Lucifer's Apostles

Lucifer's Apostles Episode 23

When they returned to the park, the woman with the dog was the only person there. The weather was not great. It had been drizzling on and off, and the humidity was stifling. Snake told Jacko to get out of the van. He looked around. The van was parked about thirty meters from the adjacent street, and he could see only trees that ran along a creek on the other side.

Maria would jog over the bridge behind the trees to get there. There was nobody about it. He told Jacko to lie down and hold his chest. He called to the woman for help. She ran over to the two men.

“What can I do?” she asked in a panic. She still had hold of her dog lead. It was a bitsa, he had no idea what the bits were, but he knew it was a mutt.

“I don’t know how to do CPR. I rang for the ambulance. Can you please help him? I can’t lose my husband”, Snake said in a panicked voice.

“I don’t know either”, she said, “but I can try”. She bent over and started doing compressions on his chest.

Snake bent over her, saying, “Can I help?” while plunging the needle into her neck. She let go of the dog lead, and the dog took off without a care. Jacko struggled to get to his feet, and when he finally did, he dumped the woman’s body into the back of the van. Snake was about to say something about her head, and then he thought, why bother? He knew why the prisoners had a headache when they woke up.

Snake looked back at the woman they had just taken. She had a dark complexion with dark hair. She looked Middle Eastern to him or Mediterranean. She had a prominent nose longer than Maria’s but not as wide. She had the perfect shape that he was always looking for. She was wearing a wedding band, an engagement ring, a gold necklace, and a bracelet with charms on it. Everything would be gone by morning except the wedding band. It was the one thing he had told Jacko that was off-limits.

Snake reached over and grasped the small handbag the woman had been carrying. There was no purse. Inside was a mobile phone, keys, gum, and a clear plastic sandwich bag. Snake thought that the bag was for the dog’s droppings. He opened her phone case and found what he was looking for: her driver’s license. Her name was Nadine Kerr, 29, from Port Adelaide in South Australia. You are a long way from home, Snake thought.

They were in the van and heading back south. “Good acting, Jacko, you might get a part in the next Expendables movie”, Snake said jokingly.

“Na” Jacko replied thoughtfully, “I don’t like planes”. He sat silently for ten minutes, then asked, “I think I need to ring my Mum”.

“Why’s that, Jacko?” Snake asked back.

“Ruby told me that she thinks I might have some of her family’s jewellery in one of my pockets, and she wanted the earrings. I’m not sure if she’s been talking to Mum, and they think I’ve stolen them. I wouldn’t steal from my mum, “Jacko explained.

It took Snake a while before he stopped laughing and explained what Ruby meant to Jacko. Jacko turned red and asked Snake as seriously as possible, “She wouldn’t?” that set Snake off again. Jacko finished his sentence, “Would she”? It was going to be a long trip back. They needed to stop on the way back. He had to get a present for Sally.

***

Ruby had heard the van return. She looked out the window and saw two figures in the vehicle. She could see Jacko driving and Snake in the passenger’s seat. Where had they been? She watched Jacko throw a woman’s body over his shoulder and follow Snake into the house. They were determined to stay partners.

Her eyes remained looking out the window while her mind was deep in thought. She relied heavily on Paul and Louise’s input. They were the brains of the church and all its dealings, even though Ruby always made the final decisions. Louise was busily entrenched trying to derail the police efforts, while Paul had visited his mother.

Two cars came into the driveway. The second one went faster than the first car and overtook them in the driveway leading to the house. It was Sam Becket, as always impatient and impulsive. She could not see who was driving the second car until it got closer. It was the ex-ASIO agent. They both drove past the granny flat and parked in the area behind the tennis courts used as a carpark.

Sam was out of his car first and was running towards the church. Ruby stuck her head out the door and yelled, “Hey!” He turned and jogged over to the flat. “When you go in, wait for Carl Donovan. When he gets here, you and Luke go with him. He has a safe spot for you both”.

“What about the hardware store?” Sam asked.

“Surely you have enough staff to cover you for a week. Ring some people, I told you to do that before”, Ruby said to him.

“Alright, I’m not happy”, Sam replied, dialling a number on his phone as he left her. He headed for the shed with his phone to his ear as another car came speeding into the driveway.

