They began slowly, rhythmically, taking their time, savoring the moment.  Jaime couldn’t believe his luck.  He’d been sitting at The Bar having a few before heading home, like he did most Friday nights after work, when the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen entered, and everyone stopped.  She didn’t seem to notice, exuding a kind of friendly sensuality as she approached the bar and ordered a drink.  Jaime had gone back to his beer; women like that were lovely to look at, but there wasn’t any point in thinking someone like her would ever go for someone like him.  So, when she sat down in the stool next to him and said “Hi,” with a warm smile, Jaime almost choked.

 

            “Ummm, hi.”

            “Do you come here often?”

            “Yeah, pretty much every week.  You don’t, though.”

            Her smile was playful.  “Is that right?  How would you know that?”

            He blushed a little, his answer simple and honest.  “Because I’d have remembered you.”

 

And now here they were, just a couple hours later, alcohol-soaked sweat glistening on their bodies as they made love on the king-size bed in her apartment.  It didn’t take long before the rhythm began picking up, moving faster, until they were almost frenzied with desire and lust.  She rode him like a champion, not missing a beat, knowing just how, where and when to move.  Some girls just know that kind of thing, he thought with a chuckle, just before he felt the ecstasy begin.  He opened his eyes and looked at her.

            “I’m ready, babe,” he whispered, gathering his strength.

            “Me too, babe, let it go, we’ll do it together,”  she said, and let out a scream of ecstasy as her orgasm enveloped her.  He closed his eyes and arched his back, releasing his own passion, and let out his own scream as the knife pierced his chest at the exact same instant.  He opened his eyes in terror, and saw, wait, is that the same woman?  Her face was twisted, contorted, this is wrong, what?  I’m going to die.  Oh shit, shit…his strength was nearly gone, and he gasped his final words:

            “What the fuck?”

            The last thing he saw was her naked, sweat drenched body moving in the shadows as she dismounted and sauntered across the room.  The light flashed in her face for a split second as she lit a cigarette.  She inhaled the smoke deep into her lungs as he gasped for his final breaths, and as she blew out the smoke, she chuckled, her voice deep and flat:

            “You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that.”

 

Big City

ATROCITIES

by Millie Collins and Eric Schwartz

 

Laura woke up with a start.  She didn’t know where she was for a moment, then the fog lifted, and she remembered she was at Charlie’s, in his bed, with him snoring beside her.  The only place in the world she really wanted to be.  She smiled and laid back down, snuggling under the covers against the cold morning.  What had woken her?  She tried to stop the troubled thought from barging in to the perfect day, but no such luck.  It had to have been the dream again.  Charlie had woken her several times in the last two weeks or so, when she’d been thrashing and moaning in her sleep.  She couldn’t ever remember it, but somewhere in her subconscious the thoughts of it turned her cold.  She shivered involuntarily, and Charlie stirred.

            “Laura?  You okay?”  She ached at the fear in his voice.  It had been this way since he’d lost his sight.  It had taken a heavy toll on his emotions.  She’d taken a leave of absence from the paper to help him with his recuperation, hoping against hope that one day he’d see, see her, again.  But the helplessness he felt, she didn’t know for sure, because he wouldn’t talk about it, but she was afraid it was breaking his spirit, making him into a frightened little boy.  She didn’t know what she would do with that.

            “Good morning, sweetie,” she said, putting all the positive energy she could into her voice.  “I was just thinking about making some coffee.  You want some?”  She pushed the covers off and put on her sweatshirt and jeans that were at the foot of the bed.  Charlie reached for her, fumbling a little, but his other senses seemed to be improving with the loss of his sight, so she was able to compensate quickly. 

He gave her a long hug.  “Have I told you today how much I love you?”  he said into her hair, and he could feel the smile on the top of her head. 

“Not yet, but we’ve got all day,”  She smiled, and held his face in her hands.  He started to kiss her and she pulled away.  “No way dude, your mouth smells like a foot!”  She swatted at him playfully, and left the bedroom as he settled back in to bed.  Soon the aroma of brewing coffee filled the kitchen, and she was about to pick up the paper when there was a knock at the door.  “I’ll get it sweetie,”  she called to Charlie.  Looking out the peephole, she saw Stack.  She frowned a little, hoping everything was okay.  “Hey, I just made some coff—“ The door quietly pushed open and a hand pushed a handkerchief over her mouth.  It happened so fast, and so quietly, she hadn’t even spilled her coffee.  As the ether began to take effect, the apartment began to swim in front of her. Stack moved towards her, plucking the cup of coffee out of her hand.  Laura couldn’t believe it when Stack, or whoever it was, seemed to change right in front of her, into Laura herself!  Laura’s eyes grew wide and she was slipping.  Her doppelganger smiled, a twisted grin.  “Don’t worry sweetie,” Laura heard her own voice say just before she lost consciousness.  “He’ll never even miss you.”

 

*

            “Dammit!”  Needless slammed down his phone, scattering the mini sculpture Stack had been working on.  Stack looked up.  Needless was on his feet, grabbing his coat.  “We got another body, seems to be the same MO.  Breen wants us there now.”  Stack sighed as he got up.  Needless checked on Penny, and threw the keys to Stack.  “You drive.”

When they reached the pier, Stack could already tell they were looking at the same perp.  Everything was identical:  the anonymous location, the plastic the body was wrapped in, even the type of vic: young, male, fairly attractive but not gorgeous.  Stack was willing to bet the ME would find alcohol in his system, and that he’d had sex right before he died.  Stack knew this already, had known it really before he arrived. 

What pissed him off was what he didn’t know.  This was the eighth murder of it’s kind in the last 6 months.  Stack and Needless had been assigned to the case a few weeks back, because, really, nobody had anything.  Not a single lead to tie these murders to a person.  All they knew from the tissue samples they’d found is that person the vics had sex with right before they died, was a woman.  Not only that, but the same woman every time. To top that off, the tissue samples came back with no match. All that information did was rule out a hate-motivated crime. A theory was floating around now that it could be a team. The bait and the killer. A couple of thrill killers. Just a theory. Nothing to actually identify the woman.

 The victims were never dead long.  Indeed, as Stack looked at the corpse, he could tell that rigor hadn’t even finished setting in yet.  So, Stack thought, our perp doesn’t care when we find his vics, just where.  So what does that mean?  The question didn’t mean much, since he’d been asking himself for weeks. 

He watched as Needless strode toward him, wearing his frustration like a mask.  “We don’t know jack shit!”  He said to Stack.  “No witnesses, no id, nothing!  We don’t know who he is or how he got here!  How can all these guys be John Does!?  I guess we know they’re DEAD, so we’re not completely clueless!”  Needless was pacing, his hands on his hips.  Stack was worried about him; his temper had been getting worse lately.  Stack wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but it would be soon, and it wouldn’t be pretty.  He knew the helplessness Needless was feeling.  The guilt over Charlie and the loss of Sioux had been eating Needless up inside, and time had seemed to do nothing to dull it.  It had made Needless dive into work, into other cases and other victims in the hopes that the memory would magically erase itself.  Of course, it hadn’t.

            “Well, we have the people at the bars where some of the vics left with a woman.” Stack nearly mumbled, his mind returning to the crime and his hands returning to the deck of cards in his pocket.

            “Yeah. Fat lot of good they are. You ever notice that descriptions of ‘hot women’ are real vague? Nobody can ever seem to describe them beyond ‘they were hot’.”  Needless shook his head. “Those people haven’t given us anything. All the guys saw something different and so did the women…so what’s the point?”

Stack sighed.  “Well, let’s start canvassing the area, see if anyone else saw anything.  You never know, right?”  He smiled a weak smile, which was as much positive energy as he could muster, and a lot more than he felt.  His own frustration was mounting, as well. It had been weeks since they had heard anything from Manzetti, and Stack was going a little crazy.  Even Paul Mest, the one good lead they had, refused to talk.

Stack WANTED that son of a bitch, wanted him on the other end of his gun, and the feeling was such that at times it overwhelmed him in a way that he’d never admit to anyone, least of all himself.  ‘Yeah,’ he thought, as they entered the bait shop down the street from the scene, ‘it’s a pretty sad time all around here.’  Laura’s still devastated; she tries to hide it, and Charlie probably doesn’t even know, but he can see the helplessness beginning to fray her around the edges.  And then there’s Smiles.  Stack hadn’t heard from his old partner in a while.  While this wasn’t all that unusual, Stack feared for Smiles.  He felt like Smiles was keeping something from them all, something big, and Stack couldn’t even begin to guess what it could be.  ‘Well,’ Stack thought as he shook these thoughts from his mind for the millionth time, ‘back to the business at hand.’

