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"If it isn't one thing, it's another," Justin sighed as he unlatched the door. "Come in, Eddy," he said as he opened the door. While the young man removed his poncho, Justin fished out a pair of house slippers from the hutch in the foyer and handed them to Eddy. "Take off your shoes and put these on so you will not ruin my carpets."
The teaching assistant smiled wide as he unslung his bulging backpack. "Of course, Dr. Taylor."
"When you're ready, I'll be waiting for you in the living room. And, Eddy, let's keep this short, OK?"
"Of course, Dr. Taylor." Eddy could see that Justin was deeply troubled by something and straining to be polite. "I'll be right along," he said as began to untie the laces on his soaking wet high-top sneakers.
Holding his backpack in his left hand, Eddy paddled into the living room wearing the undersized house slippers. It was immediately apparent that Dr. Taylor's wife Roxanne had been crying. There was a distinct air of tension in the room, and it troubled him. He had expected them to be relaxed mood. Things would be more difficult now.
"Eddy, you must be chilled from the rain," Roxanne observed. "Why don't I make you a nice hot cup of spiced Chai?"
"Thank you very much for your kind offer, Mrs. Taylor, but I'll only be here for just a moment. I just came by to drop off the papers before leaving town for a while. You see my parents back in Lagos want me to stay with my aunt in Atlanta until this Planet Nibiru crisis has passed. She's very worried, you know."
Seated next to his wife on the couch, Justin answered, "I understand, Eddy. Now what do you have for me."
"Oh yes, Doctor," Eddy replied with a toothy grin. Heunzipped the backpack and reached his hand in but it wasn't a stack of graded papers he withdrew. Justin and Roxanne suddenly found themselves looking down the barrel of a silenced Beretta 9mm semi-automatic pistol.
"Cooperate, Doctor, and nothing will happen to you or your family," Eddy commanded in a very determined voice.
"You arrogant, little shit," Justin hissed. "How dare you hold a gun on me in my own home?"
Eddy hefted the pistol, "I'll use this if I have to, so again, Doctor, I am asking you cooperate for the sake of your family."
Justin's hands trembled with rage as his eyes beamed in on the dark Nigerian holding a gun on him. "What do you want?"
Eddy knelt down slightly and laid the backpack on the floor. Rising back up, he wrapped both hands around the pistol grip. "We want your son, doctor, and no harm will come to him. In time, we will return him to you."
"I have no reason to believe you, so you can go to Hell as far as I'm concerned."
The calm Nigerian raised his chin. "If a demonstration is necessary my good doctor, then so be it."
Roxanne studied Eddy carefully and determined that he had been trained as an intelligence operative and not a professional hit man. Otherwise, they would both be lying dead in their own blood right now. No, whoever had sent him wasn't interested in drawing blood just yet, but in time, they would be. They most always do. "Eddy, let me help you," she said in a soft comforting voice as she slowly placed her hand upon Justin's leg.
She turned to Justin and nodded once. "Do as he says, Justin, and call Russell down from his room."
"But, but..." he stammered.
"Please, darling. Do as he says. Above all, please don't do anything rash or sudden. I beg you."
Justin bit hard and giving Eddy a hateful glare turned his head toward the head of the stairs. "Russell!" He shouted in an excited loud voice that shook the glass in the china cabinet. "Russell, come down here!"
As Justin repeated his calls to Russell, Roxanne's eyes remained fixed on Eddy, who now focused entirely on Justin. Whoever sent him should have trained him better, Roxanne concluded. With a bit of luck and timing, she would have a chance to drop him with a kill shot before he could react.
The moment Roxanne hoped for finally came as the young boy appeared at the top of the stairs rubbing his eyes.
As Eddy looked up at Russell, Roxanne smoothly shoved her extended hand between the side of the couch and the seat cushion and wrapped her fingers around the small grip of her small yet highly lethal Kimber Ultra Carry EC10 .45. The welcome buzz in the handle told her that the electronic safety system of the lightweight semi-automatic recognized her fingerprint and had just released the safety.
She continued to study Eddy's face in an unassuming way, waiting for her moment to strike. Undoubtedly, Eddy would turn to face Russell as he approached and would, she hoped, turn his back on her for a split second. It would be all the time she needed. The only thought that haunted her was that her son would have to watch the Nigerian's face explode after the hollow-point bullet tore through his skull. Fate had been doubly cruel this evening.
Russell walked slowly down the stairs. The child recognized the menacing pistol in the Nigerian's hands but continued his hesitant descent as Eddy began to sidestep away from his spot in front of the coffee table towards the landing. "This guy is no pro," she silently thought to herself.
The frightened young boy stopped at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes darting back and forth between the gunman and his parents. "Come to me, son," Justin said cautiously. Russell obediently shuffled slowly across the carpet towards his parents on the couch.
At that moment, Eddy chose to speak his first words to the boy, who now eyed him great alarm. "We're going to take a little trip, Russell and I'm going to give you all the ice cream you can enjoy on the trip. Wouldn't you like some ice cream, Russell?"
Russell took a step back; appearing to ready himself for flight, and Eddy turned the pistol on him. It was the exact moment Roxanne had been waiting for, so she drew her Kimber .45 out from between the arm of the couch and the seat cushion. To her dismay, Justin had also been studying Eddy closely and sprung up from the couch, lunging clumsily at him. In that moment, he not only threw his own life away, but also had unknowingly blocked Roxanne's line of sight on Eddy.
The moment the Nigerian caught sight of Justin leaping at him from out of the corner of his eye, he instinctively whipped around and shot. Justin grabbed his chest and stood there for a moment in the realization that he was mortally wounded. His jaw moved and he tried to speak but couldn't form any words. Then, his knees buckled and he fell forward over the coffee table causing it to tip forward.
As Justin's body fell, Eddy could see Roxanne rising from the couch and taking a bead on his head. Turning his pistol towards her, he squeezed the trigger a tenth of a second before his own head erupted in a blinding flash of light, as Roxanne's well-aimed .45 shredded his brain matter like a subsonic meat grinder.
While her shot had brought instant death, the Nigerian's shot had also found a mark, striking Roxanne in the right side of her abdomen. Stunned by the impact of the bullet, she fell backwards into the couch as her breathing became shallow and forced.
She saw Russell standing speechless in the middle of the living room, frozen with fear as he wet himself. She looked down at her wound. The darkness of the blood that had just begun to ooze from her wound was a bad sign. "Damn. Why did the son-of-a-bitch did have to get me in the liver?"
Pressing a hand over her wound to help control the bleeding, she motioned to Russell to join her. "Come to mama, darling. Come to mama."
