J. Jance - Trial By Fire

The whole time she had been climbing down the bank and scrabbling around in the sand, she had been half listening for the sound of gunshots. Even if a shoot-out occurred a mile or more away, she expected that the sounds of weapons being fired would travel long distances in this empty landscape. Once or twice she heard what sounded like the remote clatter of the helicopter’s rotating blades.

Now, though, fanning Sister Anselm’s bright red face, Ali heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. Since it was clearly coming from the east, Ali realized at once that it wasn’t a backup vehicle, since those would be coming from the west. The approaching vehicle was traveling fast. Ali knew that meant it had to be an SUV. No older-model sedan could make that kind of headway on the rutted road.

“More water,” Sister Anselm murmured. “Please.”

Giving her more water was a two-handed procedure. Ali had to let go of the blanket in order to pick up the bottle of water. After saturating the hunk of gauze again, she returned it to Sister Anselm’s lips.

Ali was about to pick up the blanket again when she heard a metallic ka-chunk. A distinctive sound. The sound of a shotgun round being chambered. She froze.

“Where are the keys?” a man’s voice said. “I want the keys!”

Ali glanced up. The man stood at the top of the bank, aiming a loaded shotgun down into the gully. Ali knew enough about shotguns to understand that, from that range, being hit by a blast from a shotgun would be fatal.

“Bring me the keys,” he ordered. “Now!”

Ali realized in a split second what must have happened. Somehow the bad guy had managed to take possession of the Gila County deputy’s vehicle. Had the deputy also been shot?

Far in the background, Ali heard the distant clatter of the helicopter, but what did that mean? Had the shooter somehow managed to baffle Agent Robson and the others in the helicopter with a change of vehicles? If so, by now they must have realized their error.

They were coming, but Ali knew they were too far away to provide any kind of counterforce to the man staring down from the bank with his finger clamped to the trigger of a loaded shotgun.

She stood up and faced him. He was a small man, middle-aged and balding. He had a slight paunch beneath a worn Grateful Dead T-shirt and jeans. He was the kind of man who wouldn’t merit a second glance in a grocery store or post office, but with a shotgun in his hands, he commanded her absolute attention.

“Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want?”

“Insurance,” he said. “You’re my ticket out. Come here now or I’ll kill you both.”

Ali glanced down at the woman lying at her feet. Sister Anselm was helpless, and perhaps near death. Looking into the barrel of that shotgun, Ali realized that she, too, was near death. But she wasn’t helpless. Her knees may have been knocking, her heart hammering wildly in her chest, but Ali was armed. Sister Anselm was not.

“Move!” he ordered.

He probably wouldn’t expect that she would be carrying a weapon. It occurred to Ali that once she started climbing the bank, she might be out of his line of vision long enough to draw her Glock, but that wouldn’t be easy, especially since climbing down into the gully had been a two-handed job. She suspected that climbing back up would require both hands as well.

She had no idea how long she hesitated, but it was too long for his purposes. “I mean now!” he ordered. “Move or I start shooting.”

Ali didn’t doubt that he meant it. She moved, plowing through the hard-packed sand and making her way toward the steep bank. Approaching it, she looked for a route that would provide some cover.

“Come up right here,” he called, pointing with the barrel of his weapon.

“I can’t,” she said. “It’s too steep. The dirt crumbles when you step on it.”

She started up, grabbing at a clump of dried grass halfway up the bank to give herself some purchase. Once she pulled herself up to that, she glanced up at the bank. She could still see the shooter, which meant he could still see her as well. She needed more time, and a better route.

With her next step Ali deliberately misplaced her foot. The fragile bank gave way beneath her and she went slipping back down, all the way to the sandy bottom. It was a controlled fall. She was scratched and scraped as she fell, but she landed relatively unhurt. In the process of sliding down the bank, however, the bottom of her top had hiked up above her waist. She pulled it down quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen the holster.

“Come on, come on,” he screamed at her. “You can do better than that.”

The sound of the helicopter was closer now, hovering far overhead, well out of range. No wonder he was growing more agitated. There was always a possibility that if he panicked, he might pull the trigger accidentally.

Trying not to think about that, Ali moved several feet down the bank and farther away from Sister Anselm before she made her next attempt to ascend. She knew she couldn’t pull the same stunt twice. If she fell again, he’d probably run out of patience and start blasting away at her. She took a calming breath, trying to steady her shaking hands and trembling knees before she started back up.

This time she chose a spot just beyond the place where another massive lichen-covered boulder, not unlike the one up next to the road, had tumbled into the creek bed. She hoped the bulge of outcropping rock would give her sufficient cover to do what needed to be done.

“Get a move on!”

“I’m trying,” she said.

Holding her breath, she paused behind the rock long enough to move the Glock from her small-of-the-back holster to the front of the elastic waistband on her battered pink tracksuit. She knew that wasn’t necessarily the safest option, but at that point, with a dangerous killer holding a gun on her, safety was relative and her waistband provided the easiest access.

“Drop it!”

Damn! Ali thought. He saw me.

“I said drop it and get on the ground!” the menacing voice repeated. “Now! You’re surrounded. There’s no way out.”

But I am on the ground, she thought.

The thought came and went in an instant before she realized what must have happened. Backup really had arrived.

Before the words to another thought could form in her head, the hot desert air exploded in a barrage of deafening gunfire. Ali’s heart hammered in her chest as she flattened herself behind the rock, burying her face in the sandy bank.

She worked the Glock out of her waistband. If the shooter somehow escaped his pursuers and came her way, Ali was determined to be ready for him. If it came to that, she would pull the trigger. She wouldn’t let him escape.

The first roar of the shotgun was followed by at least a dozen more shots. Listening to the firefight, Ali thought it went on for an eternity. Stray bullets ricocheted off boulders, kicking up a spray of splintery rocks and dirt. Then, as suddenly as the gun battle had begun, it ended. The sudden silence was punctuated by a terrible scream-a scream of agony-followed by more silence, almost as deafening as the gunfire had been loud.

Ali watched in horror as a bloodied figure tumbled end over end down the bank and into the ravine. Halfway down, the shotgun separated itself from the body and went skittering off in another direction. The shooter hit the ground headfirst without doing anything to break his fall. Ali heard a fearsome crack and knew right then that his neck was broken. He tumbled twice more, finally coming to rest a half dozen feet away from Sister Anselm.

Somehow that seemed fair.

“Don’t shoot,” Ali called to whoever was up there as she quickly tucked her weapon back into her holster. “Sister Anselm and I are here-in the gully.”