Author's note: This is it, the last chapter of the Rose and the Estuary. First of, I'd like to thank all of you who read this thing. I mean it. Anyone who could withstand my dazzling compulsion for verbose narrative should win an award. Anyway, without further adieu, let me present, the end of the river.
Tek: No big, thanks for the kind words.
Chapter 10: "The Estuary"
"Claire's dead." Aya got down on one knee and took a closer look at the pool of blood that Claire had left behind. She would have been lying to herself, if she would deny that she wanted the pleasure of bringing Claire down herself. She wanted to be the one to pull the trigger. To make Claire pay for hurting so many people. But deep down, she knew she wouldn't be able to. Not like this. "She really suffered." Aya muttered, as she got back on both her feet, watching the medics load Claire' corpse in the ambulance. "…Good." Commented a male voice that came up behind her. A voice she knew well. "You're not supposed to be out yet." She muttered as she turned around to face Kevin.
"Yeah, I know." He calmly responded, waving at the other officers who welcomed him back. Kevin wished that they would have seen him again under much, much better circumstances.
"Damn, I really wanted the old man to sign my sling…" he muttered as he kneeled beside the spot where the commissioner met his sudden death.
"Well, we can put 'in memory of' on it." Aya commented.
"Sounds like a plan."
"…Okay, so…" Aya turned and faced one of the CSI on the scene, who was busy trying to dislodge a bullet from the wall. "…what, Claire and the commish off each other?"
"Looks like it." He responded, raising the bullet to the level of his eye to examine it better. He was already old, well past his prime, but he still found passion in what he did. Not many people could say that.
"I'm pretty sure ballistics is gonna confirm it, but it looks like what killed the commish was a bullet from Claire's gun, while she bled to death, from a bullet that came from the commish's gun."
"So the commish turns around, not knowing that Claire still had some kick left in her."
"Maybe. Thing is, angle of the entry wound's too high. She couldn't have shot him from the ground. She needed to be on her feet to have done this damage."
"Marge retrieved this bullet from the commissioner's…the auto .45 that she stole from Kevin has special bullets specific to that gun. And this s it."
"So, that kind of makes the possibility of a third shooter pretty slim."
"Or maybe Claire dropped the gun, and someone picked it up."
"Pretty far fetch. Most people would run away from gunshots, not towards them. What's Claire's COD?"
"Well, numerous bullet wounds. One right to the thigh, pretty quick way to bleed to death."
"Her baby?"
"…There's also a wound track through her stomach. Nothing left of the baby."
"…What's that?" Aya then asked, pointing to the pavement. "Blood trail?"
"Yeah. Another thing. Claire bled to death here…" Hank answered pointing to right beside where he was crouching. "…but, she crawled. From there to here, she crawled."
"Escape?"
"Or quite possibly to someone."
"Someone standing."
"Someone who could shoot the commissioner from a level angle."
"…A third shooter."
"Damn." Kevin whispered.
"Odd thing is the bullet wound on the femoral artery, in her thigh, bled out the most. But judging from the size of her wound, it would have been impossible for her to crawl to where she did after sustaining the bullet wound."
"Okay. The weirdness continues." Aya commented.
"…Why didn't he call for back up?" Kevin asked, scratching the back of his head with frustration.
"That's what's bothering me." The CSI responded, begging the evidence and placing it in his field kit. "And does it bother anyone that Claire Redfield is dead?" He asked, making the two detectives realize that this forensics team had no idea about what was going on.
"Uh, yeah." Kevin quickly responded, glancing at Aya.
"…Maybe you and the CSI on the Leon Kennedy case can work on this together."
"…What Leon Kennedy case? There is a Leon Ke-"
"Yeah."
"Why is there…Leon's dead?"
"Uh-huh."
"And no one bothered telling any of us? Wait, who's in the loop here?"
"You know the protocol on our alpha cases, Hank." Kevin interrupted.
"…"
"If anyone of political or military is in terminal condition, then we keep a media blackout…"
"…so no one grabs advantage and whacks him or her in his or her weakened state." The CSI finished, rubbing his temples.
"Well, cat's out of the bag. They'll be expecting word from Chris soon." Aya remarked, shaking her head in frustration. It made the CSI turn and raise an eyebrow. "Why? What's with Chris? Is he dead too?"
"No. He…he is the reason there's a media blackout on the case. He's in a hospital. Heck, it's so top secret the media doesn't even know there's a blackout. All everyone knows is that key personnel are taking private vacations." Kevin responded.
