Chapter 36 The Devil

Reverse Judgement – the Devil – Reversed Page of Swords

~~~~

Jay managed to keep himself completely relaxed as the doctor changed his bed. She didn't notice him take the keys from her pocket after she unlocked two of his manacles so she could roll him over to clean his backside. She resecured his hand, checked his I.V. bag, and then went to get his breakfast. She didn't notice he had bitten the hose in half, so it dripped into the blanket instead of his veins. He managed to get both ankles unlocked, straighten his bedding around his feet, then loosened his wrist manacles where they attached to the bed frame before laying back and pretending to be asleep.

"Good morning, Mr. Doe."

Laying still, he let her wake him and feed him. The house was slightly cooler this morning and he wondered if the weather changed to colder.

"It's cold," he commented.

"No, the temperature is the same as it was," the doctor assured him, then she asked, "Are you going to tell me your name today before you are taken to a facility for the criminally insane?" She held up a bite of pancakes hacked off the edge of the stack.

"You aren't going to send me anywhere because you and Matthias would both go to jail." It was from the Mountain Rose Café, just like all the others but this one was the morning pancakes made by Millicent or her daughter, Miranda. It had taken days for him to discern the difference. He was certain Matthias  brought it before going to work at the Pagosa County Sheriff's department. "Why can't you cut a pancake properly?" he asked around another mouthful.

She smiled at him then asked, "How would you prefer them cut?"

"In squares, like a waffle." He gritted out with faked anger.

"Why didn't you just ask me to do that before?" She looked at him as she used a butter knife to cut the pancakes into squares.

"I figure this is my last meal I might as well have it the way I want it. You know Matthias won't let me leave alive," he complained as he accepted a properly cut bite of pancakes.

"He won't kill you, Mr. Doe... Not until you tell me the truth we both seek. I want your real name and the identity of Mayibe Chained." She answered as primly as the librarian at the boarding school he spent his high school years in. "He wants to know how many and where."

"You keep telling me I don't have a name," Jay announced, pretending resignation. He shook his head, and looked at the mirror, then he raised his hand to wave. "They watching me?"

"Someone is always watching," she said coolly, and he knew she was alone with him because someone would have come to stop him after he unlocked his feet.

"I'm not hungry anymore," he refused the next offered bite. "I don't want to talk. I want a lawyer."

"Tell me your name and I will let you call a lawyer from the hospital," she bargained.

"My name is Jay Lancaster."

"We both know that is not true. You are not Jay Lancaster, he died with his sister June. You killed them." Shaking her head, she moved the tray to the place by the wall. For an hour, she asked him questions about his previous identities. He maintained the façade that he was Jay and only knew his sister June and her killer Dakota Wilson. Finally, he shouted at her that he wanted a lawyer like he had for the last three days.

"You need some time to calm down. I will come back in a few hours with your lunch. The ambulance transferring you into federal custody will be here at midnight. Today is your last chance to tell me the truth because the doctors you will me after me have no care for who you are and what you have accomplished. You will spent the rest of your life in a medication induced vegetative state. No more conversations or fetish fantasies. No more games." Standing she walked out, taking the breakfast tray with her.

Jay quickly unlocked his wrists and stood up achingly slow. His muscles hurt from being restrained for who knew how long to the air bed. He was certain he had been there for several weeks and that they had only been feeding him once a day. Silently, he crept down the stairs. She was in the office, talking on the phone, so he snuck into the kitchen and got a knife, then he sneaked into the downstairs bedroom. He searched for a firearm then raged when he found a gun safe with a keypad. The closet was filled with clothing for both Matthias and the doctor. He pulled her wallet from the purse. The I.D. badge made him grimace in a maniacal way.

Special Agent Claire McNaught

F.B.I. Behavioral Analysis Unit Profiler

New York Office.

The address on the driver's license was in Manhattan. He smirked, thinking maybe it was time he went back to the east coast. He suddenly heard her voice coming closer and hid behind the bedroom door.

"I'm turning him over to Luca today, Matthias. There is nothing we can do." She listened for a moment then said, "No, you can't kill him... Have a safe shift." She hung up and threw the phone on the bed.

Jay stepped up behind her. "You should have let him kill me, Claire."

Claire whirled around, lashing out with her fist. Jay stepped inside her swing and punched her in the face and her jaw popped. He kicked her knee, partially dislocating it as he learned in bootcamp. She held up her arm as he tried to cut her face and he sliced it open the length of her forearm. Claire cried out in pain. He punched her again harder than before and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch of her bones above her eye before delivering several vicious jabs to her ribs and stomach in the rapid succession of a boxer. He seized her throat, choking her as she started to collapse, then he stabbed her once in slightly to the left of center where her heart should be. She screamed in such a satisfying manner he immediately became aroused.

He held the knife to her throat as she gripped his wrist with one hand and held her stab wound with the other. Blood dripped onto his hand from her nose and lip as he whispered, "By the way, Doctor Claire, my Uncle's whore used to call me Todd, but I prefer any other name, so I am still Jay."

Her eyes rolled back as she blacked out. He dropped her on the floor when her phone rang. The caller I.D. said it was Matthias calling back. As much as Jay wanted to answer and taunt him, he knew he needed to escape first. Looking at the date on the display, it shocked him to realize he had been a prisoner for barely ten days. He quickly dressed in Matthias's clothing, cursing that the stock man was a nearly a foot shorter than him as he put on a pair of sleeping sweats and a tailored shirt.

Bending down, he was surprised she was still breathing slightly. He wondered how long she would last. The profiler was a beautiful, mature woman, but he didn't have time to add her to his collection and she would be dead before he had time to enjoy himself. "I think I will have to write a book about you since I can't play with you, but first, I need to finish what I started in this house."

He grabbed the keys and cash from Dr. McNaught's purse. In the garage, he found a rental SUV. It only took him a few minutes to siphon some gasoline from it. He cut some towels into strips and soaked them in the fuel then he laid them around the house and splashing the floors and walls. He was surprised that he couldn't open any of the doors and realized they had all been screwed shut. He laughed because Matthias' attempt to keep him contained meant no one would be able to enter and retrieve the body of the doctor. Pulling open the drawer on the bottom of the oven he stuffed more towels in it and wrapped one around the heating element, then set the auto cook timer on the oven. It would turn on in an hour, the fuel-soaked towels would act like wicks, and burn the house to the ground. He learned from his last failure. This time the house would go up in flames. He closed the door to the kitchen and got in the rental SUV. Backing out, he headed to the Singing Goat Dairy to retrieve the scientist he wanted to add to his collection. He was surprised to see she wasn't there. It didn't look like anyone had been there for at least a week, even the goats were gone. He knew she would be at the Sheriff's Department to work her shift as dispatcher. He needed to create a diversion to get her alone there.

Jay went to the house of the diver he wanted for Drowning Bliss on Poppy Lane. In the backyard, he walked past the steaming covered pool and peeked in the windows. The house was dark, and he suspected Tiana was already at diving practice. He needed to lure her out of the school and get rid of her father who had helped track his history down. Looking around, he remembered a scene from a book and decided water and electricity were a dangerous combination. The fuse box was on the outside of the house. In the tool shed, he found what he needed. He turned off the main braker then twisted a copper wire around the fuse so it wouldn't lose the circuit when it blew. Pulling the pump casing off, he stripped a wire and attached it to the metal handle on the side panel. He turned off the heater thermostat, closed everything up. He flipped the main braker, then quickly went to the pump. Tapping it carefully, it jolted him painfully and Jay laughed. Tim Ballard would come to see why the pool was freezing over and when Tiana's father touched it, he would die just like in the scene Jay researched for Passion of the Waves where the woman was shocked while wet.

