Night Watch

FIFTY-SIX

“Put it down, Gina,” Mike said, before he was able to lift his revolver.

I hadn’t liked the woman from the moment her name had come into the mix, and now we were all at her mercy.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, never flinching as she held her position. “Where’s Peter?”

Gina was Brigitte’s best friend. Of course they were all in this together.

“Getting high,” Mike said, since there was no answer from Danton. “What else did you think he’d be doing?”

She had ignored me at first, but still holding the gun on Mike, Gina spoke to me directly. “Get off your knees, Alex. Out of that row, over to Chapman.”

I looked at Mike for direction and he shook his head at me. I didn’t move.

“Tell me where Peter is,” she asked again.

Another blast from Danton’s shotgun, this one missing Gina Varona’s head by only inches. I was almost as stunned as she seemed to be, and suddenly there was more commotion as Danton-having moved shelves and worked his way out of one dead-ended row-emerged from the next one into the narrow main corridor between Mike and Gina, trying to make his way to the door.

“Stop!” Mike shouted at him.

But Danton ignored the command, and with his weapon steadied on Gina, he continued his mad charge.

It was Mike who fired first, missing Peter Danton altogether, his bullet ricocheting off the end of a wooden crate.

But Gina Varona got off a shot before Danton could pull the trigger, and the killer crashed to his knees-his chest ripped apart by the impact-falling to the cement floor a foot away from where I kneeled.