Dead Heat - By Dick Francis & Felix Francis Page 0,129

was surprised how easy it was. I pointed the gun in his direction and squeezed the trigger. It wasn’t even as loud as I had expected, since the dining room was less confined than the lobby where Komarov had shot Richard.

The bullet caught him in the right leg, just above the knee. I hadn’t been aiming for his leg particularly. I was right-handed but the cast had forced me to shoot with my left. I had simply pointed the gun at the middle of the target and fired. If I’d aimed at his leg I would probably have missed. Komarov dropped the detonator switch, grabbed the wound with both his hands and fell back to the floor. Blood poured out of his leg and I wondered if I had hit an artery. I didn’t particularly care about him, but he was ruining my dining-room carpet. I thought about shooting him again, in the head, to stop the bleeding. There had been so much blood, bright red oxygenated blood. I decided to just let him bleed. At least the blood spilt here would not be from the innocent, and my carpet could be replaced.

Caroline was down on her knees behind me. She had finally cut through all the tape and I was free of the chair so I went to her, keeping an eye on Komarov and another on the door from the kitchen. There were still George Kealy and Gary to contend with. Caroline cradled Viola in her arms and sobbed. It was only the four strings that were keeping the pegbox and the scroll attached to what remained of the body of the instrument. The neck and fingerboard had broken through completely and the soundbox was cracked apart along its full length. The damage reflected the ferocity of the attack Caroline had made on Komarov. I was actually surprised that he had recovered from it as quickly as he had.

‘Be careful, my darling,’ I said. ‘There are still two of them about. I’m going to find them. Go to the office and call the police.’

‘What shall I tell them?’ she said, visibly in shock.

‘Tell them there’s been a murder,’ I said. ‘And the murderer is still here. That should bring them quickly.’

Caroline went through the lobby and into the bar beyond, gently carrying Viola’s remains in her arms.

Komarov was struggling to his feet. The bleeding from his leg had eased to a trickle and I wondered if I should shoot him again. Instead, I grabbed him by the collar and thrust him ahead of me through the swing door into the kitchen with the gun in the small of his back. If George Kealy was going to shoot me he would have to miss his boss to do it. But the kitchen was empty. George and Gary must still be searching outside.

I pushed Komarov right across the kitchen and banged him up against the wall next to the stainless-steel door of the cold-room. I bashed the back of his wounded leg with my knee and he groaned. It felt good, so I did it again.

I used the lever handle to pull open the cold-room door and then I thrust Komarov in and sent him sprawling across the slatted wooden floor. The cold-room was about ten feet square and seven feet high with four food-filled wide stainless-steel shelves running all round the walls with a space about seven by four feet down the middle to walk in. It had cost a fortune to install but it had been worth every penny. I slammed the door shut. There was a push rod to open the door from the inside, to stop people getting trapped, and there was a place on the outside to apply a padlock if desired. I didn’t have a padlock handy so I slipped a metal foot-long kebab skewer through the hole, thereby imprisoning Komarov.

I went into the office to find Caroline standing by the desk shaking. She was sobbing quietly and close to hysteria. I held her close to me and kissed her neck.

‘Sit and wait here,’ I said in her ear. ‘I have others to find.’ I pushed her into a chair. ‘Did you call the police?’ I asked her. She nodded.

I went back into the kitchen and I could hear George Kealy outside the back door shouting for Gary. I removed the skewer and held the gun up as I carefully reopened the cold-room. Komarov was sitting on the wooden slats and leaning up against