Midnight Somewhere

"Who though?"she asks.

"Good question."

I start to run back through the list of people I've been talking to the last few days. Only Joshua comes to mind and he's always been small time. Maybe he really does have people over him now.

Maybe these killings are connecting them? Maybe, maybe, maybe

I hate maybes.

Looking down at the sheets I suddenly realize that I'm a sitting duck.

"Get me some clothes." I demand.

"What?"

"I've got to get out of here. They tried once in broad daylight on a busy street. That didn't work. They thought I knew something before. Now that I'm still alive they will think I know more. Like maybe a face to put a name too." I go to twitch the sheets back.

She catches my hand.

"John. No. The Captain has a guy standing right outside. You're under guard. They can't get to you here. Let yourself heal, your held together with tape and string right now. You lost a lot of blood. You need to rest or they won't have to come and finish the job. You get up and try to leave you'll do the job for them."

I settle back into the bed. My head already trying to spin.

"Yea," I say after a moment.

"John?"

I look up at Leia. I can see the concern in her eyes. We told each other years ago that it would always just be sex between us. I can see we were both fools.

"I'll just lay here and think. I'm good at that." I tell her after a second.

She pats my hand.

"Okay. I'll get you some clothes. What you were wearing was cut off you. They were blood soaked anyway. I'll even bring you your stinky cigarettes. You light one in here that on your head though. You hear me?"

I smile at my little princess. I nod.

"God my head hurts, hurry up with that aspirin already." I say in the back of my mind as she leans forward.

Her lips on mine are far sweeter than the sweetest wine. Judging from her expression mine are far from that.

"You need to brush your teeth John."

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

I awaken slowly feeling every little pain this time. Opening my eyes I turn to look and find Tony sitting next to me.

The beeping of my heart on the screen is reassuring but all the same it's getting on my nerves.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep

"God damn you're a hell of a site to wake up to."

He grins at me.

"That's what my wife always said, god rest her soul. You on the other hand look like a pile of dog dropping drug through the mud."

"Oh good I'm on the mend then. Yesterday I looked like dog shit drug through shit." I raise the bed a bit wincing when it makes the stitches pull at my side. "To what do I owe the occasion of a visit. Or is this go visit old friend that have been shot and stabbed day."

Tony chuckles.

"If it was that day I would be at the cemetery."

I pause thinking about to all the friends we buried when we were younger.

"Yea there is some truth in that," I say softly.

Tony drops a newspaper on my lap.

My eyes take in the front page, then I just have to sigh.

'John Taline'

Big letters across the front page.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep

"Nothing like my name in lights," I mutter as I take up the paper and start to read.

"Well I don't know who they talked to but they found a good source. Most of this is right." I turn the page over and finish the article. "Good they don't know about the semen on the body or who she was. That helps at least."

"John?"

I look over to Tony.

"I know that you can't tell me anything about a case but you came to ask about Sadie Blades. Now I got to thinking about that after you left and I went looking through my back files. Does this have anything to do with her father?"

I sit and ponder for maybe a half-second. Then nod.

"John...the Saber he was in to some bad shit with some bad people. He got away from most of it early in his career, but some of it haunted him till the end." Tony looks down for a second then back up at me. "John I have a 'your eyes only' secret. I know that you're good as your word but the people you're working with will do anything to solve a case and the ones you're working against will do anything to have it fall apart. Now I don't want to end up floating the river." He humps "Or doing five to ten in the House."

I look at Tony for a second then nod.

"Mums the word," I tell him.

Tony nods.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep

"John, I have been working the porn busy for a long time. I have come across things in that time. Some weird as hell shit at times. Some of it I put away. Figured if I needed to make some cash, hell call it my retirement account if you will. John I have the Sexy Sabers lost tapes."

"How? They burned up in a fire," I ask.

"The original did yes. But you see back then I was working to convert film to VHS and Beta tapes"

"I remember that. I had you do some old family films for me." I pause and wonder where those are. When I look back he's waiting.

"Well I converted the original films, then they had me do some editing. I sent them the film and the edited copy back. I kept the unedited copy. When I saw this and remember the picture of the rose from Sadie's arm...well I got to thinking, Like I said."

