Chapter Six

The Vigilante watched the news with a satisfied smile. Olivia did a masterful job, projecting the right amount of professionalism, compassion and integrity to the segment. It had been broadcast to the entire country! That wasn’t even one of the stipulations, but what a bonus. The demands had been met, as the Vigilante knew they would be. A push of a button fired off a text with the location of the bodies. Several burner phones had been purchased for this reason since they were untraceable.

The air felt good when the Vigilante stepped outside. Two more confessions were set to go and they would both be delivered this week with the same stipulations. It was better to strike before the guilty became suspicious, watchful. It’d been ridiculously easy to lure the predators to the confessional, as the Vigilante had named the interrogation room. People tended to acquiesce to a trustworthy face.

But once the next two videos were released, the job became much harder. The guilty would be on guard. They wouldn’t be as easy to manipulate. It was just a matter of getting them inside the door and administering chloroform to knock them out.

Purdy hadn’t been easy. He was a big man and it took quite a bit of maneuvering to drag his bulk into place. A flat furniture dolly helped. Getting him into the chair had been a feat, too, but measures had been taken in anticipation. Pulleys and a winch had been attached that would lift the man into the chair where he could be tied up. Well, not chair, exactly. Toilet was the correct term. The Vigilante didn’t want to deal with cleanup after he administered the fatal dose of succinylcholine. The drug induced instantaneous cardiac arrest but it appeared as if the person died of natural causes. The Vigilante wasn’t blood thirsty, but thirsty for justice. Anchoring the accused to the toilet would make clean-up easier since the bowels would release upon death.

Once the man had been secured in place, wires had been attached to his body in very strategic places. They would provide a shock at the push of a button, a back-up if the truth serum that would be delivered intravenously didn’t do its job. The person had to confess or suffer the consequences.

The Vigilante had a veritable pharmacy on hand, thanks to a quick trip to Mexico. Chloroform to knock them out. Truth serum to force a confession and succinylcholine to end their life.

Torture wasn’t legal and maybe it wasn’t humane, but these monsters had gotten away with their crimes and couldn’t be tried again due to double jeopardy laws. The Vigilante reached a breaking point and decided to take action. Heaven was out of the picture since God most likely wouldn’t open his arms to a killer, no matter how justified. But life had been a living hell for a long time, so the Vigilante was prepared for an afterlife of the same.

The Vigilante pictured the video, smiling at the sweat dripping down Purdy’s face. He’d had to be zapped three times, the voltage increasing every time. Along with the truth serum it’d finally wore Purdy down and he confessed. The Vigilante told Purdy that he would be released after his confession. And he was…released from the bounds of this earth to burn in eternity.

Maybe it was time to track down the next three on the list before widespread panic ensued.

#

Monica Webb watched the breaking news report with rapt interest. Someone was going around killing people who were getting away with murder. Technically, it had only been one murder, but the pretty news reporter dubbed the person the Vigilante, and that meant there would be more, right? You didn’t give some random Joe Blow killer a moniker.

She wondered how she could get in touch with the Vigilante. She would love to hire him to take out Senator Eugene Mullins of Kennesaw, Georgia.

Monica Webb was actually the former Layla Brooks, Miss Georgia, Miss America, second runner-up in the Miss Universe competition. If it wasn’t for the esteemed senator, she would still have her career as a chart-topping singer.

Layla—she still thought of herself by her real name—closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She wished her mother had never fallen for the charming politician. Her own father passed away when Layla was five. He’d been a soldier, killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Her mother got pregnant with her when she was eighteen and her father joined the Army so he could provide for them. Then he was killed.

Layla’s mom raised her by herself…the two of them against the world…until the summer of her fourteenth birthday when her mom met Mullins. He’d been a lawyer with an eye for politics. Her mother, still young and beautiful at thirty-two, fell hard for him. After a whirlwind courtship, they married and had twins Sean and Tiffany, now Leo and Ariel. Yes, she let them pick their new names. Sean chose his name for their astrological symbol. Tiff just wanted to be a mermaid.

Layla had always loved to sing. In college, she fronted a band that packed bars on weekends. On a whim her senior year she applied for the Miss Georgia contest. To her total shock, she won. She went on to Miss America and somehow, again won. The competition catapulted her into the national spotlight and her career skyrocketed. For five years, she’d been a singing sensation, touring the world to standing-room-only audiences. Her songs debuted at the top of the charts and she was on top of the world. Then she got the call that her mother had unexpectedly passed away. Layla was still close to her mom and the news devastated her. She flew home and was immediately pulled aside by her half-siblings. They were positive that their father had killed their mother. He’d been verbally abusive for years and Layla had no idea. Not only had he destroyed her mother’s self-confidence, he subjected his children to verbal abuse as well. He was controlling and domineering and oversaw every aspect of their lives. They were threatened if they ever spoke a word to anyone…including her. She’d been stunned. She’d never seen the signs.

The twins also suspected he was involved in illegal activities. He had dealings with shady characters and secretive phone calls where he’d disappear late at night. Their mother walked into his study one night when he was in a meeting and he yelled at her. She was dead the next morning.

Her half-siblings were terrified of their father. They begged her to take them with her when she left. When she told Mullins she was taking the kids, he laughed and ordered her out of his office. When she followed through and packed bags for them, he tried to have her killed. She survived that attempt and two more, but she knew he would never give up until she was dead. Her only option was to make him think he succeeded. It meant the end of her career, but the lives of her siblings were more important. With the help of a trusted friend, they staged her death. As soon as the announcement was made that she’d passed, she took Sean and Tiff and they ran.

At first, cops believed the twins had been kidnapped. In order to make it look real, they had to leave their phones and computers and everything but their most cherished possessions and photos. When no ransom note appeared, they were listed as missing. That was almost a year ago. Instead of imploding with the death of his wife, stepdaughter and the disappearance of his two children, Mullins had been practically sainted by the media. He was a tragic hero, plodding forward in the face of adversity. He played up his suffering to the hilt. His popularity was off the charts. He was even throwing his hat into the ring for the presidency.

Layla couldn’t let that happen. If she had to take matters into her own hands, she would.