Robert B. Parker’s Damned If You Do

52

Jesse left the station and headed for the Paradise Mall, which was a smaller incarnation of the larger malls in bigger cities. Although it boasted a handful of national chain stores, it also housed a goodly number of local merchants as well. Jesse entered through the west gate.

He suddenly had the sense that he was being followed. When he looked behind him, feigning interest in the rear end of the good-looking woman who had just walked past, he spotted a familiar face.

He had to think for a moment whose face it was. Then it hit him. The man behind him was one of those he had seen guarding Thomas Walker at Reilly’s Fish and Chips.

Suddenly Jesse wheeled and faced the startled bodyguard. He grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted it behind his back. He then walked the man quickly to one of the service doors and hustled him through it and into a narrow hallway that led to an emergency exit. The bodyguard wrested himself from Jesse’s grasp and made a move toward him.

Jesse took the nightstick from his service belt and slammed it into the bodyguard’s windpipe, forcing him to gasp for breath and reel backward. The pressure on his windpipe caused an interruption of the flow of oxygen to the man’s brain. The bodyguard blacked out and fell to the ground.

Jesse was on him in a second. He turned the fallen man onto his stomach and wrenched his arms behind him. He secured them with a plastic restraint. He did the same with the man’s feet. He leaned the bodyguard against the wall and left him there.

Jesse stepped back into the mall, in time to see Fat Boy Nelly hurrying by. Nelly saw him and winked.

He grabbed his cell phone and called Molly. He requested immediate backup. He reached for his Colt, releasing the safety as he took hold of it. With the gun at his side and his finger on the trigger guard, he began searching for Thomas Walker.

He spotted Nelly on the far side of the walkway, his beefy arms wrapped around the neck of a man whom Jesse recognized as another of Thomas Walker’s bodyguards. The man was unconscious. Nelly had his arm around the man, as if he were tending to someone who’d had too much to drink, and was walking him to another of the mall’s service doors. Jesse watched as Nelly pulled the man through it.

The mall foot traffic was oblivious to the goings-on involving the two bodyguards. No one appeared to have noticed anything.

Jesse moved stealthily. His backup had yet to arrive. He peered into several stores. His eyes scanned the crowd. Then he entered the food court, which was crowded with shoppers.

He positioned himself at one of the two main entranceways, which provided him an excellent vantage point. He leaned against a wall, searching the crowd for a glimpse of Thomas Walker, his pistol held surreptitiously at his side.

Then he spotted Walker moving swiftly in his direction. Clarice was with him. They were in the center of the food court. Walker was holding her firmly by the arm, keeping her directly in front of him as if she were a shield. His Smith & Wesson Sigma was jammed into her side.

As they awkwardly inched their way through the crowd, a handful of people became aware of them.

One man yelled, “He’s got a gun.”

A woman screamed.

Suddenly everyone was on the move. Chairs scraped loudly and tables were overturned as people began to anxiously respond. There were shouts of panic. The crowd began a confused surge toward the exits.

While many patrons got out successfully, the exits were soon overrun. People were crammed together, struggling to escape. Some fell and were trampled. Others were violently thrust aside.

Walker continued to push his way through the crowd, heading in Jesse’s direction. Sirens could be heard in the distance. Jesse watched warily as Walker approached.

Then, without warning, Walker raised his pistol, aimed it at Jesse, and fired. The shot went wide. It slammed into the wall behind him.

At the sound of gunfire, the screaming and chaos intensified. Terrified people continued to jam the exits.

Jesse dove for the ground and rolled behind one of the food court’s oversized cement garbage bins.

Walker fired again. The bullet caromed off the garbage bin, struck an upturned table, and fell to the floor.

Jesse was hesitant to return the fire for fear of hitting either Clarice or a bystander.

Walker fired again. It was wide left. Still shielded by Clarice, Thomas edged closer to the garbage bin behind which Jesse was hiding.

Jesse could see Clarice looking directly at him. She was struggling to break free. Walker gripped her arm tighter. She winced in pain.

By now the room had emptied considerably. From the corner of his eye, Jesse spotted Fat Boy Nelly at the Hot Wok Express that was located directly behind Thomas and Clarice. He was partially hidden by a soda machine. A Glock 19 was in his hand. He was searching for a clear shot at Walker.

As Clarice fought to wrest her arm from Walker’s grasp, he tightened his grip even more. His rage was palpable. She looked toward Jesse, her eyes pleading for help.

“You should never have fucked with me,” Walker said to Jesse.

His Colt in his hand, Jesse looked for an opening, but Walker never gave him one.

“You and me, Thomas,” Jesse said. “Just us. Leave her out of it.”

“Too late,” Walker said.

He fired a barrage of bullets toward the garbage bin. Shattered concrete fragments flew in every direction, one lodging itself into Jesse’s forearm, another into his cheek.

Walker never saw Nelly behind him. His attention was totally focused on Jesse, whose wounds had begun to ooze blood.

Nelly spotted his opportunity and grabbed it. With a clear field between him and Walker, he opened fire.

Walker never knew that it was the Fat Boy who shot him. The very same round that killed him also tore through Clarice Edgerson, killing her as well.

Both of them collapsed in a heap.

Jesse had seen Nelly fire. He knew that the round had the potential to punch through Walker and Clarice both. His cry not to shoot came too late. He rushed to her side.

He knelt beside her and eased her from Walker’s grasp. He lowered her to the floor. She was looking directly at him as she died.

Jesse saw Dave Muntz and Rich Bauer approaching, their weapons drawn.

He shook his head.

He looked behind him, but Nelly was no longer there.

“The shooter,” Bauer said.

“Gone,” Jesse said.

“Did you see who it was,” Muntz said.

“I didn’t,” Jesse said.

Muntz knelt down, checked Walker’s pulse, and signaled to Jesse that he was dead.

“You’re bleeding, Jesse,” Suitcase said.

Jesse nodded.

Bauer grabbed a couple of towels from the nearest food stall and wrapped one of them tightly around Jesse’s arm, stanching the bleeding. The other he handed to Jesse and told him to press it to his cheek.

Jesse mindlessly did as he was told. After a while, he stood and walked slowly out of the mall.