Freaks Chapter 10: Lunatic 101

Chapter 10: Lunatic 101

"Face, get after her! Be careful!"

As Face set off in pursuit Hannibal and Murdock leapt to BA's side and turned him over. He was semi-conscious, sweating, shaking. Hannibal pressed his hands over the wound. Blood seeped between his fingers. Murdock started to tear away BA's shirt to make a bandage. Hannibal looked up at Mike and David. Mike looked scared and helpless. David had his hands over his mouth and tears on his face.

"He'll be okay, kid." Hannibal said, trying to be reassuring. "We need to get him to the van, Murdock." Murdock nodded. He handed Hannibal a folded up pad of cloth, which Hannibal pressed over the wound. "Mike, can you…" No dammit, he couldn't, Hannibal had been going to ask him to bring the van as close to the door as possible. "Come here and help Murdock, I'll get the van." Mike took Hannibal's place and the colonel ran outside. The van was a couple of hundred yards down the drive, he backed it up fast and opened the rear doors, ran into the house. As he ran back inside a gunshot sounded from somewhere in the house. Murdock looked up wildly.

"Face." Hannibal gasped. He tried his walkie-talkie. "Come in, Face." No answer. Hannibal resisted the urge to yell Face's name.

"Come on," between the four of them they managed to manhandle BA into the back of the van. "Get him to the doctor in town," Hannibal said, "We'll follow soon." Murdock nodded tensely. He took the wheel. Mike was in the back pressing the pad over the wound. David sat beside BA holding his hand. Hannibal slammed the doors and the van took off fast.

Hannibal ran back inside. The tied up Jed was still sitting in the hallway. He didn't appear inclined to make a break for it. Even so Hannibal ripped off Jed's belt and used it to secure the man's bound hands to the banisters. Then he drew his gun. He tried the walkie-talkie once more.

"Face, come in." No response. "Face if you can hear me, I'm coming."

"Smith!" Jed called as Hannibal started to move out. "Smith. Please don’t hurt her. She's not… well."

"That’s an understatement." Hannibal snarled. "Don't move, Jed. I'll be back for you." Hannibal headed in what he hoped was the direction he'd heard the gunshot come from. He climbed stairs and come out into a corridor. At the end he could see a set of folding steps into a loft had been pulled down. A dark open hatch tempted him.

"Hannibal!" Face hissed from an alcove about half way up the corridor. Hannibal felt the terror that had been gripping his heart lessen a little. He ran quickly to join Face.

"She's in the loft?"

"Yeah. How's BA?"

"On his way to the doctor's. Does she have a gun?" Hannibal asked, thinking of the shot he'd heard.

"I suspect she has plenty," Face said. At Hannibal's questioning look he elaborated, "Lunatic 101, Hannibal. Stockpile a large arsenal of weapons ready for the day the FBI kicks down the door."

"Good point." He looked thoughtful for a few minutes, and then said. "Come on." He moved out of the alcove and towards the loft hatch, staying against the wall on the way. Face sputtered a protest then followed him.

"Are you crazy Hannibal? She can hold us off all night from that position."

"I've got better things to do tonight." Hannibal said. To Face's horror he shouted out, "Say goodnight to the folks, Gracie," in a mocking tone.

"Oh great now she knows exactly…" Face fell down as Hannibal pushed him back. Automatic fire stitched the floor in front of them, inches from their feet. Hannibal heard the sound he'd expected, a cry of pain. An AK47 fell out of the loft hatch and bounced down the steps. Hannibal ran. He was up the steps before the rifle hit the floor.

"No, Hannibal!" Face cried, scrambling up and going after him. But there was no more gunfire. When Face reached the loft he found Hannibal had Grace restrained, her arms pinned by her sides.

"You're nuts, Hannibal!" Face protested, "Nuts!"

