68

  “No!” Nairo cried out as Hess raised the oneshot.

  Time slowed to a crawl.

  Ridley's eyes widened. He turned towards Hess, his knees bending, ready to dive to one side. Friederick Shumacker cringed, closing his eyes, and turning away from the oneshot. Nairo flung her arm out her wrist hitting Hess's thick forearm and sending the shot wide. At the same moment, she bit down on the hand holding the poisoned needle. Hess grunted and twisted his wrist, scratched her across the neck with the needle. He then screamed as Nairo bit him to the bone, her mouth filling with his blood. For just a moment his iron grip loosened and Nairo pushed him back, raising her foot and slamming her heel backwards into his knee, almost buckling the big man and tearing herself loose.

  Time sped up again.

  Nairo stumbled forward, clapping a hand to her neck and feeling the blood dripping where the needle had scratched her. The one shot bolt had buried itself in the now empty safe, a foot to Ridley's right. The PI stumbled mid leap and crashed into the desk sending papers and gold bullion across the floor. Little Teddy Shumacker began wailing. Hess snarled and threw the one shot down, and pulled a dagger from his belt. The hand that had been holding Nairo dripped blood and the needle was discarded on the floor, its tip broken off.

  “You fucking cunt!” Hess snarled, advancing on Nairo, his blade pointed at her.

  “Forget her!” Leanne shrieked at him. “Get Friedrich!”

  In the sudden chaos Friederick Shumacker had bolted. He ran straight for the french doors, his only means of escape. But they were locked. He slammed his shoulder into them, desperately yanking at the handle. Hess was behind him in a second. He brought the heavy pommel of the dagger down on the back of his head three times knocking the Owner senseless. He stood over Schumacher with a wicked grin on his face and didn't notice Ridley hurtling towards him. Ridley speared him around the waist and smashed him straight through the french doors, tearing the curtains, and splintering wood as they flew onto the balcony outside. Nairo tried to force her legs to move but she suddenly felt dizzy. The poison couldn't have been that quick-acting could it? She stumbled a few steps and shook her head and blinked heavily. Her vision cleared just in time to see Leanne running towards her wielding a heavy candelabra. She swung it at Nairo's head but even dazed as she was Nairo was no pushover and half a slip of a woman like Leanne Shumacker wasn't about to take her out. Nairo caught Leanne’s wrist clumsily and punched her square in the nose. Leanne shrieked and fell backwards, blood pouring from both nostrils. She looked up at Nairo in disbelief.

  “You struck me!” Leanne cried out.

  “I’ll do worse if you get up again!” Nairo slurred, trying to shake the cobwebs from her head.

  Her hand ached from punching Leanne, but that was about the only sensation Nairo could feel right now. She looked behind her, shaking shaggy curls out of her face, and saw the key to the office inside the lock. Nairo stumbled towards the door, and in a feat of coordination that she wasn’t sure she still possessed, she managed to slam the door shut, lock it, and pocket the key. When she turned back, Leanne Shumacker was gone. So was little Teddy Schumacker. Nairo could no longer hear the child’s crying. She stumbled forward, her vision blurred, and the room swam back and forth in front of her. She reached Friederick Schumacker’s limp body and clumsily tried to find his pulse. She lacked the deftness to do it, but her clumsy administering jogged the man awake enough to make him moan. Satisfied he was alive, Nairo looked at the hole in the french doors and then heard little Teddy crying again. Nairo stumbled through the hole and into a torrent of rain. It was so dark she could barely make out anything other than rough silhouettes. A large shape and smaller shape, she guessed were Ridley and Hess, fought tooth and nail on the large balcony. Hess's dagger was discarded on the tiled floor. They punched, kicked, bit, headbutted, and elbowed each other. They scrapped back and forth, cursing and grunting, both out of breath and slipping and sliding on the rain slicked tiles. Leanne Shumacker clutched her son to her breast trying to wrap her shawl around him to protect him from the beating rain, as she huddled in a corner looking left and right like a startled ferret. She was trapped. There was nowhere to go but up on to the roof and that would be madness in this torrential rain, one wrong step and she would slip and fall to her death.

