No Remorse No Regret

by Ian Worrall

Outside of the post office, Colton is sitting in his car. He is holding Melissa’s driver’s license from ten years ago. So far no one who’s even close to what she looks like has been by yet.

  In ten years, no way could she have changed all that much. Did the water or beating disfigure her? She certainly wouldn’t have grown any taller. It’s only been one day though. I can be patient for a few days before changing my approach.

  * * *

  One hour after leaving Jason’s apartment, Melissa lets him in her front door. Closing it behind him, he hugs her and kisses her on the top of her head. If only this could be what the future holds. Safe in the arms of a loving man.

  “How much money will you need to escape from the business and go into hiding?” Melissa asks him.

  He kisses her on the forehead. “Probably more than you can afford.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that,” she says pulling away from him. She leads him by the hand to her garage. “Cover your eyes.”

  Jason closes his eyes and turns his back as Melissa opens the door to the closet that contains her safe and gun cabinet. She enters her combination and then puts her hand onto the scanner. With the safe opening up, she turns to Jason, “So will two fifty be enough or will you need more?”

  The kid turns back, his mouth opens in shock at the sight when he sees the money and guns. “What are you?”

  “What do you think?”

  Jason backs away from her. “You’re a contract killer?”

  Melissa nods. “You can keep a secret, can’t you?”

  “How many have you?”

  She leans back against the safe and looks down at the floor then back up at him. “Lost count.”

  “And how do you justify what you’ve done?”

  “In the same way you justify what you did.”

  “You had a family member to save?” he asks.

  Melissa shakes her head and goes on to tell Jason how she got into what she became. The only surviving victim of The Drowner, accidentally rescued by a crime lord. Forced at gun point to kill Tom McFarland. How she’s killed men who have raped or otherwise abused women and children along with enemies of Danil.

  “I was a nineteen-year-old girl who had been raped, stabbed, and thrown into the water so I could get taken by sharks. And then the only way I could save myself was to kill someone else. What would you have done? What was I supposed to do?”

  She moves to embrace him, but he backs away. “You couldn’t have gone to the police at any time?”

  “Someone had to protect women. Women like your little sister. And confessing to murder would help me how?”

  Jason just looks at her with a blank expression. Melissa eyes start watering. It was all just a fantasy, believing in true love.

  “Take as much as you want. Got several bags you can fit the money in.”

  “How do you know I won’t –”

  “Go to the cops?” Melissa says. “I don’t. I will have to hope you can keep my secret. I did restrain myself from killing you. And–”

  “You gave me my first and second sexual experiences.”

  “Does that count for something?”

  Jason clasps his hands together. “Fair enough. I just hope you only ever killed true criminals.”

  Melissa looks down at the floor. I pray none of them were anyone like you. One of the greatest worries of a police officer or prosecutor is that they send an innocent person to prison, the greatest argument against capital punishment.

  She tilts her head back against the safe. Were any of those I killed innocent and wrongfully convicted? God please tell me I didn’t execute an innocent man.

  With his bag filled with money, Jason turns to leave. “This should be enough. I’ll get the money to Danil and then work one last shift with the pizza delivery.” Melissa sees her safe has one third less money than before.

  “One more shift after getting this money?” she asks.

  “I made a commitment and I keep them.”

  Melissa gives no reaction.

  “Thanks for everything,” Jason continues. “Don’t try and find me.”

  Before leaving the garage, he turns to her again. “You’ve got enough money to make your own escape. Get away from him or you’ll end up like those you’ve killed.”

  Melissa starts tearing up as she hears the front door close. She slides down the wall sitting on the floor and puts her arms around her legs. Burying her head into her knees, she breaks down crying.

  Thank God, I saved one person. Will this be the redemption, or maybe part of it? The priest will know. She lies down on the pavement and falls asleep.

