The Magic Bullet

by Andrew Neiderman

  “He went through some terrible time,” Allan said. “I gotta say you have one helluva brave kid there.” “I know. He’s my rock. What should we do?” “We pretty much have no choice now, Demi. We have to go to the police. I know you’re terrified of what will happen when the story gets out, but I can arrange for Taylor to be insulated.”

  “By doing what, being a research guinea pig?” “Not exactly, no, but I do need to attract the interest of those who have it within their power to help us.”

  “I wouldn’t want him locked up for his own protection. It’s important he has a normal life.” “It’s not too normal at the moment, Demi.” “I know, but how would it ever be if we do what you’re suggesting?”

  “It would be kind of like the federal witness protection program, I imagine.”

  “You mean, new identities, lives? How can a hospital research group arrange such a thing?”

  “One of the foundations that supports our work has some influential people running it. I’m confident I can get you and Taylor the protection you need.”

  Demi lowered herself against him again.

  “What would I do?”

  “Whatever you want, what you’re doing now, if you want.”

  “No. I’d rather go to school, learn to do something more significant. Maybe something to do with the health industry, and I don’t mean a secretary in an HMO or something.”

  Allan nodded. “I know I can arrange something there. Who knows? Maybe someday soon you’ll be working alongside me.”

  They heard Taylor moan.

  “I’d better get back over there. He’s too old now to see his mother in bed with another man so soon after leaving the last one.”

  “Next time we’ll get two rooms.”

  She started to get out, and he seized her hand. She leaned back and kissed him again.

  “I mean it. I mean that there’ll be a next time.”

  “Good,” she whispered and crawled in beside Taylor, but she faced Allan.

  “That wasn’t exactly the right formula for helping someone get to sleep,” he whispered.

  She laughed softly.

  “Sure it was, Allan. You just fantasize.”

  “With the real thing a few feet away?”

  She looked back at Taylor again.

  “Maybe…”

  “No, no. I’m just teasing,” he whispered. “We both could use some sleep. We should get out of here as soon as we can and go first to the police back in Palm Springs.”

  “Okay.”

  She turned on her back and looked up at the ceiling.

  He did the same, and although they both closed their eyes, it felt as if they were still looking at each other.

  “Let me try first, okay?” Warren asked Frankie when they pulled up in front of the Walkers’ house. There was only a lamp on in what Warren knew to be the living room of the two-story Spanish-style home. It was set on a small rise just outside of Palm Springs in one of the older but more expensive neighborhoods. Each house had nearly an acre lot, and each had literally tens of thousands of dollars in landscaping, palm trees, and outside lighting.

  Every other room in the house was in darkness. It was just after midnight.

  “Go in first? What are you worried about, losing their friendship? I told you I have no time to waste,” Frankie replied. “You can ask the questions, but Scooter will be right beside you To make sure we get the answers we need and need now.”

  “This guy is connected to some big shots here,” Warren warned. Frankie just stared at him deadpan a moment.

  “Scooter?” Frankie said.

  “I’m trembling in my shoes.”

  Tony laughed. Scooter opened his door. Tony opened the door for Frankie and helped him out.

  I’m in a free fall, Warren thought, going deeper and deeper until there’s no way back.

  “Lead the way, big shot,” Frankie ordered.

  Warren got out and started toward the Walkers’ front door. The blinking lights of a commercial jet beginning its descent for Los Angeles were nearly lost among the stars in the eastern sky. Warren suddenly longed to be sitting on the plane, far above the mess he had made for himself. He pushed the door buzzer and looked at Scooter in the shadows just off to his left. The man seemed to have no face.

  Tony and Frankie remained a few feet behind.

  “Push it again,” Frankie ordered.

  Warren did so, and a light went on above them in what he knew to be the Walkers’ master bedroom. That was followed by another light above the stairway and then another in the entryway. Moments later, Ralph Walker, in his robe and slippers, opened the door. It was apparent from the expression on his face the moment he saw Warren that his wife had revealed the events occurring over the past half-dozen hours. His rage was such that his eyes didn’t drift from Warren’s face, and he didn’t see Scooter standing just off what was his right, nor did he seem to notice Tony and Frankie a few feet behind.

