AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m busy talking to—”
I cut her off. “Shut up and listen. Hostage situation. Armed suspect in Kelly’s house. I’m going to try entry through the back. Make it a silent approach. No MPD.” I hung up and flicked the phone to silent. The last thing I needed was Dempsey calling me back to tell me to hold off.
As soon as I returned the phone to my pocket, it vibrated with Dempsey’s name on the screen. The phone was off by the time I made my way to the back porch steps.
The yelling had started again inside. Baldy was a maniac, claiming something was all Kelly’s fault, and she should have left well enough alone.
I concentrated on making it up the stairs silently. Outside the back door, luck was still on my side: the key slipped in and gentle pressure turned the lock. As I cracked open the door, it was clear they wouldn’t be able to see me if I opened it enough to enter.
I drew my weapon.
I could only hope the door didn’t squeak.
* * *
Kelly
Heiden slid aroundto the other side of the room, keeping his distance, apparently worried I might pounce and disarm him somehow.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked when I got my breath back.
“Shut up. All you had to do was follow instructions.”
He made no sense at all. He hadn’t asked me to do anything.
He waved the gun toward the door leading to the front this time. “Move.”
I slid sideways slowly on shaky legs. “What did I not do?”
“She’s dead because of you.” When he reached my phone, he smashed it twice with the butt of the ugly gun.
I left the kitchen and started toward the front. “Who?” I asked as softly as I could.
“Mom,” he yelled. “You killed my mom.” He’d slipped into serious delusions.
I’d never even met his mother.
He followed me. “Evelyn did what she was told. She grabbed the rocks and hid them in your purse. All you had to do was carry them out and bring them to the office Monday. Why couldn’t you get that right?”
I didn’t attempt an answer. I was about to die, and I never got to tell Adam how much I loved him—or why I’d done what I had.
* * *
Adam
I slowly opened the door,just far enough to scoot through it. It hadn’t squeaked. Just as gently, I closed it.
Just after I got it shut, a leaf blower started in the neighbor’s yard. If that had started up a few seconds earlier, it could have been bad.
Sliding to the left, I stopped by the fridge.
“Stop right there,” Baldy said loudly from the other room.
I ducked lower.
“If you’d just done what you were supposed to, I’d have had the money for the new treatments, and she’d still be with us.”
None of it made any sense, but a man waving a gun often didn’t.
