Disclaimers: See Chapter One If you have good or bad things to say feel free to email me at henleyac@yahoo.com.
Chapter Eleven
Quin let her assistant fuss over her weaponry one last time before slapping her insistent hands away. "I think I have enough of everything Sally." She said as she adjusted the twin shoulder holsters and practiced a double draw. She spun the guns in her hands and reset them in their holsters. She reached back and patted her trusty .45 in the middle of her back, then checked the clips on the shoulder holsters one last time before pulling on a black cotton jacket. She tapped her feet to settle the twin knives that were snug in each steel toed boot.
"You can never have enough. This is Crane and some bitch of a mystery woman, who might very well have had Grace murdered. I don't think you can be armed enough for this situation." Sally held up a thin switchblade. Quin frowned and took it.
"Have my jet ready right?" The brunette reviewed her plans. "I want out of this city with Vivian as soon as possible. Gram's is ready to go." Quin fussed with the zipper on the jacket. Her hands shook too much for her to manage the connection.
Sally sighed and took Quin's hands in her own. "Vivian is going to be fine. She's a smart woman." The redhead gave McKee's hands a squeeze then picked up the jacket ends. "She has a degree in Psychology. Did you know that?" Sally didn't look up for the PI's reaction. She knew those dark eyebrows rose in surprise. "A big fat PhD. She paid for it herself working three jobs." Sally managed to get the stubborn metal bits to fit together and pulled the zipper closed. She looked up into soft gray eyes. "Vivian is a strong capable woman who has been taking care of herself for a long time. She's going to come through this in one piece." Sally took hold of Quin's solid shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze, "You are going to come through this in one piece."
Quin pressed her lips together and nodded. She leaned over and grabbed up a small duffel bag. "You have all the paper work sorted and ready for delivery?"
"Everything is settled Quin." Sally extended her hand and cupped Quin's face, "I'm proud of you."
Quin had no words at that moment. She suddenly felt ten feet tall. "I'll miss you."
Sally thumped the brunette's arm with a loose fist. "No you won't. I'm coming to visit! I've always wanted to see California . Now get going. You have a girl to rescue."
McKee took a deep breath and turned. She walked through the door without looking back. It was game time.
"A cup of tea?" Clara O'Malley asked Vivian as she crossed her legs and sipped at her own cup of hot tea.
Vivian blinked. "No."
"I'm sorry for your trouble. I did not authorize such action against you."
"My abduction or the rape?" Vivian questioned bitterly.
Clara lowered her cup and tilted her head. "The rape. The abduction is your own fault. You shouldn't have gotten involved. I want that car."
"I don't know where it is."
"I don't believe you." Clara nodded once.
Vivian's head snapped to the left from the blow delivered by the man who had dragged her from the room.
"Not quite so hard next time Frank. I don't want to lose her before we have my answers."
Vivian blinked her eyes which had blurred. She reflexively lifted one of her hands to her face and probed her jaw. Her fingers became coated in her own blood trickling from her lip. One finger slipped inside her mouth and tested a few of the teeth on that side. She
wasn't too surprised to find a few jarred loose. She lowered her hand and glowered at the big man as her tongue ran across her loose teeth.
"Once again. The car."
"I left it at Marco's." Vivian decided that some truth wouldn't hurt.
"Yes. Marco has said as much." Clara sipped her tea.
Vivian took a moment to think. "Why the kid?"
"My son's mistake?" Clara asked calmly. "Well you see, Michael has decided he wants to go against me. He decided that he couldn't give up his nigger bitch. I don't tolerate dissension. What better way to punish him but to destroy his little make believe family."
"He's your son."
"He's a traitor." Clara threw back her truth of the matter. "The boy was happy to help his grandmother. Eager even. The fact he was so easily hooked was icing on the cake. That child became mine. Too bad he won't make it back from Detroit ."
Vivian bolted from the chair only to be put back into it forcefully. "You're fucked up lady."
Clara shrugged. "It's business." Another calm sip of tea. "Where is the whore, Cookie?"
"I don't know." Vivian steeled herself for the blow. She watched as the older woman's head moved up and down. This time she was ready and rolled her head with the punch. It still hurt but caused much less damage. She checked her teeth with her tongue finding no new teeth rattling. "Marco has her number."
"Oh really?" Clara threw her head to the side.
