51 Interrogation of Harry

After the three Hesburghs had left, Roxy and John prepared to go in to listen to the big guy. Roxy was surprised that he wanted to talk. She had expected him to delay as long as possible, ask for an attorney, and refuse to say a word. But no, he wanted to talk. And a uniform told them he was animated talking to anyone with an ear about demon bitches. That was not a good sign. Roxy had a pretty good idea who he meant by the phrase demon bitches.

Her first impulse was to try and delay, but John, not surprisingly, wanted to hear what the guy had to say. She did too, but not in an interrogation room and not with it being recorded, and not with John.

First thing she did was to get rid of the two armed guards John had wanted present. One of them was a reaper, but, no matter, she pointed out to John that the two of them were armed and could deal with the guy as he was chained to the table and floor. John gave in.

Next she signaled to that other reaper guard to kill any recording feed behind the mirror and she turned off the video and audio feeds on this side. There would be no recording. John didn't notice.

Roxy sat to one side and watched as John led the discussion from a chair across the table from the man. He was huge, over six feet, black, and probably would weigh in at around 280 or 300 pounds. His team left him because well, they couldn't help it. They just could not move him. And she figured after George and Daisy had worked them all over they couldn't even if they had had more time. His bearing suggested ex-military, likely special forces. His fingerprints did not come up in the databases, another bad sign, and confirmed to her that they needed to keep the boy's whereabouts out of their own system. This guy was well supported.

She knew that his team consisted of a woman leader and at least two other men. She was undamaged, but one of the others may have a broken arm and the other a bad leg. George threw one through a second story window to the ground and Daisy the other one down the central stairs to the front door atrium. One reason she did not want to lead the interrogation was that it would be too easy to let slip something she shouldn't know. This guy she knew was taken out by Daisy early on.

John leaned a bit towards the guy and asked, "So what do I call you? You got a name?"

"Sure I do. You can call me Harry."

"OK Harry. You wanted to talk to us. We're listening."

He looked to Roxy, and back to John and tried a smile. He shifted to a frown. "We was attacked by some sort of creatures from…Hell. I think they was demons, or something." He looked into John's eyes. "They looked like two pretty little white women, but they wasn't. No. Jane said they wasn't alive at all. Just pretending. It's not right. And we have to get together and do something. Ya know, the living unite and fight the demons."

She could see John working to hold in this reaction, to keep a positive accepting face just to play along with this guy. She wondered how far along John was in his own understanding. In a level non-judgmental voice he said, "OK, Harry. Why don't you tell us what happened?"

"Yeah, what happened? We was on our mission."

"What was your mission?"

Harry thought about that. And then he seemed to weigh conflicting forces pushing and pulling him. "We was there to kill those people in that house."

John glanced over at Roxy and she studied Harry without expression. John said, "So, Harry, you were there to kill those people. That would be the Ferguson couple, their son, and the babysitter, is that correct?"

"Yes, yes, but that's not important. We was attacked by these two blonde bitches, who was there to collect souls."

"You mean two women with blonde hair, and they attacked you?"

"Yes. We was getting ready to go in. Then those two demons showed up at the front door. We watched the whole thing on our video feed on our local net. The Ferguson woman in the house shot one of the girls with a shotgun." Harry smiled. "I bet she thought they was us. And demon girl fell down and then got right back up. She was pissed, but it was like it was nothing. The other one laughed, and then...they both disappeared." He was wide eyed.

She was trying to think of some way to shut this guy up. She figured he would be getting a postit any minute, and if John learned too much he might get onto a slippery slope towards one of his own. John didn't deserve to die this way.

John studied Harry, and then asked, "OK, Harry, who was with you that got attacked. And why would Mrs. Ferguson confuse those two with you guys."

Harry hesitated, and John rolled his eyes. Harry went ahead. "That was really odd. The whole mission almost got blown when they got a phone call and some guy told them they was about to be killed. So when those two women come to the door they shot the one. Very strange. Someone knew about our mission. And the target couple knew something about it." He seemed to ponder this, but couldn't work it through. "Anyway, look Jane was leading the team. Then we had Tom and me in the van with her, and then Dick was handling surveillance at the secondary observation site."

