Her Moons Denouement (Fallen Angels Book 2)

by Max Hardy

  ‘After that I remember lots of foster homes and lots of transient families. I learnt what I thought a parent was meant to be from them, and I learnt to fear what a parent was. I learnt that even in a world of people, you are always alone. I didn’t want that for Jacob. That isolation, that emptiness. The worst thing, the very worst thing about my life is not ever knowing what a parent was, and living my life trying to find out. I have always been alone, I have always been a loner. And that has made me selfish and conceited, insular and heartless. The world will be a better place without me.’

  I feel Rebecca shaking, from the emotion that is wracking us both, but also with her final affirmation.

  I pull the trigger.

  Chapter 19

  The gun clicked for the seventh time and Saul sat bolt upright instantly, his sobbing subsumed into surprise, making his breath catch as he stared at the quivering hand holding it. Rebecca reached down and tenderly cupped the hand, steadying it as she took the gun off him. She flipped the barrel open and slipped the single bullet out, placing it in a talon of moonlight on the table between them.

  ‘I don’t understand. The bullet was in there. Why didn’t it fire?’ Saul asked, his eyes bewildered and questioning, staring at Rebecca’s shadowed, weeping features.

  ‘I guess in the hardest of times, when we are so absolutely alone, when we feel there is no one and nothing that can comprehend the way we feel, and we feel nothing at all can help us, that’s the time we need an Angel. I don’t know why he did it, but Ben Hanlon was mine. The main reason I am alive today is not because I want to find out why this is happening, it is that he asked me to look after someone.’ Rebecca answered obscurely.

  ‘He asked you to look after me?’

  Rebecca cocked the trigger on the revolver and scratched the head of it with one of her cherry painted nails. ‘Indirectly, yes. You were never going to blow your brains out with this revolver. I filed the trigger head down on the very first night I saw you thinking about using it.’

  Saul took the gun off her and scraped more of the back paint off the trigger, then slowly released it and watched down the barrel to see where it connected. He laughed and snorted a glob of snot from his nostril in the process which joined the tears trickling down his lips.

  ‘So, you’ve been watching over me. Does that make you my guardian angel: No, a Fallen Angel? Outside of the law, outside of society, a criminal in many people’s eyes with a different moral outlook. Yet still you try and help. Is that what they are doing to us Rebecca? Turning us into Fallen Angels?’

  ‘I don’t know. Until yesterday I had never even heard of the term. It was certainly not something either Madame Evangeline or Ben Hanlon mentioned to me. What I do know is that as much as she hurt me, both mentally and physically, she taught me to be strong. She taught me to challenge morality. She taught me to face my insecurities, my fears, my demons and learn to control them. He taught to me have a purpose, even if it is only to get you through the day. He taught me to open my mind to its own darkness. He taught me how to be selfless. None of those things were taught by sitting down with a book and turning to chapter three and reciting wrote. I learnt by living a different way. Perhaps it is what they are doing. Perhaps they aren’t playing us. Perhaps they are preparing us.’

  ‘Why us though. What is it about you and I that they are interested in? Are we just the next in a long line they are recruiting into their cause? Or something different. You look remarkably like Madame Evangeline. There seems to be someone out there who looks the spit of me. Are we related in some way, is that what this is all about? Or is that just another tactic they are using to draw us in. They seem to be able to look like anyone they want to, they seem to be able to construct any identity they want to and they seem to be able to disappear at will. It’s hard to think why we would be special in that, two orphans with ordinary lives.’

  Rebecca lifted the decanter and poured them both another whiskey, then reached over to the sideboard and took a couple of tissues from a box on top and proceeded to delicately wipe the wetness from Saul’s face.

  ‘I don’t think they are questions we can answer tonight. I think the only people who can help us answer those questions are Ben and Evangeline. What we’ve got to figure out is how we find them. But more important than that, before I leave here tonight, I need to know that we have found a reason for you to want to live.’

  Saul raised one of his hands and placed it over the one Rebecca was using to wipe his tears, directing it to his clammy cheek, where he forced it in tight, nuzzling into the flesh of her fingers.

