by K. J. Dahlen
“He told me he was keeping his word. He had the knife and he was leaving town. He wasn’t surprised to learn Marie was found but he was upset to learn while he had the knife, I had the key to the safe. I told him there probably wasn’t any money in the safe anyway. I told him Micah was a manipulator and a liar, and now I could take my time to find the safe and see if the money was really there. I’m betting Noah is on his way back to La Crosse right now.”
“What else did you tell him?” Nick asked as he ate.
“I told him about the bank robberies.” Sable took a bite of her toast. “Quentin found some interesting things out this morning too.”
“Such as?”
“Sam and Shawn weren’t the only set of twins Micah fathered.”
Nick turned his head to stare at Sable. “What did you say?”
“Quentin was reading Micah’s journals and he uncovered evidence that I was one of a set of two. My sister’s name was Serenity and the reason Micah killed Richard was because when Richard was high, he strangled Serenity for taking a piece of his munchy candy.”
Nick turned his head and looked at Quentin. When Quentin nodded his agreement, Nick turned back to Sable. “Your family is seriously unstable, did you know that?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. Micah said he stabbed Richard to keep him from killing me. Richard was jealous of the amount of time Micah was spending with us. He thought we were taking Micah away from him. Then when he put Richard down in that dry well, he put me in there too. He thought maybe Richard was right and he couldn’t do what he had to do with a kid hanging around. I think it was at that moment Micah turned his back on everything he grew up with. In the hours it took him to drive from Iowa to Chicago, he turned into a killer.”
“So what did he do with Serenity’s body?” Nick asked.
“He buried her behind Gabriel’s house in the woods.” Sable told him. “He wrote in his diary even if the family didn’t know she was there, he would. I think it gave him some small amount of comfort.”
“When we get back, we’ll have to find her and give her a proper burial.”
“In the meantime, we still have Noah to deal with,” Sable said. “I for one am getting very tired of waiting on him to come to me. I want this over with so I can get on with my life. Whatever kind of life I have left, that is.”
“We still have to deal with Brandi’s burial,” Quentin reminded them.
“Noah has a lot to answer for; Brandi, Ben, Marie. We have to end this before anyone else gets hurt.” Sable said.
“How soon do you think he’ll be here?” Nick asked.
Sable shrugged. “I don’t really think he went that far away. I wouldn’t if I were him. I’m going to the warehouse to wait for him. He’s going to go there first. He needs to find out if Micah left anything for him. Even if it costs him his freedom he’s going to need to know if there is any money.”
“What do you think he’ll do when he finds there is no money at the warehouse?”
“He’ll come after me because he thinks I have the money,” Sable said. "I told him I had all the time in the world to find the safe and spend the money that should have been his, if it were there at all.”
“I’m beginning to think you have a death wish,” Nick told her.
“No, I don’t actually,’ Sable disagreed. “I don’t want him to kill anyone else. I want him to come after only me. If he sees me as the biggest threat to his future, he’ll pass up taking another hostage.”
“That means he’ll kill you without even thinking about it,” Nick told her quietly. “He’s now hunting you the same way Micah did and in the end only one of you will win. It’s quickly becoming a duel to the death.”
“Maybe that’s what this needs to be,” Sable said. "The only way I know to stop a killer is to kill him. They can’t be reasoned with, they can’t be shamed into stopping, and they have to be taken out of the picture permanently. Most of the time that takes a bullet. That’s what it takes to stop a rabid dog, and that’s what it’s going to take to stop Noah. I want him so focused on me he won’t take out his rage on anyone else.”
“Okay, say your plan to lure Noah works then what?” Nick asked.
“Then when it’s just him and me; I take him out.” Sable told him. “Simple as that.”
“And if he takes you out?”
“Then you better not let him escape.”
~ * ~
Twenty minutes later Sable paced the second floor of the warehouse. The sun coming through the boarded up windows showed lines of dust. Noah hadn’t called back and she was getting worried about where he was.
She was in the room alone, but she knew Nick and Mason weren’t far away. She had talked a long time to get Mason to call off his officers, but in the end he had done as she asked.
She was wired for sound and she knew Nick would hear every word. Now all she had to do was wait for Noah to show up.
She wandered toward the windows and looked out over the city. From where she stood, she could see Third Street. Traffic was slow but the sounds of the cars were always present. She could see the lives of the people here as everywhere didn’t stop because she was paired in battle. People outside the warehouse seemed to be going on with their lives.
She turned to pace again when out of the shadows she heard him. She stopped walking.
“I really didn’t think I would find you here,” Noah called out from the shadows.
“Really? Where did you think I would be?” Sable asked. She looked around but she couldn’t tell where his voice was coming from. There were too many shadows and too many places to hide.
“As far away from here as possible.”
“Why, do you think I’m afraid of you?”
“Maybe you should be.”
“Ha, that would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad,” Sable told him. “I wasn’t afraid of Micah. Why would I be afraid of you?”
“I’m not Micah.”
“That’s for sure. Micah was a force to be reckoned with. He had skills where you don’t really pose much of a threat.” She waited for his response and found she didn’t have to wait long. She heard him growl.
