Suspect Zero, Part 4

<I’ll be serializing the story from Monday-Friday this week. Feel free to share the url, link to the page, etc. RK>

Part 4
Suspect Zero parked the truck on the street next to an all-night convenience store. The parking lot was littered with broken beer bottles and strewn garbage from where someone had kicked over one of the cans. So many rocks had been thrown through the lighted sign over the door all Gabriel could read was “Nite Mart.”

Before the killer got out Gabriel said, “At least tell me something real. How long have you been doing this?”

“Drivin’ this truck?”

“You know what I mean.”

Suspect Zero looked thoughtful.

“I read somewhere that scientists reckon the first humans settled in North America somewhere between 20 and 13 thousand years ago.”

“So?”

The killer smiled. “I figure I was about 15 minutes behind them. Come on. Let’s get some grub.”

“You sure you're not a ghost?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die. I’m just here like you, to take a walk on the wild side.”

Inside the store a boy behind the counter thumbed thorugh a motorcycle magazine. His acne was bad and he looked young. Gabriel wondered if it was legal for a kid like that to be selling liquor.

“Where do you keep the Bud?” asked Suspect Zero.

“Cooler in the back,” the boy without looking up from his magazine.

“Thanks.” 

The killer pulled the boy over the counter like he weighed nothing. He held him with one hand while he pulled a knife from behind his back and jammed the blade into the side of the boy’s throat. When he removed it, blood fountained from his neck, out and onto the liquor bottles behind the counter.

The killer stepped back to the front door. In was the cheap aluminum kind with a lock on the inside. He turned the lock and tested the door. It held. Gabriel was surprised that no one in the store had notice the attack, but it had been so fast and quiet.

Off to their right, a couple was going through bags of potato chips. A lone man with his back to them was loading cans of soup into a plastic basket. Three teenage boys were huddled by the beer cooler, trying to block the open door with their bodies. It was the lamest attempt at shoplifting Gabriel had ever seen. Either they had no clue about what they were doing or they knew the counter man was scared enough not to stop them.

Suspect Zero’s voice came from right next to his ear.

“Good eye. I figured those boneheads by the beer would be good for you. Got your knife?”

Gabriel nodded.

“Here,” said the killer and pressed a pistol into the boy’s hand. “Always carry backup. I’ve got more. I think this a garrote situation for me. Happy hunting,” he said. He pulled two small pieces of wood wrapped in wire from his coat pocket and quietly  went down the aisles, making his way to the man reading ingredients on soup labels.

The gun felt weird in Gabriel’s hand. He’d gone shooting with his dad, but he’d never shot anyone. He put it in his pocket and unsheathed the knife, heading for the back of the store. After all the bullshit and chatter in the truck, it felt good to move his legs again. He looked at the boys as they whispered and argued about who should carry the beer under his jacket.

But he’d never gone for anyone he never knew before, much less three. He didn’t even know if they were armed. He looked over his shoulder and caught the killer’s eye. The older man gave him a smile and mimed slipping the garrote around the man’s throat and pulling. A man in his element. Gabriel breathed evenly, trying to match the old man’s ease.

He caught the first boy in the right kidney, jamming the knife hilt deep into his back. The boy screamed and fell forward onto his face, beer bottles exploding under him. Gabriel looked at him. Guess he was the one that was going to carry. When he looked up the other boys were frozen in place. He knew that look. The boys’ minds still trying to understand what they’d just seen. One at a time they searched Gabriel’s face. They want to know if they know me and I’m someone they have a beef with. He stepped over the fallen boy’s body and the nearest boy, tallest, reached under his jacket for something. He had the gun halfway out when Gabriel swung the blade across his body, hitting hard at the boy’s wrist and cutting deep enough that the tendons and muscles stopped working. The boy dropped the gun. Gbriel lunged for him while he was still in shock, stuck his knife into the boy’s belly, twisting the blade slightly as he pulled up so the wound wouldn’t close.

He looked again. The third boy was running for the front door. Thinking he could push it open and escape, the boy bounced off the locked door. Screaming hysterically he shook the door’s aluminum handle and clawed at the glass. Gabriel didn’t rush. He knew the boy’s mind was too far gone to figure out that all he had to do was flip the lock right above his head.

It had taken Gabriel a long time to learn to throw the Ka-Bar accurately. It was heavier than most throwing knives and the technique was a little different. He gripped it by the blade and threw it hard. He’d never thrown a knife at anyone’s back before and for good reason. Just like he was afraid it would, the knife dug into the boy’s shoulder blade a couple of inches, hung there and fell to the floor. There was too much bone in the back. You’d have to be William Tell to make a kill throwing it there. Still the blow to the shoulder blade had sent the kid face down on his knees. He was crying and screaming something in Spanish, snot dripping from his nose. Gabriel rushed him, but at the last minute the boy spotted the knife, grabbed it and held it in front of him. Gabriel tried to stop, but he slipped on the boy’s blood and fell forward, landing an inch from the blade.

