The Final Murder: Part 15

"Those jerks," Dorothy complained as we stood on the tarmac, looking at the vacant spot of where my plane used to be. "They could have at least made their own arrangements if they were going to ditch us."

"No," I said, turning around to walk off the tarmac. I limped stiffly because of my knee, and earlier I ended up taking about a year's worth of Ibuprofen to help with the pain. So far I was managing. "Duo was right to take the plane. He made the deal personally to leave it in the first place. It would've raised suspicion if someone else took it. Besides, he knows we can look after ourselves." This morning, when I woke up, I went to Duo's room to just...figure out where we now stood in our friendship. I found the room stripped down, and all of the damaging machinery, such as the grenades and the automatics, gone, along with Duo and Hilde. All that was left (besides me and Dorothy) was my Bowie, two Berettas, a few rounds of ammunition and the first aid kit. The bare essentials. Thank you Duo. I did not want to run around L2 with automatic weapons on my person.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, the police said they would contact you when they find anything else on Hrncir or Zuern since I'm ‘missing,' right?"

"Right."

"So go back to L4." I shrugged. It seemed the most logical thing to me.

"But what about you Quatre?"

I sighed. "I have another stop to make. Technically, I'm supposed to be on L1 in the next couple of days for business."

"Oh that's right. That supposed ‘news break' Duo did."

I shrugged again. "Yeah."

"So you were really intending to go there all along?"

By this time we made it back into the spaceport. Dorothy had followed me all the way to gate eighteen, and we had settled in the corner of the sitting area where I was able to see everyone, but not everyone could see me. The shuttle at this gate was due to take off in another forty five minutes for L4. I wanted Dorothy on it. "Yes."

"Why?"

"I need to go to the bank."

She paused. "Quatre, there are plenty of banks on L4." At my lack of response, she continued. "There's more going on than I'm aware of, isn't there? The only thing you have at the L1 branch is a safety deposit box." She paused again. "You had another purpose going through all of this trouble, didn't you?"

"Yes."

I stared straight ahead, carefully assessing the consequences of different actions I could take. Duo leaving with the plane really threw a wrench in my plans. Actually, Wufei's arrival with the rest of our group threw a wrench in my plans, but this made things harder and slightly irritated me. I could stay on L2 for the next day or two, but that wouldn't be smart. Duo needed to leave right away, and so did I. I just wish he warned me that I was going to be on my own. Who knew, maybe this was for the best.

My concentration was broken when I felt hands on my face. Dorothy turned my head to look me in the eye. Her expression was very...venomous, to put it nicely. "I'm going with you Quatre."

"No you're not."

"You might need help." Her hands fell away from my face.

"If I need help to get into my own safety deposit box, then I have some serious issues."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," she snapped. "Someone could be after you."

"Yes. Trowa," I said flatly, rolling my head back to rest against the wall. "He more than likely has a good idea where I am right now, but I don't have an inkling where he is. You are going to draw attention because you're Dorothy Catalonia. If I stay around you, people will certainly notice me and wonder why I'm traveling with you."

"That may be to your advantage right now," Dorothy said, no longer paying attention to me but to the TV screen.

I glanced up just in time to see several pictures of me flash by. The entire spaceport seemed to stop and hold its breath. A very obnoxious and overly made-up reporter appeared on the screen. "Allegations are continuing to run high as to Quatre Winner's disappearance. Contacts from the Winner residence have claimed that he has fallen ill and is simply resting in his home," she raised an eyebrow at this, "but it is rumored that he may have been kidnapped." She leaned towards the camera as she said ‘kidnapped.' Drama queen. "A search is being conducted on one of the L2 colony clusters for Eugene Zuern, Director of Mr. Winner's L2 charity, and the Assistant Director, Arthur Hrncir, who disappeared during a mysterious car accident last night while being escorted by police." She raised her eyebrow again to show what she thought of that. I actually agreed with her. "With husband Trowa Barton also gone unexpectantly, and the son of Quatre Winner removed to a ‘safe location,' speculations of a kidnapping are running high and sparking restlessness among company shareholders."

"I bet," I heard Dorothy murmur under her breath.

