The Empty Chair

swimmer and he was closing the distance quickly. He’d be there in—
    The gunshot was loud and close. Lucy jumped as a spume of water shot into the air a few feet from Ned.
    “Oh, no!” Lucy called, bringing up her weapon, looking for the shooter.
    “Where, where?” Trey called, crouching and adjusting his grip on the shotgun.
    Ned dove under the surface.
    Another shot. Water flew into the air. Trey lowered the scattergun and started firing at the boat. Panic fire. The twelve-gauge didn’t have a plugged tube; it was loaded with seven rounds. The deputy emptied it in seconds, hitting the boat squarely with every round, sending splinters of wood and water flying everywhere.
    “No!” Jesse cried. “There’re people under there!”
    “Where’re they shooting from?” Lucy called. “Under the boat? The other side of it? I can’t tell. Where are they?”
    “Where’s Ned?” Trey asked. “Is he hit? Where’s Ned?”
    “I don’t know,” Lucy shouted, voice raw with panic. “I can’t see him.”
    Trey reloaded and aimed at the boat once more.
    “No!” Lucy ordered. “Don’t fire. Cover me!”
    She ran down the embankment and waded into the water. Suddenly, near the shore, she heard a choking gasp as Ned bobbed to the surface. “Help me!” He was terrified, looking behind him, scrabbling out of the water.
    Jesse and Trey aimed their weapons at the far shore and stepped slowly down the incline to the river. Jesse’s dismayed eyes were fixed on the riddled vessel—the terrible, ragged holes in the hull.
    Charging into the water, Lucy holstered her gun and grabbed Ned’s arm, dragged him to the shore. He’d stayed under as long as he dared and was pale and weak from lack of oxygen.
    “Where are they?” he struggled to ask, choking.
    “Don’t know,” she said, pulling him into a stand of bushes. He collapsed on his side, spitting and coughing. She looked him over carefully. He hadn’t been hit.
    They were joined by Trey and Jesse, both of them crouching, eyes gazing across the river, looking for their attackers.
    Ned was still choking. “Fucking water. Tastes like shit.”
    The boat was slowly easing toward them, half submerged now.
    “They’re dead,” whispered Jesse Corn, staring at the boat. “They have to be.”
    The boat floated closer. Jesse slipped his utility belt off and started forward.
    “No,” Lucy said, eyes on the far shore. “Let it come to us.”

. . . chapter twenty-nine
    The capsized boat floated into an uprooted cedar, extending into the river, and stopped.
    The deputies waited a few moments. There was no movement other than the rocking of the shattered vessel. The water was ruddy but Lucy couldn’t tell if the color was due to blood or was from the fiery sunset.
    Pale, troubled Jesse Corn glanced at Lucy, who nodded. All three of the other deputies kept their guns on the boat as Jesse waded out and flipped it over.
    The remnants of several torn water jugs bobbed out and floated leisurely downstream. There was no one underneath.
    “What happened?” Jesse asked. “I don’t get it.”
    “Hell,” Ned muttered bitterly. “They set us up. It was a goddamn ambush.”
    Lucy hadn’t believed that her anger could get any more consuming. But it now seized her like raw electric current. Ned was right; Amelia had used the boat like one of Nathan Groomer’s decoys and ambushed them from the far shore.
    “No,” Jesse protested. “She wouldn’t do that. If she shot it was just to scare us. Amelia knows her way ’round firearms. She could’ve hit Ned, she’d wanted to.”
    “Goddamnit, Jesse, open your eyes, will you?” Lucy snapped. “Firing from heavy cover like that? Doesn’t matter how good a shot you are; she still could’ve missed. And on water? There could’ve been a ricochet. Or Ned might’ve panicked and swum into a bullet.”
    Jesse Corn had no response for that. He rubbed his face with his palms and stared out over the far shore.
    “Okay, here’s what we’re doing,” Lucy said in a low voice. “It’s getting late. We’re going as far as we can while there’s still some light. Then we’ll have Jim bring us some supplies for the night. We’ll be camping out. We’re going to assume they’re gunning for us and we’re going to act accordingly. Now, let’s get across the bridge and look for their trail. Everybody locked and loaded?”
    Ned and Trey said they were. Jesse Corn stared at the shattered boat for a moment then slowly