“Get up and take a look,” she said.
“I can’t. He’ll lose too much blood.”
“Do it!” Slowly, I got to my feet. “Slowly open the door, but don’t take a step out or I’ll kill them both.”
I glared at her before walking to the door. It was one of those doors that swung out, not in. I gently pushed it open a little and looked out. There were people with guns everywhere. One of them motioned at me to come out, but I shook my head and closed the door. “He’s right. They’re all over the place,” I said, going back to T.J., who was starting to look a little pale. “Hang in there.”
“Well, I have two choices. I can shoot it out with them, but we’ll all die then. Or I can use one of them as a hostage, and take them with me.”
“You can’t use either one of them. One is unconscious, and you shot the other one!
”
“If I take you, it won’t hold as much leverage. But an FBI agent, that’s a different story. I can get further with one of them.”
“We both know you are going to take T.J., because you’d have to drag Hopkins out of here.”
She looked down at him. “Guess I shouldn’t have knocked him out. Such is life.”
“You can’t take T.J. He’ll bleed to death.”
“That’s a chance I’ll have to take,” she replied, moving toward us. Kicking him in the foot, she motioned for him to stand up. “Let’s go. I don’t have all day.”
“You can’t do this!” I said.
She pointed the gun at me again. “You can’t stop me,” she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. “Now get back. Get up, Thomas Jefferson.”
He groaned in pain as she pulled him to his feet. “I asked you to stop calling me that,” he said. T.J. tucked his head and threw himself at Debra. She stumbled over Hopkins’ legs and fell to the floor. T.J. fell on top of her, but she pressed down on his wounded shoulder, causing him to scream. She shoved him to her right and got to her feet. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said, pointing her gun at him.
“Stop!”
Debra looked over her shoulder at me. I had the .38 in my hand that T.J. had given me at the junkyard. I had put it in my purse, intending to give it to him later. “Drop your gun and kick over here to me.”
She laughed. “You’re kidding me.”
“No, I’m not. Do it!”
“You won’t shoot. It’s not in your nature.”
I aimed the gun slightly to her left and fired a shot. “Guess again,” I said, pointing the .38 at her again.
“You have more balls than I gave you credit for,” she said. Still pointing her gun at T.J., she moved around him, standing just beyond his head before tossing her gun at my feet. “Now what?”
“We are going to walk out of here, and the FBI people out there are going to arrest you.”
“Alright, I guess that sounds fair. You win, Lizzie. We’ll do this your way.” She started to walk toward me, her hand behind her back.
“Watch out, Lizzie!” T.J. yelled as Debra pulled out a Glock.
We both fired at the same time as both barn doors were yanked open.
Chapter 30
The next thing I knew, T.J. was kneeling beside me. “Lizzie, can you hear me? Come on, sweetie, talk to me.”
“Stop yelling,” I said.
“I’m not yelling.”
“Where’s Debra?” I asked, struggling to sit up.
“Just stay there, ma’am,” a paramedic said.
“No, I want to know. Where’s Debra?”
The paramedic looked at T.J. before looking over his shoulder. “They are working on her, ma’am. Now I wish you would stay still so I can take care of you.”
“Take care of him; he’s the one who’s shot.”
“You both are, ma’am.”
“What?”
“Your left arm, Lizzie. It’s not bad. You’ll be fine.”
“What about you? I thought you were bleeding to death.”
“This?” he said. His right arm was in a sling. “I’ve had much worse than this, trust me.”
“And Hopkins?”
“I’m right here,” he said, appearing behind the paramedic, holding an ice pack on the side of his head. “I’m fine.”
A man wearing an FBI vest walked over. “Roosevelt, may I speak to you for a moment?”
“Sure.” He squeezed my hand. “I’ll be right back,” he said before he stood up.
The paramedic finished putting a bandage on my arm. “You should go to the hospital and get that looked at,” he said as he put his stuff back in his kit. “Your head, too.”
“Yes, sir. Could someone help me up?”
T.J. came back, and helped Hopkins pull me to my feet. “We’ll go to the hospital together,” he said, leading me toward the door.
“What about Debra?”
