Twins of Prey II: Homecoming

by W. C. Hoffman

  “You finding everything you need son?” Hawkins asked. “You look a little fidgety? You need to go use the bathroom or something?” Hawkins asked as he noticed the boy’s high level of discomfort in the room.

  “Oh, no thanks, we got Cokes in the car,” Brooks answered.

  “Huh?” Hawkins shruged his shoulders while turning his head to the boy unsure of what exactly he had just heard him say while Brooks just stood there with a dazed look in his eyes.

  “I said do you need to use the bathroom or is there anything I can help you with,” Hawkins spoke slower this time thinking perhaps he had misjudged the boy he was talking to as being the smart one in the group.

  “Ha Ha,” the boy faked a nervous laugh. “No, I’m good but thanks,” Brooks replied awkwardly.

  “Alright then, well you let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you,” Hawkins again offered his assistance.

  “Well yea, um is this a good one?” Brooks asked holding up the black and yellow battery-powered saw.

  “Well, that depends on what you are using it for,” Hawkins replied. “What do you have in mind?”

  Brooks again grew fidgety and turned away from the old man as if he was just going to walk away awkwardly.

  “Hey, old man, leave that fool alone and come show me some guns!” Gabriel yelled from across the store. It was times like these that Hawkins wished he had employees to help him in the store. He could not help but think of the irony behind the fact that Tomek and Drake were upstairs watching television or reading while he was down here dealing with a group of misfits that resembled them so much.

  Hawkins walked up to the gun counter and while looking at the most annoying of the angels said, “Gabriel, like I’ve told you in the past, I cannot and will not sell you a gun.”

  “Yeah old man, why is that?” Gabriel asked already knowing the answer.

  “You are a minor,” Hawkins reminded him.

  “A minor?” Gabriel said while raising just his left eyebrow. “A minor is a musical key, do I look like motherfucking Mozart to you bitch?” Gabriel quipped back causing the other angels to snicker.

  “Last week you tried to buy a couple bottles of the wine we sell from the Loud Mouth Winery. I checked your ID then, remember?” Hawkins said as he pointed to the shelf that held the local winemaker’s product line.

  “That was for sacramental reasons!” The angel claimed laughing.

  “Okay, okay, okay, if you choose to flaunt your ignorance further in my store then I am just going to have to throw your ass out on the street,” Hawkins said threatening Gabriel.

  “Yea okay, old man, you and what Army?”

  “Like I said, I cannot, check that, will not, be selling you anything today because you are a minor,” Hawkins reaffirmed his stance.

  “So you are saying I am a minor?”

  “Unless you suddenly turned twenty-one in the last seven days, then yes. You may not be a minor, but you are too young to purchase wine or a firearm in the great state of Michigan,” Hawkins replied.

  “Let me get this straight, old man, now you are saying I am a minor?” Gabriel asked while attempting to make a point at the same time. “Cause I aren’t no damned minor old man. Do you see a shovel in my hands? Am I wearing a light on my forehead? Is my face all cover in coal? Pshh minor my ass, old man, and fuck you, you racist-ass bitch.”

  “Gabriel!” The voice of Father Niko froze each of the angels in their tracks, but none were as scared in that moment as the foul-mouthed trouble-maker at the gun counter. The sound of Niko yelling had even caught Hawkins off guard as neither he nor Sypris had heard him enter the store.

  “Yes Father,” he said while turning to face Niko with his head lowered in shame like a dog who had peed on its masters new living room carpet.

  “You and I need to have a ‘come to Jesus’ talk, go out to my truck now,” Niko said. “The rest of you finish gathering your equipment for the retreat, pay Mr. Hawkins and head back to Lucky Trail. I am disappointed in you all.”

  “Yes Father,” The group answered in unison.

  “My apologies, Mr. Hawkins,” Father Niko said while opening the door to let Gabriel out of the store.

  “Quite alright Father,” Hawkins continued, “Say hey, Father, the art student you got over there with all the doodles on his arms has an awful lot of ammo. That okay with you?” Hawkins asked.

  “Yes, he has a list made by me. Do not sell him anything not on the list. These angels of mine were to be rewarded with a retreat to go hunting, but now I am reconsidering it. None-the-less yes, it is okay.”

  “Very well Father, very well,” Hawkins said.

  “Have a nice evening, Mr. Hawkins, and again sorry for this,” Father Niko said while exiting the store, but before he was all the way out, Hawkins pulled him back in with another question.

  “Hey Father.”

  “Yes?” Niko stepped back in the doorway again ringing the bell.

  “Out of curiosity, what you guys going hunting for?” Hawkins asked.

  “Coyotes, or wolves, or something like that. We are having some issues with them out at Lucky Trail. The darned things keep getting into the chicken pens,” Father Niko responded without a pause.

  “Very well Father, very well.” Hawkins said as Niko left the store.

  Upon Niko walking out, the other three angels placed their various assortment of items up on the counter to be rung up. Michael had gathered a few different knives and lengths of rope while Brooks plopped down the same black and yellow reciprocating saw they had discussed earlier. DC’s basket of ammo rounded out the evening’s merchandise.