  Nairo turned back to the life-and-death struggle between Hess and Ridley. They were almost at a standstill, wheezing, and bloody. Hess had Ridley in half a headlock. He rained down meaty fists onto the top of his head while Ridley yanked at Hess’ leg, trying to topple the big man over. Nairo staggered forward, slipping on the wet tiles, she went down banging her knee painfully, her wrist slamming against something hard and round. Fortunately, she was too woozy to feel the pain. She felt a large ceramic pot under her hand. With strength born of hatred for Hubert Hess, Nairo heaved up the potted plant and swung it blindly in the darkness sending a spray of dirt and expensive flowers flying. The heavy plant pot smashed into the side of Hess' shoulder and head, shattering upon impact. Hess grunted and lurched sideways. Ridley took his chance. He aimed a kick straight between his legs but Hess, with some sort of dirty fighter’s instinct, blocked the kick with his hand. Ridley came forward and headbutted Hess in the chest driving him further back. Hess stumbled into the railing of the balcony almost toppling over it. Ridley was on him in a second. He grabbed Hess around the throat and pushed the big man. Hess clawed at Ridley’s hands, clinging desperately to the railing wrapping one of his legs around Ridley's trying to stop himself from being thrown backwards. Ridley snarled in his face, pushing harder and harder burying his fingers into Hess' face, clawing for his eyes, pushing his chin and throat desperately trying to throw him over the side.

  “Ridley!” Nairo screamed. “Don't do it!”

  “This fucker killed Quinn! He has to die!” Ridley screamed into the storm. He turned to look up at Hess, his teeth clenched and eyes narrowed with white hot fury. “You killed him! You killed him! You killed my…” Ridley cried out in pain as Hess bit his hand.

  He yanked his hand away and that gave Hess enough time to pull himself back up. He grabbed Ridley around the throat and headbutted him in the eye. Ridley stumbled but didn't lose his footing, he kept up the forward pressure on Hess, still threatening to topple him over.

  “Is this all over that old drunk PI?” Hess shouted at him over the rain. “That fat swine thought he could outsmart me? Yeah I killed him!” Hess said, leering in Ridley's face, grinning a mouth full of blood. “We hired him to track that LaRue bitch but he got wind of what we were up to. He tried to spin my trap back on me! So I snuck into his apartment and I poisoned him and I watched him die! Did you know your old friend shit himself while he went? Croaking and screaming like a little girl!” Hess cackled and Ridley roared, bringing down his fist into Hess's face.

  The side of his hand cracked off Hess's nose, and then again on his cheekbone, then his eye, then his nose again, then his mouth, and the whole time the crazed bastard kept cackling and laughing in Ridley's face.

  “I wouldn't have even remembered who he was if you hadn't come looking for me. The day Hess killed your friend was the most important day of your life! For me? It was just something I did before breakfast!” Hess gave Ridley a wild eyed, bloody mouthed leer, and then began cackling again.

  Ridley roared and reared back for a final blow while Hess continued to laugh maniacally. Nairo caught Ridley's arm. She was too weak and disoriented to pull him back so instead she became dead weight clinging to his arm. Ridley kept hold of Hess's throat keeping the big man bent backwards over the railing.

  “Don't do it Ridley please,” Nairo sobbed, barely conscious, feeling like she was going to vomit. “Please Ridley, that's not you! We’ve caught him, you outsmarted him, you solved Quinn's puzzle, and you've brought his killer to justice. Isn’t that enough?”

  Ridley's whole body strained with the effort of holding Nairo up and holding Hess.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Hess hissed at him. “You wanna kill me, go ahead, fuckin’ do it. Show some fuckin’ balls!”

  Ridley squeezed his throat tighter and Hess cackled, spraying Ridley’s face with blood.

  “You deserve to die,” Ridley snarled through gritted teeth.

  “You’re not wrong,” Hess said. “And you don’t even know half the wicked shit I’ve done. And if you let me live, I’m gonna keep doing it and there’s nothing you can do about…”

  “Shut up!” Nairo screamed at him. “Shut your fucking evil mouth up! You… fuck!”

  Nairo’s body was starting to shut down. Her vision was going dark. If she was going to die, the last thing she wanted to hear was Hubert Hess’ foul mouth. Her hands went weak and her grip loosened on Ridley’s arm.

  “Sarge?” Ridley yelled over his shoulder. “Sarge!”

