Gin Palace 02 - The Bone Orchard

here,” Augie said.
    I waited a moment more, then, the shotgun still in hand, started across the clearing toward him.
    The air still smelled of gunpowder. I could taste it, I could feel it on my skin. A blue cloud shifted just above the clearing, moving into the bare trees.
    As I got closer to Augie I could see that someone was standing in the clearing, just fifty feet from the opening to the path. Augie was facing him, ten feet away. No one said anything. As I got closer still I began to realize that there was not one person across from Augie but two, one big, one smaller. Their shapes were all I needed to know who they were. The bigger one stood behind the smaller one, holding her, it seemed, by the scruff of her neck. I saw his outstretched hand and the .45 in it.
    Frank Gannon had Tina.
    Augie held his distance, telling Frank to let Tina go, to leave her out of this. When I was close enough to them I saw that one of Augie’s .45’s was on the ground between him and Frank. I looked at his back and saw the handle of the other .45 pressing against his jacket from the inside.
    I looked back at Frank and Tina.
    “Frank, what do you think you’re doing?” I said. Frank’s .45 had been aimed at Augie, but now he turned it on me.
    “Not so close, MacManus. Stop right there and put the shotgun down.”
    I waited, then tossed the gun aside. It landed two yards away from me, on my right hand side, near the woods. I was maybe twenty-five feet away from Frank, too far to rush him cold. Augie was to my left and ahead of me. We were maybe ten feet apart.
    I looked at Tina and said, “You should have done what I told you.”
    She opened her mouth to speak but Frank wouldn’t let her. He pulled her hair, jerking her head back. For the first time since I’ve known him, Frank looked frantic. His eyes were wide, his face almost white. The hand that held the .45 wasn’t all that steady.
    “She came here to save her boyfriend,” Frank said. “You bring out such loyalty in people, MacManus. I’ll never understand why.” He kicked something with his foot. It slid across the ground and came to stop near Augie’s .45.
    It was the .380 Ruger I had seen in Augie’s safe. Tina looked at me but didn’t try to say anything. There was nothing to say now. She couldn’t seem to make up her mind whether she was scared or angry. The gun Frank aimed in turn at her father and me frightened her, but Frank’s tugging on her hair was clearly making her mad.
    Frank said, smiling, “How’s your shoulder doing, Mac? Healing up nice, I hope.”
    I didn’t say anything for a moment. I looked at his eyes. I could see behind them nothing but fear. His smile did little to hide what was so obviously in his heart.
    “If only you had the sense to die,” Frank said.
    I remembered the smell of the man who had attacked me at Townsend’s cottage. I now knew where I had smelled it before.
    “You really don’t want to wear such expensive cologne when you go out killing people,” I told him.
    Augie took a step forward. “Let Tina go, Frank,” he said. “Let Mac go, too. This is between you and me. This is all about something that went down a long time ago.”
    I looked at Augie for a moment, confused by this. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, then looked back at Frank. I waited a moment more, then did the same.
    “You know I can’t do that, Aug. You know I can’t let you go.”
    “You’ve gone too far, Frank. You’ve crossed the line.”
    “You got yourself into this, Augie.”
    “You sent us there to witness a murder. What did you expect me to do?”
    “I didn’t expect you to stick your nose in where it didn’t belong. You’ve always been like that, since we were kids. It always gets you into trouble, and you never learn. You never fucking learn. So don’t come bitching to me.”
    “So you’re free of all blame here, Frank?”
    “I’ve never been free of blame in my life.”
    I took a step forward and said, “You know, somebody must have heard all the shots and called it in by now, Frank. The cops are probably on their way now.”
    Frank smiled and looked at me. He waved me back with his gun. I gave up the steps I had taken. Frank may have been losing his nerve for the first time in his life, but he was still Frank Gannon.
    “I’ve taken care of that,” he said. “I’ve instructed them not to respond to any call of gunfire on the reservation. Of course, when I said that I was thinking of the two