  “What do you want, Warren? Lois told me what you…

  He recoiled when Scooter moved into the light above the door.

  “Who’s this?”

  He looked past them now and saw Frankie Vico. He knew who he was.

  “What the hell is this?” he demanded, trying to sound as unafraid and as indignant as he could. “You know the time?”

  “Believe me, I know the time,” Frankie said.

  “Look, we need to know where Demi’s gone, Ralph. This whole thing is just a terrible misunderstanding. I have to get things straightened out immediately. I need to know where she is now,” Warren said quickly and then tried to smile and added, “She’ll be happy with what is being proposed now, very happy.”

  Ralph heard everything Warren said, but he seemed mesmerized by Scooter’s appearance. He didn’t move, didn’t blink. Then he swallowed hard enough for his Adam’s apple to bounce and shook his head.

  “You all need to get off my property before I call the police,” he said. “I’m upset that Demi hasn’t done so yet, but if I have my way, she will, so I’d think about the trouble you’re already in and not add to it, if I were you.

  “Now why would you want to a thing like that, Mr. Walker?” Scooter asked, nudging Warren out of the way and stepping into the doorway.

  Ralph retreated. He eyed Scooter’s hands. The fingers were long and thin with a glittering diamond ring in a gold setting on the pinky of his right hand. He undid his suit jacket. The handle of a pistol in a shoulder holster was just visible.

  “Who is this, Warren?” Ralph asked as if ignoring Scooter would eradicate his existence.

  “This is something that’s easy or something that’s hard,” Scooter said. “When I say easy and hard, I mean easy or hard for you, your wife, and your daughter.”

  Ralph looked like he lost the ability to speak. His lips moved, but no sound emerged, and his eyes widened with abject terror.

  “It’s not just me who’s asking you, Ralph,” Warren offered, trying to sound apologetic.

  “He’s right about that,” Frankie shouted and moved closer with Tony.

  Scooter smiled.

  Close to a panic, Ralph straightened up and reached for the doorknob. “All of you get off my property now!”

  He started to close the door on them, but Scooter put his left foot out and stopped it. Then, with lightning speed, so fast that even Warren was surprised and jumped, Scooter shot his long, right arm out like a sword and seized Ralph’s throat. His fingers were squeezing so hard that they looked like they were sinking through Ralph’s skin. Ralph gagged and reached defensively for Scooter’s wrist, but Scooter grabbed his hair with his left hand and jerked Ralph forward and stepped into the house. He nodded at Warren, Tony, and Frankie, who immediately followed. Tony closed the door behind them.

  Scooter continued to hold onto Ralph, squeezing harder on his throat until Ralph went to his knees. He had his hands on Scooter’s arm, but it was like a little girl trying to break the grip of a professional wrestler.

/>   Ralph’s face quickly turned an incredibly dark shade of red, and when he looked up, Warren could see his lips were rapidly fading into a dark blue. The realization that he was watching Ralph being murdered triggered him to act. It was one thing to force the brat to give up some blood, but another to participate in a truly cold-blooded killing, especially of someone who at one point was nearly a relative. He grabbed Scooter’s left arm at the elbow and pulled hard. Scooter didn’t release Ralph’s hair, but he turned angrily to Warren.

  Not the horror he had seen in a movie, or the horror he had read in a book, or even had experienced in a nightmare prepared him for the cold, brutal look in Scooter’s eyes. It was like looking at the face of Death itself. He released his grip.

  “Don’t kill him. It will make it harder to get the information. She’ll be in shock, hysterical,” he hurriedly explained.

  “Don’t interfere, Mr. Moore,” Frankie said. “Scooter knows what to do here.”

  “I’m not interfering. I’m just saying we’ll get what we want from his wife, I’m sure.”

  The cooling in Scooter’s eyes encouraged Warren to continue with his pleading and logic.

  “It will only make this longer, Frankie. She’ll faint or something, and we’ll be here the rest of the damn night.”

