Chapter 10

"Jimmy, you need to go home. We are about to do something illegal," said Nigel.

"Okay man, I'll be at home if you need me," said Jimmy.

After Jimmy had left Nigel took a lock pick set out and went to get Bella Burns' door open. Hammond looked dissatisfied at Nigel.

"What are you doing man?" asked Hammond.

"By the time John gets here the whole thing could be over. If Mrs. Plenty or Tilly McCrans kill each other the whole case is thrown out," I said.

"You can wait for a few more minutes for him to get here?""Minutes are lives. I am doing what needs to be done," said Nigel.

"What do you think is in the Faberge egg? What do you stand to gain from looking inside that egg?" asked Hammond putting a hand on my arm.

"If my calculations are correct, the name of the murderers will be in there," said Nigel after getting the door opened.

The door was open and Hammond watched as Nigel's heart and shoulders sank. The painting of Nigel dying was on the wall right when we opened the door. The egg was sitting in front of the painting with a thin sword stuck in the egg.

"STOP!" yelled Nigel putting an arm up and stopping Hammond from going in the door.

"Come on man! Why?" asked Hammond with greatly agitated facial features.

Nigel showed Hammond a long, thin, and virtually invisible glass stiletto that would have killed Hammond on contact.

"This poisoned stiletto blade would have killed you within a matter of seconds. There is enough poison on it to kill a fully grown cow," said Nigel as he took a gentle but firm swing with his gun and shattered the blade.

Hammond was stunned and thankful to Nigel for saving him. Nigel ran up to the destroyed egg and picked up the sword. He flung the egg across the apartment and slashed the painting in half cleanly in the rage. 

"If there is nothing else here we have a gala to get to," said Hammond.

"There is something else here. Jimmy saw someone go into the apartment," I said responding to Hammond.

I put my gun out in front of me and examined the room. There was a little bit of dust that had settled on the place since we were there last. I could see that everything had dust around it with the exception of a key that was on the dining room table. Hammond saw the same thing that I did and picked up the key.

I motioned him to go and check the right side of the apartment and I would go to the left. We were trying to be as still and quiet as we could. I could feel the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and I heard the thud of my own heartbeat in my head.

My eyes were having trouble focusing on anything. The egg was gone and the painting was here. Who would have moved my painting from my house to here? My foot was rather impetuous on the wooden floor. It was dang near impossible to sneak around.

The bedroom door was open and something didn't feel right. I took a moment to stand as if I were stuck to the boards because of that fear in the back of my head. My head said no, my heart said yes. My gun had surged into the dark black bedroom with reckless abandon. I knew at that moment that I had to flip the light on.

The only problem is that I would give away my position if there was someone here. I heard a humming noise as I opened the door. There was a glowing coming from a computer tower. The light on the tower was signaling S.O.S. and I knew that there was someone with me.

I made not a sound. My head felt wet from sudden cold sweat. A part of me wanted to turn the light on and reveal everything that was in the room. On the other hand, my shoulder was a constant reminder that I had been shot and I really didn't want to be shot again.

It was at that point that I was in the room and I walked boldly to the computer and moved the mouse. The screen lit up and there was a black background with a clean and white font with a name on the screen. I couldn't believe that I was actually standing in front of Bella Burns' computer.

The name was something I knew well. It evaded me and unnerved me at the same time. The only other thing on the screen was the cursor and a close box. I made the cursor go to the close box. I clicked.

A new set of words popped up on the screen and it said, "PASSWORD."

It would be impossible to know her password. My mind felt as if it were in a torrential downpour with thoughts as to what it could be. I felt at that moment, something I had never felt before. It was a sensation as if someone were watching everything I did. I found myself wondering if Bella had found a way to crack the case with what she knew.

My fingers were apprehensive to type a password because I only had a few chances before the computer self-destructed or booted me from it. If I knew Bella...I only had one shot to make it happen.

I typed a word and just one, no capitals, no special characters, and no numbers. I typed the word, "lotus" because it signified rebirth and emergence from muddy waters into a beautiful flower.

The screen went black after I clicked the enter button. It loaded for what felt like an eternity. My nerves were about shot at that point. The screen opened up a desktop and I was in! Of all the luck to think of a lotus at that time was insane. What were the odds?

The next thing I saw was all the plans behind both of the murders. I could see in my eyes that I was beginning to tear up when I saw a list of the people involved. It just couldn't be. I saw one name that stood out to me. Taylor Tremill was the name of my fiancé. I didn't know why her name was on the list.

I heard what sounded like a gun cocking behind my head and felt the coldness of the barrel on my head. The light flicked on and I would either die or get a stroke of luck. When the light came on I was looking at Taylor through a mirror that Bella had in her room. She lowered the gun and smiled.

"Nigel, shouldn't you be at the gala by now?" asked Taylor putting her gun in her holster.

"No, I have come to find what I have missed. I am going to copy all of the files off of this computer for evidence. I can nail down Mrs. Plenty if we get them," I replied.

"Oh yeah, that would definitely be useful then," replied Taylor.

Hammond came running into the room about as quick as a blitzing linebacker trying to sack a quarterback.

"Taylor, what are you doing here?" asked Hammond as he was trying to catch his breath.

"I was here to give you guys some backup beings you never made it to the gala," replied Taylor.

"I think you were here for a lot more than that," I replied holding my gun out towards Taylor.

"What are you doing man?" asked Hammond standing beside Taylor and me.

"I know that Taylor was in on the murders. Why else would your name be on the list of people that have been involved with Mrs. Plenty?" I asked.

