HIGHWAY HOMICIDE (23 page)

Chapter Thirty Six

Erica and Judy looked up as David opened the office door. He stood aside as he ushered Irene Fox inside. Then he followed her into the office, closing the door behind him.

“Hi, ladies,” he said, “Irene, you know Judy, of course, and this is Erica. Erica Caspar.” Erica stood up and offered the other woman her hand. Irene Fox shook it firmly.

“Pleased to meet you, Erica,” Irene said, and then hesitated. “Did he say Caspar? Isn’t that the name of...?”

Erica quickly interrupted her.

“Yes, it is. Maria was my sister.”

“Oh, my, you poor girl, I’m so sorry.”

Judy spoke up quickly. “I’ll just put the coffee pot while you two girls get acquainted. Did you happen to bring any of your donuts with you, Irene?”

“Dammit, no, I didn’t, Judy. I’m sorry. I was so b
usy giving Carl a hard time I completely forgot. It’s a shame too, because there were plenty of them there, just left behind to go stale now. That was pretty dumb of me, I guess.”

“No matter,” Judy said as she turned towards the back room, “I’ll just…”

At that moment, the office door burst open and the driver of the Volvo rushed in. He was holding a revolver in his hand. His
left
hand.

Erica backed up against the wall as David leapt up from behind Almost’s
desk, where he’d just sat himself down. Judy was in the interview room doorway and Irene Fox was in the middle of the room. She’d spun around at the sound of the door being kicked shut.

As he stood behind Almost’s desk, David reached fo
r the service revolver Carl had issued him with as a deputy. But being unused to it, and guns in general, he couldn’t get it out of the holster. He had immediately recognized the man with the gun and although everything seemed to have suddenly gone into slow motion, only a split second had passed.

The killer pointed the gun, said “Sorry, Dave,” and fired it at him. This
was now the second time David had been shot at from point blank range in just a matter of days.

The fact
he was leaning slightly, trying to release the revolver from the holster, probably saved his life. Even so the bullet struck him in the shoulder, spun him around and sent him sprawling on the floor behind Almost’s desk.

In just that split
second, Erica had realized she was standing beside the rifle rack. That was why Carl had loaded them, for just this kind of situation.

Thinking he’
d killed David Gates, the man turned the gun towards Irene Fox, his next victim. She let out a terrified scream and collapsed in a heap on the floor. But her fainting took him by surprise and caused the man with the gun to hesitate, just for a moment.

As the killer glanced down at the prone figure of Irene on the floor, Erica snatched a rifle off the rack. She was rememberi
ng what Carl had said. “All anyone will have to do is point and pull the goddamned trigger.” God, she hoped he was right. In one fluid motion, she swung the barrel of the rifle towards the killer and pulled the trigger. She didn’t give a damn where she hit him, just so long as she did.

The impact as the bullet struck him knocked the man over backwards, slamming him into the closed office door. The revolver flew out of his hand and skittered across the floor. Judy scrambled to retrieve it.

Erica, in her haste, had fired the rifle from the hip. She knew she wouldn’t have had time to put it up to her shoulder. In any case, unlike a paper target, it would have been impossible to miss the man completely from such a close range. However, not having a proper grip on the gun, the recoil from it had knocked her off balance, causing her to drop it. She was sure her shot had hit the man but she still got down on to her knees quickly to retrieve it, just in case.

The noise from the two shots had been deafening in the confines of the small office, and the place stank of cordite.

As she held the killer’s revolver in one hand, Judy reached frantically into Carl’s desk drawer with the other, searching for his spare pair of handcuffs. She finally grasped them and approaching the fallen man cautiously, gun in one hand, cuffs in the other, she snapped one end of the cuffs on to his wrist.

He was alive but immobile, bleeding heavily from an abdominal wound. A gun shot wound in the gut was the worst kind, she remembered Carl saying once. Nevertheless, and with no remorse whatsoever, she grab
bed his arm and turned him on his face.

The man moaned once and went limp. Judy snapped the remaining cuff on his other wrist and left him lying there. She had more important people to attend to than this evil monster.

David was trying to struggle up from behind Almost’s desk as Erica came over to help Judy with him. He was shocked and dazed but not seriously injured apparently. The bullet had caught him in the upper part of his left arm, up near the shoulder but it could have been far, far worse. Irene was still lying in the middle of the floor, unconscious, unhurt and completely oblivious to what had happened.

“David, David,” Judy gasped, as she held a wad of tissues over his wound to staunch the flow of blood. “Are you badly hurt?”

With the help of the two women, David struggled into Almost’s chair but was very pale with shock.

“I don’t think so, Judy. It just hurts like hell, that’s
all, but no, I don’t think it’s fatal,” he said, managing a weak grin.

He looked over at the still and handcuffed figure lying in a puddle of blood on the office floor in front of the door.

“What happened?” he asked.

“That guy shot you,” Judy said.

“I know that, Judy. I meant what happened to him?”

“Erica shot him,” Judy said, proud of her new friend’s heroic action.

“
Erica
did?” David echoed weakly. “Wow, Erica, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Do you know who he is then, David?” Judy asked him.

“Yeah, I know him, and Carl was right,” he said.

“As usual, I suppose,” Judy said dryly.

“Its Bernie Woodall, the guy I told Carl was too much of a nerd to ever do anything like this. Is he dead?”

“No, David dear, but excuse me, there are things to be done. Look after him please, Erica,” she said as she sat herself down at the radio.

“Carl, come in, please,” she called.

“Yeah, Jude, what’s up?” he answered immediately.

“You and Almost get your butts over here, Carl, right now, and bring Doc with you,” she said.