  * * *

  With a dark hood over his head and his hands zip-tied behind him, Jim Bolan, the new leader of the Black Roses, is led into the motel room where Danil is sitting. Jim is forced to sit on the bed opposite him and the hood is pulled off him. His zip tie is cut off. The windows of the room have heavy curtains. The carpet is worn and the wallpaper is peeling off the walls. It’s a little out of the way place to meet a lower level criminal.

  “So, I get to meet the new leader face to face,” Danil says to him. Jim is visibly shaking, expecting to be killed. “Relax, Jim. If I was going to kill you we wouldn’t have met. You’d be today’s news headline at six.”

  Jim says nothing, just nods.

  “Didn’t like the joke?” Danil asks.

  “Not really.”

  He winks at Jim. “Well, it wasn’t really a joke. And neither is this. I offered Gary and Marcus ten percent, their answer was to go to war. So far, you’ve lost twice as many as I have, I believe, including your original leaders. So, I’ll offer you thirty percent of what we do in your area.”

  “Don’t have a choice, do I?”

  “Not really. The last ones that went head-to-head against us are now in various pieces all over--” he looks up to the ceiling trying to remember where all the body parts were dropped. “Well, everywhere.” He smiles at him. “So, unless you want you and the rest of your crew to join them, you’ll agree to the peace deal.”

  “OK then. But why offer me more than you offered them?”

  “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, my friend.”

  “Fair enough,” he answers. “Thirty percent of your activity in our neighborhood to us. It’s a deal.”

  Danil stands and shakes the other man’s hand. “Don’t do anything stupid and back out of the deal.”

  Jim shakes his head. “I won’t.”

  Danil leaves the room. The mask is put back on Jim’s head and he hears another voice talking to him. “Count to one hundred and you’re free.”

  * * *

  “Bless me, Father, this time I saved one,” Melissa says in the confessional.

  “Did you? In what way”

  “A kid I was contracted to kill, all he wanted was to pay for his little sister’s operation. I didn’t kill him. Gave him the money he needed to save her and go into hiding.”

  “You are back on the right track my child.”

  “How much further do I have to go?”

  “You must surrender to the police and confess to them what you did,” the priest says.

  “And there’s freedom possibly?”

  “You’ve killed many people. Your only hope is to beg God’s forgiveness.”

  “It might happen, but I fear there’s no hope for me to escape from the one who owns me.”

  “Your soul will be free, when you’re free of him and you’ve unburdened your soul,” the priest says.

  Melissa wakes up to being pulled up into a sitting position. She sees Danil on his knees looking down on her smiling. Not the person I wanted to see right now.

  “Rough night my love?”

  Melissa tilts her head. “Fell asleep on a hard surface.” She looks up and is thankful that the safe had been closed.

  Danil kisses her on the forehead. “I got some of my money back.”

  “Some?” Melissa asks.

  “The bike courier brought the money
he owed me. So, you can cancel the hit on him.”

  “Good news,” Melissa says. Lucky I had kept money in cash and lucky you don’t know who paid the bill.

  “So, you can come home now.”

  He picks her up, cradling her in his arms, and kisses her on the lips for several seconds. Carrying her over to the trap door, he shoulders her and climbs down the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder he pulls her off his shoulder and continues carrying her cradle style down the tunnel towards his end. She misses that the trap door hasn’t been closed.

  “More romantic to be carried this way. Wouldn’t you agree my love?”

  “Oh yeah, a lot better,” she receives his kiss. You think I forgot what you did to me?

  “After a few days, I might even let you continue with your mission.”

  “I’ve got a few that I am going to go after.” Let me continue with it? I’m the one who decides what I’m allowed to do. Not sure if I want to now. Must make sure those I take out really did what they were accused of doing.

  At the end of the tunnel, Danil enters his code. The door opens and he carries Melissa through the panic room, up the stairs, and into the bedroom. Again, she misses the door being left open.

