by David Archer
Sam snatched it and rolled to a sitting position, aiming the gun at C.J. As he got it leveled at his brother, he suddenly realized that C.J. had a spreading red stain on the front of his hoodie. C.J. was also looking at the stain, and he raised his hands and pressed them against the hole in the sweatshirt, but then his knees gave way and he dropped until he was sitting, just as Sam was. They were facing each other a couple feet apart, and C.J. suddenly grinned.
“Well,” he said, a bit of blood drooling out of his mouth as he spoke. “I guess we know which one of us Mom thinks is her favorite.”
C.J. looked at Grace, and Sam turned his head to look at his mother. She had Indie’s gun in her hands, and a wisp of smoke was still rising from the barrel. Sam also saw the tears that were streaming down her cheeks as Indie stood up and gently took the gun from her.
“Call 911,” Sam said. He tossed the gun behind him and reached out to C.J., helping to lay him flat on the floor before he fell. “Hang in there, help’s on the way.”
“I don’t think there’s really much they can do, Sam,” C.J. said. More blood spat out as he spoke, and then he coughed and sprayed even more. “Don’t take it too hard, though. This is probably for the best, don’t you think?”
Grace groaned, and then her knees gave out. Sam looked around in shock as she fell and sprawled on the floor, and that’s when he saw the spreading stain on her chest. Harry was already on his feet, rushing over to her, his face ashen.
“Mom!” Sam screamed, and he dropped C.J. without another thought as he scrambled over to where his mother had fallen. He raised her head and cradled it in his lap, and Grace looked up at him and smiled.
“Mom, hang on,” Sam said. “Just hang on, stay with me.”
“Samuel,” she said, “it’s okay. It’s okay, Sam. I’ve had a good life, and a couple of wonderful kids. You’re going to have to be there for Carrie, now, because you will be all she has left.”
“Mom, no, this isn’t fair! You hang on, you hear me?”
Behind him, C.J. gasped. Sam glanced around at him and saw that he was trying to roll onto his side, but he was too weak. He saw Sam looking at him and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said weakly. “I’m really…” He fell back and was silent, and Sam saw that he was no longer breathing.
He turned back to his mother, who was still smiling at him.
“It’s okay, Samuel,” she said. “You had me for all these years. Now it’s time for me to be with Cameron. He needs me, now.” She let out a sigh, and her eyes closed.
“Mom…” Sam’s tears were streaming down his face, but it was obvious that she was gone. He felt Indie wrap her arms around him, and then Kenzie came over and leaned against him as she wept her own tears. As young as she was, she knew what she had just seen.
One of her grandmas was gone.
Kim had been the one who got to the phone first to call for help, and it was only moments before the sound of sirens tore through the air. She was waiting at the door as the police cars and an ambulance arrived, and she wasn’t surprised to see Karen Parks come roaring in a moment later. Karen was in her nightclothes, but she had heard the call on the scanner.
The paramedics rushed to the two fallen victims, but it was too late for either of them. As senior homicide detective for her division, Karen quickly pieced together what had happened. When Kenzie entered the room, C.J. had been startled and turned toward her, the gun in his hand going toward the thing that had distracted him. Sam lunged at him then, trying to draw him away from his daughter, and that’s when Grace reached down and picked up Indie’s gun.
When C.J. had attacked, knocking Sam and Indie and Harry down, Indie’s pistol had bounced across the floor and ended up beside Grace’s foot. She quickly put her foot in front of it, trying to keep it hidden at the edge of the couch, but she couldn’t think of any way to get it to Sam. When Sam made his feeble attempt to take C.J. down, C.J. ducked away and then pointed his gun at Sam’s head, and that was the moment when Grace snatched the pistol and fired.
Unfortunately, C.J. had caught her movement out of the corner of his eye and brought his own gun in her direction. The two of them fired almost simultaneously, and both of them found their marks.
“Sam,” Karen said. “Sam, I’m so sorry.” She stood beside his chair for a moment, but there was nothing more she could say.
The door flew open and Denny and Carrie came rushing in. Someone at Windlass had caught the call for police at Sam’s address and had called Denny, thinking he was still there. The two of them had walked out on the show they were watching and rushed for the house, and Carrie fell to the floor beside her mother. She wept and screamed, but the paramedics gently held her back. Finally, Sam and Denny managed to get her up off the floor and onto the sofa.
Indie and Harry explained what had happened while Sam dealt with the police and paramedics. Carrie slowly wound down and got herself under control, but then she suddenly looked at C. J.’s corpse and began screaming at him.
“You bastard!” she shouted. “Why couldn’t you stay dead? Why did you have to come back?”
She felt the crying again and then let Sam wrap her in his arms. Kenzie came over and climbed up in their laps, and the three of them wept together.
* * * * *
Grace Prichard had been very well known throughout Denver. Many people thought of her as flighty and sometimes silly, but just about everyone who knew her loved her. When the news of her death spread through the city, the impact of her loss began to make itself known.
