Slow Kill - Michael Mcgarrity [120]
“One round,” he called out.
Suazo got the message and fired once. The round tore into an outcropping and showered rock fragments down on Spalding, who froze momentarily.
“Come down,” Kerney ordered. “Do it now.”
Spalding shook her head and started climbing again.
Kerney went up the split, using footholds where he could find them. Spalding cleared the outcropping before he could reach her and disappeared from sight. He looked down at Suazo, eighty feet below, with his rifle aimed and ready.
“Where is she?” he called.
“Standing on the ledge, staring at me,” Suazo said. “She can’t go any farther. It’s slick rock from there to the top.”
“Any weapons?”
“Nothing in her hands,” Suazo answered. “I think she wants to jump.”
“If she moves toward the edge, blow her fucking head off,” Kerney yelled.
“She’s at the edge now.” Suazo raised his sights a bit, but held his fire.
Kerney reached for the lip of the outcropping, and felt Spalding’s boot come down hard on the fingers of his left hand. She looked down at him, red-faced and angry.
He pulled his hand free, found a crevice for his foot, swung up and over the ledge, kicked out a leg, and knocked Spalding back. He scrabbled to his feet, spun her around, and pushed her hard against the slick rock wall.
Spalding yelled in pain and slammed her boot down on Kerney’s instep. She turned, and broke for the edge of the outcropping. Kerney grabbed for her with his injured hand but couldn’t hold on. He lunged and caught her around the waist as she stood staring down at the barrel of Suazo’s rifle. He pulled her back to safety.
He put her facedown on the outcropping, planted his knee on her neck, cuffed her using his uninjured hand, and raised her to a sitting position, holding on tight to the cuffs.
She turned and looked at him. Her nose and forehead were scraped raw and bleeding, and her eyes were riveted on Kerney’s face.
“How are you going to get us off this ledge?” she asked matter-of-factly. “I’m handcuffed, and your hand looks broken.”
Kerney’s left hand ached badly. Except for the thumb, his fingers were swollen. He tried to move them, and pain shot up his arm. He wondered how many Spalding had broken. He tried to wiggle his wedding band off his finger with his thumb, but it wouldn’t budge.
“We’ll use rope and rig a sling.”
“You’re an interesting bastard,” Spalding said. “Blow my fucking head off, indeed. How could you possibly know that would make me hesitate?”
“Call it a lucky guess,” Kerney said.
“Seriously,” Spalding said, “how did you know?”
“I read your diary,” Kerney replied.
Above him, the redtail hawk swooped across the canyon, skimmed above the far rim, and veered out of sight.
Chapter 16
By the time Kerney and Suazo got back to Mills Canyon with Spalding in tow, Kerney’s left hand was badly swollen. From the top of the mesa, Suazo had called ahead by cell phone and his chief deputy was waiting for them. He drove Kerney to the Las Vegas hospital while Suazo took Spalding to the Santa Fe County Jail.
The ring and little fingers of Kerney’s left hand were broken and his wedding band was squashed. An ER doctor cut the ring off, took X-rays, which revealed that the breaks were clean, and immobilized the fingers with splints. He gave Kerney a prescription for codeine and told him to go home and rest, which in Kerney’s mind wasn’t an option.
The chief deputy drove Kerney to Santa Fe, where Suazo was waiting in Kerney’s office at police headquarters. Together, the three men prepared the necessary reports, talked to the DA by phone, entered Spalding’s arrest into the National Crime Information Center data bank, and notified the California authorities that Spalding had been taken into custody. After dealing with the outstanding homicide and fugitive warrants on Spalding, they did the paperwork charging her with the attempted murder of a police officer.
As soon as Suazo and his deputy left, Helen Muiz buzzed him on the intercom.