  “All this for a coyote, huh?” Hawkins asked.

  The angels each just stood there, looked at each other and nodded. Michael then stepped forward handing Hawkins the Lucky Trail’s credit card and said,

  “Yea, coyote hunting, alright. We’s got us a bitch to kill.”

  13 Truth

  Henderson left the dead teen splayed out in her window sill with the thought process that he is not going anywhere and waking up the medical examiner at this time of night and making him come all the way across the county was not something that had to be done right away. The other attacker was now with her, sitting cuffed next to her desk down at the sheriff’s department. Henderson, at her desk, was looking at him pondering who he was and why he had come to attack her. Was it just a home invasion gone wrong, were they going to rape her, rob her, and who sent them? These were just a few of the questions she had planned to get answers to from the boy.

  “Okay, we will start with this,” she said grabbing the boys hair on the very top of his head lifting it up so he was forced to look her in the eye. “Who are you?”

  “James, and I ain’t saying shit to you,” The boy replied.

  “I am willing to bet that if I put you on that polygraph machine right there, that won’t be the truth. I bet your name is not even close to James,” Henderson said pointing over to the corner of the room.

  “Poly what?” James replied.

  “Polygraph, you see that machine right over there? It is a lie detector and I am going to use it on you unless you start talking,” Henderson said.

  “You see this silent game you trying to play, acting all tough and shit don’t work in the real world. This is not the movies cause if it was, your little prick of a partner wouldn’t be half dead in my kitchen and the other half dead on my patio. Now why do you think you’re alive and he is not? Simple reason is this, I have a use for you. I want information from you and if you are not cooperative and truthful, then you will be like your buddy to me, useless and therefore dead.” Henderson threats were empty and a one-hundred-percent bluff, but she laid them on the boy so thick hoping that his youth and inexperience in the world would be her best weapon against him.

  “Bitch, you ain’t gonna kill me now,” James said keeping up his cocky attitude.

  The next time James opened his eyes, he was on the floor. His vision was slow
ly clearing from its blurred state as he tasted the metallic warm wetness of blood in his mouth. Feeling around his mouth with his tongue, James discovered the front row of his teeth was gone. As his vision came to, he saw all four of them on the floor in front of him. Henderson had pistol whipped him with the butt end of her gun in her left hand with a backhand motion. He had been unconscious for almost five minutes.

  Seeing his blood-covered teeth on the floor, the boy began to panic and attempted to get up on his feet, but with his head still fuzzy from the impact and his hands still secured behind his back, he only stumbled and fell back down after a few feeble attempts. Henderson standing in the corner could not help but laugh as she loaded four pieces of paper into the machine. Each with one word already printed on them.

  “Are you ready to talk now?” She asked.

  “You crazy bitch, you knocked my teefe out!” James yelled while spitting out the globs of coagulated blood that had accumulated in his mouth and throat while he was out cold.

  “Teefe?” Henderson said mocking the boy’s inability to pronounce properly due to the condition of his mouth.

  “Yea, my teefe!” He said yelling again.

  “Here’s the deal, you are going to tell the truth and for each time this machine says you’re lying, you lose another one of your, as you call them, teefe,” Henderson said explaining her plans to make him talk.

  “You can’t torture me, I am an American I know my rights!” The boy again yelled.

  “Your rights?” Henderson shrugged and laughed and thought to herself for a moment she was acting like her old boss the former sheriff. But none-the-less she needed to know more about the motives of her captive subject.

  “Let me tell you something here, you attacked me in my house and then, let’s just say you attacked me in my office. Both times I got the best of you. And just so you know when it comes down to it, it is my word against yours and you won’t be around to testify unless you start talking now,” Henderson again bluffed.

  “You see, James, if that is your name, you have thirty-two, nope sorry you had thirty-two teeth. For each lie you tell, I am going to remove one with these rusty old pliers here. With four of those pearly whites missing you now have twenty-eight teeth in your mouth. That means twenty-eight more chances for you to lie,” Henderson explained to him while she grabbed his arm lifting him up and placing him into a chair next to the machine. Opening up the lid she placed his left hand down on the clear glass screen.

  “This machine measures multiple physical and emotional reactions that involuntarily happen in your body as you answer these questions. Do you understand that?” Henderson said holding back her laughter.

  “Yea whatever, I get it,” James said. “But before we start, I’ll tell you the truth my name is really James, but everyone calls me Jimmy Rae. Just please don’t take my teefe,” the boy pleaded showing Henderson at this point he truly was defeated.

  “You keeping your teeth has nothing to do with me, that is all up to you,” Henderson replied again smirking.

  “What is so goddamned funny?” Jimmy asked.

  “You don’t spend much time in office buildings do you?” She asked.

  “No,” he said.

  “No what?” She said again grabbing his hair to lift his head.

  “No, ma’am” He replied.

  “Much better,” Henderson said.

  “This machine really works right? I mean, what if it thinks I am lying, but I told the truth?” Jimmy asked.

