Title: "Revelations: Part 13 of 14"        

         "I can. It doesn't matter. I can, and I will..." Theodore reached for trigger...

         Zero was about to open his mouth. But suddenly, fast approaching from down the street were the lights and sounds from police cars.

        Patrick froze in panic. He didn't know what to do. He looked to the lights from afar, and then back to the two friends who stood around him.

         JJ still held the knife in his hand. Realizing that, he threw it down to the ground. He took another step back from Theodore.

         But Theodore did not move. "Don't worry, guys. Let them get here. Let them see me with this gun. Who will they believe?" He motioned at Zero, who stood in boiling calmness inside of the alley. "Zero, an outcast from Berkeley?" asked Theodore. "Or me, Theodore Balmore, along with two other guys who also saw this man attack us? Luckily we stole his gun from him."

        Patrick's voice was shaky as two police cars pulled up alongside the blue convertible. "I... are you sure, Theodore?" Police confrontations were something new for Patrick. "I mean... uh..."

         Theodore barked at Patrick. "Shut up, Patrick. You said you had a lot to learn. Here's your chance for another lesson." Theodore let up on the stare at Zero and turned his focus more to the policemen.

        The policemen rushed out of their cars; their doors slung wide open. They dropped to the ground, their guns pointed squarely on Theodore, who stood out along the brim of the shadow of the alley walkway. Zero was still inside of the shadows. The police couldn't see him, but Theodore could.

        "Put the gun down..." The policeman raised their guns up to Theodore.

        But Theodore cut their words off before they ever finished. "Officers, officers, it's me, it's me... Theodore Balmore. We need your help over here." He motioned with his shoulder toward the alley. "This man attacked us. We've done all we can do to keep him at bay until someone came up." The tone in his voice was of a plea. Patrick and JJ remained silent beside him.

        The officers, their guns still in the air, pointed at Theodore and the others, looked closer. Could it really be Theodore? One of the officers had just met him that morning at an autographing session.

        They looked... it was true. "Mr. Balmore, I didn't know!" The officer who had met him that morning stood up from behind the door of his car. "Is the prospect armed?"

        Theodore looked at the policeman, and then back to Zero in the shadows. Zero's face had remained calm and at peace. That unnerved Theodore slightly. But a very small grin passed over his lips, calming Theodore and enabled him to think of a plan. "Not anymore, sir. He was carrying the switchblade that is now on the ground down here, as well as packing this gun. The three of us overtook him, luckily, and wrestled it away from him. Lucky for us, no doubt."

        One of the other officers, though, looked at the blue convertible. "We got a call a few moments ago about a shooting that happened across the city. A blue convertible just like this one was described escaping the scene right after the gunfire. Do you have any idea where this came from?"

        That triggered something in Zero's mind. They were talking about where Erica lived. Had she been shot? Or worse, killed? Zero wanted to pounce Theodore right then and there, but couldn't. The time was not yet right.

        Theodore took the question the officer had just asked him into mental debate. It bounced around for a moment before he answered him. "We have reason to believe that this man stole the car from my brother here. That was why we chased him down here in the first place." Patrick gave his brother a shocked look, but Theodore disregarded it.

        "It was reported that there were people in both the front and back seat of the car. Have you seen any others with this man?" The policeman was looking into the convertible. Patrick was hoping he hadn't forgotten anything in it.

        "No sir, we haven't. It is kind of scary, though, to think that there could be more madmen other than just this one running around the city, though. Makes me wonder if coming back here was such a good idea after all." Theodore said it with the straightest face possible.

        The other officer, still coming closer to Theodore, spoke up. "Bring this bastard out of the alley. I want a good luck at the man that has caused so much trouble around here." He looked up at Theodore. "My sincere apologies, Mr. Balmore."

        It was Zero's cue. He began the slow walk from out of the shadows. Everyone was looking at him. His hands were at his side. His stride was slow and confident. In appearance, with Zero's spiked black with bleached tipped hair, along with the various facial piercings and tattoos along his right arm, he was a prime and usual suspect. Except, the real villain wore a polo shirt and slacks, and went by the name of "Mr." to everyone.

