Without looking back, the two adults and the child left the cabin and disappeared into the dim light. Carlyle slammed the door shut behind them.
Sutcliffe grabbed him by the arm. “Sit down against the wall over there and face the door.”
“You going to tie me up?”
“Not if you do as I say.” Sutcliffe picked up a chair, jammed it under the doorknob, and turned down the lantern.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“No? Your friends probably have night scopes trained on me.”
“They won’t try anything as long as I’m alive.”
“How can I be certain they’re not waiting for some signal to come busting in here? Which reminds me, did they put a mike on you?”
Carlyle unbuttoned his shirt. “Satisfied?” He looked around the room. “So is this where you grew up?”
“You trying to make some connection with the perp? Is that what this conversation is about?”
“I’m just trying to end this standoff without blood all over the walls. You’ve got legitimate gripes, but they don’t have to mean you or anyone else has to die over them.”
Sutcliffe said, “Is Bognor or Morris in charge out there?”
“Morris is holding all the cards.”
“Then I’m fucked.”
“That’s not true. He wants to see this thing end peacefully.”
“How do we do that?
“What if I can get Phillip Marshall to preserve the cabin?”
“Don’t be an idiot. Once I’m in prison, his bulldozers will make this place disappear.”
“How can I convince you to put down that shotgun?”
“Let me go on TV. I want everyone to know what the mine project will do to this land.”
“They’ll never agree to that.”
“This is pointless, then.”
“Let me finish. If you surrender, you’ll get a lawyer. He’ll work with the press to set up an interview.”
Morris’s voice came through a bullhorn. “Carlyle, your time’s running out.”
“I’ve got to let them know I’m safe,” Carlyle said.
“Okay, but do it quick.”
Carlyle opened the door. “Give us a couple more minutes.”
“This can’t go on much longer,” Morris said.
Carlyle turned to face Sutcliffe. “You heard what he said.”
“You’ve got to hold them off.”
“Why?”
“None of your business.”
“There’s no way out of here.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“You’ve got to surrender.”
“My grandfather tried to negotiate, but they shot him dead.”
“You’ll get a chance to explain all that.”
“You expect me to swallow that equal-justice-for-all bullshit?”
“No, but at least you can have your say on TV. What else can you do?”
“You think I’m trapped don’t you?” Sutcliffe edged away from the wall and crawled toward the table in the center of the room. He grabbed his pack and pulled out the top hat and long coat that Carlyle had seen at the trestle.
“What in hell are you doing?”
“If I’ve got to die, might as well go out the way Sam did.”
“If you do that, they’ll shoot you.”
“Don’t be so sure about that. In a couple of minutes, it’ll be dark enough so that if we’re standing next to each other on the porch, they’ll hold their fire.”
“Are you nuts?”
“You really expect people like Sam and me to obey laws made in Albany?”
“Sam’s been dead for half a century.”
“Shut the hell up.” Sutcliffe stood up and was reaching for the peavey with his left hand when a bullet blew out the window, missed Sutcliffe’s neck by inches, and embedded itself in the wall.
Sutcliffe, his coat covered in splintered glass, dropped to the floor, and crept toward the back wall of the cabin. “You asked me to trust you.”
“Stay down. Let me talk to them.”
“Not on your life.”
“I swear, I don’t know how that happened.”
“It was probably Pierce. That asshole’s been waiting all his life for a chance to become a hero.”
“For God’s sake. We’ve got to end this before one or both of us get killed.”
“You got that right.” Sutcliffe crawled to a cupboard and pulled a kerosene can from the bottom shelf. He leapt up for a moment to grab the lantern and quickly ducked. There was no further gunfire. He then crawled across the cabin, grabbed Carlyle’s arm, and pulled him toward the door. “Hold your fire! Your boy’s coming out!”
“This is crazy. Nothing will stop them now.”
Sutcliffe opened the door and shoved Carlyle onto the porch.
Carlyle said, “It doesn’t have to end this way.”
“If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to shoot you myself.”
“You’re a damn fool.”
“Get going!”
Carlyle ran down the stairs and across the rocky ground toward the tree line where Bognor was waiting for him.
“Who fired the shot?” Carlyle said.
“Guess.”
Lisa said, “He wasn’t going to hurt us.”
Morris said, “Listen, one of my men will take a statement and then drive your family into town. Now you’d best get out of here.”
“We have nowhere to go,” Lisa said.
Bognor handed her a card. “There’s a phone number here. Tell the woman who answers I said to put you up tonight.”
“Who is she?” Lisa said.
“My wife. She’ll take care of you.”
Just then, two state police troopers left the woods. Pierce, his hands cuffed behind his back, was between them.
Bognor took Pierce’s firearm from its holster. “I never gave you an order to fire.”
“You all were just standing around. I thought he was going to kill Carlyle.”
Morris turned to Bognor. “We’ll bring your deputy to the county jail in Warrensburg. You can decide what to charge him with.”
“Just get him out of my sight.”
When Pierce had been led away, Morris spoke into his walkie-talkie. “Get ready. We’re moving in one minute.”
Carlyle said, “Don’t do that.”
Bognor said, “Ric, it’s over.”
“What’s he’s carrying?” Morris asked.
“A shotgun. And that damned peavey.”
“Anyone else in there?”
“Just him.”
“That’s it, then.”
“He may still change his mind.”
“It’ll be dark any minute. I can’t risk waiting.”
As the three men stared at the cabin, one of Morris’s deputies ran up. “Lieutenant, our infrared sensors suggest the structure’s on fire.”
Just then, clouds of dark gray smoke began pouring from the roof. A harsh orange light began to envelop the front room of the cabin. The windows began to crack and, one by one, fell from their frames.
Carlyle ran
