Redemption by Richard Stephenson Read Free Book Online

minutes passed, then an hour.  Vanessa stepped from the rear compartment and slid the door behind her.  Max stood to greet her.
    “Vanessa, I …”
    Vanessa Forrest slapped Max as hard as she could across the face.  Max just stood there in complete shock, his cheek red and stinging.  Mrs. Forrest was one of the kindest, gentlest people he had ever known.  Not once had he witnessed her losing her temper.
    “You son of a bitch.  You told me he was dead.  You told me he died over a year ago!”
    “Vanessa, I’m sorry.  I’m just as shocked as you are.  I don’t know how this happened.”
    “Just when I finally accepted that my husband was gone, just when I started to fall in love again.  I’ve been having sex with another man in the same bed my husband is going to die in!  Do you have any idea how ashamed I feel right now?”
    Max could barely stand to hear himself speak.  “Do you want me to leave?”
    “Yes, very much so.  But he’s asking for you.  Have my son come get me when you leave.”  Vanessa stormed out the door and slammed it behind her.
    Max stood perfectly still and stared at the bedroom door.  He tried to will himself to move forward but found himself frozen in place.  He knew he had no choice but confront the nightmare he created.  The thought of Theo cutting him in two with a shotgun felt like a fitting end to his miserable existence so he moved forward.
    “Max?  Max?  Are you out there?”
    “Uh, yeah.”
    “Well get in here.”
    Max slid the door open and stepped in.  Damn, no shotgun.   “Theo, I’m sorry.  You don’t deserve this.”
    “I deserve to see my wife and son before I go, and I did.  The rest doesn’t matter.  She feels guilty but I keep telling her it’s okay.  She didn’t know.  I want her to be happy after I’m gone and in time she’ll forgive herself.  She needs someone to blame and you’re the most qualified it seems.  Give her time, she’ll get over it.”
    “Again, I’m sorry.”
    “Stop it.  We don’t have much time and I want my family here for the end.”
    “Okay.”
    “What was the last thing I told you?”
    “Beck Estates.”
    “Ah, yes.  He found something.  I don’t know what, but he found something.  Knew exactly where it was.  This invisible person he was talking to seemed to be leading him right to it.”
    “Where was it?”
    “In what was left of the library.”
    “The library?  He didn’t go to the lab?”
    “No, straight to the library and straight out.”
    “Ghost of Howard need to do some reading?”
    “Dupree’s crazy enough to think it.”
    “Wait, how did you get close enough to see him go into the library and live to tell about it?”
    “I thought I told you.”
    “No, you didn’t.”
    “I can see how you’d be confused.  Let me put it in perspective.  I was hiding at least three hundred yards away.  Right before he walked in the main entrance, he stopped, stood there a few seconds like he was making up his mind, then he turned around and called out to me.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah, thought I was dead for sure.  He called out my name and said he wanted me to join him.  Promised he wouldn’t kill me, kept saying it was okay.  I don’t know why, but I believed him.  He was as giddy as a schoolboy, never seen him act like that.”
    “He really has gone insane.”
    “Well, no way I was getting near him.  Kept my distance.  By the time I got to the doorway I saw him running out of the library laughing like a madman.  Told me had finally had the key to put an end to everything.  Wanted me to tell you that you’d be sorry.  Sorry for what, Maxwell?”
    “That I didn’t shoot him in the head the last time we saw each other.”
     

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    The elderly assassin was no stranger to clean up.  He’d disposed of many bodies over the previous decades.  Many were done in haste; others were done in the same casual manner that one would spend doing the dishes after a large