  “I am guessing you do not spend much time in offices or at the library, huh?” Henderson returned with the same question she full well knew the answer to. Being that the supposed polygraph lie detecting machine she had Jimmy Rae hooked up to was nothing more than their office copy machine that she previously had loaded papers into that had the words TRUE or LIE preprinted on them. This was also the reason for her muted laughter.

  Sheriff Henderson was well aware of the number of broken laws and rights violations she had committed but at this point it was not about having a good prosecution against her attackers. She wanted to know why they chose her. After battling her brothers and then again the traffic stop gone wrong the fact that again she was fighting two black teenage boys in northern Michigan had to be more than coincidental.

  “Now we are going to start, first we will try something easy. Just answer yes or no.” Henderson still could not believe this was going to work. “Is your name Jimmy Rae?”

  “Yes,” he answered as Henderson pushed the green button atop the unit initiating the copy sequence. The light moved back and forth as it scanned his hand and a printed piece of paper shot out of the machine showing a silhouetted outline of his hand with the word TRUE across it in bold lettering.

  “Very good,” Henderson said holding it up to show Jimmy.

  “Was your original goal tonight to kill me?” Henderson asked with her next question getting right to the point.

  “Yes,” He said as he spit out more blood onto the wood paneled floor.

  Again Henderson pushed the button to scan his hand. TRUE. The boys reaction to seeing the results let Henderson know that he was telling the truth but it also told her that this was not a soulless killer. For if he was she would have been dead.

  “Were you acting on your own accord?” She asked.

  “Accord?” He did not understand her question. “Like a Honda Accord?”

  “Were you instructed to attack me?” Henderson asked clearing up the confusion.

  “No,” The boy said again with blood now at a steady drip from his swollen mouth. Henderson watched as the boy lifted his head on his own this time watching the bright green light of the copy machine cross back and forth as if he was waiting to see this answer more than the others. Henderson knew again by his reaction that he was lying and was glad she had loaded the paper in the machine in perfect order. As she held up the results scan that clearly said LIE he began to squirm and cry.

  “No please, no more, I am not lying. Father Niko sent us only to spy on you. The angels were coming later to kill you for what you did to Jacoby and Tower and because you took all his product. You cost Niko a lot of money and he was saying things about you working too hard and not giving us free passes like the last sheriff. B-b-b-b, but my partner, the dead one you cut up, wanted to impress him and the angels and g-g,get you before they did! Please no, it’s the truth no don’t take any more of my teefe.” Jimmy Rae had cracked. It was clear he was not an experienced killer or even a competent thug and certainly not on the same level as one of Niko’s angels. An angel would have never given up this info so easily, but none the less Henderson knew this was not going to be the end of her troubles with the boys from Lucky Trail.

  Sheriff Henderson knew this was the truth and no matter how much she wished that it wasn’t, she was well aware that Father Niko was not the man that he portrayed himself to be. She knew that the large amount of prescription drugs and various weapons she and Trooper Common found in the trunk of the car she pulled over that night would be missed by someone. Perhaps the Canadian cartel or even some dealers down state, but she would have never thought that Pine Run’s own Father Niko was the king pin of the operation. Yet now, it began to all make sense. Niko was not in the business of saving these kid’s lives. They were merely pawns in his overall game of deceit and corruption.

  Securing the boy with his twenty-eight remaining teeth into a holding cell, she headed back to her house. Not yet knowing her full plan of attack or defense at this moment, she had to do something with the body of the other boy. The longer it took Niko to find out about her knowing the details of his planned attack, the better she could prepare.

  Henderson figured once home she could gear up for war and go after Niko in the morning. That way if anything else went bad, she only had to call out the medical examiner once to make sure he was bringing enough body bags.

  14 Darkness

  Henderson pulled into her driveway with her headlights off and quietly rolled the
patrol vehicle into the parking lot behind the house. She did not often use this back gravel spot much other than when she had a patrol vehicle to hide. Sometimes it was just easier for people not to know she was actually home and not out on the road working. She entered the house through the screened porch where just hours ago she had taken the life of another young boy. Something that was not getting easier to do with each situation. Even though she always convinced herself there was no choice other than using deadly force, it still weighed heavily on her soul.

  Stepping into the room she looked down upon him. Most of the blood was still wet and puddled. What had not soaked into the carpet remained there on the dining room tile floor.

  Why? The Sheriff thought to herself.

  “What went so wrong in your life that killing me to impress a priest seemed like a good idea?” This time she spoke aloud to the dead boy as if he would answer.

  Tiptoeing around his sprawled out arm, Henderson was attempting not to contaminate the crime scene. The thought of this made her laugh because there was no actual crime on her part, in her mind.

  Walking through the dining room French doors and stepping into the once grand piano living room Henderson was stopped in her tracks. It was not something she saw or even heard but a peculiar smell emanating from throughout the general area. Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils she attempted to mentally set aside the metallic iron scent of blood. There was something else in the air, something new, a smell that resembled fresh-cut wood. Henderson had been working on the house long enough to know what the sawdust of the house’s old wood skeleton smelled like when cut. She also knew that she had not worked on the house in days. She took one more step into the room and immediately knew what it was that had been cut.