this would go. But the mention of the girlfriend gave me an idea. It was a longshot, but maybe it would work.
“You’re right, us cops love killing. We kill people and get away with all the time. That’s why I could pay that nurse to smother Shelly.”
“You… what?” his hand was shaking now.
“She was a goddamn vegetable. She was better off dead.”
“She was awake! She could move her arms! She recognized me!” He screamed.
“She shot at cops, and when you shoot at cops, you don’t deserve to liv—“
It worked. I provoked him. He turned the gun away from Dani and swung it at me. I had managed that much, but with Dani in the way there was still no shot. That’s when she saved my life.
Dani slammed her elbow back as hard she could, burying it in Savala’s testicles. He gasped out a harsh exhale and she was all over him, grabbing at his gun arm, scratching the exposed skin between his sleeve and his glove. With Dani holding his arm, the gun was aimed safely at a wall and I took the chance to run at them, lowering a shoulder into Savala and then rising up when I hit him. The impact knocked him away from my wife and I carried him the length of the Millers’ couch and all the way to the curtains. I expected to hit a window, but Mike’s bullet had shattered it. We passed through the curtains and fell over the windowsill, pulling the fabric down on top of us.
I rolled out of the curtain onto damp grass littered with shards of the window, and before I could even get my bearings I heard several gunshots fired. Not from a police-issue Glock, but shots fired through a suppressor. Savala was shooting, and not at me.
I had tackled him, but hadn’t grabbed the gun. In the moment, I knew I had failed. Savala was firing and Dani, even though she was technically inside the house, was right next to us. It was with tears in my eyes that I looked up.
Dani was standing in the window, emptying every bullet of Savala’s gun into the heap under the curtain. She had held onto it was I carried Savala through the window.
Charlie came running, his own gun drawn, and seeing Dani firing and the thrashing lump beneath the curtain, his eyes went wide, and he made a decision. He joined in, firing several shots into the curtain.
When Dani was out of bullets, I pulled the curtain back. Savala was dead.
“Jesus, Savala? Where’s Mike?” Charlie said.
His partner was in the Millers’ kitchen now, shouting.
“Put the gun down!” shouted Gord.
“No!” I screamed, and Dani, in the living room that was oddly less separate from the yard now, without the window, turned and shouted too.
“Gord!” I shouted, “Detective Brenner! Mike’s on our side!”
I hopped back into the house through the missing window and ran to Mike, who had pulled himself into a slumped leaning position against the wall.
“Mike!” I said, grabbing his hand. “Thank you.”
“Did you shoot me?” he muttered through glassy eyes.
18
I had only shot Mike in the fat of his swollen chest. Barely hit him, really. Nothing major got hurt.
The story made sense once I put it all together. All those years ago, we never really knew how Savala found our houses. We guessed he saw our names in the paper and looked us up in the phone book, and maybe that was true. After it happened, Dani and I moved to a house and Mike moved to that little apartment. Both of us made sure our homes were unlisted.
But it was also possible that he had followed us home; that Savala just watched us leave the precinct, tailed us to our doorstep, and then came back later for Dani and Mary Beth. I should have realized that. Because when he came back the second time, that was exactly what he did.
Savala followed me to Mike’s apartment and once he realized who was living there, couldn’t resist going in for a kill. I’d bet you a million bucks that Savala had never planned on going after Mike, and just saw him as a worthy kill to distract me.
Savala had been pretty clear that he thought life without your love was worse than death. That’s why he killed Mary Beth but not Mike, and the dry cleaning husband instead of the nurse. Lout had been single, so Savala just killed him. But Mike, he had been punished enough. Savala didn’t need to kill him, and he had no plan. But some stupid instinct had made him walk right in Mike’s door, where Mike saw him coming.
Mike had fought him off, and most importantly, managed to start a fire to scare Savala off. He tried to put out the flames, but that didn’t work, and only gave Savala more time to escape. When the bullet in the old gun’s chamber went off, Mike got spooked and gave up on firefighting. He grabbed his old Glock 17 and headed after Savala.
And Mike figured out, just as I had, that Savala’s next target was Dani.
By the time he arrived, Savala had given up on our house and decided to poke around the neighbours. That was the scene I walked into: Mike in a standoff with a maniac, and Dani in between.
I had thought Mike was a broken, desperate man, and he was. But I had also thought Mike was a nutcase out for revenge, when he was actually a hero.
19
Mr. Miller hadn’t even been home that night. He was on a business trip. Yet another widower in Savala’s perverse rampage.
20
Dani went back to the therapist. Her recovery from the trauma was actually pretty quick this time. Unlike the trauma of the first time, with the spectre of Savala looming over her, this time she knew he was gone. Even better, she now knew that she was the one who had stopped him.
We moved again, to a nice brand-new house, and got a custom hand painted sign for the front garden that says Daniandandy.
And I used the powers of my new desk job to give Charlie a raise. An extra thousand a year, plus two pennies.
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Short Stories:
Stray Woods (FREE!)
Bone Soup
Good Fortune
Heads Up
Killing Machine: The Duel (FREE!)
Killing Machine: The Chase
Killing Machine: The Rescue
Killing Machine: The Escape
Killing Machine: The Revenge
Killing Machine: The Complete Collection
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