by Steven Dunne
‘Easy, honey.’ She moved back to Drexler and patted him on the back. ‘What’s this?’ She picked up an envelope from a side table. It had Drexler’s name on it. She handed it to him.
Drexler took it from her and tore it open.
‘What is it, Mike?’
‘It’s from Sorenson.’ Drexler read the three lines of type quickly then let his hand fall and turned to stare at Jacob Ashwell moaning on the ground. He looked over at the girl, a bitter smile on his face. McQuarry took the note from him and read.
Your father’s new name and address is overleaf.
You know what to do.
Remember…
‘Go on, Ed. Finish the sentence.’
McQuarry smiled at her partner. ‘Remember Sally Bailey’s face.’ She dropped the letter on the floor and walked over to the portable CD player and turned on the music. ‘This is nice.’ When she turned back to Drexler his weapon was raised again. ‘Good, let’s get this done, Mike.’
‘You didn’t speak to the nurse, did you, Ed?’
‘This is a shock, Mike, I know…’
‘Sorenson found the girl at Caleb’s cabin – still alive.’
‘Barely alive, Mike. The crash nearly killed her.’
‘I wish it had,’ squeaked the girl, tears still rolling down her face.
‘All this time, trying to connect Sorenson to the Ashwells, and the girl was hidden away in his house. And the nurse … did you actually speak to her, Ed?’
McQuarry shook her head. ‘No. But it stopped you talking to her.’
‘And all that … stuff Sorenson knew about my father and Kerry. You?’ McQuarry nodded. ‘And Hunseth?’ She nodded again. ‘How could you?’
‘I did what I had to do, Mike. Same as you will.’
Drexler nodded faintly. ‘You think I’m going to shoot Ashwell for you and Sorenson?’
‘Don’t do it for either of us. Do it for her.’ McQuarry nodded at Nicole Bailey. ‘Do it for Sally.’ Nicole covered her face with her hands, sobbing harder. ‘You’ve no idea what she went through, Mike.’
‘That doesn’t justify…’
‘Tell him, honey.’
‘It doesn’t matter, Ed. I can’t just execute the guy…’
‘You had no problem with Hunseth.’
‘Hunseth could’ve killed you.’
McQuarry shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Every day I prayed those men would kill me, Agent Drexler,’ said the girl softly. Both agents turned to her. ‘I took a big hit in the crash, you see. Hurt my hip and my head. I was unconscious when that man and his brother and son killed Mum and Dad. I didn’t wake up for days, though I could hear things sometimes. Hear what they did to Sally and the way they laughed when she begged them to stop.’ The tears continued to roll down her face. ‘They were going to kill me, but the boy wanted to wait. Wait till I woke up. They wouldn’t … hurt me unless they knew I could feel the pain. That’s what they liked best. Towards the end I was conscious more and more, but you know what I did, Agent Drexler? I pretended. Every time they came in I pretended so they wouldn’t touch me. But I had to listen when they hurt Sally. I had no choice – except one. I could have protected my little sister. I could’ve taken her place. I’m glad she’s dead. She doesn’t have to live with what happened to her. She doesn’t have to hear the voices when she closes her eyes.’
‘I’m sorry about your family, Nicole,’ said Drexler.
‘Then let’s stop the hand-wringing, Mike and put an end to this,’ urged McQuarry. ‘Shoot the son of a bitch so we can get out of here. That’s why you brought Sorenson’s gun.’
Drexler looked down.
McQuarry looked at her watch. ‘Come on, Mike. We haven’t got all night.’ She set off for the bathroom.
Drexler brandished the gun. ‘Where the hell you going, Ed?’
‘I’ve got to douse this baby in gasoline. We can’t leave all this evidence around after you kill Ashwell.’ She disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a canister and began to unscrew the top.
‘Stop it, Ed.’ She ignored him so Drexler braced to fire.
‘Stop.’
McQuarry stopped unscrewing the top of the canister and stood upright. ‘What are you going to do, Mike? Shoot me with a rogue gun, then ride off into the sunset with Ashwell? Think it through for once. That’s always been your weakness. I know this is sudden, but I’m still your friend and always will be.’
Drexler stared coldly at her. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if you’ve ever been my friend. How long have you been planning this?’
