Killer Unleashed

by Beth Prentice

  Being Saturday, every parent was on the road taking their children to their various sporting events, so it was with a lot of weaving in and out of traffic that I managed to gain on Betty. But she had the head start.

  "Gee, for an old lady, she sure can drive fast. She's like Turbo Granny," said Isaac from the back seat, desperately trying to hold on as I took a corner at twice the normal speed

  Even though I was making every red light camera and speed camera in Westport flash as I drove past them, I still lost sight of her.

  Fortunately, I knew where we were heading.

  We were heading home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I double-parked outside my house, directly behind a little, silver Toyota.

  "What do we do now?" whispered Isaac.

  "I think we should jump the fence behind Mrs. White and go in the back," explained Brody. "We have a better chance of sneaking up on Betty that way."

  "Okay. That sounds good," said Isaac.

  Brody opened the car door and stepped out onto the footpath. "Isaac, I think you should stay by the front door. Chloe and I will go around the back. If Betty comes out the front, stop her."

  "What?" he squeaked.

  "Stop her. You know, prevent her from leaving," I explained slowly.

  "Chloe, yesterday you told me Betty had a gun. How am I supposed to stop a woman with a gun?"

  "She has cataracts. She won't be able to hit you," I replied. I quickly grabbed my bag and keys and closed the car door before Isaac had a chance to respond.

  Brody and I moved to Mrs. White's, ready to walk up her alley and jump her back fence—or open her gate—whichever. Brody took in our surroundings as we walked and listened as we moved into my back yard. All I could hear was my heart hammering in my chest. I moved closer to him, grabbing onto the back of his shirt.

  "Have you got the door key?" he asked, quietly.

  I opened my bag and found the keys that I'd dropped on top of the mess.

  "Yes."

  "Good. I'll keep watch whilst you unlock the door," he said, whispering in my ear. Oh boy, my stomach took a dive south, and I wasn't totally convinced it was because I was scared.

  I stepped away from him and tiptoed towards the door, but I forgot I'd left a watering can nearby and kicked it, sending it skittering down the path, clanging as it went.

  Shit!

  Adrenalin kicked up a notch and I dropped the keys. I looked at Brody to see him glaring at me. Well, I guess we could give up on the sneaking bit. I turned back around to retrieve the keys, and when I stood up it was to find Betty standing on the threshold of the back door, gun in hand.

  "Get inside!" she commanded to us.

  * * *

  Sweat dripped down my back, as I slowly raised my hands and walked into the kitchen, Brody at my back. What surprised me the most though was I found Jack on one of my kitchen chairs, Theo in his arms.

  "Jack?" I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

  "Thought he'd beat me to the dog, didn't he," snarled Betty.

  "Why do you want Theo?" I demanded, turning to look at her. She responded by pushing the gun into my chest.

  "I needed to get the code. Now sit down!" She waved the gun between us. We did as asked.

  "I figured the dog was the clue when you kept coming back here," said Jack to Betty, rubbing Theo's ears as he spoke. "He was the only thing you left behind." Theo looked like he wanted to run, but was too scared to actually move. I knew how he felt.

  "What evidence?" asked Brody.

  "Shut up!" yelled Betty, turning her gun towards him.

  "No, you shut up and put the gun down," demanded Joy, who unnoticed by all of us, had walked in, pushing Isaac to the ground as she moved her gun to point at Betty. Rick walked in behind her, the smell of Brut overwhelming.

  Betty turned her gun away from Brody and pointed it at Jack.

  "No."

  I looked at Isaac, cowering on the ground and felt tears sting my eyes. Rick put his toe into Isaac's back. "Get up and sit on that chair," he growled. I heard Isaac whimper, but did as he was asked.

  "If you're gonna shoot me, you'd better be good," snarled Betty. I saw the look of uncertainty cross Joy's face. What confused me was why Joy cared about Jack.

  "Nobody is going to shoot anybody," snapped Rick. "Well, maybe them," he said, smiling at Isaac, Brody, and me.

  Okay, good to know where we stood in all of this.

