Chapter 14 #2
When she reached the corner of the house overlooking the back, she finally spotted the shooter standing near the large oak tree, using the trunk for coverage.
“Police! Drop your weapon!” She gave the warning shout, then calmly aimed and fired at the tree.
A female voice cried out in pain. Autumn stayed where she was, fearing a trick.
“Drop your weapon!” She shouted again. Suddenly, the back light blinked off. They were on a timer to automatically go off after a few minutes of no movement.
She had to give her eyes time to adjust, but then saw the figure in black crouched on the ground near the base of the tree. It was hard to tell if she’d injured the woman who she now suspected was Meredith Delbert, or if Meredith was trying to draw Autumn out.
The woman didn’t move as Autumn took another step closer, her weapon steady. “Come out with your hands up!” she ordered.
No response.
“Get her, Bear.” She gave the command reluctantly, keeping her weapon up to fire if the woman moved.
“No! I’m hit!” The figure in black staggered away from the tree, cradling her stomach. Then she collapsed to the ground in a heap.
“Stay, Bear.” She still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t an act. She took a few steps closer, keeping her weapon trained on the crumpled figure.
Then the woman abruptly surged to her feet, aiming and shooting her gun. Autumn instinctively ducked and fired back, praying Bear wouldn’t get hurt in the cross fire.
The woman screamed and this time when she fell to the ground, Autumn was convinced she’d been hit for real. Still, she had to make sure.
“Get back, Bear! Stay!” She ran forward, her movement causing the flood light on the house behind her flash on, bathing the fallen woman in light.
Shrill police sirens split the air. Help was on the way.
Autum reached the fallen woman’s side. Bear sat and let out a howl. Autumn had to smile at his alert.
Meredith Delbert stared up at her, pure hatred blazing from her eyes. “Your fault! This is all your and your mother’s fault! I’m glad I killed her! I am! And you deserve to die, too! My life was destroyed because of you.”
This woman had killed her mother! Autumn pushed the horrifying information away, determined to stay focused. “Don’t move.” Autumn pressed the tip of her gun against Meredith’s forehead. She’d noticed the weapon was still clutched in Meredith’s hand. “Drop it or I’ll shoot.”
The sirens were louder now, less than a minute away. Meredith finally tossed the gun aside, then groaned. “You shot me!”
Autumn backed off, but didn’t holster her gun. It was difficult to think clearly after hearing Meredith confessing to murdering her mother, but she forced herself to stay on task. “Do you have other weapons on you? A knife or another gun?”
Meredith shook her head, then looked down at the blood seeping from her abdominal wound. Her face contorted and she was suddenly sobbing. “Don’t let me die. Please don’t let me die!”
Autumn finally holstered her weapon and knelt beside her. She took a moment to pat her down, verifying she wasn’t hiding more weapons. Finding a full clip of ammo, she tossed that aside, then gathered Meredith’s coat and pressed it against the bleeding wound.
“Why did you kill my mother?”
“Do you—know—how awful foster care is?” Meredith grimaced with pain. “You looked so happy at summer camp, while I was miserable. It wasn’t fair that I was treated like dirt!”
“But killing my mother didn’t change that.” She wasn’t following this woman’s logic.
“An eye for an eye… Isn’t that what the Bible says?
” Meredith winced, and her voice grew faint.
“An eye for an eye. Your mother deserved to die the way my father did. And you needed to suffer the way I did…too…” Meredith’s voice trailed off.
Her body slumped as she passed out, succumbing to her injury.
* * *
Upon hearing the police sirens, Jordan knew Autumn was in trouble. Despite his pounding headache, which hadn’t subsided as much as he’d told Autumn, he scooped Cutie in his arms and headed out to his truck.
He mentally berated himself for kicking Autumn off the ranch. As he covered the distance to her place, his gut clenched when he saw two police squad cars pulling into her driveway.
