There Is More Light Than Dark

Chapter Ninety Five

Monday August 22

Lewis cleared her throat so her words wouldn't surprise Vincent.

'Hello, Detective.' His words were slow and calm. And close.

'Vincent?' She fumbled enough to make it obvious. 'Vincent, I'm back here to try and work this out without anyone getting hurt. Those guys out there – they're not going to play nicely, you know?'

'Oh, so they're the bad guys here, are they? Lola, did you here that, darling, there are some really bad guys out there that want to hurt us. That's not fair now, is it sweetheart?'

Lewis could hear her little voice talking to herself close to the door. She shook her head and let her breath run out through her nose as she thought about how to continue. She wished she'd had a chance to run it by Dr. Uebergang but there was no time. She reached for the bag on her hip that wasn't there. She looked at McCoy who was staring at the grated floor beneath him, like he was concentrating so hard on his next move and not wanting to distract or be distracted.

In the safest place Vincent Sampson knew, Harper Lewis was all alone.

'Vincent, I want you to know that we know.... We understand about Mason. We know you needed him to get through. And we need him to come to us and surrender, Vincent. We need him to put down his gun and open the door and come out here and lay down for us.' She knew that wouldn't happen, but she needed him to say it.

'Mason's not here, Detective. And I don't think he's coming back. He's kind of, retired, you know?' He was so confident now.

'Mason's gone? Wow...' She let it hang there so he could feel her confidence alongside his. She looked at McCoy and smiled ever so slightly, nodding at him that things might start to escalate now. 'So it's just you and Lola in there now, Vincent? Is that right?'

"Yes, Detective, that is right. She's finishing her sandwich and I'm here at the door talking to you so I think we'll be OK from here.'

'Don't you feel... vulnerable in there without him, Vincent?'

The silence was complete except for the gusts of wind that thundered around the iron cylinder they were in. McCoy looked down and saw the door to the outside was slightly ajar, but no CIRT officers had come through. He knew they'd be seething and he and Lewis would face hearings after this, and not just from the CIRT commanders.

'Don't you need Mason to be safe, Vincent?'

She heard him laughing from behind the door, mocking, and all she wanted to do was point her gun and shoot, knowing it would pierce through the old iron. It wasn't just the thought of Lola that held her back, but without her in there it would have been line ball.

'No, no, I'm quite safe here Detective, thank you for your concern. But if you'd like to come in and make yourself and home, and me comfortable, that'd be just fine.'

Lewis seethed some more but found a new angle.

'That the way Mason gets the girls, Vincent? Impresses them with his strength?'

This silence was different, and she knew she had a hook in him.

'Except it's not real strength when you've got a gun is it, Vincent? And I think Mason knows that. Is that why he's gone and left you, Vincent, because you can't hold on to them like he can?' She waited and prayed for him to return fire but still nothing.

'Or is that the way you get them Vincent? Make them scared to make them want you?' She knew she was getting towards the thinnest ice she could be on but she saw McCoy ready to go.

'Is that the way it was with Valentina over there, Vincent? Did you hold a gun to her head when you held her? Does Lola remember that?' She heard him breathing more heavily right on the door and she knew she was getting there now.

'And Avery? We know you were there when she took those tablets Vincent. We saw you get on the train a second time. We found the skateboard.'

McCoy was watching her intently, impressed and concerned for her at the same time. She was right in the firing line if the door would open and he was stuck behind it. He turned ninety degrees to his left and crept a foot from the wall, to be able to get an earlier shot if Vincent came out. He heard a megaphone squeal from down below as he guessed the CIRT team was about to begin their attempt.

'Did you scare her, Vincent, after you made her hit Peter in the car? Did you want her to suffer?' She only paused for a second but all three of them knew what she was going to say.

'Suffer like you did, Vincent? Is that it? Did you want her to be scared like you had been, like Chiara had been, like...'

And with that the huge iron door was flung open and McCoy stood slightly and had his gun coming up to shoulder height but it was too late and too low. Vincent was pushing the door with all his might and it swung and crashed hard into McCoy, pinning him to the wall for a second before Vincent aimed his Glock at McCoy's leg and fired three shots in quick succession. The blasts deafened Lewis who still hadn't reacted as she watched McCoy sink to the ground screaming and struggling to breathe. His leg was already shattered and his blood dripped and then ran through the grate and she would have heard it plopping steadily onto the bricks far below if the ringing in her ears had've stopped.

Vincent turned to Lewis and she saw a look in his eyes that she should have known was coming. She felt as if she was failing all of the other women he had destroyed right then and there and she hated herself for it. She had pushed the right buttons but she hadn't been ready for him to come out like this.

He knew McCoy had been there, behind the door. But that wasn't even it. As he strode towards her, gun by his side and smiling that beautiful white smile she figured what grated the most.

He'd figured she wouldn't shoot at him.

And he'd been right.

And now there were three steps until he'd grab her and take her into that room and she'd become like all of the others – a victim held hostage by his looks and his swagger.

And his violence.

And she was still frozen, thinking all of this in the milliseconds it had taken for him to turn from McCoy and pace towards her.

And the wind blew and the sun shone back through the northern window as even the depth of the southern winter still tried to give something it barely had.

And as he was almost upon her she glanced through the door and saw Lola sitting at a table eating a sandwich and talking to the doll that sat on her knee, cradled and cuddled and cared for. She saw Roger Lewis sitting at the table across from her, smiling and watching with glassy eyes and a contentedness reserved only for the most pure of moments.

And then Harper Lewis saw in Vincent's eyes that fleeting recognition of an error he hadn't counted on making. That realisation that some things, some feelings, no matter how small, can count for more than you reckon.

And that can be at both ends of the emotional spectrum when it comes to family.

And Vincent Sampson should have known that.

They both ripped their weapons from their side to in front of their chests and rammed off 2 shots. They both dropped to the cold grate and joined in the dripping symphony with McCoy.

As the CIRT team entered en masse from below, Lola waddled to the door and chewed the last of her sandwich as she watched the three bodies lying still. And she was, finally, safe and all alone.