"…God." Hank uttered under his breath. "Is there anyone else involved?" he then asked.
"No, not that I, what do you mean involved?"
"Well, there's the siblings, Chris and Claire Redfield, and like you said, Leon Kennedy's gone, and we all know he and Claire had a thing going…so who else is missing from the picture?"
"Jill. Jill Valentine." Aya immediately answered. "Jill…Emily said that Jill was regularly called by both Chris and Claire."
"And it looks like she's the only one still standing." Kevin added.
Chris' eyes bolted open, his entire body covered in sweat. He had just awoke from a frightful dream. And yet he knew, for some reason, that his terror wasn't over. And as the as fragments of his nightmare slipped from his memory, he slowly began to make out a figure sitting in the darkness. "Who…" He thought it was the commissioner at first, since the old man was the only person who ever came to his room, but it didn't take long for him to make out the silhouettes features. It was a woman's.
"Did you miss me, sweetheart?" Jill asked, leaning forward just so that the moonlight that pierced through the windowpane managed to illuminate her face.
"Jill…oh, God." Chris tensed as he looked at the snow white face.
"Long time."
"…I tried to protect you."
"Thanks for that. Appreciate it."
"…What are you doing here?"
"Well, duh, I'm here to finish what Leon started. Well, what Claire started. Oh, you get the idea."
"…"
"Have to admit, these top secret hospitals? Should be a little more maintained. Oh, and if you have any suggestions on how you want to die, you'd better let me hear it now."
"Don't do this."
"Oh, sure, I'll pack up and leave right now."
"…" Chris moved as slowly as he could. His left side was concealed from Jill, and beneath the bedpost, was the button to call for security. "What do you plan to accomplish by doing this? We've known each other for years!" he asked her, as he reached the button and immediately pressed it as hard as he could.
"…Does how long matter? How long since Claire realized she got all wet thinking of you?"
"…"
"How long since she found out about me, and threatened to turn me in?"
"…I stopped her. For you."
"Well, sorry hon, but I just can't risk it. Besides, I can tell you enjoyed 'stopping her' as much as you could."
"I love you. Jill, please…I've never told anyone about what you…"
"I'm bored. Kill you now."
"What was the deal?" he suddenly asked, in an attempt to buy himself more time.
"Hmm?"
"You needed something to keep her quiet, at least until before you could come here and…what's the deal?"
"…You. She keeps my secrets, I find a way to make her keep you."
"…what do you mean? How?"
Emily quickly scattered the files on the squad room desk, with Aya, Kevin and Hank in attendance. "Okay, everything we know." She started, opening a file right in front of her. "You okay, Em?" Aya asked before the secretary proceeded with the low down. "Ask me again when we solve this case." She responded. Though her eyes were still red from the tears she spent, she still soldiered on. "These are Chris Redfield's phone records. Two main points of interest, one the airport, that the shadow CSI team managed to trail."
"And what did they find?" Hank asked.
"Says here that he was headed for Argentina." Kevin answered, pointing at an encircled word on the file that Emily read.
"Isn't that where Jill retired?" Aya asked.
"Yeah. But the airport isn't American. It's north of the border." Emily responded.
"Shit. With our current ties to Canada, it's going to take months to secure our guys on their land. Even asking for their airport to stop Jill from leaving is gonna be impossible. And since the borders no longer have patrols…"
"Then we stop her before she gets across."
"Continuing on, the second point of interest was this, more than sixty phone calls, all to Jill Valentine's number."
"More than thirty?" Kevin raised his eyebrow. "Had to be important."
"Or you had to be obsessed." Hank followed.
"…next, second folder." Emily put the first folder down, still keeping it open, and reached for the one to her left. "These are Claire's."
"Again, calls to Jill." Kevin mentioned.
"Yeah. Only a handful to Leon. There are more for Chris." Added Hank.
"Isn't that weird? I mean, she calls her brother, what, a dozen times in less than a week, but doesn't even talk to her fiancée as much?" asked Aya, placing her hand on the table.
"Well, they did live together." Hank reasoned, though he himself wasn't sure of that truly was the reason.
"Still, I mean, when…" Kevin glanced at Aya. "…well, when it was you and me, we called each other all the time, even when we shared an apartment."
"…Maybe they didn't express themselves the way we did."
"…"
"Look." Hank pointed at the last call. "This was just an hour before Leon was found dead, right?"
"Yeah…" Kevin looked closer at the file. "…and Claire made a call to Jill right after."