  “Let Scooter decide,” Frankie said.

  Tony stepped up beside Warren obviously To make sure he didn’t do anything more to interfere.

  Scooter relaxed his grip on Ralph’s throat, but tugged his hair so he would fall to the floor where he writhed and coughed.

  “Ralph?” they heard from the top of the stairway. “Who’s there? Ralph? What’s going on?”

  Scooter took out his pistol and stepped on Ralph’s shoulder to drive him face forward on the floor. Lois came down the stairway quickly. She was in her robe. The moment she saw the scene in the entryway, she screamed. Scooter put his left hand up like a traffic cop and pointed his pistol at Ralph. It was enough to stop her from screaming, but she looked like she was tottering on the stairway.

  “Get her down here,” Scooter ordered. Warren moved before Tony and stepped over Ralph. He approached the stairway with his arms out, smiling.

  “C’mon down, Lois. It’s going to be all right. Just come down,” he pleaded and beckoned with his hand. She glared at him, looked at Scooter, Tony, Frankie, and Ralph, and took a few timid steps toward Warren. He smiled and reached for her hand.

  “Who are these people? What have you done?” she asked him, pulling her hand back from his. “What are you doing to us?”

  “Just calm down, Lois. It will be better for everyone if you just calm down,” Warren said. He tried to telegraph the danger with his eyes and look like he was interceding on her and Ralph’s behalf, but she glared back at him with unadulterated disgust and hate.

  Scooter took his foot off Ralph and beckoned for Lois to come closer. Warren reached again for Lois’s hand, this time more forcefully. He then led her down the remaining steps. Ralph groaned and rose to his feet slowly, rubbing his reddened neck. He looked more embarrassed than anything but bravely moved to Lois’s side and pushed Warren away.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “He’s already told you,” Frankie said. “We want to know where Mrs. Petersen and her son have gone, and I can assure you,” Frankie continued, nodding at Scooter, “that it would be very bad for you if you didn’t tell us the truth.”

  “We don’t know where she’s gone,” Ralph said. “After what he did,” he added, pointing at Warren, “she panicked and ran off.”

  “There’s a critical time factor here,” Scooter said. “Otherwise, we’d be happy to play tiddlywinks with you for a while.” He looked at Warren. “I was going to impress…Lois, is it? Lois here with the urgency by choking the life out of Ralph. It is Ralph, right? Yes, Ralph. But, Mr. Moore interceded without permission and temporarily delayed my efforts to clearly illustrate how serious we are, and how impatient.”

  “We’re telling you the truth!” Lois cried. “My sister was in a panic. She thought it was better for them to leave the area. She didn’t want any more attention drawn to herself—and especially her son,” she added quickly.

  “And you’re telling us you don’t know where your sister has gone?” Scooter asked skeptically.

  “I asked her where she intended to go, but she was afraid of just something like this so she said she would call me when she got there. That’s the truth. Please, believe me and leave us alone.”

  She moved quickly to Ralph’s side and took his arm.

  The noise finally woke Jodi, who came out of her upstairs bedroom and to the stairway. She wiped her eyes and gazed down at the confusing scene below.

  “Mommy!”

  Lois rushed up the stairway to embrace her.

  “Bring her down,” Scooter commanded. He waved at them with his pistol. “Now.”

  “She told you the truth. Just leave us alone. We can’t help you,” Ralph pleaded. He took a step toward Scooter, who then raised his pistol.

  “Ralph!” Lois screamed.

  “Bring her down,” Scooter said firmly.

  Tottering on losing consciousness, Lois carried Jodi most of the way down and then lowered her to the last few steps.

  “And your name is?” Scooter asked.

  Jodi looked at her mother and then said, “Jodi.”

  “Jodi,” Scooter said, smiling. “Nice name. Perfect. Okay, so we’re all settled in now and back to why we came.” He looked at his watch. “I’m about two minutes over what I had allotted for this little venture, which is truly disappointing.” He stepped toward Ralph but kept his attention on Jodi and Lois and smiled.

