Bang! Bang! Bang!
The rapid shots reverberated off the nearby mountains, further adding to her confusion as she fell to the ground. Her body slid several feet along the rough gravel roadway, tearing at her exposed skin, before she came to a halt. She pushed past the pain and immediately scrambled to her feet, trying to put as much distance as she could to whatever threat was behind her.
The other cops had their guns out now, leveled at the unseen threat, but only silence gripped the air. A moment later she careened into the waiting arms of Abby Simpson.
“I got you,” Abby exclaimed.
Alex felt the woman’s strong arms, wrap around her tightly, arresting her momentum and bringing her to a complete stop.
“What the fuck?” Alex said, giving word to her thoughts.
“It’s okay; it’s over,” Abby said.
Alex turned around and saw the crumbled body of Tatiana lying on the ground a few feet from the porch.
“Jesus Christ, doesn’t that bitch ever give up?” she asked.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Maguire cautiously walked forward; the green front sight of the Smith & Wesson lining up perfectly on the body sprawled out in front of him.
With each advancing step the realization of who it was before him was driven home. A million thoughts and images wrestled for control of his mind, but he chased them all away. In this line of work familiarity killed and no one was more familiar to him than she was.
A few steps later he reached the woman and kicked away the silver revolver lying by her side. Strands of her long brown hair lay matted across her face and blood had begun to stain the shirt from the entry wounds in her upper torso.
Maguire knelt down and placed his fingers on the woman’s wrist. She still had a heartbeat, but the reality was that the woman, whom he had known as Patricia Ann Browning, was most likely dying in front of him.
The entire scene seemed so surreal.
As Maguire watched, her eyes opened slowly and she smiled with recognition.
“You took the shot after all,” she said softly.
“Don’t talk,” he replied. “The ambulance is on the way.”
“They won’t make it in time, James,” she replied knowingly.
“You don’t know that, Tricia.”
“But I do.”
“Why?” Maguire asked.
Browning just nodded her head dismissively.
“You at least owe me an answer to that question,” he said angrily.
“People change,” she replied. “Just look at you.”
“I changed because of the circumstances I was put through,” Maguire replied. “I didn’t ask for it to happen.”
“Did you ever ask me?”
“Don’t do that, Tricia, don’t push it back on me,” he said. “I spoke to Lena. She told me what happened, but it should have been you telling me.”
“You left me,” Browning replied. “You made your choice.”
“Goddamnit, that’s not fair, Tricia,” he said. “I loved you and you know that. You were the one who pushed me away.”
Hearing the words took away the fight. For years she had blamed him because he had left her. Left her in that town, left her with Browning, left her with Lena and somewhere along the line she had re-invented the story, but that wouldn’t work with him. The truth was always the truth, no matter how hard you tried to spin it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, as the tears began to stream down her face. “I’m sorry for everything, sorry for the monster that I have become.”
“It’s over,” he said, as he wiped a strand of hair from her face.
“I didn’t mean to,” she replied. “I just wanted to hurt you. I wanted you to feel pain the same pain I did.”
“I understand, but Alex is going to be fine.”
“Alex?” the woman replied. “I wasn’t taking about her.”
“What do you mean?” Maguire asked. “Who were you talking about?”
“Your friend, Rich,” Tricia said. “I killed him.”
Maguire’s eyes went wide in shock.
Rich Stargold, the former New York City Police Commissioner and Maguire’s best friend, had died at the hands of Gerald F. Spangler, Jr., a psychotic killer who had left behind a trail of NYPD bodies in his short but bloody killing spree. At least that was the working theory.
There hadn’t been any concrete evidence linking Stargold’s killing to the previous ones, but the caliber used, coupled with the hit list they had found, had pointed to the obvious. There was no way to ask him, since Spangler had already been dispatched to the afterlife, but the killings had all come to an abrupt halt following his demise.
“You killed him?” Maguire asked incredulously. “That’s impossible.”
“No, James, that was me,” Browning said with a smile. “I sweet talked my way into that elderly couple’s apartment and then I shot them. The rest was just a waiting game.”
“Why Rich?” Maguire asked.
“To be honest, when I saw you in the scope, I toyed with the idea of just killing you, but that seemed way too impersonal for me. The idea of you having to suffer the guilt over not being able to protect your friend was so much more appealing to me.”
“He didn’t do anything,” Maguire lamented.
“People die, James,” she replied. “That’s just life. Sometimes they die for other people’s amusement.”
Off in the distance, the faint wail of a siren could be heard drawing closer.
“Hey,” Browning said, with a weak smile. “Maybe I’ll make it after all.”
Maguire stared down into the woman’s brown eyes. Almost immediately his mind was brought back to that summer’s day, on the cliffs overlooking Corlaer Bay, when he had first shared his feelings for her, but, try as he might, the warmth he had once seen in her eyes was gone. With great reluctance, he finally accepted the fact that woman he had loved was truly lost forever.
