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“Don’t listen to him,” Margot said to Shaw. “He killed Randy and I’m guessing Stick as well.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t think you want to bet on this one telling the truth about anything,” Brantley told Shaw.
“Does this look like an arrest or an execution?” Margot asked him.
“She resisted and tried to take my firearm,” Brantley said. “I was just taking control of the situation.”
“What are you arresting her for?”
“Mu
rder. She killed Mr. Stickley.”
“You don’t believe that do you, Shaw?”
“I don’t.”
“Look,” Brantley said, as he lowered his weapon. “I can see why you might doubt me, but are those doubts enough for you to kill an officer of the law? You want to go talk to my boss about this? Well, that’s fine by me. You can even keep your gun, just quit pointing it at me.”
“Don’t do it,” Margot said, as Shaw lowered his weapon.
Brantley’s pistol was up and firing as soon as Shaw’s gun was no longer pointed his way. The first bullet hit Shaw in the shoulder. The next one would have hit him in the chest, but Margot grabbed the shovel and hit across the knees, sending another bullet careening into the desert. He swung the gun her way, but she smacked it away with the shovel.
He lunged forward, but she sidestepped and let him have a faceful of shovel as he went by. Margot spun and swung the shovel once he was by her, smashing the flat side against the back of Brantley’s head. He swung around and took the next blow on his forearms. He caught Margot’s next swing before he took another shot to the face.
While he was trying to wrestle the shovel away from her, Margot kicked him the groin, hard enough that she saw him wince. She drove her heel into the side of his knee and then twisted the shovel out of his grip.
She feinted at his head with the blade end and gave him another groin shot with the handle. When his hands lowered, she brought the blade end down and shattered his nose. Margot swept his legs with the shovel and, while he was down, beat on him with the shovel until he stopped moving. Then she hit him a few more times to be sure.
Margot dropped the shovel and picked up Brantley’s pistol. She briefly considered shooting him, but he wasn’t moving. Margot wasn’t sure he was even breathing after the beat down she had given him.
Margot saw his hat lying next to him and spent a half-second wondering if he was ‘the cowboy’ Mal had been going on. Then she went to Shaw.
Shaw was sitting up, but there was a lot of blood on his shirt and he looked pale.
“How bad is it?” Margot asked as she tried to get a look at it for herself.
“I don’t know, but I do know that piece of crap isn’t killing off my whole detective agency.”
Margot nodded. Then she asked, “Where’s your car?” as she tried to help him to his feet.
“Just around the bend. I heard the shot and figured I needed to come in with some stealth.”
He seemed to not be quite steady and Margot worried that the extra time it would take to get him to his car might be time they didn’t have.
Brantley’s SUV was closer by, so she helped him to it instead. Once he was leaning against the hood, she went back to get the keys from Brantley’s body. She fished them out of his pocket and was starting to stand when he reached out and grabbed her wrist.
He pulled her toward him and grabbed her by the throat with his other hand. His one big hand around her thin neck was enough to cut off her air supply instantly. Margot could feel herself losing consciousness as she put the gun against his side and pulled the trigger.
She fired three shots into his side before she was able to get loose of the hand on her throat. Instead of putting a fourth bullet into his side, she fired into the arm holding her wrist, freeing his grip enough for her to pull away.
This time she did shoot him while he lay there. She noticed the small amount of body armor he was wearing had probably saved his life again, at least from that bullet. The other bullets had to have done some serious internal damage.
By the time she got to Shaw, he’d slid to a seated position against the front wheel. Margot helped him up and then managed to get him in Brantley’s Ford. Once he was in, she got behind the wheel and sped off as fast as she could go.
“Stay with me,” Margot told him.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. What were you doing out there, Margot?”