~~~~

Driving into town from the Rocking M Ranch, Tim dropped Audra Grean off at the Sheriff's Office then went to his house with Sheridan. Tiana and Autumn Grean left early and rode together to the first diving practice of the new year. There was only six weeks until state finals and there were three competitions between now and then. He left Sheridan playing happily in her room. Looking out at Tiana's pool as he walked through the kitchen, he immediately noticed that there was a thin layer of ice on the water that was on the pool cover. He walked outside and touched the ice, pushing his fingers through it and noting the water in the pool was cold instead of 70 degrees. He went over to the pump box to check the heater thermostat. Reaching out to open the door, the moment his palm brushed the latch a jolt went through his body. It reminded him of the time the rig was hit by lightning and he was closest to the strike. He flew through the air and splashed into the frigid pool. Twitching and mostly unable to control his muscles, his flailing hand caught the edge of the pool before he sank and got trapped below the canvas cover.

Choking as he inhaled water, he pulled his face above the pool's surface and managed to shout, "Sheridan! Help!"

He struggled to get his leg over the edge of the pool and climb out. He was shivering so badly and realized he was going into shock.

"Grandpa?" She was holding her cat as she knelt beside him. It was singing in Cassandra's voice.

"Sweetie, I... I... Need you to call... Nine and one and one... Like we practiced for... an emergency," Tim's stammered out through chattering teeth as the world closed into a dark tunnel. "Tell them... to..." Then his consciousness was gone.

"Tim, what happened?" His cousin Lloyd demanded.

Tim could hear the ambulance approaching as Lloyd talked to his dispatcher, "I hear it. Bye, Audra."

Tim forced his eyes to open slightly then he moved his arm to point at the pump box. "Sh-sh-short... sh-sh-shocked m-me."

"Hold on the ambulance is almost here." Lloyd took Tim's hand and looked at the burn on his palm.

