by Nolon King
A knock on the door preceded it opening.
“Hey, partner.” Mike walked in with a teddy bear and a gift bag. “How are you?”
She held up her left hand. “On the plus side, I guess my index finger now qualifies as flipping you off.”
Mike handed her the bag.
She looked inside. “No fucking way. You actually found ABBA’s Greatest Hits on eight-track?”
“What’s eight-track?” Katie said. “And who is Abba?”
“Don’t ask that second question,” Mike teased. “She’ll make you listen to the whole album.”
“Fortunately for both of you, I don’t have my eight-track anymore. But I’m sure Katie can download it on her iPhone.”
Mike shook his head.
Katie laughed.
“Hey, do you mind if I talk to Mal alone for a minute?”
Katie looked at her. When Mal nodded back, she left.
“You up for a statement yet?” Mike asked.
“I’m a bit loopy right now. Maybe later?”
“I was looking over Katie’s. Your good Samaritan wouldn’t happen to be a certain man who recently died in prison?”
“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about.” Mal smiled.
“Of course you don’t.”
“He saved us, again.”
“I thought you saved the day. You shot Loomis, right?”
“Yeah, but … the Samaritan … I couldn’t have done it without him. If I went in there like I planned or called it in, Katie would be dead for sure.”
“Okay.” Mike nodded. “I’m not gonna push.”
“Thank you.”
“Barry is wondering when you’ll be ready to come back.”
“Oh, now he wants me back?”
“Well, you’re a hero.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think I will be.”
“What?”
“That girl out there needs me. And, right now, I kinda need her. I miss having a family.”
“Well, you need anything, even if it’s just to talk, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks, Mike.”
“I’ll call you later for an official statement. Or … I could just say I already took it and it’s all good.”
“Sounds great.
“Gotchya, Mamma Mia.” He gave another nod, then he was gone.
Katie came back inside. “So, I downloaded ABBA.”
“And?”
“It’s not the worst thing ever.”
Mal smiled. “Let me see which one you got.”
Katie showed her. ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits.
“See, you got the better version. This one,” Mal said, holding up the eight-track tape, “actually didn’t even have Dancing Queen on it. Their best known song, their greatest hit, came out after this album.”
Katie stared at her.
“Sorry. I get really passionate about ABBA. And almost all seventies music.”
Katie nodded. “Is it too late to go to the group home?”
Mal laughed.
It felt good to hear the sound again.
Epilogue 1
Two weeks later …
Mal sat in a booth at the back of the hotel restaurant, waiting for Gloria.
She’d called earlier saying she had something “huge” to discuss.
Mal wasn’t sure if it was good or bad news. Things were going great with Katie. Mal had “won” the lottery for a second time. McKenna was out of her coma and doing well. And she hadn’t heard a whisper about Jasper, so maybe her unusually excellent luck streak was about to flame the hell out.
But Gloria’s smile suggested the good news was great, indeed.
She sat down, looked around to see if anybody was watching, then slid an iPad across the table. “You know anything about this?”
“What?” Mal asked.
“Turn it on.”
The screen was open to the iPad’s files, showing several folders with months, dates, and two specific names: Sheriff Claude Barry and Cameron Ford.
“What is this?” Mal asked.
“Someone sent this to me anonymously. Sure it wasn’t you?”
“This is the first I’m seeing this. What’s on here?”
“Good shit. Enough to bury both of these fuckers. We’ve got Barry accepting extortion money, making racist comments with a city commissioner, and mountains of coke and blackmail for Ford.”
“No fucking way.”
“Yes fucking way.”
“Where’d this come from?”
“Howard Loomis had a room full of this kind of stuff. My guess is someone bagged this as evidence and made me a copy.”
“Someone at the sheriff’s office?”
“I’m thinking someone else. Maybe a certain friend of yours. A certain dead friend.”
“This is the first I’m seeing it, but … awesome? What are you doing with it?”
“It’s tomorrow’s six o’clock news story. We’re going to vet a few things, but yeah, they’re both going down.”
“And … do you want back in?”
“I’m done with the department. I can do more good here. Less political bullshit. But you should run.”
“Hell no. I’m taking a much needed vacation.”
“I heard you won the lotto again.”
“Yeah,” Mal said. “What are the odds?”