Hannibal shrugged. "I knew she couldn’t control the recoil. When she fired that handgun at Jed it nearly knocked her down." Grace struggled ineffectually in his arms. "Get something to tie her up. And check her for that knife."

"She already threw that at me." Face said. "She missed." He found the light switch and flicked it. The two men stared around at the walls, which were, as Face had predicted, lined with weapons. Automatic rifles and handguns neat and ready in racks. But even that wasn't the most arresting site. That distinction belonged to the large portrait in a place of honour on the far wall. It was of a man that Hannibal guessed was the late Nathaniel Heinemann. He bore a distinct resemblance to Jed. The man was posing proudly in full Ku Klux Klan regalia. Face shuddered and turned away from the picture.

"Hannibal, I have to get the hell out of this house. It's starting to seriously freak me out." He frisked Grace then bound her hands behind her back with his tie.

"Okay, get out of here and find out what's happening with BA. They should be at the doctor's by now. Find the number and call. I can manage this one." Grace was quiet and had stopped struggling. Even so Hannibal kept a very close eye on her. Face gave him an 'are you sure?' look. "Go." Hannibal said.

Face ran. He was back at the front door in under a minute. He found the telephone in the hallway and turned to Jed.

"Tell me the name of the nearest doctor." He demanded. "If you have the number too I may decide not to break both your legs." Jed looked cowed, remembering the hefty punch that Face had taken him down with before. He gave Face a number, which Face dialed and waited impatiently as it rang several time. At last it was answered.

"Hello?"

"Mike? Is that you?"

"Face? Are you and Hannibal okay?"

"Yeah, how's BA?"

"The doctor is stitching the stab wound closed now. He said it was superficial, no vital organs punctured, but he said BA had lost a lot of blood. He's going to give him a blood transfusion, direct from Murdock. I think BA's delirious, he keeps saying not to put Murdock's blood in him again."

Face almost grinned. "Okay, I'm going to get there soon, you just…"

"Face," Mike interrupted him. His voice had gone strange, sort of tight. "The sheriff just walked in. He's pointing a gun at me. He wants me to put the phone down…" His voice faded and Face was suddenly listening to a dial tone.

"Mike!" He yelled. "Damn, damn, damn." He pulled his handgun pointed it at Jed. "You're going to tell me where the doctor lives, then you're going to give me your car keys."

"Doc Cameron lives on Oak Tree Avenue, off Main Street." Jed told him, his eyes fixed on the gun.

"Right. Keys!" He cocked the gun.

"I don’t have them!" Jed cried. "Zeke took my car when they went to pick you guys up."

"Are there any vehicles here at all?" Face asked, a sinking feeling in his gut.

"No, none."

"Dammit!" Face flicked on his walkie-talkie. "Hannibal, come in. Hannibal, come in! God dammit all to hell!" He shook the radio. "God damn piece of cheap Japanese crap!" He shoved the unresponsive walkie-talkie in his pocket and pointed his gun at Jed again.

"Tell him where I went!" Face ran out into the night. It had started to rain.

Hannibal finished tying Grace's ankles with some rope he'd found in the attic.

"Comfy?" He asked.

"Gloat all you like, Smith." Grace said. "Someone else will take our place. We will win in the end."

"Shut up."

"It's hard for someone like you to hear the truth isn't it?" He didn’t respond. But she didn’t need any encouragement. "A race traitor." He looked up sharply at that.

"A man like you, a warrior, you should be fighting for your race. Instead you run around with a papist, a mental defective and a nigger."

"You really don't want to use that word around me. You know which one I mean." He was restraining the anger that simmered inside him. He couldn't let her make him lose his temper. Couldn't let her get to him. "I'm going to pick you up, carry you over my shoulder. Don't struggle and you won't get hurt." She let him lift her up. He hoped she would stop talking as he carefully made his way down the loft steps, but no such luck.

"And you spend your time helping the weak against the strong. Like that freak and his filthy gypsy's brat. You are a fool. The weak are meant to go to the wall. It's the way of nature. Haven't you read Darwin?"