Vivian heard a commotion off to her left. Soon a much battered Marco was thrown on the floor between the two seated women. His head was jerked up to look at Clara who addressed Vivian.
"Punishment for your violation my dear. If you continue to cooperate I'll let you finish him off."
Vivian's lip curled in disgust. "You're insane right?"
"To the contrary. I'm quite sane. Don't equate the lack of compassion for a lack of sanity Ms. Walsh." Clara then directed her cool gaze at the man on the floor. "You have some information for me Marco. Information that you didn't share earlier as we agreed. Tell me how to contact the whore."
Marco spat a mouth full of blood out on the floor. "Give me a phone."
Quin sat in the passenger seat of Di's Jaguar, with Cookie behind the wheel. They were waiting. Cookie's incessant tapping on the steering wheel grated Quin's nerves. As the tempo-less beat continued, a low growl started in the pit of McKee's gut. Cookie was saved from Quin's frazzled patience by the ringing of one of the cell phones perched on the narrow dashboard. "That's mine." Cookie reached for the phone, but her hand was caught in a firm grip. "Remember our agreement." Quin warned.
Cookie nodded slowly as she was permitted to answer the ringing phone. She swallowed hard, glancing at the display. It was an unfamiliar number. She pressed the little green button, "Hello."
Quin held her breath. She had scouted the location Crane had given her and found it to be a bogus address. Feeling she had been sent on a fool's errand, the PI confirmed this when she had spotted the two cars tailing her. She lost the tails then found Cookie.
"I don't know, Marco, Ms. Walsh was pretty specific." Cookie looked at Quin. "Yeah, I know it." Cookie grabbed for the little notebook and pen that Quin had laid out and scrawled down an address. "You guarantee it? McKee will be out for blood. The whole town knows you double crossed her." Cookie had to pull the phone from her ear as Marco spouted off on the other end. She looked at the stone faced PI in the passenger seat as Marco's words hung in the air between them. She pressed the phone back to her ear. "I'll be there in twenty minutes, Marco." She quickly ended the call and looked at the brunette beside her. "I'm sure she's fine. Marco is all mouth, you know that." She tried to soothe the woman.
"He's a dead man." Quin pronounced without emotion.
Cookie started the car. "Do you know this place?" She asked, tossing the notebook into McKee's lap and pulling away from the curb. The warehouse was really only five minutes away. She thought McKee could use a little extra time to get everyone in place.
Quin looked at the address. She was pretty sure all the color drained from her face as she recognized the location. Her mind recalled the riverside warehouse where she learned what it was to kill. Where she learned her grandfather was a crook and where she found love. Now fate was taking her back to the place where she had lost her innocence. She was sure there would be more killing tonight. She retrieved her own phone and made her first call.
Clara O'Malley's mouth quirked into a slim, forced smile. "Now we'll wait." She tilted her head as she considered what to do about the woman across from her. She was no longer needed. Nor was her son and his lover. "Ms. Walsh, if you could have one last request, a last wish, what would it be?"
"For you to drop dead." Vivian said with a sweet smile.
Clara roared with laughter. "I can see why Quin is so taken with you." She stood and approached the seated woman. She slowly reached her hand out and brushed her thumb over the blonde's swollen lip. "You're a beautiful woman. Tell me, was Marco your first?"
Vivian went to grab the wrist of the older woman's hand but was restrained by the man who had punched her. She jerked her head away from the cold touch. "Does it matter?"
"No. I was curious. I thought we could chat while we wait for the car and for your Quin." Clara looked at the man holding the blonde's arms and gave him a silent command; he complied and tightened his grip. She replaced her hand on the blonde's cheek and caressed the smooth skin. Pushing aside the blanket, She let her hand trace down the graceful neck and delicate. "Tell me." her hand traveled lower to cup and caress the blonde's breast.
Vivian stilled her breathing as best as she could. She willed her body not to react to yet another violation. "No. Marco wasn't the first to rape me. My father had that honor." She wasn't sure what the game was now. She did know that if the car arrived with the drugs her life was over.
"Really." Clara breathed as her thumb played across a nipple several times before getting it to rise. She knew it was a purely physical reaction, yet it was exciting to know she was the cause. "Was he gentle, or rough.?"
"He was drunk." Vivian's head tilted back as Clara roughly pinched her nipple. "Why are you doing this?"
"I want you to tell Quin what I did. I want her to know that I touched what was hers."
