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.”“This was about getting a better position in politics?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.“You killed Paul Harrison and Maxie Malone over that?”Mayor Bostero shrugged.“A lot of people have died for such causes,” she said.“I simply wandered over to the bar at Café Linguine just in time to add a little something to the drinks going to that table.Honestly, Ms.Malone was the target.The man—and he was adorable, by the way—was collateral damage.I couldn’t be sure which drink would be placed in front of which person, so I had to poison both.”“But you had to make it look like suicide, so you went to my house—that’s how you knew what the upstairs looked like—and injected them with Ambien.Only you would have had it handy in liquid form.”“I have such trouble sleeping,” Bridget said with a grin.“All that so you could get a part-time job in the New Jersey state senate?” I asked, not hiding my contempt.“Serving the people?”I took two steps back, hoping the increased volume of our voices would attract someone.The cops were here, right?“Are you counting on the police, Alison?” Mayor Bostero asked.“You shouldn’t: I got on their communication system, said I was Detective McElone, and told them that the call to the cemetery was cancelled.They won’t straighten it out until long after we’re done here.So stop stalling.Hand over the deed.”Any incentive I had to do as she asked was gone.“No,” I said.Bridget’s right hand came up, holding a gun.“Did I forget the magic word?” she asked.“I apologize.Hand over the deed, please.”“You’re going to shoot me for it?”“That’s the general idea.You can hand it over, or I can pick it up off the ground when you fall.I’d prefer not to risk hitting the deed, but I am a pretty good shot.”My voice got louder.Maybe Tony would hear.“I think you’ll shoot me either way,” I told her.“I already know that you killed Paul and Maxie.You can’t let me walk around.”The Mayor nodded her head approvingly.“You’re right again, Alison.I am going to kill you.But first, I’d like you to please put the box down.”Instead, I held it up vertically, covering the area from my chin to my waist.“If you want to take a chance, feel free,” I shouted from behind the case.“But I’ll be leaving now.”I took another two steps back, and Bridget fired the gun just to my left.I could feel the air move as the bullet passed me.She had been telling the truth; she was good with a gun.I kept the case right where it was, figuring she wouldn’t risk a shot into it, and I was right.“The next bullet goes into your knee, Alison.And you will drop the box then.”Damn.I stopped.Perhaps negotiation was the way to go.“Maybe we can work out a deal,” I said.“I’ll stay quiet on the murders in return for your agreement not to shoot me, and a recommendation for the guesthouse by the town’s economic development commission.How’s that? You can keep the money.”There was movement in the shrub behind me again.Mayor Bostero raised the gun and took aim at the top of my head.“Nice try, Alison,” she said.Before she could fire, a figure lurched out from behind the shrub.A figure the size of a man, wearing a sheet.Tony must have gone for the drop cloth in his truck after all.He started walking toward us.Bridget, exposed with the gun in her hand, faltered—her shooting hand wavered between me and the sheet.Tony was going to get himself killed for me, and then I’d get killed on my own.“Get out of here,” I hissed at him.“Stop,” yelled the mayor.“I’ll fire at you.”But Tony kept walking, and Bridget raised the gun, pointed straight at him.“Tony, no,” I said louder.The mayor fired.The sheet took a hit, never so much as flinched, and kept walking toward her.She fired again, with the same result.And again.I screamed, I think.How could I tell Jeannie I’d gotten her husband killed?But the figure came close to me, shoulder-to-shoulder, and the familiar voice I heard as it passed—with the sensation of a warm breeze through my right elbow—was not Tony’s.“It’s okay,” it said.“I’m right here, baby girl.”He walked by me.And right at Bridget.She fired once more.Again, it had no effect.The figure walked right into the mayor, and when he passed through, I could barely see an outline of him, but the sheet stayed over Bridget Bostero, and she struggled to pull it off.That was the only opening I needed.Fueled with the fury of her confession and the pent-up anger over her having threatened my daughter, I dropped the box with the deed, dove onto the mayor and brought her to the ground.The gun fell out of her hand and skittered away.I hit her again and again, longer than I needed to, probably, but it felt so good that I kept doing it until I rolled off her unconscious body, covered in a sheet, and started to cry [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]