String of Murder

by brett hicks

  I chuckled and nodded at his point.

  “It’s over now, you can go home. I am going to pass out, wake me when it’s time to solve another murder!” I joked to him, and his eyes danced in amusement, and Bobby nodded.

  “I just had to see you home, and well. I will be back to my Grace, now. She has been worried about you, too.”

  I smiled, and said, “Tell her I’m fine, and that she is the most amazing gal to ever walk this earth, helping us protect a child, and it’s not even her damn job!”

  Bobby’s eyes swam with pride for Grace, and his chest puffed out in that masculine way when you speak of their significant other.

  “I’ll tell her, you rest well now, Julia. I saw to it that the cleaners came and scrubbed up all that blood. Your apartment should be in order if only a little cleaner than is usual of you.”

  I ignored his shot across my bow and nodded to him, and I stepped over to my door, and I looked back and waved goodbye before I shut the door. My apartment was basically the same as it had been before the attack, and subsequent arrest, but the air smelled of apple-scented cleaners. Several places were wet on the carpets, and you could barely see a slightly darker spot in the carpets, but it was nothing I would complain about.

  After I walked every room, and I made sure I was truly alone—you can never be too sure with assassins running amuck!

  Sleep came to me very quickly once I finally laid my head down. Dreams of my mother, her Nordic frosty appearance, and her glimmering azure eyes filled my dreams. She was radiance, decadence, and splendor personified. Her life had been one of service to her people, and she had died a martyr to a cause so many before her had laid down their lives. I do not allow myself to linger on my mother very often, because it reopens the old wounds, but I woke with a bone-deep longing to see her, to feel her, to rest my head on her lap. There was no return to the paradise of my youth, this harsh reality was something I had learned to live with, even though it hurt, and burned like an old wound on occasion. I doubt many people ever truly learns how to live in a world without their parents. We are forever attached to those who created us, for better or worse. Naturally, thinking of attachment to parents, led my swift mind straight to Jasmine, and her predicament. I often wonder if my mother would have loved me for who I was, and who I love. I wonder if she would have tried to force me to marry some man I didn’t love, or if she would have accepted my sexuality? I will never know, and she can never tell me, so along with so much else, it will remain unspoken between us.

  Elise…

  I could hear her whisper my name in my memories, even as my sleep-addled mind began to wake. My ringing clock had been set for six hours. I was going to need every hour, every minute available, so I only allowed myself the minimal amount of sleep one could recommend before undertaking such a crazy plan.

  I didn’t know what I was going to do with the crew if any of them ran across me, was I going to slaughter them, or was I going to try to keep them alive? If I made it look like I tried too hard to preserve all life, except James Cole, how would that reflect on me? Would it possibly trace back to me, the detective who arrested him in the first place?

  I had so many things I needed to figure out, and I needed to quickly wash, and prepare myself.

  Twenty-Nine:

  I told the doorman to have Thomas meet me out back, away from prying eyes. It would not do to have us seen together, right before something mysterious befalls a British naval vessel. I head too many eyes watching me now, and I needed to crawl back into my shadows, where I felt safe, and protected from the scrutiny of the world around me.

  Julia was the mask, Elise was the lethal weapon hidden behind the gentle police-woman veneer. Thomas walked out the back-alleyway door I was perched near, hiding behind the railway of the neighboring building. He looked around for a second and made a low whistling sound. Thomas’ eyes widened at how close I was standing to him, without giving away my location, or my presence.

  “Shit, remind me never to piss you off, or I’m going to have to collar you like a damn cat!”

  I ignored his mildly discriminatory comment, and I coolly asked, “Did you get it?”

  His eyes took me in as if he were assessing the risks, and he finally huffed.

  “That wasn’t easy, and your time-table was nothing to sneeze at little-lady. Those government buffoons might not be the brightest in the electric light section, but they are good at obscuring their shadowy military actions.”

  “But, you’re better, right?”

  I plied him with just the right level of praise, and he cocky smile radiated like the lights adorning the front of The Irish Rose at night.

  “But of course, I am, do ye even need ask, really lass?”

  I rolled my eyes, and he stared at me for a moment longer and I gestured with my left hand.

  “The ship, please, and the departure time.”

  He cleared his throat and said, “She’s called the Dream Chaser, supposed to be a goods importation vessel, but I’ve never done business with her Captain. The only import and export ships not dealing with me, are dealing in something more nefarious than anything I’ve ever done.”

  “ Okay, so what time does my boat leave?”

  He sighed, and said, well will be leaving at seven in the morning, but final checks are already underway. They’ll shoot ye if ye are seen trying to board her now, lass.”

  I waved him off and said, “Who said anything about me boarding anything?”

  He flashed me a bright grin and chuckled lowly to himself.

  “Jesus wept woman, you should just come to lay yer head on me bed, the things that sassy mouth does to me.”

  I pointedly ignored that proposition, and said, “After this is settled, we agreed, back to our own sides of the road. No back-stabbing on this deal. Even if I do come for you one day Thomas, it will never be for this.”

  He nodded in concession, and said, “Aye, that be the accord, and I’ll hold ye to it, besides, I think I like watching you work too much to try and profit off this little transaction.”

