Wrecker
Page 25
The pounding of Creedmoor’s feet was growing louder as they ran past the tilt-a-whirl but they still had a thirty foot lead. Jane glanced back at the boardwalk and saw that the police had almost reached the pier. Did they realize that’s where she was? There was no way to know. She pulled Allie around a corner to a giant terraced sliding board. This could work, she decided, hoping that it wouldn’t be long before help arrived. If they could make it to the top there’d be two different ways to come down. It would also be difficult for Creedmoor to get a decent shot off while they were on the twisting stairway. They ran to the back of the slide where Jane leaped onto the first flight of steps, yanking Allie behind her.
They’d only climbed to the first landing when Creedmoor appeared, from the opposite direction that they’d seem him last. He was in worse shape than Jane had realized. His entire shirt and the top half of one pants leg were soaked with blood. She wondered how he’d managed to keep going this long, and didn’t think he’d be able to make it up the stairs. With the metal bar in one hand and the back of Allie’s shirt scrunched in the other, she pushed on. There was still no sign of the police on the pier but Jane was certain that they’d be there before much longer. She’d just begun to believe that they might survive after all when she felt Allie’s shirt tear out her hand. Allie cried out with every impact as her body crashed and rolled all the way to the bottom of the staircase.
Jane peered over the rail and saw Allie lying in an unnatural position, battered but still in one piece. Creedmoor hadn’t reached the stairway but a quick look at his position told Jane that he would reach Allie first. Even if Jane clambered down in time, she knew she couldn’t protect her daughter from him anyway. But it wasn’t going to matter who could get there first because as he limped toward Allie his shooting arm was already on the way up.
Jane saw the gun and knew she had to move fast, before Creedmoor realized what she was going to try. It was a fifteen foot drop from where Jane was perched to the wooden planks of the pier, and Creedmoor was still about ten feet out. She timed his speed and picked a place to aim for. Squeezing the metal bar tightly in her right hand, she scaled the railing and launched herself at him, fighting the urge to scream.
He looked up just before she was about to land on his shoulders and flinched away. She swung the bar wildly at his head just before impact and was elated when it struck him in the face with a crunch that she could hear as well as feel. Her knee slammed into his shoulder, enough to knock him sideways. She flailed at him again with the bar as her own body flipped backwards, landing her painfully on her back. The gun dropped from Creedmoor’s hand as he staggered and fell away, but he quickly recovered it before wrestling his bloody body back to a standing position. Horrified, Jane threw the bar, which landed harmlessly at his feet. She wanted to go to Allie and throw herself over her tiny body, but Creedmoor was already raising the gun, this time pointing it at Jane.
Nothing made sense after she heard the gunshots. Creedmoor’s head exploded like a pumpkin as she watched, and then he went down again. Bits of flesh and brain matter rained onto the pier around them. Jane instinctively looked at Allie, who was bruised and bloodied from her falls but otherwise unharmed. Then she saw somebody behind her and understood.
“That’s for Charlynn!” Sergeant Rockingham shouted at Creedmoor’s still figure as it lay in a spreading pool of blood that was spurting from his head and neck. He fired another shot that burrowed bloodlessly into his torso. “Did you think I forgot about you?” he asked the bloody face. The eyes were open but there was no life left in that body. “Not on your life.” He smiled, then snickered, and before long was laughing like a maniac. “Get it?” he asked Jane before doubling over with laughter. “Not on your life?”
Jane ignored him. She had no idea where Rockingham had come from but that was for later, she decided as she crawled over to Allie. Knowing that her daughter had broken some bones she resisted the urge to pick her up, satisfying herself with wiping her tears away and caressing her face. “It’s all over, sweetie. We’re okay. You’re safe now.” She looked up in time to see a dozen police officers charging up the pier with guns drawn.
Chapter 24
The onrushing police encircled Rockingham. “Drop the gun!” one shouted. “Now!”
“Not him!” Jane protested.