I sit for a second then turn and swing my legs off the side of the bed.

"Tony look in the drawers there should be some clothes for me. A friend brought them." My fingers start trying to get under the edge of the tape on my arm.

Tony gets up and starts to go through the built-ins while I negotiate the removal of my IV. I've had enough of this damn place. Time to go watch some porn.

"John? There's no clothes here."

His words make bells ring. Turning to the rolling table next to the bed I grab up my cell phone.

"You're not suppose to use those in here. They can interfere with equipment."he says quickly.

"Do the doctors check their's at the door when they come in? Hell no. If they can call so can I."

The phone in her office rings forever. The home phone goes to voice mail. Her cell phone?

Picks up!

It not her voice on the other end.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep

"Well I must say took you long enough to wonder where she was at. Like the front page today John? Call off the hunt Taline. Let this one be the one you don't solve. I have people on the inside. They will tell me if you do. Otherwise...well lets just say there going to be a lot of road kill in the morning."

When the line goes dead so does my EKG machine. It can't get a signal when you tear out it's wires and bash it into the wall.

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

Once the first hard on goes away porn really suck as a form of entertainment.

My foot is tapping a hole in the floor. I've been here for ten hours, twenty minutes, and forty second.

I've seen more cum spewing cocks that any straight guy should have to endure.

The footage is raw, straight from the camera I can hear the director giving orders; the actors haven't come back to do Looping yet so their voices are muted. Still you would think it would be fun to watch porn non-stop.

You would be wrong.

Tony went to order pizza leaving me to my thoughts and worries

I have to believe she's still alive. Other wise there isn't much point to what I'm doing.

Looking back to the screen I watch James Davion, James Blades, the Sexy Saber doing something that bears little resemblance to sex.

The camera pans across the girl's face.

"Trixon Vixon." I mutter to myself. "Getting to bang the ex and get paid. Hell of a career you chose there Jamie boy."

"Alright, lift her ass a little." says the director.

I tilt my head as the too familiar voice comes through the speaker. I know it but can't place it just yet.

"John foods here, take a break man. Even I can't do eleven hours of porn straight any more."

I pause the old VCR and get up. My legs ache and the stitches are an itch I can not scratch.

The trip to my apartment rendered only the clothes I'm wearing. The door was still locked and nothing inside seemed to be moved. Still I made Tony drop me off then I took two hacks and a bus to get to his store. The old projection room in the back has smells I feel better not thinking about.

"Know anyone in the business that may have been involved with filming these?" I ask after the second slice is a memory. The pizza is tasteless too me. It's just fuel for the search engine at this point.

"A few...maybe. It's been awhile, John. Most people in the trade come and go. Why?" Tony says around a mouthful of pizza.

"The director in them sounds familiar but I can't place the voice."

Tony just stares at me for a second. Then gives a huffy chuckle.

"John, that's Wilson Monrow. The guy you put away till the Second Coming."

I get up, go back to the VCR, and rewind it. I notice Tony standing next to me munching on a slice of pie.

"Alright lift her ass a little." says the director again.

The voice is soft, meant to be dubbed out with music later in editing. I rewind it again.

"Alright lift her ass a little."

"That fucker couldn't direct traffic let alone a good porn movie." Says Tony still munching.

"You sure it's him?" I ask looking up at my old friend.

He swallows a mouth full of pizza.

"Yea. "I see a look of distaste cross Tony's face. "I know who was paying me for my work back then. Thinking back on it knowing what I do now. That I touched his money makes me sick inside.

"But it doesn't sound like him." I insist

"John, the fucker chain smoked Marlboro cowboy killers for thirty years! That has an effect on the old throat. What you think you still sound the same as you did when you were twenty?"

I sit back in the chair and let the tape play on. I listen to the voice of the director as I watch the stuff that would end up on the cutting room floor. I listen to the sounds of the film crew. There was a reason they had such loud background music back then.

"So, when is the anal scene?" asks one of the cameramen.

I hit the pause.

That voice I know.

"Joshua!"

