Abra-Cadaver

by Matt Drabble

  He looked back to the stage as Trotter seemed lost in his act. All of his attention was focused on the figure of Adrian Todd lying helplessly in the guillotine. Katy Jacket was staring off into space, her expression still glazed and distant.

  Tommy felt his heart pound furiously as it seemed like only in his close proximity position could he see directly into Adrian Todd’s eyes. Everyone behind him were holding their collective breaths and waiting for the blade to fall and end the show. He looked up at The Captivating Cosmo X - Master of the Unknown, who now seemed impossibly scary again. The magician’s smooth face was pale, and his eyes burned furiously. Whatever drug Adrian Todd was under was beginning to wear off. The man’s face was an explosion of realisation. He began to jerk and pull furiously as he struggled against the locks that secured him.

  “What is this?” He slurred. “What the hell is going on here?”

  Tommy saw the man’s eyes darting around the barn at the faces in the audience. They were eyes that grew wider with fear as the reality of his predicament struck home hard. He twisted his head up, desperately trying to see the man who held his life in the form of a thin piece of rope that held the glinting blade.

  “Do you know who I am?” Todd yelled.

  Trotter looked down with black humor on his face. “I should certainly hope so Mr. Todd, I’d hate to have the wrong man after all this effort,” he said breaking character.

  “Madame Bouvier,” the magician announced to the gathering, getting back on script. “You have been found guilty of crimes against the people. You have been sentenced to pay the ultimate price for your betrayal. Have you any last words?”

  “Please,” Todd whispered, “I’m sorry,” he said in such a small voice that Tommy thought that he was the only one who had heard him. “I’ll do anything, I’ll give you anything. I can make it right Arnold just let me try,” he begged desperately. “I can give you money, more than you could ever spend. I can help you leave the country, start fresh somewhere new where the authorities could never find you. I can get rid of the bodies,” he said jerking his head towards the audience. “I can get rid of all the witnesses and make it like you never even existed at all, please Arnold, please.”

  Tommy could see that the begging was having zero impact on Trotter. The man’s face was flint, expressionless and emotionless to the desperate pleas of the condemned.

  “VIVE LA FRANCE!” The magician screamed as he let the blade drop with his eyes closed in ecstasy savoring his moment of triumph.

  Tommy wanted nothing more that to shut his eyes against the inevitable. He had seen this scene before and from this close. Mary Todd’s head had bounced before him with a flash of life still in her eyes. It was that flash of life and realisation that had haunted him more than anything else. But he could only look on as history repeated itself. This time it was Mary’s father whose severed head bounced onto the barn’s dusty floor with the same momentary flash of life in his eyes.

  He heard Ally scream behind her gagged mouth. Gaines jerked violently in his seat and Dixon had a strange look of almost happiness on his face.

  “Well now boys and girls,” Trotter announced to the room. “Roll up roll up who’s next,” he smiled insanely.

  Tommy looked over at Gaines who was now rocking back and forth furiously. The cop had a thick piece of duck tape across his mouth which prevented him from any sound other than a mumbled one. Figuring that they were all likely to die anyway, Tommy reached over and pulled the tape off.

  “TROTTER!” Gaines roared. “What the hell are you doing? You don’t have to do this. What happened to you was a travesty. This town threw you down into a deep dark hole all under the direction of that man,” he said pointing to the slumped corpse of Adrian Todd. “You’ve taken your vengeance Trotter, you’ve taken it many times over, and it’s time to stop, for Mary’s sake it’s time to stop.”

  Tommy was shocked when Trotter laughed. It was a long and riotous laugh that seemed to shake the very barn around them.

  “Oh detective,” Trotter smiled when he had himself under control again. “Is that what you think? That this is all about her? That slut, that adulterous whore? I killed her you slack jawed yokel. I found about her affair with his father,” he said pointing viciously at Tommy. “Why do you think that I cut off her lying cheating head on the Marsh’s lawn? I wanted everyone to see what happens to liars and filthy cheats.”

  Tommy wanted to feel the weight of guilt lift from his shoulders. But there was no such sensation. It all seemed so meaningless now, so meaningless and hopeless. So much death had arisen from that deadly afternoon that it didn’t seem to matter anymore just who had done what and to whom.

