by K. J. Dahlen
"You are lying. You think you can say anything about my son because he isn’t here to defend himself."
"I can prove what I say but can you?"
Greg was confused for a moment. "Micah never would have run away if my father hadn’t pushed him to do it. He ran away to get as far from his grandfather as possible."
"If Micah had been any kind of man, he would have stood up to his grandfather, not run away and become a serial killer," Sable scoffed. "He enjoyed murdering people; he liked watching the life drain from their bodies."
"You are lying to save your own skin," Greg screamed at her.
"And you are delusional," Sable told him. "Do you have any idea what Micah’s master plan was? Did he tell you he was dying of AIDS? Did he tell you that he wanted to murder every member of his family, including you and his two sons before he died?"
"That’s a lie," Greg growled.
"No, that’s the truth. We found proof of his master plan from the papers we found at the warehouse," Sable told him.
"I don’t believe you." Greg told her. "You would say anything to escape your own death.
"Even after he murdered your wife you still don’t think Micah would murder you," Sable stated. She had hoped her lie about Jill would bring the truth out. "How can you not think that?"
Greg began shaking his head. "Micah didn’t murder his mother."
"You saw her body, you found his message, and how can you think he didn’t murder his mother?" Sable asked.
"Micah didn’t kill Jill," Greg was adamant
Sable stared at him for a moment. The truth was written on Greg’s face. "You killed Jill. Why would you do that? I thought Shawn was lying about that but its true isn’t it?"
Gabriel was shocked. "What? You murdered your own wife?"
"Yes, I took her life," Greg admitted his role in Jill’s murder.
"How long have you and Micah been in touch with each other?" Sable asked.
"What makes you think we’ve been in touch?"
"You wouldn’t be working with Sam and Shawn if you hadn’t been in touch with your son," Sable concluded.
"That’s true. I wouldn’t have known about them except Micah got in touch with me about ten years ago. I was having lunch in the park one day when he showed up. At first I couldn’t believe it was him," Greg admitted.
Emma sobbed. "You’ve known he was alive for ten years? Why didn’t you tell anyone?"
Greg couldn’t speak as he wrestled with his thoughts. "Micah asked me not to tell anyone and I couldn’t risk betraying his trust."
"How did you feel when he told you what he’d been doing all these years?" Sable wanted to know.
Greg snapped his head to where she stood. "He was still my son, still my blood. No matter what he was doing I still loved him. At first I didn’t understand, but if I wanted to be in his life I had to try."
"How long have you known about Sam and Shawn?" Sable asked.
"Long enough," Greg growled.
"Did you know they plan to kill you before this is over?"
"No, they won’t, I’m a part of this now," Greg argued.
"Tell me something, did Micah ever share his master plan with you?"
Greg frowned. "What master plan? What are you talking about?"
Sable began pacing back and forth. When she stopped she turned to look at Greg. "You know Micah had AIDS. It was fast becoming his death sentence, but he wasn’t going out alone. He was taking every member of his family with him. He had you murder his mother before he beat his grandfather almost to death. He made sure his tainted blood mixed with Gabriel’s. He wanted Gabriel to know what it was like to have a fatal disease before he died. He wanted Gabriel to suffer the pain of the dammed. He thought he got rid of me twenty years ago when he stuffed me down into the well with Richard’s body. We found proof he was going to murder Emma. Then before he died he was going to murder you and Sam and Shawn. He was going to take his entire family out then kill himself rather than die of the fatal disease he had. If he was going to die, it would have been on his terms, no one else's."
"That’s a lie," Sam yelled as he came down the last stair. He strode into the living room. He pointed his gun at Sable. "That’s a damn lie and you know it."
"No, it’s the truth. We found proof of it in the papers we took from the warehouse," Nick assured him.
"My father wouldn’t have hurt Shawn and me. We were the only family he had that really understood him."
"Which one of you murdered Abbey?" Sable asked her brother.
