by B Anders
Edwin's footsteps returned. Three quick steps closer and Colby rolled on her back. Her gun came up with the motion. Edwin was poised to kick but Colby never gave him the chance.
Bang! He stumbled backward, hitting the floor with a thud.
Colby put the safety back on her gun. She sat up slowly. The world was spinning. She used the gun to wedge open the steel trap to pull her foot free. It worked with a little effort but she was unable to retrieve the gun without losing her hand.
Walking was out of the question. Her leg was gone. Colby balanced on her remaining good knee and hands and dragged the wounded leg along as she moved toward the pool table. Edwin was still shuddering when she passed. She paused momentarily to spit on him.
"Rot in friggin' hell you fuckin' fucker!" She cursed before crawling onward. She needed to get to Jessie fast.
Once at the pool table, Colby managed to pull herself up. She kept her weight off her broken leg but the pain nearly doubled her over. The sight on the pool table was even worse.
The body on the table was starkly white; blood soaked the green felt beneath. Young, Hispanic, female, her shirt torn off revealing a grinning slice across her belly down into her pubic hair. Her face slit from ear to ear in a mockery of a grin.
“Hi Sweetie, did you miss me?”
Colby turned around just in time to see Jessie swing the baseball bat dead center at her head.
"Like father, like daughter," Edwin laughed as Colby collapsed to the floor like a deck of cards. “Is the bitch still alive?” Edwin asked as he hauled himself up. “She blew a hole in my second best suit. All I can say is thank God for Kevlar.”
Jessie bent down to touch Colby’s neck.
“She’s still breathing. Hand me her gun will you, Uncle Eddie.”
Edwin nodded and tried to pull Colby’s pistol free from the steel trap.
“Fuck it, its stuck fast in the teeth. I can’t get it out.”
“You have to reset the pressure plate, here let me do it.”
“No, no. I can do this by myself. I’m old not stupid. You know Jessie, I didn’t think she had it in her, the stupid bitch, coming all this way by herself to try to get you back. For once, she didn’t take the easy way out. She must have known it was useless. She was sick as a dog. Her hands were shaking so much she couldn’t hold her gun straight.”
“She knew she was sick, but she came for me anyway,” Jessie replied. “Why didn’t you take me away from the Castle like you promised after you killed Marty?”
“Huh? Oh, I guess I wanted to see what would happen. Curious mostly, if the Boston PD and our friend here would be able to connect the dots leading from Marty to you and from you back to me.”
“I was a game to you?”
Edwin sighed dramatically, “Don’t start, Jessie. You know I hate it when you whine, and yes, I put you on the table as a prize for my game." Edwin chuckled, "It would have been a fine one too, if only our hero here wasn’t too in love with you to save her own ass. What was that stupid quote? ‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.’"
“Love makes people do strange things, Uncle Eddie.”
Jessie thought it was a pity that Edwin Dobb’s reply was lost in a gaggle of blood as her second time at bat knocked him home. Face straight forward into the jaws of the steel trap.
She would have loved to hear him scream.
*****
Chapter 16
Wednesday, 18th March
The Captain looked like he was just one syllable short of a stroke as a man could get. Every word he shouted down his cellphone got Faust to press the gas a little bit harder. She wasn't positive being on site of the latest Ripper murder would be the best thing for his blood pressure, but she knew she didn't want to deal with a medical emergency on the narrow road climbing up the Wellesley Hills.
"Yeah, Willis, I'm tracking Officer Colby Willis. You're like the twelfth guy I've been transferred to. This is a police investigation so I'd appreciate it if you fuckers at AT&T would do your fuckin’ civic duty! A life, maybe two, hangs in the balance."
The veins on his forehead were raised and throbbing. Faust was fairly certain she'd be putting him in an ambulance before the afternoon was out.
"Right, that's right, I want to know where her phone is pinging to. Give me a location. It hasn't," he seemed to deflate right next to her. "She hasn't used the phone in two days," he hushed to Faust. "Yeah, I'll take the last location."
Faust pulled the Crown Vic into the Castle's parking lot. She parked in a handicapped spot near the front entrance. Police cruisers and unmarked vehicles filled the area. No other cars were allowed up. All the staff on site would be staying for at least the next shift. The other shifts were on hold pending the investigation of the scene and interviews.
