Author's Notes: Many gracious thank-you's go out to my reviewers as always, and in return, another update in less than twenty-four hours! I hope that even though most readers will have some more catching up to do, they will still leave a review for both chapters, but just one would still leave me perfectly content.
This chapter features no V or Evey (heart-breaking, I know!) and helps the plot to move on a bit more, (although the majority of you seem to have me all figured out!).
Well past midnight on November the fifth, a resounding knock pounded on the door of Eric Finch's home. The man of the house had had barricaded himself inside almost a day earlier wishing only to have the company of his well stocked liquor cabinet. Having been a heavy drinker years before ever becoming a Norsefire party member, he was well versed in the lovely way the stuff could allow him to forget, and the things he had seen…the things he had done warranted him some respite from unpleasant thought, if only he could manage to drink enough to surpass the tolerance he had built towards it.
His friend and detective underling had been pestering him all day, and after several messages on both his cell phone and land line, Eric finally caved in and decided to permit him entrance. He gently placed the nearly empty bottle of scotch-whiskey on the glass coffee table at his feet, and stumbled up to answer the door. He manuevered through the dark living room and into the hall, wincing at the racket Dominic was making hammering on the door and shouting. Nearing sobriety but not quite clear-headed, the Chief Inspector began to regret his decision even as he turned the knob.
"Inspector!" Dominic was thankful to see the boss and friend he nearly idolized alive and well, and flew into his home in a flurry of relief and vast annoyance.
" 'Ello Dom." Finch muttered, clearly none too thrilled at the prospect of company.
"Where the bloody hell have you been all this time!" Dominic spat, full of self-righteous rage. "I haven't seen or heard from you since I left you at Victoria's Station…and do you realize all the chaos that's been happening since then?" Feeling along the wall, he flicked on a light switch, and Eric swore from the pain of the momentary blindness.
"Jesus Christ," Dominic continued, "you stink. Have you just been sitting here in the dark for the past four hours drinking while the world goes mad on your fucking doorstep?"
Finch knew that Dominic's words rang true, yet still found himself feeling slightly miffed by the accusation. He held up a hand to stop the younger man's ramblings and replied, "Now that's not wholly accurate…I did spend quite a few hours out investigating…and then come home for a bit of a pick-me-up that was a bit overdone, admittedly."
Dominic frowned then, his anger subsiding easily. "Inspector," he began, concern filling his voice. "I've never known you to be lax on the job before…what happened tonight?"
"What job?" Finch cut in sharply. "The Chancellor's dead."
Dominic's eyes widened in shock at the words, his mind racing. The Chancellor Sutler's disappearance had been disquieting in a way that nothing in all his years of service had ever been before, and Creedy's even more nerve wracking. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place.
"How?" It was a simple question to ask, but an important one.
Finch didn't answer right away, but instead turned on another light and led Dominic into his living room, offering him a seat on the couch. When his employee had sat and seemed ready for some answers, the Chief Inspector settled as well, his face set in a grim line, but showing no signs of remorse.
"Adam Sutler was shot once in the head, and seemingly beaten with a rod." He paused, allowing the implications of his information to sink into Dominic's psyche. "A scarlet Carson was tucked into his lapel…but it was Creedy's gun that killed him, not one of V's injections."
"And Creedy?" Dominic immediately asked already surmising that the Party Leader was dead as well.
"His neck was snapped, like it was a twig. The bruising also suggest strangulation, but no roses for him." Finch replied.
Dominic had also had a strong distaste for the Norsefire fingermen, and their ring-leader in particular. He had been at Parliament that night, despite having a somewhat high seat of authority in the government he so strongly disliked, mainly to spite the Creedy, whom he regarded as one of most disgusting human beings on the face of the earth.
"Perhaps our boy fancied Creedy wasn't man enough to warrant one." He said with a slight snort of amusement in his voice.
Finch was a particularly brilliant man in his field, and didn't take Dominic's words as the joke they were meant to be. "That's a possibility, certainly…" Finch sighed, leaning back to be enveloped by the cushions of his seat. "Or," he added darkly, "he was in too much of a rush for his usual dramatic flair."
Raising a brow, Dominic knew that there was more to his story. "Oh?" he inquired lightly, for conversation's sake.
"An armor plate covered in bullet holes and stained with fresh blood was on the ground. A trail of the same blood was on the walls…whoever it was, and I feel I can be safe in saying that it was in fact V, was bleeding heavily and using the wall as support. I followed the trail until it came out at a platform, his hat was lying on the ground. A few yards away there was a puddle of blood on the ground, and then a few drops that led to the outside."
Instantly, the mysterious patient from Our Lady of Grace came to the forefront of Dominic's mind. "How fresh would you have estimated that blood when you came upon it, Inspector?"
"Extremely fresh.…" Finch said with emphasis, "I was most likely only a half an hour behind his trail."
Finch frowned as a light of understanding appeared in Dominic's eye. "I answered a call tonight, a little after midnight. A Dr. Quinn from Our Lady of Grace had been phoning since ten-thirty this evening about a patient that had come into the ER.…dragged in by a blood-soaked woman, whom apparently refused to leave his side. Over thirty bullet wounds, easily I was told…the hospital staff was nervous about them, figured they were a pair of criminals of course…but the pair managed to disappear before I got around to going."
"Are you telling me that the Hammond girl brought our boy to a run of the mill hospital? Finch asked, his alcohol clouded senses forcing themselves to regain clarity with this new wealth of information.
"You're the one who told me that you no longer believed in coincidences, Inspector," Dominic grinned, "and to confirm it all we need is matching blood samples, which I'm guessing won't be all that hard to obtain."
"Christ…" Finch said, rising out of his chair with new found energy. "If we find out his blood type, we'll be able to pinpoint him down to all living men in England with the same blood type, and from that perhaps see if any of them were ever sent to detention centers…we could be well on our way to unmasking England's favorite terrorist."
"It's a long shot by any stretch of the imagination…but it's more of a lead than a year's worth of investigation has given us." Dominic agreed, rising as well.
As the two detectives headed out Finch's door in hot pursuit of the case they were suddenly much closer to breaking, Dominic frowned for a moment and said, "There's still one thing that isn't making sense. At midnight on the fourth, when Parliament exploded, the patient and his companion were at the hospital. So if those people were Evey Hammond and V, then who was it that initiated the detonation?"
Eric Finch stopped in his tracks, glancing up at Dominic who was only halfway down the front step. He paused for a long while before grunting, "Hell if I know…but if we can find V, maybe we can find out."
"Yeah, I suppose so…" Dominic began, but Eric piercingly cut him off.
"You haven't been pilfering my fags for your own pleasure again, have you?" He asked with a small laugh.
Dominic scowled in mock-defeat and tossed the pack of cigarettes at his superior, and climbed into the vehicle parked in the street, temporarily forgetting about the questions Chief Inspector Eric Finch was the least ready to answer.
Author's Notes: Please, please review and let me know what you think!