“I can see why you drove Micah crazy. You can be such a bitch when you want to be.”
“Oh come on, Noah,” Sable chided. “Come on out of the shadows and play with me.”
"I’m quite content in the shadows.”
"Yeah, I guess a guy like you would be content in the shadows.”
“What is that suppose to mean?”
“Whether you know it or not, you are nothing more than a coward. I don’t know what Micah told you to get you to run away from home, but he played you. How did he put it? Oh yeah, he said you were no trouble at all to turn. He said he filled your head with lies about your mom and dad and you soaked up everything he told you like a sponge. He said you took to the life like a natural.”
“I don’t believe you. Micah never lied to me about anything. You’re just mad because he cared about me and he didn’t care about you.”
“The only time I ever knew Micah to tell the truth was moments before he died. He told me I should never have been born and you know what? I believed him. All he ever did was lie to you. He told you Maggie murdered your father when he did the deed himself. Do you want to know the real reason he stabbed his brother? He stabbed his brother because Richard was high on dope and had the munchies. He thought my sister took a piece of his candy so he strangled her. He was coming after me next when Micah stopped him by putting his own knife in his chest.” Sable hesitated then when on. “Micah felt nothing as he plunged the knife into Richard. He felt nothing dragging the body from Iowa to Chicago then dumping it into a drywell next to a park he used to go to as a child.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Micah wrote everything in his journal. I read the words he wrote. Everything that happened after that day he wrote in disgusting detail. He even wrote about meeting you in the park in Cleveland. He
said he knew who you were the moment he saw your eyes. He knew he’d finally found Maggie after all those years.”
“Why was he looking for my mother?”
“Because she escaped with something he needed. After he murdered Richard, Maggie took the knife he used to murder his brother. That knife was Richard’s knife. The knife Micah knew had the key in the handle.” Sable reached for the necklace around her neck. “This key.” She said as she held the key out.
There was a moment of silence before he said, “Have you found the safe yet?”
“I haven’t had time to look for it,” Sable told him. “Come on, Noah, are you that afraid of facing me? Are you that much of a coward you have to hide in the shadows?”
Sable heard a sound behind her and she twirled around to face it. Noah reached for her gun and had it in his hand before Sable could move. He threw the weapon across the room as he stepped out of the shadows in front of her. When she saw him, he looked to her like a kid. He was barely twenty years old. His long blonde hair was dirty and stringy.
He wasn’t old enough to have any facial hair but there were lines of stress around his mouth. His clothes were oversized and sloppy and he was wearing an old faded army jacket. The olive green had faded to a dingy grey. When he took a step into the light, Sable could see his eyes. They were blazing with rage and they looked cold. “Let’s at least be fair. I don’t have a gun so you shouldn’t either.”
“Hello, cousin,” she said as she began to circle him.
Noah smiled. His teeth sparkled in the dim light. “I guess we are that aren’t we? You and I are cousins.”
“Yeah, we’re cousins but I’m not big on family reunions. They never turn out the way you want them too. There is always one creep you wish wasn’t related to you.”
“Oh, I’m the creep now?”
Sable continued to circle him. “No, you are just one of many. Micah, Sam, Shawn and now you.”
“What does that make you? You killed them all, Micah, Sam and Shawn.”
“No, I only shot Micah. If you really want the truth, I shot a bottle of liquor he held in his hands. He was ready to light it up and take us all out. I just made it happen sooner than he expected. My partner Max took Sam and Greg out and another cop shot Shawn. I was there but I didn’t kill them.”
“Why are you telling me this trivia?”
“I’m telling you the truth. That’s something Micah never did. I want you to know the truth.”
“So, did you find the safe? Tell me the truth about that,” Noah said.
Sable raised her head. “Yes, I found the safe.”
“Was there any money in it?”
Sable grinned. “Oh, Noah, there was so much money in the safe, bundles and bundles of cash, jewels, gold bullion and silver bars.” She held out the key again. “Here’s the key to it all. All you have to do is take it from my cold dead fingers, that is, if you can.”
Noah took a step toward her then paused. “As long as we’re telling the truth here, I think there is something you should know about.”
“What would that be?” Sable asked.
“Take a peek in the bedroom behind you. Don’t worry, I won’t rush you.”
“What’s in the bedroom?”
“Just take a look,” Noah said. “I’ll wait.”
Sable took a step toward the bedroom and peeked inside the door. What she saw made her sick. There was a young woman tied to the bed. She had been beaten and was unconscious.
She turned back to Noah. “What Micah did to you was criminal, but what you did to her is just plain sadistic. Did you get some small amount of pleasure from this?” She raised her hand and motioned toward the bedroom.
Noah shook his head. “No, I didn’t. I did that to show you who had to power.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Sable told him as she stepped closer to him. “Beating someone up doesn’t give you any kind of power. All it says about you is you’re a bully. I don’t even know that woman and I’ll bet you don’t either. She was someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. She doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Noah shrugged. “You’re right, I don’t know her but I didn’t do it for that reason. I wanted you to know that if I choose to end her life, that woman will die. That’s the power I have.”
