I start pulling the trigger.
But…
Her shotgun isn’t pointed at me.
It’s aimed at the Yukon.
The strange woman with the shotgun fires once, BOOM! And the Yukon shudders and there are two more booming gunshots as the woman takes out both the engine and the two front tires.
The engine rattles and dies, red lights appear on the instrument panel, and he yells to Georges, “Shoot her, shoot her, shoot her!”
Georges lowers the window, brings up his pistol, and Pelayo does the same on his side. Before Georges can shoot, the woman shoots again, hitting the side of the door, tossing Georges back.
Pelayo gets off one shot that is insanely loud in the Yukon’s interior, and the girl is screaming and forces herself to the rear, and Casper grabs her around the waist, forcing the right rear door open.
Pelayo jumps out, leaving Georges behind, who’s now crying with pain, and he leans over the right fender, firing off three shots. The woman with the shotgun spins around and falls to the pavement. Beyond her, people are running away, screaming, and a couple of cars have collided by the fountain in their attempt to drive away.
The glass to the passenger door shatters as another gunshot rings out, and Casper yells, “The Army woman is coming!”
Pelayo whirls, sees the crazed woman coming at them, pistol out in front of her, and Pelayo yells, “Move!”
He breaks away from the Yukon, starts running to a small clump of people, knowing he can slip through them, make a phone call, and then get out of here before the county sheriff or state police roar up.
Another shot snaps out, something stings his leg, but he won’t break stride.
He needs to get out of here.
Now.
Pelayo turns, sees Casper breathing hard, trying to catch up, still holding that little brat in his arms, and he calls back, “Shoot her! Shoot her and get going!”
He keeps on running, hears the nearby crack of a gunshot, flips back one more time, sees the crumpled form of the little girl on the ground, Casper now racing faster, and Pelayo thinks, Yes, we’re going to make it.
The crowd ahead moves apart to let him and Casper escape.
Behind him he hears a woman screaming.
Good.
CHAPTER 87
MY FEET are sore and bleeding and I could give a shit. I race past the Yukon, turn, and there’s Pelayo and another man, holding my Denise, and I brake to a halt, bring up my pistol, and I’m about scream, “Stop!” but before I can do that, the man…
Lifts up his own pistol.
To my daughter’s head.
Pulls the trigger.
My daughter flops.
He drops her to the ground.
I scream so loud I can’t hear myself.
Rosaria Vasquez thinks, Christ, this hurts more than I could ever imagine.
Will it ever stop?
She’s looking up at the blue sky, some palm tree fronds, and she thinks, Well, good planning. Earlier she stopped to get her hair closely trimmed to disguise herself, and to purchase a Remington 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, because she no longer trusted anyone in this screwy case, and Amy Cornwall had taken her pistol back at the library.
But maybe she should have gotten a bulletproof vest.
That would have made sense.
She moans.
Jesus, is her chest ever going to stop hurting?
Tom Cornwall is moving toward where he last saw the Yukon driving away, with his wife, Amy, in full pursuit, when he hears Amy yelling, “Denise, Denise,” and then gunshots, and then a full-throated scream from his wife.
He starts running harder.
I’m sobbing, yelling, and I feel like I’m going to lose control of my bladder and bowels as I approach the still form of my little girl.
Oh, Denise.
I drop to my knees, scraping them hard, and my girl’s head is blackened and there’s blood, and I can’t see anymore, I’m crying so very, very hard.
Denise!
I reach down and touch my little girl.
And—
“Mommy?”
I break out in one more loud sob.
She’s sitting up, rubbing at the side of her face.
“Mommy…my ear hurts. It hurts a lot.”
I grab her and squeeze her hard, and if I could, I wouldn’t move for the rest of the week.
She says, “Oh, Mommy, you’re squeezing me too hard!”
I ignore her, refuse to let her go.
CHAPTER 88
IT HURTS too much to do anything, including keeping her eyes open, and then there’s a dim voice above her.
“Special Agent Vasquez? Can you hear me?”
Rosaria manages to get her right eye open. It sort of focuses in, and there’s a woman looking down at her, wearing a skimpy bathing suit.
“Yeah, I can hear you,” she says. “Who…Captain Cornwall, is that you?”
“Yes, yes,” and now the captain is holding her left hand.
“Damn, girl, why are you in a bathing suit?”
Her hand is squeezed. “A long story, Vasquez.”
“Then save it for later.”
I’m holding Special Agent Vasquez’s left hand, and my other arm is tight around my brave little girl, Denise, who isn’t sobbing but who’s running a hand over and over her scorched hair, near where the muzzle blast of that man’s pistol had passed through.
Sirens are in the distance, and there’s a circle of people watching us, lots using their cell phones to record this horrible scene.
Tom races up, clothes bloody, and he kneels down next to me, starts squeezing Denise as well.
We’re finally together.
“Vasquez,” I say. “Why did you do it? Why did you come here?”
Her right eye is the only one open. Even with the bullet wounds in her chest and her soaking-wet T-shirt from her spilling blood, the haircut makes her look ten years younger and oh so vulnerable.
“I told you that, back at the library…I wanted to help…you and your family…”
“You could have done that by staying away or going back to Quantico.”
Her eye flutters shut, opens up again.
She manages a smile. Her lower lip is frothy red with blood.
“That would be running away…and I wasn’t going to do that…I have no family…I thought for a long time the Army was my family…I was so wrong…They kicked me to the curb like a piece of trash…”
Tom has an arm around me.
The sirens are getting louder.
I squeeze her hand again. “Hang on, Vasquez. The EMTs are coming. Hang on.”
She says, “Captain…I need to warn you…need to tell you something…”
A long, drawn-out wheeze.
Tom says, “Isn’t there anything we can do?”
“Be quiet,” I say to him, and then I squeeze her hand again.
“Vasquez? What is it? What do you want to warn me about?”
Her other eye opens up, and both eyes wander and then lock in on me.
“Captain…is that your husband? Your daughter? Your…family?”
“Yes, yes it is,” I say.
“Oh, so beautiful,” she whispers. “So beautiful…”