        Zero came out of the alley, looking at everyone straight-faced.

        The same officer looked at him, giving him one moment before he put the cuffs on him. "What do you have to say?"

        Zero looked down at the ground and thought for a moment. He slowly raised his eyes back up to the officer, looked him straight in the eyes, and said, "I didn't do anything."

        The officer didn't believe him. Along with the assist from the other officer, he grabbed his cuffs and was about to cuff Zero. Zero said nothing in protest other than, "It's time," in a low tone of voice.

        Suddenly, from behind the group of men, a woman stepped forward. She had been hidden in concealment during the whole ongoing. She was tall, had short brown hair, and a slim figure. Instantly, she blurted out, "He's right!"

        The surprise alone caused the officers to grab for their guns. They all turned around to face this woman. Tears were already streaming down her face. "He's right, he's right! Don't you understand? Theodore is playing you all for a fool!"

        The officers were definitely confused. One looked her. "Just what in the hell are you talking about, woman?"

        Theodore, off to the side, put his finger on the trigger of the gun. He was to the back of the officers. Looking at this woman, though, a horror came over him. He tried his best to cover it up with a monotone facial expression.

        The woman, starting to cry, spoke again. "Theodore is your killer! Zero is innocent! Look at the circumstances. Don't they even tell you anything? Theodore has already killed three people from my life, and was about to kill another that I just met. I watched as he almost done it."

        What?! Theodore's mind went numb. She was watching? She heard him confess to everything before he was about to kill Zero just moments ago? He couldn't control the high tempered voice. "What?! What are you talking about? You were watchi..." He tried to bite his tongue, but worried if it was too late.

        The officers, beginning to wonder what was going on, and obviously sparked by Theodore's last comment, turned back around to Theodore. "Wait a minute? Now just what do you mean by that? What is going..."

         Theodore snapped. He quickly raised the gun up, his finger on the trigger. Zero lunged for the gun, trying to knock it out of Theodore's hand. But He came up just beyond his grasp. Theodore saw him, but pointed his gun towards the woman just in front of him. He grabbed the trigger and pulled down onto it. The gun fired.

* * * * *

        Glass shattered. Smoke flew into the air. People turned their heads. Theodore had fired the gun.

       & But, just as Theodore had aimed at the woman and pulled the trigger, a hand from behind him hit the barrel. The barrel rotated, instead firing a clean shot through the windshield of the blue convertible.

        The police, broken from the trance of the gunfire, swarmed Theodore, seizing control over the gun. Patrick froze. Panic hit him. He couldn't move. He didn't know what to do.

         Zero laid on the concrete, just moments after falling short of deflecting the shot. And on top of him, JJ laid, haven fallen from his successful lunge to knock the gunfire out of anyone's way.

        JJ quickly got to his feet, apologizing to Zero as he did. As soon as he got up, JJ's conscious unloaded. "She's right! She is right! Theodore killed three people years back! And he was about to do it now! It's the truth. I swear it to God. You should put those handcuffs on me as well, because I have known about it for three years now. But I couldn't keep it inside of me any longer. I had to tell. For my own sake, I had to."

        Zero, slowly getting to his feet, looked up at JJ. His expression was a mix between proud for him, and confusion that he had actually broken free from Theodore's trance after all of these years.

        The policemen looked at JJ. They looked at Patrick, who still stood frozen, not knowing what to do. And they looked back at Theodore, who they had already put cuffs on.

        Suddenly, coming down the curb, his head buried deep inside of a notebook, was Karl. He hadn't looked up yet to see what was going on. He seemed more intent on what he was reading. Hollering out blindly, he sealed his own fate. "Hey Dorey, I couldn't find that glove, but I did find this book here of Zero's. It's pretty interesting, actually. The latest thing he wrote was really interesting. We should check it out when we get back to my place." He finally looked up. "Oh SHIT!" was the only thing that he could get to come out of his mouth.

        Zero was already up and storming at him. A policeman took followed chase, while the other was left to tend to the three at hand. But Zero ran at Karl, the goal of getting his book back being the only thing on his mind.

        Karl turned to run, but after so much beer, it had pretty much slowed down all fast mobile exits. Zero was right behind, his fist high above his head, ready to strike down on Karl.