*

Charlie heard voices when Laura opened the door, but couldn’t discern any actual words.  ‘And of course,’ he thought bitterly, ‘I can’t see a thing!’  He stopped, counted to ten, and breathed deep.  His sight, or lack of, seemed to be pissing him off more and more these days.  Especially since the doctors seemed to think there was nothing physically wrong with him.  ‘What,’ he thought, ‘they think I don’t want to see, is that it?’  Now that some time had passed, his feelings had been shifting.  He was so scared at first, scared of the dark, scared for his health, scared that Laura would leave him.  Laura.  G’luh, he loved her so much.  And she really loved him, he could feel it.  He was determined that he would see again, if only to look at her beautiful face again.  He heard footfalls at the bedroom door.

            “Who was that?”  Charlie asked.

            “Oh, just somebody selling something.”  She sounded happy, content.

 “Did you get some coffee?” He asked.

            “Not really in the mood for coffee anymore,” she said, her voice husky.  He knew that tone, and it excited him.  She moved his hands over her body, and he could feel that she had taken off her clothes.

            “Ummm, wow, okay,” he said, and rolled on top of her, where he would spend the better part of that day.

*

When Laura woke up, the first thing she noticed was the smell.  When she opened her eyes, she saw the vase of Cave Lilies on the bedside table and smiled.  Cave Lilies.  Her favorite.  Charlie must have—wait, Charlie’s blind, this isn’t my bed, this isn’t my house!!!!  The memory of the morning came back fast and hard, and she held her head as she sat up.  Well, this place certainly wasn’t what she had been expecting in a kidnapping. 

She was in a hotel, the Big City Arms perhaps, though she didn’t know for sure, since the shades were drawn, and she’d never had enough money to stay in a suite like this.  The large bed had a canopy, and there was a bathroom with an enormous tub inside.  Flowers were strategically placed everywhere in both rooms, giving the room a heady aroma that played around the edges of her brain.  Sumptuous, she thought, her writer’s brain working despite the terror. That’s what I’d call this room were I writing about it.  She started as the door to the bedroom slowly opened and a goblin walked in.  He was a short, leathery man, very well dressed.  His eyes never rested; he was checking every inch of the room as he stood in it, as if expecting a monster to appear at any second.

            “You’re awake.  Good.”  He had a smile on his mouth that never reached his roving eyes.  “Did you have a nice nap?  I hope the room is, um, to your liking.”

            “Maybe if I knew where the hell I was or why the hell I’m here, I might be a little more comfortable.”  Laura had gotten past the fear; now she was pissed.  This was the last type of person he expected to see, and she was far from intimidated.  And anyway, they weren’t going to kill her.  She had an instinct about it, though she wasn’t sure why.

            “Look, it’ll all work out if you just relax.”  The false smile curled about his lips.  “You ought to make yourself comfortable.  Use the bath if you’d like, we have some clothing you can change into.”  His eyes pleaded with her.  Boy, Laura thought wryly, this guy wants to be here about as much as I do.  “Please do not try to escape.  No harm will come to you, and you will be returned to your home shortly.  We will bring you some food.  Please be ready for company in 3 hours.”  He turned and started to leave.

            “Who?  Why?  What am I doing here?” Laura was thoroughly confused.

            “Everything will be explained when my employer arrives.  We only require your, um, professional abilities.  You, you might say we only borrowed you.”  Before Laura could say another word, the goblin was gone, and Laura was alone again in the most beautiful prison she had ever seen.

*

Stack tossed the ME’s report onto his desk.  It only said exactly what he already knew, which wasn’t much.  Nothing new here.  It was driving him crazy, to say the least.  The hair and tissue samples were the same, but they didn’t match up to anyone in the database.  That meant that they were dealing with someone without a record.  Well, Stack thought dryly, that leaves only about ninety percent of the world’s population.  We’ll just start on the millions.  He put his head in his hands.  The profilers had been working overtime, and they’d come up with a plausible picture of the perp.  He picked up the report and read it for the thousandth time.

 

            “…perp is likely male, late 30’s early 40’s, with female accomplice.  Perp most likely comes from broken, possibly poverty stricken home, suffered abuse as a child…”

 

Blah, blah, blah.  It was always the same.  Stack read on.

 

            “…female accomplice likely lures men into bed, performs intercourse with them, perp probably watches, kills men following act.  Likely has rage over some kind of sexual dysfunction…”

 

            Stack threw the report back on the desk.  ‘This is getting us nowhere!’  He paced around the office, fellow officers giving him a wide berth.  They knew when Stack Fury had something on his mind, the best thing to do was get the out of his way.  Stack stopped.  The cylinders in his head were clicking, something falling into place.  What if the killer was the woman?  It hit him so fast he had to sit down.  It sounded so simple, why didn’t they think of it sooner?  He grabbed the file, scanning it for ideas.  Yes!  There have been theories;  of course, all immediately swept under the rug due to the almighty feds and their almighty profiles. Cookie cutter crazies. Idiots.

 Stepping late into the case, Stack hadn’t considered the idea that the woman could’ve been acting alone. All along they had blindly followed the theory that this was a duo, with the main focus of the profile being the man. Stack shook his head and chuckled. He was really off his game. They needed a new profile. He glanced down at the report. ‘Submissive.’  ‘Runaway.’ ‘Incest survivor’. Stack chuckled. Idiots.

 They needed to start from the top, revisit all the victims’ info and build a picture of a cold blooded woman. She was 6 months ahead.  There was a lot of back tracking to do, but Stack was energized and smiling when Needless returned with the coffee for them.

            “What are you smiling about?”

Stack turned to Needless.  “Like my mother always said, it’s amazing what you don’t see when you’re not looking for it.”

Needless frowned.  “Have you lost your marbles?”  Stack was saved from answering when Needless’ phone rang.  He picked it up.  “D’yen.”  He said gruffly.  He stopped, and a look came over his face.  Stack thought it the closest thing to happy he’d seen on Needless in a long time.  “We’re on our way.”  Needless slammed down the phone.

            “What?” said Stack.

            “You’re Ma was right.  Let’s go.”

*

By’ron Smather, the new medical examiner, looked up when Stack and Needless entered the room.  He was human, always dressed immaculately, and was leaning over a dead man.  Stack recognized the man as the victim they had just found a few hours before.

            “Gentlemen, thank you for meeting me so quickly,”  Stack always thought Smather’s voice sounded, frankly, like he was a big dumb ox, like an action movie star with a grape where his brain should be.  Stack hadn’t known him for long, but he knew the voice was deceiving.  “I wanted to let you know that we got an ID on your victim.  His name was Jaime Brandeis, 28 years old, lived alone in an apartment complex in Elftown.  That’s all I know; I figured you could take it from there.”  He winked at Stack and handed him the file with the information.  Stack reached out and shook his hand.

 “Thanks, doc.” 

Needless, Stack realized, had been hanging in the back, uncomfortable.  He reached out uncertainly and shook the doctor’s hand.  “Uhh, yeah, thanks.” 

As they walked out, Stack looked at Needless.  “You okay, man?”

            “Yeah, it’s just, you know…weird.”

            “Yeah, I know.  Sorry, man, I could’ve come here alone.”

Needless shook his head.  “No, it’s okay.  Part of the job, right?”  Needless shuddered a little, as if to shake the memories free, as they got in the car.  “So, what does it say?”

            “It’s got an address, next of kin, the whole shebang.  We’ll have to wait till tomorrow to gain access with all the damn red tape.  Why don’t we call it a night?”  And, Stack thought, it’s too late to start re-canvassing the area now.  For the first time in a while, Stack felt he deserved a small break.  We’ll catch the bitch tomorrow, he thought.

            “Sounds good, partner.  I just wanna make one stop first.” Needless turned the car around and headed to the other side of town.

*

When Laura emerged from the bath, an hour after her encounter with her strange captor, she found a pile of clothing and a covered tray on a table in the bedroom waiting for her.  She didn’t know why she was so stress-free about the strange events of the last few hours.  She was just certain that these people, whoever they were, meant no harm to come to her.  “Professional services,” the man had said.  She could only figure someone wanted her to investigate something, or write something about them in the paper.  But who?  Her natural curiosity, the curiosity that made her so good at what she did, made the wait almost unbearable.  She dressed, and ate the food they had left for her, a salad and pasta.  She realized she’d had nothing but a sip of coffee since the night before, and she was ravenous. 