He stopped. “Lizzie…”
I looked up at him, and the look on his face told me everything. I turned and walked over to where she was, just as another paramedic pulled a sheet over her face. Tears pooled in my eyes as I put my hand over my mouth. I had killed her. Oh, sweet Lord, what had I done?
T.J. slipped his arm around my waist, turning me in the other direction. “You did what you had to do,” he said, as if he knew what I was thinking. “She didn’t give you much of a choice.”
“I didn’t mean to do it.”
“I know you didn’t, Lizzie. It was self-defense; everyone knows that.”
We walked out the door. Agents were taking off their vests, putting them in the trunks with their weapons. I saw Owen walking up the driveway. “What’s my sister’s car doing here?” he said. “Is she here?”
I shook my head. “She’s at her office. I borrowed her car.”
“Are you two alright?”
T.J. nodded. “We’ll be fine. Would you mind giving us a ride to the hospital?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“No, I can’t. I’ve got to take Babe home. She’s in the car.”
“I’ll get one of the other guys to drive her home, Lizzie,” T.J. said. “She’ll be fine.”
“I need to get Trixie’s car…”
“I’ll make sure it gets back to her,” Owen said. “What about Cosgrove? Did you get her?”
T.J. shook his head and frowned at him. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Oh man, don’t tell me she got away again!” he said as we reached his car.
I stared at him. “No, Owen. She didn’t get away again. I killed her,” I told him before I got in the car.
Chapter 31
After being checked out at the hospital, I called Trixie, who took me home. She wanted to stay with me, but I politely declined. All I wanted was to be alone.
It was after ten p.m. when she dropped me off. I unlocked the door, dropped my stuff on the couch, and let the dogs in. Pouring myself a Dr. Pepper and getting something to eat, I sat down on the couch, and turned on the T.V. The pain medication they had given me at the hospital was starting to kick in as I finished eating. Mittens curled up next to me, while Babe lay on the floor by my feet.
I didn’t want to sleep, because I was afraid of the nightmare that was waiting for me. Killing someone was a rather mind-numbing thing. The moment she pointed that Glock at me, I knew I had to shoot. I couldn’t let her kill us all. By killing her, I had saved T.J. and Hopkins.
But had I lost myself?
The doorbell rang. “Are you kidding me?” I muttered as I got up and opened the door. “Rather late to be stopping by for a visit, don’t you think?”
“I thought you could use some company,” Jake said. “May I come in?”
“If I say no, you’re going to come in anyway, right?” He nodded. “Then by all means, make yourself at home.” I closed the door and sat back down on the couch.
“I heard what happened,” Jake said, sitting next to me on the left. “How’s your arm?”
“Numb, thanks to the pill-happy nurse at the hospital.”
“Where’s T.J.?”
I shrugged. “Probably off doing paperwork. I’m sure there are a lot of forms to fill out when a fugitive gets killed by a civilian.” I took a drink. “I wonder how he is going to explain the fact that I shot her with his gun.”
“T.J. told Owen you saved his life.”
“Well, yippie skippie! Let’s all celebrate,” I said bitterly. “What is the preferred drink of murderers? Beer? Wine? Scotch?”
“You don’t drink.”
“Maybe I should start.”
“I don’t think this is a good reason to start.”
I got up and paced the floor. “Why did they put me in this position? Why didn’t she just give herself up?”
“You went out there on your own. No one put you in that position but you.”
“You’re a lot of help.”
“Why did you go out there, Lizzie?”
“I wanted to make sure no one got hurt.” I snorted. “Fat lot of good that did, huh? Hopkins has a concussion, T.J.’s arm is in a sling, I’ve got a hole in my arm, and Debra’s dead.”
He got up, walked over and stood in front of me. “Did you give her a chance to give up?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she had the gun behind her back?”
“No.”
“Did you feel like your life was in danger?”
“I did when T.J. yelled at me. I saw her pull the gun out. She pointed it at me. I pulled the trigger. It was like a knee-jerk reaction.”
“Then you did what you had to do, Lizzie.”
I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. “Then why do I feel so bad?”
“Because you have a good heart,” he said, stroking my face. “You care about people; Debra only cared about herself.”
I started crying, and he led me back to the couch. We sat down, and he wrapped his arms around me and let me cry.