  "Drop the gun, Mother," said Joy, looking at Betty, obviously playing her trump card.

  What the…? My head whipped around so fast I kinked my neck. I didn't see that one coming.

  "Don't 'Mother' me," snapped Betty, turning her gun towards Joy. "Oh! You didn't think I knew who you were? I've known for ages. I know who he is as well." She looked at Jack. "You've been sniffing around me for ages, and I'd know those eyes anywhere. Only Stan had eyes like those."

  What? I wasn't following. My head hurt. That was probably because my blood pressure was through the roof.

  "You know who I am?" asked Jack.

  Well, I was glad she did because I no longer had a clue.

  "Of course. I guessed as soon as I saw you hanging around Chloe here." There she went again, waving that bloody gun around.

  "Humph," replied Jack.

  "Wait a minute! I'm lost," I said, looking at Jack. "Who's Stan?"

  "These are my parents," said Jack, gesturing to Rick and Joy. "And biologically, Betty's my grandmother." Jack grinned.

  "Stan was my boyfriend," answered Betty, ignoring Jack completely. "Biggest wanger I'd ever seen."

  "My motherJoy, never knew her mother and always had an unhealthy obsession about finding her." Jack pointed at Betty, ignoring the comment about his grandfather's wanger. "I never understood why, until I heard her telling Dad about the stamps and how much they were worth."

  "The stamps from the newspaper clipping?" I asked, still confused.

  "What newspaper clipping?" replied Jack.

  "Never mind," I mumbled as he looked at me like I was crazy.

  "I did my research," Joy said, a sneer dragging on her lips. She looked at Betty. "I checked into your history and who you were involved with. You made the mistake of naming Stan as my father on my birth certificate though, didn't you?" She looked at Betty. "Without that information, I may never have been able to figure it all out. Thanks to the Internet, all sorts of information's now available quite easily. With that, I found out that Stan was married to Lucy and that he worked for a very wealthy stamp collector who was later found dead. The police suspected Stan, but could never find any evidence. When Stan died of unnatural causes I figured it was either you or the wife that had killed him. You were never interested in me," she continued, still looking at Betty. "So I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone? I could find the stamps, get the money, and deprive you of the one thing in life you always wanted." Hatred poured from her bitter words.

  Betty turned her head to look at Joy. "That's not true. I wanted to keep you," she whispered, lowering her gun. "I didn't have the money to raise you properly, so I thought it was for the best to put you up for adoption. I was always going to come back for you once I got the stamps and sold them."

  "I'm forty-seven years old! When exactly was that going to be?" asked Joy, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head.

  "Well, it took a little bit longer than I thought," Betty admitted. "But I'm here now. We could dispose of this lot and crack the code together." She smiled.

  "Dispose of us?" cried Isaac.

  "Yeah, not sure how yet. I hadn't planned this bit, but I guess I could throw you in the rubbish bin like I did Lucy." Betty rubbed her shoulder, the gun once again waving around. "She was a damn lot heavier than I gave her credit for too. So much for Weight Watchers. Didn't work for her, did it?"

  I looked at Betty standing in front of me in her favorite purple pants and cable-knit cardigan, her hair neatly set into perfect rows of curls, and even though the gun and the
attitude were new, I still wouldn't have picked her to be the badass of this group.

  "Seth Wilks was a whole lot easier to get rid of though," she mused. "Slipped some rat poison into his coffee when he wasn't looking." She smiled. "I needed to shut him up. I accidentally let a tiny bit of information slip to him one day, and the next thing I knew, he was sticking his nose where it didn't belong. Damn lot smarter than I gave him credit for." Betty moved through the kitchen, lost in her memory of Mr. Wilks. "Let that be a lesson to you," she said, turning to Joy. "Never underestimate people."

  My stomach churned at the memories of Mr. Wilks and Lucy.

  "What's the big deal about the stamps?" asked Isaac, his voice wobbling.

  Rick moved away from the bench he leaned against and took center stage. "The 'Inverted Jenny' was printed in 1918 as a stamp to be put on air mail. Due to a printing error, a few sheets were printed with the picture of the airplane upside down. They were sold before anybody noticed the error. A sheet of four stamps recently sold for $2.9 million," he explained.

