The Ax-Lover, Part Five

“It was you,” Shore whispered. 

Blackburn lifted an arm. “No . . . no. It—it jumped?”

“Demons look for a new host right away.” I was staring at Jason, my throat suddenly dry as ashes. “You were waiting for that, weren’t you? He asked a question. That let you in.”

“Damn it.” Blackburn’s shoulders sagged. “I can’t do it again. I’m just—”

“Don’t worry, Reverend.” Jason—the demon—grinned. “You won’t have a chance to try again.”

“It was you,” Shore repeated from the bed. “Coming down the stairs. You had the ax over your shoulder. You smiled at me. It was you.”

“It was what?” Jason smirked. “You always knew it. You kept it locked away, you tried to keep it in the dark. I showed you in your dreams. I showed you when you wrote that confession, but you pretended you didn’t remember. You didn’t want to see it. You didn’t want to remember it with my eyes.so you pushed it away, back in your head, deep, as deep as you could. But it was still there. It was always there.”

Shore lowered his head and began to sob.

I took a breath. “So you killed Charlie’s wife and son. Not Jason, you. The Ax-Lover.”

Jason laughed again. “Yes. You’re very smart. You’re a coward, you’re weak, you need your woman to save you, but you are smart.”

I nodded. “All true. So you left Jason that night and jumped into Charlie? Why?”

His eyes zeroed in on me. “What better torture? Let him suffer for killing his wife and child, his beloved wife—who he beat bloody, especially when she fought back—and his child—also hit, over and over as he cried and begged and said he was sorry, sorry for whatever he’d done wrong. It was the whiskey, he thought, but it was really him. Something in the blackness of his soul.” Jason sneered in Shore’s direction. “It was calling me.”

I stared back at him, my mind spinning. Part of me wondered if any of this could help Gina Ward’s case to get a new trial for Charlie Shore; most of me wondered what I was going to tell Rachel if I managed to get out of this alive. 

“You can run, Jason.” My heart was pounding again, harder than before. It’s dangerous to engage with a demon, but I had to do something. “Far away. No one will ever believe us.”

“Yeah, I’ll be out of here soon.” His eyes darted around the room at each one of us—Stephen, Hannah, Charlie, Blackburn, and finally me. “One of you should stay to tell them. Charlie. He’ll live with it forever. Even without me, he’ll be in hell for the rest of his life.” He lifted the shotgun. Pointed it at Blackburn. “You first, Rev. Thanks for ripping me out of that loser—”

“Hey Stephen,” I interrupted. “That box of shells next to the shotgun—that wasn’t opened, right?”

“Huh?” Stephen shook his head, as if he couldn’t hear me, his face a mixture of confusion and terror. “Uh, no, it’s not, it’s . . .” His voice trailed off. 

“Is that gun even loaded?” I asked.

Jason blinked. Then, laughing, he pointed the barrel at the ceiling and squeezed the trigger.

The shotgun boomed, blowing plaster from the ceiling over our scalps and shoulders. Okay, bad deduction on my part, but while the shotgun jumped in Jason’s shaky hands I plunged forward, tackling him to the floor. 

Stephen was on top of me in a split second, and Hannah right after. Stephen pried the shotgun from Jason’s fingers while Hannah and I pounded his face and body desperately with our fists, Jason growling and kicking at us.

Stephen finally pulled the shotgun out of Jason’s hands and shoved it across the floor. “Do you have any more of those plastic ties?” I asked, digging my knee into Jason’s stomach as Stephen grabbed at his flailing arms. 

Hannah scampered to the bed and came back with a cardboard box full of restraints in plastic bags. She ripped at them with her teeth, and Stephen and I managed to get Jason’s arms and legs tied while he thrashed and cursed us.

He rolled on the floor as we backed away, panting. “Filth!” Jason shrieked. “Scum lickers! You love the filth, you roll in it! You’ll come to me again! You want it, you ache for it—”

“Shut up.” Stephen kicked him in the jaw.

“H-help?” That came from Shore, on the bed. Hannah looked at Blackburn. “Reverend?”

He nodded. “Cut him loose.” He groaned. “Thank the Lord.”

“I helped a little,” I said, waiting for my pulse to slow. I pulled out my phone as Hannah started slicing the plastic ties around Shore’s wrists and ankles with a Swiss Army knife. “There’s your next customer.” I started tapping digits. I wanted to call Rachel, but first things first. “Yeah, we need an ambulance here for an escaped prisoner—”

“No!” Shore shouted. “I can’t go back there!”