His heart pounded with fear. What if she was gone, forever? He pulled in behind the squad cars and slid out from behind the wheel. He didn’t run, as his head hurt too badly for that. Cutie jumped down and followed him to the house. The front porch light flashed on, nearly blinding him.
He turned away, fighting the urge to throw up. Nothing hurt his head more than bright lights. Shrill sirens were a close second. After a moment he straightened and moved away from the door.
Hearing voices, he moved to the backyard. Bear came over to greet them, and Cutie wiggled with excitement at seeing her crush.
The two officers were crouched beside a woman lying on the ground. Autumn?
He moved forward just as Autumn stood. A wave of relief hit hard as he realized she wasn’t hurt.
Or worse.
Thank You, Lord Jesus! The prayer came unbidden, filling his heart and soul. In that moment he realized how much he loved her.
He shouldn’t have gotten upset about Durango’s bucking him off. Or the near miss that could have harmed his stallion.
And he really shouldn’t have sent Autumn away. None of this was her fault. And if something bad had happened to her, like it had Jenny, he’d never forgive himself.
“Jordan?” Autumn stared at him in shock. The dogs were running around playing, despite the police officers huddled beside the fallen suspect. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard the sirens.” He took a step toward her, then stopped. After the way he’d acted, she might not welcome him with open arms. He frowned when he saw the blood. “Are you hurt?”
“What?” She glanced down in surprise. “Oh, no. It’s not my blood.”
He relaxed. “You got him?”
“Her.” Autumn sighed. “Meredith Delbert. She confessed to killing my mother. Her father died in jail recently, and that must have been the trigger for her to come after me. My mother arrested her father, and she ended up in foster care.” She looked down at the fallen woman.
“Sounds like she suffered during that time. I feel bad for what she went through.”
More sirens filled the air.
“That’s the ambulance,” Autumn said. “You’ll need to stay back, Jordan. Bear, Cutie, come!” Surprisingly the dogs wheeled and came running toward her. “We need to go out front. This is a crime scene.”
He turned, then abruptly stopped upon noticing the multitude of bullet holes piercing her house. The window was shattered and the door looked as if it had been hit by a shotgun blast.
Autumn stepped up beside him and he reached for her hand, drawing her close.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry you were here to face this threat alone.”
“I’m not sorry.” She surprised him by moving into his embrace. The dogs bumped against them, but he ignored them. “I’m glad you weren’t here.”
He shook his head. “I never should have let you go.”
She leaned back, gazing up at him in the glow of the light from her back door. He squinted to see her better as two paramedics ran past, pushing a gurney between them.
“I shouldn’t have left,” Autumn said. “I promised the doctor to look out for you. Instead, I left you to fend for yourself.” She frowned. “Although it wasn’t exactly as if you were following doctor’s orders, were you?”
“Ah, Autumn.” He managed a grin despite the pounding in his head. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”
“A pair of what?” She choked out a laugh. “Fools?”
“I was thinking more like two stubborn peas in a pod.” He lowered his forehead to hers. Having her in his arms felt right. And in that moment, he knew he couldn’t walk away. “Autumn, I love you. I know it may be too soon for you, but I want you to know how much I care.”
“Love?” She leaned back again to look into his eyes. “Is that the concussion talking? Don’t worry, I won’t hold you to it.”
“It’s not the headache.” Although, he couldn’t deny desperately wishing he could lie down.
He tried to find the words to tell her how much she meant to him but it wasn’t easy to think clearly.
“You’re very special, Autumn. I know this must feel fast, but we’ll take things slow.
” He frowned, then added, “If you’re willing to see me again. ”
She hesitated, then nodded slowly. “I think we should have this conversation when you’re feeling better.”
He was stung by the rejection, but before he could say anything more, the paramedics rolled the gurney past with a small figure strapped on the cot. Two IV bags hung, dripping fluids, and the EMTs were hurrying toward the ambulance.
A pair of officers approached, their faces solemn.
