Chapter Seven
Lestrade hung up on Dr. Fulton and immediately punched the air. "Yes! The DNA on the grill came back positive!" he exclaimed.
"Great!" Donovan grinned. "And, records show all three of our victims visited an abortion clinic around the same time. Hector probably heard about them at the hospital or something. Anyway, we've got motive for all the kills. Do we get our guy now?"
"Yeah, but we'll have to find him first." Lestrade sighed. He had heard from Anthea that Mycroft's men had still been unable to find Scott Hector. Nevertheless, the search was still underway.
"We've got a few boys on stakeout at the sewers, if Hector tries to get in again, they'll get him." Donovan said.
"Good." Lestrade grunted, wondering who would find Hector first, Sherlock and John, the police, or Mycroft?
Lestrade's phone rang just as he was walking into the break room for a cup of coffee. He picked up. "Hello?"
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary." Hector cooed, not even bothering with the voice changer this time. "I see you've found me out, rookie."
"It's Detective Inspector, now." Lestrade retorted.
Hector chuckled a little. "I know."
"What do you want?" Lestrade asked, fairly running to an electronics expert to run a trace.
"I have a feeling you'll be asking me that alot more from now." Hector smiled.
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. "Little Darren. Such a precious boy, isn't he?" Hector hummed. "He thinks I'm the 'Nightmare Man'."
Lestrade's heart sank into his stomach. Donovan ran up to him with a phone in hand. "It's your ex-wife, Sir." she said grimly.
Lestrade felt an ominous premonition... like he knew what she was going to say next.
"She said that Darren's disappeared."
Lestrade's phone slipped from his frozen grasp and fell to the floor. He could hear Hector cackling on the other end like some demented super-villain.
Lestrade dove down and grabbed the phone. "You son of a bitch." he hissed angrily.
"Now, now, is that any way to talk to the man who has your son?" Hector crooned, clearly enjoying Lestrade's distress.
"Let me talk to him."
"I don't think you're in any position to demand." Hector tsked scoldingly.
Lestrade gritted his teeth. "What do you want, Hector?"
"Ah! There it is." Hector giggled. "I told you."
"Spit it out."
"I've always been envious of you, Lestrade." Hector sighed. "Always 'Lestrade this' or 'Lestrade that'. Since a long time ago, you've had it good in life. I've always been... resentful of that. Meadows liked you, you had a few lucky breaks, turned DI, married a good broad, got a Hell of a sergeant, I'll give you that." Donovan gritted her teeth. "And had a gorgeous son... That should've been me, you know."
"It's not about us now." Lestrade replied levelly.
"Oh but it is!" Hector chuckled back. "See, I've always wanted to be a father..."
Lestrade suddenly felt lightheaded and saw grey spots. "No..."
"And now, what I want, is for you to understand how it feels... to lose your only child. Let's see if you can find me first." And with that, Hector cut the connection.
"No!" Lestrade shouted desperately. "No, you son of a bitch!" He dropped his phone and buried his face in his hands.
Donovan wisely moved away to give him some time alone.
Lestrade fell to his knees.
"Give me back my son, you bastard!" he sobbed quietly.
The waiting was Hell. Lestrade thought as he forwent coffee and slowly brewed a cup of tea. That was one advantage of always being a copper in a kidnapping case and not the victim's family. You were detached, worried, but not to an agonizing extent.
He walked back to his office and placed his mug of tea on his desk, clasping his hands together to stop their shacking. From outside the glass office, the DI looked to be in fervent prayer.
An hour later, his phone buzzed with a text. Tracked killer down to warehouse. Holding hostage. -SH And an address was sent to him.
Lestrade jumped up with such force that he knocked his cup of tea over. But he wasn't bothered. He dashed out of his office, forgetting his coat, and frantically gestured to Donovan. "We've got a lead!"
Donovan snapped into action and darted after him.