“Sorry.” I felt sympathy for the hell he’d been through, but I couldn’t see any way around it. I gave the operator our location and hung up. “I’ll call your lawyer, Gina Ward,” I told Shore. “Maybe she can help.” Maybe. I wasn’t optimistic. But I was still alive, and not possessed by a demon, so that was something.

 

A guard opened the cell door. “Your lawyer’s here. And your girlfriend.”

            Uh-oh. I stood. The cell was about nine feet square, with one window high in the corner looking out into the starless sky. I couldn’t imagine spending a night on the cot I’d been sitting on, waiting for Gina Ward.

            She walked in with a smile. “Are you okay?”

            I nodded. “Thanks for coming.”

            Rachel was right behind her. “Good. Because you’re in trouble when we get home.” She kissed me on the cheek.

            “Am I going home?” I sat on the cot.

            Gina nodded. “There may be a hearing, but you called it in, so you get points for that. I mean, they could argue that you should have called it in the minute you got there, but I don’t think they’ll want to spend a lot of time on that. They’ve got Charlie, and they’re still trying to decide if there’s anything to charge the others with.”

            “What about Jason? He killed Shore’s family.”

            She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Not sure how I’m going to argue that. He’s in the psych ward for observation overnight. At least.”

            “What about Blackburn and the others? Are you representing them?”

            “No, thank God.” She laughed. “His mother sent a local lawyer over. The police are trying to figure out a way to combine ‘harboring a fugitive’ with ‘illegal restraint.’ I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that.” She shook her head. “In the meantime, you’re free to go.” She turned and waved to the guard.

            “Does he at least get a reward for finding an escaped fugitive?” Rachel asked. “I’m losing half a day of work here.”

            “Huh.” She cocked her head, thinking. “I’ll have to check into that.”

            “What happens to Shore now?” I stood up.

            She sighed. “He goes back to prison tomorrow. I’ll do what I can, but ‘demons in my head forced me to escape and find an exorcist’ doesn’t have much case law to support it.” She shrugged.

            “Maybe it’ll show up on a Law and Order show sometime.” I took Rachel’s hand. “I think my car’s back at Blackburn’s house.”

            “I’ll drive you.” Gina winked at Rachel. “She told me a lot about you on the ride here.”

            Wonderful. “I’m sure she’ll have a lot to say to me on the drive home.”

            Rachel elbowed my ribs. “You got that right. Jerk.” But she kissed me again. “Glad you’re okay.”

            Walking down the row of cells, we passed Blackburn. He was on his knees, praying, but he looked up, then stood when he saw me. “Jurgen? Thank you.”

            I nodded. “I’m glad Shore is okay. Will they give you a shot at Jason?”

            He chuckled. “I don’t know. If they do, I’ll try my best.”

            We shook hands through the bars. “Good luck.”

            Out in the parking lot at Gina’s car I opened the door for Rachel. “Stop for dinner on the way home? I’m hungry.”

            “You’re just trying to get out of cooking on your night, aren’t you?”

            “Maybe. Gina?”

            She nodded. “Sure.”

            “Good. Order something pricey. I can add that to my expenses, at least.”

            Gina laughed. “Yeah. Good luck with that.”

Gina Ward called me a few weeks later. “The sheriff’s department found an ax in Jason’s barn, and they managed to scrape some DNA off it, even after all these years. It’s a match.”

            “That’s good.” I switched my phone to speaker. “Rachel’s here.”

            “Hi, Rachel! Anyway, Jason’s been hospitalized ever since the demon left Charlie and took him over. I don’t know if they’re going to bother to charge him or just keep him confined. I’ve filed motions to vacate Charlie’s conviction and commute his sentence.”

            “What about the escape?” Rachel asked.

            Gina sighed. “Yeah. I’m going to argue it was due to the prison’s negligence, because the fence was damaged, and in light of new evidence, yada, yada, yada. We’ll see how it goes.”

            “I hope he finds some kind of relief,” I said. “Being possessed for years has got to be hell. No pun intended.”

            “Plus, believing he killed his family,” Rachel said. “He’s going to need a ton of therapy.”

            “Well, maybe we can sue the state for wrongful conviction.” Gina sounded cheerful. “Always look on the bright side, we say at the firm.”

            “Good luck,” I said. “Call me if you have any cases that pay actual money next time.”

            She laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

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