The Sound of Broken Ribs(38)

Jenna melted into the foot well of the driver’s seat. She barely felt the push of the brake pedal in her back. Her last thought before she died was of Lei Duncan. Just a single image of the woman she had failed laying in that hospital bed back at Mercy Medical.

And then Sheriff Jenna Wales, who’d survived the fists and guns of men up until this point, died.

*

Belinda saw the first bullet hit Sheriff Wales in the chest and wondered if the woman had on a bulletproof vest. She watched a rivulet of red pour from the blackened hole in Wales’ blouse and figured there had been no vest. The next bullet destroyed the woman’s neck. What had once been slender and pale was now a gaping hole dripping red. Wales’ eyes rolled up before she slumped out of sight.

Serves you right, Belinda thought. She felt not a shred of remorse for the woman who had killed her brother. If anything, Belinda felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Maybe she wouldn’t spend the rest of her life in a prison cell for attempted murder after all.

Fat Tom pulled open the cruiser’s rear door. “Mind your feet. There’s Tony all over the place.”

Belinda nodded and swung her legs out onto the gravel. She somehow managed not to step in any of her brother’s brains. “She’s got backup on the way. I heard her talking to him before you killed her.”

“I guess we should go then, huh?” Fat Tom smiled. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

Before heading to the car, Fat Tom put the big handgun in Tony’s fist, stole the keys off the sheriff, and undid Belinda’s cuffs. Belinda didn’t think the gun change would fool anyone, but it might put them off their track for a little while. She’d seen enough crime-investigation television shows to know that ballistic testing would prove that Tony had been too close to have been the one who shot Wales. Besides, Fat Tom wasn’t wearing gloves. His prints were all over the revolver. It was only a matter of time before they pulled him in.

As if he’d read her mind, Tom said, “My prints ain’t on file. Never been arrested. And if I ever do get printed and brought up on charges, I’ll just tell ‘em I let Tony use my gun to shoot cans on the weekends.”

Belinda didn’t respond. Instead, she headed for Fat Tom’s boat of a car. The Buick Park Avenue was bright white and as wide as it was ugly. How people ever thought these massive luxury cars were… well, luxurious was beyond Belinda.

Belinda dropped into the passenger seat and buckled in. Fat Tom joined her seconds later. The car dipped a good six inches when the man’s weight hit the driver’s seat. She was surprised the vehicle didn’t bottom out.

Fat Tom made a three point turn and headed back toward the main highway. They passed Tony’s truck on the way out. Her brother had pulled off the road and into the trees. The driver’s side door was still open. The gun rack, of course, was empty.

Once they hit Highway 607, Belinda asked her first question.

“Did Tony call you?”

“Today? Nah. We was supposed to get rid of that car of yours.” Fat Tom scratched under his belly fat. “Just dumb luck I showed up when I did.”

Belinda said, “Tony wasn’t so lucky.”

“Right. Sorry. I meant you. Had I not showed when I did, you’d have spent some time with all the prostitutes and rug munchers. Them bitches don’t play around. They’d have eaten you alive. Literally!” Fat Tom burst into laughter and slapped at the steering wheel.

Belinda wanted to tell him there was nothing humorous about the situation, but didn’t. She stared out of the passenger window instead, watched the trees flicker by.

“I’m gonna drop you off at Carl’s place. He won’t be off work until after six, so you’ll have the house to yourself for a few hours. Frank won’t be there until dark. I gotta run home and make sure I ain’t got no blood on me. Besides, it’ll make sense for us not to be around each other for a while. Don’t need to be seen beyond right now. Hell, don’t even need to be seen together right now.”

Belinda said nothing.

“You listening to me.”

“Yeah,” she muttered. “Sounds good.”

They passed Tony, who stood on the side of the road, faceless. His mangled head followed them as they sped by. In the rearview, her dead brother waved goodbye.

Belinda knew it was her mind playing tricks on her, but she waggled her fingers at the mirror all the same.

*

Night. Dark and quiet. Not even the sound of Harry’s snoring.

Lei tossed and turned. Pain coursed through every fiber of her being. The pain pump wasn’t working. The crushed pills down her nasogastric tube might as well have been sugar capsules for all the good they did.

I am here.

The voice came through the fog of her pain like hands parting a curtain.

I can help.

In that moment, Lei might have made a deal with the devil, pointed tail wagging and pitchfork smoking. No matter the danger that might come with accepting her hallucinations as real, she spoke to the voice in her mind.

Help me.

It heard her and answered, Be still.

And Lei was still.

Be calm.

And Lei was calm.

I am here.

And there it was.

A figure darker than the dark of the room stepped from the corner. Two yellow circles the size of a human iris shone in the black like sickly stars in an otherwise black night sky. The eyes did not bounce or sway or move as one might expect eyes to move with a person walking across a room. They glided on the dark as if the thing in the room was on an escalator.