"I was wondering how long it would take you to show up."
Mike's voice had taken on a dark, foreboding undertone when he said that, the hostile words accompanied by a stern expression, as he slowly turned around, facing something behind Steve.
Following the worrisome exchange intrigued, the young Inspector glanced over his shoulder, feeling a chill run through his entire body at the sight of Morris, along with two of his guys flanking him on either side, stepping out from behind the cover of a handful of pine trees.
An ambush.
It had all been nothing but a damn ambush!
He instinctively reached for the .38 securely holstered on his left hip, his mind racing back and forth on who to point it at considering that Mears was in front of them, the others behind them.
Faster than he could come up with an action plan, strong hands appeared from behind, jerking both of his arms behind his back so violently that he heard the joints in his shoulders pop.
"Is that a way to greet company, Lieutenant?", Morris sneered and came closer, the bed of pine needles below quietly crunching under his weight.
When he finally came into full sight, Steve could see the revolver in the Homicide Captain's hand, aimed at Mike's chest in deadly precision.
The man behind him, pinning him in place with an armlock, didn't seem to share his superior's calm and controlled demeanor.
Instead, Steve could hear him breathe heavily, the strong hands holding him in place shaking with each strained rise and fall of his chest.
"That's a nice setup you planned here, Morris. Have Mears lead us on a fake trail of breadcrumbs while you follow along at a safe distance.", Mike growled, seemingly ignoring the gun pointed at him, his blue eyes filled with unbridled fury and disgust.
"So, what's the plan now? You are going to kill us too? Add us to the list of people you two have murdered and buried out here, hoping to erase history? You've been in the business long enough to know a thing or two about forensic evidence. We've already got you on one count of murder, and three counts of accessory to murder. You're going away for a long, long time. Don't make matters worse."
Steve kept his expression unreadable considering the curveball Mike had thrown at them, not sure if the strong words would hold up with actual facts in the court of law. If nothing else, hopefully it would buy them time- enough time to surpass the 45-minute window they were sticking to when it came to sending backup.
Morris seemed intrigued at the charges, then chuckled, as if to shake off his unease.
"You have nothing, Lieutenant. Less than nothing. All you have is a bunch of hearsay, shadows to chase, murders you can't pin on anybody. That doesn't amount to a damn thing when it comes to the legal system. Maybe you should consider reviewing some of those rules."
He could see Mike open his mouth to argue, undoubtedly ready to continue a conversation he knew he couldn't win, but Morris seemed to have read his stalling technique and pointed his chin toward the pond.
"Let's get moving. Get them down there.", the Homicide Captain ordered, as if driving a herd of cattle to their watering hole.
His command set the group in motion again, the guy behind him stepping forward so forcefully that it nearly threw Steve off balance.
Mears was the first one to reach the swampy ground, his eyes wide with a mixture of excitement and nervousness, busy hands fidgeting with the corner of his dark green coat, a psychopath ready to strike again.
Mike followed along slowly, never taking his eyes off Morris's gun as he tackled the four-foot embankment, keeping his distance to the Captain and his helper who had formed a half circle around him.
Steve and the unknown man behind him were the last ones to make it down, perhaps considered to be the least of the threat the two San Francisco Homicide Detectives were posing to the murderous locals.
Unable to steady himself well with his arms locked behind his back, he took a few careful steps, then slid the rest of the way down into the shallow water, nearly running into Morris along with way.
"What did Brandi do that she deserved to die, hm?", Mike asked again, his voice rising in agitation, "Did she say no when you wanted to throw yourself on top of her? Threaten to get you charged with rape, a charge that would have ended your career? Or worse, did you impregnate her and you had to kill her to cover up the affair? What is it that makes a cop like you turn sides in the worst way possible, Morris?"
Mike's tactic seemed to work out after all when the Captain used his free hand to run it through his dark hair, then nervously reached for the red pack of cigarettes hidden in his black coat pocket, just to discard the idea altogether.
"Maybe all of the above…and maybe because she had quite the mouth on her. You gotta be careful how you talk to people of authority. Getting bossy and trying to make threats tends to backfire…"
"The phone records and credit card receipt tied Mears to her, not you. So, in case her body would be found, he'd take the fall…", Steve hypothesized, sensing confirmation by the angry glare fired his way, followed by another sharp tug on his arms that sent him stumbling several feet away from the pond.
