Chapter 29 #2
Once the kids were out of harm’s way, moving through the woods away from Dillon, John turned his attention to Dillon. The man had no more leverage over John, which granted him the opportunity to treat Dillon like the animal he was.
And given he had a wooden spike through his leg, John knew it was only a matter of time before he was brought down.
“Clever!” Dillon finally shouted after a period of no gunfire. “I did underestimate you, Johnny Boy. You’re a regular Eagle Scout, aren’t you?” He laughed, but then he cursed from the pain. “I’d still like to think I can take you, though.”
John had Dillon up against the ropes, and he planned on capitalizing on that momentum.
He slowly stepped around the tree, searching for where Dillon might have limped off, too.
He couldn’t have gotten far, not with the spike impaling his leg, not to mention the other traps John had set in the woods.
John tracked Dillon’s blood trail and saw he was heading toward the river. He was still trying to escape, even after all of this. The man was, if anything, persistent in his pursuits.
John moved quickly through the woods, easily stepping around the tripwires and traps he had set.
Based on the blood loss, it was clear that Dillon was moving quickly and clumsily.
A few of the alarm trip wires sounded off, giving John an even more precise location of where Dillon was located. The man was running out of time.
The blood trail led back to the riverbank, but John saw no sign of Dillon.
He used the scope of his rifle to make sure he wasn’t missing anything on the barge.
John turned around and studied the woods around him.
He picked up on the blood trail again, but it went cold. Dillon had stopped his bleeding.
The forest was quiet. Dillon had gone silent, and for a man who enjoyed talking as much as he did, John imagined that must’ve been very hard for him. But while Dillon might’ve been hiding, John knew this part of the woods better than anybody else.
And John was much more familiar with the sounds of the forest. He was connected to this piece of land in a way that no other person would understand.
John closed his eyes and waited for the right opportunity.
It wasn’t until he heard the snap of a twig to his left that he finally opened his eyes and aimed in the direction of the noise.
John opened fire, and Dillon immediately dodged out of the way. He tucked himself behind a large tree, but John didn’t sit idle. He moved to the left, positioning himself to get a better angle on Dillon’s location.
“You’re quite the hunter, Johnny,” Dillon said. “I think you got into the wrong line of work?—”
John caught Dillon in his crosshairs and fired, this time winging Dillon in the arm. Dillon cursed as he spun away from the gunshot. And then he fired back at John. But Dillon had lost his ability to aim and fired blindly in John’s direction, missing terribly.
John saw blood on the tree trunk where he’d shot Dillon. It was almost done.
“I didn’t think you were a killer,” Dillon said. “You didn’t strike me as the type to be able to take a man’s life.”
John ignored Dillon’s comments and continued pushing the man on the riverbank, where another surprise was waiting for Dillon.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to finish the job, John?” Dillon asked.
John continued to push Dillon toward the hole, driving him backward with unmatched precision.
“Or was all of that talk about taking a life unless it was necessary a bunch of bullshit?” Dillon replied. “Because it’s starting to feel like this is very personal. I’m beginning to think you want to kill me for the sake of killing me.”
John fired three more shots, pushing Dillon backward in a straight line. Dillon cursed, hating the fact that he was being pushed into a retreat, and he cursed John with every name he could think of. It was almost over now, just a few more steps, and Dillon would be caught.
“Come out and face me like a man!” Dillon shouted.
“Okay,” John said, and he emerged from his cover and fired one shot over Dillon’s head, causing the man to step back and collapse into the pit John had made.
Dillon cried out in pain when he landed in the pit. There were no spikes below; it was designed to capture people, but the pit was twelve feet deep, with no way to climb the slick dirt walls.
John approached the edge of the pit and stared down into it. Dillon immediately fired his weapon angrily, but it was futile. John waited until Dillon ran out of bullets and John heard the click of the firing pin to approach the edge again.
Dillon caught his breath and calmed himself down. “So now what, Johnny? Are you going to kill me? Shoot me like a fish in a barrel? Not very sporting.”
“I have every right to kill you,” John said.
“But I have never enjoyed killing. That’s not who I am.
And no amount of persuasion will convince me to be more like you.
