An Ice cold Grave Page 0,95

the only one who could hear the strain in his voice. Barney was having a hard time sounding and acting like a human.

"No, I haven't," Ted Hamilton said. "What do you plan to do when you find her?"

"Why, take her to the hospital," Barney said.

"Are you planning to cut off her head first? Because that sure is a big knife you've got there."

"No, Mr. Hamilton, watch out!" I jumped out of my hiding place, because I was so scared that Barney would attack the old man and his wife.

But Mr. Hamilton was pointing a gun at Barney. He was right on top of the situation, until I'd startled both of them by my sudden appearance.

With a roar, Barney came after me, and I turned to run back to the woods. But then the gun went off behind me.

And Barney wasn't running after me anymore.

Chapter 15

I stopped and turned around. Barney Simpson was lying in the driveway, so newly cleaned of tree debris. Now he was getting it dirty again, because he was really bleeding from a hole in his shoulder.

Mr. Hamilton had come forward to the edge of the deck, and Nita was behind him. She was wearing another tracksuit, and her short hair looked just as neat in the overhead light as it had in the daytime.

"You think you need to shoot him again?" she asked her husband.

"I think he's done," Ted Hamilton said. "You scoot in there and call the police."

"I'm one step ahead of you, honey, I already did it when I heard his voice outside," she said. "Miss Connelly, you want to step around him, real careful, and come inside?"

"Thank you," I said, in a very shaky voice that didn't sound at all like my own. "I'd love to be inside. Inside anything."

"You poor girl, come on in."

I walked very carefully around Barney Simpson, who was clutching his shoulder and as white as a sheet, though the bright overhead light washed the color out of everything. I went up the stairs very carefully, since nothing in my body seemed to be working exactly right. I was careful not to jostle Ted or come between him and the downed man. I didn't want Barney to get any more like the Terminator than he already had.

When I was close to Nita Hamilton and she got a good look at me, she said, "We do need to get you inside. Ted, are you good out here?"

"Yes, honey, you take care of the young lady."

And just like that I was in a warm place. I could have predicted almost everything about the Hamiltons' cottage, from the maple furniture to the crocheted throws folded over the backs of their favorite chairs, from the framed baby pictures to the china rooster on an end table. Nita efficiently threw a towel over the wooden chair by the door, where they probably normally dumped their keys and coats. After I looked down at myself, I knew that was the only possible place for me to sit.

"You're bleeding," she said. "I'm going to get a rag and wipe you off. I know the EMTs will do it right, but you don't want to be sitting there dripping. I know I wouldn't."

And that was true enough, though I didn't really care that much just at the moment.

She was back with a clean rag and a white enamel basin of warm water in just a couple of minutes, and she began the tedious process of cleaning my face.

"Ted'll keep his distance, don't you worry," she said quietly, as if shooting men was an everyday occurrence at the lake cottage. "He won't get too close."

"When will the police be here?"

"Any moment. Your brother has been looking for you all over town," Mrs. Hamilton said, and my heart felt warm again. "He called out here and asked us to keep our eyes open, because he saw Barney Simpson's car parked at the other end of the lake. So we were prepared."

"I hope the police understand," I said.

"I'm sure they will. Nothing wrong with our sheriff. She's a good one."

I wasn't as sold on that idea as Nita, but then the sheriff wasn't answerable to me.

"How come your head's bleeding?" Nita asked, as if to make sure I was completely there with her mentally.

"He pulled me out of the car by the hair," I said, and she looked truly shocked. "He pulled some stitches out."

"Well, if Ted knew that, he'd shoot him again," she said, and that triggered a