behind the open driver’s door, holding a handgun casually.
It was a siege. Someone was inside the building holding the Smoots at bay. Winter’s ear caught the unmistakable sound of a child crying. It had to be Elijah Dockery. He had no idea where Dixie and Buck Smoot were, but he doubted they were inside the store. Was it possible that Lucy had somehow escaped and made it here?
Winter figured his odds with a frontal assault were all against him. The men in assault suits wore ballistic vests, and his flashes would instantly give away his position. The Hydroshock slugs might not penetrate the vests, but they would break or at the least shatter ribs, take the men off their feet for a while. Inside twenty-five yards, the 00 buckshot pellets would remain within a twelve-inch cluster. He was more accurate with a handgun, but as soon as he started shooting, all of the targets would be firing at him, and he’d never get a chance to use his pistol. Even with tree cover, his chances of surviving the first few seconds were not good.
The twins had shotguns-probably three-inch Magnums loaded with buckshot-Peanut was brandishing a large revolver, the three men in black had MP5s, and Sarnov probably had a pistol. Alexa was carrying a Glock.40. As far as Winter could tell, only Antonia had no weapon.
Winter couldn’t imagine shooting Alexa, but he well might have to, and he knew he could. Her killing a woman and child was more incomprehensible. He was amazed that she could have hidden her true self so effectively for so many years.
“Ed and Edna!” Peanut hollered. “Send the woman and kid on out. I’ll let both you live. You got my word on it. Ain’t like they’re your kin. She killed my Dixie and Buck. I can’t allow that to go unanswered.”
“If you’ve seen the condition this young lady’s in, you know that whatever happened to your kids was a site less than your kin deserved!”
Winter knew he had to act before the people out front spread out. These people were all accustomed to violence.
His only advantage at that moment was that nobody knew he was there. Surprise only took you so far, and sometimes the surprise was yours.
76
With Elijah clutched to her, Lucy Dockery huddled beside the refrigerator where Ed had put them. Edna sat beside her, back to the wall, holding a pistol in her lap. Ed had dead-bolted the door into the store. He had reinforced it so that in the event someone broke in, they’d make a racket trying to get into the back where the Utzes lived. The Smoots might come in that way, but they’d be ready for them.
“What will prevent them from setting the place on fire?” Lucy asked.
“Nothing,” Ed had answered.
It was obvious to everyone in the store that Peanut Smoot had somehow kept the fire department and the cops away. The warehouse fire was probably out by now. Lucy didn’t hold out much hope of help arriving. But she had tried her best, and had done more than she’d ever believed she could. She was heartbroken that Eli was going to die, and she regretted that she had gotten the Utzes involved.
“I hear a car.” Ed peeked out through the window blinds. “There’s lights. .”
Lucy heard a thunderous sound, and a vehicle roared around the building. Several more shots rang out.
A woman yelled, “FBI! Put down your weapons!”
“I’ll be,” Ed said excitedly. “The danged cavalry’s here!”
“Don’t shoot!” Peanut called. “We give up!”
Ed nodded. “Looks like old Peanut’s done in.” He set his shotgun against the wall and straightened up.
“You, in the store!” the female voice called out. “Hold your fire. I’m Special FBI Agent Alexa Keen. Are Lucy and Eli Dockery in there?”
“They sure are!” Ed answered.
“Unlock the door. I’m coming in.”
“I know who she is,” Lucy said, softly. “My father talks about her.”
“Come on in,” Ed called out.
Ed unlocked and opened the door and a woman dressed in a business suit came into the kitchen, backlit by the big truck’s headlights. She had a gun in her right hand, a badge in her left. She closed the door behind her, put her badge away, and, at the sight of Lucy and Eli, smiled.
“Are you all right?” she asked Lucy.
“I’m fine now that you’re here,” Lucy told her.
“No, you aren’t,” a man’s voice said.
A man with a black face stood aiming a shotgun directly at the federal agent’s head. “She’s with them,” he said. “Drop your weapon, Alexa. Sir, stay away from that gun. Ma’am, you keep that pistol where it is. Sir, bolt that door or the next person who comes through it will be Peanut Smoot.”
77
Serge Sarnov watched the FBI agent go into the building. She had said she should have the old man disarmed in short order, just needed a couple of minutes to reassure the people inside that they were safe, and then she would let Randall and him enter and take the Dockerys.
He checked his watch. The agent had been inside for thirty seconds.
The lights should be on in there, but that idiot twin had fixed that. He’d let Smoot kill the old couple and then they’d take the Dockerys to a warehouse that Smoot owned outside Charlotte. Max would make sure the killing was done to Keen’s forensic specifications and then they’d use two weapons to stage a fatal shoot-out between Massey and Agent Keen, and Peanut and his twin oxen.
“She knows what she’s doing,” the Major answered. “Relax and let her do her job.”
“We should go in,” Serge said.
“She’ll tell you when,” Major Keen said. She reached into the car and flipped the high beams on and off several times.
“Call her cell phone,” Max said. “Ask her.”
The Major sighed loudly, took her phone out of her pocket, and dialed. Serge heard the agent’s phone ringing inside the building. “What’s going on?” Major Keen said into her phone. As she listened, her mouth opened and her eyes widened.
“What?” Max asked.
“She’s gone wrong,” Serge said. “I guess now we can kill her as many times as we like.”
The Major held her phone out to Serge. “Massey wants to speak to you, Serge.”
Serge put the phone to his ear.
“Sarnov,” the voice said. “You have two minutes from now to withdraw or I will kill Alexa Keen.”
“Just a minute,” Serge said. “I’ll consult with the others.” He put his hand over the phone so Massey couldn’t hear him. There was no time to waste.
“Massey is inside the store.”
“How’d he manage it?” Randall said.
“It had to have been before Peanut arrived and set up on the place. Peanut,” Serge murmured, “the man in there killed your son.”
“Buck?” Peanut asked, confused.
“Click. Blew his brains out because your boy wouldn’t give you up.”
“Oh, my dear God,” Peanut said, genuinely shaken. “Killed my baby. .”
“Have your son there smash down that door, and you guys go in and kill everything in the place.”
“Just a minute,” Randall objected. “We should think this through.”
