Postcard killers

Chapter 138

Dessie was covered in blood, and she was stil screaming. But then Jacob realized it wasn't her blood after al.

It was Sylvia's. It was pieces of Sylvia's brain that were splattered across Dessie's face and Windbreaker. It was Sylvia who sank to the ground, who dropped the knife, as Malcolm came running over to her.

Dessie staggered away and leaned against one of the buses. Jacob rushed at Malcolm with his pistol raised.

"Get on your knees, hands above your head!" he shouted at the top of his voice.

He was screaming to make himself heard above the ringing in his own ears, but Malcolm seemed not to hear him. The man sank down beside his sister's body and took her in his arms. With a wild howl, he rocked Sylvia back and forth, back and forth, completely deaf to the uproar around them.

Jacob went up to him, weapon aimed at his chest.

He fished out the handcuffs from under the belt of his trousers with one hand as he tried to make contact with the dazed man.

"Malcolm Rudolph – the police are on their way. Put the body down. Get on your knees. Hands behind your head!"

The howling subsided. Malcolm's shoulders slumped. He laid his sister's body gently on the asphalt.

Jacob saw that he had hit her between the eyes, just above them in the forehead. The entry wound gaped red, and the woman's eyes stared blindly at the sky. The back of her head had been blown away.

"You kil ed her," Malcolm said. His arms hung by his sides. His back was bent like an old man's. "You kil ed my Sylvia."

"You and your sister kil ed my daughter," Jacob said.

He opened the handcuffs and leaned down to secure Malcolm Rudolph's arms behind his back.

From this angle, Sylvia's dead eyes seemed to be watching him.

He didn't see the knife coming.

In a fast move, the brother leapt up and stabbed the knife toward Jacob's 183 chest. Instinctively, Jacob shifted a few inches to the right.

The blade cut through the outside and lining of his suede jacket, biting into skin and sinew and muscle. Then it tore veins and arteries and lung tissue.

Jacob heard someone scream, a woman screaming.

He felt warm blood pulsing out of his body and saw the world spin and turn sideways, as if he could fal right off it. A shot rang out, the echo ringing through his head.

The kil er in front of him sank to the ground with his hands over his stomach.

Then someone was holding him, laying him on the ground, tearing his shirt away.

It was Dessie, his Dessie. No, it was Kimmy, his Kimmy. Of course it was!

"Kimmy," Jacob whispered. "I knew you'd come back."