"I don't know what to say. What do you want me to say, Nigel?" asked Taylor with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I was forced to become a bounty hunter that killed to save my life. I had to kill a person a day. Imagine how much that desensitizes you when you are forced to take a quivering person's life with one bullet to where you wanted to make them die from."

"I never expected this! My own fiancé?" I asked setting the gun down on the desk.

My phone rang in my pocket and at that moment I felt a sucker punch right to the side of my face. Somehow in the shuffle, the light was shut off, Hammond was shoved into the closet and I lay with blood running down my cheek. My eyes were fuzzy and blurry. My arm and hand tried answering the phone, but I fell with my face on the floor. I tried to gain full consciousness back. Hammond had turned the light on and ran out of the room. He came back in for me.

"She's gone," he said as he came back into the room.

"Tilly is in big trouble. Her life is in jeopardy," I replied holding my face and getting back to my feet.

The punch had left me with a shiner. I put my gun into its holster and put my thumb drive of files into my pocket. We were out of the house and into the car. As we sped off Jimmy came running out of the house and almost got run over.

"Go get her. You guys can do it," yelled Jimmy as the thunder from the car knocked him down as we sped by.

I had blown past the cops that were coming to open Bella's home for us. I motioned to the Captain that we were going to the gala. My phone rang again. I picked it up.

"Where are you two dim wits going?" asked the Captain.

"It's a bit of a long story, but essentially my fiancé sucker punched me and she is in hot pursuit to the gala. If she gets there first there is no telling what could go wrong," I replied.

"Okay, you try to find your fiancé and we will get Mrs. Plenty," replied the Captain.

I hung up my phone and gunned the car. I pulled up to the gala and did a serious drift around about have a dozen cars and parked in front of the museum. Hammond was hot on my tail as I jumped out of the car and ran for the elevator. We got into the elevator and had a moment to think.

"I don't even know what you're feeling right now man, but I need you in the game," said Hammond trying to talk sense into me.

"My fiancé is involved in the killing of hundreds of people. How would you feel?" I asked.

"I would probably feel like you, but you can't let circumstances cloud your overall picture. Remember, Tilly and Mrs. Plenty are the suspects right now and Tilly is the one that could lose her life," said Hammond.

We had reached the top floor of the museum that had a skyscraper's worth of stories of offices above it. I knew that if Taylor were anywhere she would be on the roof. I opened the elevator and got out at the lobby and opened the door to get to the roof. I opened the door to find a wind blow through the door.

I would have to climb a couple of flights of steps up a metal ladder on the side of a building in Linbridge. I was climbing and scared out of my wits. I just remember powering through the climbing and dropping to a sheltered rooftop. It overlooked all of Linbridge. The sun was setting and I saw Taylor sitting on the edge of the skyscraper with her legs dangling from the side.

"You used to love me," said Taylor with her hands holding the railing as she got up.

"You used to love me as well. Now, you're some assassin that works for some psychopath that is a serial killer?" I asked her. "Is that your new life?"

"That's what I have become," replied Taylor now standing near me face to face. She got her gun out and held it to my forehead.

"Put the gun away, Taylor!" I said pushing the gun away from my head. She only pulled the gun right back onto my head, but we were closer now.

"What could you say that could possibly make me not want to pull this trigger?" she asked looking into my eyes.

"For one, you have a gun to your fiance's head. For two, if you kill Tilly you will be letting a murderess go free," I said.

"Give me the thumb drive Nigel. I don't want to kill you too." I took the thumb drive out my pocket and threw it off the building. She was about to shoot me and I could see little red dots on her chest.

"Drop the gun," I said.

Taylor dropped the gun and I escorted her to the elevator with Hammond. We made our way to the ground where the cops had Mrs. Plenty in custody and the dead body of Tilly McCrans. I sat my fiancé next to Mrs. Plenty as we had the whole Linbridge Police force with guns on the two suspects.

Hammond motioned to me to take up the lead with the two suspects sitting there. "Nigel, Hammond, its good to see that you are well and in one piece," said the Captain.

"Its good to be in one piece," I said.

"Who are the murderers of this case?" asked the Captain. I felt the tears well up in my eyes one last time as the police officers stared at me to be the one to set the record straight.

"First of all, I'd like to say that my fiancé Taylor Tremill was an accessory to the murders of hundreds of people over the last three years," I said. Everyone gasped and looked disgusted. "Furthermore, it was Tilly McCrans that had attempted to kill Mrs. Plenty tonight and we can see that she is dead. The one to be charged with hundreds of accounts of murder, both of the hundreds of people, for Bella Burns and Mr. Plenty, Gwendollyn Plenty."

A huge uproar went up and we felt a huge jolt. An earthquake, no, a rumbling of the underground trainway had caused such a quake that it had knocked out the power in the building and a few minutes later we had the lights back on. Taylor was gone.

The police spread out from the building to try and find her, but she had evaded us yet again.Times have been rough since that day when I had to take down the killers of hundreds of people. Hammond and I have practiced our ways of moving on from the situation as best as we could.

I knew that Taylor leaving was just the beginning. I had to move on to bigger and better things and she was moving on as well. There was a hole in my heart from that point on. If I have learned anything from this case it is that you can trust no one, hold those things that are dear to you close to your heart, guard your heart for it is your life, and love wins in the end.

I have found a woman since that day that has loved me for who I am. It was that woman that I had gone out on a few dates with. The bowling friend had become more.

As for the computer of Bella Burns, it has been put into a security lockup for another day. There was so much more to be investigated on that computer. The country and the world might have been in danger at that very moment. Bella was an obsessive, compulsive and was a genius.

The one thing that keeps ringing in my head was words that were on the screen of Bella's computer that day.

"The Artist."