Sam frowned. "What do you mean by that? You said something about her murder before and I didn’t believe you. I still don’t. My mother died a long time ago in a fire."
"No, someone murdered her yesterday right here in Chicago."
Sam seemed uncertain for a moment. "Even if that’s true, we have to finish what our father started."
Greg hitched the knife in his hand a little higher against his mother’s throat. For a moment he was torn, but when Sam murmured something, Greg turned the knife into her skin. A shot rang out. Greg dropped to his knees. Emma screamed and took a step away from him. Greg dropped to the floor. Blood began pooling underneath his body, spreading out all around him.
Another shot rang out. Sam screamed, grabbing his shoulder. He spun on his head and aimed his gun. Pulling the trigger his shot went wild. Max crouched and fired again. Sam dropped to his knees and collapsed. His eyes stared at the ceiling as his breathing became raspy.
Sable knelt beside him to check his wounds. Blood soaked his shirt. Placing her hands around his face she turned his head to hers. "Where is Shawn? Where is your brother?"
Sam tried to smile. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. "You may have gotten to me but you’ll never get Shawn," He whispered. "As long as Shawn is alive he’ll come after you. He won’t stop until he gets you." His face contorted into a grimace and with labored breath he told her, "Our father taught us that. Rule number seven, never give up the quest. Be true to who you are."
"What did Melinda mean?" Sable asked.
Sam grimaced. "Melinda was nothing more than a ruse, just something to keep you off our backs until we could set up the final kill. We thought it would take you longer to figure it out. Dad found out about Melinda Carter years ago. He even went to see her but he knew right away that her son wasn’t a threat. He didn’t have the Reardon eyes."
Sable growled, "You bastard."
Sam coughed and blood spewed from his mouth. "You won’t get out of the house alive you know. Shawn is a bit of an arsonist. He likes to watch the fire. He’s going to burn you alive."
"That would solve all your problems wouldn’t it?" Sable asked. "Which one of you set the bomb under Nick’s car?"
Sam tried to grin but his face was distorted in pain. "Shawn did that. I told you he likes to watch things burn." He tried to cough but his mouth was full of blood. When he spit the blood out, he told her, "I know I’m dying but Shawn doesn’t. He isn’t going to like the fact I’m not coming out of here."
"That’s too bad," Sable told him.
"I guess you were right after all," Sam whispered as he grew weaker.
Sable frowned. "What was I right about?"
"Micah planned to kill us all, didn’t he? He was planning the ultimate betrayal."
"I don’t think he looked at it as a betrayal but he did plan it all out. He wanted all of us dead before he gave into the disease that was killing him." Sable watched Sam give in to death. His last breath was raspy and the little pulse on the side of his neck was weak. He closed his eyes and finally after a moment or two the pulse stopped. Sable took a deep breath then glanced at Nick.
Nick reached out a hand to help her to her feet. Sable said, "He was right about one thing. Shawn isn’t going to like the idea Sam isn’t coming out of here. He’s out there waiting for his brother. He’s close enough to have heard the shots."
"We have to get out of here."
"You don’t understand. Shawn is ou
t there waiting to see who comes out of the house. If it isn’t Sam and Greg, he’s going to burn the house," Sable told him.
"What makes you think he wouldn’t burn the place anyway?" Nick asked as he reached for his phone. He called in a suspicious activity report and got the fire trucks rolling toward the house. "We have to get our guests out of the house."
Max shouted from the other room. "Hey boss, he blocked the front door."
Nick stepped into the living room looking at the front door. Smoke seeped under the wooden frame. Nick looked over at Sable. "He isn’t giving us much choice."
Nick told Max, "You go out through a window and check the perimeter of the house. Shawn is out there somewhere. He’s probably going to start shooting the moment he sees us coming out the back door. He doesn’t know his brother and Greg are dead, but he’s probably heard the gun shots. He won’t wait too long for someone to come out."
