Thistle and Twigg (20 page)

He hit the porch flat on his back. He growled like a wild animal. I could see him struggling to remain conscious, trying to position himself to spring up. I couldn’t allow that. When his eyes opened, I had my rifle aimed at his chest.

Several options played out in my head. Even if I had anything with which to tie him, it would be too dangerous to try it with no back up. If I left him there while I untied Shelley and Phoebe, he might then become an unseen threat in the woods. Killing him while I had the chance crossed my mind but was, of course, not an option. Not yet.

“Put your hands on your head,” I said. He still lay on his back, his face contorted as if he were in great pain. Something I might do if in his position to gain more time. “Now.”

He smirked. He shook his head, willing himself to concentrate. Blood ran from his nose. His smile showed gaps between pearly white teeth as he fully saw me for the first time. “Is that an order?” he said.

I smiled as well, showing all my teeth and softening my eyes in a kind, grandmotherly way. With a quick jerk, I snapped the rifle sight to and fired one shot. It grazed his left earlobe.

His hand moved up in reflex to the small wound, barely a scratch. He stared at the red droplets of blood on his fingertips in disbelief.

“Is that an order, what, private?” I said, imitating the Colonel’s familiar bark.

He didn’t answer immediately. I do believe the young man had a problem with women in positions of authority. I edged the gun’s barrel slowly, slightly to my left toward his other ear.

He swallowed. He gritted his teeth and spoke tightly through them. “Is that an order, ma’am!” he said with great spite.

“Indeed, it is. Don’t speak again.” I slowly moved the sight of my gun to the center of his forehead. I waited a few moments to let him think about that. “Move your hands to the top of your head. Lace your fingers together. Tightly, please,” I said in a calm voice. “Slowly get to your knees.”

He did as he was told. I walked around him until my gun pointed at his back. I didn’t take a whit of concentration off him for a moment. I checked the back of his belt and his boots. There. I could see the knife he had tucked inside the right one. Possible scenarios went through my head making me come to a very difficult conclusion.

He would try something. Soon, most likely, and he would win somehow—by force, by disarming me, by knifing or shooting me. I didn’t care for any of those possibilities. I could not wait for him to make that move. “Now, listen carefully,” I said. “I want you to …”

With a quick flip of the rifle, I smashed it down at the base of his skull. Fair and sportsmanlike behavior? No. The only way to ensure the safety of my friends and myself short of committing murder? Yes.

When I was sure he was out cold, I patted him down and found nothing other than the knife. I took it. Keeping my rifle on him, I backed off the porch, retrieved the G-3 and put its strap over my head, then ran inside to Phoebe and removed her gag.

“Jane! That was you out there!”

“Are you all right?” I asked, while using the knife to cut her bonds. I pulled the gag down from Shelley’s mouth and cut her free.

Phoebe chattered, apparently trying to relate how they came to be here, but her sentences were disjointed and made no sense. Shelley cried and also spoke in a halting way between sobs. Phoebe managed to say there was still a third man who went to Cal’s house.

“I saw him. He won’t be bothering us. No more talking now. Listen.” I put a hand on each girl’s shoulder and gave it a little shake as I gripped. “We must get to safety straightaway. We must put as much distance as possible between us and this place. Hurry.”

I helped each to their feet, then took a look around the room to be sure we left no weapons behind. Phoebe moved to the hearth and picked up the third rifle I’d seen through the window, an odd-looking one in a strange color I’d never seen before. Her initiative surprised and pleased me. I would congratulate her later for thinking of taking one of the enemy’s guns in spite of the fact she didn’t know how to shoot it.

At the door, I checked to be sure my man was still out cold, then listened but only for a second. We had to get away before the other member of their party arrived.

As we walked past the leader, Phoebe gasped. “Did you kill him?”

“No. Now come along,” I said. I put an arm around her to hurry her. As we stepped to the side of the cabin, I glanced at the other prone man with the snake tattoo.

“What about Hank?” Phoebe said. “Is he dead?”

“No, of course not.” I paused. “His name is Hank?” I said, as I eyed the snake on his arm and thought of Cal’S last words.

A sudden rustling of leaves in the near distance caught our attention. Footsteps crackled dried leaves and twigs as someone approached from the forest trail that led to CaL’S house. This person wasn’t trying to make a surprise visit.