"And then Jill called Chris, maybe half an hour before the estimated time that Leon went Rambo in the Redfield residence." Aya followed.
"Now, don't tell me the shadow CSI didn't notice that." Hank remarked, taking the file.
"What's the shadow protocol again?" Kevin asked.
"In a case that could possibly involve the government, they're the ones who run the scene, sending info to the top brass." Aya answered.
"Meaning the feds." Kevin connected,
"And only one person in the precinct. Namely the commissioner of police." Hank added.
"So we've been running around like headless chickens, all the while the feds are already solving the case?" Kevin asked.
"Pretty much." Emily responded. "But the commissioner had full rights to the evidence that was found, and well, he left it to you guys."
"…What, you mean he expected to…you know?" asked Hank.
"I don't know. Maybe it was just a precaution." Emily answered.
"So these folders…" Kevin pointed, referring to a pile of unopened ones.
"Are the ones that were meant for the commissioner to see." Aya finished, immediately picking one up and turning it open. "Okay, documentation on the evidence in the scene."
"You think the feds are gonna be okay with us taking a peek?" Kevin asked Aya.
"Just let them try and stop us."
"…Okay. So what do we have?" Hank interrupted, walking over to Aya.
"Huh, look, there's a tox report. On Leon. And on Chris."
"Tox reports are pretty standard. Here, let me…" Hank reached for the file and began to read. "…okay…well, basically, Leon's been drugged up with more amounts of amphetamines than even a depressed stoner could stomach. And Chris, well, Chris is squeaky clean."
"Leon, no. Not Leon. I knew Leon for years, and I swear on my grandmother, he never touched any bakes." Kevin immediately rebutted.
"Do you think we could trace where these drugs came from?" Aya asked.
"Wait, wait, wait, let's get back to Claire." Kevin interrupted.
"What about? She's dead. Good riddance." Aya replied.
"No, I mean, when, I was going to escort her back to her place, right, back at the beginning before she went 'Natural Born Killer' on me. She…it's not like she felt anything."
"Felt…How exactly?"
"She, she was like, calm. I mean, really, really calm, not even a single tear. I'm no psychologist but should she be at least in shock that her fiancée for died? Or like, signs of some inner turmoil?"
"Maybe she was hopped on valium." Emily suggested.
"Nah. I've seen girls on val, they still look like the life got sucked from them."
"So we're going on your hunch here, Kevin? That you somehow have an ornate understanding of human behavior?" Hank asked.
"Stop it." Aya chided.
"…Okay, so what else we got?" Kevin asked.
"Huh. Looks like the commish had a lead, gave it to the CSI before he died."
"What's that?"
"Uh, 'Check the paintings'."
"What do you mean?"
"…Drugs. They found drugs hidden behind some sort of lock in Chris' home. Same drugs in Leon's system. Says here that they needed to press some switch behind the paintings in the order from birth to death…the theme of the paintings."
"Huh. You don't hear that everyday." Aya commented.
"RPD had doors locked by pressure sensitive panels. Really not that unusual." Kevin reminded.
"You Raccoon City people are weird, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, especially the part when everyone we knew died, and well, undied."
"…And one more thing." Hank interrupted. "They found a small, granite like substance, unidentified since this report."
"They've got a picture?" Kevin asked.
"No need. It's still in evidence. Maybe we can get our guys to look at it."
"Guys." Emily interrupted, showing them a report on another file. "Looks like these shadow guys are pretty extensive."
"What do you mean?"
"…Uh, looks like everything had to be processed, even if they didn't really seem to be part of the case. You know, big picture thing."
"Well, what did they find?"
"Some of Claire's…clothes…tested positive for semen."
"Well, Leon and her must have…"
"Chris' semen."
"Oh."
"That's…" Aya turned to hank for a proper answer.
"Sick." He concluded.
"Any idea where Chris is now?" Kevin asked.
"…Here. I think it's where the commish must have been headed." Hank pointed.
Aya kicked the door open, scanning the room with her gun at the ready. "Oh fuck." She uttered as she found Chris, who was already discolored, motionless on his bed. "Hank!" she called, her eyes landing on the red stains on his white blanket, seeping from beneath his genital area. Chris' face was contorted in a permanent mixture of both pain, and desperation. "You think he's…" Aya closed her eyes and shook his head, recalling the numerous dead orderlies that they had just passed. "…damn, body count's up to eight." Hank remarked, propping beside Chris' corpse. "How'd he go?"
"Well…" Hank raised the white blanket, taking a look at where the blood came from. "…huh, he got neutered. But that's not enough to kill someone…at least not when the body is still this warm."
