I hope shes not looking for Helen, Lucas said. And thought about Elle Kruger, and his jaw tightened. Or anybody else. By God, Id like to be there to bust her; but maybe wed betterWhoops. There she is.
AUDREY TURNED INTO THE BOTTOM OF THE DRIVEWAY, saw the Porsche and the police car at the top. She reached up and pushed the garage door opener. The shotgun rode beside her, muzzle down, in the passenger foot-well, the butt resting against her hip. Shed loaded four shells, as many as it would take, and had two more loose on the seat for reloading.
And she was ready for it. On the way home from the gun store, her vision had seemed to narrow: on the highway, she could see only the road itself. On the driveway, she could see only the garage door, until she made the little left, then right loop that could take her into the garage. Then, she looked out the passenger-side window and saw Davenport walking toward the garage, and her vision narrowed to a small point: Davenports face. A mean man, she thought. Harsh. A man like Daddy.
WHEN THE GARAGE DOOR STARTED UP, THE TWO UNIFORMED cops pushed away from the fender of their squad car, and looked down the drive. Audrey rolled slowly up the drive, made a little jog that took her straight in toward the far door. Lucas and Sherrill started walking toward it from the front stoop, and the two uniformed cops started toward it from their parking spot at the edge of the driveway. The back of Audreys car had just cleared the inside of the door when it started down again.
Lucas turned and said, Side door. Sherrill followedhim toward an access door at the near end of the three overhead doors, just ambling along without thinking about it. Lucas opened the access door and stepped into the semidark garage, which was getting darker as the end door dropped the last couple of feet. Mrs. McDonald, he said.
AUDREY HEARD THAT, AND LOOKING LEFT, SAW DAVENPORT step inside the garage. He was standing in a shaft of light from the open access door. She grabbed the shotgun with her right hand, took a second to make sure the safety was off, then opened the door with her left hand, pushed it out with her feet, and pivoted out of the car. The shotgun was long and awkward, and she had to maneuver it around the cars roof post. Still, once it was out, it came up smoothly, and she saw the surprise register on Davenports face and heard him scream a word and saw a violent motion and then the muzzle was coming down…
THE DOME AND DOOR LIGHTS CAME ON IN AUDREY'S car as she opened the door; and with that light, Lucas could see the shotgun barrel as it came up. Sherrill had come in behind him and he screamed, Gun! and battered her sideways as he went down behind a Lexus. At the same instant, the shotgun blew a foot-long finger of flame at him, and the wall behind exploded in a shower of drywall plaster.
BAAA-OOOM.
The sound came after the lightning flasha long time after, it seemed, though he was suspended in air when he thought that. Then he was on the floor, groping for his pistol, dragging it out of the holster, rolling along beside the Lexus, and the shotgun lit up the garage again, blowing glass out over his head. Hed lost track of Sherrill, lost track of everything: the thunder of the shotgun was magnified in the enclosed space, and the lightning of the shots was now the only illumination, aside from the feeble dome light from McDonalds car.
AUDREY HAD BEEN BLINDED BY THE MUZZLE FLASH; she hadnt expected that, but she expected Davenport to be falling, so she dropped the muzzle of the weapon as she pumped it, and convulsively jerked the trigger again. Glass shattered and she registered a voice, screaming; and a surge of confidence ran through her. Got him. Now to finish him.
LIGHT. LUCAS HEARD SOMEBODY SCREAMING; HIS mind processed it as Sherrill, but he couldnt tell what she was saying. Top.
BAAA-OOOM.
Three shots; and Audrey was getting closer, walking toward them. But some shotguns only held three shots. Was she reloading? Was this a four-shot chamber? And then suddenly, the overhead lights were on and he saw, from the corner of his eye, Sherrill scrambling away from a light switch, a gun in her hand. And at the same time, from his spot on the concrete floor, saw Audreys ankle behind the back bumper of the sport-ute. He pushed his hand forward, couldnt see the front barrel of the pistol but squeezed off a shot. Twelve feet: and he missed to the right. Audrey did a little hop step, and he heard her pump, and a shotgun shell bounced off the floor and he adjusted a hair to the right and pulled the trigger again.
And this time, he hit her.
Audrey screamed and went down, and suddenly, her face was there, looking under the cars at him. And the barrel of the shotgun was pointing at him too and she was moving it toward his face. He rolled behind a tire as she fired, and the tire soaked up the blast; but he could feel the air torn apart beside him.
Shed be dealing with recoil; she might be reloading. He didnt think it, but knew it, and pushed himself just to the right and extended his arm again, still unable to find the front sight in the shadow under the car, but he was close, and her face was there, and he was tightening his grip on the trigger and she was moving the barrel back to him…
SHERRILL DROPPED ON HER LIKE A METEOR. SHE'D crawled over the sport-ute, and dropped from the roof. She landed with her feet behind Audreys neck, smacking Audreys head facedown into the receiver on the shotgun.
Lucas jumped up and ran around the end of the car and caught Sherrills hand coming up with the pistol in it. No, no…
What? Sherrill looked confused.
We got her.
Audrey wrenched her shoulders and neck around, looked up at them, dazed, blood running down her lips and across her teeth. Who are you? she asked.
One of the cops outside was screaming, Davenport, Davenport, talk to me…
We got her, we got her, we got her… With his foot, Lucas pushed the shotgun under the sport-ute, out of reach. Shes hit, he said to Sherrill. Lets get her outside.
Ill get the doors…
Lucas got his arms under Audreys back and knees, and picked her up as best he could; then the three garage doors started rising simultaneously, and light flooded into the garage.
The uniformed cops were there, pistols drawn. They reholstered as they saw Lucas carrying Audrey.
Jesus Christ, one of them said. What was that?
Shotgun, Lucas grunted. Shes hit. Get an ambulance out here.
Put her down on the driveway, Lucas, Sherrill said. Lets get her flat. One of you guys, you got a blanket in your car? Shell be going into shock…
A cop got a blanket, spread it on the driveway, and Lucas put Audrey on it. She seemed only semiconscious, though her eyes were open. He stood up. Damn, he said. That was a little too close.
Audrey said something. Sherrill heard it, said, What?
She said something again. Sherrill said, What? and bent over the other woman.
And as she put her head close to the other womans face, Audrey lifted her hand, and despite her awkward position, hit Sherrill in the eye with her fist, knocking Sherrill flat on her butt.
Knock that shit off, one of the uniformed cops yelled at Audrey, stepping over her, and she unballed her fist and turned her head away, her eyes softly closing. Sherrill had crawled away, one hand to her eye. Aw, man, that hurts.
Lucas looked at it: Youre gonna have a mouse. And a hell of a black eye.
Audrey mumbled again. They both turned to look at her, eight feet away, flat on her back, and her cobra eyes caught Lucas. And suddenly she smiled, a big, toothy smile with bloody teeth.
Lucas felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. He turned back to Sherrill, who looked up at him and shook her head once: Fuckin nuts, she said.