"However there is some good news to report to the family of WEI Inc. Last night Hilde Schbeiker, personal secretary of Quatre Winner, was rescued by undercover Preventer agents after a deadly shoot-out in an abandoned auto garage in one of L2's renowned slums. Miss Schbeiker was abducted shortly after landing on L2 by an unknown assailant as collateral for Mr. Winner."

Looked like Hilde got Duo to agree to go with that.

"Standing by live with Miss Schbeiker is Channel Three's own Duo Maxwell."

"This should be good," Dorothy said, stretching her legs and leaning back to enjoy the show.

"My thoughts exactly," I said, stretching out as well and trying to keep the grin off my face.

Duo stood there, staring blankly into the screen as he waited for the signal to transmit to him. After two hundred years you would've thought we would've fixed that by now. "Duo Maxwell here, reporting live with Hilde Schbeiker." The cameraman, whoever that was, backed up and Hilde came into view. She looked the part very much; haggard and tired appearance, eyes red from hours of crying, and frightened even of the reporter. Who would've guessed she killed five of those twenty two men last night. "Right now we are on a private shuttle in destination to L4 where Hilde can return home with friends and loved-ones. But first Hilde, may I call you Hilde?" Duo turned, placed a hand placidly at her back and put on a sympathetic face. "Tell us how the last twenty four agonizing hours have been for you." She sniffled loudly, and turned to the camera, allowing the world to see her horrified but determined face as she told her story.

I was going to explode from laughter before the end of this. I just knew it.

"My god she's good." Dorothy was shaking her head in absolute awe.

"Trust me," I said, the grin getting the better of me. "She hasn't even warmed up yet."

"Well," Hilde began, her voice wobbly, "I was there regarding the charity, you know? I wanted to get ahead on the paperwork to help the people, and then, it all happened so fast...he, and I, and we went, but then, there was, oh god the noise and I was so scared when he screamed so I screamed and we went here and there I didn't know where and then there were guns and shooting and I screamed and screamed but I couldn't be heard so I ran and stopped when he raised his hand and yelled ‘Freeze, Preventers!' and I thanked god!" She then fell into helpless sobs, still trying to speak at the same time. Of course, no one could understand a word she was saying, but with her clutching desperately to that snotty tissue while wailing incoherent words, and Duo so obviously pretending to be sympathetic was fantastic for ratings and havoc on my sense of humor. This was the type of thing I expected to see from Mike Myers in his Austin Powers movies.

Unable to take anymore, I grabbed my duffelbag, jumped up and ran to the nearest bathroom. I barely closed the door before I screamed out in laughter, leaning on the sink to support myself. The tears burned my eyes and I couldn't breathe. I was trying to take in deep breaths only to start laughing all over again. The door slammed open and closed again, and I turned to find Dorothy in the same position I was in. She was hunched over the sink and breathing deeply.

"Dear...god. That was...hysterical," she panted. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Yeah. I know."

"Wow. I feel dizzy."

"Lack of oxygen to your brain. Be quiet and catch your breath."

We spent the next ten minutes doing just that. Breathing. I watched in the mirror as several women, some with children, came in and out. I realized then that I ran into the women's bathroom (of course, the lack of urinals was a big clue but we won't go there) and after Dorothy noticed the strange and severe looks I was receiving from the women, she hastily kicked the last one out and locked the bathroom door.

"We can't stay in here Dorothy--"

"The hell we can't." She brushed her hair behind her ears with her fingers. "Now that that's over," she sighed sadly, "how do you really feel about all this?"

Oh great. She picked the perfect time to gnaw at me. My worry over Trowa's reaction to my indiscretion and Krahe's enigmatic visit had me up all night. I was feeling really drained and not up for resisting. "In all honesty, I don't know," I said. She continued to look at me with an expressionless face. "I don't like that everyone is bending over backwards to cover mine and Duo's ass. There was no way that that reporter was able to say that there were undercover Preventer agents there without Wufei having to contact and explain everything to Une." Dorothy flinched. She didn't think about that. "His career and the Head of Preventers' career could be at stake now." I hefted a leg up and sat halfway on the sink. "The only person that has been my doctor that can say I was sick and at home would be Sally, so now she's involved too. I thought I was a great tactician." I threw my hands in the air. "I can't imagine what scrambling Wufei had to do to tighten up loose ends."

