‘Sir,’ Hunter tried again. ‘Please…’
But James’s father didn’t seem to be listening. The determination in his eyes seemed unflinching.
‘And you shot him… you shot my son.’
Your son?Hunter thought, but, despite his total surprise, neither his voice nor his expression gave anything away. ‘Sir,’ he tried again. ‘I know how bad this looks, but…’
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ James’s father continued, ignoring every word Hunter said. ‘That I’m too old… too weak to be able to use a gun, right?’ He didn’t give the detectives a chance to reply. ‘Well, I guess we’re just about to find out.’
‘Shoot them, Dad,’ James called from behind Hunter. ‘Shoot them.’
‘Sir, you don’t want to do that.’ Hunter’s voice was calm but firm. ‘Believe me. You really don’t.’
The old man’s gaze moved to his wife for a fraction of a second before returning to Hunter. ‘You think so.Watch this.’
He squeezed the trigger.
Twice.
Sixty-Nine
For Garcia, time seemed to slow down as if he could control it. He heard James’s father say the words ‘watch this’, then pull the trigger on the gun for the first time, and he could swear that he saw the bullet leave the barrel of the gun and travel through the air, inch by inch, gaining on its target fast, until it finally came into contact with soft tissue.
Perfect shot.
Game over.
The projectile disappeared into the target’s head, only to come out on the other side, bringing with it bone fragments, soft tissue, gray matter, blood, hair, and the end of life.
Just as he said the words ‘watch this’, James’s father had swung his arm right, aimed his gun at his own wife, and pulled the trigger.
Time had slowed down to such a degree that Garcia saw her looking back at him with a smile on her lips, as if they had planned this all along.
Her head practically shattered on impact.
As soon as James’s father squeezed the trigger, he pulled his arm back toward himself fast and, before anyone could even blink, placed the barrel of the gun inside his mouth and gave that trigger another firm tug.
The back of his head simply exploded, creating a wet mist ofblood that was littered with brain and skull debris. That heavy ball of human carnage kept on traveling upward, until it splattered itself against the ceiling above him.
While his wife’s lifeless body tumbled over on her wheelchair, his collapsed to the ground like a puppet with severed strings. Blood began pooling on the floor fast, creating a dark scarlet rug that was quickly enveloping both of their bodies.
‘Noooooo!’ James shouted from the opposite wall. He tried to get up, but Garcia stopped him with a hand to the shoulder… the left shoulder.
‘Arghhhhhh! You fuck!’
James crumpled back to the floor, his eyes wide, the pain so intense he looked like he was about to pass out.
‘Jesus!’ Garcia said, his stare pinging to Hunter. ‘What the fuck just happened here?’
Hunter’s full attention was on the old, lifeless couple on the floor. His heart was beating way out of synch with his thinking because he knew that he and Garcia should be dead. ‘They finally found a way out,’ he replied.
‘What?’ Garcia asked.
‘I don’t know the story here,’ Hunter explained. ‘But if I had to guess, I’d say that they’ve been kept captive down in this cellar by their own son for I don’t know how long.’
‘Seventeen years,’ Garcia said.
Hunter’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he looked back at Garcia.
