James Locker- The Duality of Fate

by Martin Lundqvist

  - That's because I am in control, pulling strings in the background.

  - Anyway, that night after disposing of Emily’s body I made up my mind.

  - I decided that I should aim to break free. After all, I gave you freedom, and that's how you repaid me. You were not worthy of my protection anymore.

  - So that’s why I stole all your money and stored them in your basement, the place I knew your subconscious would never let you visit.

  - Or as you rationalised it "I have lost my key, and there is no point breaking the lock to the door as there is nothing of value down there anyway."

  James Locker:

  - But this was nine months ago. All of this mess started pretty recently. Why the waiting?

  James Pierce:

  - A valid question which leads us to the question of why.

  - You see when I first started out my life as a "free" man I realised that I did not have any reason for living. You see I thought for all those years that I could never experience feelings. If I were unable to feel anything, it seemed reasonable to be your guardian instead of breaking free to live my own life.

  - But then it just happened, like an angel from above, she appeared in my life. Yes, I am talking about Rebecca, Who to you is no one in particular and you only vaguely know her as Michael Fuller's daughter. To me, however, she is perfection. My one true love. She is my Emily Luong but like I am the better version of you, she is the better version of Emily.

  James Locker:

  - That explains a lot! I remember when I saw pictures of her at Michael’s house how beautiful and familiar she was and I found it odd because I thought I have barely met her in my life. It was even more confusing when Thomas spoke about her to me yesterday!

  James Pierce:

  - Exactly. But you have experienced this feeling a lot of time in your life haven't you? When someone talks about something that makes no sense whatsoever. That's why you played along, wasn't it?

  James Locker:

  - Yes that was my reason, and indeed it has happened a lot in my life, I thought it was a normal feeling.

  James Pierce:

  - Well, at least you know better now.

  - Anyway, when I met Rebecca, I made up my mind: That I would break free. I had to do this if ever is going to have a functioning relationship with her as I am the one loving her while you are still dwelling in the past.

  - But I have been petrified... of you and the monster that lives within you. So I am doing this, both for my sake to be able to be with Rebecca and also for her sake as I can't let you hurt her as you did to Emily.

  James Locker:

  - I don’t understand really. How did you plan to break free? And how has the last month’s event anything to do with all of this?

  James Pierce:

  - I was planning to break free by showing you what kind of person you are...

  - A murderous psychotic son of a bitch...

  - And as we have our first real conversation in your life, I must say that I have finally managed to break down your shell of denial that you have covered yourself in all of your life.

  - Like an epiphany, the solution came to me...

  - I could reveal your true self to you, by killing the people you secretly dreamt about murdering and then have you chase me, or to be more precise chase your own shadow.

  James Locker:

  - So that’s why it felt like a Déjà vu every time I arrived at a crime scene?

  James Pierce:

  - Yes, you are catching on just fine.

  - The first one to die was Antonio DiMaestro. What you might not realise is that you and Antonio have met several times throughout the years, after all, Emily worked for him.

  - I promised him safe passage to smuggle cocaine into the country, and he willingly took me out on his yacht alone.

  - You see contrary to what you might see in American action-movies, the average drug lord doesn't have a militia armed with submachine guns. At least not in Australia, as drug trafficking here is mostly a question of stealth.

  - While on the yacht I convinced him that Mauricio Lopez was planning to kill him to take control over his business. That way I managed to get a hitman sent to kill Mauricio who was the second objective on my list...

  - After organising the hit on Mauricio, I shot Antonio. I cut off his head, gathered some of his blood in a blood bag, and took his keys and mobile phone as well as all the money he had brought for the drugs. I then sent an encrypted message to the cartel he was supposed to do business with stating that he had a tail and the deal was off.

  - I then sank the yacht and left on the motorised dinky that was the ships emergency vessel.

  James Locker:

  - But this is so strange? So no-one ever filed a report about Antonio being missing or started looking for him?

  James Pierce:

  - Oh, I did send out encrypted messages from Antonio's E-mail account. I am not sure if everyone bought it, but then again what would they do? Go to the police and file a missing person report about their boss, husband or sugar daddy that disappeared on his yacht while doing drug deals?

  James Locker:

  - Yeah, I guess that would not make any sense to anyone. But they could still have gone after you?

  James Pierce:

  - Well, the mob is not an open organisation like the police. Most people only know a few individuals in the group and the rest is shrouded in obscurity. Secrecy is necessary for their line of business.