"Shit!"
The Captain dropped the phone in his lap and buried his face in his hands. Faust was certain he was crying. She felt very awkward but she needed to find out what he was so devastated about.
"Captain ..." She ventured.
He lifted his face wiping tears away. "Last ping was Berkeley Street, out of headquarters. Her phone is probably in a parking lot. I've lost her Faust. She's probably gutted someplace and we'll find her body in six months."
Faust didn't try to comfort him. There was no point. A dead cop, even Willis, was a stain on his record. Willis would be the second Detective he lost to the Ripper. His career would always be coupled with tragedy and failure.
A rap on the passenger window startled them both. The Captain scrubbed his face once more before lowering the window.
"What have you got for me?"
The State Trooper standing next to the car snorted, "Nice hello. What am I, your gopher? Running errands? Did you even bring me a friggin' coffee?"
"Next time and I'll bring you a donut too." The Captain sighed sounding worn out, "What details can you share?"
"We got a croaked shrink. Gutted like your Ripper girl likes 'em. She was found in one of the unused cells in their secure wing. She’s been there for some time, seems they don’t check all their cells at the end of each day. Wanna take a walk with me and check it out?"
"No, but I will," the Captain looked very old as he answered.
Faust's phone rang before she could get out of the car. She waved the Captain on so she could take the call.
"Faust, here," she greeted.
"Hola usted hottie es usted hambriento para el sexo."
"Who the shit is this?”
“Hey baby, you forgot me already. I’m so disappointed. I thought I made a better impression than that.”
“Jessie?" Faust felt a rush of cold grip her heart. "Where's Colby?"
"What? Colby? You serious? I call and all you know to know is ‘where’s fuckin’ Colby’? Baby, I thought you'd be happy to hear from me. What a letdown."
"Jessie," Faust said, "I need to know where both of you are. Tell me where you are."
"Safe. Colby and I are safe. And, we're going to stay safe. Everybody else is safe too. No more killings."
"But there’s just been another killing," Faust worried about revealing too much of the ongoing investigation but she needed to draw Jessie out.
"Right, I should correct myself. You guys haven't found all the bodies yet but there won't be any more killings in your jurisdiction. There are several bodies you still need to find. One of the bodies is the killer—the Commonwealth Killer. That's what the others call him. He was quite famous in the circles he traveled in. None of the others will take over his killing ground. It’s mine now and they respect my right. After all, I’ve earned it. So, after you find all the bodies, the killing is over."
Faust was struggling to keep up with Jessie's revelation. "You mean there's a network of serial murderers out there? Sounds a little grandiose, Jessie. Almost delusional."
"If it makes you happy to believe I'm just crazy then believe it. I'm not wasting my time trying to prove something as trans
ient as my sanity. Colby and I have other better things to do. Adios, Chica."
The line went dead. Faust sat looking at the phone. The passenger door swung open.
"We gotta get back to Southie! Marty's house is a four alarm fire."
The Captain landed in the seat like a ton of bricks. He looked at her with her phone in her hand. "What was that about?"
Faust thought for a moment before answering, "Nothing. Just someone calling to say good bye.”
END
*****
AUTHORS’ PROFILES
Phair is a part time writer and full time dreamer. She lives on the east coast of the US. The town is a peninsula hanging into the icy Atlantic at the mouth of Boston Harbor. In the heat of summer, the ocean provides cool breezes. But in the heart of winter, batters the coast with gales. It makes for a hearty New England life which she share with three furry companions, Dakota and the brothers Cat; Calvin and Hobbes.
Visit her website at http://www.phair1.com/
Anders writes when the muse bites (that bitch) and believes that a double cheeseburger is a food group, along with dark chocolate bounty bars. Her interest in horror started with Poe and escalated out of control over the next few decades from Sturgeon to Wagner to Barker to King to Rendell to Campbell. She has read every story Lovecraft wrote at least twice. Other interests include Sci-Fi and gay erotica (sparked off by the Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories she picked up one day at the UNSW on-campus bookshop as a bored post-grad.)
Visit her website at http://betting-on-the-muse.com/
*****