  She gasped and pulled Jodi closer to her.

  “Where,” Scooter said slowly, “is your sister and her son? Exactly.”

  “I told you the truth. I’m not sure…she could’ve gone to Las Vegas or maybe San Francisco. We have relatives in both places.”

  “Have you spoken with her since she left?”

  “No. She specifically forbid me calling her. I told you. She said she would call me.”

  “And she left with that doctor?” Frankie asked.

  “Yes. She left with him.”

  Scooter raised the pistol and pointed it at Ralph’s head.

  “One more chance. Tell us where she is.”

  “I can’t! I don’t know! Please, please!” Lois pleaded. Scooter brought back the hammer on the pistol. “Oh, God, help us!”

  He lowered the hammer and turned to Frankie. “My expert opinion in these matters convinces me she’s telling the truth.”

  “Fuck,” Frankie said. He glared more angrily at Warren than anyone else. “Some great idea.”

  Everyone stood silently for a moment. Ralph moved to Lois and Jodi’s side. Then Frankie looked up sharply at Warren.

  “How’d you get that doctor to come To my place in the first place?”

  “I told you. I teased him with the possibility of getting the blood he wanted. I told him I needed a small medical favor first and…”

  “How did you tell him?”

  “How?” Warren looked at Scooter as if he hoped he would provide the answer Frankie demanded.

  “I…called him.”

  “Where, schmuck?”

  “On his cell phone.”

  “You had the guy’s cell phone number all this time?” Scooter asked.

  “Yeah, sure.” Warren dug frantically into his pocket and came up with the card Allan Parker had given him.

  Scooter snatched it and looked at it. Then he turned to Frankie and shook his head.

  “This guy is a like a cement shoe on your foot.”

  Frankie nodded.

  Scooter turned back to Lois.

  “We’re going to need you to convince this doctor to bring your sister and her son home,” Scooter told her.

  Lois started to shake her head.

  Without any hesitation, Scooter lifted his pistol again, but this time poin
ted it at Warren and shot him in the face. Warren’s head exploded, and he flew back over the coffee table, crumbling against the sofa.

  Lois and Jodi screamed. Ralph’s eyes bulged. He embraced his wife and daughter, and the three of them cowered back. Even Tony looked overwhelmed. Frankie simply smirked. Scooter turned to him and shook his head.

  “I’m losing what little faith I had in humanity rapidly,” he said.

  Frankie nodded.

  “Now then, Lois, where were we? Oh yes. You’re going To make a call to this doctor and convince him to bring your sister and your nephew back ASAP. You’re going to warn them not to call the police because there is a really good chance that your whole family, with your daughter first, will be shot. Can you remember all that?”

  Lois couldn’t speak. She could barely nod.

  “Great. Ralph boy. Go with Tony here and find something to throw over this body. I hate looking at my work, and all sorts of odors will soon arise and we might have to be here a while. See about some coffee, too, Tony, and whatever they have to go with it. I’m a little hungry. This work always makes me a little hungry.”

  Ralph held onto Lois.

  “Do what he says,” she whispered. “I’ll be all right.”

  He nodded and stepped away. Before heading for the kitchen, he looked down at Warren.

  “You bastard,” he said. “I wish you weren’t dead so I could kill you myself.”

  Scooter roared with laughter.

  “I like your husband. C’mon, Lois,” he said, patting the big cushioned chair next to the table with the phone. “Make yourself comfortable, and then make the most important call of your life and your husband’s and daughter’s lives.”

  Ralph looked back at her. He could see the turmoil in her face. She was endangering her sister to save her own family. It killed him that he could do nothing to stop it.

  She lowered Jodi to the floor and then took her hand as she went to the chair.

  “This turned out to be a little harder than I thought. I expect you’ll testify To my getting a bonus or something after all this, Frankie,” Scooter said.

  “Don’t worry about it. Get it done, and I’ll give it to you myself,” Frankie told him.

  Allan had put his cell phone on vibrate so it took a while for him to realize he was getting a call. He got out of bed quickly to answer. Demi and Taylor were asleep.