CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Sadly, I remembered the place like it was yesterday, instead of five years ago. He had beaten his wife so badly, I didn’t know if she was alive when we got there. The caller had said she was a neighbor that had heard the fight. When we had gone next door to speak with the caller, the men there said there were no women that lived there. We were unable to find the caller and Mr. Henderson’s wife was lucky to be alive. Whoever called had saved her life. He was getting ready to shoot her when we busted in.
“Okay, the home is a one story house with a garage. There are three doors that lead inside. There’s one in the garage, a back door and a front door. We’ll look around first and find out where she’s keeping Sam. When we locate her, we’ll meet up on the East side of the house to discuss entrance.”
It had only taken fifteen minutes to get there but it had felt like hours. I parked the car about a block down the road. That way, we could go unseen until we entered the house. Once there, it didn’t take long to find Sam. We could see her just inside the living room window.
As planned, we moved over to the East side of the house and decided on how to enter. I, of course, would go in through the front door. I would knock to get her to focus on me. Adams and Casey would go in through the back door. I would insist she kill me in the garage so they could get Sam out of harm’s way by telling her I didn’t want my niece to see me die. Once she was safe, Adams would call my cell and I would let it go to voicemail. After that, the game was on. She wouldn’t know what hit her.
When I could hear they were in place, I knocked on the door. I saw Sam look up as Beth opened the door.
“Uncle Shawn no, she’s going to kill you!” Sam was crying so hard she almost didn’t get the words out.
“Let my niece go, I’m here now.” I knew she said after I was dead she would let her go but I had to try. It was also hard to ignore the pleas of my niece.
“You’re still alive. I’m not letting her go yet.”
“If you must do this, then please do it in the garage? I don’t want Sam to see it happen. It’s bad enough she’s going to hear it. There’s no reason she needs to see it.”
She stood there for so long I didn’t think she would go for it. “Okay, get moving.” She stepped between Sam and me so Sam wouldn’t see the gun that was being pointed at me, and, followed me out of the door. The whole way I could hear Sam screaming my name and yelling please don’t kill him. “I love you Uncle Shawn” was almost too much for me to hear at the moment.
When we got in the garage, I hit the car and set off the alarm. This was my signal to Adams and Casey that the coast was clear. It also delayed Beth from shooting me. She scrabbled in her pockets to find the keys to shut it off.
“What the hell did you do that for? The neighbors will call the cops.” As she finished her sentence my phone began to ring. I gave a small smile and charged her. Before she could react I had her pinned to the wall next to the door.
She was stronger than I had expected. She managed to keep hold of the gun and to spin around to face the wall. I moved my head just as she jerked back to head-butt me. She took advantage of me being off balance by shoving off the wall and throwing me against the car, sending the sound of the alarm into the sounds of the fight. I pushed off the car and swung at her; finally knocking the gun free from her grip.
As I was launching myself at her, she jumped up with a tire iron in her hand. I tried to duck as she swung at me but she slammed it against my left side, sending me into the car. I shattered the driver’s window and could feel my arm break. I landed on the floor where she jumped on top of me, raising the tire iron high over her head. I threw my fist at her with everything I had. She flew across the room and crashed into some metal shelves. I thought with the impact being so hard it would knock her out. No such luck. Before I could get to her she threw the tire iron at me and it hit me square in the chest.
“Give up, Beth. It’s over.” I demanded as I stumbled to the floor.
“Not without a fight”
She began to charge at me. I had just enough time to swing out and hit her. This time the impact of hitting the shelves knocked her out. She sank to the floor as I grabbed her gun. Before I was able to walk over to her, I was confronted by Adams.
“Don’t do it Shawn. She’s not worth it. It’s over now. Let’s just get her in cuffs and off to the hospital. Then she can be taken to prison for life.”
Turning around I saw Sam was standing in the door. All of my anger and rage melted away as she ran into my arms crying.