"And since you owed your buddy Daniel here a favor for taking the fall, you decided to help him clear the scene of the Saunders' murder.", Mike continued, realizing which way his partner's theory was headed, "Because once Marie Saunders came to you explaining what she had found, you knew you had to help Daniel seal that secret once and for all, by murdering everyone who knew about the documents and then hide them. You even offered to get the whole house prepared for sale, which was a cheap way to check the rest of the building for additional evidence that Betsy may have hidden."
Noticing Morris beginning to shiver slightly, the veins on the side of his neck sticking out from repressed anger, Mike decided to drive that knife a little deeper.
"And as if that wasn't bad enough, you had your buddy Daniel here take little Kevin into the woods to kill him too. Why? What could an innocent five-year-old could have done to be a threat to either one of you thugs? What kind of a twisted soul does it take to kill an innocent child, hm? Care to tell us?"
"He heard my name."
This time it was Mears who spoke up, his mouth twisted upward into a frenzied grin.
"I didn't even know he was there at first. You see, I was so busy killing the guy and then the wife started to scream, so I went after her to avoid alerting the neighbors. I wanted to make it look like a psycho killer had gone crazy on them, so I cut off her arm and stabbed her until I grew tired. I placed her arm on the bed like it was some sort of sexually-related killing, you know, like in the movies? But after I murdered the couple, I heard him in his room. And the little brat…he must have heard his father call out my name as I killed him, and he…he'd heard that. And he remembered it. He actually called me by my name as I entered his room."
The entire group fell silent, even the rogue cops seemingly having a hard time with Mears's depiction of the unspeakable crime, and the disturbingly cheery tone his voice had taken on.
As if to relive the events, he moved away from the group and walked toward the small boulder under which they'd found the body.
"Turns out, it took a lot of willpower to kill him. All the way over here, I tried to think of a way to preserve his life, figure something out. But he knew my name. Knew what I looked like by now. And nothing I could say or do would make him forget it. As we sat here and talked, he looked at me with those…those weird questioning eyes, judgmental eyes. Like he was fully aware of what I had done and what I was about to do to him. It was creepy. I felt more relief killing him than killing his parents."
Steve looked over in time to see Mike swallow hard, the vileness of the crime a surprise even for the seasoned Lieutenant who undoubtably had seen his fair share of derailed criminals committing unspeakable atrocities.
With his jaws clenched tightly, he took in the haunting scene Mears had created with his cheery words, his eyes travelling to that hole dug out by their crime techs, revealing the sinister secrets that would ultimately lead to the killer, before he had the energy to speak again, this time annunciating every word carefully.
"Then in that case, Mister Mears, you will appreciate the relief I am going to feel for putting you behind bars for the rest of your sorry life."
It seemed as though Mike's desire to bring the killer to justice was stronger than his concern for the gun trained at him, when the Lieutenant reached for the handcuffs behind his belt, ready to go to work, just to have the second one of Morris's goons walk up and grab his arms in a similar fashion.
"Not so fast, there, Lieutenant. You seemed to have forgotten who holds the gun and who's about to be killed…"
The Captain's words were low, a mere growl, as though his entire personality was undergoing a metamorphosis to become the animal that had already killed a beautiful young woman, and was about to continue the bloodshed until the very last person involved in those crimes would be dead.
Only a completely delusional maniac could assume that this plan would work out, and yet, Morris seemed ready to tackle the challenge.
"You killing us is not going to protect you. Alex was catching on to you before he died. His legwork helped us narrow down our suspects even faster. Everyone we work with in San Francisco is aware of the burden of evidence against your person. You will still lose your badge and go to prison for the rest of your life, Morris. Nothing will change that. So please, stop this madness and drop your weapon."
There was a heartfelt sincerity in Mike's words, mixed with undeniable worry for their safety considering the circumstances.
For the fraction of a second, the Lieutenant took his eyes off Morris and glanced over at Steve, the young Inspector's expression conveying the same message when it came to the dangerous outcome of their confrontation with the Homicide Captain.
Not enough time had passed yet to alert the authorities. Both, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, they stood little chance of a positive turn of events, should the tensions escalate, which, not surprisingly, didn't take long.
With a deep-throated chortle, Morris shook his head, then pointed his chin toward the woods.
"That's what makes this so great, Stone. We won't have anything to do with it. It'll be all Carl's doing…a derailed, dysfunctional hermit who goes rogue on two city cops to protect his territory. We'll handle the finger prints if you can just handle the dying part."
Steve didn't have enough time to react when the strong hands on his back suddenly let go, followed by a blow to his head that made everything go dark.