Whisper In The Dark (The McKinnon Legends-- The American Men Book One) (35 page)

Her voice carried high into the rafters scattering the birds roosting there. “Forget it! It will be a very cold day in hell before I’ll just let you off the hook.”

“I beg you. I would go back and undo if I could.”

“But you cannot. According to you, Doctor Death, you’re an old man, so you should find some consolation in the fact you should not have long to live with the guilt that I shall willingly let you take to your grave. You can answer to your maker for it. I’ll deal with my own maker if it comes down to it.”

“It was not intentional, Katherine. It happens sometimes. As a doctor there are times when miscalculations are made.”

“It does not matter what your intentions were or were not. You were the one to inject him by your own admission. You were the one to leave him to die.”

“You would not believe me if I said I had no choice. So, now you have your chance to exact your revenge. I will not stop you,” he said softly, hanging his head.

Robert’s words flooded her brain. Could she really step across that line in an act of revenge?

“And make you a martyr? No way. I will never forgive you. However, I do not wish you ill by my hand. I will not become the same monster you are, Doctor Death. And even though I hate you and loathe what you stand for, I hope you never have to suffer the loss of someone you love all in the name of greed.”

“At least you are honest,” the voice spoke from the darkness again. He was saving his lighter. “But your sentiment comes just a bit too late. I have lived far too long to have been spared.”

She heard him sigh heavily in the darkness. It was the sort of sigh coming deep from within a heavy heart and tired soul. She wondered at eighty-years-old how heavy her heart would be. Would she rejoice in her life or feel regrets? She thought of Robert.

“I have not always been as you see me now, not as Doctor Death.”

Katherine waited through the pregnant pause. Instinctively, she held her breath knowing he was not finished.

His voice was almost singsong as he began his journey back through time.

“She was zee most beautiful thing I had ever seen with jet black hair, full and long, and eyes so blue a man could get lost forever in zem. Zhose eyes were full of hope for zee future. She was sixteen. I was seventeen. It was May 18, 1940, and I recall it was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky.” He paused remembering better days.

“We had just gotten married and coming out of zee little whitewashed church zat was zee place of salvation of our small community. We both grew up together, sweethearts from the age of five in a small rural hamlet on zee outskirts of Paris about forty miles to zee east.”

Somehow she sensed what was coming. Her history was not lost to her, and
Gay Pari
in 1940 was not where young lovers wanted to find themselves.

“How was I to know zee German’s had come? Zee shelling began so suddenly. One moment zee birds sang and the next chaos. To zhis day I do not remember doing it, but somehow in zee pandemonium I dragged her into zee cemetery beside zee holy church. It was sacred ground where generations of families had laid zheir loved ones. My grandfather and his father before him rested zhere. Foolishly, I thought we would be safe behind zee walls of zat hallowed place. I guess one grabs what hope one can.”

Strange somehow, she thought. She could relate to that statement.

“I remember shaking in fear. I was so scared, not for myself, but for what zee soldiers would do to my lovely bride should zey capture us.”

“What did you do then?” Kate was caught up in the story.

“We hid behind zee rock wall in some bushes until zee shelling stopped and darkness fell.”

“And your wife?”

Kate felt she must already know deep down that this story did not have a happy-ever-after ending.

“She was hit in zee very first volley.”

He did not know it at the time, and it was not until her dress was soaked with the red of her blood that he knew he was losing her. He was the son of a wine maker, not a doctor, and he knew nothing of what to do to stem the blood to save her life. She died a virgin bride.

"I was helpless. I could do nothing for her. I watched her die in my arms and saw zee life go out of those beautiful eyes.”

She had heard stories of individuals losing loved ones during the war, and the senseless loss of life still made her angry. Expanding borders and the ideology of a lunatic all came at the expense of the common man. The blood of the innocent enriched the soil of many a battleground. It always had and always would. It was the nature of that beast. Man was just destined to self- destruct, she supposed.

