David Baldacci - Simple Genius

One of the cops, eyeing the destroyed room, said, “You okay, ma’am?”

Barry groaned from the floor, “You idiot! I’m the one who’s hurt. I need a doctor. She attacked me. ”

“This is my room. He came in with the lead pipe over there, his prints are all over it,” Michelle said. “He tried to pay me back for crashing the little drug op he had going with the pharmacist here. My guess is they were fudging the computer records on the drug inventories so the theft wouldn’t show up and old Barry here was shipping them out to his street team under the cover of patients in the locked ward here sending out packages.” She glanced down at the beaten man. “As you can see, things didn’t work out exactly as he’d planned.”

The cops hauled Barry up, despite his protests of devastating injury, cuffed him and read him his rights.

“We’ll need your statement, ma’am,” one of the cops said.

“Oh, and I’m just dying to give it.”

They’d holstered their weapons and were leading Barry out when everyone froze. In the doorway was Sandy in her wheelchair. However, everyone was fixated not on the woman but on the gun she was holding.

ONE COP’S HAND FLEW to his sidearm, but Sandy yelled, “Don’t!” She gripped the gun with both hands. “Don’t,” she said again. “I don’t want to hurt you, just him,” she added, motioning with the pistol to Barry.

She settled her gaze back on him and said, “Don’t recognize me, do you? No reason you should. You didn’t come there that day to kill me; you came to murder the best man. But you missed and got the groom instead. My husband!”

Barry sucked in a breath and Sandy smiled even more broadly. “Oh, now it’s coming back to you.” She shook her head. “What a bad shot you were. Killed my husband, left me a cripple and missed your target. Your mob bosses must’ve been real pissed off at you for that.”

Now Michelle stepped forward and the pistol moved around to point at her.

Sandy said, “Michelle, don’t act the hero here. I really don’t want to hurt you. But I will if you try and stop me from giving this piece of trash what he should’ve gotten a long time ago.”

“Sandy, you don’t have to do this. Barry’s being arrested for drug-dealing. He’s going to go away for a long time.”

“No, he won’t, Michelle.”

“Sandy, we have the evidence, he’s busted.”

“He’s in Witness Protection. They’re going to cover it up just like they’ve done in the past.”

Michelle turned to look at Barry and then back at Sandy. “Witness Protection?”

“He ratted on his mob bosses and did no time in jail for killing the man I loved; the feds looked the other way because he helped bring down a major crime family. And they’re going to look the other way on this. Isn’t that right, Barry, or should I call you by your real name, Anthony Bender?”

Barry smiled and said, “Don’t know what you’re talking about. And if you try and shoot me you’re going down too.”

“You think I care? You took the only thing from me I ever cared about. Ever!”

“I’m crying inside for you, little miss cripple.”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Sandy screamed, her finger edging to the trigger. The cops were looking steadily at Sandy’s weapon. Michelle sensed this, turned and mouthed something to each of them. Then she slid between Barry and Sandy.

“Sandy, give me the gun. He’s going to jail this time, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Right.” Barry laughed.

Michelle whirled around. “Shut up, you idiot.” She turned back to Sandy.

“He will go to prison, I swear it. Now give me the gun.”

“Michelle, get out of the way. I’ve spent years tracking this bastard down and now I’m going to finish it.”

“He took your husband and your legs from you. Don’t let him take the life you have left.”

“What life? You call this a life?”

“You can help other people, Sandy. That’s worth a lot.”

“I can’t even help myself, so how can I help anybody else?”

“You’ve helped me. ” Michelle took another step forward. “You helped me,” she added more quietly. “You’re not a criminal. You’re not a killer.

You’re a good person. Don’t let him take that from you.”

The gun wavered a bit in Sandy’s hand, but then it became very rigid and her voice calmed.

“I’m sorry, Michelle. You’re right. I can’t kill that filth even if he does deserve it.”

“That’s right, Sandy. Now give me the gun.”

“Goodbye, Michelle.”

“What!”

Sandy placed the gun against her temple and squeezed the trigger. The click reverberated around the room. Sandy squeezed the trigger again and then again, yet no bullet flew out to end her life. She looked stunned as Michelle walked up and slipped the gun out of her hand.

“I took the bullets out earlier.”

Sandy stared up at her in amazement. “How, how did you know?”

“Dirt on your fingers and dirt on the floor. People don’t normally ferret around in the soil of a flower basket. I knew something was in there.”

“Why didn’t you just take the gun then?” one of the cops grumbled. “If you hadn’t alerted us just now that it was empty we might have shot her.”

Michelle took hold of one of Sandy’s trembling hands. “I thought she might have to play this out, to get on with her life. To see what she was and wasn’t capable of.” Michelle smiled tenderly at the woman. “Sometimes that’s the best therapy of all.”

“You knew about Barry?” she said.

“I hadn’t figured that he was the one who shot your husband, but I saw you watching him and could sense you had some interest in him. I didn’t know about the Witness Protection angle though.”

“By the way,” Barry began confidently. “Call my handler at the U.S. Marshals Service. His name is Bob Truman, right in D.C.”

Michelle brightened. “Bobby Truman?”

Barry looked at her blankly. “You know him?”

“I should. I won a silver medal in the Olympics with his daughter. When I tell him what happened, you’ll be fortunate to see sunlight before you’re eighty. Must be my lucky day.”

They took Barry away, kicking and screaming. The cops made some noise about charging Sandy, but Michelle ultimately dissuaded them from doing so. “Do you really want to fill out the paperwork on that one? And besides, every wife in America would be screaming at you for being jerks,” she added, staring pointedly at the wedding band on one of the cop’s fingers.

“The gun was unloaded,” that cop said nervously to his partner.

The other cop said, “Screw it, I don’t need the hassle. But we’re taking the weapon.”

Michelle wheeled Sandy back to her room and spent some time talking to her. When Michelle got back to her room, she heard a whimpering sound. She opened the bathroom door and Cheryl nearly fell out.

“Cheryl, I’m sorry, I forgot all about you.” Michelle led the quivering woman over to her bed and sat down with her. Then she spotted the straw on the floor, picked it up and handed it to her. To her surprise Cheryl didn’t start sucking on it. Instead she clung tightly to Michelle’s shoulders. Michelle could feel the woman’s sharp bones against her skin.

Michelle sighed, then smiled and hugged the woman back. “I hear they’re having a really good session on eating disorders tonight. What say we go together? After dinner. ”

In a tremulous whisper, Cheryl said, “You don’t have an eating disorder.”

“Are you kidding? Cheryl, I ate the Salisbury steak, a double helping. And actually liked it. If that’s not a disorder, I don’t know what is.”