slice through the air, then a loud splash. Tom rolled twice, getting closer to Adriana with each revolution.
Another shot rang out. Then another.
The delay gave Adriana precious seconds to get herself reoriented. She aimed the gun point-blank at Tom’s chest.
Finally, Tom heard what he’d been waiting for.
“Green! Green!”
Jill’s songbird voice echoed off the quarry walls and filled Tom’s heart. He lunged at Adriana, clutching her in his arms before she could get off a third shot. They grappled together, spinning around several times, as though in a frenzied dance. Tom lost his grip on Adriana’s arm. He felt the gun barrel digging into his abdomen. Tom somehow maneuvered them close to the edge of the quarry. He kept hold of Adriana as he fell backward. They tumbled over the lip of the quarry’s steep cliff with their arms wrapped tightly around each other.
Time slowed. Tom sensed himself floating above the water. The darkness below appeared infinite, and their bodies felt weightless. The fall shouldn’t have taken Tom by surprise, but it did. A ripping wind howled in his ears as he plummeted downward, shattering the momentary stillness. As Tom fell, he heard Adriana’s loud screams puncturing the night, and the explosion of a gun.
Rainy reached the path before the others. She sprinted ahead of Carter, who didn’t have nearly enough leg strength to keep pace. Off in the distance, Rainy heard the sound of sirens, screeching as though the whole town of Shilo were on fire. She could hear cars pulling to a quick stop, doors opening, then slamming shut. She heard the sputter of radios crackling as more sirens arrived. She pushed ahead, sprinting at full speed with her gun drawn. She felt dizzy with adrenaline. Her thoughts were spinning.
Why had Adriana left Mitchell? Why did Roland bring Tom to the Spot? Where was Lindsey Wells?
Rainy broke free of the woods and stumbled into the clearing. It was just as Mitchell had described. She looked around and saw two bodies on the ground. She heard a gunshot, followed by a splash.
Still falling, Tom heard Jill cry out from somewhere in the water below, “Dad! No!”
The railroad ties, the ones Tom had prayed Jill would clear, emerged from the darkness like a predator about to strike. Tom struck the water and twisted his body to avoid a direct hit. He heard the sickening crack of bone, felt Adriana’s skull crack against his own. Blood splatter sprayed his face like seawater called up from a fast-moving boat.
Tom floated in the water, clutching Adriana’s limp body in his arms. It wasn’t just the cold water making it hard for Tom to breathe. No, something else was wrong. A spot on his abdomen felt exquisitely sore to the touch.
Tom suddenly knew why he’d begun to sink. Water filled his nostrils. He gagged to clear his airway, but the pain felt worse than drowning.
Tom’s body bobbed vertically in the water, as if he were climbing the rungs of an invisible ladder. His mouth angled for each struggling breath. He let the water fill him up and pull him under.
His muscles were tiring.
Drowning wasn’t anything like the movies or TV portrayed it to be. It was far more terrifying, because no overt signals, like splashing or frantic hand waving, warned of any peril. Drowning, Tom knew, was a far more cerebral experience. But no matter how people imagined a drowning victim suffered, in the end everyone died the same way: the heart simply stopped beating.
Tom’s limp body sank into a free fall. He made several hard kicks, fighting to surface against the decreased mobility of his denim jeans. His lungs were afire. His chest felt as if it were being squeezed by a bone-crunching weight.
He felt a sudden pull on his shirt. His whole body jerked upward. His body jerked again. Instead of sinking, Tom felt himself starting to rise. Tom broke the surface, the fire in his burning lungs extinguished with that first blessed breath of air. He began to tread water. He could feel the blood rushing out the bullet hole in his stomach. He saw Jill treading water beside to him. She was holding on to his shirt. A body, floating facedown nearby, had to be Adriana. He could see the depression where the railroad tie had crushed her skull.
Tom felt another tug on his shirt, followed by the sensation of being pulled. Jill was swimming for the shoreline. And she was dragging him with her.
Tom felt the rocks and sand of the shoreline pricking at his neck and arms. He could see the moon and the stars above him. The world was spinning. The last words Tom heard before he lost consciousness repeated in his fast-fading thoughts.
“Don’t you die on me, Dad! Don’t you dare die!”
Chapter 85
Tom struggled to open his eyes. When he did, he was looking up at Rainy’s smiling face.
“Are you an angel?” he managed to croak.
“No. I’m not.”
“Is this heaven?” he asked.
“No. It’s St. Elizabeth’s Hospital,” Rainy said.
“I don’t believe you. No, I’m sure this is heaven.”
“Have you ever been kissed by an angel?” Rainy asked.
Tom felt the warmth of her lips pressing gently against his eyelids, then brushing over his mouth. “I think I can get used to heaven.”
“Well, heaven can wait.”
“Warren Beatty,” Tom said.
“What?”
“That’s my favorite Warren Beatty movie.
“I see.”
“We can watch it together.”
Tom tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain in his gut.
“Not time for that just yet,” Rainy said.
He lifted up his hands, expecting at least one of them to be handcuffed. “I’m still a free man?” he asked.
“You’re a lucky man,” Rainy said. “The bullet hit you in the side, not the stomach. But it was touch and go for a while there.”
“Rainy… what happened… ?”
“What happened is the Boyd family is not going to make the cover of
“How did Adriana frame me? Why?”
“A lot’s happened since you’ve been out of pocket.”
“How long?”
“Three days. Going on four.”
“Jill?”
“She’s fine. She’s with Lindsey Wells.”
Tom’s expression went blank, and his jaw fell slack.
“But I thought Lindsey was dead. The police found her body in the woods. That’s why they were coming to arrest me.”
“They found her blood-soaked jacket in the woods and your knife nearby. Frank Dee was supposed to kill her but decided to keep her locked up in the icehouse. Apparently, he’d been… assaulting her. Instead of killing Lindsey,
