It had only been four days since Marli's execution. Lauren had been on the move by night and seeking refuge by day. Someone would've reported the disappearance of so many conspirators. During Marli's trial, the authorities put the blame on Marli. But now that she was dead, the remaining members of their group could inform the police that Lauren had had her hand in murders as well. If Lauren Wick wanted to remain on the streets, she'd have to DESTROY THE EVIDENCE.
Robbie Greer couldn't believe what he read. The whole mission had failed! He began pacing in his cell. How had it failed? What had gone wrong?
"Greer!" the warden bellowed. "You have a visitor."
The warden opened the cell, and RJ Regenold walked in.
"Make it quick, you two." the warden cautioned. "I got "Silly-willy Funny-wunny Ponies" on in six minutes."
He closed the cell, and the two were left alone.
RJ explained the whole thing. He'd seen Lauren slink her way past the conspirators on guard near the transmitter. On his way to see how the guards outside were holding up, he heard Paul LeMaire's screams and Marli's shout. When Paul was reported dead, RJ had come up with a theory.
"Wouldn't she try to save herself?" Greer asked. "I mean if the authorities ever found out, she'd get the death penalty, too-and what ever happened to Dower, Browder, and Jones?"
"Oh," RJ paused, trying to remember, "she'd strangled Dower, poisoned Jones, and shot Browder in the head with a pistol. afterwards their bodies were found in a car that had been driven into a brick wall. My guess is, she was trying to stage their deaths, so her name would remain clean."
"Probably," Robbie agreed, "but you and I know about it. Couldn't we turn her in?"
"Well," RJ paused, "that's the thing. I've found the rest of our group, and we all think she'll try to kill whoever she thinks knows. So, don't tell anyone. For all we know, she could be plotting to kill one of us."
Lauren found out where three conspirators were hiding out. Lauren Besselman, Scott Jacobs, and Ashley Ledbetter were hiding out in an abandon warehouse thirty miles northeast of Pilot Point. That was Lauren's target.
Robbie looked at the laundry chute at the far end of the corridor outside his cell, fascinated. RJ recognized that conniving look and soon understood.
"You two done?" the warden asked. "You, Greer, time for laundry duty."
"We'll get it." Robbie mumbled. "Go watch your Silly Willy Pony show."
"Good idea!" the warden hurried off.
Robbie grabbed some calogne and then swung open the unlocked cell door. RJ helped him carry two baskets of laundry to the chute. After throwing the contents of the baskets inside, RJ and Robbie jumped in themselves.
The fall was rather long, considering they were on the eighth floor of the cell block. However, their fall was abruptly stopped when they landed at the bottom.
"This is it," Robbie exclaimed, opening the door to the chute, "let's go."
RJ and Robbie waited until the hallway was empty and then dashed through the exit. Robbie took out the calogne and sprayed it all around the hallway, as they passed through the front doors. Once they were outside, Robbie tossed the bottle into a ditch. The two hopped in RJ'S car and sped off, in search of Lauren Wick.
Twilight gave way to darkness, as Lauren traveled the back-roads of Fannin County. If she was lucky, several other witnesses had met up with those in the warehouse. She parked her car about a quarter mile west of the warehouse and opened the trunk, removing a pistol, baseball bat, and a nylon rope. She walked casually down the street, her eyes searching for the warehouse. Soon she spotted it, looming out of the darkness. Slowly she advanced, and prepared herself for the murders that would soon take place.
"There!" Robbie shouted, spotting her car. "That's her car!"
"Yep," RJ inspected the license plate, "a 1943 Studebaker, license plate: 666 KIL. That's the one."
"Look!" Robbie said in a hoarse whisper. "There she is."
"Are you sure?" RJ asked.
"Who else would be walking around in this part of town at 11:30 at night?" Robbie asked.
The two silently sprinted ahead of Lauren and entered the warehouse.
Scott Jacobs, Lauren Besselman, Ashley Ledbetter, and new-comers Mathew Messer and Rachel Trammell were playing poker in the warehouse.
"Ha!" Scott shouted. "Who ever heard of a "one of a kind." It doesn't exist!"
"Yes it does!" Rachel shouted back. "I'd think that an annoying little ------- like you would know that!"
"Shut up, shut up!" Lauren Besselman hollered. "You don't want no one to ge---"
A loud pounding on the door stopped Lauren in her sentence.
"Take your positions." Matt whispered.
Matt slowly opened the door to the warehouse.
"Garcia pizza!" a short, Italian man bellowed, "The fhinest pizza in all of Texicus!"
"Oo," Matt could smell the cheesy goodness, "thanks. Oo, umm, how much?"
"About twenty-five dollars, Senor Mesa." the pizza deliverer replied.
"Here you go." Matt slipped him a $50.
"Oh, sank you!" the deliverer quickly ran from the warehouse. "Oh oh, mamamia, aaaaaaaa, loco senorita, aaaaaahhhh!"
A deadly silence descended on the warehouse. Matt saw a silhouette run at him. He had no time to move. The silhouette knocked him backwards.
"Matt!" Robbie gasped. "You ok?"
"Ouch!" Matt sat up. "What happened to the pizza guy?"