Gloria smiled, shaking her head. Mal wasn’t sure if she’d tied it to Jasper or not.
“Then I’m pushing Mike to run.”
“What? Mike? No, he’s too nice. He …” Mal thought about how well he had navigated through so much of the bullshit. “Well, maybe.”
“I think he’d be great.”
The server came to take their order. They ordered, then he left.
Gloria said, “So, how’s the hand?”
“Okay. Bandages will be off soon.”
“And … you okay?”
“You asking about the painkillers?”
“Yeah.”
“I haven’t taken any since the hospital. Just Extra Strength Tylenol.”
“You know if you ever start to slip, you can call me.”
“Thank you. But I don’t think I’m gonna slip again. I’ve got too much going on, and people relying on me. Got a daughter now.”
“I heard. That Katie kid.”
“Tough exterior, but she’s a sweetheart.”
“Just like you.”
“Aw, shit, boss, you’re gonna make me blush.”
“You look … happier than I’ve seen in a long time. Motherhood suits you. You deserve it.”
“Yes. Yes, it does,” Mal agreed. “It’s not the same as watching Ashley grow up and have her own family, but … I’m looking forward to having them both in my house.”
“You going back to your old place?”
Mal shrugged. “Might be time for a change of scenery. Maybe move north, somewhere with seasons.”
Gloria nodded. “Well, whatever you decide, don’t be a stranger.”
“Oh,” Mal said, “I almost forgot. I brought you a gift.”
She reached down to her purse, pulled out the wrapped item, then handed it to Gloria.
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
“An ABBA eight-track? Wow. Um, fuck you?”
Mal laughed. “Just don’t tell Mike I gave it to you.”
Epilogue 2
Jasper stood in the dark, feeling the cool breeze as leaves flitted along the sidewalk. He was standing outside a modest two-story home in a nice quiet suburban town, looking in through the dining room window, watching the woman he’d once loved sharing dinner with her daughter.
Alicia and Ophelia had started a new life in Virginia. It wasn’t hard to find them. But now that he was here, he was losing his nerve to knock.
Jordyn appeared beside him. “You didn’t come all this way for nothing.”
“I lied to her. She probably hates me. She knew ‘Dennis.’ The woman’s never even met me.”<
br />
“What, were you planning on telling her you’re an ex-cop who faked his death and spent his time hunting bad guys with his ghost daughter?”
“At least that would have been honest.”
“Enough to never get a second date.”
Jasper laughed.
“You lied about a part of you, but that’s not all you are. You’re a sweet and caring man who will do anything to protect the people he loves, even if it means sacrificing his happiness.”
Lenny appeared next to Jordyn. “Here we are again, at a crossroads between what you want and what you feel obligated to do.”
“Last time I thought this could work, I nearly got Alicia, Ophelia, and her aunt killed.”
“No,” Lenny said. “Alicia’s sister almost got them all killed. You just … well, you threw fuel on the fire. But you also took care of those meth bikers.”
“He’s right, Dad.”
Jasper watched Alicia pass a bowl to Ophelia, remembering how much he enjoyed breaking bread with them, sitting at the table and talking like a normal family.
Now they were out of his life, and he wanted them more than ever.
Jasper looked down at his hands. So much blood on them.
“Monsters like me weren’t meant to have love.”
“Bullshit. Monsters are the ones who need love most.” She met his gaze. “You can’t keep living in fear, Dad. Fear ain’t living, it’s killing time. Nothing lasts forever, and you can’t always protect the ones you love. None of us knows when our time will be up, but you should enjoy what you have while you still have it. Make their time as special as you can.”
Tears stung his eyes. “What if she still hates me? What if she’s happier now without me? Look at them … they don’t need me.”
Jordyn looked in the window again. “That’s not what I see.”
“What do you see?”
“An incomplete picture. Missing you.”
“What if I’m right and she hates me?”
Jordyn said, “And what if she loves you?”
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Lenny turned to Jordyn. “He’s gotta make this decision on his own.”
“Wait,” Jasper said. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Remember when you and Mom were teaching me to ride a bike … I was so afraid and kept on saying I didn’t know how to do it? What did you say to me?”
“You don’t know if you don’t try.”
Jordyn nodded. “You were right.”