“Is that why you became a doctor?” she heard herself ask.

“Yes. I buried zee love of my life and joined zee Allied forces zee very next morning. Zhere was nothing for me to go home to at zat point, and I wanted zee sacrifice of her life to be worth something.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. But you are still a hypocrite and a killer.” Kate was not about to let him off the hook even if he was becoming just a little more human in her eyes.

“I could not save her, so I vowed to spend zee remainder of my life saving others. I took zee Hippocratic oath and have lived by zat vow for sixty years. I am sorry about Kyle, Katherine. He did not deserve to die. It was an unfortunate consequence of Tony’s greed, not mine. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, I was the devil’s instrument.”

“What’s your reward? What’s in it for you?” she asked trying again to look for a way out.

“I foolishly agreed to help in return for a debt to be erased.”

“So you bartered a deal to save your sorry hide. You make me sick!”

Katherine wanted to hold onto her anger. She felt herself feeling compassion for the very man responsible for her brother’s death. He lived and breathed even as Kyle died. She felt pity for him, and she understood his feelings of sorrow at a life wasted, for Kyle's life was taken too soon. Yet, she would not give in to sympathy or release her anger. That anger would propel her forward, and consume her, and would leave no room for fear in her heart and mind. Anger would be her instrument, her weapon to wield and to control.

He sat there for a moment. She could feel him there in the darkness as a strange stillness hung about the room.

“I remarried after the war. My cousin, Mert, died in '42, so I married his widow and helped raise his family. I had one son of my own with Ghislaine. She and I were content together forty-six years before she died of cancer several years ago. So, I went to live with my grandson in Atlantic City. To my great fear and disappointment, he has a gambling problem zat is out of control.”

Ahhh, she thought, seeing where this was heading.

“Zee debt is his, Katherine, not mine. I thought I could pay his debt and zen get him some help. I did zis thing for him.”

So, he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. It still did not make it right or bring Kyle back.

Again, she would not let her anger go. Two wrongs were still wrong no matter if done from the heart.

“How much did they pay you? I’d like to know what you feel Kyle’s life was actually worth.”

“My portion of zee treasure will be considered payment in full for my grandson’s folly. However, Tony was most displeased with me, and I will probably get nothing for my efforts.”

“You have no idea how close to the truth you are with that.”

“I heard Tony, Lawrence, and a woman I have heard on several occasions talking, or shouting rather. None were very happy about zee treasure.”

“I’ll just bet they weren’t very happy.”

Kate began to laugh, and the laughter became almost hysterical as she dropped to the floor on her knees. The laughter turned to tears.

She had no idea how much time passed as they sat in silence. She pondered the fact Kyle was dead and that the old man's grandson would probably suffer as well, making the sacrifice of the doctor's career and integrity for naught. To top it off Mr. Lyles was probably dead, too, if they had their hands on the stash.

Sniffing one last time and drying her tears, she got back to her feet. The pity-party was over and it was time for action. She was a Brandenburg, by God, and that had to be worth something. Now, she was also a McKinnon, and that was definitely worth something.

Would Robert realize she was gone?

Yes. She felt it deep down.

He said he loved her, and she had to believe that would be the very thing to draw him back to her.

“Do you want to know what the fabled Brandenburg treasure turned out to be?” she ventured while still looking for a weakness in her holding cell.

“Oui.”

She could feel him nodding through the darkness.

“Documentation and some useless paper money from the 1870’s, that is all. That was it. No horde of gold, no stash of valuable jewels, only papers valuable to a long dead brotherhood.”

She heard him groan knowing his life and the life of his grandson were forfeit.

He struck the lighter again.

“Zen it looks as if you have given zee ultimate sacrifice in the life of your brother, zee loss of your husband, and zee loss of your land. I have sacrificed my integrity and principles, and we have both lost it all for nothing.”

“What do you mean the loss of my husband?” she asked taking a step forward. She would beat the information out of him if necessary.

