City of Night

“Carson.”
    “I don’t know you.”
    “I am Randal. You will be Randal’s sister.”
    “Down on your knees,” she told him. “Down on your knees, then flat on the floor, facedown on the floor.”
    “Randal doesn’t like loud talk. Don’t shout at Randal like Victor does.”
    Michael said, “Sonofabitch,” and Carson said, “Arnie, roll your chair back, roll away on your chair.”
    Although Arnie didn’t move, Randal did. He took a step toward Carson. “Are you a good sister?”
    “Don’t come any closer. Get on your knees. On your knees NOW! ”
    “Or are you a bad, loud sister who talks too fast?” Randal asked.
    She edged farther to her right, changing her line of fire to get Arnie out of it. “You think I don’t know you have two hearts?” she said. “You think I can’t take them out with one round from this bull killer?”
    “You are a bad, bad sister,” Randal said, and closed on her.
    He was so fast that he almost got his hand on the gun. The boom rattled windows, the stink of gunfire blew in her face, blood burst from the exit wound in his back and sprayed the castle.
    Randal should have been rocked back on his feet or staggered. He should have dropped.
    She had aimed too low, missed one heart or both. But at this close range, she had to have destroyed half his internal organs.
    He seized the barrel of the shotgun, thrust it upward as she squeezed the trigger, and the second round punched a hole in the ceiling.
    When she tried to hold on to the shotgun, he pulled her to him, almost had her before she let go, dropped, rolled.
    She had given Michael a clean shot. He took two.
    The reports were so loud, her ears rang and kept ringing as she rolled against a wall, looked up, saw Randal down—thank God, down —and Michael warily moving toward him.
    Getting to her feet, she pulled the .50 Magnum from the scabbard on her left hip, certain she wouldn’t need it, but Randal was still alive. Not in great condition, down and staying down, but alive after three point-blank torso shots from an Urban Sniper.
    He raised his head, looked wonderingly around the room, rolled onto his back, blinked at the ceiling, said, “Home,” and was gone.
     
     
     

Chapter 63
     
    The back door was open. Benny and Cindi hesitated, but then he went through boldly, and fast, and she followed.
    An Asian woman stood in the kitchen, next to the table, untying a length of torn cloth from her left wrist. She blinked at them and said, “Shit—”
    Cindi was quick. The stream of chloroform splashed nose-on. The woman gasped, choked, spluttered, and fell to the floor.
    They could deal with her later. She would be unconscious for perhaps fifteen minutes, maybe longer.
    Although the Asian woman wasn’t on their hit list, she had seen their faces. They would have to kill her, too.
    That was okay. There was plenty of room for three in the cargo area of the Mercury Mountaineer, and Benny had recently sharpened his favorite cutting tools.
    He closed and locked the back door. He didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to come in behind them.
    On one job, a four-year-old girl had wandered into the house from next door, and Cindi had insisted on adopting her.
    Now Cindi had the chloroform in her right hand and the Taser in her left. Benny relied on only the chloroform.
    They weren’t worried about PD-issued sidearms. Basic guns for cops these days were often 9mm. He and Cindi could walk through a lot of 9mm fire if necessary.
    Besides, if they were stealthy, their prey wouldn’t have a chance to draw down on them.
    A laundry room opened off the kitchen. Deserted.
    The hallway to the front of the house passed a coat closet. No one knew they were here, so no one would be hiding from them in the closet, but they checked it anyway. Just coats.
    As they reached the living room, a gun roared upstairs. It was a big sound, as if an armoire had toppled over. The whole house seemed to shake.
    Cindi looked at the chloroform in her hand. She looked at the Taser.
    Another shot roared.
    Cindi put the Taser in an inside jacket pocket, switched the chloroform to her left hand, and pulled her pistol.
    Upstairs the big gun boomed twice again, and Benny drew his piece, too. The gun was a 9mm semi-auto, but this caliber would be a more serious problem for O’Connor and Maddison than for the Lovewells.
     
     
     

Chapter 64
     
    Who the intruder had been, how he had gotten into the house, why he seemed to have targeted Arnie