Читать книгу The Curse - Vasilios Bouzas - Страница 9

About Two Months Later

Luke and Jack are at the Police station throwing a baseball to each other on what seems like a slow day when suddenly the phone rings. Luke reaches for the receiver.

“Luke is that you? It’s Rachel, come quickly, please come quickly, there is a gunman in the supermarket, he has fired lots of shots, we don’t know if anybody has been injured or killed.”

“On our way”, says Luke slamming down the receiver and reaching for his gun belt and an extra shotgun.

Jack reacts instinctively and also grabs a shotgun from the rack.

“Let’s go man, there is a nut letting off shots at the market,” says Luke.

The two run out of the station and jump into the police car, look at each other nervously before heading for the market and calling for backup from Ben McAllister at the larger town of Ridgeville, about 30 miles away.

They arrive at the market with lights flashing and Sirens blaring. A large crowd has gathered watching what is happening, but staying well back behind cars across the road. Rachel runs up to Luke and says, “Luke, Luke he’s in there. I got out just in time but there are still some people in there .He is going crazy. I could hear the horror in his voice.”

“How many people do you think are in there?”

“I don’t know, maybe three or four, I was so scared, I made a run for the back and luckily he did not see me.”

Luke sits back and thinks of what he is going to do. He can see the gunman through the shop window, he looks freaked out on drugs, and he is holding a lady with his arm across her chest.

“Jack, get McAllister back on the radio and tell him to bring as many men as he can spare, tell him to get here as fast as he can.”

Luke hesitates for a minute. He starts to sweat a little as his heart starts to pump a little harder. He feels his mouth, it is a little dry. He thinks back to his training at the academy, in a hostage situation, always start a dialogue, get lives of innocents out of risk as soon as possible, calm the situation down.

“Luke, they will be here in 20 minutes.”

“No time Jack, just follow me.”

They both make their way to the back of the supermarket and enter through the back door. They hear the gunman screaming, they hear a couple of shots being fired before the gunman starts firing again.

“All you mother fuckers are going to die today,” he screams.

He fires another shot into the roof and reloads his shotgun quickly.

“Where’s the money, where’s the fucking money,” he shouts with a loud and angry voice at the woman hostage.

The woman is crying hysterically and is pointing to the back of the shop where the safe is kept.

Luke and Jack slowly and cautiously make their way down the aisle until they see the gunman who is nervously dragging the woman towards the back of the shop, frantically looking around him for cops.

The gunman continues his crazy rant, screaming and swearing, waving his gun all over the place. His attention is at the front as he can see the flashing lights of the police car but until now he has not seen Luke or Jack.

Luke looks around the aisle; he notices canned food next to him. He picks up the canned food; he feels the weight of the can on his hand. He looks at it, for a split second he thinks again, dialogue, get him talking, and never increase the risk with a dangerous play.

His thoughts are broken by more screaming from the gunman.

“How are you doing today Sir?” shouts Luke. “I am Captain Luke Whelan; I am here to help you get out of here alive and everyone else, okay?”

“Fuck off cop, I am going to kill you and everyone else who gets in my way, that’s how I am getting out of here alive, now get the fuck out of here if you want to live,” screams the gunman.

Dialogue just isn’t going to work here, thought Luke.

He hunches down and signals Jack.

In a whisper, “Jack, grab a can, let’s throw them at the windows together, when the glass shatters, hopefully he will think it’s a raid and be distracted, you go for the woman and I will jump him. Move to the side so you can get a better angle to grab her.”

Jack moves to the side ready as Luke takes a deep breath. They steady themselves with the cans and on the count of three on Luke’s hand they throw the cans with all their might at the windows. We hear a thundering noise as the glass shatters in both front windows.

The gunman is distracted, he stares wildly at the two shattered glass windows, confused.

Simultaneously Luke and Jack pounce on the gunman and the lady. Jack grabs the lady, Luke grabs the gunman, they wrestle but the gunman is powerful and gets a good grip on Luke and throws him to the ground.