En route. -A
It would be foolish of me to reason with you. Go get your son. And be safe. -MH
Lestrade forced a grim smile and mounted a vehicle with Donovan at the wheel.
"Just you wait!" Darren huffed to his kidnapper confidently, calmer than most children would be if he had been grabbed off the street and watched two unidentified men try to come to his rescue and were shot. Mycroft would throw a fit at that later.
"My daddy is a detective! He's gonna catch you and throw you in jail!" Darren declared.
"Oh, is that right?" Hector smiled back indulgently.
"Straight to jail. Do not pass go." Darren sassed.
Hector just laughed. "That's cute, kid."
"Are you waiting for Daddy to come?" Darren asked.
"Do you think he's going to come?" Hector asked back.
"He'll come." Darren declared with all the faith of a child.
"Even if he knows it's a trap?"
"Then he'll come with a plan." Darren retorted.
"You really take after him, don't you?"
Darren just shrugged.
They continued waiting.
It was growing late and the sun had set about five minutes ago. Lestrade shivered when he got out of the car outside the warehouse. In all his hurry to get to the warehouse, he had forgotten his coat.
Not to worry. He'd just get in, get it over with, and get out. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, if only everything would work out as planned, that would be great.
He reached out and pushed open the rusty warehouse doors with a loud screech.
"Daddy!" A young voice shouted.
Lestrade perked up immediately and he cast his glance around the dark warehouse. "Darren?" he called out.
He heard footsteps and Hector walked out of the shadows, a restricting hand on the back of Darren's neck, a gun in the other. "Hello, Lestrade." he said. "Nice to finally reunite in person."
"I wish I can say the same." Lestrade replied curtly.
Hector tilted his head and mock-winced. "Ooh, ouch..."
"It's over, Hector." Lestrade told him. "Give Darren back."
"It's not over till I say it is." Hector quipped back.
"You can't win this. Just let go of Darren and walk out of here with me."
"'I can't win'?" Hector smirked. "I don't have to win, I just have to make sure you lose." His grip on the gun tightened against Darren's temple.
"Darren is innocent, Hector." Lestrade reasoned. "He's done nothing wrong."
"Oh, don't pull the 'You can't kill him, he's innocent' speech on me." Hector scoffed. "I was a copper, I dished out my fair share of bullshit in my time."
"Oi! No cursing!" Lestrade snapped out of habit.
"You said a bad word!" Darren exclaimed at the same time.
"Shut up!" Hector roared over the both of them. "Shut up! It's not about the guilty, or the innocent! It's not about justice! It's about anger! And revenge! Envy!"
The two Lestrades exchanged looks. Darren's was a clear 'Daddy! Daddy! Help! He's a crazy man!' And Lestrade's was 'Holy shit, he's crazy! Sorry Darren, bad word. Stay calm, you can work through this.'
He raised both hands in a calming gesture. "Hey, hey, just relax a little, would you, Hector?" Hector rolled an 'are you serious?' look at him. "Okay, let's talk about this, yeah?"
"What's there to talk about? I wanted a child, and that bitch went and killed it! You have a son, but I won't let you keep him." Hector replied.
"If you're angry at me, take it out on me!" Lestrade shouted back desperately. "Leave Darren out of it!"
"It's just not the same." Hector shook his head sadly. "This way is much more painful." He leaned down ever so slightly and spoke to Darren without taking his eyes off Lestrade. "Sorry, kiddo, but Daddy can't save you this time." He smirked at Lestrade. "Can he?"
Lestrade tightened his jaw, hands raised. "You're right." he said at length. Hector's grin widened and his finger tightened on the trigger. "I can't." he admitted defeat.
Hector smirked triumphantly and removed the gun from Darren's head, moving to point the gun at Lestrade.
Bang!
Lestrade hit the ground hard. He had ducked at just the right moment to get out of John's line of fire the moment Hector's gun was no longer pointed at Darren.
"But I know someone who can." he said. He dashed to Darren's side and steadied the shaking boy.