  ‘I have never told anyone about my childhood. I have never known anyone who I thought would understand. I have never met anyone who I thought could help me walk through that pain and face those fears because they have done it too. Until tonight. For the first time ever, at this precise moment, I don’t feel a loner.’

  Rebecca raised her other hand to his other cheek and stroked it tenderly, then leant over the table and pulled him in close, wrapping her arms around his back and hugged him tightly. He willingly fell into the embrace. They stayed cuddling in silence for more than a minute, just drinking in the essence of each other before Rebecca broke the embrace and sat back, still holding his hand.

  ‘That’s a start. A big start. But what about the next step?’

  ‘The next step is taking control. At the minute, someone else is doing that and I am letting them, we are letting them. We’ve got trackers in our bodies that let them know every move we make. There will be people we are involved with that will definitely be feeding information back to them. They have an agenda, a purpose and they are following it through regardless of the consequence. We need to understand the bigger picture. Why are they exposing these murderers, what is their goal and are we just peripheral, or part of that plan.’ Saul’s voice was becoming more and more animated, full of energy and vibrancy, full of ferocity. ‘I want to live so I can take my life back.’

  Rebecca smiled at his fervour, adding simply, ‘How do we do that?’

  He jumped up from his seat, slapping the light switches on the wall as he turned, brilliant light illuminating the gloom immediately, chasing shadows from every corner of the room.

  ‘Wow.’ Rebecca whispered, in awe as she looked at the walls of the room, every single one of them covered in notes, pictures, post-it notes, documents, pins and strings. ‘You have been busy.’

  ‘Busy looking at the wrong thing.’ he answered, darting around the room and rearranging artefacts seemingly randomly.

  Rebecca stood up and moved to the middle of the room, taking in the display, watching Saul work. ‘Did you bring all of this with you?’

  ‘Yep, and added to it over the last twenty four hours. There is only one thing I have been interested in: was Jess Madame Evangeline? That’s it. Everything else was unimportant. It was my guilt over the decision I made that was driving that. Primarily, I am here today because I wanted to see how she could have conceivably got out of this room without me knowing. I know that now. I also thought I would be able to talk to her and just ask why?’

  ‘That’s still a relevant question.’

  ‘It is, but the bigger question is why us? I’ve not even looked at that. We have so much evidence from the Hanlon tapes, from your initial case, from what I have found out about the ‘Fallen Angels’ by being with the police today that we should be able to work out what they are doing. We should be able to find out who and where they are. I’ve got a Private Detective looking at some evidence on where Jess might have gone to on her trips to Edinburgh.’

  ‘There is something I have too. Something which made me sure in my mind that Ben Hanlon knew Madame Evangeline, or Eve, which was another of her names.’

  Saul stopped his frantic rearranging and turned to her in surprise. ‘Did you say Eve?’

  ‘Yes, Eve. I have a DVD of Michael and Eve together. Eve being Madame Evangeline. The only way he could have that is if she gave it to him.’

 
; ‘At the club tonight, a woman mistook me for someone called Adam. Perhaps she didn’t mistake me. At the time I thought Adam, Evangeline. Adam and Eve. Temptation, snakes and forbidden fruit. Just reinforces that thought.’ he pondered, grabbing a pen and post it and writing the thought down, then slapping it onto the wall below a picture of Jess. ‘Do you have the DVD here?’

  ‘Not on me, but where I am staying, yes. When you talk about snakes, what do you mean, the one on her abdomen?’ Rebecca asked quizzically.

  Saul was back at the walls, moving more of the evidence around. ‘Yes, it was the only concrete piece of evidence that I had at the time to say that Jess was Madame Evangeline.’ He heard a zipper being opened, then stopped and turned.

  Rebecca was undoing her cat suit, the leather parting the reveal the swell of her breasts, the scars and scabs of her self harm, her flat, bony stomach and the top of a snake head tattoo just below her belly button.

  ‘One like this?’ she asked.

  Shock shot across Saul’s face, immediately followed by confusion and trepidation.

