(2011) The Gift of Death (44 page)

‘
I said step away. Lower your gun.’

Nothing.

‘
Peterson, I’m ordering you to drop your weapon.’

Kate watched as Peterson shifted his gaze from Gleason to Harper.

‘
It’s true what he said,’ said Peterson. ‘But I was only doing my job.’

‘
What
?’ said Kate.

‘
I’ve been making a difference. A real difference. Not just arresting people, placing them in prison or some institution and waiting for them to come out and do it all over again. And everyone knows you’re more likely to die on death row from natural causes than lethal injection. When I started in the force I thought I could help. But I soon realised conventional law and order had – well, let’s just say it had its flaws.’

‘
Peterson, this is the last time I’m going to ask you,’ said Harper. ‘Drop – the – gun.’

Peterson shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir. I’ve got a job to finish.’

‘
I know how frustrated you must have felt,’ said Kate, trying to defuse the situation. ‘But we must let - ’

She looked over at Josh. She realised then that she had made her decision. She would go back to him. But then, just as Josh glanced towards her to meet her gaze, Gleason made a sudden lunge at Peterson. Josh trained his gun on them both, shifting between the two. If he could only disable them somehow. A leg. A hand.

He moved towards them, trying to concentrate on his target. He fired, hitting Peterson in the right arm. A scream tore through the air.

‘
No!’ said Peterson, falling to the ground.

Gleason kicked Peterson in the face, and wrenched the gun from his hand. With a swift motion Gleason turned towards Harper. Whoever fired first Kate didn’t know, but both men seemed consumed in the explosion. They stood looking at one another for a couple of seconds, their eyes locked in some kind of strange ritual. Kate’s gaze moved from one to the other, searching for signs of injury. Then Gleason began to crumple.

Everything was going to be okay now. Josh had shot the monster who had haunted their lives. It was over.

She scanned Gleason’s body but he was covered in so much blood already that it was difficult to see where he had taken the bullet. She noticed Josh started to sway a little.

‘
Are you alright?’ she said.

He nodded his head, but then Josh blinked. His eyelids began to flutter a little. He brought his hand up to his chest, where a dark bloom had begun to spread. He looked towards her. He opened his mouth to speak. Then he fell on his knees into the sand.

‘
No,’ she screamed. ‘Josh - ’

She ran towards him, pressing her hands onto his chest. Her fingers, already covered with Gleason’s blood, were sticky with Josh’s now. ‘You can’t, you can’t. Not now.’

She heard the click of a gun and looked up to see Gleason. He was reeling from the bullet, but he was still conscious.

‘
Here’s a little present from my dad,’ he mumbled, trying to smile. ‘It’s long overdue, but there you go. Better late than - ’

He brought the gun up in line with her head, but just as he was about to fire a bullet hit him at the base of the spine. It was Peterson.

Gleason collapsed into the sand. He was trying to crawl towards her, but another bullet tore into his head, splattering the beach with his blood and brain.

Kate stood, frozen with fear. Was she his next target?

‘
Don’t worry. It’s over now. He’s dead.’

Peterson started to walk over towards her.

‘
Are you okay?’ he said, putting his gun back in his holster.

She nodded, but every nerve in her body seemed to be screaming out in pain.

‘
We n-need to get an ambulance,’ she stuttered. ‘Do y-you have a cell?’

‘
Here,’ he said. ‘I think you’d better do it.’

She took hold of the cell, her bloodied hands shaking so badly she could hardly hold it. She looked down at Josh, his face already whitening. Was it too late for him?

She dialled 911. But as she spoke, reporting what had happened and giving her name and address, she felt an intense pain in her lower back. Had she hurt herself in the fall? Then the feeling spread to her stomach, pelvis and legs. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. Had she been hit by a bullet? Her hand moved down towards her middle, trying to locate the source of the pain. Then the realisation came to her.

‘
Send another ambulance,’ she said. ‘I think - my baby’s coming. And I’m early. Please, please come quick.’