The food was delicious.  I’ll have to come here sometime with Charlie, she thought, and felt a pang in her gut.  Charlie.  He must be going crazy right now with worry.  If only they’d let her call him, she thought.  She had decided the doping had made her see herself in some kind of weird hallucination; it was the only thing that made any sense.  But what about Stack?  It was a thought she’d been pushing from her mind, because it was too upsetting to think about.  Was he in on this too?  Or did I mistake someone else for him?  It was a futile question; she knew in her heart she’d never mistake Stack for anyone.  Just then there was a knock at the door.  Laura turned to watch it open slowly as she stood up from the bed.  As she saw the person who had been holding her this very strange day, the food she had eaten threatened escape.  She sat back down, hard.

            “What…what?  You?”

            “My dear Ms. Medrano.”  Manzetti walked across the room, and gently shook her hand.  “So glad you could join us.”

            *

The knock on the door woke Charlie.  He could feel Laura’s naked body beside him, her even breathing telling him she hadn’t heard.  He nudged her slightly.  “Hey, baby, someone’s at the door.”  He could feel her tense up for a moment, then relax.  “You okay, honey?  You have that nightmare again?”

            “No, no, just forgot where I was for a sec, that’s all.”  He heard her get up from the bed, and click on a light.  “I’ll go see who it is, see if I can get rid of them.”

Stack was surprised when Laura opened the door.  She usually looked so neat, and her hair was a mess, her clothes disheveled, as if she’d been sleeping.  “Hi, Laura.  Did we come at a bad time?  We just wanted to see how Charlie was doing.”

            “Stack?  Is that you, man?”  Charlie’s voice came from inside the apartment.  “Come on in!  Laura, can you give me a hand?”  Laura stepped aside and Stack and Needless in, making no attempt to hide her exasperation.  “I’ll be right back,” she said.  “Make yourselves at home.”

Stack and Needless sat on the couch, and in a minute Charlie and a smoothed down Laura emerged, guiding Charlie to the armchair opposite the couch.  “Hey guys.  How’s things?  Anything new and exciting going on?

The pain on Needless’ face was almost unbearable.  He cleared his throat.  “No, not really man, just the same old, same old.  How are you doing?”

Charlie forced a grin. “Day by day I guess. Laura’s been great.” He reached for Laura.

            “Huh?  Oh, yeah, we’re great.” Laura seemed distracted, but happy.  Sort of.  Her smile didn’t seem to reach her eyes. 

            “Is everything okay, Laura?” Stack asked.  “You got something on your mind?”

            “Oh!  No, everything’s fine.  We just had, ummm, a tiring day,” she said with a small smile.  Charlie blushed.           

Stack stood up.  “Ahh, well, we won’t keep you, we just wanted to stop by and say hi.  You ready to go, man?” Needless was still staring at Charlie, as if he hadn’t heard the last exchange.  Stack nudged him.

            “What?  Oh, yeah, we gotta get going, you know, lots of stuff to do.  Umm, you guys take care, okay?  You need anything, you just, you know, call, alright?”

Laura stood up.  “Yeah, sure, thanks guys.  I’ll let you know.”  The door shut behind them before Stack could say another word.

The men were silent in the car on the way back to the station.  Stack couldn’t put his finger on what was bugging him.  “Hey, did you think that was weird?”

            “Huh?”  Needless was distracted.

            “Never mind.”  Stack knew that Needless was still so ripped up over Charlie, he wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual.  Still, it was nagging at him.  What was it?  Laura didn’t seem to be acting like herself.  She was  acting like, well, like she didn’t like him.  That was it.  Laura had always been so friendly to him; even after all that had happened, she never blamed him or his partner for any of it. Stack had always assumed that Laura considered him a friend.  So, why was she acting so cold to him now?  Had he done something to piss her off?  He shook his head to clear his thoughts.  This is ridiculous, he thought.  She was obviously distracted because she and Charlie had been in bed all day.  This thought sent a new sensation through him.  Whoa, what the hell?  He turned on the radio, determined to stop thinking about it all together.  Stop thinking about that feeling. He couldn’t admit it to himself, but the feeling was jealousy.

*

She sat at her desk, staring at the late edition of the paper.  ‘I’m famous,’ she thought, ‘and nobody knows my name.’  She chuckled softly to herself.  These so-called experts.  They think a MAN is doing this.  A man could never have gone this long without getting caught.  Shit, nobody could have gone this long, except for me.  She smiled as she got up and, grabbing her coat and briefcase, turned off the light to her office and locked the door.  Her smile was warm and genuine as she said goodnight to her secretary and made her way to the elevator.  As she traveled down the skyscraper to her car, she started to get even more worked up, yet her content, stoic expression never left her face.  ‘Fucking experts.  They probably think it’s some old man and his girlfriend.  I don’t imagine a 28 year old woman with an MBA who owns her own consulting firm would make their list.  She almost laughed out loud.  I don’t suppose a woman who grew up in the suburbs with 2 parents, 1 brother, 2.5 cars and a white picket fence would make their list.  A woman who is a successful, affluent, young, beautiful professional, they wouldn’t even look twice at,’ she thought as she got into her 35K luxury sedan.

            “And, that,” she said aloud when the door was closed, “is why I am a genius.”

She would hunt again tonight.  Sooner than expected, but she was hungry.

*

Laura couldn’t speak.  She pulled her hand from his grasp, her vision blurring slightly.  She felt as if she would faint.  She shook herself and pulled herself up.  No.  This will not happen.  She willed herself to stay on her feet, and eventually the wave passed. 

            “Manzetti?” Disgust rolled in her voice.

Manzetti smiled.  “Miss Medrano. You are new to this game I have going with Sgt. Forray and Mr. Johnson. I’m afraid that your opinion of me may be tainted slightly by their bias. Please call me Nick or Nicholas. I’m sure you don’t like being called Medrano.”

Panic gripped Laura. “Oh no! Autumn! Charlie is with Autumn! You son of a bitch!”

Manzetti put up his hands. “Mr. Pickens is fine. Autumn is simply standing in for you so that your detective friends don’t get on the trail too fast. I promise you that Charlie will be fine. I just need some time with you.”

She fought to keep control of her voice.  “What do you want from me?”

He motioned to the food on the table, inviting her to eat. He sat down across the table from her. “I’m getting on in years Laura. I’m not the man I once was.”

“Please don’t try to tell me you’re turning over a new leaf.”

He chuckled. “No. I am perfectly happy where my leaf is, thank you. No what I’m trying to say is, it’s time for me to think about my legacy.”

“Your legacy?”

“Yes, Laura. I want to tell my story. My side of the story.”

            Laura’s stared at him. “And you want to tell it to me?”

            He reached across the table, lifted a piece of pasta with his fingers and placed it in his mouth and smiled. “Yes.”

*

Needless threw back another shot. He chuckled to himself. He had walked in here investigating the killings. In a few hours, he would stumble out drunk. The chuckle rolled around in his throat for a few moments as he thought of how irresponsible this was. Stack would hate this. Giving up on an investigation for the night and getting whammed in the killer’s prime location. I might as well be buying Manzetti a drink.

The chuckle stopped. Needless had no love for Manzetti. Not after the werewolf thing, not after his brother…but Stack had lost sight of everything else. Everything else only received a passing glance. He tapped the bar, invoking the pouring of another shot. He wondered, in his last truly lucid moment how far he would follow Stack. The tingle of the alcohol washed over his thoughts.

Hours slipped away. The feelings attached to the pictures in Needless’ mind slipped away too. He had drunk enough that memories and hopes now seemed like a script he was proof reading. He had become a passive viewer to his own pain.

Needless sat at the bar, staring into the bottom of his glass.  ‘How many times over the last few weeks,’ he thought, ‘have I looked for the answers here?  And they never come.  But, the numbness is kind of nice, for a while anyway.’  Because that’s all Needless wanted.  Just a few hours, with nothing to think about, no memories plaguing him, no pictures of Sioux or Charlie running through his mind with no relief. He didn’t think he could take it much longer.  Something was gonna blow, something nasty, he knew it.  But he didn’t care. At least he didn’t think he did.

The room stood still for a moment as she got her bearings inside the doorway, then made her way to the bar.  She sat down next to Needless and ordered a drink. He never saw her come in.  For all he knew, she’d been there since the world was young. He finally swam to the ledge of his drink and peered out. Needless noticed that she seemed to be studying him for a moment, and then she spoke in an unbelievably warm voice.