  “Not to mention, it would be next to impossible to deny providing me with the name, and departure time, right?”

  Thomas chuckled, and he waved goodbye.

  “Kind tides to ye lass, and do give this git me best, he has it coming after tarnishing me colors.”

  I nodded, and I let him have his mobster satisfaction. He thought that he was getting me to send a message, but I was the one getting him, and it was my message.

  ***

  Finding my way down to the docks, and gleaming the exact location of the Dream Chaser, was not too hard. With your ear to the proverbial ground, you can learn many things at a harbor. Sailors were unrepentant gossips, and they would not last a single night without drinks or boasting!

  I had my hair died the color of dark brown. The treatment would hold, until I washed out my hair. I needed to sneak on the ship and try to stay dry while doing so. No pressure here, just a few dozen guards patrolling the off-limits military area.

  Before coming down to the docks, I had made a stop to my hidden cash of weapons that I kept in a storage unit, using a false name. One thing I had learned about being a person with a secret, was you could never relax. You always had to assume that your secrets and your hidden things were always being sought out.

  I had black dull leather pants, a matching black tunic, and a black cloak, along with my full-length curved eastern-forged steel blade. The blade was like one of the Chinese designs, but slender, almost as slender as a Japanese katana. I preferred this blade, with its slightly denser, and heavier construction. The katana was notoriously good in fights, but it could break when utilized in a strenuous battle. Gun blades were notorious for shattering many katana’s, due in part to the projectiles they can fire. My curved blade was built to withstand the brutal force of a gun blade.

  I had throwing knives and even a garrote on my person. I also had a pair of handguns, both were purchased in proxy, and untraceab
le. Some might think me a hypocrite, but you try running for your life, for half of the time you’ve been breathing, and not become paranoid, and deadly when provoked to wrath.

  I smeared black war-paint around my eyes, and down my cheeks. I was a savage ghost tonight, Elise was finally going on the prowl once more.

  ***

  Cutting a small hole in the chain-link fence large enough to squeeze a slender girl through was not hard. People so often look up, expecting the obvious means of intrusion, to climb over the fence, they never care to watch below. The British were like the hammer, and the Native Nation was the slender poisoned dart. Both could kill, but one was far more difficult to detect. Being unconventional had worked well for the Native Americans, and they we able to maintain their freedom, due to their sideways logic, and the hunter’s approach to fighting and warfare.

  I grew up with one foot in the wilds, the natural country of the Western continent, so I took to the huntress logic like a natural. There were so few true divisions between the colonial, and the Native American. We have adapted to this land that had once been foreign to our people. He learned how to embrace the natural world, how to stalk prey in the dead of night, and how to move silently as a ghost.

  The docks were being patrolled by at least six men per-section, so I would have to manage to cross each of their sights while avoiding any overlapping sight points. I crawled low to the ground, and I only moved when their vision wasn’t directed in my general area directly. Human eyes are naturally drawn to movement, so you must know when to move, to evade the notice of trained eyes.

  At this late hour, there wasn’t much noise to mask your motions with, so I had to keep down, and mainly rely on my ability to suppress as much sound as possible. Several of the guards were talking in hushed tones, so I crept closer to their direction, at a slow crawl, I managed to make my way to the stack of crates.

  With a new hiding place, I plotted the last leg of my journey. The ship was very close, but certain death still surrounded me. Gun blades slung on shoulders, and others toted rifles. I looked around, and I found a large smooth stone, and I watched the pair of conversing guards, as they turned back, I threw a stone towards the silent guards, the mild clacking sound of the stone spun their heads. I waited to see if the conversing guards had taken any interest when they hadn’t, I stood but stayed low to the ground, and I dashed between the gap in visibility between the four patrolmen.

  I was now under the pier, and I could easily find my way up one of the anchors holding the ship to port. This wasn’t my first time scaling the side of a ship, though, I admit it had been the first time as an adult. To say I was out of practice, would be a kindness to me. I had kept up with my rigorous weight, and wind training over the years. I had also expanded upon my martial-arts studies, broadening my knowledge as much as humanly possible. I had not managed to practice scaling large sea vessels. That was beyond even my capability to explain away!

  I was going to have to get wet after all, so I would just need to keep my head out of the water. I slowly walked to the edge of the dock, where the Atlantic Ocean rushed to greet me. The freezing waters rushed to greet me. Weather was still mild right now, not too hot, not too cold, but the water at night was just shy of truly chilly. I sucked down a deep drag of air, and I felt my entire body tense as I began to trudge my way through the ocean.

  Even with my height, the water was up to my waist already, and I was shivering. I closed my eyes, and I began to focus all my energy on my surroundings, and on my own body. I felt the cold recede in my conscious mind considerably, and I kept striding through the waters. In a fictitious setting, the mysterious assassin always appears dry, and completely unmolested by the elements. How I wish that books were accurate right about now! I was going to look like a half-drowned shadow by the time I arrived on the ship, not that it mattered any!

