And The Beat Goes On

"Lucas called. He's hand cuffed to a post at your house. He wants us to come and help him get free. The FBI or some team of crazy guys is after us. We have to clear out now," he said.

"No," I screamed. "I have to get rid of the red head first. Come and help me. That's what I paid you for."

"Fuck you," he snapped. "Kidnapping is one thing. Kidnapping and murder will get you the chair. Plus, if that woman's husband is rich enough to send that kind of juice against us, how do we even know we'd make it to court. I've heard of people just disappearing while in the penal system. If you want her dead you do it. I'm out."

"Me too," smiled Eric. The two of them walked out the door. All I could do was to stand there and stare at them. Josh hadn't mentioned Fogerty. Was Fogerty dead?

Suddenly, I heard shots being fired. I looked outside and saw Josh and Eric ducking behind their car. Every so often one of them would look out and take a shot of his own, just to let whoever was shooting at them know that they had ammo left.

I headed for the basement and before I got there, I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I unlocked the room in the basement and said hello to my parents. They sat there side by side and the red head was slumped on a couch nearby them. Her hands were tied to the edges of the couch and she was still out cold. Josh and Eric had probably been giving her some type of sleeping pills or simply re-dosing her with the ether every time she woke up.

"Well bitch, you've caused me problems ever since you came into the picture," I told her sleeping form. "Well now the tables have turned and all of the problems will be yours from now on."

"Shut the fuck up, Mom," I screamed. "What do you mean leave her alone? That's really great parenting, taking the side of someone else over your own daughter. Fuck you."

"And you Dad. I see you're taking her side as usual. I'm a part of you God damn it. If you disagree with her just say so. Why are all of you men controlled by pussy? Tommy loved me so much that he wanted my pussy all for himself. As soon as another man got some of it, he didn't want me anymore. Fogerty wants my pussy so badly that he'd do anything to get it. Now Tommy gets his pussy from this whore. It's simple math. If I remove this bitch and her pussy from the equation, Tommy comes back to me."

I pulled out another syringe. Shit, it was my last one. I'd have to find myself another chemist to make more. I'd need to save a little of the syringe so it could be analyzed and duplicated just in case I need it.

"This won't hurt a thing red," I said as I pulled the safety cap from the end of the syringe. I squirted a little of the greenish liquid into the air to clear out any air bubbles. Then I laughed. Who was I kidding? This shit was going to kill her. I didn't have to worry about air in a blood vessel. It was so funny I had trouble controlling my laughter.

I leaned over her and heard the voice. At the same time he spoke, I heard the sound of him cocking his gun.

"Melinda, get away from her," he said loudly and angrily. I turned and smiled as I saw Fogerty. Luke had done a number on him. His lip was busted and he was leaning on the door frame instead of standing, but he was here. And he was aiming a gun at me.

It's amazing how large the hole in the gun barrel seems to be when you're standing in front of one. In practical terms, the barrel of Fogerty's 45 was probably about four hundred and fifty thousandths of an inch. It was less than a half of an inch and smaller than the diameter of my finger. But it just seemed to be huge. Fogerty's entire body was shaking with the strain of staying upright after the beating Lucas had given him. Everything was shaking except for the arm that aimed his gun.

"Fogerty, stop being an ass," I smirked. "We both know that you're not going to shoot me. Shit, Fogerty, if I offered you some pussy you'd shoot her. You'd probably shoot yourself, so just put the gun down or better yet, make sure no one comes down here."

"Not this time Melinda," he said and his voice was as cold as ice. "Put that needle away and let's get the fuck out of here. We're going to have to leave town and start all over again. I'm pretty sure that if she's unhurt, Tommy will let us go. But Melinda, we need to get the fuck out of here now. Those guys aren't playing tag. One of your guys tried to surrender and they just mowed him down like a fucking dog. How long do you think the other will hold out?"

"Okay, Fogerty let's go," I smiled. "I'm all for it. I just want to handle her before we go. It'll only take a few seconds."

"Melinda, if you so much as scratch her, Tommy will not rest until you and anyone with you are dead," he said.