  Time for my duty to you to be fulfilled as he lays her down on the bed. After removing her pants, Danil unzips his own and starts making love to Melissa. Your reward for saving me from death. My knife and guns are at my home. Can’t end this now.

  Danil kisses her on the lips for several seconds as he pauses the sex. “Miss this, sweetie?”

  “Of course.” Just what every woman wants, to be the property of, and reward for, a man.

  She looks around and sees the heavy lamps on the bedside tables. Maybe I can end this now. She tries to reach for the lamp but is too short to reach it as she tries to grab one. Just have to take this for now. She rests her head on the pillow, her arms on the bed as she grips the sheets. She forces herself to move in sync with him as he continues having sex with her.

  “The money that the kid paid you can have. That will be what I owe you.”

  “Fair enough.” Thirty grand of my own money back, no point fighting for the rest. I’ll be free of you soon.

  After twenty minutes more, Danil is finished. He cradles Melissa in his arms and kisses her for several seconds on the lips. Melissa grasps his shoulders tightly. Does he still think I enjoy him?

  “I missed you,” Danil says.

  “And… I… missed… you.”

  He smiles down at her. I bet your smile is as fake as mine, Melissa thinks.

  “I bought you a new dress, and I’ve got reservations at your favorite restaurant.” He kisses her again.

  “For tonight?” she asks.

  “Yes, tonight. Let’s spend the whole day together. The peace deal has been worked out between me and The Black Roses, so there won’t be any contracts for a while.”

  “Good. I can take a break from killing.”

  “What about your mission?”

  “I got all of them done from the ones who were in my survivor’s group.”

  “I was able to get some information on guys they questioned on The Drowner case.”

  “Get that to me and I’ll take them out.”

  “So, the dress.” He lets her go from holding her, setting her down on the bed as he gets up. From the closet, he takes out a little black dress made of Italian silk.

  “Try it on, my love,” he says, handing it to her.

  She runs her hands over it gushing over the smoothness of the fabric. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It will look even better with you in it.”

  Melissa takes the dress off the hanger and slips it on. You failed in your attempt at being romantic. We both know this dress is more a gift for you than me. She turns her back to him, “Zip me up, please?”

  Danil does as she asks. “A little reward for all the work you’ve done for me the past few weeks.” He puts his arms around her waist spooning her and kisses her on the neck. “Reservations are at six. So, six hours until you will need to wear this again.”

  He unzips her dress and slides it off her. Melissa steps over the dress and picks it up off the floor putting it back on the hanger. Danil hangs it back in the closet.

  “Want to watch a couple movies in the theater?”

  “Sure. Can I put my clothes back on or am I to be naked until dinner?” You’re no better than the men who’ve raped women, she doesn’t add.

  “I prefer naked, but I’ll let you wear the stocking this time.”

  Melissa opens the dresser and takes out the body stocking and puts it on. What a girl must put up with as Danil again takes her in his arms cradling her as he walks her out of the room. I guess I won’t see the priest today.

  * * *

  Searching through Melissa’s desk in the rape crisis center, Jackie finds an address and phone number for Pete and Martha Vacelli. She turns to Arlene. “Who is this?”

  Arlene takes the piece of paper. “He’s her brother.”

  Jackie dials the phone number. “Hello, Mr. Vacelli? It’s Detective Cruze from the Darrenport Police. I need to talk to you about your sister, Melissa.”

  “OK. Be here in an hour,” he readily replies.

  “We will.”

  Jackie and Mitchell leave the center while other police are continuing the search for evidence.

  Chapter 61

  M artha hands coffee to both Jackie and Mitchell and then one to Pete.

  “It’s kind of weird,” Pete says. “This is the second-time cops have asked about Melissa.”

  “Probably someone else on the task force,” Jackie replies.

  “We’ll get his name later so we can compare notes,” Mitchell says. “Can you give us any insight as to her movements of the past ten years?”