        When suddenly, a car sped down the street, slamming on its brakes in the middle of the street. A girl, Erica, jumped out of it. "Noooo!" she screamed.

        Zero stopped.

        The policeman caught up with Karl and confiscated the journal he held. He then applied handcuffs to Karl.

        Erica got out of the car.

        "You're alive!" was all Zero could say to her.

        She ran across the street to him. Zero went to hug her, when he saw others getting out of the car. An older man stepped out. Zero guessed it was Erica's father. And Matt also stepped out, his arm wrapped in bandages.

        "What happened to you?" Zero let go of the hug with Erica and walked to Matt, inspecting his arm.

        "The doctor said it was only a glance shot, but those guys down there shot at me." Matt looked a little pale from all of the loss of blood.

        Erica's father, though, wasn't waiting around for introduction. He was walking to the police, dead set on telling them what had happened.

        The police had already handcuffed all four men and had loaded two into each car. An officer looked up as Erica's father approached him.

        "Yes sir?" asked the policeman.

        Erica's father was still feeling the manic rush he had felt hours earlier. "Are these the men who drive that blue convertible?"

        The officer looked at the car, and then to the men in the police cars. "We haven't put it as exactly them, but it is looking like that, sir."

        Fred looked back over towards Matt, and then to the car, and then to the officer. "Well, I have a young man over here who took a bullet gracing just a few hours ago from a passenger inside of this car."

        They looked over at Zero, Matt, and Erica. The three were walking up to them. The officer looked at Matt and could easily see the heavily bandaged bicep. "A passenger from that car done that?" The officer pointed to the bicep as the three walked up.

        Matt was the one who responded to him. "Yes sir. We also think they vandalized Mr. Storm's house. There's a list of things we can tell you about them, sir."

        The officer looked at the four of them, and back to the men they had in the police cars. The other officer walked up to them. He had had enough with listening to the complaints and threats coming from Theodore in the car. "And to think, I shook that man's hand today," said the officer as he walked up. "Some role model he is." The officer was disgusted.

        The other officer turned to him. "It looks like we have a series on our hands here. These people have a whole list of things to file against them."

        His counterpart looked at them, and sighed. "Oh the paper work. Say, they were saying something about a glove. You wouldn't happen to know what they were talking about, would you?" He was looking as Zero.

        Zero looked at them, his journal now in one of his hands. "Yes I would." He reached down into his pocket and pulled out the dry blood stained black glove. He handed it to the officer. "If you search Theodore's hotel room, or even Theodore himself, you should find the partner on it. The blood that is stained into it, I am led to believe, is also the same blood that three men shed years ago, when they were found in this alley." Zero pointed over to the alley.

        The officers looked into it. They remembered that case. It was truly traumatic.

        From behind the officers, the lady walked up. Her eyes were dried, but looking at Theodore in the police car had been too much for her to handle.

        Zero, seeing her, said, "I would like for you to meet Kate Winder. Three years ago, she was Theodore Balmore's girlfriend. It was luck that I found her phone number and apartment today. Her house is where I went for so long today. After finding the glove in the alley this morning, I started piecing stuff together and then remembered some of the names that Theodore had dated throughout the past five years here in Berkeley. Kate is the one who had the biggest, and as it now turns out, more truthful lead."

        Zero looked at Erica and took a breath. "Patrick is taking just like his brother. For, Kate had..." He wasn't sure if he should say anything else.

        Kate took over for him, though, as the policemen listened. "I cheated on Theodore three times while we were dating. He was abusive, but I couldn't escape him. I found a sort of relief with three other men at different points in my relationship with Theodore. It was a release from Theodore's iron hand when he would go away on his various trips." She wiped her eyes.

        Looking back down at the car that held him, she continued. "He found out about them, though. He... killed them. He killed all three of them. I had to run for my life just to escape him. I finally moved to Albany, which is where I finally got an escape from him. Tonight, though, finally... he got what was coming to him. No one would ever believe me if I them that Theodore was responsible for murders from three years back.