Chapter 32
It took about a week before I felt comfortable going out in public. A couple of FBI agents came to the house the day after the shooting to get my account of what had happened. They told me it was just a formality: they said I had acted in self-defense. They thanked me for saving the lives of two agents. When they said that, I had to squelch the urge to throw up.
Jake wrote the story for the newspaper, despite Dale’s insistence that I do it. In fact, Dale called me and told me that if I didn’t write it, I was fired. I blame the pain medication for the explicit directions I gave him about what he could do with his job.
My first foray in public was to the Eat It or Starve café for breakfast. Since I didn’t have a vehicle, Jake picked me up. When he parked in front of the café, I couldn’t get out. He squeezed my hand. “It will be fine. I’ll be right there with you.”
“If Gladys says one word to me, I may shove a pie in her face.”
Jake laughed. “No, you won’t. Come on.”
He held the café door open for me, and as I walked in, conversations stopped. Everyone turned to look at me. Maddie came into the dining room carrying two plates. “What’s the matter with you people? She’s not a stranger. Quit staring at the poor girl and worry about yourselves!” she said as she served the food. She came over and gave me a hug. “It is so good to see you! I’ve been worried sick. No one’s been around to eat my pecan pies!”
Laughing, I returned her hug. “Thanks, Maddie.”
“Owen is at the back booth in the corner. I’m guessing he’s waiting on you two. Go sit down; I’ll bring you something to eat.”
Owen stood up when we got to the back. He gave me a hug. “Good to see you out and about again, Lizzie,” he said as we sat down. “How are you doing?”
I shrugged. “I’ve had better days.”
“It’ll get better; just takes time. If you need to talk, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks, Owen. I appreciate that. I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll be ready to talk about what happened.”
“Here you go, folks,” Maddie said, placing our plates in front of us. “Just what the doctor ordered: good food to make you feel better.”
“It looks great, Maddie,” I said.
“Well, of course it does! It always does,” she said as she walked off.
I noticed Gladys looking in our direction and I groaned. “She’s going to come over here, I just know it.”
“You’re right,” Owen said. “Here she comes.”
“Lizzie, I heard what happened, and I wanted to say how sorry I was that you found yourself in such an awkward situation.”
“Thank you, Gladys.”
“If there is anything I can do, or anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“That’s very kind of you, Gladys. I…thank you.”
She nodded and hurried off. “Well, that wasn’t what I expected,” Owen said.
“Me, either,” I admitted.
T.J. walked into the café, his right arm still in a sling. “May I join you?” he said as he stopped at our booth. Owen slid over to make room, and he sat down. “How’s the arm?”
“It doesn’t hurt as much. What about you?”
“I had surgery to clean out the fragments. I should be good to go in a couple of months.”
“That’s great.”
“I have something for you,” he said, pulling an envelope out of his back pocket.
“What is it?” I said, picking it up.
“The reward money.”
“What reward money?”
“Well, Debra was on our most wanted list. There was a $250,000 reward for her…” he hesitated.
“…dead or alive,” I finished for him.
“Yeah.”
“I see,” I replied, putting the envelope down. “I’m not sure I can accept this. It doesn’t seem right.”
“Look, I don’t think Debra would want you to mope around and be so morose about what happened. You can use this money to get yourself a new car. Add a room onto the house for a real office. Whatever you think is appropriate. The information she left with you is going to help put away some very bad people. So think of it as reward money for putting away some true scum of the earth.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He and Owen exchanged a look. “There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you. I’ve resigned from the FBI.”
“You did what?”
“I realized that my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I enjoyed my time here undercover. This small town life isn’t too bad.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“He’s coming back to work for me.”
I almost choked on my sweet tea. “What?!”
“I’m moving back to Brookdale. I was hoping that you and I could get to know each other again, maybe even go on a few dates.”
I looked at Jake, whose face was turning bright red. Obviously he didn’t like this plan.
My heart, on the other hand, seemed thrilled by the prospect.
Oh, boy!
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Thursday
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7 - Friday
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23 - Saturday
Chapter 24
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
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Teresa Watson, 5 Death Catches A Killer
5 Death Catches A Killer Page 9