The Wrong Man (68 page)

If her first shot had hit him, she could not tell. She tried desperately to lift the weapon, to fire again, but O’Connell’s hand suddenly clasped down viselike on her own, and he tried to force the weapon up into the air.

Hope kicked out, jabbing her knee into his groin, and she felt him gasp in pain, but not so much that his assault diminished. He was stronger than her, she could sense this immediately, and he was trying to bend the weapon back, so that its barrel would rest against her chest, not his. At the same time, he continued to pound her with his free hand, flailing away. Most of the blows missed, but enough landed so that sheets of red pain appeared behind her eyes.

Again she kicked, and this time the force of her leg slammed both of them back, sending more debris flying around the room. A wastebasket tumbled, spreading pungent used coffee grounds and empty egg shells across the floor. She could hear more glass breaking.

O’Connell’s father was a veteran of bar fights and knew that most battles are won in the first few blows. He was wounded and could feel pain shooting through his body, but he was able to ignore it, fighting hard. Far more than Hope, he sensed deep within him that this fight against the hooded, anonymous foe was the most important of his life. If he did not win, he would die. He pushed on the weapon, trying to force it down against his assailant’s body. It was not lost on him that he’d done almost exactly the same thing once many years earlier, when he’d battled with his drunken wife.

Hope was well beyond panic. Never in her life had she felt the sort of muscle that was pushing at her. Adrenaline screamed in her ears, and she grasped at air, trying to find the strength to win. With an immense thrust, she slammed O’Connell’s father sideways, and the two of them half-rolled against a counter. Dishes and silverware cascaded around them. The movement seemed to achieve something; O’Connell’s father bellowed with pain, and Hope caught a glimpse of red blood streaking against the white paint of the cabinet. Her first shot had caught him in the muscle and bone of his shoulder, and despite shredded tissues and cracked bone, he was fighting through the pain.

He grasped at the weapon with both hands, and Hope suddenly slammed him with her free arm, smashing his head against the cabinet. She could see his teeth bared, his face a mask of anger and terror. She raised her knee again, and again it found his groin. She pushed back and smashed at his jaw with her free hand. He was reeling, staggered by the blow, but still she remained pinned beneath him.

She pounded away with her left arm, keeping a fierce grip on the gun, demanding with every muscle she had to make certain that it did not turn and point at her.

And in that second, she suddenly felt the pressure on her gun hand diminish. She imagined that perhaps she was winning, and then, she gasped as an immense shock of pain creased through her entire body. Her eyes rolled back, and she nearly passed out. The blackness that threatened to overtake her spun her about dizzily.

O’Connell’s father had grasped a kitchen knife out of the debris that had tumbled about them. Holding her hand with the gun away with one arm, he had plunged the knife into Hope’s side, searching for her heart. He bent all his weight to this task.

Hope could feel the tip of the blade slicing into her. Her only thought was
This is it. Live or die.

She reached across with her left hand and grabbed at the gun, jerking it toward O’Connell’s father’s face as it contorted with its own combination of pain and rage. She jabbed it up under his chin, just as the knife blade seemed to carve into her soul, and yanked on the trigger.

Scott wanted to glance down at the luminescent face of his watch, but didn’t dare take his eyes off the carport and the side door to the O’Connell house. Under his breath, he was counting the seconds since he’d seen Hope’s dark figure disappear inside.

It was taking far too long.

He took a step away from his hiding place, then shrank back, uncertain what to do. He could feel his heart pounding away. A part of him was screaming that everything had gone wrong, everything was messed up, that he needed to get away, right at that moment, right then, before he was sucked any further into some disastrous whirlpool of events. Fear, like a riptide, threatened to drown him.

His throat was dry. His lips were parched. The night seemed to be choking him, and he grabbed at his sweatshirt collar.

He told himself to leave right then, to get away, that whatever had happened, he needed to flee.

But he did not. Instead, he remained frozen. His eyes penetrated the dark. His ears were sharpened to sound. He glanced right, then left, and saw no one.