Starting the movie back I let it run but my mind is only half focused on it now. I feel the pieces slipping into place. They drop one by one like Tetris fitting perfectly.

Then I get one that doesn't.

The fact that I think the killer is a woman.

Looking up my eye focus on the gray screen in front of me. The movie is over only the blank end of the tape is still playing. I feel like that's my world now. Just blank gray static.

The killer is a woman?

"How sure of that are you?" I ask myself. Hearing a snore I look over at Tony. He's conked out sitting up on the couch with a half drank beer in his hands. Seeing it's about to spill I get up and go over to him. It comes away reluctantly. I watch him settle himself deeper into the couch.

"No! Please NO!"

My head whips back to the screen. The footage lasts only for a second then it's gone.

The image it burns into my brain...it will never be...just gone.

"Tony! Wake the fuck up!"

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

My eyes are burned out holes in my head but I have it. I have the clip by clip, frame by frame evidence that will get me Leia back.

"Joshua, you sick son of a bitch."

Tony reckons they filmed their 'Midnight Movies' on the tale end of other rolls of film then just cut them free. Going through the stockpile fast-forwarding them to the end we find about forty single frames enough for not even a minute of footage.

But it's enough to get Joshua a cell next to Monrow's for the rest of time.

Holding the little blue flash drive I ponder my next move. I take it to SVU they go grab Joshua and wick snick that's one person gone that deserves it but then...Leia. Most likely she's not being held anywhere nearly as public as were Joshua films his smut.

The only way she would live would be if we could get him to talk. With the high price lawyer his friends could get for him that's not likely to happen.

"So he talks first then I have him arrested."

I lift the Beowulf to my shoulder and wince before I even pull the trigger.

It's a toss up where there it's my stitched side my bandaged head or my shoulder that screams 'NO!' the loudest.

I personally think I think the steel door and it's lock into Joshua's studio that has the most to complain about.

That and the wall beyond it.

I keep the heavily modified Ar-15 to my shoulder as I move forward. I ignore the pain in my shoulder as I push the broken door open and step inside. I hear shouting and running feet coming my way.

I clock the gorilla in the jaw with the butt of the rifle when he rounds the corner.

I look down when Joshua's main bodyguard and doorman hits the floor. When he goes to stand I place the still hot barrel of the rifle at the back of his neck and my foot on his spine.

"You move and this gun does a Gallagher impression. You got me?"

I see him nod.

I reach into my left pocket and pull out the cuffs.

"Hands" when he doesn't move I nudge his scalp with the wide barrel end. "Now sunshine I'm not playing anymore."

My cuffs just do fit him. Damn his wrists must hurt like hell though. Well I'm sure the pale pink fur around them is helping with that some.

What?

I'm not a cop. I don't go around cuffing people every day.

I lean the rifle against the wall and listen to the sounds of other people moving in the building. Some are coming towards me, others are moving away. It's the always I'm most interested in.

I peal out about a foot of duct tape and start to tape his mouth shut. When he protests I reach into my pocket again.

The arcing from the hand held stun gun gets his attention. He stops fighting till I get his mouth covered.

Then I hit him with the stunner.

I hold it for only a second. I don't really have time to be sadistic and he's not my type. Still he could be the one who shot me. I give his ribs a solid kick as I walk past.

Just in case.

I have to use tape to secure the next two guards I encounter. They're more my size than King Kong's but I pay them the same respectful attention.

Old memories lead me down into the basement. I know that Joshua has a place down here, a bolthole if you will. It opens into the sewers. He's drunken ass bragged to someone I know about it one night. That person told me about it in passing.

Ten years back.

Sometimes I love my memory.

As the images from the film clips surface again I feel a retch starting.

Sometimes I don't.

I hear his voice before I see him so I know there is at least someone with him. Then I notice that he's answering questions I'm not hearing.

He's on the phone.

"I don't know! It may be the police! It may be anyone damn It! How the fuck should I know? Get some guys down here!"

I compress the trigger a little and the little red dot laser appears. With the impact that this gun has I rarely use it to aim with.

But that little red dot on you chest sure will get your attention quickly.

Joshua's face is as pale as a sheet when he looks up. I see the phone drop from his hand.

