The day of the funeral broke dark and grey, cloud hanging low over the city. Kate's first impulse was to bury her face in the pillow and go back to sleep, but she made herself roll out of bed instead and stumbled down the stairs in her underwear to make coffee.
She rested her head on the bar as the espresso dripped into her cup. She sat up to froth the milk herself, instead of leaving it to the automatic function, and mixed in a generous spoonful of sugar, before heading back upstairs. She paused by the window that looked over the city. What would Johnny be doing? Would he be awake? Would he be in the bedroom at the HQ, staring at the cracks in the ceiling? Was he the type to have a couple of drinks before the funeral? Maybe not, if it was Aisha's.
Kate gulped the coffee back, wincing at the heat, as she walked into her wardrobe. She grabbed a knee-length black dress out of the huge wardrobe, and then a bulky waterproof jacket to wear over it. The jacket didn't go with the dress at all, but the clouds outside the window seemed to be darkening. The last thing she grabbed was a pair of purple heels, just to be representing.
Just before she left, she sent Johnny a text.
Coming in to HQ. You around?
She didn't get a reply before she left the Hapton in her car.
It was just before 9:30 when she arrived at the headquarters. As she was walking down the stairs, she met Johnny coming up.
"Hey," she said. "Uh, what's up?"
There was something tense about his stance. "I gotta head back to the house," he said. "Need to pick a couple things up."
"Is this your first trip back?" she asked, hesitantly.
He looked away. "Yeah," he said.
"Okay," she said, touching a hand to her chest. "Can I come with you?"
"What for?" he asked. "I don't need you to look after me, if that's what you're trying to do here."
She shifted her weight onto one leg. "I – alright, well, I asked Carlos to get some kind of clean up organised and I don't know what he did or what it's going to look like in there."
"Thanks for letting me know," he said, starting to climb the stairs away from her.
"Johnny," she said, softly.
He stopped, but didn't turn around.
"Please?" she asked.
He turned back at that, with a glare that she could almost feel. "Fine," he said. "Whatever. Do what you want."
He let her ride in the passenger seat of his car but didn't speak to her as he drove. Kate sat uncomfortably, shoulders hunched. It had only been a week – two weeks, almost – since they'd last driven to his Misty Lane house together.
The rain drummed down on the convertible canvas roof as he pulled up to the house. He got out without saying a word to her and strode towards the front door. Kate had to run to catch up.
Johnny unlocked the door, pushed it open, and turned to Kate expectantly. She took two steps inside before she stopped. Johnny walked into her.
"The fuck are-" he began, looking up, but didn't finish his sentence.
Kate heard him exhale slowly as he looked at around the room.
The furniture had been stacked in the kitchen so the carpet could be ripped up, leaving only bare floorboards. It hadn't really helped. Blood had soaked through the carpets, leaving wide, dark red stains on the wood beneath. Over in the dining area, the streak of blood on the wall had been wiped into a pale pink smear on the wallpaper. There was half a roll of crime scene tape on the kitchen counter.
Kate half-turned to look at Johnny, but he sidestepped her and began walking towards the stairs.
"Fuck it," he said. "Whatever. I need to get a suit."
Kate walked after him, slowly, looking at the blood-stained floor. She could almost picture where the bodies had been lying. She sighed and followed Johnny up the stairs.
She caught up to him as he was standing in front of the wardrobe in his room. She hadn't been upstairs before, let alone into the bedroom. The bed had been neatly made with black sheets and white pillows. There was a large wooden vanity table with a mirror against one wall with a pair of diamond stud earrings lying on it, and a small framed photo of Aisha and Johnny which looked a couple of years old.
Kate turned away to look out the window instead, watching the rain as it hurled itself against the glass.
"I'm done," said Johnny.
She turned around to see him with an armful of clothes. "You going to head back to HQ?" she asked. 'Or –"
"Yeah," he said. "Let's go."
They headed back downstairs and out to the car.
Johnny slid into the drivers seat, but didn't make a move to start the engine. He just sat, staring, at the house.
"Sorry," said Kate. "For, um, how it looked inside. Should have checked."
He didn't reply.
"Do you want to do anything with the house?" she continued. "Get it fixed up, or sell it, or-"
"Burn it," he said. "It's not my home any more."
Kate looked past him, at the house. It looked just like every other house on the street. "Alright," she said. "That seems reasonable. Let's have a bonfire once it stops raining."
He nodded once, then turned the key in the ignition. Kate watched the house in the side mirror as they drove away down the road.