  He shrugs. “Not really. She started off in drama school when she first went to college. Out of the blue, she quit and broke up with her then-boyfriend. Took up social work as a vocation. After training in that, she hooked up with her current guy, Max Kehoe. She’s pretty much done everything with him since then. Doesn’t really do much with the family, other than special occasions.”

  Jackie hands him a picture. “Is this her husband?”

  “She’s not married, but that’s the guy.”

  A few seconds of silence before Pete speaks up again. “I take it Max Kehoe’s not his real name.”

  “No. He’s Danil Burlomov.”

  “And I assume that’s not good.”

  Mitchell shakes his head as he takes a sip of coffee. “He’s the head of the Russian Mafia, locally,” Mitchell says.

  “So, she’s in deep trouble,” Pete says, more of a statement than a question.

  “You could say that.”

  “How bad?”

  “We believe she’s been a vigilante and contract killer,” Mitchell says.

  “Both?” The expression on Pete’s face tells them he doesn’t believe what the police detectives are telling him.

  “In the past ten years, there have been close to one hundred murders of men who have raped or otherwise abused women. There have also been a number of enemies of Danil Burlomov who have been killed.”

  “So, you’re seriously expecting me to believe that my little sister is a contract killer? Have you seen her? She’s a little ninety-pounder. How could she handle a man?”

  “You’re not the first one to say that to us,” Jackie says.

  “And how would she know that many?”

  “She runs a rape crisis survivors’ group. And counsels victims of crime,” Jackie says.

  “Funny, the other cop didn’t mention that.”

  Jackie raises her eyebrows as Mitchell leans back in his seat. “What was his name?” Jackie asks.

  “Detective Cole Porter.”

  “Nobody on the task force by that name,” Jackie says.

  “His badge number is 7484.”

  Mitchell pulls out his mobile phone and calls in to headquarters.
r />   “Which precinct is detective Cole Porter, badge number 7484, working out of?” he asks.

  There is a pause of twenty seconds.

  “No record of a Cole Porter in the entire department. What was the badge number again?”

  “7484.”

  Another twenty-second pause.

  “Sir that’s the badge number for constable Kevin Danforth. He was killed in the line of duty ten years ago,” the dispatcher says.

  “Oh no,” Mitchell ends the call. “Sir, we really need to get in touch with your sister.”

  “You think I’m going to help you catch her? If she’s killed rapists, she did a public service.”

  “Not to catch her but to save her.”

  “Save her?”

  “The badge number was from a murdered police officer, there’s no Cole Porter in the department.”

  “And that means?”

  “You probably talked to The Drowner,” Mitchell replies.

  Pete grows pale. He gives them the information he gave Colton.

  “Call her and tell her not to talk to anyone but us,” Mitchell says.

  Pete dials the number for Melissa’s voicemail box. “Hey little sis, it’s your big bro, Pete. Get hold of me right away. Don’t talk to anyone claiming to be a cop other than Mitchell Burnlee or Jackie Cruze.”

  He ends the call on his phone. “So, it’s true then?”

  “Afraid so,” Mitchell says.

  Jackie is on her mobile phone. “Hi, we need warrants for the phone number 686-7531 and post office box number 17-685. We’re looking for the physical address of the owner, and basically every bit of information on her.” There’s a pause of about ten seconds. “Why? She’s the contract killer we’re looking for and a target of the serial killer. Get on it. This is the number-one priority.” She ends her call.

  “Can’t you just go to them and demand the number?” Pete asks.

  “Unfortunately, no. We have rules we have to follow,” Mitchell says.

  “So, this serial killer can ignore them?”

  “Everybody has rights, even the criminals,” Jackie concedes.

  “And what of my sister’s rights?”

  “She’s a criminal too,” Mitchell points out.

  Mitchell and Jackie get up from the couch and leave their coffees unfinished. Martha walks them to the door as Pete leans back in his chair in disbelief that his little sister could be a murderer.