The autopsy determined what had happened. While C. J. had only a small, twenty-two caliber pistol, he was apparently a good shot. The bullet had pierced her aorta, blowing it out. While she didn’t die instantly, the internal bleeding took her within only a couple of minutes. Nothing could have saved her life once the bullet struck her.
At her funeral four days later, the mourners were far too many to fit inside the church. They stood around the building outside as portable loudspeakers brought the eulogy and memorial remarks out for them to hear. The funeral procession held up traffic for more than an hour, as over a thousand cars formed the final convoy that escorted her to her resting place.
Sam, Indie, Kenzie, Bo, Carrie, Harry and Kim sat together in the chairs up front as the final words were said over the coffin, with all of the Windlass crew and a thousand others gathered behind them. When it was all over, each of them got up and dropped a rose onto it, with Indie helping little Bo. Kenzie stood beside the coffin and cried, and the rest of them suddenly wrapped her in a hug that encompassed them all.
“It’s the end of an age,” Sam said. “I don’t know how the world is going to get by without her.”
“It’s the way she would’ve wanted to go,” Carrie said. “Maybe you don’t know, but Mom was terrified of getting old. She was afraid of losing her mind, dementia. She would’ve preferred to go out defending her family, fully aware of what she was doing.”
Sam looked at his sister. “I never knew that,” he said. “She never said anything to me about it.”
“She couldn’t, Sam,” Carrie said. “I guess it was just a woman thing, but Kim and I both knew. She talked to us about it.” She gave a sad smile. “Just about every time I called, that’s what she talked about. I’m not sure she even listened much to what I had to say.”
“She did,” Harry said. “She wrote to me and Kathy all the time, and she was always bragging about how good you are doing in Hollywood. I heard about your new commercials, and that you are about to start on a soap opera. She was very proud of you, Carrie.”
Sam looked at his old friend, his sister and his mother-in-law. “I get the feeling you all might have known her a little better than I did, in some ways.”
Kim’s eyes lit up and she looked at him for a moment, and Sam caught the expression in her face. “What?” he asked. “Beauregard?”
Kim nodded solemnly. “Yes,” she said. “He’s telling me to tell you something, but I don’t understand
it.”
Sam let out a sigh. “What is it?”
Kim swallowed nervously. “He says—he says to tell you you were right. Your mother really is a flibbertigibett.”
Sam blinked. “He said what?”
“Look, don’t blame me,” Kim said. “That’s what he told me to say.”
And suddenly, as the coffin was being lowered into the ground, Sam Prichard smiled. His wife and mother-in-law looked at him strangely, but little Kenzie suddenly got a knowing smile of her own.
“Sam? Are you okay?” Indie asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Sam said. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” his wife said slowly. “I don’t get it. Why are you smiling at a moment like this?”
Kenzie tugged on her sleeve and Indie looked down at her.
“It’s Beauregard,” Kenzie said. “It’s what he said.”
Indie stared at her daughter for a moment, then looked up at Sam. “Please, explain,” she said.
“The only person in the world who ever got away with calling my mother a flibbertigibett was my dad. None of you ever met my dad. To me, the only possible way Beauregard could have come up with that nickname for her is if he’s having to put up with her now, wherever it is he exists.”
Indie looked at him for another moment, then looked back at Kenzie. “You get this?”
Kenzie nodded. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Grandma Grace isn’t gone. She’s just gonna hang out with Beauregard from now on.”
* * *
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ALSO BY DAVID ARCHER
Up to date books can be found on my website: www.davidarcherbooks.com
NOAH WOLF THRILLERS
Code Name Camelot (Book 1)
Lone Wolf (Book 2)
In Sheep's Clothing (Book 3)
Hit for Hire (Book 4)
The Wolf's Bite (Book 5)
Black Sheep (Book 6)
Balance of Power (Book 7)
Time to Hunt (Book 8)
Red Square (Book 9)
Highest Order (Book 10)
Edge of Anarchy (Book 11)
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World Order (Book 14)
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SAM PRICHARD MYSTERIES
The Grave Man (Book 1)
Death Sung Softly (Book 2)
Love and War (Book 3)
Framed (Book 4)
The Kill List (Book 5)
Drifter: Part One (Book 6)
Drifter: Part Two (Book 7)
Drifter: Part Three (Book 8)
The Last Song (Book 9)
Ghost (Book 10)
Hidden Agenda (Book 11)
Aces and Eights (Book 12)
Fact or Fiction (Book 13)
Close to Home (Book 14)
Brave New World (Book 15)
Innocent Conspiracy (Book 16)
Unfinished Business (Book 17)
Live Bait (Book 18)
Alter Ego (Book 19)
Killer Genius (Book 20)
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CHANCE REDDICK THRILLERS
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Angel of Justice (Book 2)
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