  Ridley looked at Hess and then at his crumbling friend. He roared in frustration and relented his grip on Hess’ throat. He threw him to the floor and turned to catch Nairo. Hess lay there gurgling and cackling with blood pouring down his face and out of his mouth. Ridley stumbled under Nairo’s dead weight. He gently laid her down on the tiles.

  “Sarge? Sally, can you hear me? Stay with me!” Ridley said, pushing Nairo’s wet hair out of her face. “Come on…”

  “I knew you didn’t have the balls!” Hess cackled.

  “You’re gonna rot for this Hess!” Ridley spat at him. “And this time daddy ain’t gonna be able to bail you out. I’ll see you hang…”

  “No you won’t!”

  They turned around and saw Leanne Shumacker holding the one shot with a fresh bolt loaded into it. The weapon looked comically big in her little quivering hands. She held her son in one arm, and had the one shot aimed at Nairo’s unconscious body.

  “Move and I will kill the girl," Leanne said, her voice tight and almost hysterical. “She's already dead anyway if she's been stuck. She’ll be gone within the hour if you don't get her help. That was a highly concentrated dose. Even just a scratch would be enough to kill a fully grown man.”

  Ridley looked at her his teeth clenched and then he looked at Nairo who had gone pale. She was barely breathing.

  “I have the antidote and I can give it to you. All you have to do is let us go. Do you understand that? Just let us go!” Leanne said emphatically.

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  “Let you go?” Ridley said his face screwed up in disgust. “Do you even know how many people you've killed, how many lives you've ruined?

  “Who cares? Don't be so melodramatic!” Leanne spat at him. “Who were those people? Sluts! Whores that would sleep with a married man! And a bunch of homeless bums! All you had to do was keep your nose out of our business and this all would have been over. And who are you doing this for? Freddie?” She spat, her eyes drifting back to the office where her husband still lay unconscious. “That bastard has never been faithful to me from the day we met. The philandering piece of shit that he is. And he’s allowed to get away with it because he was born rich and powerful with a dick between his legs! And what about me? What, I just sit at home while he goes and knock’s up every little tart that takes his eye? And then he tries to run off with one and leave me in the cold!” Her voice was shrill and her eyes wild to the brink of complete lunacy.

  “So what’s the plan?” Ridley asked. “You kill your baby's father and take the inheritance?”

  Leanne let out a trill of high pitched, hysterical laughter.

  “Teddy’s not his!” Leanne spat at him. “Mr Private Investigator! You didn’t figure that out, did you?”

  “Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!” Ridley laughed bitterly and then looked at Hess who had pulled himself up to a sitting position, blood oozing down his face. “You were knocked up by him?”

  “Of course I was! Hubert is a real man. Hubert shares my dreams. He loves me!”

  “And I'm guessing you didn't have all those miscarriages, did you?” Ridley said, through gritted teeth.

  “No.” Leanne said her face scrunching up with pure venom and spite. “Do you really think I would have that bastard's children? Where do you think I got the idea to use the Blood Moon in the first place?”

  “Fuck me lady, you are one evil bitch.” Ridley said, and then he grunted when Hess sucker punched in from the left. Ridley stumbled to one knee and Hess leaned over him.

  “That's my woman you're talking about,” Hess growled at him. He sauntered back over to Leanne and they shared a bloody kiss. He took the one shot from her hands and levelled it at Ridley. “Ten years of planning and you almost ruined it," Hess said to him. “We had to get rid of those babies lest my boy’s inheritance be disputed by some half Shumacker bastard. Teddy here is 100% Hess, but he will get everything Shumacker ever had. All we need to do is get rid of Freddy and make it look like just another OD.”

  “Shit,” Ridley muttered, spitting blood from mouth and shaking his head. “That’s why you kept killing those homeless people. You needed everyone to think the OD’s were still happening so you could kill Shumacker and everyone would assume it was just another overdose.”

  “Bingo,” Hess said with a grin. “Our plans got delayed when Freddy’s will went missing. Turns out the fucker had it altered when he got that bitch LaRue pregnant, so we had to make that disappear too and replaced it with a forgery in his safe. Then it turned out some fucking Goblins had put paid to this Bad Batch that was serving as our cover. So what choice did we have?”

  “And Manny, and Eliza?” Ridley said.

  “Eliza was just a busy body asking too many questions and Manny…” Hess shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I never liked that fat fuck.”

