Lemons 01 Darkness Once More

by Grant Fieldgrove

  I fell to the floor and threw up. I had never killed anyone before. I didn’t like the feeling.

  The lights came back on and I saw Scott limping towards me, yelling over the loss of his wife. He had been shot in the hip.

  “You motherfucker!” he yelled! “You killed my wife!”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I know how that feels.”

  He raised Enzite’s gun towards me, fired off a shot, and hit me right in the shoulder. It hardly hurt but I still fall backwards into my own vomit. My body was in too much shock to process pain right now.

  “Nice shot, Quigley,” is all I can manage to say before I hear gunshot after gunshot ring through the basement, and see Scott’s body being torn apart. He manages to stay on his feet until he hits the wall behind him, and then slowly slides down it.

  I cautiously move out from behind the freezer and see Detective Anderson lying on his stomach, both arms extended in front of him, holding his gun as smoke exits the barrel.

  He looks at me and says, “Nice work with that cell phone tracking idea,” then lets his head fall back to the ground.

  I can hear sirens in the distance. They’re too late.

  Epilogue

  It’s been over one week since the basement incident and I am still lying here in this hospital bed. Apparently, I have become somewhat of a local celebrity since I’ve been here. My room is filled with flowers and balloons and my voicemail is filled with potential new clients and one message from the totally clueless Max Raddich, asking me what the name is of the company that turned Murphy into Robocop.

  I’ve had several visitors over these past few days, including the reporter from the Californian whom I decided to give an exclusive interview with and Detective Enzite, whose stay in the hospital was less than one day. No brain hemorrhaging for him. He had informed me that Detective Anderson’s bulletproof vest saved his life. It blocked one of the bullets from entering his heart. Two other bullets entered his body though, from the side. They were serious but the doctors were sure he would pull through. He was in the room right next to me.

  When I had woken up for the first time in the hospital, I had been cleaned, thank God, and shaved. Whoever did it had left me with just the mustache. I admired it with the front-facing camera on my phone. “Not bad,” I said to myself.

  From what I’ve heard, the police arrived just after I had passed out in a puddle of my own blood and vomit. The McKigney’s backyard was indeed dug up, as per my request, and the remains of several young adults were found. Mallory Colley’s body hadn’t even had to time to decompose.

  We still have no idea who all was involved in this operation and I’m scared to think that it is still going on out there. I try to push it out of my mind.

  I wake up a lot from nightmares now. In the movies when the hero kills a bad guy, everyone is happy and the hero feels great. Unfortunately for me, that’s not the way it is. I don’t like the way being a killer fits me but I’m just going to have to learn to live with it, I suppose. We were all cleared on the killings, too, as they were proven quite justifiable. The less they know about Kojak in the Mon Signor parking lot, the better though. Whenever I replay the moment with Roxanne in my head, it always happens in a much cooler way, just like in the movies. I even manage to spit out some cheesy one-liner, like “ICE to see you.” I guess I do this to try to make myself feel better about it happening. It doesn’t really work though. I had killed a woman and I was never going to be okay with that. Sure, it was the woman responsible for my wife’s death, but it still didn’t feel okay.

  There is a knock on my door and I look up to see my new reasons for living. Elliot, Eric and Elise all walk in to greet me. It’s the first time I’ve seen them since I’ve been here, even though I’m told they’ve visited several times when I was in surgery or sleeping.

  I ask Elise how the job hunt is going and she looks at me as if I am insane.

  “Like I’ve had any time to look while you’ve been in here,” she tells me.

  “Well, ya never know.”

  “Thanks for the TVs by the way. Totally unnecessary and we are not accepting them.”

  “You so are. I refuse to watch TV on your pieces of crap and I’m shacking up with you guys for a while. Surprise!”

  “Yay.”

  “I paid your mortgage for next three months, too.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, smiling, and asks me how I feel. The kids are lying by my sides, happy to finally see their only uncle alive and well.

  “I was thinking,” I say to Elise. “I’ve got an entire voice mailbox filled with new clients.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I mean, I know my organizational skills are second to none and all, but I really could use some help. What do you say? I won’t ever put you in harm’s way and the pay is good. Full benefits for the kids, too. Whatta ya say?”

  “Kind of sounds like charity.”

  “It kind of sounds like a job, Jerkass.”

  “Hmm, I’ll have to think about it,” she said, but I could tell by the huge smile on her face she had already accepted my offer.

  She gathered up the kids and told them they had to leave because Uncle Archie needed his rest. She told me they would be by tomorrow to pick me up when I was discharged and take me to their place so I could heal up fully before I got back to work. I couldn’t wait. I asked her if she could stop by Anderson’s room next door and send my regards. She said she absolutely would.

  Both of her kids each took one of her hands as they walked towards the door.

  “Hey wait,” I said. She turned to look at me. I rubbed my mustache and asked, “Did you do this to me?”

  She laughed and said of course she did. Who else would have?

  I smiled as they continued to the door. “Wait, one more thing. Sorry.” They stopped and looked back. “Do you think your sister would have been proud of me for this?”

  She told the kids to stay right there and she walked back to my bed and kissed me on the forehead. “I know my sister is proud of you.”