        "It took me awhile to get here. I got lost from Zero on the drive back, but still knew where I was supposed to be going. I didn't get here until Theodore was standing with a gun pointed at Zero." She turned and looked at Zero. "That was when you started asking for him to shoot you, wasn't it Zero? When you saw me walk up behind them?"

        "Yes." Zero looked at the others, as their amazement grew.

        Kate continued. "It worked, though. It threw Theodore off. He didn't know what to do. And in the process, he confessed everything he did, not even knowing I was just about fifteen feet behind him. I only got behind the dumpsters to the alley when I could see the lights of your cars coming from far down the street." She looked to the policemen.

        The officers looked at each other. One spoke up. "Ok, in the future, we are going to need a full report from each of you concerning the details of your relationship with each of these men. We'll bring you down to the police station and get the answers we need. Is that ok with everyone?"

        They agreed.

        The officer continued. "I believe, though, that we need to get these men down to the jail and have them locked up for the night. Tomorrow they can talk to their lawyers and such. But for now, they are all highly suspected people. Are they guilty? Yes, I believe so. But as of now, highly suspected. But they will get what they deserve. They always do."

        A sigh of relief went through them all. Except for Zero. He turned to one of the officers, after having looking over to the police car. "Officers, may I have a quick word with one of them? Jacob Jones?"

        The officers looked at each other in question. "They are dangerous people. I do not think that..."

        "It will be fine. You've got an innocent bystander amongst that group who has just been caught up in the wrong ride. I need to speak just a few words to him, and you can have him back." Zero looked at them serious faced.

        The officers looked at each other, but reluctantly agreed.

        The four men all looked as Zero and an officer walked to JJ's side of the police car. Zero could hear Theodore's muffled cursing towards him through the glass of the other car.

        The officer unlocked the door, and led JJ out. Zero walked away a few feet, with JJ following him. Zero turned to him. "You're a good guy. You got caught up with Theodore, but everyone makes mistakes. You'll come out, though."

        Zero paused for a moment. "I just wanted to tell you that that was a brave thing you done when Theodore was about to fire off that gun. I couldn't reach it, but you did."

        JJ stood, speechless. He looked at Zero, wanting to say something, but couldn't get his mouth opened.

        Zero, having said what he intended to say, turned to walk away from him, back to Matt and the others.

        "Zero!" JJ called after him.

        Zero turned back around and looked at JJ in the eyes.

        JJ swallowed hard and looked Zero back in the eyes. "I just wanted to tell you thanks. And also, there's one other thing. Remember last year, when you were about to be sentenced for the murders that Theodore had done?"

        Zero nodded to him.

        JJ continued. "Well, it was me who discreetly gave them the information that withheld you from going to jail."

        "How?" Zero had always wanted to know what had happened there.

        "I have a relative who works in the police line. I told him of dates that would have made it impossible for you to be convicted of the crimes. He believed me."

        Zero was slightly confused. "How was that even possible? There was no evidence in my favor?"

        JJ smiled a sly grin. "Like I said. He believed me. That doesn't mean I didn't stretch something a little. But I couldn't just sit by and let an innocent man go to jail when I knew the real truth."

        Zero looked at him again. A smile broke over Zero's face. It was the first one in a long time. "Then Jacob, I thank you again. Good luck in whatever happens from here on out"

        "You too, Zero." The two nodded at each other.

        With that, the officer led JJ back to the police car. The two policemen waved off, then got in their respective cars and pulled out onto the street.

        Zero walked back up to the group. As he did, they all looked at each other. Fred was finally relaxed and calm. Matt was standing next to his girl, Erica, with his arm around her waist. Kate was standing; obviously looking like an enormous stress had been lifted off of her shoulder. And Zero was looking back up to his apartment. An apartment he knew was trashed. He was also the first one to speak.

        "It's been a rough day. And I think I have a little house cleaning to do from the redecorating Theodore and his associates done to it. So if you will excuse me for the night. It was nice meeting you, Kate. Mr. Storm, you too. Matt... stay home next time and that arm won't wind up like that again."

        They all smiled a relieving smile.

        Zero separated from the group and began to walk back to his apartment. The others would stay outside and talk for another hour before they all went their own separate ways as well.