John closed his eyes, opened them again, and said, "So Jane led a team consisting of Tom, Dick, and Harry?"

Harry laughed very pleased at their team's cleverness. "That's right. Anyway, look I'm not apologizing for what we do. We are professionals, but we're of this world, just like you and you, just doing our jobs. I'm paid to do a job, not to ask questions. I don't know why or care why someone wanted them dead. But. Those two were something out of Hell itself, demons I suspect, and we have to protect this world. It's like right out of the Bible. There could be some sort of invasion of demons. End of Times or whatever. Never thought I would live to see it happen."

John got a serious look to his face. She knew he thought the guy was crazy and would play along now. "Harry, you're right to come forward." He pulled out his notebook and a pen. "Tell me everything that happened. How did you end up on the floor out cold?"

Harry took a deep breath and relaxed. John was listening. And Harry seemed to think they all might be on the same side now. No doubt he'd watched too many episodes of Buffy. "After those two disappeared Tom and me went in and killed the two primaries, that husband and wife."

She figured John was thinking that this confession was being recorded. Too bad, but she knew the guy would be dead soon. There wouldn't be a trial. He looked over to her and then put his attentive face back on Harry to encourage him to keep going.

"After we got them we finished searching the ground floor and couldn't find the other two. And then out of nowhere, Jane comes over the net and says to abort the mission. What the fuck, we're thinking. Then we heard them upstairs so we turned off our sets and went upstairs looking for them. I tagged the girl, got her in the leg, and she hid somewhere. We continued working the rooms looking for the boy."

"So she wasn't carrying the boy?"

"It was too dark to tell. Anyway, not long after I see one of demon women running away down the hall with the boy. I don't know how they got from outside and below to up there in the rooms we was searching. Very strange. More proof that they're demons…from Hell. Anyway, I'm closer to this one and I shoot her in the back, and…the bitch just disappeared. Right in front of my eyes she was falling down and then she and the boy were gone. Gone, right in front of my eyes." Harry's eyes were wide again.

"Harry, I understand." John looked at Harry with a very concerned face. "She must have been something strange to just disappear. But how did you get knocked out?"

Harry was animated and would be using his hands but for the chains. "I got to a room and found the other one of the two blondes tending to the girl I shot, and, and as I was about to shoot both of them the first woman, the one I shot in the back I think…" Harry's eyes opened wide at the memory. "...she...she appeared right in front of me and reached through my arms and my piece and into my chest, and then I felt pain like I have never ever felt in my life. I went out."

John seemed to weigh all this solemnly and motioned to Garrison through the door's window. Garrison opened up and John asked for the photo folder.

Oh shit. Those damn photos again. She said, "John, don't you think we've heard enough? Harry has been through a lot and we need to get to work to find these demons. Maybe a priest or something…" She looked over to Harry, hoping for a little help, but no. Harry was enjoying this.

John knew where he was going. Garrison handed him the folder, and John laid it flat out on table. "Harry you said you saw these two demons through your team's video equipment. Did you get a good look at them? It was dark inside wasn't it?"

"Oh, Detective. I got a real good look at their disguises. They was demons made up to look like normal little women, but I would know them."

John looked through his photos. Ah fuck. He is putting too many pieces together. He said, "Harry, take a look at this photo."

Harry was excited. "Yes that's one of them. The smaller of the two. She's the one that got shot out front. She took a shotgun blast at about three feet and then got up. I swear to God." He closed his eyes and called out, "Jesus."

John fingered through his little stack, pulled a second photo and placed it in front of Harry. "Oh Sweet Jesus, that's the one that blasted my very soul. I swear that's the one." The giant hulk actually cringed at the sight of Daisy again.

Roxy couldn't help a tiny smile. John saw it and got a puzzled look of his own. When men looked at a photo of Daisy they didn't usually cringe. She must have really been pissed to rip him up that badly. He was the one who shot her while she was running with the boy. Daisy had weird reactions with little kids. She would either run to avoid them or want to dote on them, protect them.

John asked, "Did you hear them talking over your net? Did you get names?"