She gave me a considering look. Then she plunged right in. "What happened last night?"

She didn't need to clarify her question. I knew exactly what she was asking. "I'm not sure. Duo and I...he was apologizing for the fight we had earlier. Then we hugged...it literally ‘just happened' Dorothy. I'm thankful you all walked in when you did."

She crossed her arms. "Do you really think it would've gone further?" She was incredulous.

"I don't know Dorothy. The fact that we kissed was too far." I turned to the mirror and tried to straighten myself up a bit. It was pointless. I looked like the two hundredth's version of Captain Jack Sparrow [1]. All I was missing was the shark spine in my hair, jewelry, and black eyeliner around my eyes. Well, the dreadlocks too, but we rushed out this morning and I didn't take the time to comb my hair. So technically, I had dreadlocks.

"You're too hard on yourself," she said, stepping closer to me. "Yes, it was wrong of you two to do that, but I can't help feeling there is more to this. Duo loves Heero too much and you love Trowa too much for something like this to ‘just happen.' What's really going on Quatre?"

I sighed, unsure of whether or not this was a good idea. Oh, why not? She knew everything about Hrncir and last night. This couldn't hurt. "Duo...actually, we, believe that our attraction is being manipulated by Krahe." I saw her profile gasp in the mirror. "It becomes painfully strong when he's near."

"But he wasn't there last night."

"Yes he was. It happened so suddenly...it was him. I have no doubt. He also came to me in the middle of the night to tell me something else was going to happen."

She was quiet. "He's playing a game."

"Yeah, I know." I ran my hand over my face, and turned to her.

"So what do we do now?"

"We will do nothing. You go home. I will handle this."

"That's not a good idea. Who's going to watch your back?"

"My back doesn't need watching."

"Oh really? Quatre, you have no identification on you of who you really are. Sorry, but your fake ID's can only go so far. Your dental records, DNA and fingerprints aren't on file because you were a gundam pilot, so something could happen to you and no cop will be able to figure out who you are. You're carrying weapons that aren't even suppose to exist, and you have an unstoppable dead guy following you about to start some shit!" she shouted. "Why not let me back you up? Hell, we were a team in Frankfurt. Why not now?"

I could've snapped Dorothy's head off, I was so angry. But two could play this game. I was a tactician after all. "I have my reasons Dorothy. To begin, I don't have any proper identification on me, yes. But those ID's you mentioned, are tagged. Meaning, if someone were to run a check on those names anywhere in space or on Earth, they would set off an alarm and their locations would be traced back to the laptop of a certain blue-eyed, antisocial computer genius." She gave me a surprised look. I grinned nastily. "I may not have my records on the proper channels, but don't discount the fact that the guys know everything there is to know about my body, including every strand of hair, mole, scar," I gave her a very significant look, "and pimple. If my body did turn up somewhere, the first and only people that need to know are the guys. Can you imagine the damage to WEI if my death got out before Trowa or Iria took control? And lastly, I have weapons that do exist, for better or worse, and I have a very stoppable dead guy following me who will start some shit that I will finish!" I almost jumped down her throat, I was so livid. But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt myself calming down. "I would love nothing more than to have you back me up, Dorothy. We made an awesome team." I took her hands in mine. "But I need you on L4. I'm not just saying that. I really need you there, for me. I have to set things right with the charity, and Trowa is going to need help with WEI business."

She frowned at me. She understood what I said was true, and that was all that mattered to me. I didn't want anyone to try and sneak something past Trowa. Those board members would try to put one over on him, but they wouldn't dare think it with Dorothy at his side. "And also," I said, just to hammer everything home, "I was a gundam pilot. I survived my training, Operation Meteor, the Mariemaia incident, and being stabbed by you. I think I can handle this." I softened my comment with a smile.

"Quatre," she said, and I nearly recoiled from her. There was something very odd about Dorothy just then. Something that I had never felt in her presence before. She was suddenly very tender and open, and that frightened me to no end. Her eyes were soft, her bitter smile was sad, and she freed her hands from mine to cup my face. If was as if she turned into a teddy bear, and that just wasn't...right.

"Dorothy?"