"Daddy..." Darren whimpered.
"Shh." Lestrade whispered soothingly as he hugged him. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you." he promised.
Hector was thrown back by the force of the bullet penetrating his torso and Lestrade's eyes narrowed. The unnatural way Hector's body fell... Lestrade had seen people get shot before, this was different.
John and Sherlock, who were hidden on the catwalk on the second floor, exchanged glances. Bulletproofed vest! Everybody realized simultaneously.
Hector landed with a thud, but hastily tried to recover. He lost the battle, but it wasn't over yet... He aimed at Darren...
Lestrade scrambled into action and launched himself at him, latching onto Hector's wrist in a vice-like grip and the two battled viciously over the gun.
Hector had been injured by John's bullet despite the flak vest, but he was still the larger, and stronger of the two and he pushed Lestrade back inch by inch. The barrel of the gun was turning dangerously close to Lestrade's head.
Hector knew it, and Lestrade knew it. Hector smirked. "'Now I couldn't live in a world where you have everything and I have nothing.'" he panted with exertion, quoting from the Count of Monte Cristo.
"You always did have a flair for the dramatic." Lestrade ground back. "But I really don't give a damn about that right now because I have something that I've been dying to say to you since the beginning of the case..."
He gripped Hector's wrists tighter and gritted his teeth, eyes flashing, and with one powerful shove, he crushed Hector's wrists back against the man's chest and the gun accidentally fired under the ex-copper's chin, blowing away the bottom half of his face. Lestrade scrambled back with a startled yell.
He stared Hector's body for a moment, shocked. Then he breathed out shakily."... Stay the fuck away from my son."
A minute or two later, he was joined by Donovan and Anthea, who offered to help transfer Hector's body to the morgue as the rest of the police force hadn't quite caught up to them.
John and Sherlock followed on their heels. "Jesus..." John groaned when he snuck a peek at the body, then he approached Darren to make sure he was alright.
Sherlock just stared at Hector for a moment or two, then he looked at Lestrade. "Didn't think you had it in you." he said at length. "To take a life in order to save one."
Lestrade glanced at Darren, who was slowly beginning to talk to John. "To tell you the truth... I didn't either." he confessed. "Until I did."
Sherlock and he exchanged a look of understanding, then Lestrade staggered to his feet to go to his son.
Darren saw him move and immediately lunged for him, barreling into him and knocking the both of them to the ground. John and Sherlock surreptitiously moved to stand between the two Lestrades and Hector's corpse as Anthea and Mycroft's other minions loaded the body into a van.
Darren had been kidnapped and held hostage already, they didn't need to traumatize him any more than that.
Darren seemed intent on burying himself in his father's stomach, little arms wrapped tight around Lestrade's waist. "Daddy, that was scary." he said breathlessly.
Lestrade just chuckled weakly. "Looks like you inherited my habit of understatement."
"You caught the Nightmare Man." Darren whispered.
Lestrade's eyes softened and he petted the boy's head. "Yeah, Darren, yeah I did."
"Sir, I think you should get yourself looked at by the paramedics-..." Donovan tried to tell him but Lestrade waved her off.
"Nope. Not happening, sergeant." he grinned, picking Darren up. "I am going to go and get Darren checked out, and then I'm going to drive him back home to Dorset, I'm going to turn off my phone, and then I'm going to sit my arse down and watch that movie... what's-it-called? Jack Frost and the Nightmare Man, or something?"
Darren giggled. "Rise of the Guardians."
"Right, that." Lestrade grinned widely at Darren's smile. "And then I'm going to get a good night's sleep. Okay? We'll figure out what's going to happen after all that. I'm going to take my son home."
Donovan just smiled and watched them leave. "Okay, Sir."
"Hey, Darren, you think we should get some popcorn on the way home?" Lestrade asked as he and his son walked out of the warehouse.
"Duh, Daddy. Don't be silly."