Rockingham placed his pistol gently on the ground and kicked it away. “I’m a police officer,” he said calmly. “My badge is in my pocket.”
“It’s okay,” said one of the officers from the back. “It’s true. I saw him back in the casino.”
“It’s him you need to worry about,” Rockingham said, pointing at Creedmoor. “Well, not anymore.” One of the officers peeled the gun from Creedmoor’s hand and ejected the magazine from it. Rockingham pulled his badge out and held it up for anybody who was watching.
“Did you fire the shot that took him down?” the first officer asked Rockingham.
“Damn right I did. It was three shots, actually. Maybe four. Good thing for Mrs. Havelock here. He was about to waste her and her daughter.”
“Are you all right, ma’am?” somebody finally asked Jane. “Is this your daughter?”
“We’re alive,” Jane said. “That’s more than I expected a few minutes ago.” She moved toward Allie, only to be restrained by one of the policemen.
“You need to stay still,” he cautioned. “Are you hurt?”
“No. This is his blood, not mine,” she told him. “But my daughter got beat up pretty badly. She passed out. She needs help fast.” She didn’t have the energy to explain to them that she was a nurse.
“There’s an ambulance on the way,” an officer said. “We’ll take good care of her.”
“How did you know I was here?” she asked Rockingham after the police turned their attention to the body.
He shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“Excuse me, Officer,” interrupted an Atlantic City patrolman. “I’m going to need your statement.”
“You’ll have to wait,” Rockingham told him. “I need to explain a few things to Mrs. Havelock.” When the patrolman opened his mouth to protest Rockingham glared. That was enough to silence him.
“Did my husband call you?”
He shrugged. “Not exactly. Like I said, it’s a long story. He’s here somewhere. I bet he shows up any minute now.”
A team of EMTs arrived, with Steve and Eddie right behind them. Two police officers quickly directed them to where Allie still lay in a heap at the base of the stairway. “She’s unconscious,” Jane told them. “She fell down the steps. I didn’t move her.”
“She’ll be in good hands,” one of them assured her. Jane knew this was the signal to move away so they could load her on the stretcher. She rose and stepped back until she bumped up against her waiting husband.
“I was so worried,” he said. “Thank God you’re safe.”
“Sir, I’d like to take a look at that head wound,” one of the EMTs said to Steve.
“In a minute,” Steve answered, before taking Jane by the arm and leading her away. “I almost lost you,” he said to her as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “I don’t know what I would have done. I was so scared.” His head dropped on her shoulder. “I love you so much, Jane. I’m sorry I never show it. I’ve treated you so badly. I’ll do better if you’ll just give me a chance.”
“They’re loading Allie into the ambulance,” Jane said. “One of us should go with her. I don’t think I can handle it.”
“I’ll go,” Steve said. “I just don’t want to leave you.”
“You should get them to check you out while you’re there,” Jane said.
“I’m fine.”
“Stay with Allie as much as you can,” she told him. “She saw a lot of horrible things happen. She’ll want one of us there.”
“I will.” He let go of Jane, but then put his hands on her shoulders. “If you still want to, we’ll put everything back together. The way it used to be.”
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“Allie needs us both.”
“I was thinking,” Steve said. “Maybe a new brother or sister would help her get through this. What do you think?”
“They’re taking your daughter,” interrupted one of the officers. “Would either of you like to ride along?” With a tear on her cheek, Jane pushed Steve gently toward the officer. By the time he was climbing into the back of the ambulance Rockingham was back from making his statement to the Atlantic City police.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
“I think so. Ask me tomorrow.” She paused. “What did you say after you shot Rob? Something like ‘This one’s for Charlynn.’ Then you asked him if he remembered you. What was that all about?” she asked as she wiped her face.
He sighed and looked out over the ocean before responding. “Creedmoor and I have some history. Why do you think I knew so much about him when you called?”
“You already knew him?”