  “This is about me, about what they did to me!” Trotter shouted with growing rage. “Any other town and I would have walked free from a murder charge. Accidental death or negligence on my part at the very most should have been the verdict. But it was all him and all of you,” Trotter said as he punted Todd’s severed head across the floor. “This whole stinking town wanted to see me burn AND YOU LET THEM!” He roared.

  “But I tried to help you,” Gaines pleaded.

  Tommy watched in horror as Trotter raised the silver gleaming police issue revolver and place it in Katy’s dazed hand. Her eyes drifted down to the weapon in surprise at the sudden weight. Her expression seemed more glazed than ever.

  “I always wanted to try hypnotism, but I could never quite get the hang of it,” Trotter remarked casually. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a little time and a little motivation,” he smiled. “Katy, point the gun at Mr. Gaines won’t you.”

  Tommy could only watch on helplessly. He was the only one not secured to his chair, but what could he do? He was some ten feet from the stage and he would never be able to make it in time. His mind raced with possible plans, but he had nothing, all he could do was to watch.

  Katy raised the gun with a trembling arm. Her face was contorted with seemingly an inner struggle. Soft tears leaked from her eyes and ran in smudged black lines through her heavy makeup.

  “Don’t do it Trotter,” Tommy pleaded from outside of the confrontation. It seemed that the magician had his plans for each of them and their paths weren’t for crossing.

  “Oh Katy my dear,” Trotter sang.

  “Damn it Trotter, you’re a coward!” Gaines yelled. “Are you too damn chicken to come down here and finish me yourself? Is this all you’re capable of? Hiding behind capes and girls?”

  Trotter only beamed as though he was having the most fun ever.

  Tommy could see Gaines puffing out his chest. It would appear that in the end, all we have left is how we leave this world, on our feet or on own knees.

  “I tried to help you Arnold,” Gaines said tiredly.

  Trotter stared him down with manic glee in his eyes. “My dear detective, you should have tried harder.” He raised his hand and pointed his finger like a gun “Bang,” he whispered.

  Katy’s finger tensed involuntarily at the command word and the gun fired. The explosion was loud and everyone that could, jumped. Tommy looked over as a small red patch spread across Gaines’ chest. The cop slumped in the chair. His head fell forward and Trotter clapped with delight. Gaines’ eyes closed and his breathing seemed to hitch and then slow and then stop.

  “Bravo, Bravo,” Trotter cheered and danced a jig in a small tight circle. “Now then,” he said clapping his hands together with a loud slap. “Who have we got left? Who’s next to ride the lightening?”

  Tommy felt the madman’s eyes creep over the three of them left in the audience. He couldn’t just sit there and watch what was left of his friends die.

  “Let them go Trotter,” he said softly. “I’m the one that you want. It was my father that ruined your marriage and stole Mary from you. It’s his blood that runs in my veins. Take me and let them go.”

  “And why exactly would I want to split up this happy little reunion party?” Trotter grinned back.

  “Because th
ere are about 10 feet between us right now. Maybe I can make it before you have your windup toy shoot me and maybe I can’t. If you don’t let my friends go, we’re going to find out.” It was an empty threat, but at least it was better than none at all.

  “Ha!” Trotter exclaimed. “You’ve got spirit birthday boy I’ll give you that.”

  Tommy saw that Gaines had remained silently slumped forward and still since the gunshot. The front of the cop’s shirt was rapidly soaking through with a deep dark blood stain. He could feel Dixon beside him moving more and more intently. The big man was trying to get free. Tommy knew instinctively that Dixon would either save them or get them all killed. Trotter’s face was a mask of utter glee. He was swaying around on stage as Katy still held the gun beneath desperate eyes. He had to gain Trotter’s full attention before he turned it towards Dixon.

  “So this is it huh? You goddamn freak!” Tommy said angrily in a rising voice. “You round up a bunch of people at the end of the story like a bloody Agatha Christie manor house? You really want to blame everyone else because you got caught for murdering your damn wife?”

