💯 Story Challenge
Loud Betty Screams One Last Time
№20 — The final chapter in Frank and Sal’s saga. Will Frank get the bastard? Will he make him pay? Read on.
As Detective Frank Banning lay dying, he hoped it had been in a blaze of glory. He felt cold, and the floor was warm with his blood.
He still held Loud Betty, a single round left, and one last surprise. He felt like Butch and Sundance, a minute after their last scene.
“Let’s see those moves, Sal,” he groaned.
He heard footsteps and rolled over, gun aimed.
Out in the hills, the broad, tree-lined streets gave plenty of cover as Frank approached the compound. He waited for the guards' patrols to cross and watched the bastards stop for a cigarette.
“Thank you,” he whispered as he snuck onto the grounds.
The building was dark, except for one or two rooms. Banning knew the bastard was in one of those. He could feel it in his gut.
Grandma always said, “Nothing good comes about in the small hours.”
He loosened Loud Betty in her holster and kept to the shadows as he looked for a way in. His scalp prickled as he searched — the guards would circle round any minute.
Between Betty, her smaller cousin and a good sharp blade, it better be enough. That and one or two other surprises.
Frank neared the back of the house. He’d ducked in the shadows twice to keep from being seen. But his luck wouldn’t last forever.
He had one chance to get this bastard.
Frank chuckled. For once he’d done his paperwork in advance, he was ahead of the pile. The report sat waiting in his desk with an explanation, well, mostly a dedication and a goodbye.
Steps scratched at the stones nearby and Frank grabbed the nearest door handle — unlocked — and entered what must have been a servants’ entrance.
Someone's gonna pay for that mistake.
“Who the fuck are — “ the question ended in a choked cough as Frank punched the man in the throat, and he followed that with one of his surprises.
A chloroformed rag was to the man’s face until he went limp, collapsing to the floor in silence with Banning’s help. He dragged the prone body into a room that turned out to be pantry and left the rag on his face for good measure.
Banning followed his gut like a compass up the stairs and toward the lit doorframe. Light bled around the edges like a portal toward his doom.
The hairs on his neck stood up and Frank unholstered Loud Betty, the dull weight in his hand served to re-anchor his purpose.
One door from his destination, Banning heard scratching to his left. He leaned his ear against it and heard muffled whimpering.
There were deadbolts on the outside of the door.
The scratching came again.
Banning’s gut twisted, he pulled the bolts back and opened the door to find the bastard’s next victim, tear-streaked and filthy.
Frank put a finger to his lips and holstered his gun.
“Shh, you’re safe now.”
Frank’s heart ratcheted up a notch, his one way trip had an extra passenger now. He made a decision.
“Follow me, but stay back.”
They crept toward the lit door. She pulled at his sleeve. He turned to face her, tears nearly blinded her. She shook her head.
“Dammit, ok, go back. Close the door, when you hear shots run for it. If you can find the kitchen, head out the back door. I’ll make as much noise as possible. You understand?”
She nodded. He had a mission, he had something to do with his last moments, but now Detective Frank Banning, his shield in his desk drawer, wondered what that mission was.
He watched her overcome her terror and gently close the door to her prison cell. Frank opened the lit door like a burglar, edging into the room and seeing a naked man leaning over a table with his back turned.
Frank saw a limp hand hanging over the edge. Pink nail polish on the tips. Blue around the edges. Red dripping onto the floor, and up to the elbows of Lorenzo Vittone.
The man was humming a playground tune. Frank could almost remember the words from a rare bright childhood moment. He couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Stop!”
The blood covered fiend whirled around, “Who the hell are you?”
“Your judge and executioner.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“I’m in your house dumbass.”
“Do you know how far my family can reach, no one you know is safe, no one you love will live — “
“Too late for threats.”
Loud Betty roared and the bastard’s skull opened like a carnival piñata, his naked body flopped down to the floor. Blood rushing in Frank’s ears, his heart threatened to burst from its cage.
“Move, old man.” Sal said in his ears.
Frank ran, as he reached the door he saw her running, he saw them coming, he fired, once, twice, then he lost count, pain speared his side, but he kept firing, one fell, another, she ran, he managed a grim smile as he finished the two quickest guards; the house was bright now, shouts and alarms ringing through the night as he fired both guns, pain exploded in his thigh and he stumbled crashing down the stairs.
Dazed, he found himself on the chequered tiles of the kitchen landing, footsteps coming towards him. She’d turned back for him.
Frank shook his head. “No, go, I’ll be fine.”
She hesitated.
“Go!” he roared, and pushed up to his feet. As he stood, the world heaved, but she was gone. Safe, he hoped. Time for his ruckus.
“I got him, Sal.”
Frank felt life drain from him, it left a trail on the floor, he heard shouts, they were gearing up to blast their way in, shambling like the undead toward the front door he held his last trick in his hand.
“Who’s gonna help you up the stairs, old man?”
“You kid, but I’m driving.”
They burst in, and Frank spat the pin in their faces and their raised guns.
A heartbeat later, it didn’t matter.
Sorry for the delay, life and family, and, well, endings are damn hard to write.
💯 Story Challenge (20/100)
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This Serial Fiction uses prompts from February Theme: Love/Hate
Chapter List:1: Loud Betty is Silent Tonight2: In Search of Sal’s Redemption (prompted by The Beast)3: Wringing Out The Truth (prompted by The Beauty)4: An Old Fox Chasing Hawks (prompted by The Betrayal)5: Loud Betty Screams One Last Time (this story prompted by The End)