“I knew Richard Creedmoor. You knew Rob Manteo. I didn’t know they were the same man until the same time you did. But yeah, we go way back. I’ve been watching him real close for quite a few years now.”
“How far back?” Jane asked. “I’m confused. Why?”
“We can talk about this later.”
“I need to know now.”
“Yeah, I guess you do,” he conceded. “You already know what happened in the hospital up in Maine after the accident.”
“He pulled the plug on his wife and daughter,” Jane said. “He admitted it to me last night.”
“Yes. But he beat it. He got away with it.”
“I know all this.”
“I’m not done yet,” Rockingham said. “After they couldn’t nail him for it, well, the DA was in a fix. A crime like that just can’t go unsolved. Not in a town like Gorham.”
“A town like Gorham?” Jane asked. “What do you know about Gorham?”
“So he found the next best suspect and brought her up on charges,” he continued. “I don’t think he would have followed through. It was just for appearances. After it all died down I think they would have dropped it.”
Jane nodded. “Okay.”
“They brought charges against an orderly who just happened to be on duty that night. The woman who emptied bedpans and got coffee for the doctors and nurses. A woman named Charlynn.”
Jane’s eyes narrowed. “Charlynn. That’s the name you said. But how does a cop in New Jersey know so much about this?”
“I wasn’t always a cop in New Jersey.”
“So what were you before that?”
Rockingham folded his arms. “Charlynn was a God-fearing woman who had nothing to do with what happened. The last thing she would ever do was take a life. She was horrified. The night they charged her, even before bail could be posted, she had a stroke. She never recovered. They let her go, of course, but she never got out of bed again. She never spoke again. She was only half there in the head after that.”
“That’s so sad,” Jane said. “But I still don’t understand.”
“Charlynn’s last name was Rockingham.”
Jane’s mouth fell open. “What? She’s your wife?”
“Was my wife. She passed away two weeks ago at Ancora Hospital just outside Hammonton.”
“But…”
He smiled. “I brought her down here because I had to keep tabs on my friend, Mr. Creedmoor. I promised Charlynn I wouldn’t do anything to him. In my heart I always knew my promise wouldn’t matter anymore after she was gone. I had my fingers crossed when I made it. All these years I was just biding my time. I was waiting. So you see, Creedmoor wasn’t the only one looking for revenge.”
“And then I came along. Amazing how that worked out.”
“Imagine that,” he said softly. “Imagine that.” He drew a deep breath. “Creedmoor is a mystery. I have no idea what he was thinking. He may have been waiting for Charlynn to go, just like I was.”
“Or maybe he was just waiting for the anniversary,” Jane said.
“Could be. Or it could just be that it took this long for all those drugs to eat his brain away.”
“He was tormented,” Jane said. “He had nothing but grief and anger in his heart. And the steroids pumping through his body didn’t help. He was dealing with a promise to his wife, too. At least he thought he was. I feel sorry for him.”
“You’re much kinder than I am,” Rockingham said.
“I’m so sorry about your wife,” Jane said. “I had no idea.”
“How could you?”
“I feel like this was all my fault, or my husband’s fault. It was a chain of events that had nothing to do with you.”
“Now you’re thinking like Creedmoor,” Rockingham said.
“No, really. It all started with what my husband did to him,” she said, looking over at the tarp that now covered Creedmoor’s body. “I guess I don’t know what to make of it. Not yet.”
“I do,” Rockingham said. “I know exactly what to make of it. I’ve always been an Old Testament man. And I’m at peace now. Finally. I’m at peace. I hope you are.”
“Me? At peace? Not yet,” Jane said to Rockingham, who was looking down the coastline with reddened eyes and a steely look on his face. She put her arms around his shoulders and patted him gently on the back. “But I’ll be there soon. One way or another, I’ll be there soon.”
THE END
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Ch apter 3
Ch apter 4
Ch apter 5
Ch apter 6
Ch apter 7
Ch apter 8
Ch apter 9
Ch apter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 1 2
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24