All previous chapters - CHAPTER 1 - CHAPTER 2 - CHAPTER 3 - CHAPTER 4 - CHAPTER 5 - CHAPTER 6 - Chapter 7 - CHAPTER 8 - CHAPTER 9 - CHAPTER 10 - CHAPTER 11 - CHAPTER 12 - CHAPTER 13 - CHAPTER 14 - CHAPTER 15 - CHAPTER 16 - CHAPTER 17 - CHAPTER 18 - CHAPTER 19 - CHAPTER 20 - CHAPTER 21 - CHAPTER 22 - CHAPTER 23 - CHAPTER 24 - CHAPTER 25
Previously on “The bomb in the shed…”; Arthur returns to the shed in his pants and socks, hoping to install the kill switch as his family are released, but only to the end of the road. To Arthur’s surprise Fitzpatrick has called him there to talk about Elizabeth.
And here we go with CHAPTER 26…
Chapter 26
“Elizabeth?” It was hardly the topic of conversation Arthur had expected. He couldn’t hide his surprise.
“Humour me,” Fitzpatrick offered Arthur a chair and took his own seat opposite, wincing with pain as he lowered himself onto it. He was holding a two way radio in his hand, nothing else. There was something heavy in his jacket pocket. Was that the gun? The remote trigger?
“Are you ok?” asked Arthur.
It was an instinctive response to another human being in pain. But what did he care if the man was hurt?
“This?” Fitzpatrick looked down at his leg. “I was shot. Nothing serious.” He shrugged it off as some inconsequential detail. “Tell me, Arthur, how did you and Elizabeth get together?”
“It just kind of happened,” replied Arthur. Which was the truth, as far as he was concerned. How did these things ever happen?
“I just don’t see it,” said Fitzpatrick, shaking his head, as if this were the final proof the world had gone mad.
“I was surprised myself.”
“It must have been the work,” observed Fitzpatrick, like he was trying to work out the puzzle that was Arthur and Elizabeth’s relationship. “She was manipulating you.”
Arthur would never claim to read people well, but even he could see Fitzpatrick was jealous. But he was also wrong, wasn’t he? Elizabeth wasn’t using Arthur, she wouldn’t do that. What they had was real, it had meant something.
“Do you really see her in the shed?” asked Fitzpatrick. “Talk to her, like she’s alive?” He seemed fascinated by the idea.
“Not anymore.”
“But when you did, was it like she was really there talking to you?”
“As real as you are now.”
Fitzpatrick nodded thoughtfully. “Call her back, now.”
“What?” Maybe he was unhinged.
“See if you can get her back here in the shed, now.”
“I can’t, she’s gone.”
Even if Arthur wanted to call Elizabeth back it probably wouldn’t work. She’d vowed not to return. Anyway, he didn’t want her back, he was trying to keep hold of his sanity, and talking to a dead person wasn’t the way to do it.
“Try,” insisted Fitzpatrick,
“Even if she did come back you wouldn’t be able to see her.”
Fitzpatrick put the radio down and took the gun out of his pocket. “Why don’t you give it a go anyway? Just for me.”
Arthur had never had a gun trained on him before. It was strangely terrifying, especially when the person wielding it was expecting you to do something impossible. He was one twitch of a finger away from death. What was should he do? Shout Elizabeth’s name into the emptiness of the shed? What would Fitzpatrick’s response be when nothing happened? And what if Elizabeth did come back? Fitzpatrick wouldn’t be able to see her but Arthur would. The situation was bad enough as it was, without Elizabeth playing tricks with his mind.
“Well?” Fitzpatrick was losing patience.
Perhaps Arthur could use the situation to his advantage. “Ok. But let me go over to Bella first.”
“Bella?”
“The bomb. It’s better if I’m over by the bomb.” Arthur didn’t liked calling Bella the bomb. He and Elizabeth never called her that.
Fitzpatrick shrugged then motioned him over with the barrel of his gun. As he stood Arthur feigned a cough, just as he’d done before. This time he transferred the kill switch from his mouth to his hand. Thankfully Fitzpatrick didn’t notice.
Bella’s flight case lid was already removed, exposing her beautiful intricacies. Arthur ran his hands along the length of her. It wasn’t part of his subterfuge, just an impulsive act of tenderness he’d succumbed to many times before. Everything he saw was familiar now, the same as he had seen the last time Bella was here. His own work and the final work Elizabeth had done. There was nothing to suggest Fitzpatrick had made any changes. No evidence of a transmitter for a remote detonator. Had Fitzpatrick been lying to Ramirez about that?
What was he really trying to do here?
“Hands away,” warned Fitzpatrick.
“It’s better this way,” said Arthur. “Elizabeth is more likely to appear.”