"Lady," Hannibal said. "If Darwin were here he'd kick your ass too. Now shut the hell up. Save it for the FBI." He reached the bottom of the ladder and headed along the corridor.

"FBI," Grace sneered. "Do you think I believe you will call them? I know you're a fugitive, Smith. You can no more afford to bring in the FBI than I can."

"I'll work something out. And Grace, believe this, if my man dies I'll hand myself over to any law enforcement agency that wants me if it means I get to give evidence that will put you in the gas chamber." She went quiet for a moment, stilled by the seriousness of his voice.

Eventually she spoke again. "You waste your loyalty on a sub-human."

"Don't make me gag you, bitch." It came out like a whiplash and he regretted letting her needle him. But it seemed to have the effect of finally shutting her up. He reached the hallway without having to listen to any more of her poison. Carefully he lowered her from his shoulder and sat her on the bottom of the stairs. He'd brought extra rope with him and secured her hands to the banister.

"Mama, you okay?" Jed asked, craning round to look at her.

"Don't you speak to me, worm." Her voice was as cold as ice. Jed flinched and turned away from her.

"Well, Jed, poker isn’t your game and sure as hell Happy Families isn't either." Hannibal said. "Where did Face go?"

"He followed the others to the doctor's to check on the nigger."

Hannibal snapped then. It had been building all night and he reached the end of his patience. He grabbed Jed around the throat. Jed gasped.

"Don't ever use that word in my presence again, you understand me? You understand?" Jed's eyes were huge with terror.

"Yes, sir!" Jed choked out. Hannibal let him go. Tried to get hold of himself.

"In fact don’t use it again ever."

"No, sir." Jed said. Hannibal saw Grace staring with contempt at the broken man her eldest son had become. "What's the doctor's phone number?" Hannibal asked. Jed quickly reeled it off and Hannibal dialed. The phone rang. And rang.

"Don't touch it!" Sheriff Heinemann snapped at Mike when he made an instinctive move towards the ringing phone.

"Sheriff, are you going to stand there all night?" Mike asked.

"Shut up," the Sheriff snapped. "I'm thinking!" His gun was trembling in his hands.

"You should be running." Mike said. "It's all over." He glanced over at a closed door. BA and Murdock were in there with the doctor. He wondered how long it would be before Murdock came out of there. Then he heard a tiny gasp from David who was standing beside him. Mike glanced in the direction David was looking and carefully didn't stare or do anything to attract the sheriff's attention that way. Through glass panels in the door Mike could see Face. Their gazes locked. Face mouthed something. Mike guessed it was that he should keep the sheriff's attention away from the door.

"David, stand behind me." Mike said.

David seemed to have got Face's message too.

"Er, Dad, that's only going to help if he's specifically planning on shooting me in the legs."

"Watch your tongue, lad. You’re not too big for a clip round the ear."

"Should I wait here while you get your stepladder?"

The sheriff was staring at them, unsure of what to make of this exchange. Then the door behind him opened. A gust of wind blew in and Face with it. The sheriff spun around, turning his gun on Face. Mike could see that Face wasn't close enough to make it before the sheriff could fire. He ran at Heinemann, tackled him around the legs. The sheriff toppled, swearing and Face was on him in an instant. He kicked the gun from Heinemann's hand and punched him on the jaw. The sheriff slumped, dazed.

"Thanks, Mike." Face said. Mike nodded at him then stood over Sheriff Heinemann. A burst of fury overwhelmed him suddenly.

"They killed a man," he shouted at Heinemann. "They murdered a man and you covered it up!" He reached down and grabbed the sheriff's badge, ripped it off his shirt. "You don’t get to wear this a minute longer!" He held it out behind him. "Look after this, son." David took the badge.

Face found the sheriff's cuffs and dragged him over to a radiator to secure him to it. "Where's BA and Murdock?"