  "Stan stole the stamps years ago and hid them," said Betty. "He didn't want his wife or me to know where they were, so he made the address into a code and hid the key. That way neither of us could get them. He said it was only until the police stopped asking questions and he'd found a buyer. I knew where the code was kept, but never the damned key. I had a bad feeling back then he was going to dump both of us once he'd sold the stamps, but I was already pregnant. Anyway, when he died suddenly, I figured his wife, Lucy, had found out about me and killed him, stupid bastard, but I guess he got what was coming to him." I saw the memory in Betty's eyes as she thought back to that day. "Figured at the time I should move on pretty quickly before Lucy came after me. So that's what I did, but I never forgot about it, and I made sure I kept that code nice and close. Police sniffed around for a while. I guess Stan and I weren't as discreet about our relationship as we thought, but they could never find the stamps, so eventually they gave up. But I never did."

  Betty stopped for a breath and looked around her audience. Her eyes came to rest on Theo. "I was going to cut the chip out of this stupid dog months ago, but when I stumbled upon Lucy working at the animal shelter I thought up a plan. I knew she knew who I was, even though I pretended not to recognize her. I knew as soon as she scanned Theo and saw the code, she'd have put two and two together. She always was the smart one. Hated her for that," she scoffed. "So I grabbed that little dog and got out of there real quick. Anyway, I knew she had the key and I had the code. Hadn't ever deciphered the damn thing though, so I got to thinking—why not let her do all the work? All I had to do was sit back and watch from afar. I phoned the shelter and organized for Chloe to hand Theo back in. That way Lucy wouldn't be able to try anything stupid—like get rid of me. Then everything on my end went pear shaped, and Lucy must have decided she wanted that code from me. Luckily I moved." Betty started pacing once again. "But she caught me snooping at her house trying to find the key, didn't she? And she damned well tried to kill me! Stupid bitch. Anyway, I showed her." I watched as she got lost in thought, a smile slowly spreading on her face as she pulled a small, metal box from her pocket.

  "So all of this is over some stupid stamp?" I asked.

  "No. It's about the money," scoffed Joy.

  "Do you know how my life could change with that kind of money?" asked Betty, looking at me as if I was stupid. "I'd be half way around the world now, but no, you—" she spat. "You had to go and wreck everything! You had to interfere and not follow the one simple thing I asked you to do. I thought I could trust you, Chloe!"

  Uh-oh, trust me. The first time I didn't actually do what someone wanted me to do, it turns out it could end my life. Typical.

  "Where are the stamps now?" asked Joy

  "I don't know," Betty replied. "Never figured it out, but in the interest of family, I might work as a team. You'll have to help me get rid of this lot first, though." Betty waved her gun at all of us.

  Brody shifted his weight next to me as Theo squirmed under Jack's arm.

  "Now all I have to do is kill this stupid dog and cut out the microchip," said Betty, walking over to Jack and grabbing Theo.

  My heart rate picked up again, and my anxiety levels soared through the roof, but I felt that protective instinct kick in. I had to stop her.

  "Why did you put the code in Theo?" I called, my brain not coming up with a better plan.

  Everyone turned to look at Betty, all curious to hear the answer to that one. She stopped and turned back to us. "Well, my memory's not what it used to be, and I couldn't exactly leave it lying around, could I?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, who would have thought to look in the dog? You lot didn't," she finished, shuffling off in the direction of the knife drawer. I saw Joy and Rick look at one another. They surely hadn't.

  "All the B and Es I did looking for it," said Jack, shaking his head.

  "Jack! What have I told you about breaking the law?" asked Joy, waving her gun around. Did she not see the irony in this situation?

  "What? Like you haven't done it?" he sent back.