"Okay. Hey, red marks. Right below the cheekbones."
"Then from initial investigation, the COD is asphyxiation. Huh. He cried."
"He what?"
"…Tears."
"Is that like, some reaction?"
"Not unless he was choking."
"Well his junior did pop open."
"Right."
"…Think Jill did this?"
"Not a big handprint."
"…"
Kevin kept his hand on the end of his holster, watching the bellboy unlock the hotel room door. He had three other officers behind him, also ready for the worst of it. Time seemed to slow down as the bellboy turned the key, and took it out as soon as he heard the click. "Let' go." Kevin instructed as he pushed the door open with his elbow, then immediately training his gun at the area for the sight of danger. The three other uniforms quickly poured inside, each one checking a room for signs of hostility. It wasn't half a minute more before Kevin heard his men shout off that the place was clear. The suite really was worth the price of admission. The door led to a small corridor that veered off into three directions, to the left was the kitchen, to the right was the bedroom and shower, while straight ahead, where Kevin was, stood the sofa set to his left, and a dining table to his right. The kitchen was only a few feet away from the dining table, with only a waist high partition separating the two areas.
"Stuff's still in here." An officer noted as he came out the bedroom. "She left in a hurry?" asked another. The two other cops made their way to the living room where Kevin was, while another kept outside the corridor leading to the bedroom, his back turned to the door leading outside.
"…Or could be she's coming right back." Kevin said, as he took out a white handkerchief from his pocket and picked up a plane ticket that was lying on top of a coffee desk. "At any rate…she'll be needing this to leave." He said, putting it back down on the kitchen counter. A second later, his radio began to static, and since his right arm was still in a sling, he had to re-holster his gun to answer it.
"Ryman here."
"Hey, it's me. Chris is dead." Aya reported.
"Damn. How?"
"Asphyxiated. And his penis got torn off."
"Oh fuck. Are you shitting me?"
"I shit you not."
"…Remind me not to piss her off when I kick the crap out of her."
"I'll send you a memo. Anything on your front?"
"Found her plane ticket."
"…"
"Aya?"
"…"
"Aya!"
"…"
"Aya, are you there?"
"Good evening, officer Ryman." Greeted a female voice, different from Aya's.
"…Who is this?"
"I'm here to help."
"Who…how did you get this frequency?"
"You have yet to connect the dots." She whispered. The woman had a Chinese accent that clung to her English, with a voice that sounded like spiders crawling down your skin.
"What? If you have something to-"
"Claire didn't love Leon."
"…"
"She loved her brother."
"…"
"And Chris didn't love Claire."
"…"
"He loved Jill."
"…How do-"
"I know, because I love Leon."
"You're…"
"They're coming."
"What?"
"Kevin!" interrupted Aya's voice, as the frequency suddenly cleared from the invader.
"Uh…"
"Kevin, do you hear me? What happened, are you all right?"
"…Aya, I…I think I just talked to-"
"Kevin what is-" but before Aya could finish her question, she suddenly heard the man from the other line yell. Half a second later, rapid gunfire erupted, and then the line went dead. "Oh shit." Aya turned and found Hank staring at her. "We've got it covered here. Go." He calmly suggested, gesturing for her to make her way. "…Okay. Loeb! Miller!" Aya called to the two uniforms backing her up.
The officer with his back to the door was immediately struck by a hail of bullets, killing him almost instantly. It was enough, however, to give his team mates the time to duck for cover. Two masked men with Uzis stepped inside, spraying the room with gunfire. A third man was behind them, also holding a firearm, but not partaking in the violence. Kevin dove to his right, ignoring the pain that burned through his arm as it struck the floor. The two other uniforms made it to the opposite direction, out of harm's way. "Come on!" One of the armed men called as he quickly made his way to the kitchen, which had a nice, full view of the dining table. "Oh fuck." Kevin saw the man enter the kitchen, still blindly firing in their general direction.
With a deep grunt, the detective kicked the round, dining table down and used it for cover, just in time as the bullets came down on him. All the while, the third man, exiting the bedroom with a luggage of Jill's belongings, came from behind the shooter stationed in the kitchen, and grabbed the plane ticket that Kevin left on the kitchen counter. "I've got everything." He remarked, as he doubled back and left the room. One of the uniforms tried to aim at Kevin's assailant, but the kitchen's corner pillar managed to cover him from his aim.
