Double Take - Catherine Coulter [34]
“I shouldn’t have told him not to move, all I had to do was shoot him and keep firing like you told me, but I didn’t. Then I shot my lamp. I’m a moron. But I did shoot him in the arm, so that’s something. Maybe he’ll get blood poisoning, you think?”
Her voice was manic high. When she crashed, he knew it would take her to the mat for hours. She went on talking, repeating herself another two times, while he took in every inch of her. She sounded and looked like a teenager on drugs, nearly incoherent words flying out her mouth. She was wearing a long dark blue sleep shirt with Wonder Woman on the front, gym socks on her feet. Her hair straggled around her face, the bruise just beginning to fade from her jaw.
He placed his fingers lightly over her mouth to shut her up. She talked through his fingers for a moment before she fell silent. When he moved his fingers, she opened her mouth, gave him an insane grin, then managed to close it again, but not before more than a dozen words spilled out.
He said, “The excitement’s something, isn’t it? You did good, you won. It’s okay that you didn’t kill the guy. Really, it’s okay, you disabled him, maybe.”
She took a breath and said, “I guess I didn’t shoot him flat out at first because I wanted to know who wanted me dead. Well, maybe I’m rationalizing what I did. I don’t remember what I was thinking. But maybe I thought I’m so bright I could take him prisoner and question him. Pound my head against the wall, Cheney, smack me.”
“Not yet,” Cheney said, smiling. “Keep talking, Julia, only slow down. Okay, so he ran out the front door—”
“I didn’t go after him, but I did crack open the front door, and then I heard his car turn over, maybe half a block away. I was hoping he’d be lying dead by the rhododendron bushes, but hey, he’s hurt, right? That bullet could have hit an artery in his arm—no, I couldn’t be that lucky and besides, where’s the blood? When you hit an artery, there’s a fountain of blood, right?”
She was speeding up again to manic tempo so Cheney broke in, speaking slowly, his voice loud. “Look over there on the sidewalk. You can see the splatters of blood from here. You didn’t get an artery, but you did put a bullet in him. That’s enough.” He eased the gun from her hand.
“But I should have shot his head off. He got away. He’s still out there. Oh, come inside, Agent Stone, come in.”
“It’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. Make it Cheney.”
She started, then laughed. “You’re right, this is the second time you’ve seen me creeped out, only this time you didn’t have to get wet.” She looked down at the white gym socks on her feet, saw a small hole in the big toe, and grinned. “Can I have my gun back? I’ll be careful, I promise. It makes me feel safe, more in control. He would have shot me dead if I hadn’t had it.”
She was coming down, more herself again, so he gave her back her SIG. She sort of slinked sideways into the living room, fanned her gun toward the shadows.
He didn’t smile. “You can put the gun down, Julia. The guy’s gone.”
“Yeah, okay—” She carefully laid her SIG on top of an antique marquetry table, and turned to see him speaking on his cell. When he punched off, he said, “I called Captain Paulette again, told him I’d arrived. He and his team will be here soon. He’ll have his patrol officers out looking for this guy. His officers will start interviewing the neighbors in the morning. It was the same guy, right?”
“Oh yeah, like Thursday night, he didn’t even bother trying to hide his face because he planned to kill me. Didn’t I already tell you that?”
“Yeah, but tell me again.”
“Okay. I couldn’t tell all that much when he was in my bedroom because it was really dark, but when he ran out into the corridor, I could see him plain as day. He was wearing his glasses, but not his Burberry. A dark leather jacket. I think he was wearing black boots. I’ve got to take more shooting lessons, the guy moved so fast. That second time I shot at least two feet wide.