02 Heller's Revenge - Heller

by JD Nixon

  There wasn’t much for me to do at the crime scene. I was only hanging around because Brian had told me to. Heller decided to stay with me. The pair of men he’d sent to collect my things reported back in and he told them to take my gear back to the Warehouse. Then he dismissed the other men as well and the two of us waited patiently for me to be noticed by the detectives.

  “What happened?” he asked. He was very hands-off, which was unusual for him, but I was glad for it. I didn’t want to touch another man right then, reinforcing that subconsciously by hugging myself.

  “It was so fast. Unbelievably fast. Meili was doing up his shoelace, kneeling down. We were just chatting, having a laugh, and this jogger came up and pretended to do a stretch next to him, which made me suspicious. But by the time I called his name, there were two little popping noises that I didn’t even realise were shots. Then that cold-hearted bastard smiled at me and ran off. And Meili was dead. Just like that.” My voice broke and the tears sprang to my eyes again. I mopped them up with Heller’s hankie.

  “Cool and bold,” he assessed, nodding. “But not professional. Too many witnesses around here. Too public. He let himself be photographed. Didn’t wait for the right moment.”

  “A professional hit?” I sniffed.

  “I don’t think so. Probably just an amateur hired-gun.”

  I told him about my handbag saga.

  “Matilda, he will try to kill you if he thinks you have evidence against him.”

  “Heller, there were two other witnesses who saw him and now I’ve handed over my photos to the police like a good citizen. There’d be no point in trying to kill me now.”

  “I hope not.”

  We were sitting on a low fence when Brian stalked over, followed by Detective Robbins. Brian ostentatiously ignored Heller as he said, “Those fucking useless uniforms lost him. Let’s go. Down to the station,” he grunted at me, giving me such a sour, unsympathetic look that I snapped right back at him.

  “Why are you being so horrible to me, Brian? You’re treating me like a criminal. I just witnessed a terrible murder, for God’s sake. Don’t you have any heart? Not even for your only sister? Is this how you treat everyone who’s gone through such a trauma? If you do then I think you’re a bloody awful homicide cop!” I paused and took in a gulping breath, my nose running in earnest. “You just wait until I tell Mum how you’re treating me!”

  And I burst into tears, pulling out the already sodden handkerchief for some more mopping duties. Detective Robbins threw me a concerned glance, but neither Heller nor Brian moved to comfort me in the slightest, too engaged in exchanging venomous glances, Heller’s fists clenched, Brian’s mouth snarling. They would have had a go at each other right there in front of everyone if I hadn’t intervened by grabbing Brian by the arm and forcibly removing him from the situation.

  He shook off my arm and stalked ahead of me, leading me to one of the uniformed cops. “Take her to the station to one of the interview rooms,” he ordered and when the uniform lagged for a second in jumping to his command, he screamed, “Now!” The uniform shot him a toxic look and laid a gentle hand on my arm, urging me forward.

  “Hold off, Brian,” interrupted Detective Robbins in protest. “Can’t you see that it’s not a good time to interview her? She’s too upset. Leave it till tomorrow.”

  Brian even snarled at his own partner. “I want her down at the station now. We need that fucking evidence from her while it’s fresh in her mind.”

  His partner rolled his eyes, but Brian was clearly the senior detective in the pair and had his way on the matter. The uniform led me away.

  “Don’t worry about him. He’s an insensitive arsehole,” she soothed, unaware that he was my brother. “Imagine treating you like that after the shock you’ve just had.” Her kind tone was poison to me because it made me cry like Niagara Falls, instead of shoving steel into my spine. I pressed Heller’s soggy hankie into more disaster relief. “Was the victim . . . excuse me . . . the deceased your boyfriend?”

  “No, he was only a friend. But I was very fond of him,” I managed to say.

  She nodded sympathetically and then, as if realising my fragile emotional state, chatted about boring celebrity gossip the rest of the way to the station. I didn’t even listen to her, numb with emotion.

