Time was running out for the boys.
"Where is he going?" Nikki had interrupted the chase to exchange a few words with Esther Wallace, who was still standing almost motionless in front of the arena entrance. "Please help me stop him. The reinforcements will be here any minute, but I can't wait. I need the key to the children's hiding place, quickly!"
Wallace looked down. "The reinforcements aren't coming."
"What do you mean?" Nikki was breathing heavily.
"I promised Carl that after he was freed from the bunker, I would never let anyone hurt him again. I feel for him as if he were my own son. I can't let him be shot by an RRT officer. I'm sorry, but I drugged Detective Fisher before he could call for backup. Please try to save the boys, but you're alone."
Nikki didn't know whether to laugh or scream. "Have you lost your mind?"
She looked Wallace in the eye but didn't see any pride in it. Only fear and worry spoke from the eyes of this once-so-merciless woman. The concern of a mother is that someone could do harm to her child. Her child, whose life she would put before everyone else's without hesitation. Nikki couldn't afford to lose any more time to Esther Wallace. What had happened had happened; she would have to fix it now. And her last realistic chance was to get the keys to the boys' dungeon from Carl. Whatever. "Pray that I can still somehow salvage this!" With that, she turned away from Wallace and followed Carl into the arena.
Although dusk was beginning to fall, it was still light enough for Nikki to get a quick overview. The entrance to the underground pool must be behind the gate through which the stunt people entered the area with their vehicles. Maybe there was a way to free the boys without the key or shut off the water supply. Nikki let go of Carl's pursuit for the moment and quickly ran towards the gate. A shot was fired, and just a few feet in front of her, she saw the bullet smash into the concrete floor, sending up a small dust cloud. She stopped running and turned around.
"Forget it; you can't open the door without the key!"
Nikki saw that Carl was in the process of climbing up the outside ladder to the arena roof. "Then throw it down to me! Once I have the key, you can leave if you want. I want to save the boys; this could all end well!"
A crazed laughter that went right through Nikki echoed loudly across the show floor. "Nothing here is going to end well! You'll have to get the key yourself!" Carl put the gun back in his jacket pocket and climbed towards the roof.
Nikki didn't hesitate. She turned around and ran towards the outer ladder. Her strength was already weakened, but it didn't take long for her to reach the top. She carefully peeked over the edge onto the roof, prepared for the possibility that Carl might shoot as soon as he saw her. But nothing like that happened.
He has no intention of shooting me just like that; he could have done that in the horror house. No, he wants me to witness it. To have to watch helplessly as the children and Ben drown miserably down there. But maybe it's not too late!
Nikki climbed onto the roof with calm movements. "How did it feel when the door opened?" She took a few steps towards Carl, standing at the other end of the roof edge with her service weapon in hand, looking down on the show floor like a general. He didn't turn to the detective.
"You mean back then, in the bunker?" He sounded exactly like Marvin, but Nikki still wasn't sure which twin she was dealing with.
"The moment Esther Wallace opened the door, you knew you were saved. How did that feel?"
Carl still hadn't turned around. "I have no idea. I didn't even realize it; I was busy saving Dennis. And if I had realized it, it would have been a big disappointment for me. It wasn't important to me that someone would get us out of there. It was important to me who would get us out."
Nikki looked at her wristwatch discreetly. With some luck, the boys had five to ten minutes left. At least the deadline would have passed. "You wanted it to be your parents who freed you."
"You should have known them." He turned to Nikki. "They were the best people who ever lived. What that criminal did to our parents back then must not go unpunished. You should have found him or made your mother do it. Then none of this would have happened."
Now, there was no doubt. The look, the sound of his voice. The familiarity that resonated in his words. The tiny scar above the right eye, the hairstyle, and everything. It was definitely Marvin standing in front of her. Nikki felt her heartbeat accelerate. "Marv, please give me the keys now." She spoke as she had always spoken to him when they sat in her garden. "I will find your parents' killer, and Elizabeth will help me. But please let the boys go now."
The hesitant smile that briefly crossed his face might have been feigned. But not the tears that ran down his cheek. "I'm sorry, I really am. But I won't do it."
"Why not? You're not killing the children, I know that."
It was obviously difficult for Carl to speak. 'Only when the boys die can I finally do it.' There was nothing hostile in his voice, quite the opposite.
"What do you mean?"
He raised the gun and pointed it at his temple. "When I've killed the boys, I can finally kill myself. I can't do it otherwise; I've tried repeatedly. But if I've done something so unforgivable, I'll have the strength to do it. Because that way, I'll finally be able to stop living."
"Now you're talking nonsense, Marv." Nikki held out her hand, wide-eyed. 'Give me the gun, and then we'll get the boys out of there. Okay?'
Nikki looked into Carl's eyes, and though she deeply detested what he had done, she felt compassion for him.