  “YOU ARROGANT LITTLE WHELP!” Trotter roared, all good humor suddenly drained from his face. “Do you have any idea what they did to me in there?” He growled low and hard. “A pit of hell that I never should have been put into in the first place. This whole damn town drowned me and you all helped hold me under. What did I do that was so wrong? Does a man not have the right to meet out a little justice when he has been so wronged?”

  “Adrian Todd certainly thought so,” Tommy replied coldly, “and look where that got him.”

  Trotter seemed to try and process the irony. “You are a smart one young Thomas,” he grinned again only this time without mirth. “That smart mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one day, or more likely this day.”

  Tommy could feel Dixon was tensing as though getting ready to make a move. He tried to hold Trotter’s wide eyed stare as best he could. “What happened in that prison basement Trotter? Was that not one man’s justice over the death of his daughter?”

  “I spent two days and nights in hell,” Trotter said. His stare had drifted off somewhere distant and lost as nightmare visions invaded. “They did things to me, things that I can’t quite picture when I’m awake.” A small strange smile crept across his face that terrified Tommy to his core.

  “I’m sure that it was terrible for you,” Tommy said trying for a commiserating tone.

  “Terrible?” Trotter laughed “TERRIBLE! Those animals butchered me, BUTCHERED ME!” He roared. “Look what they did to me” he said wrestling with his cape and dragging down his trousers. “LOOK!”

  Tommy stared on in horror. Trotter exposed his groin area which was now just a mass of scar tissue and warped flesh. He had been castrated by brutish force and blunt instruments. Tommy struggled to see just how the man had survived at all. He saw Ally twist her head away in shock at the mangled sight, but Dixon didn’t.

  “And all because of him,” Trotter spat towards Todd’s severed head as he pulled up his pants. “And him,” he pointed towards Dixon. “Adrian Todd’s little errand boy and now right hand.”

  Tommy looked over at Dixon, unable to comprehend just what the boy that had once been his friend had grown into. Ally had spoken in broad terms about his criminal involvement with Todd, but now he dreaded to think just how down the road the man had gotten.

  “Adrian was kind enough to share many of his secrets with me whilst we were waiting for the party to start,” Trotter said smiling again directly at Dixon. “This whole stinking cesspit of a town sold me out and all for a few of Adrian Todd’s silver Judas coins to line their pockets. I planned my wife’s murder in divine retribution for her sins and I should have walked free but for all of your greed. When I found out about your little gang’s involvement, about your messing around with my equipment, that would have been enough to raise a reasonable doubt even in this town. It should have been just a tragic accident that left a grieving widower behind. But you all kept your filthy little mouths quiet didn’t you? Kept your dirty little secret and you left me to rot.”

  Tommy’s head was spinning with the maniac’s mood swings. The air was thick with an odd sweet sweaty odour that emanated from Trotter. The man was an odd ball who had grown up hard and on the outside. A man who had become a fully fledged psychopath locked inside of a prison basement.

  “You know I’ve been tinkering with an idea,” Trotter mused.

  Tommy stomach rolled. Whatever Trotter was contemplating could never be good, and he didn’t like the way that Trotter had suddenly cast his gaze towards Ally. “Don’t you touch her,” he snarled.

  “I was always interested in ventriloquism,” Trotter continued as though Tommy hadn’t spoken. “I wonder if I could hollow her out and use her as a puppet?” He mused aloud with a cocked eyebrow.

  Tommy could just see out of the corner of his eye that Dixon’s hands were now free. There was a fresh coppery smell and small drips of blood on the floor under his chair from his struggle. He desperately wanted to tell Dixon to stay still, but at the same time they had to do something. The prospect of sitting meekly and waiting for a madman to determine their fate was less than appealing. He did not like the way that Trotter’s attention had now shifted towards Ally. He knew that Dixon had lied to the police about PJ’s murder. Dixon had claimed that he hadn’t seen Trotter in the warehouse and had shifted the blame towards Tommy and he knew deep down that Dixon had done it at least partially for Ally. It did not take a genius either to see that if Adrian Todd was out of the way, then who would be next in line to take over the business.

  He could feel the anger rising from his once friend and he knew that Dixon did not like Trotter’s attention being on Ally any more than he did.