"I've always cared about you," she whispered. "Out of everyone, I care about you the most. And I love you, in my own way." She then leaned forward and kissed me, firmly on the lips. I was in such a shocked state of mind that I allowed it. When I finally got my bearings back she had pulled away, and I felt her heart close. She was back to herself.

"I'm going back," she said. "You should stay at my cousin's place until you need to leave for L1. The combination into the house is three two one star." And with that she walked right around me, unlocked the door, and left. I stayed for some time, just letting the whirlwind my mind had become storm until all my thoughts were ripped to shreds. I walked out in time to see Dorothy's shuttle take off and disappear in a wink.

***

As much as I wanted to go to Dorothy's cousin's place to crash, it turned out not to be possible. There were complaints made to management of a black-haired man that was hiding out in the women's restroom. One of the women (the one Dorothy rudely kicked out by saying, ‘get the fuck out!') recognized Dorothy, and sought out the police. Thankfully I caught wind of it, and was able to hide my duffelbag in an air vent in the men's bathroom. I was then detained and questioned. I quickly made myself turn into a sniffling, terrified wreck, and shortly thereafter I was released. Dorothy's viciousness wasn't a secret, and one of the officer's posture screamed ‘Former Ozzie.' So when I told them that Dorothy had snatched me out of my cardboard box house and dragged me in here to ask me about a ‘Zoo-ern and a Hern-sir' person, along with snot running out my nose and a few exclamations of ‘oh god I peed on myself!,' they were in a hurry to let me be on my way. Unfortunately, that didn't make them go away. Security was all over the spaceport within an hour, scrutinizing everyone, and it looked as if they were going to hang out for a while. So me renting a car to drive to Moneytown was out, and the next shuttle for L1 wasn't for another twenty four hours. In the end I retrieved my duffelbag, scrounged around, and managed to find myself a cardboard box to live in. I dragged it over to a stairwell that lead to the employee parking garage, and bunkered down for the day. I was out in the open, but I was fairly certain they wouldn't bother a homeless guy sleeping. The stairwell wasn't warm, but it would be a great deal warmer than outside when night came. Satisfied with my position, exhausted by the night's events and shocked at Dorothy confession and kiss, I fell asleep around three o'clock in the afternoon to some awful song thundering through the wall. Something about an ‘Achy Breaky Heart...' [2]

***

I woke instantly. The door opened and closed like it had all day when someone came or left, but I didn't hear any footsteps. I opened my eyes to find three men standing in front of me, obviously homeless. One had been reaching for my duffelbag, but when I opened my eyes he jumped back. He was to my left, blocking the stairs to the top level. The middle one blocked the stairs down, and the one on the right blocked the way out into the garage. Each of them were dirty and smelly, reminding me of how I would imagine SwampThing would look in a ratty trenchcoat. Their eyes shown bright as if they found a lost treasure, and their grins were anything but friendly. Another crappy song was playing over the speakers. This just wasn't my day.

"He's awake," the one in the middle said in a gravelly voice. Chain smoker.

"He's pretty," sneered the one on the left. "Betcha those whores gave him that box and a bag full of stuff, all ‘cause he's pretty," he said bitterly. He glared at me. "Who you fuckin' to land in a nice place like this, Pretty Boy? Who?"

If sleeping in a cardboard box in the stairwell of an spaceport parking garage was a ‘nice place,' I'd hate to see what he considered a dump.

"Stand up Pretty Boy," said the Chain Smoker. "Stand up!"

Slowly I stood, keeping my eyes trained on the three of them. The one to my left was jealous of me for some unfathomable reason. The one in the middle and on the right were only interested in what valuables I had. Bad news was they were willing to kill me for them. Good news was the first guy was an idiot. So I kept my hands down at my sides, hiding my Beretta against my left hip. It was a good thing I was sleeping with it under my head.

"Fuck off Pretty Boy," said the Chain Smoker. I started to bend down to pick up my duffelbag when I was stopped. "No no," the Chain Smoker admonished, pulling out a two foot chain. The one on the left pulled out a skinning knife. "Leave your things right there. If you don't, blondie here will have to cave your head in." Swiftly, the one on the right dove his hand into his trenchcoat and pulled out a baseball bat. Aluminum. Owie.

