The wound was not as serious as he had first thought. The dizziness, he had decided, was caused by running like a maniac to get away from Carnie—not by the bullet that hit his left side. If her aim had been three or four inches to the right, Hadley might have already been dead. As it was, he had minor bleeding and a sharp pain in his ribs.
He was familiar with the sensation of a cracked rib. But this pain was worse—she must have taken a little chunk out with that bullet, he thought. Still, he knew he was very fortunate. He pulled off his shirt, rolled it up and tied it around his ribcage to slow the bleeding.
As he walked quickly and painfully toward the Buick, he remembered his cell phone was on the front seat. The Coreyville cops could be there in five minutes. And if he hadn’t thought he could handle the situation himself, he would have called them.
What would happen if the police came charging in? Carnie might start shooting everyone in sight. He couldn’t take that chance. The crazy woman thought he was dead. He would use that to his advantage.
He quietly opened the trunk, took out his shotgun and loaded it. He hadn’t killed anybody since Korea, but he wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever it took to protect his family.
He crept up the stairs and into the house. Then he stopped to listen.
It was very faint, but he could hear a woman’s voice coming from downstairs.
He went down to the basement, and could hear the voice more clearly now. It was Carnie. Good, he thought. Right now she was too far away to see or hear him.
He peeked into the media room. It was dark. Then he determined Carnie’s location. Her door was closed, but he knew she was not in there. He cracked the door and confirmed his suspicion that the sub-basement had been breached.
He would have to call the police before he went down there—or not at all. His cell phone barely had a signal in the basement. It would be worthless in the sub-basement.
*
Now Carnie had two pistols—Elmo’s .22 and the .38 she snatched out of the car dealer’s dying hand. She set the small pistol on the table with the medical supplies while keeping the .38 pointed at her prisoners. “Well, I’m looking forward to calling in a ransom demand as soon as our Mrs. Cleggmore wakes up. But it looks like we’ve got some time to kill. Come here, Macy.”
Macy walked toward her slowly, not knowing what to expect.
“Untie your robe.”
“Why?”
Carnie glared at her and pointed the gun at her head.
Macy untied it.
“Good. Now, unbutton your gown.”
“Carnie, what are you doing?” said Elmo.
Carnie ignored him. “Now!” she said to Macy.
The buttons on Macy’s gown went from neck to waist. She struggled to unbutton them with shaky hands. Carnie didn’t seem to mind waiting—and watching.
“Now, come closer.”
When Macy was within two feet, Carnie stepped in and cupped her left hand around the back of Macy’s head, and began to kiss her on the lips.
Macy could feel the gun in Carnie’s right hand when she ran it up Macy’s left side and quickly found her nipple—the same nipple Elmo had lovingly caressed a couple of hours earlier.
She knew Carnie might push her away and shoot her at any second. The bullet would pierce her exposed chest, punching a hole through her heart. She would be dead almost immediately.
Just as Macy’s dreams were coming to life, they would die—as would she. Why had she waited so long to let Elmo know how she felt? Even that very night on the dance floor it had been an accident. She hadn’t told him how she felt. He had seen it in her eyes.
But if she had made a move on him when she first started to work there, she would have been fired. Elmo would not have felt comfortable dating a 22 year-old—not when he was 41. But how about when she was 30 and he was 49? He might have been okay with that.
She could have grabbed him and kissed him. Or tried to seduce him. But she knew nothing about seduction—except what she had read in hundreds of romance novels. On second thought, maybe she knew a lot about seduction. But reading it and doing it are not the same thing.
She should have at least tried, though. If she had, maybe Elmo wouldn’t have been available for Carsie’s scam. Maybe he would have already been married to Macy. Then, she thought, none of these lives would be in peril right now.
Macy was relieved when Carnie stopped kissing her. But then Carnie moved her mouth down to Macy’s breast. Macy cringed at the realization that her body was responding to Carnie’s touch. And now her nipple was getting even harder as Carnie encircled it with her warm, slippery tongue. Macy was not gay. It was just a natural reaction to the stimulation. And in fact, after what she had seen and heard tonight, she figured Carnie was probably not gay either.
Not that any of it matters now, she thought. They were all about to die—unless somebody made a courageous sacrifice for the sake of the others. Could she wrestle the gun away from Carnie? And even if she did—what about the other gun on the table?
