Joe Victim

“Come on, Joe,” Melissa says, and she tugs at my sleeve. “We should never have come here.”

We step around the unconscious priest and my mom stares at us with an angry look on her face, as if spending all of my money has really a

We step outside. Walt is out there talking to a couple the same age as him, and then he spots me and starts to come in my direction, but whatever he has to say I don’t really want to hear. We’re halfway down the stairs when Detective Inspector Schroder pulls into the parking lot.

Chapter Eighty

Driving is a bitch, but thankfully the car is an automatic, which makes it possible. Hutton isn’t taking his calls. When Schroder calls him, it rings a few times and then switches over to voicemail. He’s not sure whether the detective is busy, or whether he’s deliberately dodging him. He has a pretty good idea which it is.

He knows Hutton’s number from memory, but not any of the others, and because the screen on his cell phone is busted he can’t look anybody else up. He could call the police emergency number and ask to be put through to Stevens, but he knows Stevens would yell at him and hang up without hearing what he has to say. He drives to the church, not expecting to find Joe there, but ready to call the emergency number if he does. If it leads nowhere, then he’ll drive to the hospital.

He’s not expecting to see Joe standing on the steps of the church when he pulls into the parking lot. In fact he has to do a double take, and even then he’s not sure because Joe is wearing a hat, but the woman behind him is definitely the same woman from the prison, the same woman who shot Jack, the same woman who blew up Raphael and tried to blow him up too.

So there’s no point in messing around. He stops the car and leaves the engine ru

A second later Melissa steps out from behind Joe to the right of that same old guy and fires a shot at Schroder. Schroder ducks down behind the door onto the ground as bullets come thumping through the car door. Something tugs at his broken arm, and he looks down to see a dime-sized spot of blood that starts to rapidly grow on the front of the sling.

Melissa stops firing. People are ru

He peers around the edge of the door and back up at the church just in time to see Joe and Melissa disappear inside. The old man who was trying to talk to Joe is still standing on the stairs. He looks unsure of what to do. Schroder knows the feeling.

He tucks the gun under his arm and reaches for his cell phone. He dials one-one-one. “This is Carl Schroder,” he says. “I’m currently under fire from two suspects—Joe Middleton and Melissa X. Send backup,” he says, then gives the name of the church and hangs up.

He drops the phone back into his pocket. He still hasn’t called his wife. Why the hell did he keep putting that off? If this were an episode of The Cleaner, then that’d mean he’s about to get shot. That’s how TV works—you start talking about a cop who has a family, and two minutes later that guy’s starfished on the ground with blood ru

Chapter Eighty-One

She knew this was a mistake. Should never have come here. Hell, for that matter she should never have helped Joe escape. She could have gone anywhere, just her and Abigail. Only now she’s backed into a church and no doubt the police will be on their way. She has about twelve bullets left and nothing else.

“Let’s go back out the front,” she says.

“He’ll shoot us,” Joe says.

“No. He’ll just try to shoot us.”

“What’s going on?” Joe’s mother asks, and Melissa thinks she could spare a bullet on her. If it came down to it, she could probably spare two or three—one into the head, then two more into the head just for the hell of it.

“He’ll do more than try,” Joe says.

“Others will be on the way. We have to do this fast. We have to go back out there and we have to shoot him and then we have to leave. We can drive a few blocks and ditch the car and steal another. Or take one of the others that’s already here. Damn it, we could have been home by now. This was a waste of time because your stupid fucking mother spent—”

“How dare you,” Joe’s mother says, and Melissa points the gun at her.

“Don’t,” Joe says.

“Why?” Melissa asks.

He opens his mouth to answer and comes up with nothing. “We can use her as a shield,” he says.

Melissa pulls him toward her and kisses him hard but briefly on the lips, then pushes him away. “You’re going to make a great father,” she says.

She grabs Joe’s mother, who resists for a few seconds, and then Joe grabs her too. They push her ahead of them toward the church doors. Melissa holds a gun to the woman’s head and Joe opens the door and then they step back outside.

Schroder has made his way to the bottom of the steps. He’s wearing a sling because his arm is broken or wounded or something. He points the gun up at them, but he has no clear shot. It’s Joe’s mom, then Melissa, then Joe—all in a straight line.

“Let her go,” Schroder says.

“Put your gun down or—” she says, and that’s when Joe’s mom stumbles, trips, then suddenly she’s rolling down the stairs toward Schroder. Joe moves to the side to try and reach her, but is too late.

For a moment both of them are exposed to Schroder.

And then two things happen at the same time. Walt steps in between them to try and reach Joe’s mom. And Schroder and Melissa open fire.

Chapter Eighty-Two

“What’s—” is all Walt can manage because a moment later Melissa’s bullet is rattling around in his wrong-on-so-many-levels skull. He stays standing as if being shot in the head is a momentary distraction, an a

The shot Schroder took has gone high and wide, but he points his gun at me to take his second shot. Before he can, I pull Melissa in front of me, which ruins the shot she’s about to take, and ruins Schroder’s shot too. Instead of him shooting me, he shoots her. I can feel the impact of it.

I back into the church as Schroder takes his third shot. Another impact into Melissa and I get back through the church doors, dragging her with me. The door closes behind me. I lay Melissa on the floor next to the priest.

“You fucker,” she says.

“I’m sorry,” I say, and I truly am. “It just . . . just happened that way.”

There are twin pools of blood forming on her chest. She raises her gun toward me and I reach out and take it out of her hands before she can fire it. “I can make it quick,” I tell her.

She shakes her head. Then she laughs. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I tell her again, and it’s true.

“Abigail,” she says.

“I’ll look after her,” I tell her. “I’ll do everything right by her,” I tell her. “Where is she?”

“She’s safe,” she says.

“Don’t let her grow up without either of her parents,” I tell her, and I tell her this because I really need to know where Abigail is being hidden. I really need the safe place.