St Kilda Consulting 04 - Blue Smoke and Murder

smiled. He gave the rear window a swift,expert smack with the sap. At the impact, safety glass crumbled to glittering pebbles, just as it had been designed to do. No sharp edges to cut flesh.
    The alarm yelped in the few seconds it took to light the makeshift fuse on the gas bomb and throw bag and bottle inside the vehicle.
    The flash of flame was so fast and so violent, it nearly burned his face.
    Mother. Next time I won’t use that much of the log.
    But he’d wanted to be very sure that this fire caught and held. He stood beside the wall for a few more seconds, making certain that the flames wouldn’t fizzle.
    They burned with a ferocity that cast shadows like a small sun.
    Suddenly the front door opened. Score saw a flash of silver hair, yanked out his pistol, and took aim.
    Frost’s pistol boomed an instant before Score fired.

49
    TAOS
SEPTEMBER 16
1:11 A.M.
    Z ach had yanked on his jeans and was running for the guesthouse door before he consciously registered what had awakened him.
    “Zach?” Jill asked, her voice husky from sleep.
    “Stay here,” he commanded on the way out the door. “Gunshots.”
    From the front of the compound, a car alarm barked urgently.
    Zach shut the guestroom door and raced barefoot across the courtyard and through the house. His weapon was where he should have been—in the upstairs guestroom.
    The front door stood open. Frost was down, red blood glistening in the hall light. A big revolver lay a few inches beyond his right hand.
    Fire leaped in the driveway, engulfing the rental car and giving everything inside the adobe wall a hellish glow.
    A bullet sang off the metal bell six inches from Zach’s head.
    Silencer.
    Zach snapped off the lights as he went down hard on the floor next to Frost. With one hand Zach felt for a pulse.
    Fast, but there.
    He picked up Frost’s revolver, took a two-handed grip, and aimed for a man-shadow that had paused at the top of the adobe wall.
    Flames gleamed on dark metal in the shadow’s hand.
    The sound of Frost’s gun thundered a second time, then a third, shattering the night. The revolver kicked hard against Zach’s hands, but he’d been expecting it. Frost always said that a gun that didn’t kick like a mule was for girls.
    A cry, a curse, and the shadow disappeared over the wall.
    Zach came to his feet in a rush and punched in the gate code. As he did, he heard bare feet running down the hall behind him, heard Jill yell his name.
    “Call 911,” he shouted over her voice. “Frost is hurt. Stay out of the light. Could be more than one shooter.”
    Zach ran to the gate, heard someone running away, and risked a fast look through the slowly opening gate.
    A bullet screamed off the metal bars.
    He dropped to his stomach and elbow-crawled forward just enough to see that the man was running again. Zach triggered two more closely spaced shots, a double explosion of sound.
    A hesitation, then the shadow ran around the corner of the block and vanished.
    Zach was on his feet and through the gate in a coordinated rush. Within three strides he was running flat out, chasing the deadly shadow.

50
    TAOS
SEPTEMBER 16
1:12 A.M.
    A s Zach disappeared through the open gate, Jill dropped to her knees next to Garland Frost. She wanted to scream at Zach to be careful, but it was too late. He was gone and all she could do was try to help Frost.
    Even without street or porch lights, she could see that blood was spreading out from above and to one side of Frost’s belt buckle, dripping onto the Navajo rug that warmed the tile floor.
    Too much blood.
    She snatched the cordless phone off the hall table, punched in 911, and tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder. Before it even rang, she was opening Frost’s shirt, trying to see the extent of the damage. She barely noticed the rental car burning, the stink of plastic, paraffin, particleboard, and raw gasoline. She was wholly intent on Frost.
    The operator answered in a calm male voice. “Taos 911. What is the nature of your emergency?”
    “Gunshots fired, one man down, a car fire burning out of control,” Jill said. “Garland Frost’s house, Taos. We need an ambulance and we need it now. Fire truck, too. A friend is pursuing the shooter. Both men are armed. I don’t know the address.”
    “We just got an alert from the alarm company at Garland Frost’s address. Police units are on the way. Name and age of the victim?”
    “Garland Frost, over seventy.”
    “Your name,