Chapter 7 - The Showdown
I could feel the color drain from my face when I saw her. That face… the face that has haunted my every nightmare for the last 20 years. Vaguely, I heard Alex's quick indrawn breath and I realized that it echoed my own. Looking over at me quickly, she asked, "Do you know her?"
"Yeah… yeah I do," I told her. "I have very few memories of my dad, but I do know that he was a hero. He was in the FBI, working to take down the mob just like your dad Alexandra. One day he and I were on our way home from a movie when I heard gunfire. I looked around to see what was going on, completely unafraid. I knew that whatever it was, my dad could keep me safe. Across the street, a woman—this woman—stood laughing for a moment before she got her in car and drove off. Then I looked down next to me and saw my dad… shot through the heart."
By this point, I was struggling to maintain my composure. Face to face with my father's killer, I felt the old tears threatening to spill down my face. I heard Alexandra gasp again as I finished my story, and I glanced over at her. I could see the shock on her face and something else—disbelief and hurt maybe? But why would she… and then it clicked. "Alex, do you know her?" I asked.
"She's… she's my mother," she replied brokenly.
"Hello Alexandra," Irene said with a smirk. "It's been a long time." Stunned, I looked from one woman to another. This was Laura Ross? Alexandra's mom? Laura Ross was Irene? Alex's mom killed my dad?
"Mom… why… I don't understand." Alex stuttered. Turning to look at her I realized I wasn't the only whose color had paled. Alex looked as white as a sheet.
"Of course you don't. You're too much like your father—always looking for justice and truth, placing honor above everything else. You can't possibly understand how a little money can go a long way toward easing a guilty conscience at night. Your naivety is refreshing."
"Money? You're just in it for the money? And what about when you left us? What about your stroke? Who's that woman up in Carmel Ridge?" The pain in her voice was tearing me apart, but I was still reeling too much from my own revelation to be able to comfort her.
"You see, your dad, your stepfather was becoming suspicious of me… I've always suspected it was the Logan killing that confirmed his suspicions. I shouldn't have stood there like that, too many people saw me. But I was so enjoying the moment. Obviously there was no stroke, and the poor woman wasting away up at Carmel Ridge is just some poor crazy woman, I believe the correct medical term is, schizophrenic." She looked at me, eyes dancing with laughter. Enraged, I brought up my gun, aiming it straight at her heart.
"I wouldn't recommend that if I were you Mr. Logan. You can come out now Jeffries," she called. A man stepped out from behind a second door that I hadn't even noticed until now. "Because you see, if you shoot me, then Jeffries will have to shoot your friend. And now I'm afraid Mr. Goren won't need his weapon any longer… can you take care of that Ritchie?" Yet another man snuck in the door behind us and grabbed Bobby's gun out of his hands. "Now that only leaves you Mike - I can call you Mike, can't I?"
Once again, I felt the fury building inside me, but I tamped it down. Nodding curtly, I tossed my gun off to the side of the room. "What are you going to do with us now?" I asked bitterly.
"I'm not going to do anything to you and your partner, Mike. I don't need to. You won't be able to find me anyway, and no one is paying me to kill you. Alexandra on the other hand… well, I'm afraid I just can't return to Chicago with you still running around, dear. You do understand don't you?"
Alexandra stared at her mother in mute horror. "You're going to kill your only child?" I asked unbelievingly.
"Well yes, of course. That is what I was hired to do after all." Her words were bad enough, but the manner in which she spoke them made it worse. She acted as though it was nothing, planning to kill your daughter just for the money. I felt sick inside, filled with the knowledge that it was over and she had won. I couldn't beat such a mercenary.
"It's gotten a little cramped in here don't you think? Why don't we take this little party outside?" Irene suggested. Silently, we all ascended the stairs again and stepped into soft rain.
Looking around, I noticed that Jeffries and Ritchie were no longer with us. Seizing at the small flicker of hope at their absence, I was running through a possible escape route when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"That's far enough Laura."
"Daniel! My oh my, this really is old home week isn't it? So good of you to join us. Well, this has to be one of the most unlikely of family reunions. Too bad I'm only here to kill Alexandra, or this could have been time for us all to catch up."
"I can't let you do that, Laura—or should I call you Irene?" he asked bitterly. "That's your real name, your real identity isn't it? Tell me, did you ever really love me, or was I just a means to an end? Marry the FBI officer and get good information on who's ratting out the mob, what officers we have working the inside, was that all it was?"
"Well of course I married you for the information, but I will admit the rest of it was fun too. More fun than I ever thought it would be, let me tell you." As she spoke, Irene continued to edge away, taking Alexandra with her. "Your father – your real father – didn't have the access that Daniel has and he wasn't nearly as pleasant."
"I said that was far enough Laura," Daniel said quietly, but with a hint of steel in his voice.
"Oh Daniel, what exactly do you plan to do?" She shifted her grip on Alexandra and pressed the pistol tighter against her side. Alexandra's cry of alarm reverberated across the lawn, and I could see the tenuous hold Daniel had on his emotions snap at the sound of his daughter's pain.
"After all, we both know you'll never have the guts to shoot me, the woman you once loved… you couldn't turn me in before, you won't be able to shoot me now."
Overly confident, Irene backed closer to her car. Letting go of Alexandra's right arm, she opened the door while holding on to her with her left hand. Once the door was open, she grabbed Alexandra and began to force her into the backseat of the car. Her progress was stopped by one bullet, straight through the heart. Stunned, she looked up at Daniel before she fell to the ground. He lowered his gun, saying, "I told you I would never let you take her from me."
Paralyzed with shock and fear, Alexandra stared down at her dead mother. Daniel reached into his jacket to return his gun to its holster as looked at his daughter, unsure of her reaction to him would be. "Alexandra…" he started uncertainly.
Startled, she shifted her gaze toward him. "Daddy?" she whispered as though seeing him for the first time. He stared back at her for a moment, and then opened his arms to her. She ran into them, tears streaming down her face. "Daddy! I was so wrong! She was going to kill me, oh Daddy I'm so sorry. All these years, you let me think that you… that you…"
"Shh… it's okay. I'm the one who should be apologizing Alexandra. I never intended for you to find out about your mother. I tried so hard to protect you from all of this, from what I really do, and they almost got to you anyway. I never would have forgiven myself if they'd hurt you."
To my amazement, Daniel Ross was in tears as well. I guess being married to a dame like that could cause even the strongest heart to break. Silently, Goren and I returned to the car, leaving them crying in the rain alone.
