-
Tuesday, May 31
Red House Ranch
Following Bobby, Kim dashed through the kitchen door, across the decking, down the steps, and into the pounding rain.
Visibility was near zero. Both Carmen and Bobby had disappeared into the raging storm.
Carmen was frantic to protect her girls. She would have run toward her daughters, even as Bobby chased after her.
Kim looked toward the barn as water sluiced across her face, blinding her. She could not see clearly, even when she swiped her eyes with her free hand.
Inhaling was as impossible as breathing underwater. Short breaths and exhales through her mouth were all she could manage.
Kim kept moving. Her footfalls landed in puddles slow to soak into the dry earth. She’d slipped twice, barely righting herself instead of hitting the mud.
The third time, Kim slid three feet sideways and fell to her knees. She raised her weapon into the air at the last possible moment, saving it from submersion in the mud. She climbed upright and slowed her pace slightly as she trudged forward.
She held her gun by her side, attempting to shield it from the increasing downpour.
The Glock was designed to fire under all sorts of conditions. It should perform in the rain and even underwater.
But Kim had never personally tested her duty weapon in the field under storm conditions. This was no time to fail because she’d submerged the gun in a grimy puddle.
The storm was immediately overhead now. She’d seen photos of storms like this. From a distance, they resembled a mushroom cloud like a nuclear bomb.
Rain blasted straight down from the center.
Clouds extended for miles in every direction.
Lightning strikes came fast and furious, one after another, followed almost instantly by the deafening thunder they generated.
Subconsciously, Kim counted seven strikes in less than one minute. Her uncanny memory for facts reminded her that lightning was five times hotter than the sun. A powerful electric charge that destroyed buildings and caused fires and blackouts across entire cities.
People died from lightning strikes every year.
It was crazy to be out here in the storm.
They should all be inside.
They all knew that.
But Carmen was hellbent on protecting her daughters.
Bobby would kill Carmen if he could reach her.
And Kim couldn’t let that happen.
But first, she had to find him.
Bobby might have fired his pistol again, but she couldn’t distinguish the gunshots from the thunder.
Kim focused her hearing but attempting to block out the noise of the storm was futile.
She wiped her eyes and peered into the pouring rain.
When the next bolt of lightning brightened the sky, she scanned the open yard.
Her attention was focused on finding Bobby.
She didn’t notice Rusty’s body blocking her path.
Rushing forward as fast as she dared, Kim’s boot tripped on Rusty’s torso, face down in the mud.
Momentum carried her body forward.
She fell flat on top of the dead woman, landing hard. An oomph of air escaped her lungs, leaving her breathless.
Quickly, she rolled off and scrambled onto her feet again in the slick mud.
Where was Bobby Greer? If he’d left tracks in the mud near his mother, the rain had already washed them away.
And if he’d seen Rusty lying here dead, his rage against Carmen would know no bounds.
Kim stood in the constant rain and closed her eyes to locate the barn from memory using the position of Rusty’s body as her orientation point.
The old pickup where she’d left Flint was a second fixed point she could identify.
She made a ninety-degree turn and began to run again, careful now to watch the ground as well as the open areas ahead.
Suddenly, the storm’s noise seemed to stop.
An unnatural quiet enveloped the ranch, like the barely perceptible split second a golfer pauses at the top of his backswing before the downswing.
In that brief, silent instant, Kim heard gunshots coming from the direction of the barn. Four shots. Two weapons. Fire and counter fire. Unmistakably.
And then the storm rushed back with full momentum, gathering speed and force seemingly as fast as the speed of light.