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The front door across the street slammed and Margaret Cooper ran toward him screaming something he didn’t understand.
—
Cooper and Meltonhad been sniping at each other: Cooper was flapping around the house like a crippled bat. She didn’t know why Hess hadn’t come the night before, was worried that he’d not come back at all. But if he did, she thought, tonight was the best guess.
Melton wanted to talk with Lucas and Virgil, tell them what they knew—without the break-in at Hess’s house—and see if they could find a pretext for a search. “If anyone kills Hess, it should be Lucas. He’s willing to do it, and if Hess resists, hewilldo it,” she argued.
Cooper was adamant and increasingly angry. “Don Hess ismine. I don’t want Davenport or Flowers anywhere near him. Not until he’s dead. Then theywillsearch his house, and theywillfind the computers and flash drives.”
“This is so dangerous. For you,” Melton said, turning away. Her eyes flooded with tears.
“If you don’t want to stick by me, you can go home,” Cooper said.
Melton was shocked. “Go home? I’ve been with you all the way through this. I helped you buy an illegal gun, for God’s sakes. I helped you break into a house. I could go to jail...”
Cooper held up her hands. “Okay. Okay. I don’t want you to leave. But I want Hess.”
—
They had aquick dinner of tomato soup and rice; carried the baby up to their observation window, and put her in a bassinette,and let her sleep. Cooper had the revolver in her hands, turning the cylinder, checking and rechecking it.
After a while, Melton asked, “If you do this, if you get Hess, then what?”
“Well, after they search his house, I don’t think anyone would indict me for—”
“That’s not what I meant,” Melton interrupted. “What are you going to do with your life? Just go back to the U? After this, you’ll be a little controversial.”
“I haven’t thought through all of that,” Cooper said. “I’ve got all the money in the world. Maybe... I could set up a Sand Foundation, support the arts or something. I don’t know, Ann. Maybe I’ll get out of the Twin Cities. Buy a house in Los Angeles, or maybe a place in New York. I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be a widow before I was forty. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Melton picked up her night-vision scope. “Is there...?”
“Where?”
“Ten yards left of the streetlight, in Mrs. Muller’s yard. I thought I saw...”
“I see it. I seehim,” Cooper said.
Melton: “Is that...”
Cooper: “Yes! Goddamnit, that’s Lucas. I’m going out there.”
“Wait! Just wait!”
—
Cooper was alreadymoving, gun in hand, running out of the room and down the stairs, Melton trailing. Cooper scooped up a puffy jacket at the door, pulled it on, and said, “Watch the baby.”
“Maggie, this is crazy.”
“Crazy.” Cooper turned on her. “That’s right. I’m crazy. Iamcrazy.”
She yanked the door open and launched herself across the porch and down the steps and she screamed “Hey! Hey!” running toward Davenport, who was standing at the end of the block, next to an oak tree.
Lucas thought,Ah, shit.
Hess, thirty yards away, thought,No!
She was coming for him, Hess thought, and she had a gun. How she’d seen him, he didn’t know, but he lifted his pistol and fired four fast shots and Cooper went down.
