MASS MURDER (64 page)

Giorgio began to inch around the bell shaft to his right
.
The cement floor was cold and the rough exterior of the wall kept catching on his jacket
.
He’d only gone about ten feet when a sound made him stop
.
Was it Francis?  Was it Rocky?  A glance back to the secret room told him it wasn’t his brother
.
He listened, trying to locate the sound
.
A quick scraping noise made him focus his attention on the deep shadows in the southwestern corner where a large pillar and two saw horses blocked his view
.
Nothing moved
.
Sound was deceptive in this cavernous space and he knew he might misplace the source
.

A series of hollow thuds echoed from the far side of the tower bringing Giorgio to attention
.
Frances had kicked something over, either on purpose, or by mistake
.
Giorgio sprinted towards the west wall, darting back and forth to avoid construction debris, finally ducking behind one of the stone columns
.
When he’d settled in behind the column, a glance to his left revealed the main staircase
.
Frances had either missed it, or had other plans
.

Just then, a movement made Giorgio turn towards the construction area
. A
shadow darted towards the make-shift door
.
Giorgio pointed his gun and fired
.
The fleeting shadow spun around and slammed into the wood enclosure, emitting a loud curse
.
Giorgio ran diagonally to a stack of boxes about ten feet in front of him and then darted forward again like a quarterback looking for an opening
.
He threw himself behind a pile of cement bags and tucked himself into a crouched position, peering into the darkness, his gun at his waist
.
He was about half way across the tower
.
A restrained moan drifted across the cluttered space and then everything went quiet
.
Giorgio waited.

A minute went by
.
Giorgio didn’t dare hope that Frances had
been severely injured
.
A
nd a
moment later, a loud smash broke the silence
.
Frances was trying to escape through the
construction
door
.
Giorgio jumped up to stop him
with his weapon drawn. A
bullet tore through his right forearm, sending him spinning backwards
.
He dropped the gun and hit the floor next to a short stack of lumber
.
With a groan
, he slid on his back to the safety of the pillar again
.
The bullet had found its mark – entering his forearm exactly where Poindexter had broken the skin with the hammer
.
What were the odds of that?  First his head, now his arm
.

With a grimace, he pushed up the
jacket
sleeve and then reached into one of his pockets for his handkerchief
.
He wrapped it around the wound, pulling it tight with his teeth
.
Then he looked around for his gun
.

“Joe, you okay?” Rocky called out in a loud whisper.

“I need some cover.”

“You got it.”

Giorgio heard a shuffle and a moment later there was a crack of fire a
s a bullet
hit the construction wall
, pinning down Frances
.
Frances fired back, hitting the wall just in front of Rocky, sending out a cloud of plaster
.
Rocky’s shadow moved and another shot rang out
.
It gave Giorgio time to find his gun, which had landed only a few feet away
.
A heavy plastic tarp lay folded on the ground next to him
. H
e grabbed it and shook it out
.
Positioned
safely behind the column, he threw the tarp
over the gun
like a fishing net
.
With a yank, he reeled in the tarp, dragging the gun with it
.
He picked
up the gun with his left hand
and
leaned against the pillar for support
.
In the distance a siren wailed.

“You won’t get away, Frances!  Give it up,” he yelled
.
“We could sit here all night and wait you out.” Although he tried to hide it, Giorgio knew the strain in his voice was evident
.
He took deep breaths tr
ying to
calm his nerves
.
Both he and his brother were wounded
,
and they’d trapped a killer who had few options
.
Not a great position to be in.

“I’ve known a hundred guys like you, Detective
.
You guys will come get me
.
I know I hit your brother
. Did I hit you?”

Giorgio looked down to where the bullet had ripped apart the
protective
gauze
.
Blood was
seeping through the handkerchief
.
The seared muscles were on fire
,
and he was having trouble making a fist
.
He
couldn’t use this hand to fire his weapon, putting his life further at risk
.
Too bad he’d never taken the time to practice shooting
with his left hand.

“You nicked me
.
How ‘bout you?”

The young man gave a belabored chuckle
.
“You nicked me
.
Do you play chess, Detective?”

There was another smashing noise, as if Frances was battering the plywood door, but Giorgio didn’t dare expose himself a second time
.
Instead, he made sure the gun was properly seated in his left hand with a tight grip
.
Rocky however, rewarded
Frances
with a third bullet that took out a wood chip just above the construction door
.
There wa
s a long pause of silence.

“A friend of mine plays chess,” Giorg
io yelled,
silently thanking Rocky
.
Giorgio watched the shadows around him, trying to figure out what
Frances
might do next
.
He struggled to a crouching position, leaning sideways around the pillar
with
his right arm tucked into his chest for support
.
He couldn’t see Rocky well enough to give him a signal and knew his brother couldn’t see
Frances
without exposing himself.

“I think we just took each other’s pawns,” a breathless voice finally answered.

The sound of splintering wood meant Frances was almost through the security door
.
Giorgio
moved
to the left so that he could see across the opening
.

“My guess is that right now you’re positioning yourself to take my queen,” the opposing voice called from the darkness. “Am I right?”

“I think I’ll just skip to checkmate,” Giorgio bluffed.

Frances emitted a low, strained chuckle
.
“I don’t think so, Detective.”

Giorgio searched for a shadow with a human shape, but the short wall around the bell shaft blocked his view
.
Rocky decided to take another shot just as the darkness in front of Giorgio moved
.
Frances had finally destroyed the makeshift door and gone through it as the bullet tore a chunk out of one of the nearby pillars
.
Giorgio knew he had to either get through that door or lure
Frances
out again.

“Rocky,” Giorgio whispered
.
“Hang back and hold him off if he makes it past me this way.”

“Sure thing,” Rocky whispered back
.
“Be careful.”

Giorgio left his cover and hugged the outer wall of the belfry, crouching to pass under an open window where the outdoor spotlights from the gardens below cast angular shadows onto the ceiling
.
He crept forward until he was positioned behind the pillar at the southeast corner of the room
.
The muffled sound of splashing water from the fountain below added a drum beat to the forlorn wail of the approaching sirens.

“
You won’t get away.”

“Don’t count me out so soon,” the muffled voice answered
.
“And I have a clear view of the doorway, so be careful, Detective
.
You wouldn’t want to take a second bullet.”

The only escape for Frances had to be over the east wall, away from the approaching police cars
.
Giorgio had no idea how Frances planned to do it, but he moved a
long the south wall of the
tower towards the plywood construction
.
He tucked himself into the corner where the plywood had been secured to a cement buttress
,
and
he
then inched along the construction wall at a ninety degree angle coming to within ten feet of the makeshift door
.

Giorgio glanced around to put his plan in play
.
Finding an open box of long, heavy nails, he reached in and quietly grabbed one
.
That little bit of effort sent fireworks up his arm
,
and he steeled himself for what he was about to do
.
He clutched
the nail as tightly as he could with his right hand
and then
reached back over his head, gritted his teeth
,
and tossed it over to the wall
.
It hit the floor with a series of loud pings
.