"Fogerty, you're a cop. You can handle them," I said.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" he asked. "These guys are above all of that shit. One or two phone calls and evidence disappears and so do people. Our only chance is to leave Julia and get moving and hope when they stop to check on her and call Tommy we can get away. Then I'll call him and reason with him. Melinda, if he finds out you're behind this we're both dead. You for doing it, and me because I'd never let anyone hurt you..." He stopped suddenly as he looked across the room.

"Are those your parents?" he stared at them. "Why are they here?"

"They're arguing with me about letting this bitch live," I said exasperatedly.

"Melinda, they aren't moving at all. They're dead," he said. "How?"

"I needed to sell the house to get the money for my plan," I said quietly.

"Your own parents," he yelled. "Who's next Melinda...me?"

"Fogerty, this will be fine," I said in my most soothing voice. I started to inch my way closer to him. "You're right John. I've gone too far. Let's go. We'll start all over someplace nice. Just the two of us. Where do you want to live?"

"You mean it?" he asked. I nodded.

"We can't afford to go very far because I spent the money already on those fucking criminals who betrayed me. But you'd never betray me would you John?" I asked. He shook his head and the gun wavered.

"So where do you want to live?" I repeated smiling.

"I think we should Owww!" he screamed as I plunged the needle into his thigh. He was already weakened by the fight. He folded like a house of cards.

"You've already betrayed me you asshole," I sneered, bringing my face close to his. Drops of saliva dripped onto his face as I yelled at him. "That bitch does not get to live no matter fucking what."

Fogerty didn't look like the other people I'd dosed. His face was filling with blood and he'd been trying to clutch his chest even as he fell, dropping the gun. I looked around on the floor and couldn't find the gun. I saw a part of it sticking out from under Fogerty. The bastard had betrayed me again. He'd made sure that he'd fallen on the gun to try and protect that bitch." I tried to yank the gun out from under him.

"Get the fuck away from Fogerty, Melinda," I heard the sound of the voice I dreamed of. I looked up and saw Tommy standing in front of me.

Did he realize how long I'd dreamed of this moment?

"Tommy, Honey," I said. "It's time for us to be together again." He cocked his head to the side and looked at me like I was crazy.

"There have been too many things and people between us for too long. That's what's been messing us up. Fogerty is out of the way now," I said soothingly. "All I have to do is put her out of her misery and there won't be anything separating us. Let me do this for us," I said.

He nodded his head and my heart filled with joy. Tommy, my Tommy had finally seen that the two of us were meant to be. He agreed with me, unlike that stupid fucking Fogerty. As far as I was concerned they could all fucking die as long as Tommy and I were together. I started to turn towards her with the syringe in my hand. I was sure that the amount left in it would be enough. She was far smaller than the men and I hadn't had to use a full syringe for any of them. I'd done my parents with one syringe. I smiled at Tommy and saw him smiling back at me. Then in a movement so fast his hands were a blur, he raised the gun and fired at me. Pain exploded in my head and that was all I remembered.

* * * * * *

Fogerty

As I woke up I knew something was wrong. I couldn't move my arms and my mouth felt like it was full of shit covered cotton. Every breath I took hurt like hell. But for some reason I felt great. I was in a bed that wasn't mine. I heard beeping and sucking sounds and there was something attached to my arm.

All of my limbs felt really heavy and I couldn't see. "Should I take the mask off?" said a feminine voice.

"Melinda?" I asked. My voice was so scratchy and it hurt so much that I thought my throat would break with every syllable.

"Wrong broad," she said. I felt her hands move over me and with a surprisingly gentle touch, she took the mask off.

"Ms. Case," I said.

"Kate," she replied. "I'm glad you remembered. That did a little to repair my shattered sense of self esteem. I mean I've been taking care of you grouchy ass nearly around the clock for three days and the first person you call for is that homicidal psychopath that almost killed you."

"I failed," I said. "I didn't save Julia. Melinda tricked and she drugged me. Did she hurt Julia?"

"Honey, Julia is fine. God looks out for people like her. It's us grouchy old folks who have to grab tiny bits of joy wherever we can find them. Julia is back to walking on sunshine and none the worse for wear," she said.

"But how?" I asked.

"Her hubby," she smirked. "Tommy was right behind you. He got to your psycho girlfriend before she could hurt JuJu."

"So Tommy was able to talk her out of hurting Julia?" I asked. "Wow that must have been some conversation."