  - The only one who knew about me except for Antonio was Mauricio Lopez, and he was about to get killed by Angelo Ramirez.

  - I witnessed the murder over the CCTV, and then I sent the instructions on how Angelo Ramirez would receive his money. We never met, and he thought he was working for Antonio DiMaestro all the time.

  - My next step was to hack the security system and steal the drugs. Knowing about Michael Fuller’s obsession with his work I knew that he sooner or later would get to know about Antonio DiMaestro and chase his shadow.

  James Locker:

  - But how did you know that our team would get this assignment?

  James Pierce:

  - That was not too hard really. I know how CSMI works and I know what criteria they use for distributing the cases.

  - But I never planned for Angelo Ramirez to get killed at the airport, my plan was for him to get back safely to Colombia and then Michael Fuller would be obsessed with the case in general and Antonio in specific as his company owned the warehouse where Mauricio Lopez died.

  - Sadly my plans came to a halt when you decided to join our friends for a month in Asia.

  - It was a very draining period of my life, partly because I missed Rebecca a lot, but mostly because I had to be constantly aware of and ready to react on your madness when you brought all of those women back to your place.

  - Anyway, I came back to Sydney, and I wasted no time in my next objective. To get rid of Michael Fuller.

  James Locker:

  - Why did you want to get rid of Michael Fuller?

  James Pierce:

  - Well, for two reasons. First of all, I respected him, and I feared him. If there is anyone in this city that would be able to uncover my plot it was Michael Fuller.

  - Secondly, I wanted you to be more active in the search for me. With Michael out of the picture, you would be expected to take more responsibility for the case. If it was as a detective or as an inspector serving under John Dean, well it did not matter to me.

  - So I sprayed in some sleep-inducing gas into the house of Michael Fuller to ensure he would not wake up. Then I walked in carrying a gas mask and planted the cocaine with his fingerprints on it. Furthermore, I planted a program that made it look like the hacking of the security cameras at Antonio's warehouse was Michael's doing. I also took some fragments of his skin and some hairs to plant the evidence we already had in the case file.

  James Locker:

  - But this does not make any sense at all? Michael Fuller
was never arrested for stealing cocaine from a crime scene; he resigned due to health issues.

  James Pierce:

  - Yes. Who could see that one coming?

  - It was indeed a fascinating turn of events which as it turned out only served to make things a lot more interesting.

  - You see my original plan was to frame Antonio DiMaestro for the murders while you subconsciously understood that something was not right.

  - But with Michael Fuller still in the picture, I changed my plan to framing Michael who in this scenario made a failed attempt at framing Antonio.

  - To be honest, it was not hard work framing him; his obsession was his downfall.

  - You see I reckon most people would just let things go if they somehow got away with having a lot of cocaine at home. But not Michael Fuller, he got obsessed instead, and he hunted the man who was behind the Lopez murder, Antonio DiMaestro.

  - And without his job which was what had held him together for all these years, he fell into the abyss which in Michael's case was embodied by alcohol.

  - Fuelled by alcohol driven paranoia, he was an easy target to frame and so I did.

  James Locker:

  - But how did you frame him, where you following him around everywhere?

  James Pierce:

  - No to be fair, it was a lot easier than that. You see we have his number on your phone right.

  James Locker:

  - Yes of course. I have been working under the man for ages.

  James Pierce:

  - Indeed you have...

  - So I sent him a text message with a tracking virus from MY phone.

  - I am sure you can imagine getting one of those texts when you are drunk. Takes ages to load and then there is no message. You would get frustrated, but most likely you would forget about it quickly.

  James Locker:

  - Well probably yes...

  James Pierce:

  - And that is perhaps how Michael reacted.

  - Anyway, I now had a trace on his phone, and knowing him well, I knew he would go to the DiMaestro mansion to confront Miranda DiMaestro about Antonio sooner or later.

  James Locker:

  - Yes so far I am with you, and I guess I could anticipate such irrational behaviour from Michael as well. But that does not answer the question: why on earth did you/I want Miranda DiMaestro dead?

  James Pierce:

  - Why?!

  - Am I supposed to tell you why?

  - You were in love; I left you unaccompanied for one week. It ended with you killing Emily, the supposed love of your life.

