“Yes. I suppose it was.” Wilson stood to leave. “Anyway, Jack, I wish you luck with Penelope. And try not to dwell on the loss of Hauser. It will lead you nowhere.”
Chapter 17
From my seat in the pavilion, I watched Wilson casually amble down the sidewalk and enter the main floor lobby of Daniels and Fisher tower. Sounds of the afternoon traffic echoed between the various mile-high city buildings. As I sat alone, I contemplated everything that had happened since my first fateful conversation with Wilson all those months ago. It felt as if I’d lived a lifetime in those six months. And now, the distinct possibility that Hauser, the one person that I’d come to trust and care for deeply, was dead or missing did not settle well with my thoughts of the future.
“Hauser, my friend, I hope that you are in a better place now,” I mumbled aloud. “I can only imagine living as long as you have, suffering through the internal torment that you’ve had to deal with, must have been tough. I hope now you are in a place that you can now breathe freely.”
Not wanting to get too wrapped up in sentimental bullshit, I sighed and thought about Penny and her impending soul collection. As much as I was not looking forward to what needed to be done, I stood defiantly. I took in one final view of the Denver skyline, backdropped by the Rocky Mountains. Then I vanished.
Recalling Penny’s personal information from an earlier conversation with Hauser, I was able to land at her apartment door. The central hallway that fed a half dozen flats was dingy and unremarkable. A stark white piece of paper was taped to her door, covering her apartment number. “NOTICE OF EVICTION” was printed in bold black letters.
“Oh shit,” I mumbled. If Penny wasn’t depressed already, she certainly would be after seeing that.
I knocked on the door and waited a few moments. Even though she knew who I was and what I was there for, it didn’t feel right just jumping into the middle of her apartment. But when several minutes passed with no answer, I vanished from the hallway, landing on the opposite side of her door.
Her apartment was a small studio unit, with a pullout sofa to the left and a compact, utilitarian kitchen to the right. Protruding from the end of the kitchen was a small dining alcove with a café style dining table at the center. As I walked through the small space, it was clear that Penny wasn’t home.
What was equally clear was the sense of surrender flowing freely in the apartment. Dishes were piled high in the sink, and a mound of overdue bills were stacked on the countertop. In the living room, outdated magazines and newspapers were piled nearly two feet high. The only thing that seemed out of place in the chaos was the kitchen table. It was clean and clear of everything, save for a pad of paper and a pen. Lowering myself down into a chair, I read what was written:
You cops will want to know why I did it. Well, let’s just say that I know what I’m doing and it’ll be better this way for everyone.
So, yeah. I killed myself. I could no longer cope with the betrayal that life has given me. I have always felt that the grim reaper was just around the corner, waiting. And it turns out that he was. He arrived here today and I knew it was the right thing to do. So yeah.
Please tell my brother that I love him, and that he means the world to me. I think he’s in some cabin upstate somewhere. He’ll understand, I hope.
Good-bye world, it’s been real.
My first thought was that I’d failed. After everything she’d been through, I’d failed to save her soul. But on my second read through, I realized that, while the suicide note was written by Penny, these were not her words. Why would she want to apologize to her brother, whom she told me specifically had died years ago? And that reference about the grim reaper…
Suddenly, I heard the sound of splashing water coming from behind a door that I’d overlooked before. It must be the bathroom, and maybe she was taking a bath or a shower. Then I realized that she could be in there right now trying to kill herself.
I rushed to the bathroom door and twisted the handle. It wouldn’t budge. The door was locked from the other side. I pounded on the door. “Penny, it’s Jack. I’m here to…” What was I really there for? I wondered. Was I going to follow through with the Sentinel’s plan? Or was I to make yet another fateful decision, a godlike decision, to save her soul?
“I’m here to help you get through this. Penny? Can you hear me?”
She didn’t respond, but more vigorous splashing could be heard from the other side of the door.
“Penny, I’m coming in. I don’t want you to do something that you’ll regret,” I said before jumping to the other side of the bathroom door.
I was instantly filled with rage by who stood before me. It was Enoch Gant, holding Penny’s head beneath the water in a nearly full tub.
“Penny!” I said as I rushed forward. Her lifeless eyes looked up at me through the water, unaware.
“You bastard!” I screamed, launching myself into Enoch’s torso. The force driving him backward, causing him to lose his balance. As we dropped to the floor, the momentum drove our bodies toward the commode. I saw the impending collision and rolled to the side. Enoch, however, slid right into the base of the toilet, his head firmly connecting with the porcelain.
Slowly, I pulled myself up to my knees and rested on my haunches. Enoch was out cold. Blood began to trickle from his temple.
“Take that, you fuck,” I said, then rushed to Penny and pulled her out of the water. I laid her dead body on the floor and tilted her head back. I tried to recall the company-sponsored CPR training that I’d reluctantly gone through several years before.
I pinched her nose and blew deeply into her mouth, watching her chest rise. Next I placed my hand over my fist and began to rhythmically pump her chest at a pace I hoped was correct. I alternated the procedures for several minutes, praying to God that I could save her fragile life. I was about to concede defeat when I heard a voice from behind me.
“Jack! Look out!” Hauser yelled from just outside the now open bathroom door. I whipped my head around in Enoch’s direction just as he pointed his shotgun right at my head. Instinctively I dropped to the ground, landing directly on Penny’s chest, just as Enoch fired. The buckshot flew over my head, and the report of the gun caused my ears to ring loudly. I knew I only had seconds before Enoch would reload to shoot again.
I pushed myself off of Penny and noticed that she had begun to convulse, spewing water from her mouth and nose. I rolled her over on her side before I attempted to disarm Enoch.
A guardian angel must have been looking over me, because Enoch’s gun jammed. He continued to point it at me, constantly trying to squeeze the trigger to get it to fire. I knew I only had one shot at disarming him as I dove for the gun. I knocked it from his hands as he attempted to clear the chamber.
As Enoch and I thrashed about on the floor next to Penny in the compact bathroom, I called out to Hauser. “Quick! Throw me the injector.”
Hauser slid the device across the bathroom floor. As Enoch rolled to his side in chase of his gun, I scooped up the pen and jabbed it in the side of his neck, injecting its contents into his system.
Hauser squeezed into the small bathroom, straddling Enoch and I on the floor. By then, Penny had sat up and was coughing uncontrollably. Hauser placed his foot on Enoch’s hand, before leaning over to grab his gun.
Suddenly Enoch launched his body up with great force, driving both Hauser and me back into the tub. In all the commotion, Hauser dropped Enoch’s gun in the water.