It wasn’t true of course. Elizabeth just appeared in the shed when they were working together. Or not, it just depended what mood she was in. Arthur had never felt in control of anything. But the lie had come easily to him, in a way it would never have in the past.
“Go on then,” said Fitzpatrick reluctantly. “Call her.”
“Elizabeth, I need to speak to you.”
It felt strange, calling out that way with someone else with him in the shed watching and listening. Arthur felt like a confidence trickster staging a seance. He was a fraud, trying to misdirect. As he looked about the room with feigned expectation Fitzpatrick’s attention followed. At the same time Arthur let his hand drop deeper into the flight case, his fingers hunting for the familiar master circuit board.
“Elizabeth, talk to me.” He gave it more urgency this time, keeping Fitzpatrick distracted.
“Do you see her?” asked Fitzpatrick. “I don’t see her.”
Finally Arthur’s fingers found the socket that would accept the kill switch. All he had to do was manoeuvre it into place and press it home, then they would be safe. But it was difficult working one handed, unable see what he was doing.
“Where is she?” Fitzpatrick was shouting with frustration.
Just one moment, it was all Arthur needed. He was almost there.
Fitzpatrick took a step toward Arthur, raised the gun so it was just a couple of inches from Arthur’s temple. Arthur froze. The kill switch almost in place but not quite.
“Show yourself, Elizabeth, or I’ll shoot your boyfriend.” It was Fitzpatrick calling out into nothingness now. If Ramirez wanted a sign that the man was unstable surely this was it.
Still no response.
Elizabeth was gone for sure. Would Fitzpatrick kill him if she didn’t appear? Should he pretend she was there? There was no way he could maintain that kind of subterfuge.
Instead he said, “I told you, she’s gone.”
Fitzpatrick swung the butt of his gun full force into Arthur’s face. It happened so fast. One moment he was standing there, trying to fit the kill switch in place, the next he dropped to the floor, a mess of pain and blood.
“Elizabeth?” Fitzpatrick shouted again.
He was still pointing the gun at Arthur even as he lay prone on the floor. Arthur had dropped the kill switch deep into Bella’s guts when he was struck. And Ramirez’s ear piece was gone. Knocked from his ear as he fell. How would he get a message to her now?
“Leave him alone, Robert.”
It was Arthur’s own voice, though he had no idea where those words came from. They’d burst out of him, ringing out strong and defiant in a way he certainly didn’t feel.
Fitzpatrick was staring at him strangely. “Elizabeth?”
---
Camilla was still in the tent undergoing medical checks along with her family when a Hispanic woman in a dark grey suit came in to the tent. It was a relief to have someone there that wasn’t in a medical uniform. Maybe she had some answers.
“Mrs Price, my name is Ramirez. I need to ask you some questions.”
The woman’s tone was hard and unsympathetic. Maybe she wasn’t the lifeline Camilla had been hoping for. “What’s happening to Arthur?”
“All in good time. First I need to know what Fitzpatrick has told you.”
“He didn’t tell us anything. He arrived from nowhere, held us at gun point, then let us go when Arthur arrived.”
“Did he have anything else? Apart from the gun?”
“Just a radio.”
“You’re sure, nothing else?”
Camilla shook her head. What else was this woman expecting?
“I assume you know all about Arthur’s bomb?” asked Ramirez.
“I do now.” How awful. To call it Arthur’s bomb. But that’s what it was.
“Fitzpatrick brought it back with him to your house,” said Ramirez. “He threatened to detonate it unless we brought Arthur to him. Do you have any idea why?”
Camilla knew nothing of the science of the bomb. The facts and figures that Arthur had in his head and in his spreadsheets. But she’d seen the old news footage of detonated nuclear bombs and read about Hiroshima. It wasn’t hard to imagine the death and destruction that would follow if the bomb was detonated. It didn’t bear thinking about. Yes Arthur had built the bomb, which was stupid enough in itself. But what kind of man would threaten to detonate it, here in Finchley? Why would he ask for Arthur?
“I have no idea,” she replied. David and Angela were fussing over Gemma, trying to keep her calm amidst all of the commotion. Alex had a faraway look in her eyes, probably thinking about her father trapped in the shed with that man. “You need to get my family away from here. To somewhere safe.” Camilla had no idea how far was safe, didn’t nuclear bombs destroy everything in their path? How far away did you have to be? It was clearly further away than the end of the street.
“Mrs Price, hundreds of thousands of people will die if the bomb is detonated. My priority is doing all I can to stop that happening, not saving one family…”
Especially if a member of that family was responsible for the bomb being there in the first place no doubt.
“… right now I need your help.”
“How can I help?”
“Tell me everything you can remember that Fitzpatrick said. Anything that might give us a clue as to why he’s doing this and how we might stop him.”