  "I have not! That was your father, and he couldn't even get that right. I told him to question Lucy when we saw her enter his house," she said, waving the gun towards Brody. "Not tie her to a chair and then bloody leave her there. When I saw the two of you enter I quickly went to help," she explained, looking at Isaac and me. "While Rick knocked you unconscious, I grabbed Lucy and took her out the back. Thankfully, she never saw our faces, so we didn't need to worry about her calling the police." Joy turned to Rick and glared. "I told him to break into your stupid house," she said waving the gun at me. "He's just lucky you're stupid and didn't see him."

  "Excuse me? I am not stupid!" I stated, feeling like I should at least try to defend myself.

  "Yes. You really are, Chloe," said Jack, turning to look at me. "You never did figure it was me in the balaclava in your bathroom, did you? I was going to come in and scare the hell out of you to find out what Betty had told you, but when I saw you naked I couldn't help myself. You may be stupid, but you're still sexy as hell when you're naked and wet." Jack stood back on his heels and admired his view. "I did warn you about moving that spare key of yours," he said with a shrug.

  "This family's crazy," whispered Isaac. He had that right.

  Theo picked that moment to give into his fear and pee on Betty's arm. She dropped him, and he ran straight to me. I reached down and held out my arms to him, feeling his little heart pounding against his ribs. He leaned into me and gave my chin some little Theo kisses. I felt my heart break.

  Betty walked over to me. "Give him to me," she demanded.

  I looked at the gun in her hand, and even though I was scared as hell, I couldn't do it. I could not give her Theo.

  "No. You don't need him. I have the code," I said. All eyes turned to me. "The vet gave it to me. It's in my bag."

  It wasn't. In fact, I had given the paper to Brody back at the canteen, but I did have the personal alarm Brody had given me in my bag. "I'll give it to you, if you leave Theo alone."

  "Get it!" demanded Betty, pointing her gun in my face. I slowly moved past her, towards where I'd left my handbag on the kitchen counter. I really hoped Brody could read my mind and was ready to act once the alarm went off. I made a mental note of where everybody was as I reached for my bag.

  Joy had followed me, Betty was in front of Isaac, and both Jack and Rick stood with their backs to the wall about a meter from Brody.

  My hands shook as I pulled my bag towards me. Joy stepped up closer as I reached into it. Thank goodness my guardian angel was watching over me and I found the alarm easily. Palming it, I also found a piece of paper that looked like it could hold the code. I turned to face her and handed it over. As she lowered her gun to open it, I took my chance, dropped Theo to the floor, and pulled the pin on the alarm.

  The air was filled with a screeching noise that made everybody cover their ears. Chaos erupted as Theo ran from t
he room, and I took the opportunity to grab the nearest saucepan and hit Joy with it as hard as I could. I watched as she staggered backwards, dazed before she dropped to the floor. Brody too had taken the chance and tackled both Rick and Jack. I heard a gun discharge as I looked at Betty. She had her arm raised, aiming the gun at Brody.

  "Hit her, Isaac!" I yelled, over the noise of the alarm.

  Isaac closed his eyes and swatted Betty like a girl. It was enough that she lost her grip on the gun, and as it scuttled across the floor, Brody jumped in to grab it. But Jack was quicker. I watched in horror as he jumped to his feet, punching Brody as he went.

  That was enough for me. No one got to hit that gorgeous face. Spinning my saucepan by the handle, I ran at Jack, all the hatred in me building. I registered the gun in his hand as he raised it at me.

  The last thing I heard was the loud bang of it discharging.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  This wasn't right. Heaven was supposed to be peaceful, and everything was black, not white. Isn't Heaven supposed to be white? And where was the light I was supposed to be walking towards?

  Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw Brody's beautiful face. Now that was more like it. Heaven really was perfect, but I could still hear the screeching and wailing. I quickly realized that was Isaac, and I was alive.

  "Hey, there," smiled Brody, his eyes filled with tears.

  "Hey," I replied. I tried to lift my head, but the searing pain made movement unbearable.

  "Don't move," he said, quietly. "Help is on the way."

  I lowered my head and realized I was lying in Brody's lap, and he was covered with blood. My blood. I felt his fingers close around mine. All the noise around me suddenly disappeared as I looked into his eyes and saw raw emotion.

  I felt the pain in my chest as my tears escaped my lashes.