"Sh-sh-sher..." Tim stammered, worried about his granddaughter.

"Sheridan will be fine, I'll take care of her," Lloyd promised as Vienne Stanley burst into the backyard.

"What happened?" She demanded, taking Tim's vitals.

"He was electrocuted by the pump." Lloyd said, "It's on a 220 line."

"We'll take care of him, Sheriff, but I think your niece needs you." Vienne nodded toward the glass doors, to Vick holding Sheridan. Tim looked over toward the door but without his glasses, he couldn't make out more than blurred shapes. He was whisked away to an ambulance before he could protest.

"Hold on, Mr. Ballard. You're going to be just fine," Vienne assured him as she hooked him up to a heart monitor. "You're just a little hypothermic and we need to make certain that jolt didn't affect your heart."

Tim tried to relax but his whole body hurt.

~~~~

Jay watched Sheriff Lloyd McConnell and Deputy Vick Stanley sleave the station for Tim Ballard's house. He was just about to cross the street to get Audra when Matthias Abernathy pulled up. His scowl turned into a smirk, and he wondered how the Harbinger would react to the death of the woman he loved. He knew he couldn't snatch his prize now but perhaps he could still grab the diver and arrange a trade after he played with her. He took the profiler's rental and drove to the school, parking next to Tiana's yellow jeep. He knew they would call her, and she would come out, worried and unawares. He didn't have to wait long. Tiana came sprinting out of the school. She threw her sports bag in the back of her jeep and just opened the door when he grabbed her, pressing the knife against her throat.

"Hello, Alisa, did you miss me?" He breathed into her ear, using the name from the book he chose for her. Number seven of his Drowning Bliss collection.

Tiana shuddered, pleading, "Let me go, Jay, I'm not Alisa." She sobbed as she begged. "What do you want? My keys, my cash? I'll give them to you... just let me go home to my daughter."

"I want to play, like we played before," he murmured. Slowly forcing her to step toward the stolen SUV.

"Jay?" Autumn's tremulous voice interrupted his fantasy. She stared at him wide-eyed with a towel wrapped around her wet hair. "What are you doing?"

When his head snapped to look at the teen, Tiana stomped hard on his instep with her boot heel, twisting away from the knife as she pulled a pistol. She fired one shot into the ground as he dug the knife into her shoulder. Screaming, she fired again hitting his leg as she fought to get free. They went down hard, and the gun clattered to the pavement.

"Jay, stop! Jay, stop!" Autumn shouted, but he couldn't hear her as Tiana screamed each time he stabbed her. The pure panic and pain on her face and tourmaline blue eyes as she fought him was more euphoric than all his previous fantasies. Suddenly when Jay reared back to stab Tiana a fourth time, a gunshot stuck him in the back in searing agony, then another and another in rapid succession until the gun was empty.

Jay fell beside Tiana. Her golden hair looked so beautiful with streaks of crimson. Her face looked like she was asleep. He stared at her, grateful to die in the presence of such beauty and purity. Far away, he heard Autumn screaming, "Help us! Someone help us!"

The teen who once treated him like a big brother and took care of his dog after he left, killed him and he was surprised as he looked at the sky the same color as Alisa's eyes.

"Ohgawd, ohgawd, hang on, T. Don't die." Autumn reached over to press her fingers against the pulse point in his neck. The last beat of his heart drummed under her crimson slicked fingertips as she pressed her other hand over Tiana's shoulder wound.

"Help!" Autumn shouted again, "Help us!"

~~~~~

At the hospital, after he was admitted, placed in a room, examined, and given an hour-long EKG, he tried again to call Tiana on his room phone, but she didn't answer so he called his grandfather's clinic.

Nick answered the phone, "McConnell Veterinary Clinic. This is Dr. Ballard."

"It's Tim, I need to talk to Grandpa."

"He's on the way to get you to take you to Durango while Tiana's in surgery."

"Wait, what?!" Tim suddenly remembered the scene in Passion of the Waves and realized his accident was no accident at all. Not-Jay tried to kill him and then went after Tiana. "What happened to my daughter?"

"The serial killer you and Lloyd were chasing came back. Lloyd told Grandpa that your accident wasn't an accident and that it was just to lure Tiana out of the school so that guy could snatch her, but she fought back. She was stabbed as she shot him. Then in the struggle, she lost her pistol, but her little friend Autumn shot and killed him when he wouldn't stop stabbing Tiana. Tank's wife Miranda flew her to Durango for emergency surgery. I'm sorry, cousin. I thought you knew."

"I have been in the Emergency Room since I was almost electrocuted. Thanks for telling me. Bye." Tim's hands shook as he hung up on his cousin. He cursed that his cellphone was ruined in the pool because all he could do was wait for his grandfather and hope to get released right away. Closing his eyes, he prayed.

"Dear lord, please don't take my baby girl from me. Not my mermaid, not like this."