"We did, Detective, we did. I think the shorter one was called Georgia and the other, the taller one, Daisy."

Jesus Christ. What a fucking mess. She could feel it coming through now, Death communicating her reap directly to her. Harry was her reap. The ETD, he had less than an hour to live. She waited holding her breath, and when nothing more came to her she let it go. John was to live, for now.

John sat back. He looked Harry over. "So, Harry, if I understand what you told me. You and your team went into that house to kill four people. You and your team killed the husband and wife, you shot the girl in the leg, and you shot this other woman in the back. And then these women…somehow…through some supernatural means…stopped you from completing your mission." John leaned forward. "Is that right? Did I get that right?"

Harry got a doubtful look and answered, "Yes, but…"

"But these two women didn't actually kill anyone…that you know of. Is that correct?"

"Jane says that they're soul collectors. They're not alive. They're some sort of demons, Detective."

"I fully understand, Harry. And I have to say you are brave to step forward like this. Very civic minded of you. We've recorded everything. We'll get this written up and then you can review and sign it. And…we will find those two women before they stop any more murders." He motioned for Garrison and told the guards to take him away.

Roxy reaped Harry before he left. Harry was a professional and knew there were clear lines in this world he could not cross…and live. He would not talk about whom he worked for or give up information about who was with him on that team - not their real names, if he even knew them. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of certain other lines he really needed not to cross. He would never get to sign his statement. He would be dead in less than an hour. The autopsy would probably read something about heart failure or maybe it would be an aneurism. She figured the Dark would take his soul. She doubted that this one would get lights. Who knows? She didn't care. Her only regret was that he didn't die before spilling his story to John, who she could see had too many odd facts turning over and around in his brain. He was in mortal danger himself and didn't know it.

They knew Reggie had learned too much with her and Grace's little stunt coming into the Waffle Haus. Rube had also filled Roxy in on the screw up at Rosie's grave and how Grace had overheard way too much. Fortunately both girls had pulled back after that. Rube had talked candidly with Grace.

This fiasco at the house was strange. Reggie had come very close to dying. Was it connected to her recent acquisition of knowledge about them? Death gave her a reprieve, but it was still a close call. Rube, and she tended to agree, believed that both Reggie and Grace had come to understand that their continued existence among the living depended on their discretion. Something the unlucky Harry had failed to absorb. George had told Roxy of her sister's complete refusal at the hospital to discuss any aspect regarding her or Daisy in the house with John. And John had indicated a growing awareness that it might be better for him to back off. He seemed aware now that Millie/George was in fact Reggie's sister. Their problem was John, here, was pursuing a line of inquiry looking for some lead to the serial killer and he'd latched onto George and Daisy and wouldn't let go. He had also latched onto discrepancies with George's mixing two identities and there was no easy way, no safe way, to get him off it. And with what Harry fed him Roxy was very worried that he would cross over some boundary and not realize the need to keep his insights to himself. Fortunately, so far, he had not tried to share them with her and that was a good sign. She hoped when he was informed of Harry's sudden and abrupt end he would make the jump that Reggie and Grace had managed and find that safe zone in which Death would leave him undisturbed.

John considered what to say to Roxy. He hadn't shared some of the crazy notions that had been crossing his mind. She was too down to earth. She was a solid anchor to reality. And she hadn't his background with Rosie and Mary to appreciate, to consider the implications of some of the evidence he had uncovered. He couldn't tell her what he had seen at the hospital last night, and what he suspected about the Georgia girl, and Reggie. No, if he did, his career as a detective was effectively over. He would be labeled a lunatic, so he would have to work around her.

"So Roxy, what do you think?"

"I think he's been caught red-handed and he's going for an insanity plea to avoid prison. Then with his higher ups pulling strings he'll disappear into his employers' hands in less than a year."

"I have to agree. What else could it be? It's odd though that he places those two in the house. How could they have…so utterly destroyed an armed team of assassins like that? I just don't get it."

"John, I'm sure that there's a rational explanation that will come to the surface, but I do not believe that two unarmed women stumbled upon a professional hit and did what we saw. That's crazy."