Chapter Thirteen
Maurelle
I stayed by the door, in the dark, as Tommy knocked on the door to the cabin. My heart was in my throat as I tried to wait for Kane to get here. I couldn’t believe he had traced me here. I’d thought I had been so clever by coming here, and finding the Vicomte.
His body was rotting away in that room still, the door closed so that I didn’t have to look at his disgusting insides that had seeped out onto the carpet.
The knocks became more insistent and needy as Tommy’s voice shouted through the wood door.
“I know you’re in there,” he yelled out. “You won’t escape from me. Come out and I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”
False promises.
“Maurelle Picquet,” he called out. Had Kane told him my real identity? He even pronounced it correctly, not many did, unless they were French. “This is Detective Tomasz Woljart, and I am here to bring you in for your crimes.”
Instantly, recognition sparked and I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I moved to the door, the gun in my hand behind my back, just in case. Opening the door, I looked over at the face of Kane’s young partner who he called Tommy.
“Maurelle Picquet, I am here to arrest you for the multitude of crimes committed against your husbands and probably a dozen more felonies,” he said. “Now, you can come quietly or you can go down as a fugitive. Either way, I don't care what happens.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” I said, moving back so he was forced to come inside. “Do you want to see what I did tonight?”
“Is there someone else here?” he asked me, drawing his gun from its holster.
“Down the hall, second door on the right.”
He eyed me suspiciously as he moved down the hall, keeping his gun trained on me until he got to the door and opened it. Immediately, he held his hand over his mouth, hiding his shock. The gasps of horror followed and it cemented in my mind who he was. The name was familiar for a reason.
“You bitch,” he said through gritted teeth, his tears streaming down his face, soundlessly. “You think I’m going to bring you in for this?”
“No, I don’t suspect you will,” I replied, pulling my gun from behind my back.
“Don’t worry, the police are on the way.
You can explain to them how you infiltrated their system to hide the atrocities that your boss back there had committed in their country.
Then you can be arrested and given to the guys you did have put away and be their little cherry, for the rest of your life. ”
“No one will ever know who I am or what happened here,” he said, a sinister level to his voice.
“No, I don’t suppose you want them to find the connection to you and him, do they?” I replied, holding the gun up at him. “He’s not just your boss, after all, he’s your daddy. And I took great pleasure in torturing him until he gave me the names of all of his clients and accomplices.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” he spat, his tears flowing down his cheeks now. “He’s no rat.”
“But he did,” I said. “See, I figured he had people on the inside back in France, but I didn’t expect them to be here. Some of these clients are high up in the ranks, aren’t they? Then again, I’m sure you’re not the only one in the police force to be one of them.”
“No one will ever find out, you bitch,” he said.
“You’re not like him, are you?” I replied, edging around the room, closer to the door. “You wanted his attention, to be a good boy and get your praise, but he doesn’t know how to do that, does he? He probably never even told you who your mother was.”
His hand trembled, the gun pointed at me was shaking. I’d hit a nerve. I was so surprised that I hadn’t caught who he was before. He looked a little like his father. Those same dark eyes looked over at me, the woman who caused his father to perish.
The front door was kicked open, making us both jump. Kane looked from Tommy to me, and back again.
“It’s okay, Tommy,” he said. “I got this.”
“No,” Tommy screamed. “She’s a murderer. She’s gutted a man back there.”
Kane looked over at me for confirmation to which I shrugged my shoulders. “I killed my tormentor, sure. But Kane, do you know who your partner really is?”
Tommy let a shot off, and it blasted the wall behind me. I ducked down, instinctively, before Kane shot Tommy in the shoulder. His gun scattered across the floor. Kane ran over and kicked it away from him.
“What are you doing?” Tommy screamed. “Get her!”
Kane put his gun in his holster and sat Tommy up, putting pressure on his wound. “Explain.”
“He’s the Vicomte’s son,” I told him. “He’s a plant in the justice system to make sure these assholes get away with what they’re doing, even here.”
“The Vicomte?”
“My tormentor, and the one I ran from when I learned of my pregnancy with Camille,” I said. “He’s in the back room there if you want to see what a monster I am.”
