Page 131 of South of Nowhere

He didn’t know much about weapons. There didn’t seem to be a safety latch. Apparently, all you did was point and shoot. Shaw’s reaction bore this out. “Wait, Millwood. Careful…” He climbedto his feet and, palms forward, walked to Fiona, asking, “You all right?”

She whispered that she was.

The nightmare had become real. He raged, “I knew it! Knew it all along! You’ve been fucking her. You were part of the whole thing! Did you help her crash the car? Help her put together this little love nest?”

“Millwood, put the weapon down. You don’t want to get into more trouble.”

“John, please—”

“Don’t be a fool.” Shaw hesitated. “Everybody knows she’s here.”

A lie. Millwood could tell—he could read people like books. One of his special talents. And the truth wasno oneknew she was here. Of course Shaw wouldn’t say anything. He wanted her all to himself.

“Quiet!” he raged. And shoved the gun her way.

“Millwood! It’s got a hair trigger!”

“Shut up,” he muttered. But he did take his finger off the trigger—and was relieved to know that if hedidshoot, there’d be nothing complicated about it.

Millwood was looking at the mine. The chain-link covering the shaft, in the dim back, was not complete. There was room to push a body through and down into the shaft. In the shadows he believed he saw an ancient pulley, which meant that the shaft was a vertical drop. He could simply shoot Shaw and shove the body into the darkness. Then—

No, wait…

That wouldn’t work. The sandbag man in the pickup truck had seen Fiona, and Millwood had asked about her. If Shaw went missing around here, Millwood could be linked to the death.

Then an idea: Shaw attackedhim, and he fought back, getting the gun away. But Shaw grabbed a rock and kept coming. He was forced to shoot him.

Self-defense.

Fiona wouldn’t dare contradict him. If she did, he would explain, the first stop he’d make after getting out on bail would be to her mother or sister-in-law.

“Whatever you’re thinking, Millwood, it’s wrong.”

“Wrong? Fiona’s in the mine. You’re in the mine. You knew she was here. The facts speak for themselves.”

“I was helping her get away from you. She’s afraid of you. You’ve hurt her.”

That again.

“Only when she deserved it. People are fine when parents spank their children. Why shouldn’t a man be able to do the same with his woman? It’s only logical.”

“You cut yourself—fake defensive wounds. And lied to the police about it.”

Millwood shot a cold smile to Fiona. “Oh, sharing our secrets now, are you? That’s not very nice.”

Fiona whispered, “John, what are you going to do?”

A stunningly beautiful woman…but slow sometimes.

Millwood lifted the gun to Shaw’s chest and pulled the trigger.

In the dimness of the cave the flash from the muzzle was nearly blinding.

58.

For a moment no one moved.

Then Colter Shaw stepped forward. A nod at the gun. “I’ll take it.”

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