"Godda-" All of a sudden, the second armed man dove right into the middle of the living room, rolling as he hit the ground, but not standing up. Before any of the two uniforms, or even Kevin could react, the man immediately sat up, drawing two pistols from inside his jacket, aimed into both directions. "That's a-" Kevin bit his lower lip as he instinctively fell back, right as the man started to fire. It saved him. But the two other officers weren't so lucky. As the man kept his eyes on the two other men, possibly those that he thought to be more dangerous, Kevin immediately adjusted himself so that his back was flat on the ground, with his legs bent underneath, just so that the other shooter with the Uzi couldn't cripple him.
"Die you fuck!" Kevin, still on his back, returned the courtesy, and sent a bullet right through the man's eye just as he turned to look if his blind shooting hit its mark. "…I know that maneuver…" he grimly thought as he watched the man's body helplessly fall back. "Jeff!" he heard the other one cry out. "Now!" Kevin hoisted his legs up, and by using them as weights, crashed them down for the rest of his body to spring upward. "Wha-" the armed man didn't have the time to raise his Uzi for a second volley before he saw Kevin ready to finish him off. "Drop it."
"…"
"That was a John Woo! A fucking John Woo! That's a maneuver they only teach S.T.A.R.S. personnel!"
"…"
"Tell me who the fuck you are!"
"…"
"Are you with Jill? Are you a member of S.T.A.R.S.?"
"…"
"Answer me!"
"…How did you know? You're not…you're not S.T.A.R.S."
"…It's the only fucking thing I got right in the entrance exam."
"Jill taught us, trained us…wasn't supposed to be like this."
"Bodyguards? You're her bodyguards?"
"She was just supposed to shut Claire up."
"What do you mean?"
"Claire knew. Claire knew and now Jill is going to kill us all. Me for failing."
"…"
"And you for being here."
"Okay…that's enough. Drop the gun, now, or I end you." Kevin cocked his gun again, though he knew that killing this man meant killing the only possible they had to Jill, and her plans, that they had left.
"You have to work on your threats, kid." The man hissed, as he raised his Uzi in an attempt to salvage the situation. Kevin narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
Jill hummed along Andrea Bocelli's stirring vocals as she sat comfortably inside her red Cadillac, watching the hotel room entrance on the other side of the street with an eagerness of a child on a Christmas morning. The guests were all steadily streaming out, some in a panic, others letting their curiosity force them to sway the hotel staff gently ushering them outside. "Maybe next time I should invest on silencers." She thought, as she watched one frantic, middle-aged woman suddenly collapse as she got to the street. "…Nah." It was a minute later that she found what she was waiting for. Her third man. Of course, his mask no longer covered his face, and his gun was safely kept inside his jacket. A smile crept up Jill's face as she unlocked the doors, so that her man could step inside. "Everything's there, Carlos?' she asked, knowing full well that she didn't need to. There was a reason after all that her third man never failed. "I should go back and check the room." He suggested, pushing back his long, brown hair. "Are you South Americans always so eager to make a girl smile?" Jill teased, as she locked the doors and hit the gas pedal.
Aya's heart raced as she ran up the hotel stairs, with Loeb and Miller at the same pace. The floor numbers flew by as they let their adrenaline carry them on, knowing full well that by the next day, none of them would be feeling their legs. "69" Aya made her way to the door and rammed it open. "What room was it?" Loeb asked as they stood in the middle of the corridor, with a plaque on the wall giving the directions of the room numbers. "Left." Miller noted, and Aya immediately bolted to the direction.
The armed man cried out in shock as Kevin's bullet shot the Uzi off of his hands, sending sparks and shrapnel that burned his hand. "Now, you come out of the kitchen with your hands behind you head." Kevin instructed, keeping his gun trained right between the man's eyes. "Fuck you." He hissed. "I said-" Kevin stopped as the man suddenly lunged at him, jumping straight over the kitchen partition and tackling the detective down. It would have probably hurt less if he didn't have numerous bullet wounds that were still healing. He didn't even have time to realize that the gun he carried slid off his hand as he hit the floor.
"Off me!" Kevin yelled, trying to cover himself from the man's fists with only one arm. Not that he expected shouting at him to work. He soon felt the larger man's hands make their way to his neck. And they began to squeeze. "Kill you, kill you, kill you…"
"Not today." Interrupted a woman's voice. The man turned just in time to see Aya's heel crash intro his face, sending him off the tired police officer.
