Plender

by Ted Lewis

  KNOTT

  I watched the beam of light shorten as the black shape approached Plender. Then the figure stopped and I heard the hammers of the gun being pulled back.

  Very quickly I raised my own gun and pulled the trigger.

  The beam of light swung through the blackness as the impact of my shot caused the man to throw his arms in the air above his head. For a split second the beam was marvellously perpendicular, shooting straight up into the night sky. Then it described a slow arc downwards again and smashed on the ground and went out. Almost immediately one of the other torches veered over to the ground where Plender and the man were lying. For a brief second the beam played on the man’s head, allowing me to see that I’d shot him in the back of the neck.

  Then both the other torches swung away from me and the two men on the ground, and I listened to the footsteps of the others as they crashed away towards their car.

  I walked over to where Plender was and knelt down next to him. He knew I was there because I could hear him trying to say something to me, the same words over and over, but I couldn’t make them out.

  Then, abruptly, the words stopped.