going up the stairs. He stopped and listened.
“Decker!” a voice called from above.
He didn’t answer.
“I know you’re there, Decker! I’ve been waiting for you.” There was a moment’s silence, and then the voice said, “
There was another moment’s silence. Then he heard her cry out in pain.
“Come on up, Decker. To the roof. We’re waiting—but don’t keep me waiting too long.”
Decker started for the stairs, then paused and went to the apartment door. It was open, and he went in. He took a quick look around. If Ready’s money was there, it was hidden. After all he had spread around trying to get Decker killed, he wondered how much the man had left.
Rosewood had told him that a lot of buildings had ladders against the side, in case of fire. Decker moved to the window and saw a metal one along the side of the building. It reached from the ground floor to the roof.
He tucked the .45 back into his belt and climbed out of the window and onto the ladder.
Then he started climbing up, hoping that Ready would be expecting him to use the stairs.
The building was three stories high. Decker had been three stories high before, but never on a ladder. He hoped that it was securely affixed to the side of the building. He would hate to fall from that height. He kept climbing—it was
Finally he could reach up and grip the roof ledge. He pulled himself up until he was standing on the top rung of the ladder. From that position he could see Ready, holding Linda tightly to him with his left hand, a gun with his right. Ready was watching for Decker to come out the door from the stairway.
Decker was holding onto the ledge with both hands. He was nervous about letting go with one hand to reach for the .45. Even if he reached it, he was a lousy shot with a handgun.
He had to get up on the roof without being seen.
Jamming the toe of his boot against the side of the brick building, Decker reached for the inside of the ledge with one hand, holding the outside of the ledge with the other. He pulled himself up and quickly moved the outer hand to the inner ledge as well. In this position he was hanging there—helpless if Ready turned around. He pulled and lifted one of his legs, getting the knee up on the ledge. As he got his leg over, Oakley Ready glanced toward him. When Ready saw him, his mouth opened, and he turned, pointing his gun at Decker.
Ready fired once, but Decker pulled hard and fell onto the roof.
“Hold it right there, Decker!”
Crouched on the roof, Decker waited for Ready to fire again.
“You are Decker, aren’t you?” Ready asked.
“That’s right.”
“You’ve caused me a lot of grief.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Ha, I’m sure,” Ready shouted. “You’ve kept me from getting set up in this town. After you’re gone, I won’t have that problem anymore.”
“You’ve got to kill me first.”
“Decker—” Linda said. Decker had the impression that she was more afraid for him than she was for herself.
He understood that.
He felt the same way.
He supposed he was in love with her.
“Take that gun out of your belt and toss it away,” Ready said.
Decker took the gun out and obeyed.
“Take off your jacket.”
Decker took the coat off slowly, careful to hide the shotgun inside. He could have pulled it, but Linda was too close to Ready. He put the coat down on the rooftop. The knife was in his coat pocket, but it wouldn’t do him any good at this distance.
“Hold your arms away from your body and turn around,” Ready said, “all the way around.”
Decker turned in a complete circle, arms away from his body, so that Ready could see he was unarmed.
“All right,” Ready said, “all right.”
He pushed Linda away from him and said to her, “Sit on the ledge.”
She did so.
“On your hands,” he said, “sit on your hands.” She obeyed.
“All right, Decker,” Ready said, motioning with his gun. Decker noticed that it was a .45, like the one he’d taken from Coles. “Over to the edge.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re going off, that’s why.”
“I could get hurt.”
Ready laughed.
“You could get dead,” he said. “That’s the general idea.”
Decker hoped Linda wouldn’t try anything, but just at that moment she did.
“Linda, no—”
Linda sprang off the roof ledge, but she was painfully slow because she’d been sitting on her hands. Ready turned as she leaped at him and fired once.
Decker reached for the coat, hoping the shotgun wouldn’t get wrapped up in it. He closed his hand over it, and it came free.
Ready turned from Linda and pointed the gun at Decker. Decker came up with the shotgun, and they fired together.
Ready’s shot punched into Decker’s left side, took a chunk of meat with it and kept going.
Decker’s blast spread out as it traveled but was still lethal enough when it hit Ready to lift him off his feet and slam him against the stairwell door.
Decker dropped the shotgun and picked up Ar-mand Coles’s .45 just in case. He needn’t have bothered. Oakley Ready was dead.
The question was, how was Linda?
Chapter Thirty-six
Rosewood drove Decker from his hotel to the train station the next day. Decker, had another bandage on, this one on his left side where the bullet had dug a furrow.
“You could wait a while to travel, until you heal,” Rosewood had said when he picked him up.
“No,” Decker had said, “I’ve got to leave now.”
When they reached the train station, Lieutenant Tally was there, waiting.
“Come to see me off, Lieutenant?”
“Here,” Tally said, giving Decker an envelope.
“What’s that?”
“That will make sure you can collect the bounty on Ready.”
Decker looked down at the envelope in his hand, considered giving it back, then decided that he had earned it. He’d earned it with more blood then he’d ever lost on one hunt. Dover wouldn’t mind.
And he’d lost a lot more than blood on this one.
“How is she?” Decker asked.
“She’s still unconscious,” Tally said, “but she’s going to be all right. The bullet missed her heart.”
“That’s good,” Decker said. He was responsible for her being shot, but at least he wasn’t responsible for her being killed.
“She’s going to ask for you when she wakes up, you know.”
“I know.”
“What do I tell her?”