Loeb checked on the two other uniforms. "Hey, hey, Evans is still alive!" he notified, as he started to apply pressure on the unconscious man's wound. "Jesus, what happened here?" Miller asked as he radioed for the medics to follow. "Kev?" Aya helped the detective to his feet, though her eyes were still kept on the man shriveling at the corner of the room. "I think I'll live." He whispered, the pain still raking at his voice. "You sure?"
"I'll let you know if I die. You get to read my diary."
"Diary?"
"Journal, I said journal."
"Detective!" called an officer, and both Kevin and Aya turned with weary faces. "One of the units we set up on the toll gate on the north expressway. Saw Jill."
"Shit, she's leaving. Kev, stay with this guy, I want him to live to see his day in court."
"And you?"
"We're going after the higher power."
It was half an hour later. The man sat in the interrogation room, his hands cuffed, as a limp Kevin, stood in his front. "You think you know…" whimpered the man. "…but none of you do. What it's all about." His eyes shifted into every direction, his hands trembling violently. "Well, I think I have a pretty good guess. Someone…someone tipped me off. Told me that you guys were coming. And a few other interesting things."
"…"
"Chris loved Jill. Claire loved Chris. Leon loved Claire."
"…"
"According to the files the commissioner last wrote, and the tox reports, Leon had high amounts of very unstable amphetamines. Same thing found in Chris' house. But I'm thinking, Chris wasn't a dealer, or else we would have found out. Neither was he a druggie because the tox reports on him came back negative for anything. But we can't trace where the drugs came from, since God knows amphetamines are everywhere, right?"
Jill felt her heart beating faster as she drove to the airport. Everyone told her that she should never ignore her instincts. The same instincts that saved her life for countless times. Right then and there, everything inside her screamed to turn back. That by then, they would have known where she was headed. Back home. To her last escape.
"Wrong. You see, this case is priority one. That means that we've got every nut job in the precinct, from a man who knows every kind of cheese there is, to one that has a thing for armadillos. Fucking armadillos. And you know what the armadillo guy told me? That there was a small, very, very small, cut off, sharp edge that they found clinging on one of the plastic bags that carried the drugs. Belonged to Chlamyphorus truncatus. The Pink Fairy Armadillo. Endemic in Argentina. Specifically in dry grasslands."
That was when she saw it. In her rearview mirror. A see of red and blue lights emerged from the horizon she just left behind. Red, the blood and sacrifice every man had to make in order to stand up for what's right. Blue, the satisfaction, the pride, and joy, of being there for who and what you love. The colors of heroes. Men and women who risk their lives in the name of what they believed in. Heroes. And they came for Jill.
"Yeah. Same place that Jill came from. So, we've got drugs, possibly coming from Jill, needed to be pumped from Leon's stomach. Enough to make him go crazy. Then, someone goes ahead and pisses him off more. But Leon wasn't going to kill Chris. At least he wouldn't be able to. Not in his incoherent state. Not with all his military know how getting drugged out of his system. Because that wasn't the deal, was it? Jill tipped Chris off, giving him a heck of a lot of time to send his security boys out for a snack. It was perfect. It really was self-defense. But Chris thought that Jill tipped him off because, well, because of emotion."
The highway was wide, wide enough for the other cars to notice the swarm of police cars coming from behind. Wide enough for them to move out of harm's way. Wide enough for Jill to speed through, singled out, the only enemy left. "No, fucking way." Jill hissed, as the man on the passenger seat beside her took out his gun and held it tight.
"Not the case, was it? So what could make Jill, come out of her hole, her safe little hole, come out here, and orchestrate the crime of the century?"
From above, a halo of light began to sweep the streets, searching left and right for its target. And it didn't stop. Soon, Jill began to see a bright light bouncing off of her windshields .It was beautiful in a way, blurring the streetlights into yellow tails of illumination. Surreal. Just like the whole situation was.
"I'm thinking she was blackmailed. You see, Chris called Jill every waking second of his days. Pretty long calls too. But I don't think it was about anything other than how much he loved her. Heck, we've found records of him Fedexing her rings and necklaces to her residence in Argentina. Now, how do you think Claire felt about that?"
Aya led the pack, her eyes set on the vehicle housing the woman who nearly caused the ruin of all their lives. Someone she has not even met. Only read about. A legend. A murderer. She didn't think that she could ever be this calm in a case as big as this .But she was .Because she knew, then and there, who the real hero was.
