Heller's Punishment (34 page)

In court, an
expectant buzz filled the room. Gavin, and all the family and
friends he was able to stuff inside the room were an electric mix
of hope and despair. As usual, Trent sat with commendable
composure, but he turned at one point and scanned the crowd with
such a poignant and troubled expression that I felt sorry for him.
It couldn’t be easy to stand publicly accused of being the cause of
another person’s death.

When the judge
delivered her verdict in favour of Trent, the courtroom erupted
into mayhem. I jumped from my seat and rushed down to where he sat,
dazed and happy. He wisely refrained from openly celebrating, but
he clearly was incredibly relieved. He attempted to say a few
consoling words to Gavin, but that man turned his back and angrily
lumbered out of the courtroom without a word. I waited patiently
while Trent thanked his lawyers and consulted on the next steps,
including the inevitable press conference.

When we exited
the courtroom, both Ozanne and Beyrer seemed annoyed. I soon
learned that Gavin’s supporters had heckled them on their way out.
Ozanne’s expression was of understandable irritation, but Beyrer’s
face contorted into a mask of barely suppressed rage. The guy had
obvious anger management problems.

For God’s
sake,
don’t snap today, Beyrer
, I begged to myself.

From the glass
doors of the courthouse, we watched Gavin’s support group becoming
predictably upset after being told of the verdict. The court
security officers advised us that they’d called for police support
to disperse the crowd. I recommended that we wait safely inside the
courthouse until the cops arrived. All three men regarded me with
undeserved scorn.

“I want to get
out of here, Tilly. I’ve had enough of this place,” Trent insisted.
“Let’s go! I have business to attend to.” Both of the
Heller’s
men agreed with him. I tried again.

“They’re very
angry, Trent. Why risk it? Let’s just wait for the police. Please.
It will be safer for everyone. The three of us can’t handle that
crowd.”

Trent became
irate with me. “Tilly, I’m not having the image of me being rushed
to my car by cops plastered all over the papers tomorrow. I’m not
afraid of any of these people. For God’s sake, you’ve already
brought down the biggest of them! Stop being so overcautious.”

The men threw
me looks that implied I was letting the entire
Heller’s
team
down by being so wimpy, which of course only served to rile me. So
I shot them all a fierce look and taking the lead, pushed open the
glass courthouse doors with unnecessary force and temper.

But as soon as
I stepped outside, the crowd jeered, taunted and hissed me. It was
an unnerving experience. I waited until Trent caught up with me,
tucking my arm into his so we stayed together no matter what we
faced. The reality of the crowd’s hostility brought him to a halt.
They shouted some truly hateful comments at him, which competing
media picked up with glee. His entire body stiffened, and his face
paled at the loathing directed at him.

The crowd began
to mob, nobody and nothing to hold them back from us. I moved Trent
forward with urgency. We were going to have to make it past the
crowd and we didn’t want to be caught in the middle of them. It was
much safer for us to be a moving target. I threw a glare of censure
back at Ozanne and Beyrer. They should have listened to me and
stayed in the courthouse until the cops arrived.

Then the
missiles began. Something hit me on the cheek. It was hard and
stung, and it wasn’t until I felt a slimy residue dripping down my
face that I realised I’d been egged. I turned again to the two
men.

“What are you
waiting for? I need you here!” I shouted at them. The crowd surged
and the men struggled to reach us, pushing through screaming
people. The media retreated to a safe distance as soon as danger
reared its head, and the court security watched us impassively
through the sanctity of their glass doors. We were on our own.

Another egg hit
me, arching my back in pain. Trent copped one on his shoulder that
broke and ran down his pristine suit. He was aghast, never having
encountered such concentrated personal hatred before.

“Ozanne, go get
the vehicle and bring it here. We need to get out of this place
straight away,” I ordered. He didn’t argue but sprinted away,
fending off a couple of eggs as he ran. That left Beyrer and me. I
knew he wouldn’t do anything I requested, no matter how reasonable.
I slipped my arm around Trent’s waist and urged him on.

“We’re going to
move up the street to where the vehicle is, then jump in very
quickly,” I explained to him. He nodded his understanding, not
quite able to disguise the apprehension on his face. He was
probably concerned about being torn to shreds by the angry crowd. I
was a little worried about it myself.