            “Come on, it can’t be that bad,” she said with a small chuckle.

            “You have no idea,” he said, and as he turned to look at her he stopped.  Wow, she was gorgeous.  Easily one of the prettiest women he’d ever seen.  Her smile was equally warm, and he seemed to warm himself.  He didn’t know if it was her or the alcohol or both, all he knew was he was suddenly feeling lighter than he had for a long time, and he wanted to hold on to the feeling, hold on to it with everything he could.  Suddenly, her voice cut through his thoughts again.

            “What’s your name?”

            “John.  John D’Yen.”  He could only stare at her.  She was exquisite.  She was unbelievable.  In fact, if he hadn’t been holding on to his drink the whole time, he’d have been sure it had been drugged;  the heady feeling was intense, and wonderful.

            “Well, hello, John, John D’Yen.  So, is it really that awful?”  She cast a shy, playful smile on her face.

The words felt like they came from outside himself, a million miles away. “It’s certainly getting better.” If words could swagger, these did.

 

*

            The filter of his fish tank droned on. Stack took another sip of his Moonglow and continued to think a hole in the wall. Arrow purred gently in his lap, his hand methodically petting her. He could feel the agitation again. It seemed to come in short bursts that made his fists clench and broke his train of thought like a hammer through ice. He hadn’t been sleeping well. Breen had him babysitting this serial killer with Needless. He was wasting time. He had to find Manzetti. He had to figure out what the bastard was up to. After all this time he needed to know…what happened to Laura.

            Whoops…Stack’s thoughts corrected themselves. He meant Gina.

*

Beneath her warm, kind exterior, her inner rage was beginning to boil.  She’d been talking to this moron for over an hour now.  How long is it going to take?  She knew he was a cop; she could practically smell it on him.  This made it that more exciting.  Her blood pulsed fast; she didn’t think she could wait much longer.  She smiled and looked at her watch.  “Oh, my, I should get going, it’s awfully late.”

He stared at her for a moment, then the words seemed to tumble out.  “Ummm, I can’t believe I’m really saying this but, I’d like to, I mean that is, ummm…can I come with you?”  His desperation was palpable; she thought it would strangle her.  She smiled warmly behind a heart of malice.

            “I thought you’d never ask.”

*

            Charlie rolled over. They had hardly left the bed all day. He never knew Laura to be like this. It was all incredible. He reached across the bed and took her hand.

            “I wish I could see you.” He intoned, his breath finally calming.

            “It’s best that you don’t.“ There was an unfamiliar tone in her voice.

            “What?”

            “Charlie.” Laura’s voice seemed odd to him. He felt the weight of the bed shift slightly. Not like Laura was moving around…but as though her weight was …redistributing itself. He jumped slightly at the sudden touch. He felt the hot breath on his neck. The completely unfamiliar voice seemed to grip his insides from the complete darkness that was his only view. “We need to talk,” the new voice sneered.

*

“I need to know, do you write or record?” Manzetti asked, slipping out of his jacket. Laura looked at him quizzically. “Do you take notes in short hand or do you prefer audio recording?”

“I do tapes.”

“Good.” Manzetti placed an old black, table top tape recorder on the table. “It’s not top of the line, but it will do.”

“I have to ask,” began Laura, “why me?”

Manzetti chuckled. “Several reasons. One, I actually admire your writing. I read your series on the Serenity Massacre and was impressed. Of course we know how that turned out for you, don’t we.”

Laura bit her lip to keep from shouting. “And the other reasons?”

“Stack, of course. Any chance I have to jab at the heart of your beloved Adam Forray, I will take it.”

“They’re going to catch you. One of these days, they are going to catch you and you won’t be able to escape.”

Manzetti smiled in a way that sent a shudder through Laura. “Of that, I have no doubt, Miss Medrano.”  He caught himself and nodded. “Why don’t we begin…”  He reached for the tape recorder and stopped, as if reminding himself to stop. He looked up at Laura. “I will let you do the honors.”

Laura rolled her eyes and pushed play and record. The mechanism inside whirred to life and the tap began rolling.

“What is your name?”

“Nicholas Reeder Manzetti.”

“Reeder?”

“My Grandmother’s maiden name.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m fifty-eight.” Manzetti chuckled. “And a half.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Goblin Hill. Long before the reclamation projects. Back when it was tenements. Back when it was slums.”

“It’s slums now.”

Another chuckle. “Right. Slums with satellite TV. Goblin Hill is what people make of it now. Back then, it was where they shoveled us.’

“Mother? Father? Sibs?”

“My mother. Just my mother and me. I have no idea, other than the name Manzetti, who my father was. He took off before I was born. He told my mother he was heading back east to make some money. He never came back.”  Manzetti thought for a moment. “Actually I think he turned up one more time. I have some very…vague memories of a man who visited once. I must have been 5 or 6. I only saw him for a moment. I could hear him and my mom talking well into the night. When I got up the next day, he was gone.”

“What was your mother’s name?”

There was a pause. “Sarah."

“What did she do for a living?”

“She was a nurse. She worked at Hands of Peace hospital, overnights. There was an old goblin woman who lived down stairs who could hear if I was up and about. Especially when I was really young. Young things don’t know that sound carries. If I got out of bed the old bag downstairs would holler through the floor at me and I’d run back to my bed. When I got older I would read during some of those hours. I didn’t have many, if any, friends.”

“Was it dangerous? Being alone like that?”

He shrugged. “Nothing ever happened if it was. When I was about ten my mom got switched to days. It was so much nicer. We could spend more time talking. My mom was a great card player. And chess. She loved chess. We played a lot of games or listened to the radio. Our apartment was very small. It was an efficiency with a walk-in closet of a bedroom. There literally was only room for my bed. But it was tall. There were two or three rows of shelves above me. So that was my room. Mom slept on a Murphy bed in the main room. There was a kitchenette, a sofa, the Murphy bed, a small table and then the bathtub and toilet area which mom had walled off with some blankets hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t much. And it seemed safe.” He paused.

Laura sensed that something else was coming. “Until what?”

Manzetti had been doodling the whole time. He kept a pen and a yellow legal pad near him. Laura had actually expected it. It was the reason Smiles started calling him Doodles Pasketti. He looked up from what he was drawing. “The first time I killed a man, I was eleven years old.”

Laura took a breath before carrying on.

 

*

You’ve been drugged…

Needless hadn’t felt like this in ages. It seemed like forever since Sioux had gone…this was such a release. This was moving on. This was…really…great!

You’ve been drugged… open your eyes…

Groans and half words rolled around in the back of Needless’ throat as he felt her weight push down on him. The way she moved. The way she sounded. The pace quickened.

            Open your eyes…you’ve been drugged…

            Needless couldn’t shake the paranoia. The paranoia that Stack had been shoving into his head since Manzetti came back. Stack was seeing darkness everywhere. DAMMIT! Not now. Why think about Stack now?! Just enjoy this moment. Stop…

            Open your eyes!!

            ‘Fine! Just to spite you! Just to make you happy!’

            As the moment neared, Needless opened his eyes…they were heavy, his focus shifting…he could make out her form. It felt wonderful, but he’d never lost his vision before.

            There was a flash of metal.

            That was all the cop in him needed. His arm jerked back and let his fist fly into the face of the woman he was screwing. The knife broke free and flew across the room. Needless leapt from the bed but the full force of the drug finally hit him. He knew he was yelling at her. Saying something to her, but the words weren’t forming…for a moment…it seemed he was…braying like a donkey. He stumbled back into her night stand and slipped to the floor with a THUD.

            “I couldn’t take any chances with you,” she said, rising. He could see muted moonlight reflecting off the sweat that glistened over her body. “You being a cop and all. For most men the sex is enough. It doesn’t take much. Most men are weak. Flaccid. Their only real power is money. Property. Take that away…and I have the upper hand.” Her words seemed to echo in Needless’ head.

            He struggled to stand, steadying himself on the glass-top night stand. It wobbled under his weight. She was close enough now that he could see the knife in her hand. At that moment, John D’yen didn’t know what was worse; the fact that he was naked, drugged and weaponless, the fact that he was about to die at the hands of the very killer he was looking for or that, if G’luh willing he did make it out alive, he would never hear the end of it from Stack.

*

The phone rang. It rang again.