"Sick to the stomach? The person you love, existing, living solely for someone else? You having to spend your Saturday night alone, knowing full well, that in some five class restaurant, the person you love is having time of his or her life with somebody special. That you spend your entire day thinking of him or her, and the person you fry your neurons for, doesn't even remember you're alive. Must have hurt. So we're thinking, what if you find out something bad about this person. That the person the love of your life loves, is doing something that could land him or her in jail.Claire found something out about Jill, didn't she? What if she, I dunno, discovered that Jill actually, say, dealt drugs, and threatened to expose her? What would the deal then be, to make sure she shut up?"
"Bonnie and Clyde." Jill whispered to herself with a sad smile. "What was that?" the man beside her asked, but she no longer replied. He didn't ask again. "You know how people make Bonnie and Clyde out to be some glamorous couple, devil may care?" she asked. "Pack of lies." She uttered, chuckling under her breath. "But they did love each other." she then said, letting out a soft sigh. "They really did."
"Give Chris to Claire. That was the deal.It was a sacrifice Chris had to make out of love, for Jill. But Claire wanted more. She wanted to keep Chris forever. To be hers and hers alone. That's why she drugged Leon, with the merch that Jill handed her. They knew that Leon would do just enough damage to send Chris to ICU. Enough damage for him to legally need a guardian for the rest of his life."
"People, they always throw the word 'love' around, don't they?" Jill then asked. The man remained silent. Anxious. "Don't you think so?" she asked, keeping her voice at level sound, just above the screeching sirens that haunted them. "With all due respect Jill, I don't think this is a good time for us to philosophize love." he responded, turning to look at the sea of red and blue behind them. "Then when is?" she followed, raising her eyebrows.
"But your boss, she doesn't take too kindly to being threatened. Because God knows, if Claire could squeeze this from her, she could do ask for bigger things down the road. So Jill double-crosses Claire. Plants the wrong evidence, being the drugs, in Chris' place, so it looks like he was the one who drugged Leon. And after that highly publicized fallout between the two back in '09. She didn't even have to think up of a motive for Chris having to kill Leon."
"Passion." She muttered. "What?" The man turned and gave Jill a look of confusion. "The things we do. The reasons we do them. Passion. It's what makes us do the things that our brains wouldn't want us to do. What makes us betray our rational minds. Because you know why?" Jill stopped for a moment and glanced at the man. "We are all born evil."
"Now you see Claire, she isn't big on the mind games. Not like Jill is. She wasn't ready for a double cross, and when it happened, when Chris turned into a suspect, she lashed out. Shot me a couple a times, and tried to find her way to where Chris was. Where Jill knew she would go. But Jill, couldn't kill Claire, at least not yet, because someone beat her to the punch. Claire encountered the commissioner. Jill had to wait, until both of them were out of it, before she could strike. You see, ballistics went ahead and told us that no third gun was used. But we don't think she needed one. Maybe, just maybe, during their fight, Claire dropped her gun. And Jill managed to find it. Now, when the commissioner cornered Claire, Jill knew that she could start talking any second."
"Passion, from the people who teach us, who care, who love us, these are the things that gradually cover our true selves. Passion makes us human. Without it…we're just animals." Jill said, her eyes back on the long, endless road. "Animals ready for the slaughter."
"So Jill shoots the commissioner from behind."
"So tell me. I'm dying to know. How much passion do you have?" she then asked, to which the man could find no answer. "Enough to let your true self show? Or enough to let you do what's right?" It wasn't a question. It was a challenge. A test to see if one man's devotion meant the end of his life. "…I'm no animal." He hissed back, earning him a wide smile. And for him, it was reward enough.
"And Claire, well, she couldn't have known that Jill was the one who set her and her brother up. So she crawls to Jill, asking for help. Now at that point, Claire was probably too weak to even hold a gun. So Jill drops the .45 that she picked up, goes over to the commissioner, and picks up his gun."
The man leaned in between the driver and passenger seats, right to a rather large, rectangular box that was stuffed in the backseat's legroom ."I'm ready." He told her, taking off the lid and reaching intro the darkness inside.
"It's what she uses to shoot Claire. Through the thigh. To make it look like she bled to death. And with Claire gone, Jill finished the last person who could tie her to it all. Chris. Now, a lot of this is just conjecture, but I'm pretty certain that I hit a few bases right. What do you think?"
"And why the fuck are you people telling me all this?" the man Kevin was interrogating asked.
"Because you're the one who is gonna drive the nail through the coffin."
"And how do you work that out, detective?"
"Testify against Jill Valentine, and we make sure that you be very comfortable. You haven't killed anyone yet, not like your buddy Jeff who offed two good, decent men. Testify against Jill, and you'll be remembered for decades to come. Cuz, in the end, isn't that what it's all about?"