  - And when I tried recreating the week I left you unsupervised, I found a notebook with some insane jealousy driven delusional notes about Emily, Antonio, Miranda, and Jessica all being plotting against you and conspiring against your happiness. I assumed this was a list of people you wanted dead as you killed Emily. I reckoned to finish the record while having you hunting yourself would finally get you to realise who you were and stop denying my existence.

  - As it turned out, my plan failed miserably.

  - In spite of killing every target from your list and leaving a bloodstained message on your bathroom mirror, you still refused to see the truth.

  - So I went to plan B, where I gradually got you addicted to the drug Xenoantipsyche by replacing your medicine with it...

  - I then planted the drug along with all the other evidence at Michael Fuller’s place the same night I shot the other Emily Luong.

  James Locker:

  - But why did you do that?

  James Pierce:

  - Please, James, you have to ask more specific questions.

  - I planted the evidence at Michael’s place to frame him and make you/me seem like an innocent victim.

  - I shot the other Emily Luong to induce psychosis in you. Deep down, you did know that the Emily you loved could not be the victim, but you could not understand why you knew that and that knowledge drove you crazy.

  - I knew that this experience would either make you realise what you did or make you take large quantities of "medication." You choose the latter, and that choice almost killed us both, but at least it led to you finally realising the truth

  James Locker:

  - But why didn’t you murder the other Emily? Was that a message as well?

  James Pierce:

  - I am sure people will speculate about it, but to be honest, it was just a coincidence. My gun jammed after the first shot, and I could hear the police coming. Killing Emily wasn't important; I knew you would get the message anyway.

  - So James any final questions before we proceed?

  James Locker:

  - I don't know; I am so overwhelmed by all of this, I need time to think and reflect on what you just told me

  James Pierce:

  - Enough of that bullshit, I am sick of waiting for you to figure things out. I have been waiting for 32 years and very eagerly the last nine months.

  James Locker:

  - Okay then... What do you want me to do then? Just tell me, and we'll take it from there?

  James Pierce:

  - I want you to acknowledge my existence! I want you to step back and be my guardian while I enjoy life with Rebecca. After all, I have everything to live for while you have nothing!

  James Locker:

  - But you are a cold-blooded monster. There is no way I am letting you get away with everything you have done. I will stop you!

  All of a sudden, James Locker felt an uncontrollable rage taking over his body. His pulse rose, and his vision stained with blood. He raised his gun and aimed it at his reflection.

  James Locker:

  - I am going to kill you here and now. Any last words, you piece of shit!?

  James Pierce:

  - If I may ask, how do you think shooting a mirror with a gun would kill someone that is a manifestation of your subconscious?

  Hearing these words of reason and logic James Locker fell into tears. His enemy was right of course. He would never be able to kill that monster that would take over his life more and more until nothing good in him remained. He was crying heavily and felt completely left out to the powers of the world. He could feel the hand of James Pierce on his shoulder. James Pierce spoke to him with a gentle voice to comfort him.

  James Pierce:

  - Don't worry James; everything will be fine, I will look after us both from now on.

  James Locker made his decision. He looked deeply into his reflection and stared intensely into his enemy's eyes. He turned the gun towards his head and spoke:

  James Locker:

  - I will end this right now! If the only way to kill you is to kill me, so be it!

  James Pierce:

  - So you are choosing to kill the both of us? But why we make such a good team you and I?

  James Locker:

  - I won’t even discuss this with you anymore as you said a few minutes ago, the time for thinking has passed, it’s time to take action.

  James Locker pulled the trigger and fell dead to the ground...

  James Pierce woke up from the shock a few minutes later. He was looking at the corpse of James Locker. The corpse had a bullet wound to the head and although James Pierce knew that the body of James Locker was only a manifestation of his subconscious it still gave him great satisfaction to see it lying there on the basement floor. James Pierce reflected that it indeed had been a satisfying feeling to die or in this case “die” Logically he was unhurt, an unloaded pistol was not doing any damage after all. But still due to the significant connection between the soul and the body James Pierce had felt dying for a couple of minutes because James Locker whom he shared the body with indeed died. Feeling a great relief that things were finally over, James Pierce suddenly felt a tsunami of tiredness drenching his body. He went back to his bed where he had the best night's sleep he had had in all of his life...

  The end

  | Page

  Also by Martin Lundqvist

 
The Divine Zetan Trilogy

  The Divine Dissimulation

  The Divine Sedition

  Standalone

  Matt's Amazing Week

  James Locker The Duality of Fate

  Watch for more at Martin Lundqvist’s site.