Actually, he hadn't pushed her. As he recalled, he'd thrown her so she wouldn't hit the rocks jutting out from the base of the
cliff. He didn't think it would be a good idea to mention that now, though. 'Did I have any other choice?'
She wasn't ready to admit that there really hadn't been any other alternative. Their guns were useless against a high-powered
rifle, and Monk was hot on their trail.
'I don't want to talk about it.'
He grinned. 'Cup half empty, sugar? Where's that optimistic attitude?'
'At the bottom of the river.'
He stood and offered her his hand. 'Come on. Let's get out of here.'
She didn't know if she had enough strength to even stand. She was so tired and cold and wet. Suck it up, she told herself.
'Right,' she said as she grabbed hold. When he jerked her upright, she fell against him. He put his arm around her and held
her tight while he made up his mind which direction they should go.
'Aren't you tired?' she asked.
'Yeah, I am.'
She looked back toward the river. 'Maybe he'll give up now.'
John Paul shook his head. 'That isn't gonna happen. He's a professional. He's taken the contract, and he won't stop coming
after us until…'
'He succeeds?'
'Or until I kill him.'
'I vote for the second option.'
They both heard the sound of children's laughter.
Avery pulled away from him and started running toward the noise. 'I hope they have a phone.'
'Doubt you can get a signal.'
She actually smiled. 'There's that negativity I so love. You had me worried, John Paul. For a minute there you were…'
'What?'
'Cheerful.'
'The hell I was.'
He sounded as though she'd just insulted him. She was laughing as she ran toward the sound. The reason for her sudden good humor was either joy or hysteria. A family of five was setting up tents near a little stream.
After a brief explanation, everyone piled into the father's minivan and headed toward a town the man remembered he'd driven through on the way up the mountain.
Thirty minutes later they reached the sleepy little community of Emerson. Downtown consisted of four streets. The father
stopped the van in front of a two-story stone building. The second they got out of the van and closed the sliding door, the
father sped away.
'I think maybe you scared him,' Avery remarked.
'The faster he can get his family away from us, the safer they'll all be.'
There was a police station, which was surprising, considering the size of the town. Sharing the same building, the police station was squeezed in between the volunteer fire department on one end of the building and Bud's Burgers on the other. There were three doors facing the street with signs above each one. They walked through the middle door into a wide hall. Swinging doors were on both sides. One connected to the restaurant, and the other to the fire department. The police station was directly ahead.
The aroma of hamburgers and onions and french fries filled the air, but the smell didn't spur Avery's appetite. It actually made
her nauseous. The lack of food, running for miles and miles, the cold, and the terror had taken their toll. She felt all used up. Getting from the door to the counter was suddenly more challenging than surviving the currents. Her feet felt as though they weighed a hundred pounds, and it took every ounce of stamina she had left to move at all.
John Paul could tell she was having trouble. She seemed to wilt before his eyes.
'You okay?' he asked as he put his arm around her waist.
'I feel like rigor mortis has set in,' she said. 'I'm not dead, am I?'
Smiling, he said, 'You're still breathing.'
He looked through the glass window and saw the police chief sitting behind his desk. There was a stack of papers on the
blotter, and he was poring over them. Every couple of seconds he would glance up at a television mounted to the wall behind
the counter. Dressed in navy pants and a white shirt with the name
frowning as he picked up a sheet of paper.
A woman in her late sixties stood behind the counter with her back to the door. Her hair was as white as Avery's face. She seemed mesmerized by the program on the television.
John Paul could hear her talking as he pushed the door open. 'Didn't I tell you something bad was going to happen? Didn't I tell you, Bud?'
'Yes, Verna. You told me.'
'And didn't I tell you he brought this on himself?' she asked. 'Tearing out all those beautiful trees and digging away at the mountain just to build himself a fancy monument. It looks like Mother Nature decided to get even, didn't she?'
The chief wasn't paying much attention. 'Yes,' he drawled as he continued to scan the sheet of paper in his hand.
'If you ask me, he's the villain. I feel sorry for his wife.'
'You mean ex-wife, don't you?'
'That's right. He got rid of her so he could move on to a younger model. It's criminal, if you ask me. Poor thing. He got her
used to living the high life, and then he yanks the rug right out from under her.'
The chief was clearly exasperated. He dropped the paper on the desk and looked at the television. ' 'Poor thing'? Didn't you
see that interview they did with her last month? They had to bleep out every other word she said. I think he was crazy to ever marry her.'
'But how is she going to get along now?'
'She can get a job and work like the rest of us. Nobody put a gun to her head when she signed that prenup,' he pointed out.
John Paul and Avery had been listening from the doorway. They walked inside as Verna was telling the chief it was all a terrible shame. The chief spotted them, did a double take, and stood.
'What happened to you two?'
'It's a long story.'
'I'll be happy to listen,' he said.
Avery pulled away from John Paul and walked over to the counter. Verna gasped, and her brown eyes widened as she approached.
'My name's Avery Delaney,' she said.
'You're soaking wet. What in heaven's name happened to you? You look like something my cat dragged in.'
Avery didn't know where to begin. She saw John Paul shake the policeman's hand and sit in the chair he offered. She decided she'd let him do the explaining.