"Trust me. You don't want to mess with me," I said in my most sinister voice, which wasn't much I'm afraid.

"Oh look, Pretty Boy's tryin' ta play it tough," said the jealous one with a laugh. He was really grating on my nerves. "We were gonna let you go, but now we're gonna hafta kick your ass."

I mentally sighed. This wasn't going to end good, for me or for them. As if to conflict with the mood, another song began to play that I recognized from Duo's old rock collection. It was ‘Touch Me' by The Doors, a fast paced and happy tune. How ironic.

"Let's go Pretty Boy!" taunted the Chain Smoker.

During the upbeat opening of guitar and drums, I mentally ran through my options, quickly forming and discarding moves and escapes. Finally, I decided that I would shoot the one with the knife first. He was closest to me.

"Come on Pretty Boy. Come on!" screamed the jealous man, knife held ready to cut me. "Come ON!"

/ Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me baby /

I let the gun slip into my left hand, swiftly brought it up and shot him in the head at point blank, then brought it forward to shoot the chain smoker in the throat as he stood still in surprise. When I was turning to shoot the third, he hit me on the wrist with the bat. I yelled out in pain.

/ Can't you see that I'm not afraid /

The gun fell from my hand and went bouncing down the stairs. It started firing. Both the remaining man and I dropped to the floor, and we rolled the dead bodies on top of us for protection. I had the body of the one that was jealous. His eyes were wide open, looking at me without seeing me. My head was pillowed on his brain.

/ What was that promise that you made? /

Chunks of his coat flew in the air as bullets hit him.

/ Why won't you tell me what she said? /

The gun was empty. I pushed him off of me just in time to see the third man lean over the corpse, with the skinning knife in his hand, about to stab me.

/ What was that promise that you made? /

I caught his wrist with both my hands, but almost lost my grip. My left wrist felt broken.

/ Now I'm gonna to love you
Till the heavens stop the rain /

My arms were trembling from the effort of holding him back. He had braced his hand over his wrist, pushing his entire body weight onto the handle of the knife.

/ I'm gonna love you /

Merciful Allah...I can't breathe...

/ Till the stars fall from the sky /

I can't...die like this...

/ For you and I /

The loud trumpets startled him, and I was able to gain the precious centimeters I needed to push him further away. Using that space, I was able to bring my foot under him and push him off of me. He flew off and fell on his back to slide down the stairs. But his hand ended up catching on the straps of my duffelbag, and he reflexively closed his fist around it.

"Shit!" I belly-flopped across the corpses to grab the edge of my duffelbag. His other hand still held the knife. He quickly raised it to stab through my hand, but I instinctively let go of the bag. Caught off guard, he rolled down the stairs. I clamored to my feet and jumped. He landed on his back, and rolled out of the way before I could put my feet in his stomach. My knee gave a twinge. Just when he rolled on his back, I dropped my knees into his stomach. He swiped at me, but I jerked back, dodging the blade. He curled up in pain, and I grabbed my bag and took off up the stairs. I felt a hand grab my right ankle. My knee gave out and I fell backwards.

/ Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me baby /

I landed on him, crashing us both to the floor. Both of us hit our heads, but he hit his harder.

/ Can't you see that I'm not afraid /

He screamed as I bit his arm from around my neck. I tasted his blood in my mouth.

/ What was that promise that you made? /

I got up as quickly as I could and limped up the stairs, clutching the duffelbag to my chest.

/ Why won't you tell me what she said ? /

I kicked over the Chain Smoker's corpse and got the baseball bat. Then I kicked the door open, shouldered it closed and ran like the wind.

/ What was that promise that you made? /

As I ran, I heard the door fly open, running footsteps, then close again.

/ I'm gonna love you
Till the heavens stop the rain /

I was running down the curve of the parking garage, hoping that a car coming up to park wouldn't run me over.

/ I'm gonna love you /

Keep going...keep going...almost there...

/ Till the stars fall from the sky /

Move move move! He's gaining!

/ For you and I /

Ground level. Finally! Keep going! Push the pain out your mind. Get past the man at the booth. Run him over if need be!

/ I'm gonna love you /

I made it past the pay booth. The guy didn't even look up from his newspaper.

