Клэр Донелли - Catch As Cat Can

Two more shots roared out, and the biker reeled, an almost comical look of astonishment on his face as he looked down, his free hand plucking at his chest. He tried to bring his gun around, but it dropped from his fingers. Then his knees gave out, and he toppled onto his back.

“Everybody all right?” Will ran forward, kicking the pistol farther from Kilbane’s hand.

He knelt beside Neil, feeling his neck for a pulse. “Everybody on board, I mean.”

Sunny poked her head a little higher, succesfully heaving up onto her knees. “We’re okay. Just tied up,” she said.

Will nodded and started back down the pier. Sunny managed to get to her feet, waving her taped-together wrists. “Hey, aren’t you going to cut us loose?”

“After I call in for backup—and an ambulance,” he shouted over his shoulder.

Will was back in a few minutes, clambering onto the boat, then freezing for an embarrassed moment when he realized he still had his pistol in his hand. Will quickly holstered it under his coat, then reached into his pocket to pull out a folding knife. With the help of that, he quickly sliced away the tape from around Sunny’s wrists.

As soon as she was free, Will pressed the knife into her hand. “Take care of the others. I’m going to do what I can for Neil.”

He dropped back to the dock, took off his coat, folded it up, and put it to Neil’s chest, both hands on top.

A pressure bandage, Sunny realized.

“What about Kilbane?” she called, cutting her ankles free.

Will just shook his head.

Now that Sunny could move around, she got to work getting the tape off Abby and Mike. She was especially careful getting the tape gag off Abby’s mouth. Lips are always more fragile in wintertime, and the sticky stuff from the tape could pull off skin and turn a mild case of chapped lips into a bloody mess. Sunny succeeded in getting Abby ungagged without any terrible consequences.

Abby grimaced a couple of times, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. Then she said, “That man kidnapped me right out of the supermarket parking lot! I never even managed to get in and do my shopping.” She peered down at the dock. “Is he—?”

Mike took her by the arm. “Some things you just don’t want to see.”

As he spoke, Sunny slipped over the side of the boat to land on the pier.

Mike sighed. “And then there’s my daughter the reporter.”

She walked over to where Will was working on Neil Garret. “How’s he doing?”

“Losing a lot of blood.” Will’s face was pale. “I knew there was trouble as soon as I spotted your car there—empty. So I drew my weapon and advanced while these two were playing Gunfight at the OK Corral.” He glanced toward the landward end of the pier. “It’s just as well. Where the hell is that backup?”

Actually, the first reinforcements to arrive weren’t police, but Val Overton and the federal marshals. Her lips thinned to a tight line as Will and Sunny brought her up to date on why Neil had slipped away—and what he’d done since. “The news vultures are going to be all over this story—sorry, Sunny, but you know the people I mean.”

“No offense taken,” Sunny assured her. “Some of my best friends were vultures.”

“So, unless you want to deal with them, Will, I’ll take over here.”

Will breathed a sigh of relief. “Gladly,” he said. “As it is, there are people in the department that like to think I’m too fond of the media spotlight.”

Like Captain Dan Ingersoll, Sunny thought.

The second wave of first responders to put in an appearance was the ambulance. Paramedics immediately took over from Will and went screaming off with Neil on a gurney and a deputy marshal riding shotgun as a bodyguard.

“Executive decision,” Val said. “Neil may have left our custody, but I’m ruling he didn’t actually leave WitSec.”

After that, it was a dead heat between the first police cruisers arriving and the onslaught of the TV news vans. Will got Ben Semple in his blue constable’s uniform and several deputies in sheriff’s department green to run interference, keeping the media people at a reasonable distance while Val’s people made a few preparations, like covering Yancey Kilbane’s body with black plastic sheeting.

Will paid no attention, having other things on his mind. “Where were you guys?” he hissed to Ben, who shrugged in reply.

“The first I heard of anything going on was a report of shots fired. So I hauled butt away from outlet-land and came here,” Ben said, but he looked troubled.

So much for bypassing 911 in hopes of getting a jump on things, Sunny thought. Apparently some folks in headquarters must have decided Will was telling tall tales. She pursed her lips tightly to keep those notions from spilling out. That could have gotten him—gotten all of us—killed.

The cameras had assembled by now, and Val stepped forward, showing her silver star. “I’m Deputy U.S. Marshal Valerie Overton. We had a shooting incident here tonight, an attempt to murder a person in the Witness Security Program—what’s commonly called witness protection.”

She made a brief statement, not mentioning Neil Garret nor his previous name, but identifying Yancey Kilbane, or rather, tentatively identifying him subject to fingerprint evidence. Just as she was finishing up, a screaming police cruiser arrived and Captain Ingersoll and Sheriff Lenore Nesbit arrived.

“We’d like to thank local law enforcement for their help and quick response to keep this attempt from becoming a tragedy,” Val said as the sheriff and the captain hurriedly huddled with Will, trying to catch up on what was going on. That was something Sunny wasn’t let in on, but from a distance, she watched Lenore Nesbit’s expression as she listened and then saw her talking sharply to Ingersoll.

However, Lenore was graciousness itself when she joined Val to face a pack of reporters rabid for answers to their questions. “We’re still ascertaining all the details for this incident,” she told them. “We’ll need statements from several witnesses and from the officer involved.” She softened a little to seem a bit more human. “We’re also dispatching an officer to reassure the family of one of the witnesses that she is all right.”

Sunny saw Ingersoll whispering to Ben Semple, who jumped into his cruiser like a shot. Off to Mrs. M., she thought. Good.

After the usual media hoedown was concluded, Sunny, Mike, and Abby were escorted to the sheriff’s office in Levett to give statements about what happened. Will, of course, was expected to write a report.

They arrived to find Helena Martinson already there, courtesy of a ride in a prowl car by Ben Semple. Mrs. M. wrapped her arms around Abby. “Safe. Safe. Thank God she’s safe.” She opened one arm to embrace Mike, who quickly pulled Sunny into a group hug.

“We’re all safe,” he said, “all of us.”

*

In the end,Abby had to extend her vacation by a few more days, waiting for the media frenzy to wear down. But at last they were yesterday’s news. Sunny took a day off herself to organize a farewell dinner. She wanted to make something that Abby was unlikely to find in California, the land of light food. Finally, she settled on pot roast with ginger snap gravy, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots.

Delicious scents came wafting from the kitchen to fill the whole house as she worked with Mike to set the table with the good china. Five places—for Helena and Mike, Sunny and Will, and Abby.

The Martinsons arrived first, Mrs. M. bearing the usual coffee cake, Abby with a bottle of red wine. “I know this feast is supposed to be the opposite of West Coast cuisine, but I didn’t think that would disqualify a California wine.”