We all caught a
few more projectiles, mostly eggs. One hit Beyrer in the forehead,
egg white and yolk sliding down his face. It was apparently his
last straw. He stopped, used his hand to wipe the egg off with
deliberate slowness, and turned around until he spotted the
culprit, a young acne-scarred man. With his fists clenched and
veins popping in his neck, he lurched over, seized the young man by
his shirt, lifted him up and punched him hard in the face. Blood
gushed from the poor man’s nose, and the crowd exploded with shouts
and heckles in shock and anger at the unwarranted violence.

“
Beyrer!
” I yelled, rushing over and dragging Trent with me.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put him down now!”

It was as if I
hadn’t even spoken, Beyrer continuing to pummel the man in front of
horrified and screaming witnesses. I let go of Trent and forced
myself between Beyrer and the young man, pushing him away as hard
as I could. The young man fell in a bloodied heap, quickly dragged
to safety by the crowd. Beyrer swung out around him, throwing
punches indiscriminately at anyone he could reach, angry hatred
oozing from every pore.

“
Beyrer!
” I screamed at him. “Stop it! Now
!
What the
hell’s the matter with you? Are you insane?” He didn’t just ignore
me, I honestly believe that he didn’t even hear me at all, his eyes
glazed over with violence. Strong, big and forceful, he pushed
through the crowd. People scattered in alarm.

“Get away from
him!” I yelled at everyone, shoving those too reluctant or too slow
to move out of the way. Trent helped me to drag a few injured or
fallen people out of the way. Eventually I created an empty circle
around Beyrer where he couldn’t reach anyone. He spun around,
growling like an animal, wanting to take someone on. It was a
terrifying sight to see someone losing control like that, and it
shocked me exactly how many people stayed to watch or film him with
their phone cameras.

A camera crew
from a local news show ventured too close to him, trying to film
some footage for tonight’s broadcast. Beyrer attacked them,
smashing their camera, king-hitting their sound guy and frightening
the rest away. Trent and I dragged the sound guy to safety. I
didn’t know what to do next, wishing Ozanne would hurry up and
return. I couldn’t take on Beyrer by myself.

Beyrer’s mad
eyes next lighted on a huddled group of terrified young women
caught up against the wall of the courthouse. They screamed with
pitiable fear, shrinking back against the wall as he stalked
towards them. I sprang off sprinting and launched myself onto his
back, my arms firmly grasped around his throat. He shook his body
violently back and forth to dislodge me, my teeth rattling in my
head as I was flung from side to side. Fury gave him extra
strength, but I clung on tightly to him, squeezing his throat with
my arms as hard as I could. He reached around to haul me off,
clutching at my polo top. The material rode up my back, its seams
straining.
He better not rip my shirt off me
, I thought,
tightening my grip around his neck. I did
not
want to end up
on TV in my undies again.

We performed an
odd dance, me slowly strangling him while he reached behind
attempting to grab me, spinning us around in circles as he did. He
managed to clutch a handful of my hair and yanked on it. I shrieked
in pain, loosening one arm to return the favour, earning myself a
sharp grunt from him. He grasped the arm around his throat, his
fingers digging into my skin. He was so brawny that I wasn’t sure
I’d be able to maintain my grip on him for much longer. So with the
fingers of my free hand I poked him in the eyes as we swung around,
cringing as I did it. But because I hadn’t been game enough to do
it properly, all it did was enrage him further without disabling
him. I slid my other arm around his throat again and squeezed
especially hard.

He reacted with
a superhuman effort to prise my arms from around my neck, dropping
me to the ground with a bone-rattling thump. I twisted and
scrambled to get out of his way, but he reached down and seized me
by an ankle, roughly pulling me backwards. I was almost upside
down, him dangling me by my ankle. I scrabbled on the concrete,
fingernails breaking, trying to get some traction to escape.
Frantically kicking out at him, I managed to free my left ankle
from his grip. He grasped me by the collar of my shirt and hauled
me upright. He scooped me up in his arms and flung me towards the
huddled women as a projectile. I crashed into them, knocking them
all over. Now, I was really angry.