“Doc? Why do you need him, for Christ’ sake?” he yelled into the mike.

“Tell you when you get here. Move it!” she said and clicked off.

In his cruiser, Carl said, “Goddamn that woman!” but all the same, he called Almost and told him to pick up Doc and get back to the office fast.

“Why, what’s happening?” Almost asked.

“Why ask me, Almost? I’m just the goddamned Sheriff around here. How the hell do you expect me to know anything? Just do it, okay?”

Carl started his cruiser, flipped on the siren and headed for the office. In the meantime, Judy had radioed for the closest ambulance and had called the State guys in Burlington.

She just asked if they could come out to Cooper’s Co
rners immediately. She said Carl would explain it all to them when they got there but it was very urgent.

They were still waiting for the ambulance when Almost walked in with Doc. Doc looked over at David and Erica, but David shook his hea
d and pointed at the figure Doc and Almost had stepped over on their way in. Doc squatted down beside the man, with his medical bag on the floor beside him. The killer, Brandon Woodall, was now unconscious. He was alive but it was very doubtful if he would be for very long. It would depend greatly upon how soon he could be hospitalized.

Doc asked Judy to unlock the cuffs.

“He’s not going anywhere now, Judy, and he’s not going to be hurting anyone anymore either. My guess is this dude has got himself an appointment soon with Boot Hill.”

Irene Fox had recovered consciousness and was sitting at Judy’s desk drinking a cup of coffee. She was actuall
y, apart from being pleased she was both alive and safe, very peeved that she’d missed all the action.

Doc came over to take a look at David’s injury. With Judy and Erica’s help, they carefully removed David’s blood soaked shirt. Judy gasped as she saw the round and purplish black hole in his shoulder, now just oozing a little blood.

“Well, lad, the bullet is still in there, so there is good news and bad news for you,” Doc told him.

“What’s the good news, Doc?” David said, a little weakly.

“Only one hole in you for me to stitch up.”

“And the bad?” Judy asked fearfully.

“I’ve got to get him into hospital so I can do a bit of digging around to get that thing out of there. At least he is walking wounded, which is more than I can say for his friend over there.” Doc said.

“I know you’
re only joking, Doc, but actually, we were friends at one time. Not good friends, but at least friends. I’d never have thought that he, of all people, would ever have tried to kill me.”

“Hey, I never thought
I would ever have the opportunity to say this, either, but with friends like that…,” Almost started to say.

“Who needs enemies? Right, Almost?” Judy said, with a grin.

“Aw, Geez, Jude, you take all the fun out of everything.” Almost complained.

“On the contrary,” D
oc said gallantly, “I think she puts all the fun
into
everything.”
              “Why, thank you, kind sir,” Judy said, fluttering her eye lashes at him.

“Oh, why don’t you two get yourselves a room, for God’s sake” Almost said irritably.

Just then the door crashed open. Carl came charging through it, tripped over the unconscious killer’s feet and went sprawling headlong on the floor.

“Jesus
Christ
!” he said, clambering to his feet. “Will someone
please
tell me what the hell is going on around here?”

“Erica has solved your murder case for you, Carl, and has apprehended the killer.” Judy said smugly.

“She’s
what
!”

“The person
you just fell over is…”

“Bernie
Woodall,” David finished for her.

“The Cooper’s Corners killer,” Judy continued
proudly. “Erica just shot him for you after he’d shot our David.”

“
Erica
shot him?” Carl said, gaping in astonishment, as he looked over at Erica.

Erica just shrugged.

“You do what you have to do,” she said, “and in any case, that lousy bastard killed my Maria, my sister. I think I really needed to be the one to nail him, don’t you?”

“I’m not questioning that at all, Erica,” Car
l said. “I’m just astounded you were able to do it, that’s all.”

“I just happened to be the closest one to the rifles, that’s all,” she said modestly.

“Yeah, right, Erica. Closest one, my ass. It took an enormous amount of guts for you to pull that trigger on someone. I don’t care if you were lying in wait for him when he came through the door, it was still bloody amazing. I’m goddamned proud of you. Dammit, girl, we all are.”

He looked over at David, sitting behind Almost desk with a fresh wad of tissues held to his shoulder. “You okay, Dave?”

David nodded.

Doc said, “If that ambulance doesn’t get here soon, Carl, I’m
afraid we’re going to lose this guy.”
              “No great loss that, is it, Doc? I’m just really glad he wasn’t able to kill anyone one else.”

“He very nearly did, Carl, if it hadn’t been for Erica. He was just pointing the gun at Irene when Erica shot him. She saved Irene’s life.” Judy said.

Irene’s eyes widened and she looked as though she was about to pass out again. She hadn’t known any of that.

“I’m really glad
you loaded those things, Carl,” Erica said, walking over and hugging him. “Although I was mad at you at the time, and gave you a hard time, doing that saved all of our lives.”

“Well, thanks, Erica, and t
here’s someone else in town who should be pretty grateful to you too. Russ Harris won’t have to be looking over his shoulder any more either, will he? And Almost, just to be absolutely certain this time, take this guys prints before they cart him off, will you? I don’t want a repeat of that last fiasco.”

Carl walked over and helped himself to a cup of coffee, just as the
Morristown ambulance pulled up outside.

“Should have brought some donuts with you
, Irene. I thought you were telling me you were the smart one.”

Doc reached down and took the killer’s pulse, then shook his head.

“You
sure
, Doc?” Carl said with a straight face.

“Yes, dammit, Carl, I’m sure. I’m
certain
in fact,” Doc said, smiling broadly. “This thing’s really over now.”