“Where the hell is he,” Stack said, looking at Arrow. Finally, after seven rings, he gave up. He ran his hand along the length of Arrow. The cat purred with delight. “So where is Needless? Hmmm? Do you know kitty?” The cat’s eye rolled up in general kitty-bliss at the petting she was receiving. Stack took another belt of his drink. He thought again of Laura. He shook his head. It was simply a problem. A problem that he could fix if he set his mind to it. If he could set his mind to anything. “It’s just because she’s around,” he addressed the cat. “It’s only because she is the only woman, that I consistently spend time with.” Then he thought of Gina. “But it was the same with Gina.”  What made that true and this… He shook his head and smiled at the feline as she curled up on his knee. His smile faded and his stare grew even longer. “My partner is out there, somewhere, busting his chops to bring this killer bitch in and…” He sighed. “When did I become so self involved?”

The fish tank only gurgled in reply.

*

Laura cracked her neck and set her jaw as Manzetti prepared to continue. She pushed the record sequence again.

“How did you manage to kill a man at age eleven?”

“Killing a person isn’t as hard as you think. Even with your bare hands, there are things you can do. But it helps when you have a knife. He had come into our apartment looking for food and found my mother there. He was attempting to rape her. He was going to rape my mother and steal our food. When you are eleven, and poor, those two things carry equal weight. I took a butcher knife from the sink and I stabbed him in the back.”

“Just once.”

“No. I just remember it was very easy. He screamed, and I screamed and my mother screamed. It was the same knife we had used to cut a loaf of bread for dinner. It still had crumbs on it. I remember seeing the crumbs in the blood.” Manzetti’s laugh was hollow. “Not particularly sanitary.”

“He died there?”

“Face down on the bed where my mother had been.”

“Police?”

“It was self defense. I was protecting the home. The only thing that happened to me was that I noticed fewer kids at school making eye contact with me.”

“You’re not really going to try to sell this to me as ‘I’m bad because I was lonely’, are you?”

There was no smile on Manzetti’s face as he spoke. “You misunderstand me, Laura. I am not here to make excuses for the things I have done. I have chosen the path I have because it had the most to offer me. It was exciting, lucrative and even slightly fun. However, to assume that I fell into my chosen path because of circumstances beyond my control is insulting. I would dare say that I have a better grasp on my life and destiny than the average man on the street. The average man either stands still as life washes by or struggles against the natural flow. Either approach is bankrupt. I simply took the opportunities that life presented me with. Like killing the burglar and rapist, had I not taken the opportunity to kill him, life would have been more difficult for me and my mother. Because I did, I found myself on a path that lead me to you.” He finally smiled. “And for that I am eternally grateful.”

Laura chuckled sarcastically and shook her head. “Fine. So lets get back to that first killing. Was there fallout from that.”

“Yes. But it wasn’t bad. You have heard of Oscar Hexter?”

“Oscar “The Blade” Hexter? Yes.”

“At that time in Goblin Hill, Hexter controlled everything. He wasn’t an elected official, but he may as well have been. He had a hand in everything that went on. He had the police department and the city council in his back pocket.” He chuckled and resumed his doodling. “A little side note here; your buddy Smiles, his dad, Frank, made quite a name for himself opposing Blade. He was the only incorruptible member of the Council. That’s the reason he never rose above his councilman position. He could have been mayor, if Hexter hadn’t fixed every election.”

“So The Blade was the head of the ruling mob at the time?”

Manzetti laughed and slapped the table in near joy. “HA! I love the movies. Yes! Yes! He was the head of the leading crime syndicate in Big City. Hexter was a hero in Goblin Hill. He kept the Elves out. He kept the slumlords from raising the rent. He loaned money and YES he leaned on people until he got it back. Everybody and their brother knew that he was a crooked old Goblin, but nobody cared. As long as he helped keep the Elves away and kept order, he could do whatever he liked. And he did.”

“What about you and your mom? You weren’t Goblins.”

“Nor were we Elves. At that time, that was enough. It all had something to do with my father I think. Something he had done for Hexter.”

“Did you know Hexter?”

“I was just getting to that. Apparently the killing of the burglar had caught his attention. About a week later he made a surprise visit to my home.” As Manzetti spoke Laura detected a hint of hero-worship in his face. “He had come to talk to me. He sat and drank tea at the table and asked me about school. He asked me about the killing. He made small talk. After a while he left. I found out later that he made it known after that evening that nothing was to ever happen to me or my mother. If anything did, Hexter would need to be dealt with.”

Laura pushed stop on the recorder and looked at her watch. “Could we actually get some coffee. It’s pretty late.”

Manzetti nodded and picked up the phone. He ordered a pot of coffee. His eyes never left Laura. He watched her as she cracked her neck and stretched. A moment later Slith entered with the coffee. As quickly as he had appeared he was gone. Manzetti poured them both coffees. “You are surprisingly calm,” he finally remarked.

Laura nodded. “What else should I be? “ She sipped her coffee and looked at him defiantly.

He chuckled. “You refuse to show fear of me.”

Laura shook her head. “The more you talk the more of a man you become to me. After hearing about you for so long, you had become something else in my mind.”

“A monster?”

“Something like that. But you’re a just a man.”

Manzetti looked into the black of his coffee. “But we haven’t gotten to the fun parts yet.”

*

Needless could feel the drug squeezing tighter on his mind. What had she given him? His legs wobbled. She was close now. He could see the knife clearer. He took a deep breath as the room started to sway. He had to hang on for one more moment. He had to keep her back.

“Why,” was all he could say.

She stopped. “I have been waiting for somebody…anybody of even limited intelligence to ask that. They usually just quiver and die. You’re fighting. That’s fun. To answer your question – why? – because I can. That’s it. It feels good. It feels powerful.” She chuckled slightly. “I like it.” Needless watched as the dim moonlight-blue figure cocked her head. “Don’t you? You’re the one they call Needless Action, aren’t you? The minute you were put on the case I researched you and your partner. You like the violence. You like the hitting and the shooting. Seems to me that we aren’t so different…except, of course, that I am walking out of here tonight.”

Needless felt himself teetering on the edge of consciousness. Through the narcotic haze he remembered Autumn. He remembered the helplessness. He remembered the fear. With a guttural howl he felt the last of his strength distill down to into one desperate act. He swept her legs out from under her. As she crashed to the floor, he brought the thick glass of the night stand top down onto her face. As the glass shattered and blood began to spatter, he punched her. He punched her again. He ground the glass deeper into her. He kept hitting her until the drugs finally closed in and Needless Action slipped to the floor, out cold.

*

Laura awoke with a jolt. The sun peeked in between the heavy curtains. She had forgotten where she was. When she got her bearings she wished she could forget again. She wanted to see Charlie. To make sure for herself that he was okay. What was Manzetti playing at? What was this all about?

The session had gone into the early morning hours. Manzetti talked more about Hexter and how he got started in the business. Hexter became very involved with Nicholas’ teen years. To hear Manzetti describe it, it became almost like a father and son. Hexter had always encouraged Nick to do well in school, claiming that ‘You are only as successful as your plans.’ When Manzetti left high school he enrolled in Big City University, majoring in Business. His plan was to create a solid business front for Hexter and his organization, which had grown beyond the bounds of Goblin Hill.

With Manzetti’s help, Hexter was able to consolidate his strongholds and begin dabbling in areas that Hexter never had the vision for. After college, Manzetti moved in full into the Hexter Syndicate as one of The Blade’s most trusted advisers. To this point Manzetti had steered clear of what he called “wetwork”, preferring instead the planning and organization side of things. He was well aware that his peers in the inner circle resented the “kid” who was close to the power. The older mobsters didn’t like that Hexter, at the urging of Manzetti, began to openly associate with other races. The diversity, as Manzetti now called it, had worked wonders for the inflow of money.

“You can exploit elves and vampires as easily as anybody else,” Manzetti had laughed.

Laura tried to enjoy the hot shower to no avail. She was no closer to the end of this ordeal. She had to start considering the notion that she might not live through this. Standing in the shower, water falling steadily on her, she finally allowed her self to cry and tremble in fear.

When she finally  emerged from the shower, food, again, was waiting. She sat and tried to eat but the knot in her stomach prevented it. She settled for the coffee. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and Manzetti entered.

“I trust you are decent.”

“I trust that you still are not.”

Manzetti chuckled and sat in the same position as the night before. “Are you ready to continue? There’s so much more to go.”

Laura, despite her nausea, bit into a piece of toast in a casual act of defiance. “What’s the hurry?”