"Lauren mistook him for one of us." RJ explained, "Apparently, she's out to kill all of us."
"Why?" Matt asked.
"We know that she's murdered almost just as many people as Marli did." Robbie said quickly. "And if we don't get out of here fast, she will."
Matt got to his feet.
"Everybody out!" he shouted. "We got a psycho around here. Vacate the premmesis immediately!"
"When hell freezes over!" he heard Rachel retort.
"A psycho?" Lauren asked. "I never thought of myself as a psycho. Hmmm. Then again, maybe I am, a psycho!!!!"
She smashed the fuse box with her baseball bat, knocking out the electricity.
"Crap!" Robbie shouted. "Man, RJ, get the power back on."
"I can't!" RJ exclaimed. "I don't know where I am!"
"Wait," came Matt's voice, "I think I got it."
The power flickered on and off in rapid succession.
"Coool!" RJ said wide-eyed. "Strobelight!"
"It's pretty," Scott laughed in a daze, "pretty, pretty, lights, oo, pretty, pretty, oo, uh, oo, pretty!!"
"where is the psycho?" Robbie asked.
"Fix the damn lights!" Rachel shouted. "It's making me dizzy!"
"If I could fix them, I would!" RJ shouted back.
"Psycho at twelve o'clock!" Matt said quickly.
"You mean she's over there?" Robbie asked.
"No, no, no!" Matt replied. "It's midnight, and there's a psycho in here, hence, psycho at twelve o'clock."
"Over there, by the crates-a-cocoa!" RJ pointed to a figure peering around the corner of a stack of cocoa crates.
"Alright!" Robbie fished out his bowie knife. "Die, die, die, huhuhehahahahaahaahaaahaaahaaaaaaaa!"
He sprinted towards Lauren, knife drawn. Matt, Rachel, Scott, and RJ tried to keep him back, but Robbie was infuriated.
"It was you who called the cops on me, wasn't it! Wasn't it!" Robbie stopped in front of her. "You said that they found you, and forced you to lead them to me. Well I say, to hell with your reasoning."
"Robbie, stop!" Matt back-handed Robbie across the face. "Don't kill her, just because she called the cops on-ya."
He paused.
"Kill her, because she killed innocent by standards."
"You know," Robbie blinked, "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will I will I will I will I will Iheyayuh!"
Lauren jolted Robbie with a cattle prod.
"Aeaeaeaueououououchiozechechechiodheoieyah," Robbie's eyes bulged, as the prod continued to send countless volts of electricity through his body, "Yyyyyyyyooouuuuubbbbubbbbbubbbbbitttttttttttchchchchchchchchch."
He collapsed.
"Oo," Matt said, looking down at Robbie's unconscious body, "that's gotta huheoueoucrappppupuppppppppupupupaaaaaaeaeaeauuuuu!"
He raised Robbie's fallen knife and blocked the current.
Lauren Besselman, Rachel, and RJ each picked up a B.B. gun and began firing at Lauren Wick.
"Damn it!" Lauren shouted in pain as a B.B. grazed her nose. "Damn it! Ouch, ---- you all to ----."
Matt, who was able to dodge away from the prod, helped Robbie to his feet.
"The room is spinning." Robbie clutched his head. "Oo, man, augh. Matt, don't kill her-that, should be my, my, my, I need to sit down."
Lauren threw the prod aside, since the B.B's. had stopped using her head for target practice.
"Crap," Rachel glanced around, "no more B.B's. That sucks."
"Dddie," Robbie studdered, shaking violently, "yyyou mmmust ddddddddddddddddddie!"
He reached for the knife that lay near his feet.
"Wow!" Matt and RJ caught Robbie, who'd slipped into unconsciousness, "don't think he's quite ready to kill you, Wick."
"All the more time to kill you." she seized the knife and quickly advanced toward Scott.
"Pretty lights." Scott laughed, "Ha, girlie girl, 'neith the pretty, lights, lights, uh uh uh, lights."
He was so fascinated by the "pretty lights," that he hardly noticed when the mammoth blade imbedded itself in his neck.
"Why did you kill'em?" Rachel shouted. "I was supposed to do that next Thursday!"
She slammed into Lauren, knocking the knife into the air. The two went down fighting.
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Ashley shouted down at the two. "You're more matu-"
"Shshshshshshshshsh." Robbie whispered, tapping the knife. "After Rachel pins her, I'll kill her with my "big knife."
It wasn't long before Rachel had Lauren pinned down. Robbie slowly walked towards them. He raised the knife high in the air, waiting for the right moment. It came. He drew it to Lauren's neck. With one magnificent "swish," the knife connected and cut Lauren's throat.
Rachel got up, just as Robbie did.
"What do we do with it?" RJ asked. "Burn it?"
"Good idea." Robbie dug around in a crate. "Oo, here we go."
He lit a match, and threw it at Lauren's body. The flames took hold of her clothes, and soon flames were shooting four feet in the air.
"Hurry!" Matt said quickly. "Someone's gonna see the blaze!"
The fire had been blamed on faulty electrical wiring. Finally, the six would-be conspirators could breathe easily again. The only one who would've been able to prove that they were a part of it was now lying charred in an abandon warehouse in Fannin County.