There are moments in life when one knows one must do
something,
but each option seems more dangerous than the next, and every choice seems to herald despair. Whatever was happening, Scott knew that somehow, in some oblique way, Ashley’s life might depend upon what he did in the next few seconds.

Maybe all their lives.

And, while desperate to give in to the panic growing within him, Scott took a deep breath and, trying hard to clear his head of all thoughts, considerations, possibilities, and chances, started to run fast toward the house.

Hope wanted to scream, opened her mouth in terror, but did not. No high-pitched fear emerged, just a raspy, weakened noise of harsh breath.

Her second shot had caught O’Connell’s father directly beneath the chin, crashing upward through his mouth, shattering teeth and shredding tongue and gums, and finally lodging deep in his brain, killing him almost instantly. The momentum of the shot had pitched him back, almost lifting him off her, then he had crashed down on top of her, so that she was almost pinned beneath his body, suffocating under the weight of his chest.

His hand still gripped the knife blade, but the force driving it into her body had evaporated. She almost blacked out with a sudden surge of pain. It sent streaks of fire through her side, into her lungs and heart, and sheets of black agony to her head. She was abruptly exhausted, and a part of her urged her to close her eyes, to go to sleep, right there, at that moment. But a force of will kicked in, and she gathered herself to push the dead man’s body off her. She tried once, but she didn’t have the strength. She pushed a second time, and he seemed to tumble a few inches. She pushed a third time. It was like trying to move a boulder, embedded in the earth.

She heard the door open, but could not see who it was.

Again she fought off unconsciousness, gasping for air.

“Jesus Christ!”

The voice seemed familiar. She groaned.

Suddenly, magically, the weight of O’Connell’s father holding her down, as if she were underneath an ocean wave, disappeared, and she surfaced. The shape that had once been O’Connell’s father slumped to the linoleum floor next to her.

“Hope! Jesus!” she could hear her name being whispered, and she gathered herself to turn toward the sound.

“Hello, Scott.” She managed a little smile through the pain. “I had some trouble.”

“No shit. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

She nodded and struggled to sit up. The knife still protruded from her side. Scott started to reach for it, but she shook her head. “Don’t touch it,” she insisted.

He nodded. “Okay.”

He half-lifted her up, and Hope pushed herself to her feet. The movement increased her dizziness, but she overcame the sensation. Gritting her teeth and leaning on Scott, she stepped over O’Connell’s father’s body. “I need help.” She draped an arm around his shoulder, and he started to steer her to the door. “The gun,” she whispered. “The gun, we can’t leave it.”

Scott looked around and saw the weapon on the floor. He picked it up and removed Hope’s backpack. He dropped the gun back into the plastic bag, sealed it, then threw the backpack over his free shoulder. “Let’s get outside,” he said.

They stumbled through the door, and Scott helped Hope to the dark side of the carport. He propped her up against the wall. “I’ve got to think.”

She nodded, drinking in the cold air. It helped to clear her head, and just exiting the close confines of death strengthened her. She pushed herself up a bit. “I can move.”

Scott was someplace between horror, panic, and determination. He understood he had to think clearly and efficiently. He lifted Hope’s face mask and could see why Sally had fallen in love with her. It was as if the pain of what she had done had etched itself on her face in the bravest of strokes. In that second, he realized that what she had done had been as much for him as it had been for Sally and Ashley.

“I must have bled, on the floor. If the police…”

Scott nodded. He thought hard, then knew what he had to do.

“Wait here. Can you manage?”

“I’m okay,” Hope said, although she clearly was not. “I’m hurt. Not injured,” she said, using an old athletic cliché. If you are merely hurt, you can still play. If you are injured, you cannot.

“I’ll be right back.”

Scott ducked around the corner of the carport and crouched down, hiding as best he could as he surveyed the mess of machine parts, stray tools, empty paint cans, and stacks of roofing shingles. He knew that somewhere within a few feet was what he needed, but was unsure whether he would be able to spot it among the weak shadows.

Be lucky, he whispered to himself.

Then he saw what he needed. It was a red plastic container.

Please, he spoke to himself. Don’t be empty.