Aisha's memorial service five years ago had been a huge affair, with thousands of people crowding into the town hall. Kate hadn't gone, but she'd caught some of it on television afterwards, the helicopter overhead showing fans blocking the streets to get closer to the service.
There were only a handful of people at her funeral. There was her and Johnny, Carlos, Pierce and Shaundi. On the other side of the casket was an older, grey-haired couple that she assumed were Aisha's parents, and Aisha's sister that Kate had met once. She couldn't remember her name, but the sister didn't seem to recognise Kate anyway.
Aisha's parents were dull-eyed and quiet, huddling together under an umbrella. It was still pouring with rain. The heels of Kate's shoes kept sinking into the damp earth beneath her feet.
Mourning Woods cemetery was large and sprawling and green, with a wide road meandering through it. Here and there crypts were dotted among the headstones, and trees grew between plots.
Kate wasn't really listening to what the priest, standing at the head of the casket, was saying, although it was hard to hear him speak over the sound of the rain. Johnny was standing at her side, eyes fixed on the casket. The polished wood had been strewn with Aisha's favourite roses, crimson and gold and pale pink. One of the recruits standing behind them was holding an umbrella over them both. She watched a drop of rain run down the side of the casket and into the open grave below.
She felt her jacket pocket vibrate and winced. She took a half step back and reached for her phone. It was Troy. She rolled her eyes, disconnected the call, and dropped the phone back into her pocket. Thirty seconds later it buzzed again, just once. She sighed and reached for the phone again. Johnny cast her a quick sideways glance as she read the message.
Ronin headed to cemetery. Five minutes.
"Shit," she hissed. "Fuck."
"What it is?" Johnny asked, leaning towards her.
"Ronin incoming, five minutes."
"No," he said, loud enough for the priest to pause for a moment. He lowered his voice. "No fuckin' way are they messing with this funeral."
"Keep going?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, leaning away from her again.
Kate leaned over to Shaundi. "Hey," she whispered. "Things look like they might turn bad. I want you to get the parents and the sister out of the way if it looks like there's going to be bullets flying around, okay?"
"Got it," said Shaundi.
She turned to the row of Saints behind her. "You all packing?" she whispered. "Something might be going down soon." They nodded, and she turned back to the graveside.
She heard the roaring of the motorbikes coming closer and closer before they even came into view. She reached into her other pocket to wrap her fingers around her gun.
The first motorbike came through the cemetery gates, a streak of yellow against the grey. Kate noticed Johnny's shoulders tense, next to her, but other than that he gave no other sign that he'd even seen them.
The motorbikes wound their way through the cemetery road. There were more than Kate had been hoping for, and a couple of bright yellow cars at the end to finish off the procession. At least she had extra pocket space for clips this time.
The lead bike pulled up on the other side of the grass verge. The guy driving it was just a kid, his yellow leather jacket zipped up halfway and his spiked hair frosted blonde. He wasn't wearing a helmet.
The priest stopped halfway through a sentence.
"I'll go talk to him," she whispered to Johnny, taking a step away.
He grabbed her wrist. "The fuck you will," he growled.
"You two have humiliated my family for the last time," said the kid.
"Sorry, who actually is this guy?" Kate asked, just loud enough for the kid to hear her. "Pierce, I'm looking at you for this one."
Johnny cast her a sideways glance, then turned his eyes back to the casket. "Get out of here, Akuji," he said, barely raising his voice. "This isn't the time or the place."
"I thought Akuji was the dad," she said, watching the kid calmly.
"It's a surname," said Pierce, too quiet to be heard by the others over the rumble of the motorbikes. "This is Shogo."
"Oh," she said. "So is there actually any point to this guy?"
"You don't know who you're talking to," he said, glaring at her.
She laughed. "I think we've already established that that is indeed my problem," she said.
Johnny glanced at her again, sharply. "Leave," he said, to Shogo. "Any other time, any other place. Not now."
"You're not calling the shots right now," said Shogo, lifting his SMG.
Johnny leapt away from the casket instead of behind it, pulling out his pistol. The rest of the Saints scattered as bullets began to fly. Kate pulled the gun out of her pocket and began to run towards a tree for cover, but her heel caught in the wet ground and she fell to the ground. She kicked her shoes off, swearing quietly, and crawled over to the cover of a nearby tree.
She looked around for Shaundi, and was relieved when she caught a glimpse of her shepherding Aisha's family and the priest towards a nearby building. The Ronin were attempting to surround them, to cut them off from the road. She leaned out from behind the tree, only to come face to face with a man in yellow. She squeezed off two bullets almost instinctively, knocking him back. He didn't get up again.
