Shakespeare leaned forward. “What? What are you talking about?”
“The Seven planned to murder Wayne Cooper for what they thought he had done. Earlier tonight they delivered a poisoned pizza to his hotel room, and when the press conference revealed his innocence, rather than save him and risk imprisonment, they chose to flee. I had expected this, and knowing Mr. Cooper was innocent, had rigged their vehicle to explode.”
“You mean—”
“The five members of The Seven other than Carl Gray and myself, are dead.”
Shakespeare motioned with a jerk of the head for Trace to go check it out, and she left the room.
Grissom ignored the departure and continued talking. “All that remained was you. I took your Louise, Miss Kai merely being in the way, then I lured you in, which was quite simple as we both knew you’d come. Tonight was your chance at redemption.” He leaned forward and smiled. “And I’m pleased to see you took it without hesitation. You proved your love for her, you proved the type of man you are. You proved you would sacrifice yourself for the ones you loved without a moment’s hesitation.” He leaned back and sighed. “It really was very heartwarming. To see that type of sacrifice still exists today. It made me feel”—he paused, looking about the room—“warm inside. It filled my heart with joy to know my work had revealed that goodness still exists in this world, and it renewed my faith that what I was doing was the work of God, that I was an instrument of His and that my work was just.”
He looked at Shakespeare and clasped his hands. “And now, balance has been restored for all my actions, and inactions.”
Shakespeare frowned, letting a burst of air push through his pursed lips. “Are you going to try the insanity defense?”
Grissom chuckled. “Is that what you think? That I’m insane?”
Shakespeare shrugged. “I’d never say that. It might give the defense ideas.”
Grissom’s head bobbed as he smiled through half his mouth. “No, Detective. I have no intention of denying any of the charges, or trying any tricks to get out. I had hoped to continue my work anew, but I at least was able to complete what I had originally started. I have fulfilled my role as God’s Redeemer, and am ready for the laws of man to condemn me in this life, as it is of no consequence to me. I will be judged in the eyes of God for what I have done, and I know I will be found worthy.”
Shakespeare stacked the files he had spread out, then stood up. “I’m going to hold you to that promise, Mr. Grissom. I hope you do plead guilty, and save the taxpayers of New York a bundle, and don’t create a new imbalance by causing the loved ones of those you’ve killed more anguish.”
Grissom’s head bowed slightly as he looked up at Shakespeare. “You have my word.”
Shakespeare chewed his cheek for a moment, looking at him, then at the camera, and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway. He motioned to Officer Richards.
“Take him to booking.”
“With pleasure,” said Richards, smiling, as he and Scaramell entered the room.
Trace rounded the corner. “Confirmed, an SUV exploded tonight, killing all five occupants.”
“And Cooper?”
“I called his room at the hotel and he answered, said he was fine. Told him not to eat anything that had been delivered and he said he wouldn’t. I also said someone would be over shortly to pick up anything that had been delivered.”
Shakespeare looked back at the room, the door still opened, revealing Grissom being cuffed. “Hmm. I wonder how that would upset Grissom’s karma wagon. He killed five people who ended up killing nobody.”
“He’ll justify it somehow. The nut jobs always do. He’ll just say they were going to kill someone, therefore they got what they deserved.”
Shakespeare walked toward the elevator. “You’re probably right.”
“Are you going to the hotel?” asked Trace.
He shook his head. “No, I need to be alone for a while. You handle it, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
An elevator opened and he climbed aboard, pressing the button for the ground floor.
“Goodnight, Shakes,” said Trace as the doors closed.
Shakespeare backed into the corner, and gripped both handrails tight as he counted down the floors, biting his lip. The case might be over, but he knew his torment had just begun. For there was one life that had been thrown out of balance by Grissom’s actions. His. And at this moment, he just wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere and never come out. He felt ashamed, he felt angry, he felt alone. The life he had always wanted, the life that had been laid out before him only last night, was gone.
And in his mind, he deserved it. He deserved to be alone. He had thrown away his life for five years, and he only had himself to blame. If he hadn’t, perhaps things wouldn’t have spun out of control, perhaps he and Louise would have been left out of Grissom’s cosmic balancing act, and perhaps the two of them would still be as happy as they had been just one night before.
Louise!
Wayne Cooper hung up the phone and paused the pay-per-view movie he was watching. He climbed out of the bed and walked into the adjoining room. His mother lay on her bed, some shopping channel playing, her head lolled to the side, her eyes open, the pizza box lying in her lap, one piece missing, another half-eaten, still gripped in her bony fingers.
He stepped over to the bed and touched her face.
Stone cold.
He picked up the remote control and turned off the television, then returned to his room, climbing in the bed. He pressed the button to resume his movie, and sighed, a huge smile on his face as the realization he was finally free began to set in.
Balance.
Lee Grissom shuffled behind the Corrections Officer, following him into the visitation area. He had a visitor. Who, he didn’t know, but he didn’t care. Anything to break the monotony. It had been a year since he had been arrested. He had kept his word to Detective Shakespeare. He had pled guilty, insisted to his lawyers that he didn’t want a trial, and agreed to whatever deal the District Attorney had offered. He forgot how many life sentences he had agreed to. He didn’t care. It was God’s life to take, not theirs. His faith would get him through this trial, a mere spark in the fire of existence, one that would last an eternity at God’s side, as all His instruments stood.
His eyebrows raised slightly when he saw who was on the other side of the glass. The CO pointed at the chair. “Five minutes.”