Max turned, disappearing into the back bedroom. Sable ushered Gabriel and Emma to the back door. Nick turned off the lights. Smoke was creeping room by room as the fire at the front of the house enlarged to encompass the front door and the front wall. They could hear the sirens of the fire trucks in the distance.
Sable grabbed her weapon and checked the back yard. The evening darkness was blanketing the yard and surroundings. She opened the door. Crouched low, she made her way down the stairs into the back yard. Her eyes roamed the shadows but she didn’t see anyone or anything out of the normal. She got to the halfway point between the back door and the garage and still saw nothing out of the ordinary. She glanced back at the door. Nick escorted Gabriel and Emma out the door straight to the garage.
When they reached the garage, Sable had to look back at the house. She could see the second story window Sam and Greg had used to gain access. Sable frowned as she thought she saw another figure standing in the window frame.
"Sable, we have to go," Nick whispered.
Sable ducked and rolled as a shot rang out. She had seen the figure in the window raise a gun and fire at her. She raised her own gun to fire back but the figure in the window was gone.
"Shawn is about to find his brother and Greg," Sable told him. "And I don’t think he’s going to be very happy."
A few minutes later they both heard an unearthly scream from the house moments before the fire engines pulled up to the front of the burning house. Chaos blurred the scene for the first few minutes as the firemen battled the blaze.
When it was safe to go into the house, the firemen only brought out Sam’s body and Greg’s. There was no sign of Shawn. No one had seen him slip out of the house. Nick and Sable went from room to room after the fire Chief said the house was safe to enter.
When they returned to the garage, they found Max, Gabriel, and Emma waiting for them. "Did you find him?" Max asked.
"There was no sign of him anywhere in the house," Nick told them.
"Where does that leave us?" Max asked.
"We still have to watch our backs," Sable commented. "Shawn might be more motivated than Sam. He has nothing left now but revenge."
"That’s going to make him all the more dangerous," Nick said.
Chapter Fourteen
About twenty minutes later they were back at the FBI offices. Sable was weary. It had been a stressful few days. She glanced over at Gabriel and Emma. She knew they had faced the most devastating situation. Sable noticed the heavy toll in their movements and on their faces. They seemed shell-shocked and were moving slower than normal.
Gabriel’s face was blanched with worry and the certainty that his family was gone. His dreams of passing on what he knew to the next generation had disappeared. He appeared to age in the last few hours.
Nick and Max joined her. "What do you want to do now?" Nick asked her.
"I don’t know. So much has happened I don’t know what to do. I mean I have no home to go to anymore and neither do they." Sable motioned with her hand toward Gabriel and Emma. "They don’t look very good. They’ve lost more than they gained today."
"You can’t think about what they have or don’t have right now," Nick admonished. "You have other things to worry about. We have to stop Shawn before you can deal with anything else."
Sable sat down at her desk wearily. "I know but I have no idea how that’s going to happen. We have no idea where he is or what he has planned."
"What do we know?"
Sable brushed her hair away from her face. "We know Shawn might be the more aggressive of the two brothers and that he’s more than a little pissed at us right now. You heard his scream of fury when he found Sam’s body. That means he’s out to kill us. It may not be just Gabriel and Emma he wants now. It’s all of us. What we have to figure out is how he plans to carry out his plans."
"Ok, let’s say for the sake of argument he knows we came back here. They have already shown they can get to us here by shooting out our windows. Now we’re in an inner office he may try something a little more drastic," Nick surmised.
"Let’s not forget the bomb scare this morning," Max reminded them.
"Yes, but this morning was just a scare. Sam said Shawn likes to play with fire. I assume he’s the one that set fire to not only my house but also Gabriel’s home. We really have no idea what Shawn is capable of," Sable told them. "What worries me right now is the fact that he’s a walking time bomb."
Sable glanced over to where Gabriel and Emma were sitting. She grew alarmed when she saw Gabriel struggling. He was grasping at his chest. His face was contorted in pain. "Oh my god, call an ambulance," She called out as she went over to Gabriel to check him out.
Emma saw her join them and said, "He said he wasn’t feeling well and just started trying to catch his breath."