I extricated
myself swiftly from the jumble of arms and legs, and rushed at him
in temper. I hit the brick wall of his solid muscle mass with
violent recoil, stumbling backwards. I put my shoulder and head
down for another go, this time making contact with considerable
force. Luckily for me, Beyrer was temporarily distracted by Ozanne
who’d finally returned. Ozanne circled him, waiting for an
opportunity to dive in and overpower him. Beyrer took his eye off
me and my second impact knocked him heavily to the ground. He
clutched my arms as he fell, pulling me down on top of him.

Before I could
make any further moves, he began to choke the life out of me with
his big, beefy hands. I hooked my fingers around his hands,
desperately trying to pry them from my neck. I was locked in a
dreadful intimate embrace with him, staring into his eyes, our
limbs entwined. He rolled us over and over on the ground, all of
his attention directed towards hurting me. Ozanne hovered anxiously
at the edge, finding it difficult to intervene in our rolling mass
of arms and legs.

Chapter
23

Beyrer was
slowly winning the battle and my vision grew increasingly cloudy.
My last sensible thought was that surely in this crowd of people
surrounding us,
someone
was going to step in before he
killed me. And that’s when I was hit with indescribable pain, so
strong it threw Beyrer and me apart from each other. I lay on the
ground blinking in the daylight, arms and legs thrown carelessly
askew. I didn’t seem to be able to move and wondered if I’d died.
But then the paramedics arrived and I knew I was still alive. I
looked up at them as they regarded me, hands on their hips.

“Not you
again?” said one. It was the same pair who’d tended to Daniel and
me when a demented woman had attacked us a while ago. I tried to
shrug with airy nonchalance, but couldn’t move. They knelt down
next to me and examined me quickly and efficiently.

“What
happened?” I asked them slowly, finding it difficult to form words
properly, my voice hoarse from the choking, my tongue feeling ten
times its normal size.

“The cops
tasered you.”

“It hurt,” I
slurred.

“So we’ve
heard.”

They helped me
to a sitting position and propped me up against the courthouse
wall, handing me a bottle of cold water to help my sore throat.
There wasn’t much they could do for me except sympathise, and they
didn’t have much time for that either with other injured people to
attend to. Outside the courthouse, it resembled a battlefield. I
noticed the cops keeping a large media contingent at bay. When they
saw that the paramedics had finished with me, Trent and Ozanne came
over and knelt down beside me. I leaned back against the wall and
closed my eyes. I hurt everywhere, grimy and completely
knackered.

“God Tilly,
that was the most awful experience I’ve ever had,” Trent said, his
face ashen and drawn. “That man picked you up and
threw
you!
Like a rag doll. It took four cops to overpower him and that was
after
the tasering. I’ve never seen anything like him.”

“I’ve called
the boss. He’ll be here soon. He’s going to go ballistic,” said
Ozanne mournfully. The job had turned into a total fuck-up, the
absolute worst kind of publicity for
Heller’s
. We both
dreaded the aftermath.

“Let’s hope he
gets caught up in a traffic jam, hey?” I croaked.

No such luck
though. His Mercedes drove up to the curb, braking aggressively.
Doors slammed as he and Clive stepped out. Ozanne and I exchanged
apprehensive glances as the two men stopped briefly to talk to the
cops. The flinty set of Heller’s jaw and Clive’s narrowed eyes
suggested that they were both furious. I wouldn’t want to be Beyrer
right now. I wasn’t too thrilled with being me at the moment
either.

“We’re screwed,
Ozanne,” I stated flatly. He nodded in unenthusiastic agreement. I
was given a brief reprieve from Heller’s wrath by a couple of cops
strolling over to me to take an initial statement.

“Why did you
taser me? I didn’t do anything wrong. I was trying to stop him,” I
complained, taking another painful swig of cold water.

“You were both
rolling around so much we hit you by accident. Sorry. Not supposed
to use it in those situations, but that man was berserk. We didn’t
really have a choice. We’re going to get a reaming over this,
believe me,” replied one of the cops, a street-hardened veteran,
speckles of gray poking through his curly black hair.