Right to Die

going to shoot the professor!”
    I got out “Where—” when Manolo barreled into Inés, pushing her off balance. He fired at me before I saw the rifle clear the balustrade. Something tore at the waist of the sweatshirt, a searing sensation in my left side. Reflex-ively, I pulled the trigger, rocking Manolo at the left shoulder but not putting him down.
    I dropped back a step to steady my weapon as he worked the bolt on the rifle. My foot slipped a little on the stair, my second shot missing as Manolo raised the rifle as high as his shoulder would allow. Inés lunged at him, cuffing his arm as he fired and sending his next bullet wild. Manolo bellowed as he pushed her off, the first sound I’d ever heard him make.
    Steadied, I fired three more times, each slug punching Manolo in the chest, the rifle dropping from his hands. He bucked off the wall, his palms coming together and twisting on the wrists, like a shortstop handcuffed by a bad hop. Staggering forward, Manolo pitched through the balustrade, the staircase quaking as he struck the Oriental rug on the first floor.
    As I moved toward her, Inés Roja was sobbing in two languages at once.

= 29 =

    Neely said, “Christ, my watch stopped. Is it Wednesday or Thursday?”
    Patiently, Murphy said, “Thursday, twelve-fifteen a.m.” Neely spoke to himself as he wrote. “Mass General, Room 309.”
    Murphy said to me, “The Roja woman didn’t tell us anything at the scene about saving your life.”
    Three pillows propped me up in bed. I shifted my rump to the left, the drain in my side starting to burn as badly as the bullet had. “She was pretty shook up, Lieutenant. Might not even remember hitting his arm. How is she now?”
    “Zonked. The M.E. gave her something just after he pronounced Manolo.”
    Neely looked up from his pad. “M.E. had to say it three times, the way you aced him there.”
    I turned back to Murphy. “How about Andrus herself?”
    “She went back to sleep. The woman gets home from the coast, all ‘jet-lagged,’ she said. When she wasn’t bitching at us about messing up her house. Said she took some pills, went to bed, slept through the whole thing, firefight and all.”
    “Nobody else in the house, right?”
    “You got there before we did. Roja never called it in. Said she was about to when she heard Manolo heading toward the professor’s bedroom.”
    Neely was doodling. Murphy was biding his time.
    I said, “There are some things wrong here, Lieutenant.”
    “Like what?”
    “Manolo had plenty of motive and opportunity on the notes. Even on the sniping incident last month.”
    “I’m goosing ballistics to give us a quick read on whether the slugs from tonight match those. The weapon Manolo used was a Remington.”
    “You might check with Ray Cuervo, the son from Spain . He said his father had one of those as a hunting arm.” Neely stopped doodling. “So what doesn’t add up, Cuddy?”
    “First, Manolo’s supposed to be doing this for revenge, right?”
    Murphy said, “Go ahead.”
    “Wouldn’t you think he’d wait till she was awake?”
    “Again?”
    “Manolo wants to avenge the killing of his father figure. Pass for now that it takes him over ten years to work up to it. He decides to bust Andrus with a hunting rifle that maybe belonged to the old doctor. Poetic justice. But wouldn’t you think Manolo would wait till she was awake?” Murphy thought about it. Neely looked lost.
    Murphy said, “You mean because of the notes.”
    “Right. Guy intends to scare her with the notes, especially that last one tonight, wouldn’t you think he’d be sure she was awake enough to read the last one and be in terror? And wouldn’t you think he’d hold off shooting her till she was looking at him, eyes open?”
    Neely said, “So maybe the Roja woman surprised him. Who knows?”
    Murphy said, “Anything else?”
    “Yeah. Manolo seemed to think of himself as being in charge of the house security. Even if he’s going to kill Andrus, maybe especially if he’s going to kill her after she reads tonight’s note, wouldn’t you think he’d have made sure the front door was locked?”
    “Was the front door ever unlocked?”
    “Not that I know of.”
    “So it’s more like he must have unlocked it on purpose before he started after the professor.”
    “And why would he do that?”
    Murphy rubbed his chin. “Expecting somebody.”
    “And probably not me.”
    Neely said, “I don’t get it.”
    Murphy said, “It’s