Reservations for Murder - Tim Myers [60]
He had to get another clear shot at her. Rushing through a precarious passageway he hadn’t been through in twenty-five years, Alex moved quickly among the rocks.
When he looked back at her, Alex saw that she’d been moving in the same general direction! She was much too close! He’d have to throw the stone in his hand and get back down before it hit. Zipping it toward her, she must have sensed something, because Jenny whirled around, sending a wild shot screaming into the rocks above him. Her aim was definitely getting worse.
Alex couldn’t afford to see if the stone had struck home.
Hurrying down another passageway, he kept moving until he was sure he was far enough away to throw another stone.
He was wrong.
There, standing less than a foot away from him, Jenny had her revolver trained straight at Alex’s head.
There was no way out.
Alex’s time had just run out.
“Jenny, let’s talk about this,” Alex said, trying to figure a way out of the jam he was in now.
“Enough talking,” she shrieked. “Now it’s time to die. Alex, I’m truly sorry. I really did like you.”
“Hold it right there.”
Alex looked over his shoulder to see Sheriff Armstrong twenty feet away. He had his gun drawn, and there was a look of steel in his gaze that Alex had never seen before.
Jenny snapped, “Put that away, you idiot. If you shoot me, I’ll kill him before I die. There’s no way you can stop me.”
Alex said, “Jenny, what good will that do? You’re going to be caught; there’s no escape now.”
She said snappishly, “I’ve already killed one man,
Alex. What are they going to do, execute me again for killing you? What have I got to lose?”
Alex said softly, “Flip the coin, Jenny. What have you got to gain?”
“Are you kidding me? You toyed with me one too many times. You have to pay for that, Alex.”
He touched his arm and pulled away a bloody palm. As he held it out to her, he said, “Don’t you think I’ve paid enough?”
“Oh, that’s just the start of it, Alex.” There was a look of pure, intense hatred on her face as she said it.
Then she pulled the trigger.
Alex kept waiting for the explosion of pain that never came. Jenny cursed the gun, trying to figure out why it hadn’t fired, but Alex didn’t hesitate. He threw the last of his rocks at her, then climbed toward her just as she hurled the gun at his head.
It missed, clattering off the rocks behind him.
“Enough,” Armstrong roared. “If you don’t freeze this instant, you’re going to die!”
“So shoot me,” Jenny screamed. “I don’t care!”
“Stop,” Alex shouted as he fought to scale the rocks between them. She was still cursing as he wrapped his arms around Jenny in a bearlike grip so she couldn’t move. “Don’t shoot, Sheriff. I’ve got her.”
It was an awkward embrace, but Jenny couldn’t escape, that was what was important. Instead, when she realized that she wasn’t going anywhere but jail, she buried her face in Alex’s chest, sobbing. “He had to die, Alex, he had to. Don’t you see? He had to die.”
Alex wanted to feel pity for her, but he couldn’t. All he could see was Jefferson Lee’s lifeless body pinned against the beam with a steel shaft through his heart.
Jenny gave up completely. She was surprisingly docile as Armstrong put the cuffs on her. After the sheriff put her in the back of the squad car, Armstrong said, “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, Alex. I was taking care of some personal business, and I didn’t get your message until it was almost too late.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Everything worked out fine, Sheriff.”
Armstrong looked at Alex’s arm. “You’d better get that checked out pretty quick. Why don’t you ride into town with me?”
The last thing in the world Alex wanted to do was to spend another second in Jenny Harris’s company.
He was spared that, at least.
A voice behind him said, “That won’t be necessary, Sheriff. I’ll see that he gets there.”
Alex couldn’t believe it. Elise was