Then she and Lenny were gone and Jasper was alone, standing on the sidewalk in front of what he hoped might be his new house.
Every instinct pleaded with him to turn around, get out of there before they saw him.
But Jordyn was right, fear wasn’t living. It was only killing time.
And Jasper had killed far too much in his life already.
He needed to start living.
So Jasper approached the door, more nervous than any of the times he’d ever entered a dark room to end someone’s life.
His heart pounded as he stood on the porch. He heard Ophelia’s laugh, followed by Alicia’s. He’d enjoyed his time with them and needed it again.
He rang the doorbell with his heart in his throat.
“One second,” Alicia said.
Jasper heard her footsteps. Then there was a pause.
Had she looked through the peephole and seen him?
Would she open the door?
Jasper swallowed the knot along with his fear.
Then the door opened.
THE END
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A Note From The Authors
Welcome back for what I think will be the final installment of the No Justice series.
It’s always difficult to know when to end a series. Especially an open-ended one like this. I mean, conceivably, we could write about Jasper killing bad guys forever.
There’s a ton of bad guys out there.
A lot of injustice.
We could probably write a few hundred books and never run out of horrible scenarios. However, they probably wouldn’t be a few hundred great books.
It would probably get a bit repetitive.
When we started No Justice, we weren’t sure how many books we’d write in the series. We wanted to write about injustice, vengeance, what vengeance will drive people to do, how people deal with loss, how people lie to themselves, and how people come back from such incredible darkness.
I think we’ve told the story we wanted to tell. It’s too soon to know for sure.
We might return to Mal and Jasper at some later time.
Or maybe just one of them.
It’s too soon to know. We don’t yet know what happens next for them.
As I said in the last author’s note, I like to see what the characters are going to show me.
And right now it’s too soon.
I’ve got to give them some time to live their lives. Let Mal enjoy her new life. Let Jasper see if he can have a family again. Both of them are seeking family, really.
They also both want to heal from all they’ve been through.
Maybe down the road we’ll check in and see what they’re up to. And, if it’s interesting enough, we’ll tell that story.
But, for now, this is the end.
We hope you’ve enjoyed your time in Creek County.
Oh, before I go…
I nearly forgot to address the question that’s been lingering since the first book — Is Jordyn in his head or is she a ghost?
We like the uncertainty of us, the readers, not knowing.
Jasper is an unreliable narrator, after all.
Just as there is unexplained phenomena in our world, we wanted some of that in this series.
I had some strange things happen to me over the years, especially when I was a kid. Weird, unexplainable things that I’ll never know the reality of. And there’s a part of me that loves the mystery.
If you’re the kind of person that needs a definitive answer to Is Jordyn in his head or is she a ghost, I’ll just say this …
Yes.
Thank you for reading,
Dave (and Nolon)
A quick favor…
If you liked No Fear, then would you kindly* consider taking a few minutes to leave a review on Amazon. If you’re a book blogger, we’d love any mentions on your blog or YouTube channel, also. Every bit of word-of-mouth helps to introduce us to new readers.
As always, thank you for reading,
David Wright (and Nolon King)
(* Bonus points if you got the Bioshock reference.)
About the Authors
Nolon King writes fast-paced psychological thrillers set in the glitzy world of entertainment’s power players with a bold, insightful voice. He’s not afraid to explore the darker side of human nature through stories featuring families torn apart by secrets and lies.
Nolon loves to write about big questions and moral quandaries. How far would you go to cover up an honest mistake? Would you destroy your career to protect your family? How much of your soul would you sell to get the life of your dreams? Would you cheat on your husband to keep your children safe? Would you give in to a stalker's demands to save your marriage?
David W. Wright is the co-author of edge-of-your seat thrillers including the best-selling post-apocalyptic series Yesterday’s Gone, the paranoid sci-fi WhiteSpace series, and the vigilante series, No Justice, as well as standalone thrillers 12, and Crash which was recently optioned for a movie.
David is an accomplished, though intermittent, cartoonist who lives in [LOCATION REDACTED] with his wife and son [NAMES REDACTED.]
He is not
at all paranoid.
He is “the grumpy one” on the The Story Studio Podcast with fellow Sterling and Stone founders, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.
You can email him at [email protected]
We swear, he almost never bites. Unless you feed him after midnight.
