make it.
“ There they are!”
The voice sent a lightning bolt of straight fear through Jim, forcing him to draw from a hidden reservoir of strength. He pulled himself up and over the fence as the shotgun blasted again. He felt, as well as heard, the pellets flying over his head.
“ Run,” he wheezed, grabbing Roma’s hand. They took off down the alley, but this time it was Roma who was doing the helping.
“ Come on, Jimmy, Come on,” she pleaded, and he fought to keep going.
“ There,” he said, and Roma opened a gate into still another backyard.
They dashed through and she screamed as a German Shepherd sank its teeth into her forearm, dragging her onto the lawn.
“ No.” Jim slammed his cast down on the dog’s head, knocking it out or killing it, he didn’t know. Then he helped her up. “The house,” he said, and they limped across the yard, opened and entered the back door of a pleasant, peaceful-looking home. The back window blew out right after Jim slammed the door.
“ What’s going on?” an elderly lady screamed.
“ Take her into the bathroom.” Jim was still wheezing. “Lock the door, get down and don’t come out till I come back.”
“ Where?” Roma said to the lady.
“ This way!” The woman might have been old, but she wasn’t stupid.
Jim opened the front door, then dashed around the side of the house just as the back door burst open. He ran up the driveway and into the backyard. He reentered the back door as the two men erupted through the front, back onto the residential street.
“ Where did they go?” one voice asked.
“ Don’t know,” a second voice answered.
Then they heard sirens off in the distance.
“ Time to get out of here,” first voice said.
“ Ditch the gun.”
First voice tossed the shotgun into the old lady’s living room, then closed the door.
Jim picked up the shotgun and started for the front door, opened it in time to see them calmly walking away.
“ Don’t!” Donna shouted the thought at him.
“ Why not?”
“ You’ve been lucky. Don’t press it. You’ll just wind up back in jail.”
“ You’re right.” He tossed the shotgun onto a sofa that had seen better days and called out. “It’s okay, you can come out now.” He sat on an overstuffed chair, as old as the sofa, to catch his breath.
“ Are you all right?” Roma asked, coming into the living room.
“ Yeah, the sirens chased them away.”
“ You’re Jim Monday. I recognized you the second you came in the back door. I voted for you. All four times.”
“ Thanks, not many did that last time.”
“ I’m Edna Lambert.”
“ Pleased to meet you, This is my sister-in-law, Roma.”
“ You want me to call 9-1-1?” She picked up a telephone.
“ No, please don’t,” Jim said. “I’m in trouble. I need to think. I need some rest.”
“ No matter what it is, young man, you can count on me.”
“ Maybe not after you hear what I have to say.”
“ Try me.”
“ For starters, I think I might have killed your dog. It bit Roma.”
“ Good for you, I never liked that dog. It was my dead husband’s and you want to know a secret? I never really liked him either. Two years the man’s been dead and they’ve been just about the happiest years of my life. The only thing dragging me down was that damn dog. I’d have killed him myself, if I could have brought myself to do it.”
“ Why didn’t you call the pound?” Roma asked, looking at her arm. Miraculously the bite hadn’t broken the skin.
“ Well, that would be just about the same as killing him, wouldn’t it?”
“ You could have left the gate open and let him wander away.” Roma didn’t seem to want to let it go.
“ Don’t think I didn’t try that. Damn dog wouldn’t leave.”
“ The police are after me for murder,” Jim interrupted.
“ Well, you didn’t do it.”
“ How do you know?”
“ If you did, you wouldn’t be telling me about it.”
Jim smiled and he found himself retelling the last twenty-four hours for the second time that morning.
“ What are you going to do now?” Edna Lambert asked when he finished
“ That’s a good question, Mrs. Lambert,” Roma said.
“ Call me Edna.”
“ Thank you, I will,” Roma said.
“ And I repeat,” Edna said, “what are you going to do now, Jim?”
“ I don’t know. I’m convinced Kohler is behind this somehow, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why, unless he figures with me dead, he can marry Julia and get all of my money. But he’s loaded, at least that’s the impression he gives and besides, he’s getting half of it as it is. So on the surface it doesn’t make much sense. But he was waiting at that window and I saw that look in his eyes.”
“ I know you’re hurting because Julia left you for Dr. Kohler, but really, Jim, I think you’re way off base,” Roma said.
“ I don’t. It sounds right to me. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that that doctor is bankrupt,” Edna said.
“ But he still gets half my money.”
“ I can give you at least three reasons why he might want to kill you,” the old woman said.
“ Okay go.”
“ One, maybe half your money isn’t enough. Two, maybe your wife still has some feeling for you, maybe her mind isn’t all the way made up. With you dead her choice is clear. And three, maybe Dr. Kohler just plain and simple hates the thought of you being alive. Some men can’t live with the thought that their woman has been with someone else. And I just thought of a fourth reason. His name.”
“ His name?” Roma said.
“ Kohler, it sounds like killer.” She crossed her arms and looked Jim straight in the eyes.
“ I think you’re right,” he said.
“ Which reason?” Roma said.
“ All of the above. He’s the one. I’m certain, now more than ever.”
“ I’m glad I helped clear that up.” Edna smiled.
“ It’s not cleared up. I refuse to believe my sister is in love with a killer. There has to be another explanation,” Roma said.
“ Maybe there is,” Jim said, “but until we find it, I’m going to assume Kohler is behind this. I can’t come up with anything else.” He heard the sirens in the distance, getting closer and suddenly stop.
“ Sounds like they’ve found my car,” Roma said.
“ They’ll have your name in seconds. It won’t take them long to figure out your relation to me,” Jim said.
“ What are we going to do?”
“ I think we should check into one of those motels on the beach for the day. Maybe later we can take a bus to the airport and rent a car. I can’t think much beyond that.”
“ You’re not going to any motel. You might be recognized,” Edna said.
“ I’ve been out of public life for a long time, nobody’s going to recognize me.”
“ I did and besides, from what you told me, I suspect your picture will be on the front page of the Press
