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As I made my way back to the barn, it’d grown dark and harder to see if Marshall was hiding behind bushes or trees, waiting to kill me. I felt woozy a time or two, oncet when I realized the top of my ear had been shot off. I touched it, which started it howling with pain.
When I crested a hill, I could see two cop cars below parked under the security light, a white van plus three black SUVs parked at crazy angles nearby. No ambulance, which I hoped meant the wife was okay. As I hurried past the barn, I didn’t want to look inside and yet I couldn’t stop myself. It was empty except for a team, clad all in white, scouring the scene of the crime under bright work lights.
I stepped up on the long wraparound porch. Through the dining room windows I could see a cluster of FBI agents, sheriffs, and other coppers. When I walked inside, Curtis ran over.
“Hey, everyone! Abit’s here. He’s okay,” he said, throwing his arms round me. “I’m so sorry, Abit. A coal truck overturned on a narrow road. We were stuck for almost an hour.” Well, that answered one question. Then I asked how the wife was. “She’s badly shaken, but yes, she’s fine physically. She said you saved her life—and her husband’s.”
I’d been feeling like a coward for running away, but I reckon my running off did give her and her husband a break. For now. “But Marshall’s still on the loose. I couldn’t catch him.” (I didn’t mention that would’ve been hard to do since I was running ahead of him.)
“Not your job, son. We’ve got a team searching the area.” That was Stoltz, who’d just walked over. He paused and patted me on the back, apparently his only gesture of comfort. “Thanks for stepping in.”
“I thought you’d be after me for stepping in it. But I couldn’t sit back while she was screaming.”
“Like Agent Maynard said, she credits you with her life.
I believe that was when I fainted.