Side by Side

76

With Elijah clutched to her, Lucy Dockery huddled beside the refrigerator where Ed had put them. Edna sat beside her, back to the wall, holding a pistol in her lap. Ed had dead-bolted the door into the store. He had reinforced it so that in the event someone broke in, they’d make a racket trying to get into the back where the Utzes lived. The Smoots might come in that way, but they’d be ready for them.

“What will prevent them from setting the place on fire?” Lucy asked.

“Nothing,” Ed had answered.

It was obvious to everyone in the store that Peanut Smoot had somehow kept the fire department and the cops away. The warehouse fire was probably out by now. Lucy didn’t hold out much hope of help arriving. But she had tried her best, and had done more than she’d ever believed she could. She was heartbroken that Eli was going to die, and she regretted that she had gotten the Utzes involved.

“I hear a car.” Ed peeked out through the window blinds. “There’s lights. .”

Lucy heard a thunderous sound, and a vehicle roared around the building. Several more shots rang out.

A woman yelled, “FBI! Put down your weapons!”

“I’ll be,” Ed said excitedly. “The danged cavalry’s here!”

“Don’t shoot!” Peanut called. “We give up!”

Ed nodded. “Looks like old Peanut’s done in.” He set his shotgun against the wall and straightened up.

“You, in the store!” the female voice called out. “Hold your fire. I’m Special FBI Agent Alexa Keen. Are Lucy and Eli Dockery in there?”

“They sure are!” Ed answered.

“Unlock the door. I’m coming in.”

“I know who she is,” Lucy said, softly. “My father talks about her.”

“Come on in,” Ed called out.

Ed unlocked and opened the door and a woman dressed in a business suit came into the kitchen, backlit by the big truck’s headlights. She had a gun in her right hand, a badge in her left. She closed the door behind her, put her badge away, and, at the sight of Lucy and Eli, smiled.

“Are you all right?” she asked Lucy.

“I’m fine now that you’re here,” Lucy told her.

“No, you aren’t,” a man’s voice said.

A man with a black face stood aiming a shotgun directly at the federal agent’s head. “She’s with them,” he said. “Drop your weapon, Alexa. Sir, stay away from that gun. Ma’am, you keep that pistol where it is. Sir, bolt that door or the next person who comes through it will be Peanut Smoot.”