front door of the house.
“Lady!” one of the cops barked, but Megan kept running. She could see now that Carl was lying in a bloody heap on the grass; she didn’t see how he could possibly do her any harm.
She stopped when she reached the body, then groped stupidly for a pulse.
He was still alive.
“Where the hell did she come from?” Frank growled, lowering his gun. “Who is she?”
“It’s the lawyer!” Bonnie answered. “Damn!” She had expected Megan to come, but not so soon, not spoiling everything.
“I can’t tell if he’s dead!” Frank spat the words out.
Bonnie whirled around, livid. “I know that, idiot.”
“What are we going to do now?” He grabbed her by the arms and shook her. “Tell me that, will you? What are we going to do now?”
Bonnie broke out of his grasp, cursing under her breath. “I’ll think of something.”
“Call an ambulance!” Megan cried. The three cops were moving her way, but one of them ran back to radio for the medics.
Megan stood up, raced toward the window. “Bonnie? Are you in there? Are you all right?”
A few moments later, the front door cracked, open. “Megan?” a subdued voice whispered.
“Bonnie!” Megan ran toward the front door. They fell into each other’s arms at the halfway point.
“Oh, Megan!” Bonnie sobbed. Her face was streaked with tears; her voice was trembling. “I–I was so frightened.”
Megan led her back to sit on the front steps. “What happened?”
Several seconds passed as Bonnie tried to collect herself. “I was so scared. Even worse than before.” She cradled her knees and hugged them close to her. “So scared.”
“What did he do?”
She was breathing in short, broken gasps. “He just showed up, shouting and threatening. Said he was going to kill me. Said he was going to kill us all.”
“What did you do?”
“I called the police, like you said. Thank God they got here quickly. He was crazy, Megan, just crazy. He tried to throw himself through the bay window.”
Megan took Bonnie’s head in her lap and held her tight. “It’s all right, Bonnie. It’s going to be all right. It’s all over now.”
“I–I just wish it hadn’t had to happen like this,” she said, sorrow tinging every syllable. “Poor Carl. What away to go.”
“Don’t worry, Bonnie. He isn’t dead.”
Bonnie’s eyes seemed to contract. “He … isn’t?”
“No. The bullet hit him in the arm. Hurts like hell, I’m sure, but it isn’t life-threatening.”
“You’re-sure?”
“Positive. I doubt if he’ll be in the hospital overnight.”
“Oh, Megan.” She turned her head away. “I can’t tell you what a relief it is to hear that.”
“The important thing is, he’s in custody. And after this stunt, he’s likely to stay that way for a good long time.”
She saw over her shoulder that the police were approaching. They would doubtless have questions of their own. “Bonnie, the police are going to need all the details. Do you want me to stay?”
“Do I need an attorney?”
“Probably not. But I thought you might need … a friend.”
“Oh, that would be-you must have plans.”
“Outside of feeding the dog, no.”
Bonnie hugged Megan close to her. “You’re so good, Megan. So good to me.”
“Nonsense.” Megan stood up and prepared to meet the police. “Least I can do. Especially on Christmas Eve.”
15
More than two hours passed before Bonnie finally saw the last of the police, the medics, the family counselors. Carl was hauled off to St. Anthony’s, Bonnie provided a detailed statement, and Frank remained in the upper bedroom, out of sight.
When finally she had cleared the last of the do-gooders out of the house, Bonnie made her way upstairs. Frank was smoking and watching some abysmal Christmas special, something involving talking animals and snowmen and, of course, Santa Claus.
“All gone?” Frank asked, stubbing his cigarette out in a cup.
“For now,” Bonnie answered. She threw herself across the bed. “They’ll be back day after tomorrow. And I’m supposed to go in and fill out some forms. File a formal complaint.”
“I’ve got a few complaints myself,” he said, drawing a line with his finger down the curve of her neck, across the soft curve of her shoulders. “And Carl?”
“He’s fine, more or less.” Her voice acquired an edge. “You got him in the arm, and only barely that. Just a flesh wound, as they say in the westerns. It was the shock that made him collapse, not the wound.”
“You’re joking.”
“’Fraid not, lover boy” She rolled over to face him. “’Course, the police are planning to arrest him as soon as he’s able to move. They’re going to charge him with assault and battery, resisting arrest, violating a restraining order. He’ll do some time, no doubt about it.”
Frank’s teeth ground tightly together. “That isn’t good enough.”
“I’m aware of that, Frank.”
“Jail time gets us nothing. He has to die.”
“I’m aware of that, too, Frank. Are you blaming me?”
“It was your plan.”
“It was your hand on the gun!” She sat upright. “You told me you could shoot!”
“I can shoot.”
“Meaning, I guess, that you can pull a trigger. But you couldn’t hit a man barely six feet away.”
“For your information, it’s hard to hit a moving target.”
“He was moving toward you, Frank. Tommy could’ve hit him.”
“Then maybe you ought to let him!” His voice swelled. “You can’t leave him at his friend’s house forever, Mommie Dearest. Why don’t you pick him up and ask if he’d like to shoot his father for you? Since you don’t have the balls to do it yourself!”
“Frank, don’t be angry-”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you! The man has to die, or this was all for nothing.”
“Frank-”
“Sometimes I can’t tell what you want.”
“I want to be with you, Frank. I want what you want.”
“That’s not how it sounded to me.”
Bonnie closed her eyes and swallowed. She had miscalculated, she realized, had pushed him too far. Now she was in danger of losing him. And she couldn’t allow that to happen. She still needed him. “Frank, please calm down. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”
“Didn’t mean what?”
She laid her hands gently on his shoulders and began softly kissing his neck. “I didn’t mean to blame you,” she said between kisses. She knew she had to retreat, stroke him, bring him back to the game plan. “It’s just so difficult. You know how much I lust after you.”
“Yeah, right,” Frank replied, but his voice was softening. “Me and the three million bucks.”