The gunman starts to fire shots randomly, he hits Jack in the upper chest, but before Jack hits the ground Luke gathers himself, pulls his gun and gets a clear shot and manages to kill the gunman instantly with an accurate shot to the head.

There is pandemonium, everybody is screaming, there is a huge panic.

Luke gets up and quickly runs to Jack. He sees blood pouring out of Jack’s chest.

“My god Jack, hold on, hold on buddy.”

Luke puts his hands on Jack’s chest, hoping the pressure will ease the bleeding, but blood still gushes through his fingers.

“Somebody call for an ambulance,” shouts Luke, “call a fucking ambulance.”

As Jack is bleeding to death and his face begins to turn pale, the world seems to stop for a minute as Luke starts to spasm, a force moves from him into Jack.

Jack’s wound starts to heal and disappears completely, only the blood on his shirt remains.

Luke feels lethargic and weak, his vision is blurry. He looks at Jack’s wound in amazement, he thinks he is dreaming, he cannot believe his eyes, he tries to get up but feels dizzy.

Luke collapses next to Jack in a heavy sweat. As he falls to the ground, a bullet is released from the grip of his hand; it drops on the floor and rolls away.

The ambulance arrives. Two paramedics rush out with their medical kits. They see both Luke and Jack on the ground. Luke is now becoming extremely light headed, while Jack is still unconscious.

“Luke, are you ok?” asks Fred, the paramedic.

“I’m alright, but Jack has been shot, he is bleeding pretty badly, please help him.”

Fred turns to look at Jack.

“Luke are you sure Jack’s been hit? There is blood but no sign of a bullet wound, maybe it was the shooter.”

“No, no I am sure, Jack was hit, and I took out the shooter after he was hit.”

Luke is helped to his feet by the paramedic. They put Jack on the stretcher. Both men are put in the ambulance and taken straight to the hospital.

The next morning Luke and Jack wake in the local hospital and the very first person they see is Kate with a worried look on her middle aged face. She had lost her youthful charm she once had because of her demanding nursing career and domestic duties at home.

“Wow, are you guys ok? We have been keeping an eye on you all night, and you are the talk of the town.”

“Yes, I think we are okay, you okay Jack? It is a bit of a blur, what happened?”

“What happened? You guys took out a criminal and saved a woman’s life, you both are heroes.”

“Okay, whose blood pressure am I going to take first?”

Luke and Jack simultaneously both point at each other. Kate walks to Jack and takes his blood pressure and temperature readings.

“What do you think Kate, am I going to live?”

“I think you’re going to be fine you big lug.”

She walks over to Luke.

“Ok Mr. give me your arm please. What you and Jack did yesterday took a lot of guts, you risked your lives.”

“We were only doing our job Kate; anyone else in our position would have done the same thing.”

“I hope so.”

Kate gets closer to Luke and puts the blood pressure band on his arm. She looks him straight in the eyes.

“Wow Luke, your green eyes are gorgeous. In all these years that I have known you, every time I look into them they seem to be getting brighter and brighter.”

Luke blushes.

“Hey Kate, are you trying to chat up Luke? Aren’t you married?” says Jack laughing.

“What chat up, his eyes are gorgeous, any woman or for that matter any man would tell you that, he’s a handsome man.”

She puts her hand up and shows Jack her finger with her wedding ring on it.

“Yes, happily married with a gorgeous husband and an even more gorgeous son.”

“Yes and you tell that gorgeous husband of yours that we are still on for the fishing trip on the weekend,” says Luke.

Dr Clifford walks into the room.

“I have been told that you two guys are stirring trouble again,” says Dr Clifford.

“Oh my god Doc, Luke saved my life.”

“I heard both of you saved a lot of lives. You should be proud of yourselves. I know the whole town is.”

“Doc, Doc, Luke saved my life. I got hit by a bullet and he made it disappear.”

“Where Jack? Show me where you got hit by the bullet.”

Dr Clifford looks at Jack’s chest.