Sable checked at Gabriel’s face. "Gabriel, can you hear me?"
Gabriel turned his face to her. "I… can’t …breathe." He whispered.
"I know. We have an ambulance on the way. Calm down, help is on the way."
Gabriel tried to nod but it was hard for him to move. His fingers clutched his chest. "It’s so hard." His voice was raspy.
"I know, but you have to try." Sable told him.
A few minutes later they heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall toward them. Two men in uniforms came into the room and began unloading the equipment they would need.
One of the men slipped an oxygen mask over Gabriel’s face while the other took his vital signs. A third man entered the room a moment later with a gurney. Everyone waited tensely while the paramedics did their jobs.
Sable wrapped her arm around Emma’s shoulder. "Is he going to be alright?" she whispered.
"I hope so," Sable told her. She turned to the older woman asking, "What happened?"
Emma wrung her hands. "I don’t know. When we were leaving the safe house Gabriel said he didn’t feel well. I guess with everything that’s been happening I didn’t think anything about his complaint. Then when we got here I noticed he was sweating and a little pale. A few minutes ago he began breathing heavily. He was rubbing his chest. Then he grabbed his chest and complained about not being able to breathe."
One of the paramedics stood up and joined them. Looking at Emma he told them, "Your husband is showing all the signs of a heart attack. He is responding to treatment but we want to take him to the hospital. He’s reluctant to go. He says he won’t go without you and someone named Sable."
"I’m Sable. Is he ok to travel?"
The EMT looked up at her. "We’re stabilizing him now. We should be ready to leave in a few minutes."
Emma turned to Sable. "I know you have your own work to do but I’d appreciate you coming with us as well. Gabriel won’t admit it but he’s frightened. All his life he’s tried to do the right thing. He’s a stubborn man and life with him hasn’t always been easy, but he’s a good man. All those things Greg said earlier weren’t true," Emma shook her head. "Gabriel never meant to alienate Micah. He was hard on the boy but Micah needed a firm hand sometimes. I think the problems came abo
ut because Micah was too much like Gabriel. I know he was just as hard headed as his grandfather."
The paramedics had Gabriel strapped to the gurney. They were ready to move when the office telephone rang. Nick answered the call and listened for a moment. He turned to watch the door calling everyone back into the room. "Hey guys, wait a moment."
When he hung up the phone he motioned for Sable and Max to join him. Sable frowned, "What’s wrong?"
Nick growled. "The police chief downstairs found one of the security guards with his throat sliced open."
"Oh crap, that means Shawn is somewhere inside the building," Max said.
Sable glanced to where Gabriel waited. "We can’t let them go anywhere. If we don’t allow them out, we could be putting Gabriel’s life at risk."
"I know. The police are checking every room downstairs, but that’s going to take awhile and who’s to say Shawn isn’t up here already. He could be anywhere."
One of the paramedics joined them, "Excuse me, but we have to get Mr. Reardon to the hospital. His life is in jeopardy if we stay here much longer."
"I understand but we have a problem. It’s not safe for him to leave right now. The police downstairs are doing a room to room search for a dangerous person, a person that may be willing to murder anyone in his way to get to Mr. Reardon." Nick said.
"Let’s hope they can move quickly. We have a few minutes leeway but not too much. We need to get him to the hospital, under a doctor’s care," The EMT told them.
They moved Gabriel back to the conference room and waited. The paramedics kept checking Gabriel’s vital signs. Emma sat beside her husband holding his hand. Every few minutes Nick or Max called downstairs to check the progress of the search, but the police hadn’t found anything yet.
Forty five minutes passed and still there was no sign of Shawn. Sable walked over to where Gabriel was waiting. His breathing was labored even with the oxygen. The paramedic was taking his vital signs again. When he glanced up, he shook his head.
Sable made up her mind about the situation and told them to get Gabriel ready to go to the hospital. She turned to Nick telling him, "We can’t wait anymore. We have to leave."