CHAPTER 28

I hadn’t counted on Winslow’s hired thugs. That night the motion sensitive lights outside went on, illuminating my driveway and the slope beneath the house. Someone was out there. Either that or a deer had wandered into the scope of the lights. I went to the front window and looked out. No one. I held the Glock in my hand and waited and then the bottle crashed against the front door and the gasoline inside flared up. A Molotov cocktail, hurled from the darkness. I grabbed the kitchen fire extinguisher, hoping that there wasn’t somebody out there with a gun ready when I showed myself. I pulled open the door, doused the flame with the extinguisher, the white cloud smothering the flame. The door was scorched, and the porch had a black burned patch but the fire was out. I was no longer safe in my house. I needed to hold out for a week, finish my plan to punish Winslow and flee. I spent the rest of the night half awake, waiting to see if they came back. The next morning I was careful when I went to the garage, loaded my tools into the car, and drove to Santa Rosa. The job finished today, and I would be on my own for several days until the Vallejo job began. I sat on the back porch, sipping a scotch. I would miss this view. I was used to the green that surrounded me. I thought of the far corners of the state, Susanville where the prison was that Fuller had threatened me with. I would find a place there that was surrounded with green. And there would be mountains that I could look at.