"Yeah if you call shooting the bitch in her head talking," she said. The woman had an unbelievable twinkle in her eyes. It was like she had a secret and wasn't going to share it without you whining and begging her, but once you did it would be damned worth it.

"So don't you want to ask the usual questions, dumb ass?" she asked. "You know, like what was wrong with you?" She looked at me as if I was one of the slow kids.

"I'm not exactly slow on the uptake," I said. "Melinda drugged me."

"Yet still, SHE was the first person you called for when you woke up," she smirked. "Well genius apparently God looks out for salty old gray haired cops too. Because whatever that shit she pumped into you was; it actually helped to save your life. Let me guess, you've been walking around with a hell of a stress headache, right." I nodded and our eyes met. God damn it there was something about her.

"Well, officer, your blood pressure was so high that I'm surprised that the top of your head didn't blow off. The shock of her jabbing you triggered your stroke, but the shit she pumped into you actually mitigated the damage from the stroke by slowing down your metabolism and lessening the blood pressure. Of course, Tommy doing CPR and getting you to the hospital helped a lot."

Shit, I owed Tommy even more. "Your stroke was a mild one, luckily. More like a warning than anything else. Within a few weeks you'll make a full recovery...well your body will. Your career is also going to be better. Your heart, not so much," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You mean Melinda don't you?" She nodded. And suddenly I couldn't control it. I was crying like a baby. I heard the door open and Tommy came into the room.

"Look, I know you're happy to see me," he said. "But this crying is embarrassing."

"Hey, Tommy," I said, wiping my eyes. Julia stepped out from behind him as beautiful as ever. I noticed that even as she stepped over to me she barely let go of his hand. It was like they were always touching each other. There were so many subtle little glances and things between them. I realized now that those were the things that were missing between Melinda and me.

Despite everything I wanted for us and everything I thought we'd someday have, we had nothing compared to them. I really wish that I could say that our relationship was different but the real deal was that our relationship had been as one sided as Melinda's love for Tommy. It all reminded me of that old Motown gem. The one that goes," Chain chain chain. A chain of fools."

I loved Melinda so much that I'd delayed my investigation into Julia's disappearance and betrayed Tommy's friendship to keep her safe. Or at least I'd tried to anyway. Melinda loved Tommy so much that she'd killed her own parents, consorted with criminals, tried to kidnap and kill Julia and even stabbed and drugged me to try to get him back. Tommy in turn loved Julia so much that he'd killed Melinda without a second thought.

Love is strange. Tommy spent most of his life with Melinda and then that same love that she couldn't let go of simply vanished and transferred to someone else and in the process, grew and became more intense.

I could forgive Tommy for what he did, because Melinda was crazy. She had to be put down and also because he saved my life. But I couldn't help feeling more than a little bit resentful about it. There had to have been a different way. Couldn't he have shot her in the leg or even her shoulder?

The door opened and an obvious Fed type walked into the room. He looked around and nodded his head at Tommy. "Time for us to go," he said. "She wanted a last visit, is that okay?" Tommy shrugged his shoulders and Julia grabbed his hand and got in front of him.

As the agent moved out of the way, Melinda walked into the room and towards me. Not surprisingly the tiny figure, swallowed up by the prison orange jumpsuit made an extremely sharp right turn and ended up facing Tommy. Even less surprisingly, Julia moved and placed herself between them.

"Hi Tommy," she said brightly as if she'd been waiting all day to see him. Her mood dropped off immediately as she addressed Julia. "I should have known that you'd have this thing with you." She looked over at me. "Hey Fogerty," she said almost as an after-thought. "Sorry about the leg." That was it. That was all she said. It was as if I didn't matter at all. She spoke to me like I was her puppy and she'd hit me with a newspaper for shitting on her floor.

Then she was back to Tommy although she had to look around Julia to speak to him. "I was telling my stupid guards about how you used to be a sniper," she said. "I told them how you'd just aimed perfectly so the bullet just creased my skull and knocked me out. It was a one in a million shot that only the best marksmen could make." Her pride in his skill was evident. "I knew you'd never hurt me, Tommy. We love each other," she said.