  At the station, she led me to one of the smelly, internal interview rooms with no windows and utilitarian furniture. In a solicitous but misguided attempt to console me, she brought me a cup of over-sweet milky tea and an indescribable sandwich of something that appeared to be crumbled cheap mattress filling with mayo and limp lettuce. I took a tiny nibble and almost lost my stomach, so concentrated my attention on the tea instead.

  In that bare little room, alone, silence all around me, I finally let my mind wander back to those last happy hours I’d shared with Meili before he was killed. The awful events of the afternoon replayed over and over in my mind, and I wondered what I could have done differently to save Meili’s life. I laid my head on my arms and cried. I thought my heart would break with the amount of tears I shed, creating a small puddle on the table in front of me. Heller’s hankie was completely useless by that stage, even when I wrung it out, so I cast it aside and started using my shirt to wipe my eyes and when that was also drenched, I started using my arms.

  When Brian belligerently stormed into the interview room, in a foul mood, trailed by his fed-up partner, they both stopped at the door to gaze at the ruin of me. My leg was still bleeding and I had a giant wet patch of dripping blood soaking through the thigh on my jeans to match the giant wet patch of tears on my shirt.

  “Jesus, Brian,” spat Detective Robbins with unmistakable disgust. “Let her go for now. She’s not up to it at the moment. She needs medical attention. She’s your sister, for God’s sake!”

  “Go ring Heller. We’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Brian said immediately, shamefaced. I rang Heller tearfully, and pushed back my chair, limping past them with all the dignity I could muster.

  “Thank you,” I said to Detective Robbins, glancing up at him as I passed. He nodded curtly and I kept going, not saying a word to Brian, making my own way to the waiting room, ignoring all of the curious glances thrown my way.

  Chapter 25

  “Anyone with half a brain could see that you weren’t up to an interview today. Your brother doesn’t even have that,” Heller repeated himself on the drive home, not realising how furious I was growing with this stupid feud between the two of them.

  Meili had been killed! A beautiful, vital man would never take another breath, would never laugh again. I’d never see him or touch him again and all those two stupid men could think about was their egos. I could have killed Heller right then with my own bare hands, which clenched with bitter anger on my lap as he spoke.

  When we arrived home I stalked up to my flat, fumbling for my swipe card, thankful for the millionth time that I hadn’t taken my handbag with me on the boat. I slammed the door in Heller’s face. I took a long shower and dressed in clean clothes, placing my blood-drenched jeans in a bucket to soak. Blood wasn’t the easiest stain to remove from clothes, I’d learned the hard way.

  I didn’t bother to eat, knowing that even a morsel of food would only clog my throat. As I was deciding whether to attempt to find solace in sleep, there was a sharp rap on my door.

  “Piss off!” I yelled out angrily.

  “It’s Dr Kincaid, Miss,” spoke a calm voice from the other side.

  Oh dear! I limped over and unlocked the door. “Sorry Doc. My apologies. I thought you were someone else.”

  “Him?” the doctor asked, nodding over his shoulder to where Heller was standing.

  “Yes,” I sighed with resignation.

  It was virtually impossible to keep Heller out of my place, and I no longer had the energy to try. They both came in and shut the door quietly. After my shower I had bandaged my wound as best I could, but it was bleeding a fair deal and had already soaked through the bandage in places
. I rested on the lounge on my side so he could examine my wound, after laying down a towel on the lounge to protect it.

  “That’s a nasty gash. How did you get it?”

  “I was on a boat that blew up. A bit of flying metal, maybe? I don’t know.”

  “Did they give you a tetanus booster at the hospital?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “They did,” confirmed Heller.

  “Good. Now, how did you come to split your stitches open, Miss?”

  “I chased someone. He stole something precious from me and I had to get it back. Then I tackled him to the ground. I don’t suppose that helped either.”

  “I doubt it. I’m going to have to restitch the wound. From memory you’re not the fainting type, are you?”

  “No!” I replied indignantly. Heller smiled faintly.

