He started to try to pull me over. Ben, who had stepped up a little higher, landed a mule kick in Parrish’s groin area with his Flex-Foot; he apparently missed the nuts but not the squirrel, because Parrish grunted and let go of my wrist but didn’t fall. Parrish quickly made a grab at Ben’s legs again, but only managed to get a grasp on the prosthesis that had so recently wounded him. I grabbed the socket end of it, trying to pull Ben up, even as Ben held on to the top rung for dear life, kicking at Parrish’s left arm.
There was a bright light above us, and noise and wind; the helicopter was overhead. I couldn’t see them, but knew they could not get too close to us — there were too many poles and wires and other objects up on this part of the roof. The flags were snapping loudly, and the cables beat out a ringing alarm.
“To the left!” I shouted up at Ben, not knowing if he could hear — whether he did or not, he aimed his next kick better, coming down hard on Parrish’s left arm.
Parrish lost his grip and nearly fell, but held on to the Flex-Foot as he tried to find his own footing. He managed to get his feet back on a rung midway up the ladder. Ben had moved his right leg up higher, out of reach, and was trying to pull himself up while Parrish kept all his weight on Ben’s left leg. Still holding the Flex-Foot with his left hand, he grinned and suddenly let go of Ben with his right, swinging free. But instead of reaching for the ladder, he took hold of his knife.
“I’ll make a double amputee out of him,” Parrish said, his bloody nose making his speech sound odd. “But maybe I’ll cut your fingers off first.”
Involuntarily flexing my fingers, I felt a metal button beneath them. The locking pin release. I pressed it.
I heard a click and watched Parrish’s bloodied face register a look of horror as the socket and Flex-Foot separated.
He made wild, futile stabs at the air as he fell backward onto the rooftop with a thumping crack.
He didn’t move after that.
59
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1:55 A.M.
Las Piernas
Ben pulled himself up onto the ledge. I sat up, dizzy after hanging upside down. We were both winded.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “You?”
“Yes. Sorry about your foot.”
“It’s probably okay. But after all that work to get up here, hell if I’m going back down there to find out if it’s damaged.”
“I think someone will bring it to you,” I said, pointing to where the helicopter was landing.
At the same time, we heard a loud bang that made us jump — the SWAT team had made its way through the door to the roof. In no time at all, Parrish was surrounded. When he didn’t move, they edged toward him.
“Irene!”
I turned from the scene directly below to that best-loved voice. Frank was stepping out of the helicopter, running toward us.
I waved and yelled, “We’re okay!”
His face broke into a big smile and he ran faster.
Three members of the SWAT team made it up the ladder before Frank did.
“We’re okay,” Ben told them. “Is Parrish dead?”
“No,” one said, “but damned close to it. Looks like he broke his neck. We’re going to take him over to St. Anne’s. It’s just down the street.”
Frank came up the ladder, carrying Ben’s Flex-Foot.
“Thought you might need this,” he said, handing it to him.
“Thanks,” Ben said. “I was wondering how I was going to get down from here without it.” He looked it over and decided that although it was a little scraped up, it wasn’t badly damaged.
“I don’t think my cell phone fared as well,” I said. When I told him how I’d used it, Frank laughed and took me in his arms. “Parrish just didn’t know what he was up against, did he?” But he was holding me tight, as if needing to reassure himself that I was okay. I held him, too. It felt good, the safest I had felt in a long time.
“Oh!” I said, coming out of that spell of comfort. “I just remembered something! Phil Newly called me, and it was forwarded from my desk to the cell phone. Can you find the number from the cell phone records?”
“No need to,” Frank said. “Newly called us.”
“The police?”
“Yes. That’s how I found out you were here. Newly said he tried calling you, and you told him you were up here with Nick Parrish and were scared and asking for the police.”
“Where has he been?”
“He said he’s been hiding. He’s been afraid of Parrish. He said after you got those bones and roses, he knew that Parrish was back in the area, and he took off. He rented a beach house down the coast, didn’t even tell his sister how to get in touch with him. He heard the news reports tonight and decided to come home.”
“So why call me?”
“He was expecting a hostile reaction from the police, and he thought you might help him meet with me before things got out of hand. I didn’t tell him that you were the one that kept insisting we check him out. He’s hired a defense attorney of his own, but agreed to meet with us tomorrow.”