I herded Phoebe and Shelley across the clearing and up the ridge toward the two great trees, stopping behind the nearest boulder. I leaned out just enough to see, my gun raised, as a man came into view. He walked to the edge of the clearing.

Phoebe pushed by me before I knew what was happening. “Oh, my Lord, are we glad to see you!” she said, her arms up in the air, her orange rifle hanging off one shoulder by the strap and bouncing on her hip as she approached Chalmers Wade, who looked quite out of place wearing a three-piece suit in the woods.

“What in the world is going on out here?” the lawyer said on seeing Hank and the leader unconscious. I walked from behind the boulder, stepping slowly the AR-15 held low

Chalmers put his hands up in the air quickly when he saw my rifle trained on him. “Whoa there, Miz Thistle! Easy with that thing!” He laughed a little as he spoke, his wide trademark smile lighting up his face, which showed the slightest bit of fright. His expression changed to worry when he fully realized the size of my gun.

When Phoebe reached him, she flung her arms up and around his neck, planting a loud kiss on his cheek. She pointed toward Hank. “That guy abducted Shelley,” she said. “I saw the whole thing. He forced her into a van. I followed them.” She panted and tried to catch her breath.

“What! Honey,” Chalmers said, “bless your heart, you’ve been through it haven’t you? I was coming to see Cal and heard a police dispatch on my scanner that something was going on out here.”

Shelley also ran past me into her employer’s arms. Phoebe backed away and walked toward me beside the round homemade archery target. She leaned on it as she wiped sweat from her hairline. Her gun hung loosely from her shoulder.

“Shelley, sweetheart,” Chalmers said, rocking her back and forth. He held her away from him and brushed a strand of auburn hair gently from her face, then wiped a tear running down her cheek.

With his large hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face us. “Miz Thistle, Miz Twigg,” he said, as he reached inside his jacket, brought out a gun, and moved it up to Shelley’s temple. “I must ask you ladies to kindly drop your weapons.”

Phoebe screamed. When she saw Chalmers’ gun, her body shook violently from head to toe, causing her rifle to slide off her shoulder and to the ground.

He was an intelligent coward. All but his face, which he pressed against Shelley’s cheek, was hidden behind her tall form. If only a bit more space were between them, I might have risked a shot. I could see no way to take him out without possible harm coming to Shelley. Would he really do it? I hadn’t the option of calling his bluff. I reluctantly took each strap from over my head and dropped the AR-15 first, then the G-3.

“Turn around. Let’s take a little walk.” He motioned in the direction of the two great trees. And the bluffs.

Not good. I did not want to leave those guns. Nor did I want to turn around.

“You don’t think the police will find it odd that three women just happened to fall off the cliffs at the same time? That they won’t find some sort of evidence against you?”

He laughed. “How could they when I’m not here? I’m at my office at the moment. No reason to suspect me of anything. And it will just be two women. You two.”

“I wasn’t talking about evidence that you were here. I meant in paperwork. In Cal’s handwriting.”

A few moments passed. He shook his head. “Nothing suspicious about a man’s lawyer looking through his papers. If there’s anything to find, I will. You’re grasping at straws. You two will fall. The police will assume one of you tried to rescue the other with no success. It could be days, weeks before you’re found. Shelley will have a different fate. So far as her travel agent knows, she’s on vacation. Or the police will conclude she was abducted and killed by paramilitary extremists. I haven’t decided yet.”

“A group of which you are the real boss,” I said.

He shrugged. “Only in the sense that I hired them. I’m much too well bred to be one of them.”

“But they served your purpose, eh? They made a good cover for shooting Cal. You’re thinking that will make your takeover of his estate most convenient. Of course, the police will see through that just as I do.” He shook his head and laughed. “You killed Cal, didn’t you, Mr. Wade?”

Phoebe gasped. “Cal is dead?”

“You’re a sharp lady, Miz Thistle. And, by the way, thank you for the loan of your gun.”

I paused. Could this be true? “You took one of my guns? To frame me for Cal’s murder?”

“They were all so tempting, lying there on your couch after the good detective brought them back to you.”

