CHAPTER TEN - Holy Batz Trap

Before we ran out, I stopped Eddie for a second, "remember, she don't know we know what we know, so we gotta play it cool, get me?" "All the way, Boss-man" I slapped him on the back, "all right" and we sped off to my employer. I whipped out the number and buzzed her. "Yes?" "Hey, this is Batz, Mike Batz, Private I" "Oh, yes?" "I think I got somethin' on your case, I gotta meet up with you". "Sure, I'll be home all evening. You do have the address." Holdin' up the paper and rubbin' my digits on it, "sure thing, got it right here", and hung up. "Hoo-boy, I got it here and she's gonna get it there". On the way over, I got on the horn to the Chief, and asked for blue-boy back-up - just in case.

We pull up to her place and get out of the car. Me and Eddie stand side by side, his hand clutching a fist, my arms folded. Eddie says, "bottom of the ninth - two strikes - two outs - good guys at bat." I smile and pat his shoulder, and I said, "let's go hit us a grand slam". Eddie answered, "I'm with ya, Boss-Man. Ya know, she could be smarter than she's lettin' on. I wonder if we're walkin' into a trap." I thought about it - looking straight ahead I says, "could be - but we can't let her get away with what she's been doin'. Let's go."

We trot up the steps and were about to ring the doorbell when we noticed the front door was ajar.

"Gosh, Boss! Look! There's a hand on the floor!"

I lean forward and gently push the door further in. There was a blood-stained body lying on the living room floor. We rush up to it and examine the remains. "Holy cadaver! It's one of the thugs in the videotape! She must've popped him when he outlived his usefulness."

"So, I see you figured out it was me committing those cute little capers."

We swung swiftly around. Eddie slammed his fist into his hand and growled, "there's NOTHING cute about crime, you cretiness."

"There was never a price on your head. You made the whole thing up."

"Holy red herring."

"You hired us under false pretenses, just to throw us off the mark, then you proceeded to commit those heinous hideosities you call cute little capers."

"All those pitiful police personnel chained up, wounded, screaming and crying for help. What sort of heartless hateful harlot are you?"

"What gets me is why ya did it."

"You're right - there was no hit, I did make the whole thing up. Johnny's suicide was torturous for me and I wanted to torture and eventually murder the one man responsible, who would be you, Detective Batz. You arrested him and testified against him in his trial and he was sent up for life."

Eddie interjected and motioned to the dead body behind us. "What's the story with this guy? Did you kill him, and, if so, why?"

"I sure did. He was Johnny's right hand man...who just tried to seduce me when Johnny's body wasn't even cold yet. I rebuffed him, but he wasn't having any of it, and when he tried forcing himself on me, I shot him twice...with THIS!"

Eddie and I jumped back slightly and raissed our hands in defense when she brandished her weapon, aiming it right at Eddie's chest. His eyes and mouth widened with horror as he gasped, "Holy Smith & Wesson!"

"There are still four more bullets in this gun. Two for each of you. Johnny was everything to me, we had a great life planned for ourselves, but you had to go and bust him. You knew a guy like that had a lot of enemies on the inside and you just led him to his slaughter."

We lowered our hands and I explained, "Hey, look, lady, what happened to him wasn't my fault. We uphold the law and he was in violation. I made arrangements for him to be outta population, but he was put in there by mistake. I had nothin' to do with that."

"Keep your hands where I can see them and be silent! You took away the only the only thing that ever meant anything to me, and now you're going to pay - starting with the kid."

Eddie was shot twice in rapid succession. He screamed and staggered but was still on his feet. She turned the gun on me and emptied the rest of her magazine into me. We both clutched our wounds and fought to stay on our feet, but our strength gave out, Eddie cried, "holy bloodbath", and we crumbled. We both moaned as we hit the ground, landing on our wounds. I looked up, saw her smiling and still aiming her now empty gun at the both of us and I muttered, "you cold hearted bitch".

EDDIE - Her face bore a look of pure evil, cold eyes - a sadistic serpentine smile as cold steel bullets tore through us. They weighed a ton and were indescribably painful. The only thing that made it bearable was the honor of taking one for the team. My suffering and/or death would not be in vain, as it was all in the pursuit of justice.

MIKE - Poor boy was really hurtin'. This was his first real shoot-em-up and he wasn't doin' so good. I regretted taking him on. I felt he wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for me, though he wanted to work by my side. Panting to catch his breath, he cried out, "what's going to happen to us?"

I heard sirens in the distance. I whispered to Eddie, "hey, kiddo - ya hear that?" He answered that it was a sound for sore ears. Our nemesis then growled, "Shut up, both of you." She reloaded, ran to a window, smashed the glass out and opened fire. I heard some screams outside. Then she was all out of ammunition.

A couple of guys burst from the back and nabbed her. One of them shouted to the other, "get an ambulance, at least a couple. Tape this place up! This is a crime scene." To us, he said, "hang tight, guys, we're gonna get ya some help." I'd hoped they weren't too late.