“No, Tricia,” he said, as his hand reached up and came to rest on the curve of her neck. “You won’t.”
She looked up into his cold, blue eyes and smiled softly. “I guess it’s better this way.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
Alex aimed the controller at the T.V. that was hung on the wall across from her hospital bed and angrily pressed the channel select button. The image of several women appeared, sitting around the discussion table, flashed onto the screen and raucous cackling began to come from the small speaker attached to the bed.
“Three hundred fucking stations and all they play is bullshit,” she remarked angrily, as she turned off the set.
She’d been vehemently opposed to staying for observation, but Maguire had strongly insisted she stay and she knew that it was futile to argue with him when he got like that.
“Knock, Knock.”
Alex looked over at the doorway and saw Maguire standing in the threshold.
“You’d better have booze,” she said with a dirty look.
“No booze, partner,” he replied, “but I did come bearing gifts.”
Alex watched as he held up a paper bag emblazoned with the Dunkin’ Donuts emblem.
“It’s a start,” she replied. “Come on in.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I just went ten rounds with Iron Mike,” Alex replied.
“That’s understandable,” he replied, setting the bag and cup on the bed table before leaning down and kissing her forehead.
Alex closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, as she felt the warmth of his lips on her skin. Any lingering pain that she might have felt was pushed out of her mind and she felt her whole body tingle.
“I’m just glad you’re alright.”
“Oh, I’m just great,” she replied without thinking.
“What?” Maguire asked, as he reached into the bag and removed two Styrofoam containers of coffee.
“Huh?” Alex replied sheepishly, as she fought to regain her composure. “I just meant all things considered, I’
m doing great.”
“Oh,” he replied, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “For a moment I thought you were being sarcastic.”
“Nah, not any more than I usually am,” she replied, “but what about your ex-girlfriend? She didn’t rise up from the slab when the moon came out last night, did she?”
“No,” Maguire replied, shaking his head. “I think she used up the last of her nine lives.”
“Can’t say I’m sorry about that, but, all gallows humor aside, it has to be tough as hell on you.”
“It wasn’t exactly how I envisioned things coming to an end, but I guess in retrospect it was the best outcome.”
“Still, it wasn’t some unknown,” Alex said. “I can’t imagine what I would have done in your position.”
“I don’t know if any thought went into it,” he confessed. “It was more like I just responded. I saw the threat and acted.”
“I have to admit it was rather weird. You damn near pulled my arm out of my socket.”
“Better than taking a shot to the back,” he replied.
“True,” Alex said, as she peeled back the lid on the coffee and took a sip. “It’s also nice to know that I was right and I wasn’t hallucinating about seeing the gun. So did she say anything to you? Did you get any closure?”
Maguire took a sip of his coffee, as he contemplated the answer.
He hadn’t gotten closure, but he had gotten answers. Answers he didn’t necessarily want or need to share.
“No,” he lied. “She was just rambling incoherently.”
“That sucks,” Alex replied, as she reached into the bag and removed the toasted coconut donut. “What about her sidekick? I heard she tried to make a run for it.”
“Yeah, she did,” he replied. “I guess her age and looks made her seem less threatening than she truly was.”
“What the heck happened?”
“Apparently she’d been able to hide one of the EMT’s shears inside her waistband,” Maguire replied. “Guess she played the old sex card during the initial frisk. The state cop got nervous that he was going to be accused of sexual assault and decided to have a female do a more thorough search at in-take. As he was taking her out of the car she pulled the shears and sliced him.”
“Is he okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’ll be fine, but he’s incredibly lucky,” Maguire replied. “Another inch over and he would have probably bled out before helped arrived.”
“Unreal.”
“He managed to get a shot off as she was running away. He hit her in the lower back. Last I heard she’d made it out of surgery, but they doubt she’ll ever walk again.”
“It’s kind of hard to feel any empathy for her,” Alex replied. “Knowing what she has done.”
“I agree, but still, that’s a tough way to spend the rest of your life.”
“Guess it’s sort of karmic.”
“It is that,” he replied. “But enough of that shit, what have the doctors said about you?”
“Apparently I have normal readings, which is probably a first for me,” she replied. “Rumor is they are jettisoning me late this afternoon, which means I get the unparalleled joy of yet another amazing hospital meal before I go.”
“Say it isn’t so?” he asked, patting his chest in mock surprise.
“Tis’ true,” she replied. “I get the choice of grey or green mystery meat and apple juice.”
“So how are you really doing? Honestly.”
“I’m okay,… I guess,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“That’s not very convincing.”
“I mean if you’re asking if I’m nuts or anything, the answer is no,” Alex replied. “Well, not any more than I already was.”
“Than what are you feeling?”
“It’s gonna sound weird, but this whole kidnapping thing has been actually quite cathartic.”
“How so?” Maguire asked, more than a bit intrigued by her reply.
“I don’t know how to put it, but being tied up like that, unable to move, caused me to do a lot of self-introspection,” she explained. “Admittedly, I wasn’t exactly sure I was going to make it out, if you know what I mean.”