“It looks ok to me, what do you think Kate? You blacked out. It probably was your imagination playing tricks on you. What do you think Luke, was it Jack’s imagination?”

“Things happened so fast. I remember shouting for an ambulance then I started to black out.” replies Luke.

“It’s ok Jack, physically you and Luke are both fine. Go home and get some rest. Oh, one more thing, the whole town thanks both of you for a job well done.”

“See you later heroes and stay out of trouble. I’ll tell Tom you are ok for the weekend Luke,” says Kate.

Luke gives her the thumbs up.

Dr Clifford appears very anxious as he stares at Luke. He then leaves the room and meets up with John, Chloe and Judy who are waiting outside.

“Hello! John, Judy. Shouldn’t you be at school Chloe?”

‘”I have been waiting here for news all night, the girls just arrived an hour ago. How are Luke and Jack?” asks John.

“They are both fine,” replies Dr Clifford.

“That’s fantastic news. Have you seen the local paper this morning?

Luke is on the front page,” says John.

“Never mind all of that now John. I need to have a private talk with you. Judy, Chloe, why don’t you two go and see how the boys are doing?”

“I think it’s starting John.”

“Oh my God Bill, please no,” replies John.

They look at each other. The fear in their eyes has returned. John raises his arms and holds his head. Luke, Jack, Chloe and Judy come out of the room and they see John holding his head in his hands with tears in his eyes.

“Dad, what’s wrong? Don’t worry, I am fine”.

“Yes, Mr. Whelan, they are both fine,” says Judy.

“When they told me you were both involved in a robbery and they had brought you to the hospital, I feared the worst.”

Luke hugs his dad, then Jack hugs him, then Chloe and Judy hug him, one big group hug.

“It’s going to take a lot more than a confrontation with a dangerous, big ugly, foul mouth, gun packing thug to harm me,” says Luke laughing and trying to lift the mood.

“Yeah, that’s right,” shouts Jack.

They all break out in laughter, lifting John’s spirits somewhat, but he still glances at Dr Clifford, a knowing glance between both of them, no words need to be spoken. They both know what they face.

The next morning Luke arrives for work. A crowd has gathered in front of the police station. He gets out of his car and they all start clapping and cheering. Luke notices Judy, Kate and little Noah. He walks over to them picks up Noah and gives him and Judy a big kiss.

“How’s my favourite little man and favourite ladies?” he says in a jovial voice.

“You’re a hero Luke,” says Noah looking up at him.

“I am sure the whole town would’ve been here now if it wasn’t a weekday and everyone had to work,” says Kate.

“Just another day ladies, work, and that is what I am going to do now. I’ll see you tonight baby,” as he gives Judy another big kiss and hug.

“Ok off you go so I can do some work.”

The passing crowd wave to Luke and gather around him, pointing at their newspapers. Luke picks up the paper from the newsstand. There is a picture of Luke, the headlines read;

LUKE WHELAN SAVES HOSTAGE AND FELLOW POLICEMAN

The group starts to roar, “three cheers for Luke, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray.”

“Thank you everyone for this fantastic show of support but I was only doing my job.”

“Now could you please clear the roads and footpaths before I arrest you all,” he laughs, a little embarrassed by all the attention.

The crowd cheers and laughs but begins to disperse.

“You’re the best Luke.”

Luke farewells the crowd and enters the Police station.

“You’re a hero man, a goddamn regular hero,” says Jack slapping Luke on the back.

“We were just doing our job.”

Luke now sits down to read the local paper. He sees his story taking up most of the front page.

Underneath he reads another story.

GALLAS MURDER INVESTIGATION

FBI QUIZ OIL BILLIONAIRE AND ALLEGED MAFIA BOSS

GAETANO FORTIZZO

“Hey Jack, did you see this? The FBI is quizzing Fortizzo about the murder of Gallas.”

“Good luck. They have been trying to pin everything big that happens in this country on him for years. When you are the head of the mob and an Oil billionaire, even God can’t touch you,” replies Jack.