“Autumn? We’re going to need your weapon and to take your statement,” one of the officers said.
His name tag identified his last name as Bolder and his expression was full of empathy.
“I can tell by the bullet holes in your house that you didn’t have a choice but to use deadly force, but you know the drill. ”
“I do, yes. Here you go, Sam.” Autumn broke free of his grip and handed her weapon butt-first to the officer. “I’ll gladly give you my statement. Have you picked up her weapon? You’ll need that as evidence.”
The second officer held up a bag containing a gun and the clip. “Got it.”
“Good. Do you mind if we go inside?” Autumn asked. “I’d like to wash off the blood. Jordan has a head injury and he needs to sit down.”
He wanted to protest he was fine, but Sam nodded and gestured for the house. “Sure, let’s go.”
The dogs followed them inside. Jordan was glad for the opportunity to sit as the interview took longer than he’d anticipated. They were just finishing up when Detective Peters arrived.
Jordan swallowed a flash of irritation as the detective went through the same list of questions Autumn had just answered.
Peters glanced at the bullet-ridden door and broken window. “She just shot at the house?” His voice held doubt with a hint of scorn.
“Yes. I think she let her emotions overrule her common sense,” Autumn said calmly.
If she was annoyed with Peters, she didn’t let on.
“Going back to my mother’s murder, it took place when I was seventeen, soon to be eighteen, spending the week at summer camp.
Meredith was there, too, and apparently she resented me even then.
We were the same age, if I recall correctly.
To my shame, I didn’t pay her much attention.
I was involved with my friends, barely noticed her.
That must have bothered her, too. I vaguely remember her missing the swimming event at the lake.
We need to go back and see if we can figure out how Meredith left the camp to kill my mother, then return without anyone noticing. ”
Peters looked skeptical. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
“She admitted to killing my mother.” Autumn’s tone grew fierce.
“It all fits. She first took revenge on my mother, then when her father died in prison, she came after me. She had a warped sense of justice—that I needed to suffer as much as she did. Her first few attempts were done with caution and stealth. That slowly changed as her violent attacks escalated. This,” she said, waving at the bullet-ridden door, “is a sign of her desperation to kill me. To hurt me as much as she must have been hurt during her time in foster care.”
The blunt statement sent a chill down Jordan’s spine. If Autumn hadn’t put in the new security system, and wasn’t such a great cop, she may have been hurt.
Or killed.
“Seems odd that this woman would come after you just because her father died in prison,” Peters said. “I guess if she survives, we can ask her.”
Anger spiked Autumn’s eyes. “I’m telling you, she confessed. And she did all of this.” She threw her arm wide. “Worse, she almost killed Jordan, too.”
“Enough.” Jordan stood, causing Cutie to scramble up as well. “I’m taking Autumn back to the ranch. You can talk to her more tomorrow, if needed.”
Autumn looked surprised, then nodded, as if accepting she couldn’t stay there with the house peppered with bullet holes.
Peters scowled. “I’m not finished! This is an officer-involved shooting and—”
“Enough,” Jordan repeated. “You know as well as I do that Autumn had reason to fear for her life. The bullet holes tell the story.” He knew most of his anger was rooted in his pounding headache. “Autumn, get what you need for Bear and let’s go.”
She rose. “I’m ready.” She headed for the kitchen to get the container of dog food. Then she shrugged into her coat, leaving Peters little choice but to watch them leave.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said as they went out to their respective cars. “He’s not a bad guy.”
He grunted. “Doesn’t make him a good detective, either. But that’s not what I was thinking.” He glanced at her, wondering if he’d ruined whatever chance they may have had by being pigheaded. “I was thinking about how glad I am that you’re the one working to find Jenny’s baby.”
“Yes. And that’s why we need to talk tomorrow. When you feel better,” she hastily added. “Let’s focus on getting some rest, okay?”
“Sure.” He swallowed his disappointment. He’d come to his senses a little too late.