“Well,” Manzetti reached across the table like a mother and stole a grape. “The sooner we get done, the sooner we can get you back to your Mr. Pickens.”

Laura looked at her plate to maintain control. “Do I have your word that he is all right.”

“I just took a call from our shifty little friend, Autumn. She said they’re becoming fast friends.”

She stared hard into him. “And when you are done rattling off your story, I am free to go.”

“Completely.”

She shook her head in confusion. “I’m sorry if I have trouble believing this.”

“Ms. Medrano, please remember what I told you last night. I don’t benefit from killing you or Pickens. It’s not part of my path. If our paths cross later, in different circumstances, I may not hesitate to kill you. But for now, it benefits me to keep you alive.”

“And where is the benefit for you in having me interview you?”

Manzetti stole another grape. “That’s a different story, for another time,” he smiled.

 

*

Needless’ eyes fluttered open. He was freezing. The hotel air-conditioning, as always, was frosting everything. He was naked. He sat up. Around him the stains of blood had started to dry. Thick shards of glass were scattered like confetti after a party. The woman was dead. His hand moved a few inches to find her frigid skin next to him. He stood and surveyed the crime scene. Being careful not to disturb anything he stepped over the corpse and pulled on his pants. 

Don’t touch anything else. Needless nodded in acknowledgment. He moved to the telephone and dialed the emergency number.

“This is Detective Sergeant John D’yen. I need to call in a homicide.”

*

Charlie didn’t know if it was night or day. He assumed it was day because the distant traffic of the city had a daytime keen to it. He was still shaking. He could hear her breathing on the other side of the room. Other than tying him up and in the act of sex…she hadn’t touched him. Every so often she would blurt something; a demand, an expletive, always in the voice of one of his friends. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take.  He wanted to cry. He wanted to kick his legs like a child. He couldn’t do anything.

“How could you do it?” It was Laura’s voice this time. “How could you sleep with her? Didn’t you know it wasn’t me.” Charlie finally cracked and began sobbing. “The movements were different. The entire experience was not the same. You knew. You knew something was off and you didn’t care. It excited you.”

“Stop it!”

“You spent the whole day screwing her. How could you?”

“Please!  Stop!”

“You betrayed me.”

Charlie’s head fell and hung low. Tears fell freely from his sightless eyes. He could feel them splashing on his feet. “Just kill me. Please.”

Across the room Laura’s form shifted into that of Autumn. “Really?”

“I just can’t take any more.”

“Do you think that she would actually feel that way?” Autumn cocked her head as she waited for an answer. Charlie remained silent. “Or do you think that your infidelity would be just another strike? You know, one more layer of shit you are giving her.”

Charlie sighed, defeated. “I don’t know.”

Autumn uncrossed her legs and snorted a chuckle. She stood. “What a disappointment. I expected you to be a little tougher. The crew you run with…let’s just say that Needless vowed to kill me until he was passed out from massive bleeding and smoke inhalation. That’s a tough crowd.”

Charlie tried to bellow over the mockery. “If you’re going to kill me! Kill me! Just shut the hell up!”

“I’m not going to kill you. I can’t. In fact I’m being paid not to.”

Charlie shook his head at the irony. “Great.” There was the unmistakable sound of a switch blade. He raised his head.

“But I have to admit, I’m getting a little bored,” Autumn said sitting. “We’ll give it a  little while, then see how it goes.”

*

“How old were you at this point?” Laura sipped her coffee.

“Thirty-five. I had spent the last 10 years as Hexter’s right hand man. I ran Hextet Industries, the business front. I worked the philanthropy angle, making sure that Hextet was recognized as being charitable and benevolent.”

“I’ve seen the old news paper articles. You gave money to the orphanage that Charlie was in.”

Manzetti’s eyebrows raised. He smiled. “Charlie was there? What a small world. I had a-”  he paused to find the right word, “ business interest there.”

“Kalista Danae, the siren girl?”

Manzetti said nothing. His smile faded a bit. Laura watched as his doodling ceased for a moment. The hand he was holding the pen in hovered for a moment, driving the pen deeper into the paper. Finally he smiled again. “That was a little later. I was thirty-five when everything changed.”

“Hexter died?”

“Oscar was killed in his bed as he slept. There were five of them. They surrounded him, stabbed him, shot him, cut off his hands, decapitated him, slit his belly open and left the head in his own belly…soaking in Elven wine…just a final ‘fuck you’.”

“Elves?”

“There was an Elf gang from back east who was trying to muscle their way into Big City territory. We knew it was them because of what they did to the body. Nobody from this City would have done that. Nobody would have been that brutal to Oscar, had they known him.”

“Honor among thieves?”

“Something like that.”

“So did this leave you in control?”

“Yes. My first act was to wipe out Hexter’s killers.”

“You had them killed?”

Manzetti raised his eyes from his drawings. His gaze was clear and malicious, and seared directly into hers. “No Laura, I killed them. I didn’t trust anybody else to do it right. I killed them all myself. One by one I butchered them. I didn’t shoot them. I didn’t poison them. I butchered them. They all tasted their own blood before they died. All the heartache I felt at Hexter’s death I poured into hunting down and killing those five assassins, their bosses…their families.” The room became very confining to Laura. She found herself short of breath. Manzetti dropped his pen and looked away. “When it was all done the gang scampered back east and there was no question who the most powerful man in this city was. I quickly got rid of the rest of Hexter’s inner circle. The ones who didn’t like me and would have betrayed me to see me unseated. I pulled the organization in tightly.”

“How did the rest of …the …what? Underworld? …feel about this.”

“There was no gang war. There was no attempt by any other Big City syndicates to take any of our business. Believe me, the message I sent with my revenge deterred any of that.”

“So you became the head of the syndicate at thirty-five.”

“Indeed I did. That was the first time there was ever any speculation that what was going on behind the scenes at Hextet may not have been entirely…wholesome. Luckily I owned most of the police department at that time.”

“What happened next?”

“It was business as usual for the next 15 years or so.”

“Then what happened?”

Manzetti sipped his coffee. “Two things. First, there was a plot within my organization to unseat me from power. Second…I married.”

Laura thought back to stories that Stack had told her. “Elseva Rusch?”

Again Manzetti stared into her, like he hadn’t heard that name in years. “Yes.”

*

Needless finished telling Stack and Breen the tale. He gauged their reactions. There was no sign of a smirk.

“It was either her or me,” he said.

Stack nodded. “I know, man. You did well, you’re still here.”

“Internal Affairs wants a full interview this afternoon.” Breen said, looking around the room. “Just to make sure everything is above the board. “ Needless nodded in understanding.

“So who was she?” Stack shrugged.

“Her name is Harlow Skelga. She’s owns one of the biggest consulting firms in Big City. Rich.” Breen read over some recent notes. His phone rang. He held up a hand to indicate to the two that it would be a moment.

Needless looked at Stack. “Laugh if you want to.”

Stack shook his head. “No. I’m just glad you’re safe. I should have been here with you.” Needless raised an eyebrow. “You know what I mean. This wouldn’t have happened if…”

Breen turned back. “Just got a report from her place. We’ve got her. Pictures of victims. Murder weapons stashed in a hope chest, each labeled with the victim’s names. Even looks like she may have whacked a couple of them there. There’s some blood stains and things.” He patted Needless on the shoulder. “Good work loverboy.” Breen moved away chuckling.

Needless looked shook his head and looked up at Stack. Stack was a million miles away in thought. Needless sighed and looked at his hands.

*

Charlie heard the phone ring. Autumn answered it, she mumbled a few indistinguishable things and hung up the phone. ‘That’s it,’ he thought. ‘That was the kill order.’

“That was the boss…” Autumn began.

“Manzetti?”

“Yeah, Manzetti. Anyway he gave me something of a time frame. So you shouldn’t have to wait long to see…oh, sorry…your girlfriend.”

“So you’re not going to kill me?” Charlie could hear her move toward him.

“I told you no. However…” The switchblade flicked again. “I’m still bored and the boss said nothing about having a little fun. “ Autumn leaned over Charlie. His eyes dashed around as he began to shake. “So…I think I’m going to cut on you for a while. Just for S&Gs.”

Autumn moved the blade closer to Charlie and suddenly found her arm stopped. She turned to see who was holding back the knife. A pair of unusually green eyes glared into her. The old man was holding her arm. Autumn blinked in confusion.

