Taking Stock
Page 30
Blood dripped on his jeans, her blood. Her triceps was torn, blood running down her forearm and dripping down from her elbow. Her arm hung lifeless. She could use her hand, but barely. With nothing to stop the bleeding, she ignored the wound. She needed to get Gregg outside to the paramedics. He was covered in blood and he was looking pale and weak.
They huddled behind the width of one shelf. If Herman rushed them, she couldn’t move Gregg and return fire. She opened the clip. Three bullets left. Gregg needed a safe place to hunker down. Herman would be moving soon and there’d be no way to know which direction he’d come from.
Erica rushed away from Gregg to the far end of the main aisle.
She shifted the gun to her weak hand and yanked on the first shelf, rocking then tipping it over with a crash, cutting off the aisle so Herman would have to climb over the boxes to approach. She did the same to every aisle, save the one in the middle. Soon the room looked like a maze with every avenue blocked. Herman was still out of sight.
She wheeled Gregg to the one open aisle and tipped over the third shelf, creating a shortened aisle for them to hide in. The blockage protected them from Herman, but allowed a view over the boxes to the stairwell on the opposite side. When the police came, she could call to them. If Herman came down the aisle, he’d be completely exposed. If he chose another aisle, he’d have to noisily climb over the boxes. If he went around one of the ends, he’d be stuck in the main aisle, blocked in by the overturned shelves.
Erica fired two shots. She only had one left, but the report filled the room and set the police and Herman in motion.
Herman’s feet shuffled on the opposite end of the room, no doubt looking for an aisle to sneak down and finish them. He paused in each aisle, confronted with the mess she’d left to block it off. She could hear his calculations in the long pauses in his steps. He knew time was running out. Soon he’d figure out where they were.
The footsteps fell silent. He was coming.
Erica left Gregg in the corner, shielded by the fallen boxes on one side and the undisturbed shelves on the other two. She stepped to the end of the aisle and stood quiet listening for Herman’s approach.
Seconds later she heard a scratch on the concrete floor. He was coming, but she couldn’t afford a look. She had just one bullet left. He’d have a full clip. He was coming down the main aisle from her left. With the gun in her left hand, she’d have to expose herself completely to shoot. She’d wait for him to be right on top of her. She couldn’t miss, but if he got a shot off, neither could he. She had to be quicker.
Sweat poured from her brow. She didn’t dare wipe it. She waited, barely breathing. She could hear the steps now, shoes softly touching down, steadily closer. When she imagined he was only a few feet away, she burst out into the aisle, gun leading, arm outstretched, her eyes searching for the sight and her target. He wasn’t three feet away, it was more like twelve.
Startled by her sudden appearance, he flinched, his gun aimed over her head a second before he regained control. She fired before his gun came level. The bullet ripped low through his chest, but he didn’t fall. He wobbled, trying desperately to line up a shot, but his arm wavered with the pain, defying control. She charged him full speed, dead into his sights with just one good arm. His first shot whizzed over her head. He didn’t fire another.
She buried her shoulder into him and he dropped, slamming his head on the concrete floor, immobile from the shock. She wrested the gun away and stood over him.
Erica was finally free.
The paramedics swarmed around Gregg a minute later.
Holding his hand in the ambulance and listening to the steady beat of the heart monitor, she knew for the first time how completely her world had changed.
Chapter Sixty-six
Melanie, Sarah and Stan followed Gregg and Erica up the slope for the last attraction on their tour of the Turner’s farm. Stan and Gregg lugged heavy picnic baskets while Erica listened to Melanie chat away about her new job with the Boston Globe. They passed the sturdy pine that Erica and Gregg spent two evenings underneath and climbed a set of makeshift stairs up to the plywood decking that would be the main floor of the new house. No walls had been framed and the concrete foundation for the barn had yet to be touched.
A sheet of plywood over three sawhorses formed the picnic table. There were no chairs. Sarah spread two large blankets over the plywood table and the men opened the baskets and began laying out the food. Erica noticed Sarah’s hand on the middle of Stan’s back and a wide smile passed between the two women. It seemed the Friday night dinners were turning into something more.
Back at BFS, Sarah and Stan were running internal audit together until they got a new boss. They were both relieved to be rid of Herman and co-managing had gone well in the first month. Erica and Gregg had agreed not to press charges or speak to the media. Marty paid handsomely for their silence and both retired quietly from the firm. Pete Harrison had found Herman’s Swiss accounts and was helping Marty give the money back to investors. Pete and his bosses had agreed not to go public. The group at the picnic would never know how much that had cost Marty.
Stan asked Erica what she’d do now that she didn’t need to work for a living. Programming computers seemed pointless. Odd after she’d poured four years of her life into learning so much about technology, but she realized she wanted to have a real impact in the world. She wanted to help people. She’d figure out how later.
A car drove up and Carolyn and her fiancée stepped out and walked over the grass. Erica jumped down and jogged across the field to meet them. She held her mother there like she did that day in the courtroom. Mother and daughter connected like never before. Tragedy had ripped their lives apart. Carolyn had struggled to repair her life from the moment Dale Fletcher hit the floor. She’d worked hard, raised her daughter and now she was enjoying a new life with a new man. Erica had been running away from her life ever since that day thirty years earlier. She’d never realized how hard she was running until Brad started chasing her.
Standing in the grass with her mother, Erica spun around the gold band on her left hand to show her the diamond ring she’d kept hidden all morning. She’d finally stopped running from Gregg.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed watching Erica come to terms with her past and deal with those in her present that wished to do her harm. You may notice that the cover photo is taken from Post Office Square Park, facing Franklin Street. If you’re in that area, you may want to visit some of the places Erica frequents in the book.
For your added entertainment, we’ve created the Taking Stock Character Contest. Two lucky winners will appear in an upcoming CJ West novel. Winners will share dinner with CJ and a guest. Over dinner, CJ will create one character based on the lives and characteristics of the two winners. For more information, visit www.22wb.com/contests.htm.
To win, solve the code on the next page and find CJ at the appointed time and place. The rendezvous only occurs once each year. Please check the website before going to the rendezvous to make sure the contest hasn’t already been won. We’d hate for you to make the trip and not be there to greet you. Good Luck!
As always, we’d like to know what you thought of this book.
Contact CJ at: CJ@22wb.com
or
22 West Books
P.O. Box 155
Sheldonville, MA 02070-0155
Thanks for reading!
Taking Stock Character Contest
Win a role in an upcoming CJ West novel. Details available on the previous page and at http://www.22wb.com/contests.htm. Good Luck!
Rendezvous Code:
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Chapter Fifty-three
Chapter Fifty-four
Chapter Fifty-five
Chapter Fifty-six
Chapter Fifty-seven
Chapter Fifty-eight
Chapter Fifty-nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-one
Chapter Sixty-two
Chapter Sixty-three
Chapter Sixty-four
Chapter Sixty-five
Chapter Sixty-six