Busted by Karin Slaughter Page A

fighting a wave of hysteria. The vodka and pills caught up with her. Vomit roiled into the back of her throat. She wanted to scream. Needed to scream.
    But she couldn’t.
    Jared wasn’t moving. The noise from the gun still rang in her ears. Shotgun blast. The pellets had scattered, penetrating his back, his head. Bright red circles of blood spread into the dried yellow paint on his T-shirt. A screwdriver from his tool belt was jammed into his side. More blood was pooling underneath his body. She put her hand on his leg, felt the lean muscle of his calf.
    ‘Jared?’ she whispered. ‘Jared?’
    His eyes stayed closed. Blood bubbled from his lips. His fingers quivered against the floor. She could see the tan line where he’d been wearing his wedding ring even though he promised her he wouldn’t.
    Lena reached for his hand, then pulled back.
    Footsteps.
    The shooter was walking down the hallway. Slowly. Methodically. He was wearing boots. She could hear the echo of the wooden heel hitting the bare floorboards, then the softer scrape of the toe.
    One step.
    Another.
    Silence.
    The shooter raked back the shower curtain in the hall bathroom.
    Lena’s eyes scanned the bedroom: The guns were locked in the safe. Her cell phone was on the other side of the room. They didn’t have a landline. The window was too out in the open. The bathroom was a deathtrap.
    Jared’s cell phone.
    She ran her hand up his leg, checked his pockets. Empty. Empty. They were all empty.
    The footsteps resumed, echoing down the hallway, the sound like twigs snapping.
    And then –nothing.
    He’d stopped outside the first bedroom. Two desks. Boxes of old case files. Jared always left the closet door open. The shooter could see it from the hallway.
    He cleared his throat and spat on the floor.
    He wanted Lena to know that he was coming.
    She pressed her back against the wall, forced herself to stand up. She wasn’t going to be sittingdown when she died. She was going to be on her feet, fighting for her life, her husband’s life.
    The footsteps stopped again. The shooter was checking the next bedroom. Bright yellow walls. Closet door laid across a pair of sawhorses so Jared could paint balloons on it. From the hallway, you could see the thin pencil lines where he’d sketched them freehand. You could also see straight back inside the empty closet.
    The shooter continued down the hall.
    Lena’s hand shook as she reached down to Jared. The hammer on his belt was already halfway out of its metal loop. She used her fingers to push it the rest of the way. Her hand wrapped around the grip. It felt warm, almost hot, against her skin.
    Jared’s eyelids fluttered opened. He watched Lena as she stood up, pressed her back against the wall again. There was a glassy look to his gaze. Pain. Intense pain. It cut right through her. His mouth moved. Lena put her finger to her lips, willing him to be quiet, to play dead so that he wouldn’t get shot again.
    The footsteps stopped just shy of the bedroom door, maybe five feet away. The man’s shadow preceded him into the room, casting half of Jared’s body into darkness.
    Lena turned the hammer around so that the claw was facing out. She heard the pump of a shotgun. The sound had its intended effect. She had to lock her knees so she didn’t fall to the floor.
    The shooter paused. His shadow wavered slightly, but didn’t encroach farther into the room.
    Lena tensed, counting off the seconds. One, two, three. The man did not enter. He was just standing there.
    She tried to put herself in the shooter’s head, figure out what he was thinking. Two cops. Both with guns they hadn’t used. One was on the floor. The other hadn’t moved, hadn’t shot back, hadn’t screamed or jumped out the window or charged him.
    Lena’s ears strained in the silence as they both waited.
    Finally, the shooter took another step forward – short, tentative. Then another. The tip of the shotgun’s barrel was the first thing Lena saw.