With visions of him regaining consciousness and reaching up and grabbing her any minute, she took a deep breath and jumped over him.
When she successfully landed on the outside of the pantry without slipping or falling, she felt like sobbing with relief. But the relief was short-lived when Will emitted a groan.
Terrified that any minute he would come to, Charlotte dropped the jacket and cans and threw all of her weight against the door. Using the door for leverage, inch by inch, she was able to shove him far enough inside the pantry so that she could get the door closed.
With all of her weight against the door, Charlotte glanced around for something to use to jam the door shut. Patsy had used something, but what?
Then she spied a door guard propped against the wall and grabbed it. She jammed the yoke of the steel rod under the doorknob and braced the gripper base that anchored the device against the floor. She tested the strength of the door guard by pulling hard on the doorknob. Satisfied that the door wouldn’t open, she went in search of Patsy and a telephone.
Charlotte found Patsy sprawled on the kitchen floor. From the looks of the blood on Patsy’s blouse, Will had shot her in the chest. Since Charlotte couldn’t detect any breathing movement, she knelt down and felt for a pulse.
Though Patsy’s pulse was thready, she was still alive ... but just barely. Charlotte jumped to her feet and hurried to the phone on the wall near the cabinet. With trembling fingers she pressed the numbers 9-1-1.
Once she’d given the operator her location and described the emergency, she was told to stay on the line until help arrived. Charlotte ignored the instructions, depressed the switch-hook, and immediately called Judith.
Judith answered on the third ring. “Judith, this is Aunt Charley.”
“What’s wrong, Auntie?”
“I’m at Patsy Dufour’s, and I need you to get here A.S.A.P Patsy’s been sh-shot, and I-I’ve got Will Richeaux locked up in the pantry. He’s injured, too. I’ve already called nine-one-one, and I’ll explain it all when you get here.
”
“And you? Are you okay, Aunt Charley?”
“No—yes. I mean I’m fine, I think. But, Judith, please hurry.”
“Okay, okay, now just calm down. The first thing I want you to do is get out of the house. Go straight to your van, lock yourself inside, and stay there until the police get there. I’m on my way.”
Charlotte hung up the phone, then stared down at Patsy.
What goes around comes around, and people get paid back for the things they do
. No one would blame her if she did as Judith had instructed and left Patsy, not after what Patsy had done. Charlotte swallowed hard.
She couldn’t do it.
For reasons Charlotte couldn’t begin to fathom, she couldn’t leave Patsy all alone in spite of what Patsy had tried to do to her. Besides which, Patsy was the only one who could corroborate what Will Richeaux had said about Lowell Webster’s part in Ricco’s murder.
And what about Will Richeaux?
Charlotte couldn’t explain it, but the thought of leaving
him
by himself didn’t bother her one iota. The only feeling she had for him was fear.
Charlotte reached down and smoothed back a strand of Patsy’s hair. She figured that Patsy was probably in shock from her wound. And she was probably dying.
Charlotte’s mind raced. In all of the movies, didn’t they always cover the victim? Maybe to keep them warm or hold in their body heat. Whichever, it certainly couldn’t hurt, and it might actually help save her life.
With her ears attuned to any sound from the pantry, Charlotte hurried off in search for something to cover Patsy with.
She found what she was looking for in the sitting room. In a basket beside the sofa was a folded crocheted afghan. She snatched up the afghan and rushed back into the kitchen.
After covering Patsy, there was nothing else to do but wait for help to come. “You hang in there, Patsy,” she murmured.
The sound of distant sirens suddenly broke through the silence. “Thank goodness,” Charlotte murmured. With one last glance at Patsy, she hurried to the front door.
Police cars and two ambulances arrived within seconds of each other. When Charlotte saw that Billy Wilson was among the officers striding toward the porch, she almost cried with relief.
“Inside,” she told the officers, motioning toward the front hallway. “Straight back, the last door on the left, there’s a lady who’s been shot. There’s also a man—” She cleared her threat. “There’s a man locked in the pantry. He’s been injured, too. He’s the one who shot the lady.”
Out of the comer of her eye, Charlotte spotted Judith’s car pull in alongside one of the squad cars.
“What happened here, Ms. LaRue?” Billy asked her.
When Charlotte opened her mouth to explain, her knees suddenly went weak, so weak that she could barely stand, and she couldn’t utter a word.
“Whoa, now—” Billy grabbed hold of her arm. “Why don’t you sit down before you fall down?”
All Charlotte could manage was to nod as she allowed Billy to help her to a nearby wicker chair.
“Hey, Bill, is she okay?” Judith ran up the porch steps. “Is she hurt?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Not hurt, hon,” she whispered.
“Probably delayed reaction,” Billy offered.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Judith agreed, then knelt in front of Charlotte. “Auntie, I need to check out what’s going on inside? Bill will stay with you until I get back. Okay?”
Charlotte nodded. “Do your job, hon,” she murmured. “I’ll be okay. I just need a minute.”
Judith nodded and stood. “Stay with her for me,” she told Billy. Then she disappeared inside the house.
Charlotte wasn’t sure how much time passed before the paramedics wheeled out first one stretcher then a second one. But she was aware of Billy Wilson’s quiet presence and felt comforted by it as each stretcher was loaded inside a separate ambulance and the ambulances screamed off down the street.
After the ambulances left, the normal flow of traffic on the busy street seemed quiet by comparison. As Charlotte waited, time seemed to drag, her head was throbbing again, and all she wanted was to go home.
Police officers came and went from within the house, and Charlotte was beginning to wonder if Judith was ever coming out. What was taking so long? When Judith did finally appear a few minutes later, Charlotte was so relieved that she felt like crying.
“Here, Auntie, drink this.