  “I don’t know exactly just how one would go about hollowing out another human being, but it’ll sure be fun finding out,” Trotter grinned.

  Tommy felt his legs tremble with adrenaline as Trotter’s hand slipped inside his cape and withdrew a long vicious looking silver blade. The rest happened in a flash.

  Trotter leapt from the small stage towards Ally and her eyes bulged in terror. The blade was held high above his head and glinted in the soft light as he gracefully flew through the air. Dixon moved with far less grace but equal speed and Tommy staggered forward towards Katy without much of either. Dixon lunged to intercept Trotter as the knife began its descent. Tommy would never know his old friend’s intentions. It may have been self-preservation, it may have been pure rage, it may have been instinctive, but he would always choose to believe that it was redemption.

  Trotter’s knife swung down hard but it was Dixon’s soft flesh that took the blade. The serrated edge sliced into his chest like it was made of warm butter. There were no screams of anger, no cries of defiance, only a gentle whoosh of breath from Dixon as the tip pierced his heart. The big man’s face turned white as he looked down in surprise at the knife still sticking out of his chest. Ally jerked violently against her restraints. She rocked back and forth on her chair with fresh tears running down her cheeks as Dixon looked up at her with undiluted love in his eyes. At the very end his face was full of honesty.

  “SHOOT HIM!” Trotter cried out turning to Tommy and seeing him going for Katy and the gun. “BANG, BANG,” he screamed.

  Tommy only just had time to see the young deputy spin around to face him before the gun went off. He felt a hard punch to his shoulder before it went numb. He grabbed clumsily for the gun that Katy still held in her disbelieving hand. He tried to wrench it from her, but her grip was like iron. Her fist was balled tightly around the revolver with unbreakable strength. Instead he simply laced his finger on his remaining good arm over her trigger finger and swung her aim around to Trotter. He saw Dixon’s slumped body in a heap at Ally’s feet. Her eyes were now full of panic, but there was still an underlying anger; she was no victim.

  “TROTTER!” Tommy screamed. “Don’t you touch her yo
u sick bastard.”

  The magician moved smoothly with grace and precision. He stepped forward and swept up the knife from Dixon’s chest in one fluid motion. He stepped behind Ally and placed the blade under her chin. Tommy could see tiny pinpricks of blood spring forward as Trotter exerted pressure.

  “This is all going wrong,” Trotter moaned. “This was not in our script,” he said shaking his head and talking to himself more than Tommy. “This was not the plan. This is not the show that we wrote.”

  Tommy struggled to keep pointing Katy’s arm in the right direction. His other arm was roaring with pain now. The numbness was turning to a white hot throbbing and his arm hung uselessly at his side. The inside of his shirt felt wet and sticky as the blood seeped from the open wound. He could not aim Katy’s arm properly and could only hope that Trotter was too far gone for such rational thinking.

  “I saw the photos,” he yelled to Trotter through clenched teeth, trying to regain the man’s attention. “Photos of Mary and my father. Very intimate Arnold, very juicy. I wonder if she ever did any of those things for you?”

  “Shut up,” Trotter whispered.

  “Do you know how much we laughed at you Arnold? We all laughed at you when you were sent away. You have no idea how much we laughed when we heard about the little party that Todd and Dixon arranged for you.”

  “Shut up,” Trotter hissed.

  “You actually did me a favor by killing the others. Now I get my girl back and I get to take over Todd’s business. Your pathetic attempts at revenge only served my purposes you lunatic, you maniac, YOU FREAK!”

  “SHUT UP!” Trotter roared.

  Tommy tensed as Trotter released his grip on Ally and took the knife from her throat. Ally took the moment. Despite her hands being tied securely behind her back, the chair wasn’t secured to the floor. She stood up with the chair still attached and thrust herself backwards with as much rage as she could muster. The two of them fell over and crashed to floor. The chair was wooden and splintered under the weight. Ally’s hands were still tied together but free of the chair. She grabbed a vicious looking split piece of wooden armrest and drove it down hard into Trotter’s leg. The man screamed ear splittingly as his leg was ripped open. Tommy guessed it was an artery as blood suddenly spurted rather than leaked from the gash. Ally rolled to one side and was clear.