Vera remained facedown in the mud, refusing to look at him. Neva kept her eyes on the ground, ignoring Eli as he put her coat around her shoulders. The man on the roof clambered down the antennae, keeping his rifle on Stebbs and Lynn as he backed away. The three others followed, Blue Coat dragging Neva to her feet; Green Hat steadied her when she tripped.
“Tell Lucy I love her,” Neva said to Lynn as she walked past. Lynn’s throat closed up, not allowing her to speak. She only nodded in response, and the figures grew smaller as they moved away, the man from the roof continuing to cover them with his rifle.
“Ma’am, I know it’s been a hell of a morning,” Stebbs said, kneeling in the mud next to Vera, “but we’ve got something to ask of you.”
“Lucy’s sick,” Eli said. “Bad.”
Stebbs cut the rope holding Vera’s hands together, and she rubbed her wrists. “Where is she?” she asked.
“Downstairs.” Stebbs helped her to her feet. “It happened overnight.” He explained as they moved into the basement and gathered around Lucy’s cot. No one noticed when Lynn quietly picked up her rifle and left.
The four figures were easy to spot from the roof. Gap Tooth led, with Blue Coat dragging Neva behind him, and Green Hat walking beside her. The man from the roof had turned his back on the house, assuming he was clear of her range. He wasn’t, but Lynn knew she couldn’t make four clean shots before one of them got to Neva to retaliate. All she could do was watch.
Neva stumbled awkwardly over the rough fields, lost her balance, and fell on all fours. Her coat slid off her shoulders as she struggled to her knees. The noose pulled tight, and Blue Coat turned around just in time to see Neva put the derringer to her temple. Lynn saw her body slump sideways before the sound of the gunshot reached her, a flat snap that could have been mistaken for the breaking of a twig.
Blue Coat turned in time for blood to spray his jeans, and he kicked Neva’s lifeless body. Wrath rose in Lynn’s throat so thickly she nearly choked on it as the other men pulled him off Neva. He turned back to the house, drawing his finger across his throat in an unmistakable gesture. Lynn’s finger curled around the trigger, the need to add a dead body next to Neva’s so deep that it almost won over her common sense. Mother could have taken them down at that range, but Lynn wasn’t confident and a wasted bullet would bring all four of them fanning back around the house, and trouble to Lucy’s bedside at a time when every second counted.
But they went south instead of carrying out the threat. Now that Lynn had the high ground and they’d lost the element of surprise, the odds were against them. Green Hat waited until the other men had put some distance between themselves and the body before he knelt down and covered Neva’s face with her coat.
Lynn was numb as she fumbled with the door, the image of Neva’s lifeless body lying alone in the frozen field stamped on her brain.
“Stebbs,” Lynn called down the steps. “I need you out here.”
He came to the bottom of the stairs. “What?”
“Up here,” she said. He climbed the steps and shut the door behind him when he saw the look on her face.
“Neva’s dead.”
“How?”
“Did for herself, with the derringer I gave her. Not long after they walked off. They left her out in the field.”
Stebbs sat down on the stone steps, resting his head in his hands.
“What do we do?” Lynn asked.
“We’ll have to go get her, but right now we’ve got worse problems.”
“How bad is Lucy?”
“I don’t know much about sickness, but by the look on her grandma’s face, I’d say it’s bad.”
Lynn sat beside him, ignoring the freezing water that soaked through her jeans. “What do we do?”
Stebbs put his arm around her, and she leaned into him. “Kiddo, you and me don’t do so well in situations we can’t control. There’s nothing you could’ve done for Neva, and we can’t help Lucy now. It’s not up to us.”
She rested her head on his shoulder, tears of futility pricking at her eyes. “Don’t think I care for that.”
The door burst open behind them, and Vera ripped past, Lucy’s shaking, naked body clutched in her arms.
“Jesus, woman!” Stebbs yelled.
“She’s seizing!” Vera screamed, and disappeared over the bank of the pond. They ran after her, Eli on their heels, and crested the bank to see Vera plunge the white form into the icy blackness of the pond.
Lucy’s eyes snapped open and she screamed, scratching frantically at the strong arms holding her body under the water. Lynn grabbed Vera and yanked her backward, but her strength was outmatched by the older woman’s determination. She landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her.
“Get off me!” Vera yelled. “We break the fever or she dies.”
Lucy kicked weakly, her efforts sending ripples through the water that broke against the ice still covering the depths. Vera pulled her out, and her limbs fell limply to the side, spraying Lynn’s face with freezing droplets.