202. A Way Out

Warning: language

Bridgeport, present day...

For a long time Beau just sat there with his head in his hands, sobbing and crying. He never cared much for Carmen; she was just a pawn in his grand plan to destroy Krisis, but he didn’t want her to die.

“It was an accident,” he told himself over and over. “The cops will believe you. Do the right thing. Call them.”

“Yeah right, like they’ll believe you with your record!” A small voice in his head taunted him.

“Fuck!” Beau growled as he got up from the floor and began pacing the room.

He could get rid of Carmen’s body and make it look like she left Bridgeport for good. But that kind of scheme would require a lot of planning, and he didn’t have a lot of time on his hands, he and Bianca were leaving Bridgeport that night.

“Fuck this!” He cussed again. If he didn’t do anything, his life was over. Since the new laws were imposed earlier in the year killing a human was now punishable by death. There was no way out. No way he could evade this. He was screwed.

“See what happens when you try to do the right thing!” He raged at the empty room, thinking he should have never let Bianca change his mind about Krisis. He should have stuck to his plan. Carmen would still be alive.

“Joshua!” A glimmer of hope roared to life when he suddenly thought of the young Vampire.

“Maybe there’s a way you can get away with this,” Beau murmured as he reached for Carmen’s cell phone on the coffee table and browsed through her phone book and call records.

He was happy to see she still had Joshua’s number and it was the second most dialed number on her log, his was the first. He deleted it, along with all their text correspondence and any communication tying them together.

Next he went through her laptop and did the same, deleting everything from her inbox and then permanently from her recycling bin.

He then sent Joshua a brief text message from Carmen’s phone, asking him to come over.

On his way out, he picked up the knife Carmen had used on him from the floor not too far from her outstretched hand, and stuffed it inside his jacket.

Beau stayed in his car parked across Carmen’s apartment and waited for Joshua. It took almost two hours for the young Vampire to show up. And when Beau was certain he was inside Carmen’s flat, he pulled out his cell phone and blocked his number on outgoing calls before he placed a 911 call.

The operator answered promptly, “911. What’s your emergency?”

“My neighbors are fighting. I’m scared he’s going to kill her. They’ve fought in the past, but nothing like this. Please hurry!” Beau placed his hand over the receiver to muffle his voice.

The operator asked for the address, which he gladly gave. He quickly hung up before she could question him further.

The police were there in exactly seven minutes. And Beau would have given anything to be a fly on the wall when they walked into Carmen’s apartment and found Joshua trying his damnedest to resuscitate a lifeless Carmen.

He stuck around for some time, watching the drama unfold from the safety of his car. Carmen’s apartment was cordoned off with the crime scene tape. And within moments the place was buzzing with crime scene investigators.

“Sorry, buddy,” Beau mumbled as he drove off. He’d really wanted to give Joshua a fresh start with the Frosts, and he’d really wanted to change, for Bianca’s sake. But it was obvious that being good would never be part of his genetic makeup. Not in a million years…