Bonnie held the gun out at the farthest extreme with both hands. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, Carl. But I can’t let this go on. I won’t let you kill me. I won’t let you kill Tommy.”
It was coming now. Carl could feel it. He could sense that the dialogue had ended and the time had come for action.
He looked down at his son. “I love you, Tommy,” he whispered. “I always have. Always will.”
“Carl, no!” Bonnie shouted for the benefit of the invisible audience. “I won’t let you hurt him! I won’t let you!”
He could see her hands tightening, see the tiny bones in her hand flexing around the trigger. It seemed she’d reached the end of the script.
He closed his eyes and waited for the end to come.
Megan surveyed the tableau in the space of a heartbeat. She might not understand all the details, but she certainly comprehended the main event. Bonnie was pointing a gun at Carl, tensing up to shoot.
Megan didn’t stop to ask questions. She flung herself against Bonnie, tackling her like a tight end sacking a quarterback. They both crashed to the ground, but Bonnie was on the bottom and she took the worst of it. Megan heard a loud exhalation in her ear and knew that she’d at least knocked the wind out of the woman.
Unfortunately, Bonnie was down but not out. She reached up with her gun hand and clubbed Megan on the top of her head. The hard metal dug into her scalp, cutting a jagged dent in the left side. Megan could feel blood rising to the surface.
Megan gritted her teeth and pushed Bonnie’s arm away. Her brain was racing. What should she do next? Somehow, hand-to-hand combat had never been covered back at seminary. She had to try whatever first came to mind, whatever was available.
Bonnie’s head was just beyond Megan’s knees. She grabbed Bonnie’s head and slammed it back against the ground.
That seemed to take the woman for a loop. Her eyes rolled back and the lids fluttered.
Megan moved fast while she had some slight advantage. She lifted one leg back and drove her knee into the woman’s solar plexus.
Bonnie let out an “oof!” and all at once the fight went out of her body. Unfortunately, she was still holding the gun. Megan crawled across Bonnie’s body and clamped down on her arm, just below the wrist. She raised it up and down, pounding it against the hard wet grass. After several poundings, the gun spilled out of her hand.
Carl rushed forward, kicking the gun away. “Thank God you arrived. Another second and she would’ve-”
“Yeah, I saw.” Megan rolled Bonnie over and pinned her arms behind her back. She was beginning to stir; Megan wanted to make sure she was in no condition to struggle. “Lucky timing.”
“Lucky?” Carl shook his head. “More like a miracle.”
Miracle? Megan looked up at him, but at that moment, she heard the sirens of police cars wailing up the residential street. “Let me talk to them,” Megan said. “I don’t understand this mess perfectly, but I probably understand it better than you.”
“No contest.”
Megan glanced down at the bundle of flesh she was sitting on. “Make sure your ex-wife doesn’t go anywhere, okay?”
Carl grabbed Bonnie’s wrists. “It’ll be a pleasure.”
After what seemed like an eternity, Megan returned to Carl. The police had taken Bonnie out of his custody; he was sitting on the front porch steps now, waiting to hear what lay in his future. If he had a future.
“Well, I think I got that straightened out for the time being, anyway,” Megan said. She sat beside him on the porch step.
“You mean they believed you?”
Megan nodded. “I made them call their ballistics expert.” She gestured toward the police officers, now returning to their cars with Bonnie. “And the coroner-the man who examined your arm wound. Both of them had evidence that backed up my story and made the police realize what Bonnie and Frank were doing.”
“Then I’m off the hook?”
“Well, let’s not go overboard. There’s still the matter of the neighbor you injured. The house breaking. The escape from custody. But there are also some keenly mitigating circumstances. It’ll be a while before the cops have finished their investigation. I promised you wouldn’t leave town.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“But the most important thing is-you won’t be spending Christmas behind bars.”
Carl’s lips parted, but he didn’t speak. His eyes became wide and watery.
“Which is good, because Tommy isn’t going to have anyone else to stay with.”
There was a catch in Carl’s throat. “You mean, I’m going to spend Christmas with-” He suddenly let out a gasp. “Look out!”
Megan whirled around to see a man she knew must be Frank flying toward her, fists first. She screamed.
Carl grabbed her by the arm and yanked her out of Frank’s path, barely a second before he landed. Where had he come from? Megan puzzled. In the space of a heartbeat, she realized he must’ve hidden in a back bedroom, then dropped out of a window as soon as the police left the house.
“You’ve ruined everything,” Frank growled. His eyes were blazing; the expression on his face said he could kill anyone and anything that came into his grasp. Then he lunged.
Carl shoved Megan out of the way. Frank hit Carl front and center, knocking him down onto the porch-hard. A moment later, Frank scrabbled to his feet and took off.
Carl pushed himself up from the pavement slowly. Blood was trickling from the side of his mouth.
Megan laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Let the police catch him.”
“Like hell.” Carl started after Frank. Megan followed. She realized she must be seeing Carl’s police training in action. It rose to the surface even when Carl wasn’t consciously thinking about it. He was fast, too. In no time at all, he’d left her far behind.
Carl caught Frank just before he crossed the neighbor’s yard. He wrapped himself around Frank’s legs, knocking him to the ground. Before the man could recover, he rolled Frank onto his back and sat on him, pinning his arms back. “Go ahead,” Carl said. “Resist. Please.” Frank’s teeth were clenched; his face was smeared with dirt and grass stains. He drank in the cold hard look in Carl’s eyes-and did not resist.
A phone call later, two police officers came running to the scene. “Nice work,” one of them said to Carl as he snapped the cuffs around Frank’s wrists. “Thanks for the assist.”
“Anytime.”
Carl pushed off Frank’s prostrate body, then walked over to Megan. “Well, that was fun. Maybe I’m not totally washed up after all.”
Megan smiled. “I’m certain of it.”
“Did you mean what you said before? About me spending Christmas with-” All at once, his face darkened. “Tommy!”
“What about him?” Carl slapped himself on the side of the head. “I’m such an idiot. In all the confusion, I lost track of him. He was so terrified when his mother was pointing that gun at us. Then he ran inside and-” His eyes darted to one side, and then his voice disappeared.
Megan laid her hand on his shoulder. Carl? What is it?”
His hand rose, trembling, and pointed to the place on the grass where Bonnie had been tackled. “The gun,” he said, barely getting the word out. “I kicked it over by the hedge.”
“Yeah. So?”
“It’s gone.” He turned to face Megan, his eyes wide with fear. “And so is Tommy.”
23
Megan tiptoed carefully up the stairs of the house. Tommy’s room was at the top and the door was closed.