  Rebecca saw the panic and spoke quickly. ‘It doesn’t mean that I am Madame Evangeline. It doesn’t mean I am Jess. It doesn’t mean that I am Eve. It means I have a tattoo the same as hers/theirs. What you need to know is that I have had this tattoo all my life. I don’t know when it was done.’

  ‘Sorry, just the shock of seeing it. I know you aren’t Jess and I know Jess was Madame Evangeline. It is a big coincidence though. You didn’t mention it at all in the Hanlon tapes.’

  ‘No reason to really. I can’t even recall mentioning that Madame Evangeline had one.’

  ‘You did, but only in passing, you didn’t make a big thing of it. It was at the foot of King Arthur’s seat, when you saw Dr Ennis coming off the field. Madame Evangeline was opening her coat, showing you her naked body.’

  ‘Yes, I remember now. God, you’ve got a good memory.’

  ‘You have no idea. It remembers everything. Did you not think it strange that she had the exact same tattoo?’

  ‘Not really. She presented her tattoo to me as a love token. She said that she liked mine so much, that she had one done exactly the same. Bear in mind she saw it the very first time we met and I hadn’t seen her naked at that point. I had no reason to believe any different at the time.’

  ‘That does add some more weight to the theory that you may in some way have connections.’ Saul said, noting that down and sticking the post it on the wall under a picture of Jess, drawing an arrow on the wall pointing to Rebecca. His eyes went back to another picture, of the woman in Jacob’s room. He picked it off the wall and turned back to Rebecca.’

  ‘So this was you in Jacob’s bedroom?’ he asked, showing her the picture.

  ‘Yes, that was me. I know you spent a lot of time in there. I went in to angle the blinds so I could see you from the tree house when you were lying on the floor.’

  ‘Ah, thought so.’ he said, nodding as he turned back to the wall and started to put the picture back, under other pictures of Rebecca this time. He paused, not turning.

  ‘Why did you take Ian?’

  ‘Sorry, I don’t know what you mean.’ she answered, confused.

  ‘The small tan teddy, he’s called Ian. I saw you pick him up and sniff in his scent. You put him in the right pocket of the coat you were wearing. Why?’ He was still facing the wall, looking at the picture.

  ‘Promise me one thing John. Promise me there is enough in your life right now not to want to kill yourself.’ Rebecca asked, seriously, her voice full of crackling emotion.

  Saul turned around slowly, once again surprised at her tone, his countenance confused once more. ‘Right now Rebecca, I have you, and you have given me hope. Right now, I do not want to kill myself. I want to get my life back. Why?’

  Rebecca approached him, taking his hand in hers and squeezed them tight. ‘The person Ben Hanlon asked me to look after should never be the reason you don’t want to kill yourself. That has to be about you. But they should always be the reason you want to stay alive.’

  ‘Rebecca, what are you talking about, that doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘It will. Your son, Jacob. He is alive John, he is alive!’

  Chapter 20

  Pools of light dotted the still half full car park, illuminating the vehicles as a wave of weary officers exited the police headquarters and made their way slowly back to their cars, beaming headlights of those that had jumped the crowd providing even more light to the late evening/early morning exodus.

  ‘What a day. What a bloody four hours!’ Tait exclaimed as she stepped out of the building, holding the door for Bentley.

  ‘Aye, it’s been a hectic one. You’ve done well lass, considering.’ Bentley praised grudgingly.

  ‘What, considering I am a girl.’ she teased.

  He didn’t bite. ‘Considering how big this fucker already was and how much it’s grown in the last four hours. Eighty odd people questioned, a number charged with sexual offences, half of them prominent public figures. This is going to be one huge fucking circus come tomorrow and not one of them has come up with anything even remotely related to the ‘Fallen Angels’.’

  ‘Not yet. Its early days on that front. Let them stew in the cells overnight and they will be a bit more willing to talk in the morning.’

  They crossed the car park, Bentley heading off to his clapped out Volvo, Tait towards a squad car.

  ‘Look Bentley, I know it can’t be easy taking orders off a lower ranking officer, especially a girl, but thanks for not being a dick about it and thanks for your help today. Get a good night’s kip and let’s regroup in the morning, get some focus on these fucking angels.’

