Ken Douglas - Gecko

“ Police?” She turned to look behind.

“ I don’t think so.”

The Ford accelerated.

“ They have a gun!” Roma screamed.

Jim turned, saw a cannon-like shotgun sticking out of the passenger window.

He stomped on the clutch, dropped the Porsche back into first. The rear wheels started spinning as he cut off a FedEx van in the left lane as he made a screeching left turn against the light. He heard the shotgun go off, felt the car jerk. Then he heard the crash as the Ford plowed into the van. He grabbed a glance into the rearview in time to see it bounce off.

“ They’re still coming!” she said.

“ They can’t keep up with us.” He checked the mirror. “Shit! We got smoke coming from the back.”

Then they lost power.

“ They must have hit the engine,” she said.

“ Yeah.” He slammed on the brakes. “Come on. We’ve got to run for it!”

They jumped out of the car as the dented Ford came screaming up behind them. The driver stood on his own brakes, but he wasn’t quick enough and the Ford slammed into the rear of the Porsche.

“ Let’s go!” Jim grabbed her by the hand, led her, running between two houses.

The way to the alley behind was blocked by a white, two foot fence. The gate was locked, but they didn’t know it, because they jumped the fence and headed into the alley. They had a fifty yard head start on their pursuers.

“ Quick, through the gate!” Jim pushed Roma through a wire fence gate just as they heard the boom of the shotgun. They dashed through a backyard, ran along the side of an old wooden house, burst out onto a residential street.

“ Which way?” Roma said.

“ Cross the street.” Jim led her across, up the driveway of another house, into another backyard. “No gate,” he said. “I’ll boost you over.” He laced his fingers together, made a stirrup for Roma to step into. “Come on, quick.”

She stepped into his fingers and he bit his lip against the pain shooting up his broken arm as he boosted her up. She pulled herself over as Jim grabbed onto the top of the fence and struggled, trying to pull himself up. It had been a long time since he had to physically exert himself and he was out of shape. He didn’t think he was going to make it.

“ There they are!”

The voice sent a lightning bolt of straight fear through Jim, forcing him to draw from a hidden reservoir of strength. He pulled himself up and over the fence as the shotgun blasted again. He felt, as well as heard, the pellets flying over his head.

“ Run,” he wheezed, grabbing Roma’s hand. They took off down the alley, but this time it was Roma who was doing the helping.

“ Come on, Jimmy, Come on,” she pleaded, and he fought to keep going.

“ There,” he said, and Roma opened a gate into still another backyard.

They dashed through and she screamed as a German Shepherd sank its teeth into her forearm, dragging her onto the lawn.

“ No.” Jim slammed his cast down on the dog’s head, knocking it out or killing it, he didn’t know. Then he helped her up. “The house,” he said, and they limped across the yard, opened and entered the back door of a pleasant, peaceful-looking home. The back window blew out right after Jim slammed the door.

“ What’s going on?” an elderly lady screamed.

“ Take her into the bathroom.” Jim was still wheezing. “Lock the door, get down and don’t come out till I come back.”

“ Where?” Roma said to the lady.

“ This way!” The woman might have been old, but she wasn’t stupid.

Jim opened the front door, then dashed around the side of the house just as the back door burst open. He ran up the driveway and into the backyard. He reentered the back door as the two men erupted through the front, back onto the residential street.

“ Where did they go?” one voice asked.

“ Don’t know,” a second voice answered.

Then they heard sirens off in the distance.

“ Time to get out of here,” first voice said.

“ Ditch the gun.”

First voice tossed the shotgun into the old lady’s living room, then closed the door.

Jim picked up the shotgun and started for the front door, opened it in time to see them calmly walking away.

“ Don’t!” Donna shouted the thought at him.

“ Why not?”

“ You’ve been lucky. Don’t press it. You’ll just wind up back in jail.”

“ You’re right.” He tossed the shotgun onto a sofa that had seen better days and called out. “It’s okay, you can come out now.” He sat on an overstuffed chair, as old as the sofa, to catch his breath.

“ Are you all right?” Roma asked, coming into the living room.

“ Yeah, the sirens chased them away.”

“ You’re Jim Monday. I recognized you the second you came in the back door. I voted for you. All four times.”

“ Thanks, not many did that last time.”

“ I’m Edna Lambert.”

“ Pleased to meet you, This is my sister-in-law, Roma.”

“ You want me to call 9-1-1?” She picked up a telephone.

“ No, please don’t,” Jim said. “I’m in trouble. I need to think. I need some rest.”

“ No matter what it is, young man, you can count on me.”

“ Maybe not after you hear what I have to say.”

“ Try me.”

“ For starters, I think I might have killed your dog. It bit Roma.”

“ Good for you, I never liked that dog. It was my dead husband’s and you want to know a secret? I never really liked him either. Two years the man’s been dead and they’ve been just about the happiest years of my life. The only thing dragging me down was that damn dog. I’d have killed him myself, if I could have brought myself to do it.”

“ Why didn’t you call the pound?” Roma asked, looking at her arm. Miraculously the bite hadn’t broken the skin.

“ Well, that would be just about the same as killing him, wouldn’t it?”

“ You could have left the gate open and let him wander away.” Roma didn’t seem to want to let it go.

“ Don’t think I didn’t try that. Damn dog wouldn’t leave.”

“ The police are after me for murder,” Jim interrupted.

“ Well, you didn’t do it.”

“ How do you know?”

“ If you did, you wouldn’t be telling me about it.”

Jim smiled and he found himself retelling the last twenty-four hours for the second time that morning.

“ What are you going to do now?” Edna Lambert asked when he finished

“ That’s a good question, Mrs. Lambert,” Roma said.

“ Call me Edna.”

“ Thank you, I will,” Roma said.

“ And I repeat,” Edna said, “what are you going to do now, Jim?”

“ I don’t know. I’m convinced Kohler is behind this somehow, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why, unless he figures with me dead, he can marry Julia and get all of my money. But he’s loaded, at least that’s the impression he gives and besides, he’s getting half of it as it is. So on the surface it doesn’t make much sense. But he was waiting at that window and I saw that look in his eyes.”

“ I know you’re hurting because Julia left you for Dr. Kohler, but really, Jim, I think you’re way off base,” Roma said.

“ I don’t. It sounds right to me. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that that doctor is bankrupt,” Edna said.

“ But he still gets half my money.”

“ I can give you at least three reasons why he might want to kill you,” the old woman said.

“ Okay go.”

“ One, maybe half your money isn’t enough. Two, maybe your wife still has some feeling for you, maybe her mind isn’t all the way made up. With you dead her choice is clear. And three, maybe Dr. Kohler just plain and simple hates the thought of you being alive. Some men can’t live with the thought that their woman has been with someone else. And I just thought of a fourth reason. His name.”