When the shot came, Fiske watched in stunned silence as Leo Dellasandro pitched forward and lay still.
Fiske looked up. What he saw made him wish Dellasandro had been able to get off his own round. McKenna looked down at him. Fiske could only shake his head. Why couldn’t it have been Chandler? Why couldn’t he catch a damn break just this once? And then he saw Dellasandro’s pistol where it had landed very near to him.
“Don’t try it, Fiske,” McKenna said sharply.
“You sonofabitch!”
“Actually, I thought you’d want to thank me.”
“Why? For killing your accomplice before you kill me?”
In response, McKenna pulled another pistol from his pocket. “Here’s your pistol. I just happened to find it.”
“Right. Some way, someday you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”
McKenna glanced at Dellasandro. “Actually, in a way, I just did.”
The man’s next actions absolutely astonished Fiske.
McKenna flipped the gun around and handed it to him, grip first. “Now don’t go and shoot me.” He put a hand out and helped Fiske up. “Chandler’s on his way. I managed to catch him at Evans’s house. I got there just as Perkins and Dellasandro were leaving with Sara. I figured they were trying to use her to set you up. I followed along as your unofficial backup. A little better than the last one you had. I never let my guard down.”
Fiske just stared at him, unable to speak.
“Perkins took off. He was the other guy firing. I tried to hit him, but he was too far off. I also fired the shot to distract Leo. I figured Rufus was around here somewhere.”
“I thought you were one of the guys in the stockade that night,” said Fiske.
“I was.”
“Then what are you doing? Clearing your conscience? If you are, you’re the only one of the five to do it.”
“I wasn’t one of the five.”
“But you just said you were in the stockade that night.”
“There were six men there that night other than Rufus.”
Fiske looked bewildered. “I don’t understand.”
“I was the guard on duty that night, John. It took me twenty-five years to figure out what happened, but I couldn’t have done it without you and Sara. I think the PCP angle hit me right after it did you at your office. I never even knew about the drug testing at Fort Plessy, although I guess it wasn’t something they broadcast.”
“Whether anybody else knew or not, I don’t think anyone back then cared about what happened to Rufus Harms.”
“Actually, I cared.” McKenna looked down. “I just didn’t have the balls to do anything about it until it was too late. I could have stopped this whole thing.” His body seemed to sag for a second as his mind went back to the past. “But I didn’t.”
Fiske studied the man for a moment, still reeling from this last development. “Well, you’re doing something about it now.”
“Twenty-five years too late.”
“Rufus is going to be free, isn’t he? That’s all he cares about.”
McKenna looked up. “Rufus is free now, John. No one will ever put him back in prison. If they try to, they have to go through me first. And believe me, they won’t be able to.”
Fiske looked toward the road. “What about Perkins?”
McKenna smiled. “I know exactly where Perkins is going. We can call Sara in the car and let her know. As soon as Chandler gets here, we’ll go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“Perkins is going to see the fifth person who was in the stockade that night.”
“Who? Who was it?”
“You’ll find out. Soon you’ll know everything.”
CHAPTER SIXTY
* * *
When the woman opened the door, Richard Perkins burst in past her. “Where is he?”
“In his study.”
Perkins raced down the hallway and threw open the door. The tall man looked back at him, a calm look in his eyes.
Perkins shut the door. “Everything’s gone to hell and I’m getting out of here.”
Jordan Knight sat back and shook his head. “If you run, they’ll know you’re guilty.”
“They know I’m guilty now. I kidnapped Sara Evans. Leo is probably dead by now.”