Snake’s new offsider walked around the corner as Sam left, “Hi, can you just go inside for now. Everyone is arriving at the same time”. Ruby stood to meet the new car’s driver. It was Luke Brady walking briskly towards her. “Luke, before you say a word, stop right there”, he stopped, clenching his hands into fists. “Breathe slowly and calm down”.

Luke was not in the mood to breathe slowly, “You said this would never get back to us. You’re a liar”, he had spittle spraying from his mouth as he spoke. Not only was he covered in tattoos, but he was also missing half of his stained teeth.

“Luke, I said, calm down, and I will explain. I am not going to talk to you until you do”, Ruby said, a little afraid. Jacko came out of the main house to see what was happening and took Luke’s attention for a split second. If anyone scared Luke, it was Jacko. Ruby stood eye to eye with Luke, his breathing slowing as he calmed. “I told you nothing would happen as long as you had no communication with each other, any of you. That meant social media as well. You only have to hide away until the ritual is over, then you will be protected by our saviour”. Ruby spoke in a calming whisper, “Go into the church and wait for Carl to come. Sam’s in there now”.

Luke looked across to Jacko again as the big man lit a cigarette and continued watching them both. Ruby thought his timing to smoke could not have been better and might have just earned him a reprieve. “I can’t go anywhere. I need to stay here”, Luke said. Ruby knew that it was because of drugs. She did not understand how she had not seen it before. Drugs were not permitted near the church. Another rule was that you could never attend high.

“Carl will get you whatever you need. When you come back, you need to get clean, Luke. You know the rules”, Ruby said, knowing there would be no coming back for Luke or Sam.

Luke nodded and walked past her on the way to the shed. He watched Jacko smoking his cigarette. If Jacko moved, he was ready to run. Ruby turned and started walking back into the granny flat when another two vehicles drove up the driveway towards her. Everything at once, it was busier than peak hour in the city.

Carl Donovan and Krishna Dev stepped out of their cars. They nodded to each other and walked together to meet Ruby. “Perfect timing”, she said to the two men. “Have you two met”?

Krishna answered, saying they knew each other from the church. He was clearly not fond of Carl. Ruby then filled Carl in on the mood of the two men inside the church and asked him to follow Paul’s earlier instructions. Carl looked like a gangster. He wore a pinstriped suit without a tie, and his white shirt unbuttoned halfway down. He wore a gold chain around his neck and a black fedora hat, the same as Al Capone would wear. She told him he would receive his usual fee, then she turned to Krishna and invited him into the flat.

Ruby’s other recruit stood from the sofa she had been sitting on. She pointed to the television, saying to them, “You need to watch this, it’s just started”. It was Bill Clements giving the press conference that he had promised earlier. Ruby sat and listened as Bill announced that two police officers had been killed in a raid on a house earlier in the day. He said they had both been killed by one assailant, who had been pronounced dead on his arrival at the hospital. The raid had taken place after a tip-off about an earlier murder. Nothing about the three naked women discovered in various positions throughout Sydney was mentioned. When he finished, he told the press that there would be no questions, and then he and a massive man standing behind him left the conference. Ruby knew it had been Tank Dodge from Louise’s description of him. He was not only an intellectual threat, but he was a physical one as well.

Ruby turned the volume down on the television and spoke first. “You two would not know each other. Shannon, this is Krishna”. Like Snake, the new woman was not a church member. The thirty-two-year-old had the physique of an Amazonian warrior with the darkest shade of long brown hair possible. Her face looked like it had been hit with a shovel. She was far from attractive. She wore a suit like Carl, only her shirt was buttoned up. She was tall for a woman, Ruby thought. She decided Shannon’s name would be appropriate as she had used it before at ASIO.

On the other hand, Krishna would have been dwarfed by the size of Jacko. He was of Indian parentage and was short and skinny. Shannon would train Tommy to help her. She told them both what their positions would entail. She had decided that Jacko could stay and help Snake as before. They would split into two teams. If Jacko made one more mistake, his reprieve would be over.

Ruby took Krishna to the house, introducing him to Tipsy and showing him his new workplace. Tipsy was sitting in the office watching the monitors. She had her bare feet on the desk in front of her. “Is everything alright, Tipsy?” Ruby asked.

Tipsy replied in her nasal voice, “Yep, the boys just put a replacement in room three. I’m waiting for her to wake up and go off her head. It’s better than going to the cinema”.

Ruby went over, opened the door to room three, and looked inside. Very impressive, she thought.