“She can find it. She knows where it is,” Heidi said. “Sloan, come on over here.”
He walked around the fallen wig stand. The basement floor looked gruesome—with the wigs and heads everywhere, it seemed to be a floor full of decapitations.
He was about four feet from the first of the mannequins in the third room. He judged his chances.
“Agent Everett!” Heidi called out. “I’m going to suggest you show yourself. You might live if you tell us where the gold is. Oh—and let’s see. I’ll start by shooting Sloan in the foot, then the calf—maybe a shoulder. Don’t want to hit an artery until you come out.”
And she would come out, he was afraid.
They were too confident. Heidi wasn’t even looking at him. Cy was by the stairs, peering into the mannequin room. Sloan saw that Betty had her gun on him.
He reached for her in a swift movement.
She fired.
Nothing happened; he’d emptied her gun.
He pulled her in front of him and pushed her toward Heidi just as Heidi fired. Heidi’s bullet hit Betty, who screamed and choked.
“Shit, Heidi, you killed Betty!” Cy cried. “She was our cop. We needed a cop!”
“Shut up, Cy!” Heidi fired again.
She missed Sloan.
He’d plowed into the mannequins.
They seemed to embrace him. They were everywhere.
“Mike, get out here!” Heidi shouted. “Get the hell out here and we’ll just shoot until we get them all.”
Mike! Mike Addison made up the last of their little club—or so he hoped.
He heard a scrambling near him; he could have fired. But he didn’t know if it was Jane or Mike.
He tackled the moving creature.
A clown went down before him. Mike Addison as a clown. Maybe it was fitting.
Mike had a gun. They struggled for it; it went off, but then flew across the floor and disappeared in the pile of mannequins.
When he ripped off the clown face, Mike stared up at him furiously.
Sloan didn’t bother speaking. He slugged Mike with the hardest right to a jaw he’d ever wielded in his life. Mike was silent. Lights out.
“Damn you!” Heidi shouted. She began firing. She was going to hit one of them if he didn’t draw his own gun. He returned fire.
Heidi screamed and ducked behind a wall. Cy Tyburn sprinted across the room, taking cover by the wall. He fired into the mannequins.
Sloan fell to one side, trying to use a Victorian lady to shield him. Then the door burst open and he heard someone shouting.
“What the hell is going on down here?”
It was Henri Coque.
*
Jane had to force herself to keep silent. At first, she was afraid they had Sloan, that they’d kill him or torture him if she didn’t move.
But then Sloan had gotten into the mannequin room, as well.
And she’d had to keep silent—because she couldn’t defend herself.
She scrambled in the darkness, trying not to show herself, desperate to find her gun in the commotion. Then she heard Henri Coque.
“Henri! Get down here, too. You know, Henri, you’re really good at keeping this place afloat—and the shows are terrific!” Heidi said. “But we need you now. Come out, Sheriff. Come out, come out wherever you are, or I will kill this innocent man. And you’ll have to go your whole life knowing he died because you were a coward. Hmm. Maybe we’ll have to run and I can leave Henri alive. I wouldn’t mind doing that. He’s not a bad guy.”
Jane heard movement near her. Sloan.
“I’ll kill him, Sloan. It’ll all be on you!” Heidi said.
She was still behind the wall. Sloan had been returning fire; she had to know approximately where he was. Heidi wasn’t taking any chances. She had Henri in the center of the room. She fired—and Henri screamed.
Just then, Jane felt movement among the mannequins again—but not from Sloan’s direction. She turned. For a moment, she thought she was looking at another mannequin.
Then she realized she was seeing Sage McCormick.
And Sage was desperately trying to push something at her.
Jane frowned. Whatever it was glittered in the dim light. She reached for it, but Sage shoved something else at her.
Her Glock.
Jane nodded her thanks and grabbed the gun.
She had one chance.
She shoved all the mannequins toward the wall where Heidi was taking cover; Henri had been knocked over and Heidi raised her gun to shoot.
Jane fired, and Heidi went down. She heard Cy Tyburn curse.
And then saw that he’d taken aim at her.
But he never fired.
Sloan stepped from the mannequins and fired first.
Cy went down like a log.
Henri sat on the floor, sobbing. “My foot! She shot my foot!”
The door burst open and Logan shouted, “You’re surrounded in here! Nobody move!”
Jane saw Sloan’s shoulders sag slightly. “I think they’re all dead, Logan.”
“Get some light!” Jane shouted. “Get light, quickly. Kelsey is in this mess.”