As she cut the connection she heard the sound of police sirens in the distance. She looked up at Peterson. What should she do?

‘
Is it true – about those unsolved murders? It was you?‘

‘
Yes.’

‘
Why?’

‘
Like I said – crime and punishment. Justice. Real justice.’

She tried to untangle the confused morality that lay behind Peterson’s convictions. It was obvious he saw himself as some kind of adjudicator in the battle against good and evil. He was the supreme judge, an arbitrator that decided who should live, who should die. But what was it Josh had told her about that internet child porn user – what was he called? – Raymond Cutler. That his murderer had cut off his penis and shoved it into his mouth? If that didn’t betray one hell of a sick mind, what did?

‘
Peterson. You need to stop this. You need to get help.’

‘
What do you mean?’

‘
You can’t carry on like this. In setting yourself above the law you’ve lost all sense of reality. You’re ill.’

‘
I saved your life, didn’t I?’

‘
Yes, but –‘

‘
And Cassie’s. She would be dead had it not been for me.’

‘
But –‘

‘
And Gleason would still be alive –‘

‘
Do you really think this is a happy ending?’ she said, her voice rising. ‘Look around you, Peterson. Look at the bodies. Look at the blood.’

There was silence. He lowered his head, and stared at the bodies on the blackened sand.

‘
And what about Susan Gable? How did she know where to find Gleason?’

‘
I thought exacting a little revenge might do her good.’

She could hardly believe what he was saying.

‘
And Cynthia Ross?’

‘
What about her?’

‘
Gleason killed her.’

‘
But how did she know where to look for him? Was it you who gave her his address?’

‘
Yeah.’

‘
Ross may have been a no-good hack, a bitch, but she didn’t deserve to die.’

Peterson took another step closer to her.

‘
But I did it for you.’

‘
What
?’ she said, almost choking on the word.

‘
She betrayed you. She got what she deserved.’

She felt a wave of nausea rising within her. She was too shocked to reply.

‘
You told her to go rot in hell. I heard you.’

‘
That didn’t mean I wanted her dead,’ she said, spitting the words out in disgust. Jesus, what kind of twisted logic was this?

‘
I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘For everything, I mean.’ He looked down at the bodies of Susan Gable and Ryan Gleason, and then over towards Josh. ‘Especially Harper. He was a good man.’

The use of the past tense hit her like a bullet in the stomach. She felt whatever strength she had left draining from her. She fell forwards on to her knees and down to the sand.

‘
Are you going to be alright?’ he said softly, kneeling down besides her.

Kate trembled with pain, rage, shock and fear. She felt tears burn in her eyes.

‘
Just go,’ she said. ‘I don’t want you here.’

What could he do to make her feel better? How could he explain himself? How could he outline his philosophy, his mission to protect the innocent and punish the guilty? He wanted to tell her that, in a way, he loved her. But that would have to wait. Nevertheless, he would always protect her, always watch over her. He reached out and touched her silver hair. In the fading light of the day it looked even more like a halo, he thought.

‘
Don’t touch me,’ she said, spitting out the words as if they were drops of poison. ‘Please, just leave me alone.’

She just didn’t understand. But he was sure she would one day. She just needed a little time. He looked down to examine his arm, where blood bubbled up from the surface of the wound. He stood up, turned from her and started to walk down the beach. Just as he was about to slip around the side of one of the beach houses in the distance, he looked at her, raised his left hand as if to wave goodbye and then said something. He was too far away for her to hear. Then he was gone.

As the fragments of the past few months began to fall into place, Kate took hold of Josh’s head and cradled it in her hands. A tear dropped onto his pale face.

‘
Yes,’ she said, whispering into his ear. ‘I don’t know if you can hear me, but my answer is yes.’

She took a deep breath and could almost taste the salt in the air. She reached down and touched her stomach. She moaned as the pain coursed through her body again. She looked up at the horizon. In the distance the blood red sun was about to set. She listened to the waves rise and fall. She continued to stare out to sea, no longer haunted by a dead child in the waves. She was thinking about life.