All That Fall by Kris Calvin

Author:Kris Calvin [Calvin, Kris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

CHAPTER

32

The Blue House

LUKE HAD JUST finished washing his hands when he heard a knock.

It wasn’t Vivian. It had come from Walter’s room.

He shook the water from his hands and opened the door. It was the tall man with the white hair. Over his shoulder, Luke could see Walter still lying on the sofa, eyes closed.

White-Haired Man spoke calmly, quietly.

“Kelly, I’m Barry. I’m pleased to finally meet you, despite the circumstances. Walter’s said good things about you. Now, tell me, what happened?”

Luke stepped to the towel bar to dry his hands, taking longer than he needed as he tried to keep the men’s names straight and to think of what to say.

Which lie will be safest?

“I know you’re upset,” Barry said. “Your cousin’s”—he paused—“in a bad way. But the Chief needs to know what happened.”

My cousin? The Chief?

Before Luke had time to consider what it might mean that, evidently, he and Walter were related and, more importantly, there was some unknown person in charge, Barry spoke again.

“It’s being reported a security guard was shot and killed at the preschool and a woman was injured and taken to the hospital. What happened?”

Luke covered his face with both hands so his overwhelming relief that his mother was alive, that she’d been taken to the hospital, wouldn’t show.

Barry seemed to interpret Luke’s actions as meaning something else. “Look, I get it. You were just the driver, and there wasn’t supposed to be any violence.”

Luke dropped his hands, his mouth fell open, and he stared at the man.

No violence? Man, did Walter and Kelly screw up.

“We didn’t know there was a guard,” Barry continued, apparently processing Luke’s look of surprise, even shock, as appropriate given all that had happened. “I understand his death might have been unavoidable, collateral damage. But that doesn’t change the orders, that Walter and you were supposed to bring the girl and the nanny here alive. But I take it that’s the nanny in the back of the SUV?”

The white-haired man didn’t sound angry, but he was firm as he asked the question for the third time.

“What happened?”

Luke could lie, he was fully capable of it. He’d done it enough with his mother this past year. He told himself to use the same tricks, to tell the truth where he could, say as little as possible when he couldn’t, and to let Barry fill in the blanks.

“The nanny had a gun,” Luke began. Then he took a detour away from the truth. “She shot first. At Walter. He shot back. He killed her and the security guard.”

In reality, Kelly had started the gunfight, leaping from the back of the van, his weapon drawn, exchanging gunfire with the nanny, during which he’d been shot dead on the spot. And the last thing that happened, not the first, was the ninja nanny managing to wound Walter before she died.

He’d had to leave out Kelly’s role, well, because he was now Kelly.

Barry seemed to think it over, then nodded.

“Who was the other woman?” he asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.