The Bodies Left Behind

The women grappled, knocking over furniture. Michelle fought furiously-no longer the helpless dilettante in the thousand-dollar boots. She was crazed, fighting for survival.

The gun fired again. Then several times more. Bry

Another sharp crack-and the weapon was empty, the slide locking back automatically, awaiting a fresh clip of ammunition. The women went down on the floor, Bry

Still, there was no doubt in Bry

You should’ve killed me…

Well, this time I won’t make the same mistake.

Her fingers found Michelle’s throat.

“Jesus, Bry

Michelle hit the lock on the gun and the receiver snapped shut. Though the gun was empty it appeared loaded and ready to fire. She aimed at Graham. “Keys. To your truck.”

“What are you-? What?”

“Emmy, Emmy,” Bry

“I’ll kill her.” Shoving the gun into Bry

“No, no! Here, take them. Please! Just leave!”

“Emmy!”

Michelle grabbed the keys. And ran outside.

Graham dropped to his knees, pulling his cell phone out, and dialed 911. He cradled Bry

“Who’s Emmy?”

She forced herself to speak clearly through the pain. “Empty. The gun was empty.”

“Shit.” Graham ran to the door as his truck skidded down the street and vanished.

Bry

Both Bry

“Please, could somebody…Look. Look at this.”

And she spiraled to the floor.

ROWS OF ORANGE plastic chairs in the corner of the brightly lit room. Walls and tiles scuffed.

Graham sat across from Bry

Twining her fingers together, Bry

Sick with horror, sick with exhaustion.

Her phone quivered. She looked at the screen and muted the ringer, because she didn’t want to take the call, not because of the No Cell Phone Use sign nearby.

A patient walked from the admitting window into the waiting area, sat down. Squeezed his arm and winced. He glanced once at Bry

“Been an hour,” Graham said.

“Nearly.”

“Long time. But that’s not necessarily bad.”

“No.”

Silence again, broken by cryptic a

“Bry

“We don’t know yet. What do you have?”

“Okay. Michelle got through the roadblocks somehow. They haven’t found your husband’s truck.”

Bry

Dahl continued, “You were right. We found that friend who drove up from Chicago this morning. She was the only one coming to visit. Michelle, we guess, is a hit man… Well, hit woman.”

“Hired by Mankewitz or one of his people.”

“What they’re figuring,” Dahl said.

“So Hart and Comp were supposed to be the bodies left behind.”

“The what?”

“The bodies left behind… She was going to make it look like they were the only killers and they got into a fight between themselves after the Feldmans were dead. So we wouldn’t bother to look further. But it went bad. Hart reacted too fast or her gun jammed, who knows? She had to run. Then I found her in the woods.” Bry

Another doctor came out, through the double doors. Bry

Bry

You came close, Michelle. Real close…

Hart’s words to her by the highway had a whole different meaning, now that Bry

And she recalled Michelle’s shocked reaction when Bry

“And somebody from Mankewitz’s crew was probably going to come pick her up when it was over. Hell, that’s who was taking shots at us when we were on that cliff.”

Bry

She continued to the sheriff, “She needed the evidence I’d brought with me-the guns and clips, the map, the boxes of ammunition. Her purse. That’s why she was so willing to come back with us to our house. Something probably had her prints on them. Or trace evidence that might lead us to her. She’d pla

“Recovered them. But no prints.”

“None?”

“Looks like they were wiped off, like the Ford. Wiped off with Windex.”

A faint laugh. “She did that when I went for the canoe… Brother, did she have me fooled.” Bry

“What?”

“A body left behind. She was using me as bait. She didn’t have a sprained ankle at all. She was moving slow to draw the men close. And she tried to keep them following in our direction all night. She broke the Mercedes window to set off the alarm-probably as the men were heading toward the highway. And complained about putting on those boots, made a big deal of it. She was stalling, trying to get them closer to us. And who knows what else? She had some crackers. I’ll bet she dropped those.” Bry

“Well, Bry

“She needed me for insurance maybe, or to help her get out of the area. Most likely use me to help her kill them.”

Aware that Graham had fallen silent, his jaw set, large hands clasped together.

Bry

They disco

She touched his leg. He didn’t respond. After a few minutes, she lifted her fingers away and called the neighbor where Joey was staying. She talked to her son for some moments, telling him the truth-that they didn’t know anything yet about his grandmother. She let him ramble on about a video game he’d been playing. Bry