"In there." Mike pointed at the closed door. Face ran to it and burst through. A middle aged man stared up at him, shocked. He was bending over BA. Murdock lay on a table beside BA, hooked up to tubes. He looked up at Face and smiled with delight.

"Hi, Face." Murdock said. "Why do you have twigs in your hair?" Face winced, reached up and pulled the twigs out. He had decided it was much faster to go cross-country than stick to the road. Since it was a very dark night this meant he'd become intimately acquainted with every ditch and puddle between here and Grace Heinemann's home. Not to mention being chased by dogs and putting his foot into unexpected rabbit holes. His clothes were covered in mud and grass stains and his face and hands were scratched and grazed.

"How's BA?" Face asked.

The doctor stopped staring and finally managed to speak.

"He lost a lot of blood, but I think he'll be alright. He should probably get more blood. He should be in a hospital."

The phone rang. Face hurried out to answer it.

"Hannibal! What's happening? Right… The doc says he'll be okay… You have? When will they get here? That soon? Right… Right… see you soon." He put down the phone. Murdock was emerging from the other room holding a cotton wool ball onto his arm. "Murdock, Hannibal called the FBI. They'll be here any time now. We need to get out of here. Have the doctor help you get BA into the van." Murdock ran back into the room he'd just emerged from. Face turned to Mike and David, who were looking a little baffled by the speed of events.

"Mike, we have to be gone before the feds arrive. You'll show them everything? Don't forget about Zeke and Aaron. You remember where we left them?"

"Of course. But you can't just go…"

"'fraid we have to." Murdock and the doctor came out, carrying BA between them. The doctor was protesting that BA shouldn't be moved and that Murdock should be lying down for at least twenty minutes.

"It's okay, doc, we have juice and cookies in the van." Murdock quipped, but he looked very shaky. BA looked worse, grey and sick and Face grimaced at the sight of him. He followed them out to the van where they slid BA into the back. Murdock climbed in after him, he waved to Mike and David who had followed them out, then pulled the door closed.

"Don't worry," Face said. "We'll be back in a few days." He smiled. "After all we didn’t get paid yet." He winked and Mike grinned back. Face got into the van; he waved and then sped away up the road.

Mike, David and Doctor Cameron watched until the van was out of sight.

"Who on earth were they?" The doctor asked.

"The coolest guys ever." David said.

"Yeah," Mike said. "Pretty cool." He grinned. "For tall bastards."

"Dad!"

Face pulled up halfway up the hill and Hannibal jumped into the van.

"The FBI were just arriving, so I made a break for it." As Face pulled away Hannibal looked into the back of the van. BA and Murdock looked back at him. "How's it going, Sergeant?"

"He put the fool's blood in me. I got the fool's blood in me again." He scowled. "This time I'm really gonna go crazy." Hannibal smiled. Clearly feeling better.

"Mike and the kid okay?" Hannibal asked Face.

"Yeah." Face said. "We got the sheriff, so that's the full set. The Feds got here fast."

"Yeah, by chopper. The words 'large cache of automatic weapons' seemed to gee them up a bit." Hannibal looked a little closer at Face, taking in his disheveled appearance. "You look as if you've been ridden hard and put away wet."

"American slang is so expressive sometimes." Murdock said happily in his Holmes voice.

"Oh do I?" Face asked haughtily. "That could be because I've been running half way across town. Again. In the rain. Again. And in the dark this time. Do you know how many falls I took? I'm lucky I didn’t break a leg…"

Hannibal settled back in his seat and lit a cigar. He let Face's complaints wash over him. From the back he could hear Murdock gently teasing BA and BA's growling response, though that was a lot weaker than usual. He picked up the phone and dialed from memory.

"Amy, sorry to call you in the middle of the night. Just wanted to give you the heads-up. This story is about to break; you might want to get out here. Now you got a pen? Let me give you the inside track..."

Chapter 11