Though I couldn’t see his weapon well enough to identify it as my own, I knew he spoke the truth. He was in the house just after my guns were returned. He took one when no one was watching. “And now you wish to kill the only three people who knew Cal wanted to sell his land to me. So you can take it.”

“I’ve worked for it. It should be mine. I’ve looked after that old man for years when he’s had no one else. With you gone, his land will be mine. We need developments here, businesses to bring in jobs. I can do that right here. And if I have to cut down a few trees to put a few million dollars into my pocket, I can do that, too.”

“And destroy everything around us. Forest, animals, history. Legally. Or not so legally if you must, eh?”

He moved his gun and held it out straight at shoulder height. It wasn’t much of an improvement. He still held Shelly too close. Even if I had time to reach back for the gun in my waistband and fire it, I had no clear shot. I’d have to try something else, something even more risky.

Phoebe looked to me. Tears mingled with sweat that covered her face. She wiped her cheeks, then flung her arms out and embraced me, crying into my shoulder. “Good-bye, Jane. I wanted us to be best friends for a long time. Now we won’t get to be.”

I had to suppress the urge to laugh out loud. Even in the worst circumstances, Phoebe had a way of lifting my spirits just by being herself. I hugged her and said, “Don’t worry, dear. He won’t shoot. Bullets would give the police a trail to follow. A multi-million-dollar land deal can’t be conducted from prison.”

His worried look changed to relief. “When the police find this gun, it will have the dishonorably discharged ex-Marine’s fingerprints on it.” He nodded toward the man out cold on the porch.

“You killed Cal,” Phoebe said, as she gave him a fiery look. “And you’re going to kill us? You’re a sorry excuse of a man, Chalmers Wade.” She still trembled but a bit of fight was now in her voice. “Your good-hearted grandmama is turning over in her grave right now. Why, she would tan your hide.”

“Touching, Miz Twigg, but even Granny’s disapproval doesn’t make me feel a bit worse. By the way, she also disapproved of redheaded floozies like you who can’t mind their own business.”

Phoebe’s infuriated utterances were most unladylike. She suddenly reached to the ground, scooped up a rock and threw it at Chalmers. He started to laugh but never got the chance for I took the small distraction and used it knowing I must act before it was too late.

I rushed him, arms out. He pivoted slightly, took aim, but was too late. I reached across Shelley and grabbed the gun with both my hands pushing it straight up. While close to his body, I delivered several kicks to his legs. He let go of Shelley. When I felt her body move away, I kneed his groin. He dropped his pistol when he doubled over. I kicked it away from us. Before I could reach behind my back for my own gun, he half stood and threw a left hook into my face.

The pain was staggering. I fell backward into the round target knocking it over. I lay over it a moment, stunned, trying to get up, for I could see Chalmers as he lunged for and reached the AR-15 I’d thrown to the ground.

Just then, a shot rang out. Both Chalmers and I froze momentarily. Neither of us had weapons. Neither had been shot.

I looked to my left to see Phoebe falling backward from the kick of the orange rifle she’d retrieved. She was off balance and fell to one knee but she still held the gun loosely, her finger on the trigger. Not a comforting sight.

She righted herself, shouldered the rifle, aimed in Chalmers’ general vicinity, and fired again. The bullet hit a boulder about two yards away, ricocheted, and pierced the back of the straw dummy. By this time, I’d managed to scramble to my feet. I stepped to her side as I withdrew the pistol from my waistband and prepared to shoot.

Just then, a rush of cool autumn wind blew between the two great trees from the direction of the ceremonial hall. Scents of pine and turning leaves, sweeter and stronger than before, swept across our faces, and the most amazing, unbelievable event in my sixty-seven years played out before me.

Time and the world ground to an abrupt halt, then moved again in super-slow motion. Everything came into sharp focus. My brain’s survival instinct was to sharpen the senses and heighten reality. Why, then, I thought, was my imagination in overdrive as well? For something more was at work here. The air sparkled with a golden yellow tint specked throughout with reflective bits like metallic dust.

A mockingbird swooped down into the breeze. Its slow dip and rise, dip and rise, its haunting melody and repetition, the branches around us swaying in a strange manner like arms of a maestro conducting, all stood out in vivid detail. It was a multidimensional symphony, expanded for all senses, as overpowering as the Maiden’s Tears in its artistic perfection.