‘It doesn’t matter, Mike. It doesn’t change our friendship…’
‘How long?’
McQuarry took a deep breath. ‘The professor picked you out three years ago.’
‘The professor?’ snarled Drexler.
McQuarry looked down at her shoes. ‘Then all we had to find was the right welcome gift.’
‘My father,’ nodded Drexler.
‘It wasn’t easy, Mike. He sure didn’t want to be found. But we managed it.’ She picked up the note. ‘Put the address in your pocket. That’s your introduction.’
‘Introduction to what?’
‘To our organisation. The Reaper. You figured it out. That’s who the professor is. That’s who I am now – a disciple. So will you be after your initiation.’
‘Killing Ashwell?’
‘He’s already dead, Mike. You’re just here to make it official.’
Drexler smiled grimly. Sorenson-speak. ‘Why?’
‘Because we’re losing, Mike. Losing the war against the bad guys.’
‘So we just execute them.’
‘That’s right. Like Hunseth was executed.’
Drexler nodded. ‘That was no accident. You got too close, Ed. You got cut. Deliberate?’
‘To do good, sacrifices have to be made. I told the professor you’d be useful to us but we had to be sure. I knew you’d take Hunseth down. He was a Doppelgänger for your father.’ McQuarry took out a cigarette and her lighter. ‘And now you’re going to take down Caleb’s brother.’
‘Can I have a cigarette?’
McQuarry threw him the packet and the lighter after lighting her own. ‘Remember Sally’s face, partner.’ She nodded at Jacob. ‘He came in here to screw that little girl. He screwed her younger sister then stood around laughing while Caleb put a bullet in her head. It shouldn’t be hard. You can do it. You’ll be one of us.’
‘Us?’
‘Another disciple. The professor’s recruiting all over the world.’
‘Detective Sergeant Brook in England?’
‘He’s just one of many. Soon there’ll be dozens, maybe even hundreds of us. Really making a difference.’
‘He recruits traumatised little girls to help him?’
‘Hell no. She volunteered.’
‘That’s right, Special Agent,’ said Nicole. Drexler had almost forgotten she was in the room. ‘I wanted to help. For Sally’s sake. For Mum and Dad.’
‘Can you even begin to imagine what she’s been through in that hellhole of a room? The professor saved her life, Mike. If he hadn’t gone there to kill Caleb and Billy, she’d be dead now.’
Drexler hung his head and remembered his own father torturing and abusing his sister, his mother.
‘Of all people, Mike, you must understand. Remember that nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.’
‘Wittgenstein. Sorenson’s got all the answers, hasn’t he?’
McQuarry nodded. ‘So shoot this piece of shit and avenge that little girl.’
‘And if I don’t? You kill me?’
‘Jeez, Mike. Don’t be so melodramatic. Think I could do that? That’s not what we’re about. You’re one of us. One of the good guys. That’s our oath to Sorenson. Go to the authorities, tell your story. We won’t stop you. Not if it means killing one of our own. Chances are you’ll be spilling to another disciple. Think about that. I’m your friend no ma
tter what. We take out the lowlifes only when we’re sure. If you won’t do it, I’ll have to.’
Drexler lit his cigarette and took a huge pull before picking up the note from Sorenson and holding the flame under it until the fire took hold. McQuarry pulled her weapon.
‘Tell Sorenson I’ve made friends with my past.’ He dropped the burning paper into a metal bin.
‘He’ll be as disappointed as I am,’ said McQuarry, walking round the room now towards Ashwell.
Drexler levelled his gun at McQuarry. ‘I can’t let you do that, Ed.’
‘You gonna stop me, Mike?’ she said, pointing her weapon at Ashwell’s head.
‘Ed. I mean it.’
‘Jacob Ashwell is going to die tonight. It’s just a question of whether you kill me at the same time. That what you want?’
Drexler tossed the cigarette. ‘I mean it, Ed. I will fire.’
McQuarry dropped her weapon to her side and turned to her partner. She looked him in the eye and moved towards him. ‘You don’t actually think Sorenson would give you a working gun before we were sure, do you?’
