Page 60 of Crosshairs
My son shook his head. Then he looked across at Chrissy and said, “Jane and I are the official servers. But Chrissy and Shawna are making dinner.” The four of them broke off from the group and headed into the kitchen.
Bridget and Fiona took my hands and led me to the couch next to Mary Catherine. They set me up pretty much the same way. Only without the ottoman. They used a chair to put my feet up.
After a couple of minutes, Ricky and Jane walked out with plates. Each plate was covered by a bowl, and they made a show of revealing the meal to us: hot dogs on buns, with mustard, plus a handful of potato chips and a pickle.
Jane whispered to me, “Chrissy counts the pickle as your vegetable serving.”
I said, “It looks delicious.”
Chrissy came out of the kitchen still grinning and said, “They’re even your favorite kind of hot dogs.”
“Nathan’s?”
Chrissy looked crestfallen. She said, “No, all-beef Ball Park franks.”
“I love those too.”
Then Shawna said, “We even have the perfect movie for everyone to watch. You don’t have to move or anything.”
Jane said, “We picked the movie through a democratic process.”
Trent moaned, “A really long democratic process.”
Jane gave her brother a dismissive look, then added, “We each listed five movies, then we picked three out of that whole group. We kept voting until we came up withThe Princess Bride.”
Mary Catherine beamed. “Brilliant.”
It was exactly what I needed. It got me out of my head and only thinking about what was most important in life: my family.
CHAPTER 74
ROB TRILLING STOOD as still as possible. He was afraid to even swallow. He could feel the knife tip dig into the skin of his throat. The idea of his blood spilling onto the floor kept him from doing anything stupid. At least anything more stupid than breaking into a building to find a fugitive while he was suspended from the police force.
Trilling felt a slight tremor in the blade. Whoever held the knife was nervous too. He hoped they weren’t nervous enough to make a mistake. In the dim light he couldn’t tell who was standing against the wall with the knife to his throat.
Then a woman’s voice said, “Who are you?” She had a slight accent.
“I’m Rob. Who are you?”
“What do you want here?”
Trilling decided he had nothing to lose. He said, “I’m looking for Lou Pershing.”
“Why?”
He was going to say,To arrest him,but at the last moment said, “To turn him over to the authorities.”
“You’re a bounty hunter?”
“I guess.” He felt the knife move away from his throat. Trilling sucked in a deep lungful of air. Then the flashlight turned on and he saw an attractive woman with long, dark hair that needed to be washed. She held a butcher knife with an eight-inch blade.
Trilling said, “Are you Marisol?”
She nodded.
“No power?”
“I have power, but I didn’t want to risk Lou thinking I was home. He’s been gone a few days, and I’m just trying to get out without him seeing me. I was going to go to Los Angeles, but I can’t come up with the money.”