“He didn’t say much.”
“Nothing at all?”
There was one conversation that was a bit strange.
“Mrs Price?”
“He asked me about Arthur’s affair with Elizabeth.”
It felt silly to mention it, but it seemed to pique Ramirez’s interest. “What did he say exactly?”
It wasn’t so much what he said that was odd, although it was. It was the way he said it. It was like he needed to know.
“He asked how they got together,” replied Camilla. “I said I had no idea. Then he asked about Arthur seeing Elizabeth in the shed. I couldn’t really tell him anything about that. He seemed frustrated.”
“Why do you think he asked about that?”
“I don’t know. I think maybe he was jealous of Arthur. A woman came to see me when I was in the US, just before I came home. A colleague of Arthur and Elizabeth. She warned me about this man, Fitzpatrick. She said she thought Arthur was in danger. Could that be important?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe.” Ramirez gestured for someone to hand her a phone. “Why don’t you tell me this woman’s name?”
---
It was Elizabeth. Arthur could sense that she was there. Inside of his mind somehow, controlling what he was saying. How was that possible? Except it had happened before, hadn’t it? Elizabeth had somehow taken over his body each night so she could work on Bella alone, without him being aware. But this was different. Arthur was still conscious, cognisant of Elizabeth and what she was saying.
He struggled to his feet, but not of his own volition. It was Elizabeth willing him to do so, overcoming the pain in a way he wouldn’t have been strong enough to do alone. He tried to stop her, wrestle back control. But he was too weak. What the hell was going ons? If she was just a figment of his imagination how was she able to control him?
Elizabeth, what are you doing?
If she heard the thought in his head she ignored it and kept pushing him on. He had lost all control to Elizabeth, a passenger in his own body. Fear and panic welled up inside of him, competing with the shock and pain from the blow of Fitzpatrick’s gun. But these were his emotions, not hers, Elizabeth squashed them deep inside of him. Drove him forward at the moment he would have laid down and succumbed to his fate.
Let me go.
Again he was ignored.
What was Elizabeth? It was a question he’d avoided all those years just to preserve the joy of being able to see and hear her again. Now fear pushed him to confront it. He’d resigned himself to the reality that she was a merely a figment of his imagination, a symptom of his psychological problems. But this? Could this all be in his mind? Again he tried to wrestle back control. But it was impossible. He was weak, she was strong. The feeling of helplessness was absolute.
Why was she doing this to him?
Arthur’s hand went to his head and came back down soaked in blood. He held it up to for Fitzpatrick to see. All of this Elizabeth’s will. “Look what you’ve done to Arthur.” His voice, her words. “I knew you were a psychopath, but not like this.”
Fitzpatrick was still staring dumbly. “Elizabeth, is that you?”
Why would he believe the words Arthur spoke came from Elizabeth. It was still Arthur’s body standing in front of him, old and broken, his skin and underwear wet from the rain and matted with dirt. But it was clear he did believed. Perhaps that wasn’t so crazy. The words Arthur was using, the inflexion of the voice, it wasn’t his true self. It was all Elizabeth. Subtly different in a way that felt alien to his muscles and caused a tightness in his jaw. Maybe Fitzpatrick saw it too. The way he was standing was different too, his body position, the alignment of his muscles, even the expression on his face. All if it felt strange. Uncomfortable. His body was only subtly changed yet felt twisted out of all recognition. Maybe Fitzpatrick could see that. Perhaps he simply wanted to believe Elizabeth was real and here.
“What did you ever see in Arthur?” Fitzpatrick asked. “I don’t understand.”
“He was ten times the man you ever were.” Again, Elizabeth’s words from Arthur’s mouth. Words he might have gladly heard twenty years ago in New Mexico, but now listened to with a horrified fascination, trapped in the prison of his own body “He still is. You’re a coward. You always were.”
Fitzpatrick looked pained. “Coward? You really don’t remember, do you? The day you died, you don’t remember what happened, what I did.”
“The accident?” replied Elizabeth, through Arthur. “What has that got to do with anything.”
“Think back, Elizabeth,” Fitzpatrick urged her. “It wasn’t an accident. I need you to remember.”
She was trying, trying to remember, Arthur could feel it. Searching for a way to fill the void of her memory. Soaking up the last of his failing energy in the process.
“I had no choice,” said Fitzpatrick. “You need to understand that.”
And then it was there. Elizabeth’s memories returned like a flood. In her mind, and in Arthur’s too. The raw emotions of pain, sadness and anger drowning him. Arthur sank to his knees, his body and his mind totally spent.
That’s it for Chapter 26, I hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to more. Chapter 27 will be out the same time next week, Friday at 4:00pm UK time.
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