Drexler squirrelled a glance at his gun, but maintained firing position. McQuarry lifted her gun into her holster and clipped it home. ‘Have it your way, Mike. Put that down. It’s a dud.’ She walked towards him and stood with her eyes an inch from the M9’s barrel.
Drexler lifted the M9 to the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The gun made a dull clicking noise but didn’t fire. He smiled into the break of tension then dropped the weapon to reach for his own gun in his ankle holster. But before he got close, a sharp pain in his neck made him recoil and he turned to see Nicole Bailey pull away from him with an empty hypodermic in her fist.
Drexler began to feel his legs buckle but McQuarry held him upright. He could feel the skin of her face touching his and was vaguely aware that she was talking to him, but he couldn’t take in what she was saying.
Then she dragged him to the bed and lowered him onto the mattress. She slapped his face and forced him into eye contact then extracted the keys to his Audi and threw them to Nicole.
‘You blew it, Mike. All you had to do was make the world better. Gather up that sheet, hon.’
Nicole Bailey pulled the sheet to cover Drexler’s feet and tied a knot in it. He followed her movements like a zombie, eyes only. McQuarry evidently did something similar behind his head, but he was unable to turn and see.
McQuarry extracted a camera from the case Sorenson had left behind, and took several photographs of the room and of Drexler and Jacob Ashwell, sitting helplessly against the wall. She returned the camera to the case and Nicole threw in the two hypodermics and unplugged the CD player and placed that inside also.
While Nicole trotted out to the car with the case, McQuarry rolled up Drexler’s trouser leg and took out his back-up weapon. She checked the magazine and flicked off the safety. She aimed at Ashwell, who gazed up at her in mild interest.
‘Welcome to hell, cockroach.’ She fired twice to the head, causing blood and brain material to fan out around the wall. A last rasping breath bubbled through the blood in Ashwell’s mouth and his chest stopped moving.
She put the gun in Drexler’s hand, squeezed his fingers around the grip, then dropped it in an evidence bag peeled from another pocket.
‘Insurance, Mike.’ She tossed it to Nicole who departed to put it in Drexler’s car.
Meanwhile McQuarry busied herself emptying gasoline around the room. When Nicole returned they each took an end of Drexler’s sheet and lifted him onto the floor. They wrapped the sheet round him and McQuarry moved over him. His brain was on fire, his vision blurred and dotted with every colour in the rainbow and more. She slapped him playfully across the face to focus his eyes and grabbed his chin to hold his face to hers. He tried to speak and vaguely heard himself say, ‘This gonna hurt?’
McQuarry smiled at him as he began to drift into a stupor. She slapped him softly again. ‘No. It won’t hurt. I’m going to miss you.’ A tear sprang from the corner of her eye and landed on the sheet. ‘Sleep now.’ She bent down and kissed him on the forehead, then looked up at the girl. ‘Okay, hon.’ Between them they hoisted Drexler in the sheet and carried him to the Audi, squeezing him onto the back seat with some difficulty.
When they were ready to leave, McQuarry lit a cigarette, took a huge pull and threw the glowing butt into the cabin. A few moments later the hiss of the igniting accelerant was followed by the sizzle and crack of a fire starting. McQuarry jumped back into the Audi to watch the flames catch.
Nicole jumped into the passenger seat and turned to Drexler.
‘I’m sorry. I know how it feels to be so powerless.’ She bent down and picked something up from a bag and held it to her cheek. Drexler recognised the rag doll from the wrecked VW, before his eyes rolled up to his forehead and he fell into a black pit.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Drexler felt the cold steel of the gun by his ear and held his own weapon up to the ceiling. An arm grabbed it from him, then spun him round. Drexler looked at McQuarry and put his arms down. He broke into a grin.
‘How you doing, Ed?’
McQuarry stepped into the light. She was below average height with medium-length grey hair; Brook could see the resemblance to the figure watching the Ingham house from Dottie North’s bedroom. She turned her cold gaze to Brook, and gestured him to sit with a wave of her gun.
‘You tell me,’ she said with a touch more warmth in her eyes.
‘You look great,’ Drexler grinned. ‘See you go to the same hair colourist as me.’
McQuarry laughed and her face softened around the rarely used laughter lines. She squinted down at Drexler’s gun. ‘Jeez, Mike. Is this Sorenson’s M9?’