"Actually, I missed," he said acidly. "I was trying to blow your fucking brains out, but I'm out of practice." He gently took Julia's hand. "See you around Fogerty," he said. "If you need anything, it's yours. Thanks for your help. We're off to finish what Kate told you Julia said that last time they spoke." Julia dragged him out of the room. He stuck his head back inside the room with her still pulling on him. "Fogerty, if I even hear about you eating a single fucking donut, with your blood pressure, I'll shoot you myself. Can you say Tofu?" Julia pulled him away.

"Well old guy, see ya around," said Melinda. "They're putting me up in some kind of Federal nut house until my case comes up. Try not to miss me too much. Why don't cha come up and see me sometime. We might even get around to what we never got to do."

"He has friends his own age and IQ level now," spat Kate. "So don't hold your breath waiting for him."

"Okay grandma. His loss," said Melinda. "While I'm waiting for Tommy to come to his senses, I'll just charm the shit out of a few of these cute federal agents," she smiled. She looked around at the men in the room.

"So which one of you guys is assigned to watch over little old me," she asked.

"That would be me, Ma'am," said an eerily icy voice. The guy who'd said it had a slight limp and he smiled at Melinda the same way that she'd just smiled. Melinda's smiled dropped off as she recognized him. The last time she'd seen him, she'd stabbed him in his lower leg from beneath a porch after hearing him say that he wouldn't mind shooting her.

"Oh Shit," she said.

That was three months ago. Two months ago Kate moved in with me. She hates me. She doesn't let me eat any of my favorite foods. She only let's me have beer every once in a while. She makes me take these slow fucking walks every night. In short, she's taken away most of the things that make life worth living. On the other hand, after each and every one of those walks, she fucks and sucks whatever brains I have left out. Never judge a book by its cover. I knew when I first set eyes on her that Kate was a HELL of a woman. She's everything that Melinda never was and never could have been.

Speaking of Melinda, various agencies including the FBI, the DEA and even the local DA's office wanted her on charges ranging from kidnapping, to the murders of her own parents, with delivery of an unregistered drug thrown in for good measure. It was finally decided that she was not competent to stand trial because of mental instability. She was remanded to a local mental institute that caters to the criminally insane. Tommy has never visited her. He looks at me like I'm the one who's crazy every time I mention it I visited her once and it was an experience I've never repeated. It was too painful.

She had died her hair a bright red and stuffed her shirt trying to make her boobs look bigger. She was also wearing a white hospital smock and kept trying to take my temperature. At first I didn't understand until she started to insist that I call her nurse Julia. Every other sentence she asked me when Tommy was coming to get her. I haven't been able to go back since.

Things are better at work as well. I'm the chief of detectives now. I share the position with Stan. He handles all of the administrative duties and I handle the investigative and field work. Arnie Chang was promoted to detective and he's my new partner. As soon as I walked back into the office we went back to work on my investigation into the old lady in the alley.

Her name was Ellen Berg and after a month of investigation we discovered that she'd been murdered by her own grandson. Her grandson was a high school football player. He needed some stability in his life. His parents traveled a lot for their jobs so he was kind of wild. Grandma wasn't cutting him any slack though. The old girl put the old in old school. She severely clamped down on him and gave him a list of chores he had to do regularly. He didn't have to do anything that most kids don't do, but when you're used to not having to do anything, it seemed like torture.

Finally in a fit of rage fueled by a combination of steroids and K2 he'd killed his grandmother. He'd been sitting on the couch playing a video game when his gran walked in and told him to find something to do with a two by four that was on the floor. He found something to do with it alright.

I felt bad for the old lady but I felt bad for the kid too. He'd be spending the rest of his life behind bars. He'd also have to live with the fact that he'd murdered his own grandmother. His parents refused to see him after their initial meeting with him and their attorney. There are no winners in a case like that.

At least I had someone to go home and vent my feelings out to now. Like a wise woman recently told me us older people needed to grab a chunk of happiness wherever we could and it was great to finally have someone to share my pain with.

I haven't had a single fucking headache since I left the hospital. I don't miss the pounding in my head because the beat is still with me. Instead of the pounding being located in my head, it's in my heart every time I look at Kate. The drums keep pounding a rhythm to my soul...And the beat goes on. Yeah the beat goes on.