A Cupboard full of Skeletons 2

Eric Lenard had never felt so threatened.

A chronic womanizer with a loving wife at home, he'd wanted to keep this affair a secret always. Always. Always.

And then, of all people to catch him in such a compromising situation, it was this man. Father Manuel. The priest at his very own parish. There was no escaping the fact that he would be exposed.

The priest would do it in the name of being 'a good servant of the Lord.'.

But to him, that meant scandal, disgrace, and divorce. The divorce would be accompanied by payments of alimony that would condemn his finances. There was no chance of reasoning this with the Priest, he wouldn't yield.

The Priest had to be eliminated.

But there were still some outstanding questions to be answered. Why was the Priest coming out o that blogger's room by this late hour? Why was he holding a crucifix which was stained with something red - blood? And finally, why was the Priest walking towards him even though his room was right opposite the blogger's?

A showdown was inevitable.

As both men passed each other, there was tension, the tension so raw and tangible. The tension that hung in the air and choked both of them.

As soon as Lenard turned to grab the Priest, he was shocked to see the other man leaping towards him, crucifix in hand.

He easily dodged it and wrestled it out of the Priest's hands, before knocking the man to the ground and covering his nose and mouth. He couldn't afford to strangle him and break his windpipe; an investigation would pin it on him.

Kneeling down on the Priest's abdomen, he brought his elbow down hard on the old man's chest and covered his nostrils and mouth tighter. Within seconds, the Priest's eyes rolled back in their sockets.

Father Manuel was dead.

"Phew..." Lenard breathed, standing up. Then he noticed a shadow cast on the ground. A shadow that was from a person standing right behind him. He froze in fright as he turned to meet the terrified eyes of Lionel Mark, the Navy Seal.

Lionel Mark had seen something he was not supposed to see.

'Why? Why'd you have to see that? Why'd you have to make me do what I'm about to do now?" Lenard said, picking up the

"Calm down, man. I'm not your enemy. I'm not gonna snitch on you. Why did you do it, man? T-that was insane," Lionel said, trying to sound less menacing as he thought of ways

"He saw something he wasn't supposed to see. The same with you, you're a Seal, aren't you? That's still part of the Law and whatever. I'm not going down, not to prison, not to a divorce suit, nothing! One of us must go down, and my secret must be preserved!"

He lunged at the Seal, but even with the weapon, he was outmatched. With one punch, he was sent crashing to the ground. He rose up again, but the Seal lifted him up and threw him back down.

This time, he didn't land well. Dropping right on his head and then hitting his neck at an unusual angle, Eric Lenard cracked his skull and shattered cervical vertebrae.

He was dead.

The Seal rushed over to his corpse, panicking. He had meant to incapacitate the man, at least render him unconscious. Adrenaline had kicked in and had forced him into overdrive. He was hyperventilating. His mission here would be heavily jeopardized if this was...

Footsteps approached him quickly, and before he could turn, a metal rod was jammed into his ear. It went in a smooth trajectory to his brain, causing a hemorrhage.

Lionel Mark was dead.

His assailant smiled, holding a couple of files in her hand. It was the actress, Marie Aubert.

"You couldn't report this 'accidental' killing because no one knows you're here. In fact, your mission here is one that is horribly cruel. You're selling information pertaining to the military facilities and plans of your country to the enemy," she said to no one in particular, since the man this message would have suited was dead.

She had two people to kill amongst the five that had come to the motel.

The US Navy Seal. The files she'd gotten from his room contained sensitive military intelligence, something she could sell on the black market for a sizeable amount. She intercepted Lionel's calls just in time to learn of this journey.

Eric Lenard. The fool did not know his wife had found out about the extramarital affairs and had sent out the revenge mission to her old friend, Aubert, who was coincidentally an actress who 'occasionally acted' as an assassin. She was doing this for free, but she did have a few rounds with the man anyway. No reason not to mix business with pleasure.

Maire Aubert was an assassin. The acting job was a front.

As she stealthily broke out of the motel, she thought about the great story that the motel management would have to tell the next day.