"She's your daughter." The hand tormenting her breast suddenly lashed across her face in a hard slap.
Clara strode away. "She's many things but my daughter isn't one of them." The older woman refilled her cup with hot tea and sat again. "She's my father's daughter."
Vivian jerked her arms free from the man's vise-like grip. "You don't make sense."
"My father had fallen in love with one of his whores and she bore him a daughter. He brought the child to me to raise after the woman was killed by one of her johns. He paid me to keep his secret."
Vivian tried to make sense of what she was being told. "She's your sister?"
"Half. And my father's favorite. I exposed her for the pervert she was and he loved her more. I did everything that old man ever asked and he disowned me.
Vivian watched as the cool, collected woman became enraged.
"He protected her and coddled her. He loved her." The tea cup flew into the darkness of the warehouse. "HE LOVED HER AND NOT ME!" Clara screamed as she rose from her chair. She advanced on the seated blonde, who shrank back as an unbalanced Clara leaned over her. "I'll destroy her and all she loves and she'll know it was me." Clara grabbed Vivian's face in her hands and kissed her hard.
Vivian pushed the woman away and wiped her mouth. There was a loud pop and then a thud. The glint of a brass shell casing flashed in the bright circle of light. The bouncing casing hit the cold concrete floor with several 'tinks' before a shocked silence consumed the warehouse. Vivian could see one twitching foot of the man lying beside the chair. She looked up at Clara's stunned face and involuntarily smiled at the dark figure standing beside the older woman, calmly pressing the barrel of a semi-automatic to Clara's temple.
Quin held the gun head with a steady grip. "Do not move." A sound on her left was greeted with two quick shots from one of the 9mm's from under her arm. The resulting scream faded to moaning, then silence. Quin looked at her lover and mouthed a silent "Sorry." She moved away from Clara and pointed her gun into the darkness. "I want Marco!" She yelled into the void and took what seemed a blind, wild shot. Her warning salvo hit dangerously close to the toe of a man who wasn't quite ready to meet death.
There was a shuffling of feet then the sounds of someone on the receiving end of a flurry of punches. Silence; then a shaken, prone Marco slid into the circle of light. Quin leveled the 9mm at him and shot twice.
Vivian cringed and looked away as the rapist clutched his shattered, bleeding knees to his chest, agonized screams echoing through the warehouse.
Two short horn blasts accompanied the writhing man's cries. "Open the door!" Quin shouted to no one in particular.
A shaft of amber light flowed from the alley through the opening, and a blue-gray car rolled into view. headlights were dimmed as it came to a halt a few feet from the warehouse center.
Quin looked at the woman under the barrel of her .45. "I find myself relieved and elated."
"And who would have thought I would evoke those emotions." Clara stated with a slight smile.
Cookie emerged from the car. Quin nodded toward Vivian. "Get her in the car."
Vivian stood and wrapped the blanket a bit tighter around her. "Michael and Di are here." she said as Cookie helped her toward the car.
Quin pressed the barrel tighter against Clara's head. "Tell them to bring them to me."
Clara nodded her head. "Do it." she ordered the darkness. Quin had the same crazed look in her eyes she'd had three years ago after arriving from California . The older woman thought back then Quin was going off the deep end. Her mother had convinced Quin to seek help. "Feeling a little edgy dear sister?"
Quin tipped her head. Her gray eyes had narrowed to dark slits. "Are you sure you want to find out, big sister?"
"Franklin told me all about how Grace begged." Clara began. "I didn't know she was with child. It made it all that more personal, didn't it? The child being yours. That must have been awful for you."
"Shut up!" Quin exploded.
"Don't listen to her Quin." Vivian pleaded.
"You loved her. Yet you've replaced her so easily."
Quin's head spun a bit. "I haven't replaced her." She tightened her grip on the pistol.
"You have though. One whore for another."
"Don't call her that!" Quin stepped back and faced the woman. She held her arm out, the gun in her hand wavering slightly. "You didn't know her."
Clara laughed cruelly, "But I did. I owned her!"
Marco laughed from the floor.
"Shut up!" Quin's head was pounding now. "You killed her!" She yelled at the older woman. Her reality began to slip away.
"I couldn't pass it up." Clara dug in, enjoying the brunette's obvious pain. "I have always wanted you to suffer like I did, without love."
Vivian shook loose of Cookie's weak hold and approached her lover. She took a step back as the recently fired 9mm was pointed at her chest.