‘Sure is. I knew you’d remember.’
‘I hope you had the firing pin fixed.’ She slid the M9 into her pocket and gestured across to Nicole, who got off the bed and searched Drexler’s pockets. ‘You,’ she barked at Brook.
‘Petra? Agent McQuarry? What do I call you?’ asked Brook.
McQuarry smiled back at him. ‘Well, I finally get to meet the great man without a lens between us. Tell a lie, we have met before. I walked right past you, carrying that piece of fence outta the Ingham yard. That was a rush.’
‘Wearing a forensic suit supplied by Nicole.’ Brook nodded.
‘That’s right, Detective. You let me walk right by you. I coulda reached over and shook your hand – had to settle for a wink.’ She grinned at Brook’s face.
‘And the other SOCOs thought you’d walked round the block to help them lift it.’
McQuarry continued to grin. Then she saw the computer. ‘How long was he in here, hon?’
‘Not long, Ed,’ replied Nicole.
‘He know about RAG?’
‘No. He didn’t know the password?’
Brook’s eyes darted from one to the other. McQuarry grunted and stared at Brook, her grin long gone.
‘On your knees, hands in front. Tie him, honey,’ she said softly to Nicole. Nicole disappeared into the storage room. Drexler stared at Brook with a strange look on his face. Brook shrugged back at him.
‘So you were telling the truth, Reaper man,’ said Drexler.
‘You two know each other?’ asked McQuarry, her eyes narrowing.
‘We’re neighbours,’ smiled Brook.
Nicole returned with a plastic tie. ‘It’s true,’ she said. ‘Agent Drexler saw me at his house. He’s been following Brook.’
‘Why?’
‘To find you, Ed,’ said Drexler. ‘I nearly caught up with you in Brighton.’
‘How did you know I was in England?’
‘I didn’t for sure. But Sorenson lived in England, Brook was here, Nicole was English. I just figured.’
Nicole held Brook’s wrists together and pulled the plastic tie tight around them. Brook stared into her eyes while she worked and was finally rewarded with an almost embarrassed glance before she resumed her position behind McQu
arry.
‘Gotta hand it to you, Mike, you haven’t lost your touch.’ Her smile faded. ‘What did you want to see me about?’
‘You’re my friend, Ed. Do I need a reason?’
McQuarry emitted a one-note chuckle. ‘Yeah, after the Golden Nugget, you kinda do. Looking for some payback?’
‘Payback? No. I just wanted to apologise…’
‘Apologise?’
Drexler shrugged. ‘I let you down in Tahoe. I shouldn’t have got so moral on you. Jake Ashwell needed putting down. I know it’s too late to make up for it, but there it is.’
‘Mike, you’re making me feel bad. I thought you’d still be pissed I sold you out to the professor.’
‘You did what you thought was right.’
She fixed him with her cold blue eyes. ‘And then there was your father.’
Drexler grinned. ‘My father? I put that sorry-ass sonofabitch out of my mind from that moment on.’
‘You didn’t try to find him then?’ asked McQuarry, her eyes piercing him.
‘Nope. Far as I’m concerned, if the old fucker’s still alive, whatever bar he’s in right now and whatever woman he’s beating up on, well, they’re welcome to him. I started a new life that day and it’s thanks to you. That’s what I came to say.’ He smiled at her.
There was silence while McQuarry looked at him. Finally she smiled. ‘My pleasure. Well, if there’s nothing else, Mike, we have a plane to catch.’
‘What about Brook?’ asked Nicole.
McQuarry turned her cold eyes back to him. ‘This sorry-ass sonofabitch is one major disappointment. I don’t know what the professor ever saw in you. Just one cut and the world is saved from another scumbag. How many chances do you need to be a real man?’
Brook managed a chuckle. ‘More than you I’m glad to say, Special Agent.’
McQuarry’s face hardened. She looked again at the computer with its flashing prompt. ‘Maybe we should just shoot him to be on the safe side.’
Brook continued to smile at McQuarry. ‘Can I choose the music?’
McQuarry laughed. ‘Keep it up, fella. With entertainment this good you just might live to see tomorrow. He comes with us,’ she said to Nicole. ‘We can drop him off on the way.’