Page 109 of Atlas
“What if he goes after her again? How are you going to prevent him from doing that?”
“Well, Mr. Zakis was ordered to stay away from Miss Fisher and you. The judge explained to him that he’s not allowed to come within one hundred feet of your apartment building.”
“Like that’s going to stop him. The man already had a restraining order, and he still followed Jolene across the country from California to Chicago. This is crazy.”
“I understand your frustration, sir, but there’s nothing I can do. Is Miss Fisher with you by any chance?”
“No, and I can’t find her. She’s not home, and she’s not picking up her phone either.”
“Oh.”
I jogged to the lift, hissing into the phone in a gruff voice. “If that motherfucker touches her again, I’m going to sue everyone responsible into hell and beyond. Do you hear me? Someone is losing their job!”
“Mr. Robertson, I’m very sorry. I’m going to let you go now so you can focus on finding Miss Fisher. If you need assistance, don’t hesitate to call 911.”
Not knowing what else to do, I took my car and raced through the city to get to the office, where Diane had last seen Jolene. I didn’t want to take any chances and called the police, telling them about the situation. The dispatcher informed me that if I wanted to report a missing person, I would have to go to the local police station.
When I arrived at the office building, I saw light in the window to the office and hurried to let myself in and run up the stairs.
The sight that met me made me stop cold and stare.
Niklavs lay on the floor with his head and shoulders up against the wall. His torso, face, and the white walls behind him were red with sprays of blood.
In his arms was a skinny woman wearing a trenchcoat. I guessed it to be Velna, but it was impossible to see with half her head missing.
“Atlas!” I turned just in time to catch Jolene, who threw herself into my arms.
“What… what happened?” I stammered in shock.
Jolene began rambling, “Velna tricked me. She was the one who starved Benjamin, and she pushed Niklavs to seek revenge. She wanted me dead, not him. And then she came here and made me feel sorry for her. I went to give her money for a cab, but when I got back here, she’d let him in, and she kept riling him up to shoot me, but I managed to talk him out of it and tell him that she was using him. It made her so mad that she went for the gun to kill me herself, but he wouldn’t let go, and then she managed to fire anyway, and she shot him right in the stomach. He fell to the floor and took her with him.” Jolene’s eyes were wide open and full of tears as words spilled out of her mouth like water through a firehose. “Velna cursed Niklavs for being a failure and tried to shoot me as well. The bullet flew right above my head, and I screamed so loud. And then by some miracle, Niklavs took the gun from her, and when she screamed at him and clawed at his face to get free from his hold, he shouted at her to calm down, and she hissed back, ‘Just die already, you loser.’ And that’s when he shot her through the head. There was blood everywhere.”
I pulled Jolene closer to my body even though it was too late to shield her from the gory sight of the two dead bodies. She was shaking.
“I promised him…” She sniffled. “I promised him that I’d tell Benjamin that he was sorry.”
“Who?”
“Benjamin. Their son.”
“Oh, right.”
Jolene pulled back enough to look up at me with her large blue eyes. “He saved me, Atlas. Niklavs saved me.”
I swallowed hard and pulled her back into my arms. “Did you call 911?”
“No. I was going to, but then you came. I watched him bleed to death.”
With an arm around her shoulder, I led her out of the building and into my car. She sat with glassy eyes while I called the police and told them what had happened.
As we waited for the police to arrive, we held hands and Jolene told me everything one more time.
First, we heard the sirens, and then the night lit up with blue lights, followed by endless questions from people in uniforms. A coroner came, and yellow tape was put up to secure the crime scene where Niklavs and Velna had killed each other.
I stayed by Jolene’s side, giving her my jacket so she wouldn’t be cold.
“What about my wallet?” Jolene asked the police officer in charge. “I brought it to the waiting room, and they took it from me.”
“Yes, I saw a wallet on the floor, but we can’t touch anything until the technicians have finished.