/ Till the heavens stop the rain /

Out into the street I randomly took a right, and hoped it wouldn't condemn me to death.

/ I'm gonna love you /

The corner of the building came up on my right, with a deep shadow.

/ Till the stars fall from the sky /

I hid in the shadows, chest heaving from the exertion, and held the bat ready with only my right hand...

/ For you and I /

He came around the corner, and I used everything I had to hit him. My blow landed in his chest.

But the momentum from him running and my swinging was too much. The bat flew right out of my hand and across the street, and he slammed right into me, knocking us both to the ground and landing on top of me. Afraid that he still had a knife in his hand, I frantically started to push and kick him off of me. He was strong; strong like us gundam pilots. He had his hands wrapped around my neck and was doing his best to kill me, whatever it took. But the worst was the hollering. He was hollering like I had a hot spike driven through his heart and was twisting it. Blood was dribbling down the sides of his mouth, and the rest he coughed in my face. It dawned vaguely in my mind that I probably impaled his ribs in his lungs.

I shoved my fingers into his eyes, only for him to turn his head away. I scratched the living hell out of his left eye though, making his hollering worse. The duffelbag was bunched underneath me, forcing me to arch my back and putting myself in an even more compromising position. The music could still be heard, except now it was working itself into a frenzy, overloading my already heightened senses. Feeling my breath fighting to get in and out, and my lungs about to explode from the effort to breathe, I brought my right foot forward as far as I could. I would've been able to put the calf of my leg against his neck if that was my goal. Instead, I started to claw at the hands around my neck with my left hand, and used my right to reach into my boot and slide out the Bowie. Without a second thought, I shoved the blade into the left side of his chest, between the fourth and fifth rib, into his heart.

/ Stronger than dirt /

He dropped dead.

I pushed him off of me, got my duffelbag and Bowie and ran as fast as I could back into the spaceport. I managed to break inside without any noise, and moved so quickly from shadow to shadow it bordered on reckless. I barged into the men's bathroom, where a young man, about twenty or so, was giving an older man, in a three-piece suit, a blowjob. The older man was ready to scream about the intrusion when he noticed I was covered in blood. Both men scrambled out of there like cockroaches.

I took my clothes off, grabbed fistfuls of paper hand towels, and roughly cleaned myself of the blood. I squirted soap in my mouth to get the blood out of there, and carefully rinsed my hair to avoid the dye being washed out. I filled all the sinks with water and soaked the clothes in them. All other clothing I had was what I wore as ‘Quatre Winner, CEO,' and I could not afford something to happen to those. I squeezed as much water out of the clothes as I could out, got dressed and rolled my hair in a bun. I lost one contact in the fight, so I had to just go with my natural eye color and do my best to shield my face. Dressed in wet, clingy clothes, I hid back in the shadows, and monitored the screens for departures. There was another shuttle that was going to L4 before stopping at L1 briefly to refuel, before going to Earth. That was the main reason I didn't want to take that flight, because they weren't going to let anyone off. And hiding out in landing gear was extraordinarily dangerous. But I wasn't going to stay here any longer.

Mind made up, I stormed into the gift shop, left a handful of credits on the counter, and took everything I needed: snacks, blankets, earplugs, and an illegal space heater. I went into nearby restaurants and just slapped money on the counter, taking what I wanted. Once I was fully loaded with food and clothes, I shimmied my way to the tarmac and into the landing gear. The trip was a grueling sixteen hours to L4, and another horrible twelve to L1. While sneaking away after landing, I was nearly caught because I was so desperate to get out of there. But I remained unnoticed, caught a cab and checked into a cheesy hotel. It was almost midnight. From there I showered, changed, and curled up in bed. I felt very sick, my wrist and knee were killing me, and I was worn out emotionally and physically. I fell asleep, wishing Trowa, Duo, or even Dorothy was there to hold me. Krahe didn't bother showing up either. I felt so alone just then.

For the first time since all this started, I wished Duo never conceived this charity.

(tbc)

[2] ‘Achy Breaky Heart' by Billy Ray Cyrus. I hate this song. I've always hated it, always will. Why I included it will remain a mystery, even to me.

A/N: The three homeless guys are from the anime Trigun. They are: