when he turned the corner, he just saw a single shoe on the ground and a pot-marked bullet hole on his floor, with the counter doors splintered by the ricochet. The lawyer wasn’t there at all! Just his shoe was… which means…
“You’re not going anywhere,” Baker spoke up from behind Elijah. As he spoke he held his shotgun to the back of the man’s head. “Now put the gun down or you’ll be
the mess on the floor.”
Reluctantly Elijah did it. Then he went to his knees and started sobbing.
◆◆◆
It was seeing Connie that snapped Mary out of it. The whole time she was waiting with Baker she kept cursing him and telling him to let her and Elijah go. Elijah Manning even offered Baker $25,000 if he would let him and Mary go, and then later offered the same amount if he would just let the man leave by himself. Baker didn’t budge. He had no need for this murderer’s money.
He was waiting only half an hour, pointing his shotgun at the back of the man’s head while the man was lying on the floor, still crying. Without a phone and not knowing what ever happened to Connie and that woman he wasn’t sure if the police would ever come there. He had even considered shooting the man, and saying it happened during the struggle – Elijah Manning deserved to die after all – but he knew he couldn’t go through with it. For everything else, the man was right. Baker was not a killer.
After being picked up by the police Cassidy was taken back home to rest and recover while Connie got in the second cop car and patrolled the area. With the amount of snow that had fallen in such a short time period of time it was easy for the police to determine where the vehicles went to after the spot Cassidy was dropped off as they traced tire trails in the snow all the way to Elijah’s house. When they got close they could easily hear the car alarm going off, and Connie told them it was her car on the side of the road. Seeing the damage to both vehicles they entered the house as fast as they could and arrested Manning.
Connie and Baker embraced again, but for obvious reasons all of her attention was placed on her sister, who was finally Mary again. Mary was crying as the memories of those two women that Elijah killed came back to the surface of her mind and she told the police everything. They searched the house but were unable to find any more bodies, so they locked it up and took Mary and Connie to their parents.
Baker was also invited, and saw Connie’s parents again for the first time in three years. Finally Connie and Mary were reunited, and in a very real way so was Baker and Connie. It was the best result any of them could have hoped for.
Epilogue
The End Sentence
“You know, he actually called the firm and tried to hire us right?”
“Say that again, Sam? He didn’t actually did he?” Baker asked incredulously.
“No I swear to God he did,” Sam responded. “He thought that if he hired you to be his lawyer that you couldn’t testify against him for some stupid reason. I asked him if he knew what a conflict of interest was and then hung up on him. What a guy… though he actually would have made a great client.”
Baker laughed audibly causing the people sitting around him in the gallery of the courtroom to turn around and shush him. Even the accused and his lawyer turned around and gave Baker an evil eye. He didn’t care though.
“Baker!” Connie whispered sternly. “You of all people should know how to behave in a courtroom!”
“Yeah,” Mary agreed. “I know you’ve been held in contempt of court before when you were arguing a case, but this may be the first time in Canadian legal history that a lawyer gets held in contempt just for being a witness in a trial.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, nag, nag, nag…” Baker laughed them off. “It’s only been four months and you’re already forgetting how I saved your life.”
“I would have been fine,” Mary rolled her eyes. “But thank you for the fiftieth time.”
“Connie you have everything in the car right?”
“Sure do Baker, I normally wouldn’t be happy with you pushing back our vacation plans like this, but this today was worth being a day late.”
“Yeah the snow is finally starting to melt up here,” Baker agreed. “But I can guarantee you that St. Kitts still has less snow than we have out here. Hell, I might have to go into the back and tell the judge to hurry up and deliver the sentence already.”
As the trial judge entered the courtroom the entire crowd fell silent. It had been the biggest murder case in the history Alberta and Elijah Manning shocked the country when he plead guilty a month ago. His lawyer must have convinced him that his cause was hopeless. Still, the sentencing hearing went on for a few weeks and the judge told the parties that he would deliver the sentence today. The courtroom was packed, the crowds of people spilled out into the lobby, and cameras live-fed the proceedings to everyone who wanted to watch at home, which was most of the city of Edmonton.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for coming,” the judge began.
“Elijah Betty Manning plead guilty to the first degree murder of three women, the first degree murder of detective Jeffrey Jones, the kidnapping of two young women who are only alive today by the grace of God, and various other charges including torture and the mutilation of a body. Mr. Manning, will you please stand up for the court?”
Elijah stood up and faced the judge, emotionless.
“We in Canada do not have the death penalty, though if I was able to make an exception I would make one for you, sir. Instead the automatic sentence for first degree murder is life imprisonment. Prior to recent amendments under the former Conservative government, a finding of guilt for first degree murder, no matter the number of victims, would be 25 years of parole ineligibility. Since the amendments, the parole ineligibility period is able to stack, giving a maximum sentence of one hundred years of parole ineligibility on top of your life sentence. I have no doubt that the severity of your crimes warrants the maximum sentence, so I shall so sentence you. Rest assured, Mr. Manning, you will die in prison. And it is a death that is far easier than you deserve with what you did to these people.”
The judge then turned to the gathered crowd.
“I want to extend my sincerest hopes to Ms. Mary Green that through counselling and with the love of your family you will recover from the mental torture the convicted has put you through. Ms. Cassidy Fitzpatrick I hope the same for you. To the Edmonton police force, I commend you for your excellent work in capturing this criminal, and offer my condolences to you for the loss of Detective Jones. I offer my condolences to all of the families who have lost love ones because of this man. This sentence will not bring back your loved ones, but hopefully it will bring you closure in knowing that justice has been served.”
The judge then turned directly to Baker.
“And Mr. Baker Desjardins, while I have not seen you in this courthouse in the past few months I recall you being here almost every day for the past six years or so. Your efforts to stop this killer and bring him to justice is most commendable and you truly represent the best of the bar and the duty a counsel has to the administration of justice in this country. Again, I thank you, and I hope to see you in my courtroom again once you heal from your ordeal.”
Baker smiled as Connie squeezed his hand. His shoulder still hurt and the doctors were not able to remove all of the BB’s but he was feeling significantly better. The last few months he did not do very much at the office at all, as Sam told him to take time for himself which he did. He took time for both himself, and for Connie, and now they’re going on their first real vacation together, even though the first started dating almost ten years ago.
As Elijah Manning was escorted out of the courtroom he stared straight ahead and ignored the jeers and insults thrown at him by the families of his victims. He couldn’t hear them even if he wanted to. He couldn’t hear the judge, and only knew what his sentence was because his lawyer warned him what it would be earlier that day. Since his arrest and lockdown in solitary confinement he only heard one voice, which kept repeating the same thing over and over to him. Now that he’s sentenced he was hoping that it would end, but it did not. It kept droning on and on like a tiktok video on a loop.
You’re not right.
You’re not right.
Thank you for reading. If you’ve enjoyed this book please consider rating it and giving it a review.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086HVLNZ8/ref=cm_sw_
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If you enjoyed this book you may also enjoy Stronger than Blood from the same author.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z47Y7NS/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_XgdGEbEPEH9MN
