He laughed while Serenity eased her gun out and worked as close as she could get.
Before long two glowing eyes appeared, and the man leaned his rifle on the log and walked to Joe, keeping himself between Doom and the rifle.
“Don’t get cute.” He grabbed Joe by his lapels and grunted as he pulled.
Serenity stepped into the light. “Leave him alone.”
The man jumped, dropped Joe, and faced Serenity.
“Jesus Christ. This swamp has turned into a shopping mall full of females. Must be a sale on tampons.”
“Yeah.” Serenity motioned at Joe. “You’re going to carry him back for us, and pray that he’s all right.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The man turned toward Joe, half of his body in darkness. Then his hand reappeared in the light with a Glock.
Serenity’s mind slipped out of gear and lurched into helplessness. She felt like the Civil War soldier in the Ambrose Bierce story about a man about to be hung, when time suddenly stands still and the man slips away to his former life. Time stood still now, and Serenity felt herself slip back into the comfort of her books, with Joe, and with her son.
The Glock came around, pointed at her. Slowly, slowly. Plenty of time.
In her mind, the books were calmly discussing life and death, and right and wrong. She was sipping wine, secure and happy, listening to the arguments like she was back in a book club with no more consequence to her actions than selecting the next book. All the listening and talking seemed like the most important thing on earth and, at the same time, a waste of life.
A waste of life. She heard that phrase ringing in her ears like an alarm clock.
In what felt like slow motion, Serenity aimed, shot and kept pulling the trigger until the gun made clicking sounds on an empty chamber.
The man fell back into the water. There was a furious splash as the gator grabbed him and shook him, and then they both disappeared under the water. Then there was silence.
sixty-five
good advice from a bad mother
DOOM SCREAMED. “Oh, my God. You killed him, Ms. Hammer.”
Serenity had her head on Joe’s chest, listening. “And maybe saved Joe.” She straightened up. “He’s breathing. Thank God.”
She looked at Doom. “And saved your ass, missy. Again.”
Doom opened her mouth in shock. “Saved me? I would have wrestled the gun from him and marched him out, if you hadn’t interfered.”
“Jesus H. Christ,” said Serenity. “What is wrong with you? Here, give me a hand. We’ve got to carry Joe out of here. And no, you can’t just pick him up and fly out with him by yourself.”
Doom bent down and took Joe’s feet. Serenity felt his torso and head for broken bones, then bent down and grabbed his shoulders and grunted as they lifted him up.
“Jesus, he’s heavy,” said Doom. “What has got you so wound up?”
“Wound up? So wound up? Is your head so far up your comic book ass that you can’t see reality? The man I love is unconscious, almost dead, and still may be in trouble. I just killed a man. Killed. A. Man. And that just adds to the long list of crimes and other things I swore I’d never do.”
Serenity took a step backwards and gestured at Doom to keep up.
“I know,” said Doom. “You’re upset because you’re afraid I won’t cover up for you. You don’t know me, Ms. Hammer. I am far stronger than you. I can take your secret to my grave, and never let the world know that you killed a man rather than let me save you.”
Serenity stopped and they folded Joe up a little between them.
“Save me?” Serenity bit her tongue. Not now. They had work to do. She nodded Doom in the direction of the road and they started crab-walking Joe out of the firelight.
She couldn’t keep her tongue still for long, though. “I am the one who saved you. Twice now. And I’m the one who’s kept your secret. I distracted Joe so he wouldn’t find out that you killed Kendall. I killed a man in self-defense. Yours was a despicable and pointless murder.”
Doom dropped Joe’s legs and straightened up. Serenity could see the shock on her face in the dim firelight.
“Ms. Hammer, how could you?”
“How could I what?”
“How could you think I killed that man? I am a force for truth, justice, and the American Way. Not a killer. You’re like a mother to me. How could you?”
“You didn’t kill him? Really?”
“Of course not. How could you think that?”
“Your spike. Your temper. Your… lack of reality.” Serenity sighed. “Pick Joe’s feet up. Let’s get out of here. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Although it is good to see that you’re just full of words and no action.”
Doom picked up Joe’s feet and they trudged on. In the darkness, Doom said again, “Ms. Hammer, how could you?”
Serenity focused on not tripping on the dark path.
“Doom, I love your fire and your passion and your unlimited capacity for hard work. But there is something I’ve wanted to say to you at least a thousand times.”
“What’s that?”
“Just shut the hell up.”
sixty-six
sleep with a librarian and learn something
“NO,” SAID SERENITY. She was sitting on Joe as he lay on the bed, with her knees holding his face and pinning his shoulders down.
“I wasn’t asking,” said Joe. “I’m going back to work now.”
She smiled at him. “It appears that asking is all that you can do right now.”
He tried not to smile. “You’re hurting my sore shoulder. You’re sure this is what the doctor recommended?”
“How would we know? I wanted to take you to a hospital or a doctor last night. But once you woke up and Doom told you what happened in the woods, you insisted we bring you home.”
“Righteous killing. Don’t want MPD getting involved and making a mess of it. I’ll settle this all myself,” he said.
“I don’t know. For a while back there, I was ready to call the police and take my chances on everything else, just to get you back.”
“We’re Hammers. We take care of our own.”
“Yeah.” She leaned back and put one hand on him. “Besides, doctors don’t know everything about healing.”
He smiled. “You know, I really do need to go to work. Sometime.”
“Yes. Yes, you do. You and I have some real work to do between us. Healing work. Remember when Joseph Junior was first getting into his teens, and we were fighting with him and each other so much that we went to a counselor?”
He smiled. Smiled and groaned as Serenity rocked back and forth on his chest.
“If I recall…” He paused and let out a long breath.
Serenity took her hand away and stayed still. “We’re not going to do this if you can’t stay on-topic.”
“I’ll concentrate.” She leaned forward until she was an inch above his face.
“Keep talking,” she said.
“If I recall,” Joe said, “she was a nice little old church lady who was horrified at the way we fought in the sessions. We wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise.”
Serenity rocked back and put her hand back behind her again. “But she had one good idea.”
“It also involved your hands.”
She gave him encouragement and said, “Keep talking.”
“She finally said, ‘You two are just going to do things your own way no matter what I say. You two have no trouble talking, just trouble keeping it from turning into fighting. Why don’t you come up with a rule that says any time you want to have a serious talk about anything, you have to sit on the couch and hold hands?’”