You are an animal, and animals should be caged as such.
I would get used to those walls because you’re going to be in a cell the rest of your life. ”
“You don’t think I will be able to get out like I did before?” Dillon asked. “You don’t think I’m going to spend every waking minute searching for you and your family, trying to get back here so I can finish the job? You really can’t be that stupid.”
John took a breath and calmed his nerves. “I think you misunderstand me. I said that I am not going to kill you. Because it’s not me that should be the one to do it. But that doesn’t mean you’re not going to die.”
Dillon frowned, but he understood when he watched Maggie limp over to them. She was held up by Teddy, and she stared down at Dillon with contempt.
“I told you it would be me who pulled the trigger,” Maggie said.
John handed his wife a gun, and she aimed it at Dillon. And for the first time in his life, Dillon understood that no amount of talking would save him. He was finally staring down reality and his own mortality. And just as all cowards do, he begged.
“Please,” Dillon said. “Please, I didn’t?—”
Maggie shot him through the head, and his body crumbled into the dirt and mud. And just like that, the forest fell silent again.
Maggie dropped the gun, and then her legs gave out, but John caught her and scooped her up in his arms.
“I’m tired,” Maggie said.
“Then let’s get you home,” John replied.
John and Maggie walked away from the hole in the forest and returned to the cabin. John would return later to fill in the hole and bury the body. No one would ever hear from the famous bank robber, Dillon Elliot, again. His name would fade as he rotted into the dirt.
Chapter 30—One Week Later
John swung the axe down hard, splitting the firewood in half. He picked up the halved pieces and tossed them into the pile with the others, then wiped the sweat from his brow. He glanced over to the cabin, where he could hear his children through the open windows.
The weather had cleared up nicely today, and the gloomy morning had transformed into a beautiful afternoon. There was a crispness in the air, and John took a moment to inhale the scent of the nature around him. It smelled of earth and water. He wished they had made the move out here years ago.
John picked up some of the wood he had chopped and carried it back toward the cabin when a car pulled up his drive with a familiar face behind the wheel.
“Agent Parker,” John said. “What brings you up this way?”
Parker’s arrival in the car meant the restoration efforts in the city were well underway, with power being restored to many who had lost it.
“I just wanted to let you know we still haven’t found Dillon,” Parker said.
John and his family had decided to keep Dillon’s death a secret. None of them wanted to go through the process of a trial, even though he was certain no jury would find them guilty. But given everything his family had been through, John didn’t want to take that chance.
“Good to know,” John said.
Parker crossed his arms and eyed John more carefully. “Each time I talk to you about this and give you an update on our search for Dillon, you never seem very interested in what I have to say. You don’t even look worried that he’s still out there.”
John shrugged. “You know what they say about people who worry? They suffer twice.”
Parker walked closer to John. He studied John with a skeptical eye. “Is there anything else you want to tell me about what happened? Why don’t you think Dillon ever came back for the money?”
“I told you I always believed Dillon was more concerned about staying alive than he was about being rich,” John answered. “Maggie said the same thing, and I’m sure she would agree with me still.”
“Right,” Parker said. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it.”
“Do you want to come inside?” John asked. “We’re just about to have some dinner.”
“No, I have to get back to the office,” Parker answered. “The clean-up efforts and repairs for the EMP are starting to overtake our search for Dillon. I don’t think we’re going to pursue him for much longer, not unless we get a lead.”
“Okay then,” John said. “Drive safe.”
Parker returned to his car, but just before he got inside, he stopped and called out to John one more time. “You know, they finally finished counting the money from the heist. Looks like there was a few hundred thousand dollars missing.”
“Is that so?” John said.
“Yup,” Parker said.
“I guess some of it may have gotten lost when I took the barge down the river,” John said. “It was a bit of a bumpy ride.”
“Mm-hmm,” Parker said. “Let me know if you remember any other details about that day.”
“Will do,” John said.
Once Agent Parker was gone, John returned to the cabin. When he stepped inside, it was clear that everybody had been listening to the conversation. Sydney and Blake looked worried, but John eased their fears.
“Nothing happened,” John said.
“Are you sure he will never find out?” Sydney asked.