“Oh, I zought you knew,” he sounded surprised. “Oh, but how could you?” he corrected himself. Time was a predator and it was stalking him more of late. His strength and mind were fading at an alarming rate, and he feared her prediction of him not having long to carry his guilt was closer to truth then he dared consider. Perhaps he could redeem himself after all, at least in her eyes. It was important.

“Knew what?” she felt a dread deep within the pit of her stomach.

“I over heard zis information. Your Robert was arrested for zee murder of someone named Brice Langston. You know him, oui?”

“Yes. Yes, I do,” she nodded.

“I heard Lawrence confessing he did it yesterday while the man was swimming. He shot him twice in zee back of zee head in his pool. The body was found by zee housekeeper zis morning.”

Kate felt her world spinning. She had not found the love of her life just to lose him for a murder he could not have even remotely committed. Frantically, she began to look for a way out. If she could not go out the door, then she would go out the roof.

Rending the sleeves from her shirt, she wrapped them around her hands to keep the old metal from slicing her skin clean through to the bone. Wedging her feet and hands into the old silo panels, she slowly shimmied up to the roof. It was a good thing it was dark. She was afraid of heights, a fact she was not going to dwell on at that particular moment. The rock wall climbing lessons she suffered through were all in an effort to please Daniel. She was now glad she had the experience to pull from in her arduous attempt to escape.

It was no use.

There just was not enough space for her to get a handhold. Twice she almost fell. After the second attempt, she dropped back down to the floor.

“Hey, what do you have in that bag of yours? Anything we can use as a weapon?”

Before he could answer, the lock turned in the door, loud and protesting. As the door slid sideways on the track, light streamed into the holding cell silhouetting a large frame, and she remembered seeing this man at her home during the alarm installation. That explained some things.

“Get your ass over here,” Razor commanded. “Tony wants to see you.”

Kate knew this was her chance to make a break for freedom.

Pretending to be compliant, she demurely exited the room and waited until he turned Razor back to her to shut the door. Rushing past him, she took off down a darkened corridor. Distracting her captor, she noticed he did not lock the door behind her after closing it. Thinking maybe the old man would have enough strength left to figure it out.

Not moving fast enough, he caught, grabbed, and spun her around to face him. Pinning her using his forearm on her chest, he wedged her back against the wall.

His mouth was inches from her face as she turned her face away to keep from gagging from his breath.

“I told Kyle I would fuck you if I ever got the chance,” he laughed wickedly as he gripped her face and used his tongue to lick her from jaw to temple.

“Umm, just like ice cream.”

She bit him on the cheek. Kicking and screaming, she was not going quietly. He loosened his grip.

Furious, he took her, spun her around, and shoving her face first into the wall pinned her arms behind her. She sensed his threats were not idle.

“I’ll savor you, bitch. I’ll make you scream for good reason, and then I’ll make you beg for death.”

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on me or I’ll kill you!” she said trying without success to free her arms making him laugh sadistically.

“Like you are in any position to do anything except take what I give you.”

She heard his zipper go down.

She screamed in fury, head-butting him from behind. He let her go momentarily. It was enough for her to make a run for it.

“You bitch! You broke my fucking nose! I’ll cut you! I’ll fucking bleed you!” he yelled after her.

She heard him in pursuit as she ran down the darkened corridor lit only by the small amount of moonlight streaming in through broken, shattered windows covered in safety mesh. Ducking into the doorway of a long-abandoned office, she grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall willing her breathing to quiet. As he came through the door, she swung catching him behind the head, and watched him tumble face forward in a heap of black leather and bleeding flesh. She prayed he was dead. Feeling for a pulse, he was still alive, but so was she for the moment.

Not wasting precious time, she quickly dropped the extinguisher rather forcefully on his back, then fled down the hallway following the maze of crooks and turns. It terminated with a set of doors chained shut and securely locked, covered and protected by plywood. The glass, long shattered, still lay scattered all over the floor looking like diamonds glistening in the moonlight.