"Don't come any closer." Quin's hand began to shake. Her heart pounded in her ears.
Vivian held the rough blanket closed with one hand as she slowly extended the other. "Quin. Listen to me."
Michael and Di were brought into the light. Quin's eyes narrowed as she reached for some kind of recognition of all the people around her. Overcome, her breathing became erratic and her eyes closed. Memories flashed and shattered against her eyelids as Quin slipped into darkness.
Clara moved first as the brunette collapsed to the floor. She grabbed for the .45 that clattered across the concrete only to have her wrist pinned by a bare wet foot. Her fingers brushed the cool metal of the gun's muzzle.
Vivian had managed to get a grip on the 9mm before Clara could seize the .45. She held the gun against the older woman's back. "I'd absolutely love to pull this trigger." The blonde waved Michael and Di toward Cookie and the waiting car.
Clara twisted, staring down the black barrel. "You won't pull the trigger. You're not a killer." She stammered, panicked as she laid on the cold floor.
Vivian growled and kicked the .45 away from the prone woman. She then flinched as gun fire sounded just behind her and tiny shards of concrete ricocheted up from the floor nicking her face. Vivian spun around and instinctively pointed the gun in the direction of the shots. Quin was standing, pointing another 9mm pistol at her or Clara, Vivian wasn't certain. "Drop it Quin." She ordered evenly, barely recognizing her lover in the vacant gray eyes that bored into her.
"Get out of the way, Vivian. I don't want to hurt you too." Quin's voice was a dead rasp.
"You'll have to shoot me, Quin." Vivian lifted the gun she held a little higher and adjusted her mostly numb fingers on the grip. Sirens could be heard in the distance. "Let the police handle it. Let justice work."
"JUSTICE!" Quin's voice boomed in the warehouse as she took two quick steps forward. Her hand shook wildly as she pointed the gun. "She killed Grace. She killed my daughter! I kill her now and we're even!" She licked her lips at the prospect of getting her revenge.
Vivian stilled her breathing. "Is this what Grace would have wanted, Quin?" She asked quietly. "You knew her better than anyone here. What would she have asked you to do?" Vivian stood to her full height over Clara. The sirens were very close now and she suspected some of Chicago 's finest would be rushing through the door any minute.
Quin took another step and extended her arm. She looked into the deep blue eyes of her lover. Vivian's breath froze on every exhale, sending a curl of vapor up over the blonde's head where it disappeared. Quin slowed her breathing as she searched for the answers to the former detective's questions. Her eyes tracked to the alley and the open door as the sirens came to a deafening halt. Grace wouldn't want her to kill anyone. She remembered long conversations where they would debate different scenarios in which deadly force might be necessary, Grace always managed to come up with a peaceful reconciliation to the situation. Would Grace want to be avenged? The answer was a resounding 'no'. Vengeance was for the living. For Quin to claim vengeance for Grace and their child would dishonor their memories. Quin slowly eased her finger from the trigger and lowered her weapon. She flipped it around so she was holding the barrel and offered it to the blonde. As the woman she loved with all her being took the gun from her hand, Quin finally felt free of the past.
Vivian let out a long held breath and took the gun. She lowered her own just as the police charged into the warehouse. Surrendering the weapons, Vivian was escorted to one of the empty chairs. She sighed as she sat, her nerves frazzled. Clara was pulled from the floor and silently led away . A police woman gently squeezed Vivian's shoulder and began asking questions, receiving one-word answers for her trouble. Vivian heard the officer call for an ambulance as her eyes drifted closed, trying to shut out the ruckus around her. Moments later she felt hands on her knees and something being pressed into her lap. Vivian jerked back, eyes opening, and She recognized the top of Quin's dark head. Her body instantly relaxed as she combed her fingers through Quin's thick spikes. "I love you." She whispered in a frosty breath, reassuring her lover. "It's going to be okay."
Quin nodded against Vivian's lap. "I believe you." There was a commotion behind them as Marco was loaded onto a gurney, screaming profanities and threats at the two women. Quin growled from her position and pulled a thin switchblade from her back jeans pocket.
Vivian felt the subtle movement and grabbed the PI's e wrist before she could make the throw. She gently removed the blade from Quin's hand and retracted the blade. "I love you." She repeated earnestly.
Quin lowered her hand back to Vivian's knee. "I love you, Vivian Walsh."
End part eleven