Carnie pushed Macy back forcefully, nearly knocking her down. “We could have been great together, Honey.” She studied the faces across from her. “Now, who do I want to mess with next?”
“Hold it right there, Carnie.” The voice boomed from the long corridor.
Carnie’s mind had been so preoccupied with Macy’s shapely body that she hadn’t noticed when the lights in the corridor went out. She recognized the voice as Hadley’s, but couldn’t see him. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I was supposed to be dead in 1952. Now, put your gun down on the floor and kick it toward me.”
“You’re good, Hadley. I’ll say that.” Carnie squatted and appeared to be following Hadley’s instructions. Then she rolled to the floor and started shooting blindly into the dark corridor. She fired all six rounds. Hadley did not return fire.
The room was silent, except for the diminishing echoes of the gunshots.
“You missed,” said Hadley. As he had figured, she had assumed he was standing, not lying down. “Now, just stay right there on the floor.”
But she didn’t. She scrambled to the table, picked up the .22 and fired into the corridor, emptying the gun.
“Are you done?” said Hadley.
“I know I shot you in the front yard.”
Hadley stepped into the light of the hospital ward, holding his shotgun. The rolled-up shirt he had tied around himself was bloody in one spot. “Yes, you did. But it’s not the first time I’ve ever been shot.”
Carnie stood up.
“Just stay right there,” said Hadley.
She reached behind her back and pulled out the knife.
“Don’t make me do it,” said Hadley.
She looked directly at Elmo and raised the knife above her head. “Everybody say ‘goodbye’ to Elmo.”
She pulled her arm back, ready to throw the knife, but before she could release it, Hadley fired the shotgun.
The knife few against the wall, along with two of Carnie’s fingers. The rest of her bloody hand was scattered across the table and on the floor. She lay on the floor, screaming in agony. Her former prisoners looked on in horror.
“Somebody go upstairs and call 911,” said Hadley.
But nobody reacted. All eyes were on Carnie.
She felt across the floor with her left hand and found the knife.
“No—put it down,” said Hadley.
“I’m sorry for the horrible things I’ve done,” she said, holding the blade at her throat.
Hadley was surprised by the look in her eyes—her remorse seemed real.
“But I’m not going to prison.” And with a quick jerk of the knife the blood began to gush from her neck.
Hadley knew there was nothing he could do to save her. He knelt and watched her sad eyes quickly fade.
After a few moment of complete silence, Cynthia said, “Could somebody please get these handcuffs off of us?”
Hadley found the key on the table and took it to Cynthia. She took off her cuffs and Beverly’s, and gave the key back to Hadley, who went to the next bed.
Cynthia prayed that the drug Carnie had given her mom and the other women had not done any permanent damage. But they were lucky to have slept through most of the ordeal.
Greg was still carrying around the bedrail he was handcuffed to. He put his arm around Cynthia. “Sweetie, are you okay?”
“Yes. I just hope Mom’s going to be alright.
Even before Elmo’s handcuffs had been removed, Macy ran to him and hugged him.
Mallie Mae smiled. “I refuse to let you two waste any more time. We need to start planning the wedding.”
Macy wrenched her head around in shock, popping her neck. “What?”
“I said we need to start planning your wedding,” said Mallie Mae.
“But…Elmo hasn’t proposed…”
Elmo dropped to one knee, his left hand still cuffed to the bed. “Macy Golong, will you marry me?”
Macy’s eyes erupted with tears. After waiting so many years, she had not expected it to happen all at once—in one day. “Oh, yes, Elmo. You know I will.”
But then she felt bad for Carsie. If things had gone as planned, Elmo and Carsie would have been on their honeymoon right now, she thought. And now poor Carsie was having to watch her fiancé propose to Macy. She looked to see how Carsie was handling it, but couldn’t find her. “Where’s Carsie?”
Mallie Mae said, “She’s right over—”
“—she’s gone,” said Elmo.
Hadley ran upstairs, shotgun in hand. On his way up to the kitchen, he heard the engine starting. By the time he made it through the foyer and out onto the porch, she was too far away. He would have only shot at her tires anyway. She hadn’t killed anybody—as far as he knew.
He ran to his car and jumped in. He would call the police on his cell phone and follow her until they took over. He reached for the ignition.
But his keys were gone.