“Why do you call him Vicomte?”
“He’s a Vicomte in France. That’s how he gets away with it. He has connections everywhere.”
Kane swore as he looked down at Tommy who was trying to battle against him.
“And Tommy?”
“Tommy is Tomasz, his son who he taught well I see. I recognised his name from my list, Kane. He’s going to kill us and make it look like an accident.”
“She lies,” Tommy hissed.
Kane looked down at him, and backed away from him, blocking me from his sight. He was protecting me.
“How certain are you?” he asked me.
“I am certain,” I told him. “I would never do this unless I knew for sure.”
“Okay,” Kane said, as he lifted his gun and shot Tommy in between the eyes. I jumped, startled that he would do that for me. “Listen, I can’t hold off the brass for much longer. Tommy’s death will put a wrinkle in the plan, so I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I need you to poison me,” he said.
“No…”
“It doesn’t have to kill me, but you need to poison me in order to get out of this.”
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “No.”
“Maurelle…you have to. It will save me, and it will give you time to flee.”
I put my gun down, and I paced the living area, turning a lamp on to give me some light to work with.
“I haven’t worked out my exit strategy yet,” I said. “I wasn’t even thinking, I just…came here.”
Kane pulled an A4 envelope from his jacket and he handed it to me. Confused, I opened it and pulled out the passport and plane ticket before looking up at him.
“There’s no extradition treaty, you’re safe in Cuba.”
I flipped open the passport and looked down at the photo of me and the name.
“Margaux Sullivan,” I read out.
“It’s my mother’s name,” he said. “I needed the passport quickly, so I just told them the one name I always have on my mind.”
“Margaux?” I repeated. “That’s french.”
He nodded. “Yes, she was French.”
I put my hand on his cheek, loving that he would protect me like this. “Come with me.”
He shook his head, and looked down at my plane ticket. “I can’t. I have to make sure this doesn’t blow back on Camille. No one has pieced together who she is, but I have to make sure she’s safe.”
My heart swelled at this man who I had once tried to kill, looking after me and my daughter.
He rested his head against mine, and I reached up to kiss him. A slow, simmering kiss that proved just how much we were willing to do for each other.
I held my hand over his heart as I accepted this would probably be the last time I saw him. For real this time. The ultimate sacrifice.
Now, I was free.
Because of him.
“One more time,” I said, my voice breaking with emotion. “Please.”
His mouth claimed mine in a fiery kiss, forcing me to drop my new identity and escape onto the floor as he pushed me against the doorframe. His kisses overwhelmed my senses as I drank in the memory of Kane Garrick.
Kane
My back was aching from laying on the floor all night. The spot next to me was empty, and as I gazed over at the dead body of Tommy, I couldn’t help but feel a fresh set of anger lace through me at not knowing who he really was. How many others were in the system, allowing this shit to happen?
I got up and looked around for Maurelle but I knew she was gone. It would be stupid if she didn’t leave yet. The plane was taking off today, so I knew she would be gone before they found me.
I pulled my clothes on and staged the scene so it looked like I came in and found Tommy like this. Moving into the kitchen, I found the vial and note she left.
One day, we’ll meet again.
Until then.
Dilute this before you drink it.
Doris x
I chuckled at the note, using the same name she’d used on the note that had started our relationship. I grabbed the lighter from the stovetop and burned the letter before I grabbed the vial, looking at the sickly green colour of it, I knew this was going to fucking hurt.
Moving back to the living area, I looked around for a needle or something that would look like she injected me with the poison to make it more believable.
I found a pin and I stuck myself in the neck, the sting nothing compared to what I knew was coming.
Dropping the pin on the couch, I sipped at the concoction, immediately smelling the scent that I remembered from the first crime scene, before I chucked the poison vial in the fireplace.
I called the Captain and told him to get here and quick, that she got me and Tommy.
My stomach started to hurt first, then my body began to sweat and tense. My muscles contracted painfully as the poison took over. Everything started to get dizzy as I succumbed to the poison, hoping that they’d get here before it was too late.