Forget to Remember

the rescue squad.”
    “I’ll stay here and comfort Tim. Do you want the flashlight?”
    “No, you keep it. I’ll be fine.”
    “Be careful. The ground’s rough.”
    “The danger should be over. If Michael moves, grab the gun and shoot him. Otherwise, don’t touch it.”
    Ivan walked toward the house. Soon Carol could see only a faint silhouette to tell her where he was. Then even that disappeared. Tim groaned again. Carol told him everything was going to be all right. She hoped so. How were they going to get him out of the well? She shone the flashlight down the well so he’d know she was there.
    She saw the light from another flashlight before she heard footsteps.
    “I see you’ve taken care of the problem of Michael.”
    “Paul.” Carol recognized his voice as he came around the old house even before she had him in the beam of her flashlight. “Did you just get here?”
    “Yes. I see I missed all the fun.” He ran his flashlight over Michael’s body.
    “I didn’t see your car come in.”
    “I parked outside the gate. I didn’t want to spook anybody. Congratulations.”
    “I don’t feel like celebrating. We killed my brother.”
    Paul’s flashlight found the gun in the grass and he bent to pick it up.
    “Shouldn’t you leave that alone? It’s evidence, isn’t it?”
    Paul laughed. “You’re telling an attorney about evidence? It’s okay. I’m using a handkerchief.”
    “Ivan’s going to call the police.”
    “Good.”
    “I thought you were going to call the police before.”
    “I didn’t have a chance. You see, I had to come as far as you did. Maybe farther.”
    “Where were you?”
    “I was in Fairfax, just like you were.”
    Carol didn’t understand. “What were you doing there?”
    “After you and Ivan talked to me this morning—I should say yesterday morning; it’s after midnight—I realized that since you’d outed Michael he was no longer a problem, at least to me. He wouldn’t be pulling the strings of the foundation anymore. So I called Katherine Simpson and made an appointment with her.”
    “You drove to Fairfax and talked to Katherine?”
    “You catch on fast.”
    “Did you reach an agreement?”
    “We did. To make it work, I only have to do one more thing.” He pointed Michael’s gun at Carol.
    “Don’t point that at me.”
    “You don’t understand, do you? The agreement between Katherine and me is that I’ll take over control of the foundation. The only thing that stands in our way is you.”
    “You’ve lost your mind. If you kill me, you’re throwing away millions.”
    “ Au contraire . Why should I settle for a few million when I can have almost four times that much, after a few payoffs? Katherine would rather spend her life with me in some exotic land than Michael, anyway. You’ll forgive me saying so, but your brother is strange.”
    “You won’t get away with this.”
    “You’re so smart you shouldn’t have to resort to clichés. Of course I will. They’ll find your body shot with Michael’s gun, which will be in his hand. My car is on the other side of the fence, which is propped open, and I’ll be long gone when Ivan comes back and when the police get here. The response time in this neck of the woods isn’t what it should be.”
    “Ivan will know Michael didn’t shoot me.”
    “But he won’t be able to prove it, will he? Maybe Michael’s hatred for you woke him up long enough for one last shot.”
    There was a groan from the well. Paul glanced toward it, taking his eyes and his flashlight off Carol. Reacting before she thought, she ran around the corner of the old house. Paul yelled something and fired a shot that ricocheted off the house. Carol rounded the next corner. The only door was on this wall. Keeping the beam of the flashlight in front of her to assure that she wouldn’t fall on the rotten steps that went up to the small porch, she climbed them and burst through the open doorway.
    The narrow and rickety stairway to the second floor was just to the right of the door. Carol climbed the first three steps to the narrow landing and banged her head on the low ceiling. She almost cried out loud. She stood there for a moment, stunned. She could hear Paul’s footsteps as he approached the porch. She had to keep moving. She made the ninety-degree turn to the left and climbed the rest of the stairs as fast as she could. Paul’s flashlight beam found her, and he fired a shot just as she went through the doorway at the