The naked edge

21

As the haze from the fire retardant settled, Cavanaugh said, "He's concentrating on this window. I can't take the chance of looking out. Let's go." He tugged William toward the door.

Entering the communal room, he saw Jamie crouched next to a screen door at the back, a log wall protecting her as she scanned the meadow and the ridge to the north. He noticed that she now wore her pistol in a holster on her right hip.

"Even if the horses can't hear the shots, they sense what's going on," Jamie said.

"He'd better not hurt them." Cavanaugh heard them whinnying in alarm. Then he realized that hurting the horses was exactly the right tactic for the shooter to use. Wound, but not kill. Make the horses scream in pain. Make Cavanaugh's rage get the better of him. Force him to do something foolish.

No. He strained to channel his adrenaline, to make his body do what was necessary, to shut out every thought and emotion that didn't contribute to survival.

"Come on, William." Cavanaugh passed the long table and reached the staircase.

"I'm going to try to get a shot from an upper window," he told Angelo, who was braced next to the front screen door, staring toward the pine trees to the south.

"We know the shooter's got friends. William saw them on the monitor," Angelo said. "Why don't they make a move? What are they waiting for?"

Cavanaugh paused on the stairway. From above, he heard faint thumps, a muffled crackle, as if somebody were crumpling newspapers.

"William, run back to the office and get the fire extinguisher."

"But what if he keeps shooting into that room?"

"He won't. Then get the extinguisher from the kitchen."

"But how do you know he won't shoot into the office?"

Cavanaugh heard several more thumps above him. The crackle became louder. Smoke appeared at the head of the stairs.

"Because he's shooting through the upstairs windows now!" Cavanaugh charged up. "Get the extinguishers! The bedrooms are on fire!"

Sweating, he heard the horses galloping out of control past the front of the house. They snorted in terror. He raced to the top of the stairs and saw smoke drifting from the four bedrooms along the eastern side of the house.

A frenzied sound on the staircase came from William charging onto the landing with two fire extinguishers. The attorney's perfect shoes, suit, teeth, and hair looked absurd amid the chaos.

"We'll each take a bedroom!" Cavanaugh set down his rifle and grabbed one of the extinguishers.

To the right, debris burst from a wall at the end of the corridor. A tracer bullet had come through a bedroom's window, hit the inside wall (which was of ordinary construction, unlike the log exterior), and rammed through into the corridor, bringing wood and plaster with it, striking a farther wall.

Another bullet burst through a closer wall.

"Jesus, we'll be hit!" William said.

"Get down!" Cavanaugh warned.

As they sprawled on the floor, a bullet slammed through the wall above them, plaster and splinters spraying them.

"Something's burning me!" William said.

Cavanaugh saw an ember on the back of William's neck, another in his hair, smoke starting to dance. He flicked them off as a bullet hit the bedroom to their left, sending debris through the wall into the corridor.

"He's moving his aim back and forth along the side of the building," Cavanaugh said.

Whack! Another bullet erupted through the wall above them. The smoke thickened.

The moment a bullet burst through a wall to the right, Cavanaugh scrambled to his feet. "Hurry before his shots come back in this direction!"

As William took the bedroom on the left, Cavanaugh ducked into the one in front of him. Choking from the smoke, he pushed the trigger on the extinguisher. With a hiss, the retardant's haze surrounded the fire. He saw the flames weaken and kept squeezing the extinguisher's trigger. He heard a bullet wallop into the farthest bedroom on the right. Continuing to spray the retardant, he heard the next bullet hit the bedroom immediately to the right. He released the trigger, shouted to the bedroom on the left, "William, get down!" and dove to the floor. A tracer cracked through the air above his head.

"William!"

"I'm down! I'm down!" came the reply as an incendiary hit the bedroom on the left.

Cavanaugh tensed, waiting for more bullets to march back and forth along the building. But what had been a steady sequence faltered. One second became two, then three, the pause lengthening. Four. Five.

"Maybe he's out of ammunition," William said.

"Or else he hopes we'll get careless."

Cavanaugh sprayed retardant against the wall, then coughed so hard that he needed to get away from the smoke. He staggered into the corridor, where he was stunned to see William, his hair mussed, his face smudged, his suit rumpled, spraying retardant into the bedroom on the left.

"What are you staring at?" William wanted to know. "Don't you realize attorneys feel at home in hell?"

Cavanaugh started to grin, but the impulse faded as he glanced up toward the ceiling and noticed smoke seeping from it.

"No."

"What's wrong?" William aimed his fire extinguisher.

"The attic's on fire!"

He raced to a trap door in the ceiling, reached for a short rope dangling from it, and pulled. As stairs unfolded, he lurched back from flames that blocked the entrance to the attic. Coughing, he and William sprayed retardant. For a moment, through a gap in the haze, he saw the flames retreating. Yelling, he started up the steps, aiming the extinguisher. The flames kept retreating.

He climbed higher, straining to ignore the heat as he spewed retardant.

Abruptly the extinguisher quit hissing. With a curse, he threw the empty tank at the flames and turned to William. "Give me yours!"

"It's empty!"

"No!" Cavanaugh's smoke-seared throat felt as if it would burst.

The flames regrouped. Roaring, they advanced.

Now the situation was reversed-William was tugging at him.

Pushed by the growing heat from the attic, Cavanaugh took an angry step downward.

"We can't stay!" William tugged him harder.

Cavanaugh reached the landing and stared desperately at the fires in the bedrooms.

Amid the din of the flames, William said something about "other fire extinguishers."

"We don't have enough."

"You're going to need this."

"Need…?"

"This. You set it down."

Through raw eyes, Cavanaugh blinked at the rifle William handed him.

"Yes," he vowed. "I'm going to need this."