He picked up the container, shook it, and could feel about a third of the container sloshing liquid back and forth. He unscrewed the top and immediately smelled the unmistakable odor of old gasoline.

Scott bent over and, as quickly as he could, slipped from the carport, into the light and through the door.

For an instant, he wanted to be sick, and he fought off a sudden surge of nausea. The first time he’d entered the house that night, he had been completely focused on Hope, and extricating her from the scene of her fight. This time he was alone with O’Connell’s father’s body, and for the first time he looked down and saw the gore, the man’s gargoylelike, ravaged face. He gasped and told himself to remain calm, which was useless. He could feel his heart pounding, and everything around him seemed somehow illuminated. The mess from the fight and the blood seemed to glow as if painted with vibrant colors. He thought that violent death made everything brighter, not darker.

Scott was stealing every breath he could, moving unsteadily.

He looked over to the spot where he’d found her pinned beneath O’Connell’s father, where there was likely to be blood, and he saw red droplets marring the floor. He sloshed some of the gasoline in that spot. Then he poured the remainder on the father’s shirt and slacks. He looked around, saw a dish towel, and dipped it into the mixture of blood and gas on the man’s chest. He stuck this in his pocket.

Again a wave of nausea threatened him, and he reached out to steady himself, then stopped. Every second he was inside the murder place, he thought, the likelihood of leaving some telltale clue increased. He stood up, dropped the container into the pools of gasoline, and stepped to the stove. There were matches on the counter next to the gas burners.

He stepped close to the door, lit the entire box, and tossed it onto O’Connell’s father’s chest.

The gasoline exploded into flame. For a second, Scott remained frozen, watching the fire start to spread, then he spun about and ducked back into the night.

He found Hope leaning against the carport. She had her gloved hand wrapped around the knife handle, still protruding from her side. “You’ve got to be able to move,” he said.

“I can walk.” Her words seemed raspy.

The two of them clung to the shadows until they reached the street. Scott slid his arm under Hope, so that she could lean against him, and they stepped slowly through the darkness. She was steering him toward her car. Neither looked back at the O’Connell house. Scott prayed that the fire he’d set would take some time to get going, that it would be several minutes before anyone in any of the adjacent homes spotted the flames.

“Are you okay?” he whispered.

“I can make it,” Hope replied, leaning against him. The night air had helped to clear her thoughts, and she was controlling the hurt, although every step she took sent a spike of electric pain through her. She ricocheted between confidence and strength and despair and weakness. She knew that no matter how Sally had plotted the remainder of the night, it wasn’t going to happen as planned. The blood she could sense pulsing through the wound told her that.

“Keep going,” Scott urged.

“Just a couple out for a brisk night stroll,” Hope said, joking through the pain. “Left at the corner, and the car should be just ahead, halfway down the street.”

Each step seemed slower than the last. Scott didn’t know what he would do if a car came along, or if someone came outside and eyed them. In the distance he could hear dogs barking. As they staggered around the corner, looking like a couple that had belted down too much at dinner, he saw her car. The party going on in the house nearby had gotten a bit louder.

Hope managed to stiffen herself. She felt as if she were using every muscle in her body, taking every ounce of strength she had.

“Get me behind the wheel.” She tried to speak with the authority that would leave nothing to debate.

“You can’t drive. You need a doctor and a hospital.”

“Yeah. But not here. Not anywhere close to here.”

Hope was calculating, trying to remain clearheaded, although the pain made it difficult. “The goddamn license plates,” she said. “The ones that were such a big deal to change. Change ’em back.”

Scott was confused. He didn’t see why this was a priority when stanching the wound in her side and getting her to an emergency room seemed far more critical. “Look—” he started.

“Just do it!”

He steered her into the driver’s seat as she’d requested. He grabbed at the bag with the plates and, with a frown and deep breath, a single glance at the house where the party was, ducked to the front and back of the car as rapidly as he could, putting the proper Massachusetts plates on the rental car. He took the others and threw them into the backpack along with the gun, and he stuffed the dish towel marred with gasoline and blood into the plastic bag alongside the weapon.