”
Judith handed Charlotte a glass of water that Charlotte gratefully accepted. She promptly gulped down most of it.
Judith patted her on the back. “Feel up to telling me what happened now?”
Charlotte sighed, then nodded. As best she could, she went over the sequence of events. When she’d finished, she said, “If Patsy survives, I’m hoping that she will corroborate what I’ve said. And I’m hoping it will be enough to get Daniel and Nadia off the hook.” She paused. There was something else, something that she’d forgotten. Had she left out anything?
Just as she remembered what it was, Judith frowned and reached up and touched Charlotte’s head. Charlotte winced.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d been injured?” Judith cried. “I would have had the paramedics examine you.”
Charlotte brushed her hand aside. “I didn’t tell you because I’m just fine, but there is something else that I need to tell you. I almost forgot.” Charlotte reached inside her pants pocket and pulled out the tape recorder. “I recorded all of my conversation with Patsy, and the recorder was still running when Will Richeaux showed up. But I doubt you’ll be able to hear what he and Patsy said to each other because of the distance and me being inside the closet and all.”
Judith took the recorder. “What am I going to do with you, Auntie?” Shaking her head, she pressed the REWIND button. The tape whirred in the small recorder. “When Lou and Hank hear about this one, they’ll both have conniption fits.”
Charlotte sighed. “Can we please save the lecture for later? I’m not quite up to it right now.”
The tape clicked, and Judith pressed the PLAY button. Charlotte was relieved to hear that the conversation between her and Patsy was clear enough to be understood. Then there was a long space of nothing but some grunting, some scraping, and finally the distinct click of a door being shut.
Unable to suppress a shudder, Charlotte said, “That’s probably when she dragged me inside the pantry.” For several minutes, there was no noise on the tape, then there was the sound of a groan. “Guess that’s when I regained consciousness.”
Much to Charlotte’s disappointment, the remainder of the tape was unintelligible. “Well, phooey,
”
she muttered. “Unless Patsy survives, now it’s only my word against his.”
“Maybe not, Auntie. I’ll give it to the lab boys and see what they can come up with. They have ways of enhancing stuff like this so that it’s clear as a bell”
Static from Judith’s radio interrupted. Judith stepped away toward the other end of the porch to answer the radio page. When she returned, Charlotte could tell from the expression on her face that whatever the message had been it wasn’t good news.
“Richeaux didn’t make it, Auntie. Seems the blow to the side of his head was worse than they thought. He died before they could get him to the hospital.”
“Oh neo...”
“Aunt Charley, don’t—” Judith knelt down beside her and squeezed her hand. “It’s not your fault. If anyone’s at fault, it was Will Richeaux for being a crooked cop to begin with.”
Charlotte heard what Judith was saying, and, while part of her knew it was true, another part of her couldn’t get past the fact that she’d helped contribute to a man’s death.
“What about Patsy?” Charlotte whispered, trying hard not to think about Will Richeaux.
“She’s in surgery. We won’t know anything for a while yet. Meantime, I’m going to need you to come to the precinct and give a statement. But only if you’re up to it. I really should take you to the emergency room first.
”
“No!” Charlotte protested. “I don’t want to go to the emergency room—not for a silly bump on the head. All I want is to go home. So let’s just get this over with and do what has to be done.”
By the time Charlotte finished giving her statement at the Sixth Precinct station house, Judith had news about Patsy Dufour.
“She survived the surgery, Auntie,” Judith told her as she escorted Charlotte to the elevator. “Once the doctors say it’s okay, we’ll question her. Probably not until tomorrow morning, though. For now, I want you to go home and try and get some rest.” She motioned toward Billy Wilson. “Bill and another officer will take you to pick up your van; then he’ll drive you and the van home.”
Much of the ride back to Patsy’s to pick up her van and then the short drive home passed in a blur for Charlotte until Billy Wilson turned the van into her driveway.
Hank’s BMW was parked alongside the curb, and Hank and Carol were seated on the porch swing, waiting for her.
“Just wonderful,” Charlotte murmured with a groan as she allowed Billy to help her out of the van. “Just what I don’t need right now.”
Before Charlotte’s feet had touched the ground, Hank was standing in front of her.
“Thanks, Billy,” he said.
“No thanks necessary,” Billy told him, then he turned and headed toward the patrol car that had pulled in behind the van. “Take care, Ms. LaRue,” he called over his shoulder as he climbed inside the patrol car.
“Are you okay, Mom?”
Charlotte nodded. “I’m okay. Just bone-tired, son” And sore, she suddenly realized, but decided against mentioning it. Charlotte gave her son a wan smile. “You didn’t have to come over, though.”
“Ah, excuse me! My mother almost gets killed and there’s no need for me to see about her?” Then, in a move that completely caught her off guard, he pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Mom.” He hugged her tightly. “Of course I’d come to make sure you’re okay. And, no, I’m not going to lecture you.” He laughed. “Not right now anyway.” He held her at arm’s length. “Besides, Judith would have my hide if I did.”
At that Charlotte smiled again.
“Carol and I thought you might could use a bit of pampering after the ordeal you’ve been through. How does a hot shower, your pajamas, and a hot meal sound? We picked up Chinese on the way here.”
“Sounds like heaven,” Charlotte told him, tears springing to her eyes. “What did I ever do to deserve a son like you?”
Hank simply shrugged and winked. “Just lucky, I guess.”
Charlotte playfully boxed him on the arm. “And so humble, too,” she teased. Then she suddenly sobered. “I just hope it wasn’t all for nothing. All I wanted was for Daniel and Nadia to be cleared.”
“Me too, Mom. Me too. Now, why don’t you come inside, and while Carol warms up dinner, I want to take a look at your head. Judith said that lick you got knocked you out cold”