Grissom nodded and sat down, picking up the phone, looking at the clearly distraught man on the other side. A man he was positive he knew from somewhere, but where, escaped him.
“And you are?”
“Mr. Grissom. My name is Chuck Lott.”
The name rang a bell, but he couldn’t place it. “Sorry, I have no idea who you are.”
The man’s head bobbed. “I suppose you wouldn’t.” He looked at his fingers as he picked at something on the glass, then sighed, the burst of white noise causing Grissom to move the earpiece slightly. “I’m the man that Sandra Gray was having an affair with.”
Grissom leaned forward, finally realizing who he was dealing with. “Yes, Mr. Lott. I remember you now.” Grissom wagged his finger at him. “You’re a very bad man.”
Lott grabbed his hair with his free hand. “You have no idea.”
Grissom’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
Lott sighed. “You see, Sandra broke up with me. She said she couldn’t keep hurting Carl, and that she realized she loved him, and wanted to give their marriage another try.”
Grissom began to feel butterflies in his stomach. Where was this heading?
“So?” he asked, his voice tentative.
“So, it wasn’t Carl who killed his wife. It was me! I’m the one who killed her. I was so angry when she dumped me, I couldn’t take it. I’m the one who framed Cooper. I knew about him from my route. I did the mail redirect so I could get his personal information and put him with the gun. I figured the change of address would make
people think it was someone other than me if the police ever figured it out. Then when I heard about your murders, I decided to copy them, but when I was about to shoot her in the back of the head, I realized it was a different gun, and if I shot her with it they would know they wouldn’t be connected, so I panicked. I thought I heard someone coming in so I went out the fire escape.
“Then I lied to the cops, framing Carl for his own wife’s murder, because I was too scared to face what I had done. But I can’t live with myself anymore. Not after hearing that Carl had sacrificed himself to save some woman he didn’t even know.” Lott sobbed into the phone, tears rolling down his cheeks. “He was such a better man than me. Sandra deserved a man like him, not a weak coward like me.”
But Grissom had stopped listening. He hung up the phone in stunned silence. He had killed an innocent man. Horribly. He had tortured him in the most painful way possible, in order to cleanse a soul that had never needed it, a soul that had never needed redemption, a soul that was never out of balance.
He stood up, not bothering to look at the broken man on the other side of the glass, and nodded to the CO. He followed him in silence back to his cell, then lay there, unmoving, as he pondered this new information, this stunning revelation that his actions had led to the ultimate imbalance, that his plans of redeeming himself had taken an innocent life, and that there was no way he could rebalance that without an unspeakable, unforgivable sacrifice.
He stood up and pulled the sheet from his bed, then stepped out of his cell and into the walkway that ringed the second level of maximum security. He tied one end to the railing, then gripping the sheets, dragged the remaining material through his tightly clenched hands until he reached the other end, and as several others came out to witness, he looped the sheet several times around his neck. He made the sign of the cross, realizing he was about to commit the ultimate sin, but also knowing in his heart this would restore the balance he so desperately craved, even if it meant eternal damnation for himself. He rushed to the railing and jumped over, hurtling toward the floor below, his fall snapped short by the sheet as his rope ran out. There was a crack, a brief moment of pain, then darkness.
And balance was restored.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I love the Shakespeare character, and with it being almost a year since the previous installment, Tick Tock, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting him and his cohorts. In this installment, I was able to address, I hope with satisfaction, how a brilliant detective could commit such a grievous error—leaving vital evidence unsecured.
And of course torture him emotionally a little bit more.
The idea for this novel had been planted long ago, but it wasn’t until a friend of mine, someone whose name you’ll recognize, Harold Nonkoh, mentioned that he was wondering if the stolen gun could somehow be addressed in a future book that I decided to move this idea to the head of the line.
For those who made it past Depraved Difference, who understood the reason why the Shakespeare character was left so thinly developed in that novel (to misdirect you, the reader, from realizing who the actual killer was), I thank you, and hope this novel has helped add to your understanding of who Shakespeare really is.
While writing this book I chose a title that I felt fit perfectly, and once again I discovered after I was finished that some little known author named Jo Nesbø has a book of the same name. You may not have heard of him, he’s only sold a few million copies of his books. Something tells me any confusion between the two titles won’t hurt his sales. And just to help him out a bit more, his unfortunately named hero, Harry Hole, is actually pronounced “Hahree Whoule”, since he’s Norwegian (as is Nesbø). I had always assumed his novels were risqué parodies with a hero named Harry Hole, and avoided them (not that I’m a prude, I just have no interest in parodies). Now that I know the truth, I may just partake.
But if he reverse copies my next book title, I may not be so understanding!
A mystery is held tight to the chest, so I didn’t have many helping me on this beyond my usual cadre, but I’d like to of course thank my wife and daughter, and my folks, and you the reader, for sticking with Detective Justin Shakespeare, and me. You continue to have my humble gratitude.
THANK YOU!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy has written over twenty international bestsellers including the smash hit James Acton Thrillers series, the first installment of which, The Protocol, has been on the bestsellers list since its release, including a three month run at number one. In addition to the other novels from this series including The Templar's Relic, a USA Today bestseller and #1 overall bestseller on Barnes & Noble, he writes the bestselling Special Agent Dylan Kane Thrillers, the Delta Force Unleashed Thrillers, and the Detective Shakespeare Mysteries. Robert lives with his wife and daughter and writes full-time.
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Redeemer (A Detective Shakespeare Mystery, Book #3) Page 26