"And then?" He whispered hotly.
"And then you'll finally be able to sleep peacefully again."
"Do you think so?" He now looked like a little boy to the detective, helpless and desperate.
"It will feel good to have prevented this disaster after all."
Nikki sensed a slight movement that seemed to indicate that Carl was toying with the idea of handing the gun over to her. But suddenly, noise pierced the silence. The booming of a car sound system that was quickly approaching and mixing with the sound of an engine that Nikki remembered very well.
Finally!
She looked down at the show floor and saw the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat enter the track just seconds after the first sounds were heard. Paul Moore stopped the car and got out while the sound system was still blaring as if it wanted to turn the arena into a disco. Moore picked up his cell phone and dialed a number. Shortly after that, Nikki's smartphone in her pocket began to vibrate,
"Marv, it's over." She took the phone out of her pocket with a calm movement. 'Everything will be okay again…'
Before the detective could finish her sentence, Carl had already pointed the gun at the show floor and fired four shots in the direction of Paul Moore, who collapsed lifelessly. Carl looked at Nikki without emotion before saying, "Do you know that Paul was probably my only friend? But what the heck, it doesn't matter now."
Nikki looked over the edge of the roof at Paul Moore, who was bleeding heavily but still moving. However, the music from the sound system in his car was booming so loudly that it would have been pointless to call out to him. Besides, he was probably unable to help the boy in his current state. Nikki knew that Moore had the keys to the underground facilities and the technical room with him; he had promised Mike on the phone. But how was she going to get down there against Carl's will?
"Please give me the gun," Nikki spoke softly and lovingly as she held out her hand.
Carl looked at his wristwatch. "You can have it in five minutes. When it's all over. Then you can shoot me if I can't do it myself."
Nikki blinked a few times and licked her lips. "What does Dennis think about what you're doing here?" It was risky to bring up his twin in this situation, but the detective wasn't in a position to play it safe.
"Dennis is different from me. Everyone is different from me." His expression darkened a little more.
Nikki wondered if she could reach for the weapon and overpower him, but Carl was still too far away. She was about to make another attempt at persuasion when she heard a voice behind her.
"Give Detective O'Laighin the gun and the keys now. I didn't search for you for weeks and save you so that you could now murder innocent children. If you do that, I'm just as much their murderer as you are."
Carl looked in the direction where Wallace's voice had come from. Nikki turned around, too. The older woman had followed the two of them up the ladder, although, as expected, it had taken her much longer than Nikki and Carl.
"That's nonsense." Carl wiped his nose with his sleeve while more and more tears ran down his cheeks.
Nikki took another look at Paul Moore. He had disappeared from her field of vision, but a trail of blood led her to believe that he had apparently taken cover behind his vehicle from the unknown attacker.
Carl never gives over his keys. I have to get them from Moore—and I have to do it right now!
The detective used Carl's distraction with Wallace to look at the equipment the stunt people had installed up there. She discovered something that she could still remember from when the pool with the sharks had been the show's centerpiece. "Your mother didn't tell you everything that happened in the bunker back then." She looked at Wallace intently and winked, signaling she should play along now. "Please go to your son and tell him what you know."
Wallace's expression showed no emotion. Of course not; this woman had already staged some of the most evil criminals, and keeping a poker face was probably the most straightforward exercise for her. "Give me the gun." She walked past Nikki and stopped about a meter before Carl, close to the roof's edge.
"You know something you haven't told me?" Carl now sounded like a little boy.
Nikki looked over at the two of them. Carl had lowered his weapon, and Wallace was standing directly in the line of fire between him and her.
It is now or never!
With that, Nikki sprinted off, weaving in and out, always expecting a bullet to hit her in the back at any moment.
"What are you trying to do?" Carl's voice broke, but no shot followed. "Just give up; it's over."
Nikki had reached the starting ramp of the cable car, which one of the stunt people used in the current show to race down from the roof to the playing area. The cable car was prepared and ready for use. Presumably, it was part of the stunt people's work to prepare their show area, including all the equipment and devices, after each performance for the following days. She pulled the rope out of its anchorage. There was a safety hook on it, but Nikki didn't have the right belt on, and secondly, she didn't have time to bother with buckling and unbuckling.
You'll be able to hold on for a few seconds.
She looked over at Carl and Wallace again, who, surprisingly, didn't show any signs of wanting to stop her. Then it started. Nikki gripped the handle, pushed herself off the roof's edge, and rushed towards the playing field at breakneck speed. As the point of impact quickly approached, the detective noticed no mat or other padding there.
They must have put it in storage overnight. Okay, it's going to be a hard landing!
The next moment, she had already hit the ground; she kicked her legs up, tensed every muscle in her body, and felt the ground smash into her body. The noise from the music system faded into the background, and it went dark around her.