“What the …” Autumn mumbled. The old man gripped her by the neck and flung her across the room. The Sklaar assassin hit the wall with a yelp. Confusion took hold of Charlie as Autumn rose and lunged at the old man with green eyes. As she flew through the air toward him, she shifted once again into a wolf.

Effortlessly the Watcher grabbed the flying wolf and threw it to the floor hard. He dropped to one knee and drove his fist into the wolf’s ribcage. Autumn shifted again into her womanly form. She leapt to her feet and silently faced the old man. They stared into each other for a moment, then they clashed.

Like a dance, Autumn punched and kicked and slashed, her hands alternating from fists to claws. Each move she made was countered by the Watcher. Finally the flying limbs stopped and the green eyed man grabbed her shoulders and slammed his head into her nose. The shape-shifter stumbled backward, dazed. Blood dribbled from her nose. Her muscles shook with rage. The old man simply smiled. Who is this son of a bitch?

            Again she thrust. This time she felt herself lifted from her feet and thrown like a bag of catfood through the window. Autumn found herself in midair above the streets of Big City. Inside the green-eyed man watched the woman shift into a bird and glide to safe landing. As the bird’s feet landed on the ground it turned into a large dog and ran off.

            “Autumn?! Anyone? Is there someone there?” Charlie bellowed.

            The Watcher lifted the receiver of the phone and dialed the emergency line, put the phone on speaker phone and vanished. Charlie leapt as he heard the emergency operator answer.

*

“We were married a little over a year.” Manzetti scribbled a little faster

“Kids?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

Manzetti took a breath. “Hexter taught me lot of things about running this business. Running any business. More than my BCU degree. He told me, and I believe this today, pay at least one and a half times what a job is worth. At least. It breeds loyalty.”

“It buys loyalty.”

“Do you shop some place where you pay too much for …whatever? Of course not. You go where the price is the cheapest. It’s the same thing. By taking a hit to the profit margin, they are building customer loyalty. I always paid nearly double what any job was worth. A rub out, a drop off. Twice what they expected. It breeds loyalty. It’s one thing to lose a market to the competition. In this job, it’s worse to lose an employee to them.”

“So what happened to your wife?”

“David Grieves wasn’t happy just making double. He wanted more. He wanted to be where I had been when I was a kid. At the right hand. I watched him step on those around him trying to win my favor. He didn’t care who got in the way of that brass ring.” Manzetti chuckled. “And when he got there, what a surprise he got.”

“You rejected him?”

“I told him flat out that he was a two- faced, half-assed crook. How could I trust him after watching what he did to those around him? How could I keep my assets, my position safe? What would happen if he wasn’t happy in that position? What if he wanted mine. So, yes…I rejected him.” Manzetti looked back at his drawing. “And I took his hand.”

Laura sank into the chair. “What?”

“I took his hand. As a gesture. So that I would always know what at least one of his hands was up to.”

“That’s barbaric.”

“That’s what he said…when the screaming stopped.”

“So he killed your wife?”

Manzetti again took a deep breath. “Elsy and I had been having some problems. She didn’t like being under constant watch. She had started slipping away from my guys. Just to send me a message.”

“Imagine that.”

“Don’t start with me about lib and all that crap. I protect the things I care about and in this business the thing you care about most is the thing they take away. It may be hard to believe but she wasn’t used to running with a tough crowd and standing up for her self. She was a mob princess that married a mob boss.”

“So she should have understood the watchful eye.”

“She did. I told you. She didn’t like it. She did it to spite me.”

“And that was when he got her.”

Manzetti set his jaw. “Yeah. He sent me her hand. The rest of her they jackhammered out a section of the Lungbarrow overpass.” He leaned back in his chair. “I tore this city looking for him. I had no idea what I would do when I found him. It took a few weeks but I did find him.”

“Another butchering?”

Manzetti shook his head. “No. I shot him. Once. Through the head. I wanted to eviscerate him. I wanted to slit him open alive and fill his stomach with hot coals. I wanted him to choke on his own scalp. All things I planned. All the things I wanted to do to him and all I could do was shoot him. It was like release. Quick.” His eyes grew distant for a moment. “Anyway, Elsy’s death was the first time I ever met Detectives Johnson and Forray.”

“Really?”

“Yes ma’am. When workers found her body Johnson and Stack got the call. When something like that happens to a married woman, the first place you go is the husband. But I was a well known man. Close ties to the community. They understood that the CEO of a major company like Hextet would have had enemies. The only part they didn’t like was the fact that I was in possession of the hand. I told them that I was scared that if I went to the police the kidnapper would kill her.”

“Did they buy it?”

“Forray did. I don’t think Johnson did. He’s always leery of big companies and government. All that stuff. His dad really messed him up. So I started catching wind of Johnson snooping around.”

“Is that when you took Gina?”

Manzetti stared at her. “No. That was about a year later. At this point it wasn’t in my best interest to come to blows with a couple of civil servants. No I paid another cop to keep tabs on them. It’s amazing how easy it is to get a beat cop to turn for you. Especially a put upon half-breed who already isn’t moving ahead.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open. “Edward D’yen?!”

“Bingo. I don’t think little Johnny even knows that Ed’s first job for me was to spy on Johnson and Forray.” He let loose a laugh. “What a tangled web we weave!”

“So what happened there?”

“He did a few jobs for me. He was certainly getting further ahead in my organization than he was in the police. But he got reckless and started shooting his mouth off. Bragging to people.”

“You had him killed?”

“I didn’t have to. His mouth was giving a lot of people unwanted press. Things like that generally take care of themselves.”

“So Smiles and Stack kept on you?”

“Not full tilt. It seemed like I was a hobby. They believed that I was more than my press said I was and they were out to prove it. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. I had a nice chunk of the City Council in my pocket then. I made sure they were stopped at nearly every turn. They were such different men then. Please understand, I was gone for seven years or so. They are so different. Stack was more like your Mr. Pickens. A great thinker but more energetic. Johnson? It’s like looking at two different men. Johnson was idealistic, a wise ass. A life of the party type. He had the kind of presence you could feel when he walked in the room. Now…well, you know.”

“You did that. You took Gina from them and left them to pick up the pieces.”

“I had to protect what was mine. Those two proved unstoppable. No matter how I stopped their search, they picked it up somewhere else. They finally managed to get enough people to turn on me that I lost everything. The got the Bureau involved, froze my assets. I couldn’t buy them. Believe me, Miss Medrano, there is nothing more frustrating in this job than someone whose price you can’t find. I was on the run. Plus I had D’yen’s brother running his own little investigation.”

“Needless?”

“Yeah. He got wind of what happened to his brother and he started roughing up some low level guys trying to get to me. I was getting backed into a corner. That’s a position I don’t like being put in.”

“So you took Gina and made your escape.”

“She was my protection. I snagged her and went to meet my boat at one of Hextet’s warehouses. You know the rest.”

Laura stood up. “No I don’t. Nobody does. There was an explosion believed to be caused by the Bureau, the warehouse was gutted and when the smoke cleared some female remains were found but nothing conclusive could be determined. So what happened?!”

Manzetti smiled up at her. “What do you think happened?”

“I believe that Gina probably died in the explosion, or before and you made your way south. What I know for sure is that the lives of two men were destroyed. Smiles went crazy. Stack has lived with this vague sense of hope. You did the same thing that years ago you killed Grieves for. How could you do that?! Turn into the thing that angered you most?”

Manzetti leapt from his chair, overturning it. “Have you listened to nothing I said!? You have asked all the questions and still you do not hear.” He moved around the table to her. “I never faulted Grieves for what he did! I faulted the fact that he did it to me! TO ME! He could have killed my dog and gotten the same reaction. Don’t impose your crippling sense of morality and ethics on me. I live in a world of death and money and power and betrayal and lies. It is a world I love. I live in a world that I made! Can you say that?  The Big City I see is ripe with opportunities for making money and gathering power. Johnson and Forray and that half breed D’yen took away everything I had. They are no better than that fucker who came into my home as a child to take our food. It was MINE! It will be mine again.”

“They will find you and they will catch you.”

Manzetti turned away and moved to the other side of the table. When he turned back, he was composed again, the smooth, smiling businessman. “Let me tell you something Laura. I have not been completely honest with you. There were two reasons I brought you here. One, I needed to tell you my story. It’s part of what I have to do. That’s all I will tell you about that. The other reason? When all of this is over and everyone is picking up the pieces, you will be the only one who has any vague understanding of what happened. More than that, you will record it for everyone to see. You will send the ending message for me.”