  “Enough talk, Hubey.” Eliza said. “Finish him and the girl. Then we’ll set up Freddy’s body and this will all be over.” Her eyes had a feverish quality to them.

  “Sorry PI, guess our little chat is over,” Hess said, raising the one shot. “It’s been a pleasure, but no one is getting in the way of my boy inheriting what was rightfully mine in the first place!”

  Ridley spat blood from his mouth and looked at Nairo. She wasn’t moving but she was still breathing. He then looked over his shoulder down at the main entrance to the Shumacker Estate and grinned at Hubert.

  “Sorry mate, the only thing you're inheriting is a concrete hole in Black Water and a noose.”

  The smile dropped from Hubert's face. He looked over the balcony and saw what Ridley had seen: Valderia PD. At least six wagons had pulled up at the main gate and blue clad officers were already sprinting through the long garden towards the manor house.

  “What did you think?” Ridley asked him. “That we just came haring after you without backup? That's cowboy shit mate. PD knows everything. And once they find Shumacker here, he'll corroborate everything we told them and you'll be lucky if you don't hang by morning.”

  “What is he talking about?” Leanne said frantically behind Hess standing on tiptoes to look over the balcony disturbing little Teddy, his soft wailing starting up again as the rain pounded down. Leanne saw the police and her eyes widened in fear. “What no that can't be. Hubert it can't be. Tell me what's going on, Hubert!”

  “Calm down honey,” Hubert said. “We just need to… we just need to get away from here.”

  “Get away?” Leanne said. “We need Friederick, we can't just leave.”

  “If we don't leave now, we’re going to be arrested!” Hubert snapped. “Let's just go, we can think of something else, but we need to get out of here now!”

  “I'm not leaving here empty-handed,” Leanne shrieked at him. “I want my gold, I want what's mine!” She yelled at him through gritted teeth. “Stop them Hubert! Kill them all!” The one shot crossbow in his hand would be no match for nearly two dozen police officers pounding through the house. Even with the rain they could hear the footsteps and the yelling of the officers as they made their way up.

  “It's over!” Ridley shouted at her. “You're not getting anything you mad psychotic bitch!”

  “No! No! No!” Leanne was practically stamping her feet while trying to shush little Teddy. “You will not ruin this, you will not take everything from me! I will have my dreams!” Leanne screamed at Ridley.

  Hess looked around and saw there were officers posted by the main and side gates. They had also reached the office. They were banging on the door, trying to break it down.

  “It's over sweetie," Hess said quietly, the crossbow dropping from his hands.

  He reached out to embrace Leanne perhaps for the last time. She slapped his hands away and stumbled backwards. A crazed look appeared in her eyes, enhanced by her wild hair and the dried blood caking her top lip.

  “No no it's not, don't say that Hubert! Don't say that! We’re not some commoners who will go to prison and stand trial and have our faces splashed across the newspapers. No Hubert! No! No! No! That won’t be how it ends for us!” Her voice petered out into a hoarse croak, half mad cackle and half theatrical stage whisper.

  “What are you talking about, Lee?” Hubert said.

  A needle appeared as if from nowhere in Leanne's hand.

  “We’ll go out like fabled lovers in death's embrace, together! You, me, and little Teddy. All three of us will take the Blood Moon and we'll just go away and disappear and they’ll never catch us, Hubert! They’ll never catch us!” Leanne’s voice was desperate.

  Hubert's face looked stricken. He was lost for words. Ridley didn't move. He didn't know what to do.

  “I…” Hubert croaked.

  The office door shuddered, almost coming off its hinges. The officers would be through any moment now.

  “It’s easy, it won't hurt. I promise!” Leanne said to him desperately. “And.. and I'll do little Teddy first and then we can say goodbye to him and then you do me… and I’ll do you and then that will be it. We’ll be gone and they’ll never catch us, Hubey! Please! I promise you. I love you! This is the only way!”

  Leanne pulled her son from her chest. His screams reached their crescendo. She smothered his face with bloody kisses. She shushed him tenderly and wiped tears and blood from his face.

  “Don’t cry baby, we will be together again real soon. Just close your eyes and it'll be over.” She raised the needle.

  “No!” Ridley cried out leaping towards her. But he would never make it.

  Leanne brought the needle down. Hess's snakelike hand snatched her wrist inches from the baby's throat. Leanne gasped and looked up at him.

  “Hubey?” she said, her voice small and panicked.