"...You'll never catch Jill."
Aya furrowed her brows as she watched a man jump from the passenger seat of Jill's car, his hands clutching something against his chest. He landed hard, rolling for a few seconds before stopping. He was just a short distance away, and that was why Aya quickly realized in horror, and as he slowly stood, to regain himself after possibly fracturing his bones, he looked the oncoming wave of steel head-on, and smiled. "Holy mother of God…" Aya grabbed her car radio and began to transmit to all units. "This is Aya Brea to all units, there's a man who just exited Jill's vehicle, and he has a grenade launcher on him!" she yelled. And as she did, she saw the man raise his weapon high, and with a grin and a death wish, the man opened fire. From the distance, it was like the man fired off a flare that didn't shine, flying high up in the air. Ready to land into a massacre.
"Christ!" Aya swerved to her left, knowing full well that not everyone behind her could move as fast as she did. And she was right. The grenade landed right beneath the following car, and the explosion not only tore through it, killing both Loeb and Miller instantly, but it also sent the vehicle flying backward, crashing into the one that was behind it. As a small ball of fire erupted into the dark blue night, Aya couldn't help but feel that the death of four men was all thanks to her moving out of ham's way. Some of the other police cars swerved too far to the sides, one of them crashing right into the concrete highway's barricade. The sudden impact on its left side made its back spin uncontrollably to the right, hitting another car's side with the force of a wrecking ball.
Just as Aya turned once again to the road in front, she saw the man fire another grenade, this one spearing itself right through a police car's windshield, on the opposite side of the road from her. She wished she didn't get to see the panic in the female officer's face as she and her partner realized that the grenade landed on their backseat, right before it went off, mangling metal and body. The car behind it swerved to the left to avoid hitting the wreckage. 'For Jill." The man whispered to himself as he loaded another round into his launcher. "You all die." He let off another shot, this time straight at the mass of incoming steel, intent on crushing him in his own madness. Another explosion. Another car toppling backward. Two more lives lost.
The man kept his ground as Aya' car came up to his right, just a few feet away. "Okay you psycho…" Aya pressed her hand on the console and pulled all the windows down through the buttons. The man did as he was trained, locking in on the nearest threat, and taking care of it the only way he knew how. For a moment, his and Aya's eyes locked, and never have each other found such passion in a stare. Aya quickly spun the wheel to the right, locking the two front tires, and letting the hind two swing in a circle. At the same time, the man opened fire, just as she turned the wheel, and the grenade flew right into the front seat window. Aya quickly grabbed her seat recliner and pulled it up, letting her left back down. Her plan worked. She watched the grenade fly right above her, and exited through the open backseat window. A second later, the car's tail, in full swing, smashed right into the man, sending him flying to his left. Another patrol car hit the brakes, just as the man crashed into the hood, rolling onto the windshield and nearly shattering it into pieces.
Jill hit the brakes as well, stopping with her back in the direction that Jill sped away into. The other cars stopped as well, as the two officers driving the patrol car that the man crashed into stepped out and pulled their guns out. "He alive?" Aya asked as she peered out the window, still panting from the rush she just had. "…More or less." Responded a female officer, who radioed in for medical assistance. "Keep him alive. We're going to need him." Aya remarked.
"What about Jill?" another officer asked.
"…There's no way we can reach her before she crosses the border. At least not in the state we're in."
"Checked on Morrison and Quitely. They're banged up, but they'll make it." Another officer added.
"That's good." Aya responded, as she watched the sun begin to rise.
"So, what do we do now?"
"…Looks like we need to be rethinking our relations with Canada. At least we're still good with Argentina, right?" Aya stepped out of her car and let the wind caress her. It was a new day. "We'll catch her. Might not be now, but it'll be a cold day in hell before we let her get away with everything she did."
"…"
"But right now, I just want to see Kevin again."
End
Author's note: Didn't want to end it in a cliffhanger, but didn't want to give you guys a full sense of closure either, hehe. Blame CSI for the ending, I've been watching NY non-stop since it came out. Messer rules. Anyway, I hope I didn't leave any loose ends, and for all of you who went through this whole thing, big on the thanks. First time I tried something with the first half non-linear (and remarkably difficult to read) but I'm pretty happy with the way it all turned out. So to sum things up, Claire is a loon, Chris is in love, Jill is a sadist, and Leon was collateral. Well, hope you enjoyed the story, and for my next, I'm thinking of going back to writing an origin story. Until the next time, thank you, and good night.