Seven Deadly Colors Of The Rainbow [#Wattys 2016]

Number Seven

The rain was coming down in buckets now. The two hundred meters between my car and the hospital left me soaking wet. Patrick was in the car but stayed silent.

"Put on your seatbelt!" I barked as I peeled away from the parking lot and sped off the hospital grounds.

Rush hour ended but the streets were still congested as the rain had delayed the commuting of many persons. There was a highway that I could take but it would take a while but it was either that or let another person die; but it wasn't just any other person.

I flung the car in gear and sank the accelerator to the floor. I dangerously swung in and out of traffic narrowly avoiding collisons.
My phone rang and I threw it to Patrick for him to answer.

"Hello?.... Yea he's beside me driving. Like a maniac I might add."
I glanced at Patrick who scribbled something down on his notepad. "Uh-uh, uh-uh, ok thanks."

"Who was it?" I asked.

"Dave from the precinct. He did what you asked."

I was too busy overtaking a car to pay Patrick any mind. The motor strained as I forced the car to go over 120 mph.

"Anyways the most recent occupants were a couple who had two children, two boys. The first is nearly 15 years older than the second, he's dead by the way. The second...."

"Lemme guess," I cut Patrick off. "His name is Charles Baker."

"Yea the same guy that we visited a few months ago. How'd you know?"

"He's our killer. Our surviving victim told me so I'm going to save another life right now."

"So where the hell are we going exactly?"

"I'm going home." I pounded my horn and slapped the on switch on a remote which activated a mini siren on my dash. This was all courtesy of my department of course, for such situations like this.

"Why?" Patrick was confused I judged it off his tone as I didn't have time to even glance at him.

"I figured it out. He's killing his ex girlfriends. That explains the age of all the victims, how they all live in one city, how some know each other."

I was now less than ten minutes away from where I live. Where my wife and unborn child was, where I'd find a murderer.

"Alright fair enough but why aren't we heading to where he lives?" Detective Sutherland asked me.

I gripped the steering even tighter and put more pressure on the foot in the accelerator. "Because he and my wife dated back in college."

The statement shocked Patrick who rubbed his forehead and then after an extend period of silence said something.

"Shit."

****************

The entire house was dark when I reached home. I drove past the gate and killed the ignition.

"Here." I gave Patrick my car keys which also held the keys to my house. "Go through the yard next door and hop over the fence and come through the back door. If he's there we're gonna get him."

"Don't worry Courtney." He laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Ashley's okay."

I crept up to my front door and digged through a flower pot for the spare key. I opened the door with minimum noise and went straight for the bedroom.

"Ashley!" It was loud whisper.

No answer.

"Ashley!"

Shit.

I walked to the living room and flicked on a light switch. My heart slipped a million beats in the next few seconds.

I saw my wife, a hand wrapped around her between her breasts and bulging stomach while another hand held a syringe filled with a transparent liquid to her neck. The body belonging to the arms was hidden behind her.

"Well well well. What do we have here?" A voice asked menacing.

I drew my gun and aimed it directly at my wife hoping the man would show his face so I could take a shot. Ashley's eyes were wild and sweat trickled down her face.

"Charles Baker." My voice was stern and confident even though inside I was crumbling.

"Yes Detective. Took you a while to figure it out. What? Six months? I thought you were our city's finest."  The owner of the voice stayed hidden. "Too bad you took so long. Now you're late, late as you'll ever be."

"Come from behind her and face me like a man you coward! Is that what gets your dick hard? Killing women who have no chance of defending themselves?" I shouted every word.

Charles Baker stepped from behind my wife, his arms in the same position.  His head was showing but barely. His hands were covered in black latex gloves and he had on a hair net.

"If I were you I'd choose my words more carefully Detective." His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"If I were you I'd put down that syringe." My gun was aimed at the little section of his head that was showing.

"Why?" His whispered that word. "I've come so far. I've waited so long. I could have killed her first but no. I wanted you to run around trying to figure out what was happening and missing the bigger picture."

"Put down the fucking syringe!"

He laughed.

"This will not end well for you."

"You think I care? She's the last one. Number seven Detective.  The last color; indigo." He was enjoying himself and I wanted to use the butt of my gun and smash his teeth.

He smiled.
"I have in this syringe a lethal injection, barbiturate, paralytic and potassium solution."
He then stick the needle in my wife's neck. She winced in pain and I winced in agony.

My eyes widen and I held the gun firmer. I turned the safety off and moved a step closer.

"Detective you are only going to kill your wife that way. If you do manage to shoot me she still will be killed. The sudden muscle contraction would force my fingers to clench and once they do, it's game over."

I couldn't shoot him and he knew it.

"Why?" I asked. 

"Because I can. Because I was hurt and I wanted others to share my pain. Besides if I can't have any of these ladies no one will."

I was about to say something else to keep him talking when a loud gunshot echoced in the house. 

Charles was suddenly missing the left quarter of his face.

I saw Patrick standing a little distance off in the dining room with both hands on his serive pistol.

I ran over to my wife and yanked the syringe out of her neck.  She collapsed on the floor sobbing  and I held her, tears also flowing from my eyes. I stayed silent as I heard the wails of sirens in the distance.

On the floor next to Charles body was the syringe and a small square indigo paper sealed in a small Ziploc bag.