There was an explosion from behind Gabriel’s back and the boy’s body slammed against the door and slid down, a gaping hole in its chest. Gabriel looked over his shoulder and saw Suspect Zero leaning over the shelves a couple of rows back, his gun smoking. He nodded to Gabriel. Gabriel nodded back and headed to him.

When he got to the killer’s aisle, Gabriel found the soup man on the floor surrounded by dislodged cans. His head was almost severed from his body. The wire had cut clanly all the way through skin, cartalige and muscle. All that held the head attached was the vertebrae at the back on the man’s neck.

The killer had the couple cornered at the end of the aisle. He waited there for him.

When Gabriel reached him the killer said, “Good work with the boys. I know you would have finished the last one, but I had the shot, so what the hell.”

“It’s cool. Thanks,” Gabriel said.

“Glad you don’t mind some collaboration.”

Suspect Zero turned his attention back to the couple. They were a couple of Goth kids, pale and skinny, dressed in shades of black and red.

The killer said, “What are you in the mood for tonight?” He pointed his pistol at the girl. “White meat?” He pointed the gun at the boy. “Or dark?”

Gabriel stood where he was, breathing hard. His throat had gone dry. He looked at his bloody hands.

He looked at Suspect Zero

“I lost my knife.”

“That’s okay. I’ll choose for you,” he said and shot the boy between the eyes.

Gabriel said, “I thought we were supposed to mix up how we kill. Guns twice tonight?”

Suspect Zero showed him his pistol.

“Different gun. Different caliber. Sometimes you have to improvise. I decided to do a quick one for you. Help you get your sea legs back.”

The killer stepped aside, leaving Gabriel a clear view of the girl. He reached into his pocket for the gun the killer had given him. Gabriel took it out and leveled it at the girl’s face. She held up her hands in front of her, not whimpering, just making little animal noises. She might have peed herself, he thought. For just a second he was back at the reservoir looking into Penny’s shocked and staring eyes. She’d made noises like that when the first knife thrust hadn’t killed her and he’d had to go in for a second and third. Gabriel’s throat was dry. She didn’t look anything like Penny, but he could feel the breeze on his face, the wind cooling as it passed over the water. He let the gun drop a few inches. He felt the killer move up beside him.

“Is that how it is, boy? You're a true disappointment. I thought you were the right kind of people,” said Suspect Zero. “Guess I’ll take it from here.”

He moved past Gabriel with his knife out and grabbed a handful of the girl’s hair. There was a click as Gabriel pulled back the hammer on the gun. The killer stopped and turned to him. Gabriel pointed the gun at Suspect Zero. A slow grin spread across the killer’s face.

“You rascal you, playing possum this whole time. And here’s me starting to wonder if your heart was in the work. You planned to kill me this whole time and waited until you found your moment. That’s cold, son. Good for you.”

The killer spread his arms like wings and took a step forward.

“You want to take my truck? Want to be an eighteen-wheel nomad? Roam the country like a king taking lives and giving them to those you leave alive? You want to be me? Do it, boy. Do it. We both know it’s why you flagged me down and why I stopped.”

Gabriel looked at the floor where all the blood on his clothes had mixed with the rainwater to form a pinkish pool at his feet.

“That was before. I don’t know now,” said Gabriel. He glanced at the cowering girl. She slid down the wall the floor. Her boyfriend’s blood had spread across the linoleum and she was half-lying in it.

The killer made a sour face.

“You don’t know?  Bullshit. People never mean it when they say that. What they really mean is they know exactly what they want, but they’re afraid to take it. Don’t be one of them. You got the drop on me. You beat me. Take the shot.”

Gabriel looked at the killer and then the girl. Gabriel put the pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. Nothing happened. It was empty.

Suspect Zero gently took the gun from Gabriel’s hand.

“I told you a killer knows another killer when he sees one. You never hand a killer a loaded gun.”

Without turning, keeping his eyes locked on Gabriel’s, Suspect Zero shot the girl. Gabriel watched as the man walked down the aisle, opened the locked door and stood there waiting. A few seconds later he followed.

The killer unlocked the door and said, “The kid behind the counter. Take his wallet and whatever’s in the till. This’ll just be a robbery gone sour.”

“What about the security camera?”

“It isn’t working. I can tell.”

Gabriel did what he was told, stuffing the wallet and cash into the pockets of his pea coat. Suspect Zero pushed open the door and shoved Gabriel out. He’d left the truck idling. They got in and they started moving almost immediately, driving in silence for a few minutes. When Suspect Zero took the onramp to the freeway out of town, Gabriel finally spoke.


Copyright Richard Kadrey 2010