  “Just refreshing my memory. I’ll give you a couple of locals and do it now. Move your leg this way . . . that’s right . . . and we’ll prop it up with this pillow for stability. Stay perfectly still now please, or I won’t do a good job and you’ll end up with an ugly scar.”

  I endured the needles and re-stitching, staring grim-faced at my wall.

  After a while, the doctor said, “All done. Here are some painkillers for you. Try to stay off your feet and rest your leg please.”

  “That’s not going to be possible,” I told him.

  “She will,” promised Heller.

  They both left and I climbed into bed, lying in the dark for ages, not able to sleep and brooding over everything. My emotions were in turmoil and I didn’t know how I felt or how I was supposed to feel. A soft little knock on my door interrupted my musings.

  I limped out and opened it cautiously. It wasn’t the abominable Heller, but the perfectly lovely Daniel. I pulled him inside. He took one look at my tear-ravaged face and opened his arms without a comment. I stepped into them gratefully. Finally! Someone who knew how to comfort me without moralising, criticising, wanting revenge or picking a fight. I hugged him tightly and he hugged me tightly back, not minding that I was drenching his shirt with my tears.

  He guided me over to the lounge where we sat and talked for an hour, his arms wrapped around me. I leaned on his chest while I spoke, and sure, I cried some more. Well, who wouldn’t? He was calm and supportive, but not overly sympathetic to set me off unnecessarily again. But best of all, he was completely uninterested in asserting any male dominance in the situation, content to show his loving concern for me after my terrible experience. And that comforted me more than anything else had since Meili’s death.

  Suddenly exhausted, I relaxed against him, emotionally and physically drained. He helped me to bed, tucked me in and kissed me quickly on the lips before leaving. I fell asleep immediately and slept for long, dreamless hours.

  A stealthy noise woke me up and I sat up in panic. Was it the jogger? Didn’t he know I’d given the photos to the police? But then I recognised the familiar tread and flopped back down on the bed. It was just Heller. Who else?

  “You scared me. I thought you were that jogger coming back to get me,” I accused. He sat on my bed.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” I rolled away, turning my back on him. “Matilda, you’re so angry with me and I don’t know why.”

  I rolled onto my back again, staring up in the darkness at the ceiling. “I’ll tell you why. Meili Eriksen died today and he was a wonderful, special person who I was very, very fond of. He achieved important things with humility and compassion and I watched him die in an instant from two stupid fucking bullets. He didn’t even realise. He had no time to prepare himself or defend himself. His loss will be felt around the world, through the hundreds of thousands of people who read his blog and Facebook, his millions of fans, his sponsors, his many friends, his family. An important man who gave up everything he had to try to make the world a better place for all of us – gone, just like that, in an instant. Alive one minute and dead the next. And yet you and Brian spend every precious breath you have hating each other and trying to bring each other down.” I turned my head towards him fiercely. “Do you see how I’m making an unfavourable comparison?”

  “I’m not welcome here tonight,” he said, his voice flat.

  “No, you’re not,” I told him coldly.

  He left without another word. I rolled over and pretended to sleep, although in truth it was another hour until I could finally close my eyes and relax into that dark pretence of death.

  And I’m afraid that when Will rang me the next day, reproaching me angrily for not being in touch with him for so long, he was on the receiving end of a slightly shorter version of the same lecture that I’d given Heller the night before.

  “Tilly, what are you saying? You don’t want to see me anymore?”

  “I don’t know, Will. I don’t think I do.” And I hung up on him without even saying goodbye.

  I was so upset that I was considering breaking up with him. I had been unfaithful to him and that was unforgivable to me. He wouldn’t want me any more when he found out, so I should just break up with him, I reasoned with myself. It would be easier for everyone if I did.

  The next day, late afternoon, I went down to the police station by myself and gave a very comprehensive statement. Brian and his partner, whose name I learned was Jed, showed me the photos I’d taken, with a more considerate box of tissues and bottle of water on the table close to me. And I forced myself to ‘bear witness’, just as Meili had wanted me to do.