“Trust me, I understand completely,” Maguire replied.
Something in the way he said it led her to believe that he was being sincere.
“I had a lot of time to examine my life and I’ve come to realize that not only have I screwed up a lot, but I’ve also let down a lot of people, like you.”
“That’s not true,” he objected. “You haven’t let me down.”
“Don’t argue with me, rookie,” she said sternly. “This is the new Alex Taylor.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, hoisting up his coffee cup. “Please, continue.”
“Well, I came to the realization that I have spent the majority of my life running from one problem after the other, but I’ve never really addressed any of them. So I promised God that if, by some miraculous intervention, I survived, I would change all that. Clearly, the good Lord has a sense of humor because here I am.”
“Clearly,” Maguire said with a smirk.
“Anyway,…….” Alex replied curtly. “I’m not exactly sure how I go about it, but I know that I need to come to terms with my life and the people in it.”
For a moment they just stared at each other. Then Maguire nodded solemnly. He knew her better than anyone else and he knew she was right.
“So what are you going to do?” he asked.
“Start acting like an adult, I guess,” she replied. “I think I have a lot of heart to heart chats in my future.”
“Oh yeah? Where does that line form?”
Alex took a sip of coffee and thought about the question.
“Here, I guess,” she replied, setting the cup back down on the table. “Close the door.”
Maguire got up and closed the door over, then returned back to his seat. “I’m all ears.”
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry about last Christmas.”
“You don’t need too…..”
“Yes, I do,” she replied. “So shut up and listen. I’m not saying that I’m sorry about what I said, James, I’m just sorry that I waited as long as I did to say it.”
“Why did you?”
“Scared more than anything,” she replied. “I don’t think I ever told you, but deep inside I always believed that you were the best thing that ever happened to me. The day you got transferred was the worst day of my life. It felt as if I had lost everything.”
“You didn’t lose me, Alex,” he replied.
“Maybe to you, but to me it was as if my life came to a screeching halt, James. It wasn’t your fault, but my inability to cope. My life had always seemed to be one catastrophe after another. That was until your green-horn ass came strolling into the seven-three. I was hooked on you from the first moment I met you.”
“You didn’t act it,” Maguire replied. “I actually thought you hated me.”
“Well, maybe I did a little bit, but you grew on me,” she said. “Anyway, the reality is I used you as an excuse, both for why I did better while you were around as well as why I crashed after you left.”
“I’m sorry, Alex.”
“Don’t be, this isn’t about you, it’s about me and my lack of personal responsibility. I’ve had some pretty shitty stuff happen to me, but how I responded was always my choice to make and I didn’t always choose correctly. I’ve used everyone, even my dip-shit mother, as an excuse for why I succeeded or why I failed and now it is time for me to make amends.”
“There are no amends you have to make with me.”
“Yes, there are,” she replied. “If only to say that I am sorry I didn’t tell you how I felt before. Now I feel that we’ve lost our moment and, while I am not happy about it, I have to let you go.”
“Do I get a say?” he asked.
“No,” she replied with a sad smile. “The reality is that I will always have feelings for you, but I am
not what you need. I have no filter and I have zero fucks to give. Bottom line is that I will never be her and I’m okay with that.”
“How do you just turn your feelings off?”
“I find that two parts whiskey and one part porn do the trick nicely,” she replied with a wink.
Maguire frowned, clenching his jaw firmly.
“Don’t you dare,” she scolded him. “You have the world by the balls right now. I’m not going to let you screw things up because of me and my alcohol fueled idiocy. Besides, I can barely live with myself, let alone another human being. I think I’m just gonna start out with a dog and see how well that progresses.”
“Well, if you can’t live with me how about working with me?” he asked.
“What?”
“I have an opening for you,” he replied.
“What you need a chief dog-catcher?”
“No, I need a right hand. You’ve done your penance up here, how about you come to work for me?”
Alex stared at him, waiting for the punchline to drop, but it never came.
“Jesus H. Christ, you’re actually serious?”
“I am,” he replied. “I need a new first dep. The pays a lot better and you’d get an office with an amazing view.”
“Dear God in Heaven,” she said, leaning back in the bed and staring up at the ceiling. “Do you have any idea how well that would go over?”
“I’d imagine that a few folks will choke on their morning bagels when they hear the news,” he replied.
“A few?” she asked. “I’m thinking you’ll lose a shit load just to the Heart Bill alone.”
“You’d be doing me a favor,” Maguire said. “It might be the only way to move some of the dead weight.”
Alex looked over at him and smiled. “Thank you, but I’m going to have to say no.”
“Seriously? Maguire said, as he crossed his arms over one another and stared at her quizzically.
“Seriously,” she replied.
“So you’re telling me that purgatory with a pine scent is growing on you?”
“For all the bitching and moaning I’ve done, the reality is that I have actually grown to like this place.”
Brooklyn Bounce (Alex Taylor Book 3) Page 27