“I told you to get her out of here. Why is she still here?” I wasn’t angry, just concerned.
“She followed Adams back in. I was just catching up to her when we saw it was over. I couldn’t bring myself to make her leave you. She was frantic when we took her out back. She begged us to help you. That’s why Adams came back in.” Casey’s words were enough to make me let go and cry. Adams was on the phone requesting the EMTs and a car to follow them to the hospital.
I sat on the front steps with Sam in my arms as we waited. She was flooding me with tears and questions. I answered the best I could. I knew she was owed some answers but I wasn’t sure how much Carolyn wanted her to know. Personally, I felt she was old enough to know the truth, but I’m not her parent, so it’s not my choice.
When the officers showed up it turned out to be just about the entire department. Carolyn bolted from Dad’s car and made a beeline to Sam who was up and out of my arms in a flash. The only movement I could make was to lean forward and slump over my knees. The relief of this being over was almost as overwhelming as the ordeal itself. As I sat there, hands began to massage my shoulders and I was able to lean back against Casey as I felt the tension begin to melt. Before long I was surrounded by my family.
“I know you are a vampire but maybe you should go to the hospital and let them make sure you’re okay.” Dad was standing over me acting as my father, not my boss.
Letting out a shaky laugh, the only thing I could say was, “I need a vacation, not the hospital.”
“Then here’s the deal, you take as long as you need. If you show up at work before you are ready, I’ll suspend you until I think you are ready to come back.” I had to laugh at his lack of ability to not just be my father on that aspect. But this was one time I was grateful for it.
“Shawn. I want you to know I don’t blame you for this. You shouldn’t either. None of this was your fault.” Carolyn was standing next to Dad, still hanging onto Sam.
“I’ve already had my head knocked off for stating how I feel about all of this so I’m just not going to say anything.” The glare from my Dad made me sink farther back into Casey.
Sam, on the other hand, had come out of her shock and fear. “What do you mean you know he’s a vampire?” The look of confusion made us all laugh.
“I’ll explain later, once I’ve found out how much your mother will let me tell you.” I stood up, wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head.
In response to the sounds coming from the garage, I looked up to see Beth being wheeled out on a stretcher. From the sounds she was making I could tell she was awake. I let go of Sam and walked over to where Beth was being taken to the ambulance.
“You know you are going to serve life for five counts of murder and one count of kidnaping. I’m going to find any and every charge I can to hit you with. I will make sure there is no chance of parole for you. And your father can kiss any privileges he has good-bye.” I stood over her to make sure she saw me and heard every word I said.
Beth looked up at me and I could see the sadness in her eyes. Whether it was because she was truly sorry for what she and her brother had done or that she got caught doing it, I wasn’t sure. “I should have told him no. I know it doesn’t mean much now but I’m sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen. Even with him behind bars I was still scared of him. I was ready to leave the country and forget about it but I learned that Will had been killed. The anger I
felt towards my father for talking us into this mess was redirected at you.” When she started to cry I almost felt sorry for her. But like she had said, she could have said no.
The EMTs took her to the ambulance and loaded her in. Before long, they left, leaving me with a relief like I had never felt before. Even though I was glad it was over and she would pay for what she had done, it still left me sad. She had been a good employee up until the end. It’s kind of depressing to know how her life has ended up. She had good potential. But at the end of the day, she had allowed her father to trap her in a scheme that had ruined her life.
I found myself surrounded by my family again. Bryan, Carolyn, Sam, my dad and Casey. “Let’s get back to the house Shawn. Your mother is probably pulling her hair out right now. Courtney, Mark and Julie were all restless when we left. Besides, you look like shit. You need to feed.” Dad said as he pointed at the car waiting for me.
“Dad, I can’t feed from them again today. I’ll be fine until the morning. All I want to do right now is fall into the bed and sleep.” I patted Dad on the shoulder and lead Adams and Casey back to the car.