There Is More Light Than Dark

Chapter Ninety Two

Monday August 22

'Lewis, what the fuck were you doing in there? You could have been killed! You were supposed to wait for me!' McCoy was wild but he was hugging her to his chest as he yelled. It was only as he was screaming at her that she finally realised she hadn't been hit, but the shock had rendered her functionless for a minute or so.

She wondered why he hadn't shot at her again as she lay there still and exposed on the brick floor of the lighthouse. The lighthouse whose safety he craved and she threatened. Was it a weakness or a choice? A ploy?

He wanted her back out on that ledge himself.

'I thought you were coming in after me McCoy!' Her head was starting to clear and the sounds around her began to overshadow the ringing that waned. And they were both right.

'Yeah, well when you went in all hell broke loose out here – Sampson shot at the chopper, they had to get the hell out of Dodge and the CIRT team came up at the same time. I've been filling them in for the last few minutes – they have operational control here now and there was no way they were letting me in there.'

Lewis slowed her breathing and closed her eyes for a few seconds, just like in training. She picked herself up off the ground so she could talk directly to McCoy at eye level.

'McCoy, he won't deal with them. I felt something when I was up there with him. Uebergang said he'd be different with most things when he changed personalities – voice, speech style, reactions – you know.'

McCoy nodded, looking up at the CIRT Senior Sergeant who was walking over towards them on the ground, having briefed his team for the approach to the lighthouse.

'Well he was the same – when he wanted to be. I tried to provoke him, to get to Mason, and when he got angry, when he went for me – he was still Vincent. I heard him, I felt it – I saw it in his eyes. He's the same guy – there's no Identity Disorder, there's no multiple personalities – it's JUST. HIM!'

The Senior Sergeant approached now and took his hat off, looking down at them crouching on the grass. Lewis and McCoy were both on their haunches, looking at each other and the ground.

'That was a hell of a thing you did, going in there by yourself, Detective.' He looked at McCoy who was looking at Lewis. CIRT were the big deal, the experts at handling this type of situation and he would never let anyone go solo into a situation like that. He was deriding McCoy as the senior officer at the time by congratulating her.

'But we've got it from here.' He went to walk off but turned and stopped. 'You know, we will need some information about where he is, how the building is arranged on the interior, his access points, any cover, you know, those types of things. I'll send someone over to talk to you right away. I want you to move back away from that door to give us room, but don't go anywhere. Stay out of sight of that window.' He smiled and turned to look for someone less important than himself to get the information they wanted from Lewis.

McCoy rubbed his face heavily with the palms of both hands and took a deep breath. They were so close to getting him, and now they had all of the information. He thought of Brodie Renshaw and how it was him that had found justice for her. He thought of Chloe at home, of how she would cry and hug him when he got home and heard what they had done if that little girl up there was saved. He thought of his mother and how proud she would be. He knew how much more of a difference he was making as a cop than he would have as a lawyer, in ways that counted for others, anyway.

He looked at Lewis who was standing now, adjusting her jacket and poking at her ears. He stood to face her, seeing the CIRT team still 30 metres away at the tea tree line with shields and face covers and camo gear, measuring their dicks and taking their time. She was looking up at the lighthouse.

'What would your Dad say right now, Lewis?'

She looked at him and squinted slightly, making sure he was saying what she thought he was saying.

'He'd say do what you've gotta do, Detective.'

'You think we got this?'

'McCoy, you don't even need to ask.'

And as the CIRT officer who drew the short straw turned to come over he stopped and called for his Senior Sergeant. 'Sarge, they were over here, yeah?'

And they were already inside the lighthouse, the heavy door carefully closed over and the dusty air swirling around them as the northern window no longer gave the shaft of light it had before.

The ledge, the lighthouse, the strong, the weak, the righteous and the pure were all together now in the white tower that Chiara had promised Vincent would protect him.