  “I won't let you kill my son," Hubert said, his voice thick and gravelly.

  He took little Teddy from her arms gently but firmly, pulling the young boy away. Leanne stood there her whole body shaking as she watched Hess pull the boy away from her.

  “No!” she screamed, yanking her wrist free of Hess and stumbling back towards the edge of the balcony, her eyes wide and blood shot.

  “They won’t take me! I won't let them. I'm a free woman. I'm free!” She screamed as she slammed the needle into her own heart. She gasped, her eyes widened as the breath was driven from her body. And then she screamed. The full dose of poison caused her muscles to spasm, her organs seized, and her blood turned to shards of glass inside her. Blood oozed from her eyes, ears, and nose. She screamed and twisted, stumbling backwards until she hit the railing and she tumbled over the edge into the darkness. Her scream followed her down until they heard the wet sound of her body hitting concrete below. The scream stopped. Ridley stood there looking at where Leanne had been and then he turned and looked up at Hess who was standing with his back to the grisly sight shielding his son from it. He cradled the boy to his chest gently. The office doors exploded open and officers poured into the room.

  “Over there! On the balcony!”

  “Move! Move! Move!”

  “Man down! We’ve got man down, possibly Friederick Shumacker!”

  “On your knees! On your knees!! Hands on your head!”

  Officers poured through the hole in the french doors and surrounded Hubert Hess brandishing oneshots and crossbows while screaming at him to get down. Ridley leapt forward and then held his hands out for little Teddy. Hess looked at the boy one more time and then looked at Ridley. He placed a single kiss on Teddy’s forehead before he gave away his son. Ridley swept the boy up in the cloth that he had been swaddled in and Hess dropped to his knees with his fingers laced behind his head, his eyes never leaving Teddy.

  “Guess they actually got me this time," Hess said, his voice almost sardonic. “Oh well… fuck it.”

  Ridley looked over a shoulder down at Hess as the offices closed in on him.

  “Your old man had it right, you should have stayed dead,” Ridley said to him coldly before turning away.

  The last thing he saw of Hubert Hess was a shock of pain running through his eyes as his father's last words stung him. The officers bundled Hess to the floor, manacling his hands behind his back. Conway came through the french doors a second later. He looked around and then saw the prone Nairo on the floor with Ridley kneeling down next to her. He ran over and dropped to his knees looking at Ridley.

  “Is she?”

  “She's alive, but barely," Ridley said to him. “She got poisoned but I don’t think she took a full dose.”

  Conway nodded and looked over shoulder barking orders.

  “Washbottom! Edgewater! Where are you?”

  Wally Washbottom and Timmy Edgewater came tumbling through the hole in the French doors scurrying as fast as they could, holding a tin box between them. They dropped to their knees next to Nairo and undid the latches on the box and threw it open, withdrawing a small potion bottle.

  “The doctor said this should work," Conway said. “She'll be in pieces for a few days but she should live.”

  “I'll have to give Doc Brown my thanks," Ridley said as he gently held up Nairo's head with his free hand while Conway poured the potion into her mouth.

  Once it was all gone they laid her head back down gently and Conway ordered officers to pick her up and take her inside. Ridley followed and saw that they were tending to Shumacker who was groaning weakly. The back of his head was a bloody mess, his face pale white. They laid Nairo down on the carpet as she groaned softly. Ridley bent down next to her and tenderly patted her hand.

  “You'll be alright Sarge, just take it easy, it’s over now.”

  Her eyes fluttered open for a second and she looked at Ridley and then at the little bundle clutched to his chest.

  “Did you…?” Nairo croaked.

  Ridley looked at her and fought the tears that stung the back of his eyes and shook his head.

  “He’s alive. He's been arrested.”

  Nairo nodded the ghost of a smile on her face as she fell unconscious again.

  “Where’s Mrs Shumacker?” Conway asked, looking around.

  “She killed herself,” Ridley said, exhaustion catching up to him. “She was in on it the whole time with Hess. When it looked like she was going to be caught she took a full needle of Blood Moon and fell. You'll find her body down there with the rhododendrons.”

  Conway grimaced and then sent a few officers to go in search of the body.

  Little Teddy whimpered and cried against Ridley's chest. He looked down at the boy.

  “Yeah…” Ridley sighed. “It don’t get any better, kid.”