Kate kept low to the ground, gun in one hand and most of the skirt of her dress in the other, as she moved out. The Ronin and the Saints were in close combat, now, scuffling in the mud, some too smeared with dirt to identify their colours.
Shogo was hanging back from the fight, crouching behind his motorbike. Kate narrowed her eyes, aimed, and fired. She could hear the ping of the bullet deflecting harmlessly off the bike's chassis. She clenched her teeth and aimed again, eyeing his spiky blonde hair, but the second shot seemed to hit the seat near the front of the motorbike, even further away than the first.
It was enough to break his nerve. He threw a leg over the bike and opened the throttle. She abandoned any attempt at cover and ran after him, bare feet slapping against the mud. She leapt into one of the Ronin's cars and threw the car into gear. Her wheels slipped on the wet road as she accelerated, and then the car suddenly leapt forwards after him.
He turned his head back as he heard the car engine coming after him, and his look of relief when he saw the yellow of the paint turned into horror when he recognised her. She grinned.
He turned a corner quickly and neatly, and she wrenched the steering wheel to follow him. The car was slower to respond than the bike; harder to manoeuvre, and she caught the corner of a white picket fence as she turned as sharply as she could.
She leant forward. He was trying to lose her in the winding roads of Misty Lane, but she'd driven – or been driven – here often enough to know the layout. She didn't look at Johnny's house as they passed, then put her foot down hard on the accelerator as Shogo sped up towards the old Price mansion. He was forced to slow down for the hairpin bend, but Kate yanked the steering wheel to the right, driving through flowerbed and across someone's lawn, hitting Shogo's bike side on.
The bike skidded across the road, kicking up sparks, the engine screaming. Shogo was lying in the gutter, face down. She grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and hauled him up. He had a bright bleeding scrape across his cheek, and one of his eyes was starting to swell closed.
"And that's why you should always wear a helmet," said Kate, although she was pretty sure he couldn't hear her. She dragged him back to the car and shoved him into the back seat.
"You know," she said, watching Shogo in the rear view mirror. "You sounded awfully familiar before. It's you, isn't it?" she said. "You called me about that – what's his name? Big guy."
He didn't respond.
"What for?" she continued. "Was that some kind of internal power struggle thing going on?"
He remained silent, and she turned around in her seat to look at him. His eyes were closed, and his breathing shallow.
"Did your dad approve that?" she asked. His eyes opened, just slightly, but the car bumped up onto the curb and she had to turn back to correct it.
"Was that I 'no' I just saw?" she asked, playfully. "Well golly, what's he going to think about that?"
"Don't-" he rasped. "Don't tell him."
She laughed. "You are looking in the wrong place for favours here, buddy," she said. "But I wouldn't worry, you're not likely to see his reaction."
She parked again, at the cemetery, where Johnny was waiting for her, and dropped Shogo in a pile at his feet. The grounds were deserted.
"Couldn't even let her have a goddamn funeral," he said, hauling Shogo to his feet.
Shogo was awake enough to say something in return, although his legs were shaky, and Kate heard a crack as Johnny's fist connected with his face. Shogo fell back against a gravestone.
"Careful," said Kate. "Watch your stitches."
He ignored her. "Get up," he said, to Shogo.
Kate looked down at her chipped nails and bare feet and muddy dress. Her hair was dripping, slicked flat against her skull by the rain, and the jacket she was wearing was almost soaked through. She didn't even know where her shoes were any more, but they were probably ruined.
She could hear Shogo pleading, and endless stream of babble, interspersed with loud smacks of fist against flesh and bone, and Johnny's cold, recurring 'get up.'
"I am fucking done with this," Johnny said, and she looked up to see him tipping open a coffin.
Shogo's eyes widened. She walked over to watch as Johnny smashed Shogo's head into a gravestone to stun him, then dumped him in the open coffin. His shrieks became louder and more panicked.
"Calm down," said Kate. "It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for you."
He didn't seem to even register that she'd said anything. "Just kill me," he begged. "Don't do this!"
"You've only got like, what, four hours," she said. "Less if you panic. Nothing you can do about it now, anyway."
His eyes flicked from Johnny to her in terror.
"Sleep tight, you son of a bitch," said Johnny, as he swung the lid shut. He handed her a shovel. The grave was almost halfway full of dirt before they couldn't hear his screams.
Kate's arms were aching by the time they were done. "Hey," she said, as Johnny stared down at the grave they'd filled in. "What do you want to do about…" She looked over at Aisha's coffin, still sitting halfway in its plot.
He looked at her wearily. "Can't leave her like this," he said. "Not out in the rain."
She nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Alright."