Cut to the Bone(73)

“Emily’s look-alike,” Cross said.

“Mm-hm,” Marty said, biting his lip. The wrists really smarted. If they were only strained as Doc insisted, he’d hate to feel broken. “When the victim’s identity made the news, he realized he botched the kill. He needed to take out Em some other way. Something equally ballsy, to send whatever message he’s dreamed up. So he pumps gasoline into our house-”

Annie smiled at “our.”

“-then lights the liquid fuse. Since there’s no body, he escaped.”

“Meaning he’s still out there hunting,” Branch said.

“The better for us to . . . catch him,” Marty said.

They nodded, knowing exactly what the pause meant.

“How did she and I get out?” he continued. “Were we blown clear?”

“Not exactly,” Cross said.

He described Emily’s rescue moves.

Marty’s jaw dropped. He tried to speak. No sound emerged. He tried again.

“Good God,” he managed, completely stunned. “How is that even possible?”

Cross massaged his backside, mentally cursing the errant shotgun blast that removed half of it two decades ago. “Motivation and adrenaline,” he said. “When I worked patrol in Vegas, I came upon a fresh accident - a kid pinned under a minivan near his home. His mom came charging down the street, bent over, and lifted off the van. Lady was a ninety-eight-pound weakling - her words - yet she was so buzzed from her child in danger she lifted that van like it was nothing.”

“I hear ya,” Marty said, still shaking his head. “But what Emily did was . . . is . . . impossible.”

“Good thing it wasn’t, bucko,” Branch said. “Or you wouldn’t be here taking up space.”

“Speaking of burned,” Annie said, “how did you get into that tree?”

“Didn’t you hear Ken?” Marty said.

“That’s how Emily evacuated you,” Annie said. “Not how you guys survived the blast to begin with.” She wrote “100 gal. gas” and “1000 tons concrete” on the nurses’ whiteboard. “This plus that equals instant death,” she said, tapping the numbers. “How did you avoid that fate?”

“You,” Marty said.

Her eyebrows lifted.

“Soon as I stepped in that gasoline pool, I knew there’d be an explosion,” Marty said. “No other reason for it to be there. The fireball would cremate us if it didn’t have a place to exit before it reached the bedroom. So I created one.”

“How?”

“Your tommy gun.”

She stared.

“Heat rises. So I machine-gunned the skylight,” Marty explained. “Created a chimney. Most of the blast vented straight up and out the hole. Reducing the fireball just enough to save us.”

Stunned silence.

“Talk about impossible,” Cross said. “You’re a whole lot smarter than you look.”

“Thanks,” Marty said. “I think.”

“That’s the best sacrifice that burp gun could have made,” Annie said, kissing Marty’s forehead. “Saving Emily’s life.”

“Hey! What about me?” Marty demanded.

“I told you not to scratch it,” Annie replied.





10:17 a.m.

“You know how this makes me look?” Covington snarled through the cell crackle. “Blowing up two cops on the eve of my execution and I can’t do a thing about it? That’s pathetic, Ken. Catch that animal and catch him now. Before I become the punch line on late-night TV.”

Cross looked at the phone in disgust as he sped south on Illinois 53. Intelligence reported a big wave of buses exiting I-88, so he was heading to the Justice Center to make sure the National Guard understood his rules of engagement. The thought of an irresistible force - roiling protesters - meeting the immovable object - soldiers with live ammo - made his teeth hurt. Covington was turning it to root canal.

“Good thing they didn’t die,” Cross said. “You’d look even worse.”

“That’s for goddamn sure,” Covington said, not getting the sarcasm but mercifully losing steam. “Hey, did Emily really drag Benedetti out on that limb?”

“She did.”

“That’s one silver lining, anyway,” Covington said. “I’ll play that up at my press conference this afternoon.” “You do that,” Cross said.

“Helluva cop you got in that woman, Ken. Maybe I’ll steal her for my security detail.”

“Maybe I’ll stick you in that electric chair,” Cross said.

Covington laughed.

Cross didn’t.

Lockdown expired, Emily practically skipped toward Marty’s room. She couldn’t wait for the big reunion  . They’d clear the air between them, then go nail the-