“Tell me what happened to Gina Johnson!”

He chuckled again and pointed at the tape recorder. “This interview is over. Turn off that machine.”

“Turn it off yourself!”

Manzetti extracted a gun from the back of his pants and leveled it at Laura. “Turn it off.”

Laura leaned over and turned off the tape. She chuckled. “And here you show your true colors. A gun-toting goon in the end.” She stood up and faced him.

“I want to thank you for your services. I have changed my mind. I am keeping the tapes. That’s really all I need anyway. But thank you again.” Manzetti squeezed the trigger.

Before a word could slip from her lips there was a loud pop and the blackness closed in. Laura fell backward, destroying the chair on her way to the floor.

A moment later Manzetti’s personal attendant, Zahn, entered followed by two men. Manzetti motioned to Laura. The two men picked up the sleeping woman and carried her from the room. Zahn watched and noticed the small tranquilizer dart sticking out of her shirt. He turned to Manzetti.

“It is none too soon. We just got a call from Autumn. Someone came in and attacked her. Pickens is free.”

“Johnson?”

“No, she said it was somebody else. Somebody she’s never seen before.”

“Doesn’t matter. We have the Innocent’s Record now. We can move into the final phases. Tell Autumn to get herself ready for the endgame and that I will send word soon.”

Zahn nodded and left Manzetti alone in the room.

*

Charlie’s door flew open with a crash.

“Charlie?!” Needless yelled.

A weak cry went up from the bedroom. “Needless! In here.”

Needless, Breen, Stack and a group of officers moved into the apartment.  They found Charlie tied to a chair in the bedroom. Needless crouched down and began to untie him.

“It was her.” Charlie was out of breath and started crying. “It was Autumn. Manzetti has Laura.”

Stack spun hard. “What?!”

“They came and took her yesterday. Some time in the morning.”

Needless shook his head. “So when we were here...”

Charlie nodded his head. “It was her. I didn’t know until later. She tied me up. They took Laura for some reason. She said she was being paid not to hurt me. Then a little while ago she said she was going to cut on me to pass the time and…I think there was somebody else here.”

Stack shook his head. “Who?”

“I don’t know. Whoever it was knocked her around pretty well. I think they threw her out the window.” Charlie rubbed his arms where they had been tied. The others looked over at the gaping window pane.

Needless helped Charlie to his feet. “Are you okay?”

Charlie nodded and leaned in close to Needless. He started crying again. “I screwed her! Oh man, I screwed her. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” Needless eased him down onto the bed and looked at Stack. Stack shook his head.

Their heads turned toward the window as there was a squeal of tires outside  followed by the slam of a car door. Stack looked back at Charlie who was shaking on the bed. A moment later the police radios blared to life.

“This is Eddsun downstairs. You guys better get down here.”

A few moments later Stack burst out onto into the late morning sun in front of Charlie’s apartment building and slid to a stop on his knees as he lifted Laura’s unconscious head from the pavement. “Get me an ambulance! Now!”

*

 Many hours later, when drugs had worn off and statements had been given, the balmy Big City night held little relief from the events of the previous 36 hours. A warm breeze whipped off the bay and headed through the city toward the mountains. Laura could give no information about where they had kept her, other than some vague comments about the curtains and the decor. It lead Stack nowhere.

Needless was questioned for hours by Internal Affairs and when he left he sensed that they felt that his actions were justified.

There was still no word from Smiles. Stack had tried him several times during the day to tell him what was going on with Charlie. He finally raised Emily on the phone and she said he was out of town on a case. No word where he was.

After both had been released from the hospital that night, Laura took Charlie back to her apartment. In the car there were no words. A quiet trip as events sank into them.

Soon they were sitting in the living room. The room was quiet. Even the traffic that normally rumbled in the distance had gone away. Charlie could hear her breathing near him. He felt the tear bubble up in his eye and slip down his face. ‘Please don’t speak.’ He thought.

Laura cleared her throat. “Stack told me what happened.” She looked at her hands because she watched him visibly shudder at her voice. “Charlie…”

“Don’t. Please. I can’t take it right now. I know you’re not mad. I know you understand. I just need you to understand that I can’t take kindness right now. It’s all I can do to not collapse into tears and cry for a month.”

“Honey, I do understand.”

His body remained motionless but his voice seemed to fill the room. “Why is this happening to me?! What did I do to deserve this? I feel like I have spent the last year in a dryer, getting thrown around. I’ve lost nearly everything. I almost lost you in a car wreck. I thought for one brief, shining moment that I had found my father. My sight…and now…she’s taken you away from me.”

“Charlie, I’m not leaving.”

“I know that. But it’s all changed.”

Laura felt a shiver run through her. “I love you.”

“And Laura, I love you. I just need some time. I need to be alone for a while. Just go back to work. I need to spend some time here by myself. I need to learn my way around.”

Laura stood, scared of the question she was about to ask. “Honey, it’s…not over? Is it.”

Charlie managed a smile. “No.” He took a deep breath. “I just need a few days. I have an appointment with a doctor later this week. A surgeon. He does brain mapping and stuff. I’d love it if you came along.”

It felt like a slap. “What is that? A consolation prize? I get to go to the doctor with you?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know this has been hard on you. But it’s been hard on me too. I just had to spend two days looking into the face of a killer, listening to him spell out all the shit he’s done, spending the entire time wondering if I would ever see you again. I have had to watch you and the friends you brought into my life, fight this ongoing battle. An ongoing battle with this faceless nothing!”

“Manzetti! And Autumn!”

“They’re the flavor of the week. There’s always something. You and Smiles and Stack and Needless have chosen a side, which is more than I can say for most people. And now I’m a part of it. I chose to stand on this side with you because I love you. So I will be DAMNED if I am going to walk away now. You want to be what Smiles is? You want to be what Stack is? Then you need to accept the losses and carry on. I have had to sit here for months and watch you whither away from this and I’m not doing it any more. But I’m not leaving.” Laura stormed across the room to him. She grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet. “Now shut up and kiss me!”

They kissed for what seemed like hours and Laura held Charlie as he cried. As midnight slipped by Charlie fell asleep. As she had done so many times over the last few months she stared at the ceiling and thought. Something was still not right. The worst moments were past but there was a lingering unsteadiness. Like the echo of the bang after a gunshot in the woods.

*

Stack shut his locker and ran his fingers through his hair. It was well past midnight. He was tired but he knew he wouldn’t sleep for a while. He still felt agitated and slightly nervous. Probably from not sleeping much. He shook it off and turned toward the door. His eyes met Needless’.

“Hey. Things cool at Internal Affairs?” Stack smiled. Needless nodded absently. “I’m glad you’re all right. You did a great job. “

“You were right. Just a cold calculating human who was killing because she could. She fit your profile perfectly.”

“I wish we could have proven it another way.”

Needless chuckled sardonically. “So do I.” He moved to the sink and looked in the mirror. “I think…if your head had been in the game a couple of weeks ago, it wouldn’t have come to this.”

“What?”

Needless spun hard to face him. “Oh come on, man. I’ve only had half a partner for ages. You haven’t been able to pull your mind away from Manzetti in months. Breen has had to force other cases on you. What about the string of dead LAYS this woman was leaving wasn’t important enough for you to turn your attention to?”

Stack stared in to him. “Now wait a minute…”

“NO! You wait a minute. I know I wasn’t around when Gina disappeared and you and Johnson have way more invested in this than I do. But don’t forget that I lost my brother, we lost Wyshok and I was tortured by that shape shifting bitch. So, okay, I want Manzetti too. But Stack, there is run of the mill evil out there that needs to be fought too.  We have a job to do, whether it’s a criminal mastermind or a liquor store hold up.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Here’s what I understand. I’m a cop, you’re my partner…more than that, you’re my best friend. But I don’t know how much longer I can follow you on this crusade.” Needless shook his head and left the room.

Stack collapsed on the bench with a sigh and stared a hole in the floor. 

Unseen by Stack a nearby observer moved away. The figure moved through the police station as he did every day. He moved out the front door of the building to his car. There he dialed the phone.

Slith’s voice hissed out of the phone. “Yeah?”

“It’s me. I have news.” The Mole said.

THE END

Go To: Episode 12 - ASCENT

Let us know what you thought by leaving us a quick comment:

Name:
Email:
Url:
Comments:

View Comments or visit our messageboard

Join the Big City email list for news and updates Enter your name and email address: Name: Email: Subscribe Unsubscribe