“You are so stupid,” Sable scoffed. “Any one can walk out side and shoot someone who happened to walk past them. That doesn’t give them power, all that does is make them a murderer.”
“Would it make a difference if it was someone you knew laying on that bed in there?” Noah asked.
“Not really. All that would say about you is you enjoy hurting people for no reason,” Sable told him. “Instead of beating up women you don’t know, why don’t you take a crack at me? I’m the one you should be mad at.”
“Ok, let’s dance. The one left standing will get it all,” Noah growled. He reached for the knife in the sheath on his belt.
Sable grabbed a length of pipe from the floor and held it up like a bat. Noah came closer and backed off. He switched the knife from hand to hand. They circled each other slowly. Sable watched his every move looking for something that would give her an edge. Then she remembered the wound he got from Ben Thomas.
She swung the pipe and it connected with his left side. Noah groaned and dropped to one knee. He got back to his feet and moved away.
“You bitch,” he snarled.
“What's the matter Noah? Did that hurt?” Sable asked as she watched him.
Noah pressed his hand against his side and when he pulled his hand away, he could see fresh blood on his fingers. He turned to her and tightened his fingers on the knife. He took a deep breath and lunged at her.
Sable sidestepped him but the knife’s tip caught her upper arm. She hissed as the metal cut into her skin. She swung the pipe again and missed Noah. She stumbled away but Noah followed. Sable jabbed at Noah’s stomach with the pipe and she heard the pipe hit him.
Noah raised the knife and brought it down on her right arm. Sable screamed and back handed the pipe. It hit him on the side of the head and he dropped to the floor. Sable raised the pipe again and brought it down but it hit empty floor. Noah had rolled out of the way at the last minute. He brought the knife up and slashed her left leg. Sable dropped to the floor.
Noah got up on his knees and raised the knife in both hands. He brought the knife down and buried it in her right shoulder. Sable opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. She felt the hot steel of the knife. The room was dimming and the chaos around her stopped as she passed out from the pain.
Sable didn’t hear the heavy footsteps running up the stairs from the first floor. She didn’t hear Nick call out. She missed seeing Noah get to his feet and charge a few steps toward Nick and she missed hearing Nick’s gun fire the shots that ended Noah’s life.
~ * ~
Nick dropped his gun on the floor and ran toward Sable. Mason checked on Noah and when he couldn’t find a pulse, he knew the other man was dead. He glanced over at Nick and saw him reaching for Sable.
Nick turned his head and shouted at Mason. “Call an ambulance. She’s still alive.”
Mason reached for the radio on his shoulder. Moments later, they both heard the wail of the ambulance. Then they heard more heavy footfalls on the steps and saw a couple EMT’s rushing into the upper level.
Nick surrendered Sable to the care of the EMT’s and joined Mason. “We need to check the rest of the living quarters. There might be someone else here.”
Mason nodded and began checking the rooms. When they found the young woman beaten and tied to the bed, Mason stepped out of the room and called one of the EMT’s. “We need some help in here.”
Nick had untied the woman and was checking her injuries. She was semi- conscious but trying to wake up. She had a black eye and blood marred her mouth. Nick let the EMT check her and he went back to where Sable was getting treatment.
They had bandaged her arm and were working on th
e stab wound in her shoulder. Attaching heart and lung leads to her chest they monitored her closely. The EMT turned to look at Nick and Mason. “We need to get her to the hospital. She’s fading fast. The knife did some internal damage and she may not make it.”
Nick and Mason watched as the EMT’s loaded Sable on a gurney and rushed her down to the ambulance. They were right behind them all the way to the hospital. The ambulance pulled into the emergency room parking and Nick rushed out of the car and watched as they unloaded the gurney. Sable was wearing an oxygen mask and her skin was pale when they made their way down the hall into the surgery wing. Nick couldn’t follow them so he paced the waiting room.
Nick grabbed his cell phone and placed a call to Quentin. Within ten minutes Quentin was rushing in the door.
“How is she?” he asked his boss.
“There might be internal damage. She’s in surgery right now and they haven’t told us a damn thing yet.”
“How did he even get close enough to touch her?” Quentin asked.
“She wouldn’t let us come in. He took the gun away from her. I should have been there sooner but she didn’t want us to interfere.” Nick ran his fingers through his hair. “She thought she could take him herself.”
“Is he dead?” he asked. “Is the bastard finally dead?”
Nick turned his head to stare at Noah. “Yeah, he’s dead. The nightmare is over, but we might have lost her in the process.”
“Let’s hope not.” Quentin said. “She’s a strong individual. She’ll fight to live.”
~ * ~
Sable was blinded by the bright lights above her. She had to struggle to open her eyes. Every part of her body hurt and every breath she took burned. She could hear the chaos around her and she thought she heard someone barking out orders for this and that. She felt a pinprick in her arm and it was all too easy to just close her eyes and let the pain drift away.
Suddenly she was floating above her body and as she looked down she could see doctors and nurses hovering around her. She tried to call out to them but she couldn’t make her voice heard. To her right there was a bright light and it was drawing her closer and closer.