Yes. It was less than a foot away, its hot engine causing steam to rise in the cold weather.
Bolstered by a fresh surge of adrenaline, she glanced at Wesley. He was a few feet away and had drawn his gun. The rain was pouring down but she could see him well enough to know he had the muzzle pointed right at her.
Would he kill her in front of this stranger?
A resounding blast told her he’d try. She didn’t even have the energy to duck. She felt a burning sensation in her right arm and realized dimly that he wasn’t giving up, wasn’t afraid of whoever drove the car. He’d probably kill them, too. What would stop him?
Nothing.
The woman who shoved the gearshift into park and opened her door to poke her head out had to be at least seventy-five. It was an old lady with gray hair, and she couldn’t be more than five feet tall. “I just about hit you!” she cried. “What the heck are you doing?”
And then she seemed to understand what the blast had been about. As she spotted Wesley and his gun, terror dawned on her wrinkled face.
Latisha hadn’t saved herself. She was going to die-along with some white person’s grandmother.
Twenty-Four
Malcolm used his sleeve to wipe the rain from his eyes. He could feel the beat of his heart all the way to his fingertips, but it was okay. He could still salvage this situation. All he had to do was shoot the old lady, hide her car in the barn and drag Latisha home. Maybe he’d keep her around for another night. Maybe he’d kill her slowly. He’d have the luxury of deciding once he got rid of the driver. He’d bury both bodies tomorrow, after he’d had a chance to sleep. There’d be no real hurry, not out here where there was no one to see what he was doing.
Turning his pistol on the old woman, he squeezed off another shot, but the car stood between them and acted as a barricade. She was too damned short. He adjusted, tried to fire again-but she was quicker than he expected and jumped back in the car.
The thought crossed his mind to shoot her through the windshield. He couldn’t let her escape. But she didn’t give him the chance. Gunning the engine, she yanked the transmission into drive and steered right for him.
She was trying to kill him!
Diving to avoid being hit, he landed hard. A rock bruised his hip and his knee, some thorny bush scratched his face and he lost his gun. As he patted the ground, searching frantically for it, he heard a thin voice yell, “Get in!”
A door slammed shut the same second he found the warm metal of his pistol. With his chest rising and falling as if he was in the middle of a marathon, he grabbed it and turned to fire. He was a good shot. He could still solve this.
But he was too late. The old lady’s taillights glowed through the rain, but she was already half a mile down the road and racing away faster by the second.
Undeterred, he fired several shots. This couldn’t be happening, he told himself. No way had he just allowed Latisha and a witness to escape!
But that was exactly what he’d done. Far as he could tell, he hadn’t even hit the damn car.
After emptying his gun in the direction they’d gone, he sank to his knees. “Son of a bitch! I’m going to kill you for this. I’m going to kill you both!” he screamed. But when the rage receded, he knew there wasn’t a thing he could do to either of them. They were gone. He had to go to the house, pack his belongings and get the hell out. Maybe Latisha wouldn’t be able to lead the police to this place. But he was fairly certain the old lady could pinpoint exactly where she’d been accosted.
“What is it?” Sebastian murmured. Like Kate, he’d heard the phone ring. They both stood at Jane’s bedroom door, listening to her talk to David.
“Latisha escaped,” she told him.
“Is she okay?”
Brushing her hair out of her face, she sat up. She’d answered the phone automatically and hadn’t really comprehended the first few words. But the meaning of what David had told her, what she’d just repeated to Sebastian, was beginning to sink in, and she could hardly believe it. Latisha was alive-alive! Thank God! “She’s been shot, but the bullet passed through her arm and didn’t cause any lasting damage.”
“Does Gloria know?”
Jane repeated the question to David, a question she would already have asked if she’d been coherent. It was barely an hour before she had to get up, but with Sebastian in the living room, she’d spent another sleepless night. Although she hadn’t been with him physically, she’d tossed and turned, thinking about him.
“She was pretty delirious when the doctors first saw her,” David said. “An older lady brought her in-a Louise Stetzel.”
“How did Mrs. Stetzel find her?”
“I’m still piecing that together, but I wanted to give you a heads-up. I thought you might like to call Gloria while I deal with the situation around here.”
That was sweet of David. He understood how personally invested she’d become in this case. Maybe they’d been enemies six years ago, but he was now one of her favorite people. “Of course.” Imagining Gloria’s relief, Jane felt her eyes swim with tears. “I’ll call her right away.”
A click signaled that he was gone. After returning the phone to her nightstand, Jane focused on Sebastian and Kate.
“Who’s Latisha?” Kate asked.
“Remember that person I told you about after the last time we got a call in the middle of the night?”
She came into the room. “The one who needed help?”
“Yeah.”
Hope filled her innocent face. “She’s okay now?”
“She’s okay.”
Kate walked around to give her a hug. “I knew you could do it, Mom!”
Jane laughed weakly. “I did my best, but I don’t get the credit for this.” It could easily have gone the other way; she was surprised it hadn’t.
Sebastian stood by the door. He was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and a T-shirt.
“Did you find out if Gloria knows?” he asked. He was relieved, too. She could hear it in his voice.
“I’m about to tell her.” She nudged Kate, who’d plopped down beside her. “Will you run out to the kitchen and get my cell phone, sweetie? Gloria’s number is in my address book.”
Kate jumped up and, squeezing past Sebastian, hurried out of the room. She returned seconds later and handed Jane her cell. “Who’s Gloria?” she asked.
“Latisha’s sister,” Jane explained.