  ‘Those thanks should be the other way around. You’ve pulled me out of the clarts more times than you should have today and I thank you by jumping straight back into them. You’re a good lass, with an incisive mind. Go on, fuck off and give your twat of a boyfriend the same kind of grief you’ve given me today.’

  ‘Will do. See you in the morning.’

  Tait headed off to her car, waving backhanded as she went. Bentley climbed into his, throwing a biscuit from his pocket over the back seats toward Jackson, who caught it in mid-flight. ‘Come on lad, let’s get home and see what grief is in store for us.’ He turned the ignition key but the engine made no sound.

  ‘Fucking great.’ He pumped the clutch and then tried again with the same result, absolute silence. ‘Bastard car!’ he shouted and thumped the steering wheel, knocking the horn which blared across the car park. He popped the bonnet and climbed out, walking around the front of the car.

  Tait drove by in the squad car and stopped alongside, opening her window. ‘Problems?’ she asked.

  ‘If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I’d say flat fucking battery.’ He stuck his head under the open bonnet and fiddled with the connectors to the battery, in the end whacking them with his hand. ‘Aye, dead as a fucking dodo. Great.’

  ‘Look, jump in here and I’ll give you a lift home. I can pick you up in the morning as well.’

  ‘Nah, don’t worry, it’s miles out your way. I’ll just call a taxi.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, you gave me a lift this morning, time to return the favour. Don’t be a stubborn old fart. Girls can drive too you know.’

  ‘Aye, go on then.’ he grudgingly answered as he slammed the bonnet shut in frustration. He shouted on Jackson, who jumped over the seats and out of the open front door. Bentley slammed the Volvo door shut as hard and aggressively as the bonnet and then kicked it, shouting ‘Pile of crap car.’ as he did.

  He opened the back door of the squad car and Jackson jumped in, then he climbed into the passenger seat, fastening his seatbelt as Tait pulled away.

  ‘Does he come to work with you every day?’ Tait asked conversationally as they pulled out onto the main road.

  ‘Aye, he comes and keeps me company out and about.’

  ‘No one at home to keep an eye on him: and
by the way where is home, so I know where I’m going.’

  ‘North Queensferry, off Battery Road. My sister’s generally at home, but she’s not that fond of him. Father’s usually out.’

  ‘No Mrs Bentley?’

  ‘You’re a nosy little fucker aren’t you!’ he exclaimed, frustration in his tone.

  ‘Sorry, I wasn’t prying, just making conversation. I am a woman you know, it’s our prerogative to instigate idle chit chat. I could just sit quiet for the next ten minutes if you prefer.’

  ‘No, it’s me should be sorry lass. Old and cantankerous, that’s me. Probably the reason there’s no Mrs Bentley. I live in the same house I was born in, with my dad and sister. Sad I know, but that’s my life.’

  ‘What do they do?’

  ‘Dad’s a Presbyterian Minister. Dessi thinks she is Fraulein fucking Maria from the Sound Of Music. She’s not a nun, but she likes to think she is. She looks after the house and father now he is getting older.’

  ‘Must feel strange having all this religious stuff going on with a minister in the house.’

  ‘Aye it is. St Giles is a Presbyterian Cathedral and dad has held services there in the past. Close to home. What about you, more family than just that twat of a boyfriend?’

  The car was heading through South Queensferry and Tait pulled onto the slip road leading to the Forth Road Bridge, the huge suspension span lit up in the early morning darkness.

  ‘There’s my brother and my dad. Dad’s a copper too, in the force down in Sussex, that’s where I’m from originally. Brother’s a banker. Don’t see either of them much nowadays. I occasionally get an e-mail at work off dad and we get together once a year at Christmas.’

  ‘No mum?’

  Tait went quiet for a moment, her expression hardening as she left the bridge and headed off down into North Queensferry. ‘Somewhere, don’t know where, don’t really care. She left us when I was about five. Where do I go now?’

  ‘Just follow the signs for Deep Sea World.’