  Guards were still discussing the sound, and I couldn’t help my eyeroll at them. They were not the brightest, nor the sharpest, but they would likely never know how lucky they were. If they hadn’t been patrolling my own city, then I would not have regretted killing. Problem is, if they are murdered here, I would have to investigate my own murder! While I try to walk a razor’s edge between justice, and Elise, I cannot help my contempt for the blasted bobbies!

  I reached the main anchor, and I grabbed on tight and pulled hard, until my whole body lifted from the sea, and I began to slowly ascend the thick rope of the anchor. The vicarious nature of climbing a grimy rope was a different matter, then the practice robes I had trained on when I was younger. I had to deliberate each motion, and time each movement with the motions of the dock around me.

  Slowly, an inch at a time, I ascended the rope. When I hit the side, I barely remembered to check over the top before I boarded the ship.

  Thirty:

  I hid for several hours on the main deck, until the sun rose, and the anchors lifted. Several steamengine powered zeppelins soared overhead, likely also military. If I had to place money on it, I would say that they were acting as the decoy while the slower sea fairing ship carried her precious cargo back to London.

  I had no doubt, that once they were far enough away from any potential colonial reprisal, the airship would transfer James to it, and then he would be off to a place of safety from me, and all my kind.

  James had something valuable, names, and connections to the revolutionary movement. Many more lives hung in the balance, so this was not purely about revenge, or just to protect Avery. Even if, I was bound to have come to this same course, despite my motivation. Elise had slumbered fitfully for many years, and she was raging to be let free on the evils that marred her and murdered her beloved parents. I wasn’t sure how healthy it was that I could split my mind and my emotions in halves like this. Maybe it just happens when you are forced to live a lie.

  As we rocked, and the waves rushed higher, and higher around the ship, I waited until I could no longer see the shore, before I moved. Dark Horse had taught me to be patient, that even the starving mountain lion waits for the perfect moment to strike its prey. I had always listened to him with rapt attention as a child, but I had no context for what these lessons truly meant, not until my life depended on them.

  Being so soon after casting off, the crew were all busy with their chores on the ship. I moved to the stern of the ship, and I checked on the position of the life-boat. It was hanging from the side, covered with a leather top. I slid a dagger free and I cut the leather off the top quickly, and then I ducked as two men passed by.

  Most of the men on the deck were dressed as merchants, but I could not miss the sight of the gun blades. All in all, this was a terrible plan, and I was banking on this assassin’s own ego in order to execute this idea. He might just think Elise Brown too high a prize to turn away and scream for help. I doubted I could best him for long, with aid in any way. Hell, I wasn’t sure I was the one that would walk away from this fight in the first place. In our last encounter, he had underestimated me largely, and he had pulled his punches. This time, he would not hesitate, nor would he hold back. He would know that I had launched myself into the very maw of hell itself, just to strike at him one last time.

  So, what kind of man was he beneath the mask of serial murders? Who was James, and what would he do when I confront him?

  I crept along the side of the deck, and I reached the door leading to the lower levels, and the cabins. I looked each way, and then I grabbed out at a mop boy, who yelped in surprise. I thrust a dagger against his throat and I pulled him into a small closet room.

  “Where is James Cole?! Lie to me, and you are going to have a new crimson smiling face across your throat.”

  He nodded towards the left, and stammered out, “Mum, I am sure he is in his quarters sleeping.”

  I hissed out, “Which room?”

  “Four, cabin four, second lower level.”

  I patted the boy’s cheek and I gave him an apologetic look.

  “I would let you go, but I have an assa
ssin to kill. So, you hang tight, in here for a little while.”

  He frowned, not understanding me, then I drove my fist deep into his gut and he doubled over, and then I sent a precise jab to his temple, and he was out cold. I quickly went to work tying up his hands and feet. I also used his own fading bandanna to gag his mouth.

  “I really hope they fire you for this, so you can be something other than a British killer.”

  I muttered to my sleeping companion. I soon peeked out the door, and I waited for a man to amble his way down the long hall. This ship was rather large, and it had three full decks of cabins for crew and passengers. While it was not the largest ship by far, it was the largest I had ever been onboard.

  I crept along the halls after the wondering seaman passed and entered a cabin. I found my way to the second staircase leading deeper into the heart of the ship. The boat rocked violently, and I held firmly to the rail as I lightly descended. A guard stood at the middle of the hall, and his wide-eyed expression and stolen breath at the sight of the shadowy figure gave him pause, just long enough for my sword to clear its sheath, and a swift swipe of his throat forever silenced him.

  I caught the falling, dying man, and I drug him with some effort, and I tucked him under the stairs where he would, hopefully, not attract any attention. His was the first death on my head since I was thirteen, that was not connected to my job. I felt something, sure, but feelings were a luxury I was not entitled to right now. I moved along until I found the right door, and I crouched, listening.

  I fished out a pair of lock-picks, and I knelt and began to work at the tumbler of the metal locking device. I turned, and clicked lightly, as the door gave. I rushed in, the cabin was far larger than the ones I had seen in passing. The assassin stood with his back facing the door. He was wearing brown leathers, and he had a gun blade in his hand. He turned slowly, and his eyes drank me in, he was cold, dispassionate, so very similar to Teddy Angel that it was unnerving.