Blood Trail - C. J. Box [108]
“I’ve fought through self-loathing before,” she said. “This is how I cut the head off that snake.”
Before pulling the trigger, Shenandoah took a second to glance over her shoulder in the direction where the shots had been fired, to make sure no one was on the ridge.
Which gave Joe the opportunity to shout, “Drop the rifle, Shenandoah! Drop it now! ”
He rose so she could see him behind the root pan. His shotgun was trained on her chest. She’d lowered the rifle when she turned and it stayed low.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Joe said. “Just let the rifle fall out of your hands and step back.”
She looked at Joe, surprised but not desperate. The look of single-minded determination was still on her face.
“This is over,” he said. “Please. You don’t want your daughter to be without her mother.”
He didn’t say, or her father.
Pope, for once, kept his mouth shut.
“I don’t want to go to prison,” she said softly.
“You may not have to,” Joe lied. “Lord knows you’ve got your reasons. Yours is a sympathetic case. This man assaulted you and then destroyed your reputation. Randy Pope will get what he deserves.”
She nodded as if acknowledging Joe’s words but discounting their meaning.
He hated himself.
“Just relax your hands, let the rifle drop.”
She did and it thumped onto the grass. Joe kept his shotgun on her as he walked around the root pan.
“Do you have any other weapons?” he asked.
She shook her head, then said, “I’ve got a skinning knife. I was going to cape him.”
“Don’t tell me that,” Joe said. “Now, ease out of your backpack and toss the knife aside.”
She slipped out of her pack and let it drop, then drew the knife from the sheath and tossed it a few feet away.
“Unlock me,” Pope said out of the side of his mouth as Joe passed the tree.
“Shut up,” Joe said. To Shenandoah, “Put your wrists together. You’re under arrest. I’ve got to take you in so we can sort this all out.”
He chose not to cuff her behind her back and humiliate her further. He slipped hard plastic Flex-Cuffs over her thin wrists and pulled them tight. She was small, almost delicate.
“I don’t want anyone to see me like this,” she said.
“Alisha doesn’t know, does she?”
“No.”
“You killed my friend Robey.”
“For that I’m eternally sorry,” she said, her eyes leaving Pope for a moment and softening. “That wasn’t meant to happen. It was an accident, and I’m so sorry.”
“Did Klamath kill Bill Gordon, or was that you?”
“It was Klamath. I’m very upset with my husband. I liked Bill very much.”
“Are you the Wolverine?”
She shook her head. “No. I think Bill was Wolverine. At least I always suspected he was leading Klamath on. I read the e-mail exchange and it inspired me.”
“Klamath is dead,” Joe said. “Those were the shots you heard. I’m sorry.”
She nodded, blinked. For a second the fire went out of her eyes.
“He was following you,” Joe said. “He ran into the sheriff’s men.”
“He knew it was me,” she said. “He never tried to stop me. I was accomplishing his goal while accomplishing mine.”
Joe couldn’t reply.
“I want Alisha to raise my daughter,” Shenandoah said.
“You don’t have to talk like that,” Joe said, feeling as if she’d kicked him in the gut. Her eyes were again fixed on Randy Pope.
She said, “Where is Nate?”
Joe chinned toward the granite ridge.
“Unlock me!” Pope shouted to Joe. “Get me out of here.”
Joe ignored him.
Shenandoah glared at Pope. “He was the worst of them all. He let his friends die. I need to finish this.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Joe,” Pope said. “This will ruin me if she talks, if she takes the stand. The girl was willing—more than willing. It happened years ago, the statute of limitations has passed. Why dredge it up again? Why let this woman bring it all back?”
It happened so quickly Joe could barely react. Like the point guard she once was, Shenandoah faked to her right, drawing Joe, then darted to her left under Joe’s outstretched hand. She ducked and snatched the knife from the grass at her feet and lunged at Pope.
Joe shouldered the shotgun, yelled, “Shenandoah, no! No!” but she sliced the blade