  So I smiled when I saw the tree-hugging photos flashing up on the screen, briefly explaining the reason for them, and I dutifully pointed out the assassin in every photo in which he appeared. I hadn’t noticed before, but blown up like that on the wall, you could even see the gun in his hand. Despite my resolution to be strong, I found that I needed a few of the tissues after all. They were both kinder to me that day, and I really took a liking to Jed. For such a big, rugged man, he was surprisingly soothing and calm, a nice antidote to Brian’s hard world-weariness. As I left the room, mopping my eyes, Brian put his hand on my shoulder and I turned around surprised. I hoped he wasn’t going to yell at me again. I would probably permanently disown him as a brother at the rate I was going with the men in my life.

  “Tilly, I’m sorry I’ve been such an arsehole. And I’m sorry that you saw Eriksen die. It was barbaric and I wished you hadn’t witnessed it. I can see how upset you are about it. And I shouldn’t take my personal problems out on you when you’ve done so much to help me. When I was called to this job because you had asked for me, I was pissed off with you. I knew that Eriksen’s girlfriend’s murder is still unsolved. I thought I’d been given a dog of a case, but you turned up with photos of the murderer and then chased him to get your camera back, thinking clearly enough to provide us with some of his DNA as well. We even lifted a few usable prints off your bag. We’re running them through the system now. You’ll be pleased to hear that the other two witnesses also positively identified the murderer in your photos. Thank you.” And he kissed me on the cheek.

  But I wasn’t over it yet. “Okay, Brian. I’m not really in a forgiving mood at the moment, but I will be in a week or so and I’ll give you a ring then. But thank you both for all your hard work.” I nodded at Jed and then I went home.

  Obviously I couldn’t go to Meili’s funeral because I found out a little later that his older brother had arrived in the country to take custody of his body to be returned to Norway. I read that his father had wanted to give him an ancient Viking funeral; that is, sending him off in the ocean in a fiercely burning funereal boat, surrounded by his possessions. But his mother over-ruled that fanciful idea to ensure that he received the formal and ceremonious state funeral offered by the government and was buried next to Inge. I thought she’d made the right decision about what Meili would have wanted. At least he could lie next to Inge again now, for eternity.

  I did manage to watch Meili’s funeral on the internet as it was extensively covered in
the Norwegian press, and briefly covered here by our press. I needed even more tissues when I watched the casket being solemnly carried from the church by his father, brothers and cousins to the cemetery.

  As a small salve to my feelings, I decided to attend the memorial ceremony for Meili held in the city hall a week later. I intended to go by myself, not even mentioning it to anyone. But as I was closing my front door to walk down the stairs to the basement to grab one of the fleet vehicles, Heller appeared on the landing, dressed sombrely in a charcoal suit and tie, with a light gray shirt. I hadn’t spoken to him for at least a week so I had no idea how he knew I was planning to do this.

  He held out his hand to me. I sighed hugely and took it and we went to the city hall together. I didn’t know anyone of course, only waving at Maria Kavinsky, who waved back briefly. She was too ensconced in a group of his friends and followers to bother with me, a mere casual acquaintance.

  It was a lovely ceremony. Meili’s friends all gave very affectionate speeches reminiscing about him and his life. All of them commented on his equal intense loves of the environment and of Inge. Some even showed slides of him and her together and I had to admit that they made a beautiful couple, obviously very much in love. I shrank a little in my seat, thinking that I had surely been a poor substitute for her. Even so, I hoped that I’d given him some small measure of comfort in our brief time together. I decided then that I would never speak to anyone of what had happened between us. No one ever needed to know that he had momentarily broken his faith with Inge out of desolation and sorrow. And maybe Will never needed to know that I’d done the same.

  For some reason, that ceremony readjusted my emotional compass back to normal. I realised that although Meili had been special to me, I knew next to nothing about him and there would have only ever been a casual future between us at best. My time with him was a lovely memory and he was a wonderful person, but he wasn’t my reality. And I looked over at Heller as he drove and smiled at him for the first time in weeks.