"Where is she Joshua?"

My voice is a cold calm that surprises even me with the icy sound.

"What? What Taline ...what are you talking about?" he stutters over his words.

"That was one Joshua. You just called in the cavalry so now I'm on a timetable. You get three chances to tell me what I want to know ...and you just used one. Where is she?"

I wonder if I'm breathing vapor. Penguins would freeze solid there is so much ice in my voice.

"John I really don't know what your talking about." He tries to make his voice calm. I can hear the lie. It a matter of tone and spacing in the words. If you have the time and training you can hear it easily.

My finger tightens on the pistol grip of the rifle. I center the red dot on his chest.

"That was two."

His eyes, flicker towards his desk for a half-second, is the only warning I get. I spin to the side of the door as the bullets come screaming through the space I was standing.

"Mac 10 machine pistol," I say to myself then I listen to the rounds tearing the drywall from the wall behind me and cutting through to the block foundation walls beyond. Three round burst fire. Controlled. "Alrighty then."

Firing from the hip I don't lean in through the door. I just shoot through the wall!

In the enclosed hall way the sound of the .50 rounds leaving the barrel is ungodly. I send three of them through the wall and into Joshua's office. I hear screams as the heavy rounds blast through the masonry walls and tears their way through filing cabinets and his desk. Some of them I'm sure go even into the walls behind his desk.

"Want to keep playing this game Joshua? You're still at two. Shall I ask for the last time?"I say, my finger tightening to send three more into the wall.

"I don't KNOW!"

I hear his scream of denial and Pain. I must have clipped him couldn't have been much more than that though or he wouldn't be talking. The Beowulf doesn't do light wounds. I find myself wanting to believe it.

Damn it.

"You better give me a name of someone that does then. I swear to god Joshua I will click this thing to full auto and level that room!" My voice has frozen and is stuck to a flag pole. "Where is she?"

"The bitch! The bitch would know! Trixon Vixon! That slut would know!" he screams.

Queen's gambit to knight's four, check.

And I never even saw it coming.

"Well fuck me to tears."

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

Anonymous tip and an envelope with the flash drive dropped into the open window of a patrol car sent hell to rain down on Joshua's office. What they found there must have been quite a laugh for them. The porn boss and all his guys trusted up like little piglets with bondage equipment.

What? I used what I had on hand.

The old warehouse use to be a lot bigger. The top floors were a film studio, the bottom floors were mostly rented out storage space. The little ten by five self-storage lockers that people need to house all the shit they can't find a place for.

Then came the fire. The gallons of gasoline and kerosene and whatever else that Wilson could get his hands on that would burn had done quite a number on the place.

But the basement?

Standing in Joshua's office hearing the sirens, needing to go it had come to me. I knew that the killer had to have a place that no one could find. Where noises of that type her victims would make wouldn't be noticed.

Someplace familiar to her.

Like where her career got its start.

"Why?"

That word kept coming back around to me over and over. She had money. She had a bit of fame but not the good type admittedly. Still this? This didn't seem to be the type of fame she would want to have. The press was calling it the "Roadkill Killer."

Hardly something you want attached to your name.

"Why?"

I look at the blackened shell where so many young girls died. Died to give sick people a thrill.

Died to make an even sicker person rich.

I've been here before, back when I was hunting the Mayor's daughter. I saw the fire then. These blackened remains do little justice to the monstrous column of red that had lit the night sky.

I check my pistol. Making sure everything moves smoothly. I drop the clip into place. I left the Beowulf at Tony's shop. I dare not use it here. I might hit Leia on the other side of a wall. Even the little nine-millimeter is a risk I don't like. I check the stun gun in my pocket and other assorted weapons or tools I'm carrying.

And still I watch. There isn't any movement in the old building. Nothing to show that there might be something going on under it.

Sill I watch.

I realize then why I'm stalling for and make myself move forward. The idea of finding Leia dead inside. Or worse yet finding just a bloody table and some hunks of fake fur...

The morning light makes the shadows linger, they hang with drapes of fog like moss on the old trees from New Orleans. The night in the hotels down there spent with her come to me then in perfect clarity.