Page 51 (2/2)

Silence was his answer

He chuckled softly "You still don’t know, do you? Let’s see, Caleb showed you a sa it He needed a cop on his side, so he got you, Betty And then he created a little gang of thieves, but you were so afraid of being double-crossed that you did hi to double-cross you, wasn’t he? He actually cared for his son, so that probably got in his way, didn’t it? And let’s see--one of you was supposed to torture the truth out of hiht back and you had to kill him"

"Get down those steps!" Betty yelled

"Cy," Sloan said "Why you? Ahyou don’t really have what it takes But you were dissatisfied and Caleb saw that in you Betty, you, too You hated playing second fiddle"

"Shut up!" Betty shouted "You think you’re so s"

"I’ht You needed a cop for protection, and you needed the actors becausewell, because, of course, you searched the mine shaft--no luck--and realized the theater was the old--"

"Get down the stairs!"

"I’!"

"Watch it!" someone called from below

Jane was down there, just as they’d said But she wasn’t alone

"She’s in with the mannequins," the voice said

Damn! He’d never suspected

"Heidi," he called "You weren’tthe trail rides, you were able to set up Jay Ber at it Caleb didn’t leave the body there You dug it up and put it there so Caleb would know you weren’t just a bunch of country hicks You left Red pointing at him to scare Caleb, but then you killed Caleb, anyway This is really pathetic--because you still don’t knohere the gold is"

Sloan reached the bottoe their firepower They hadn’t taken his gun, and he’d seen to it that Betty’s orthless; that hat his sleight of hand had been about But Heidi and Cy were arht be in the basement with them

"She can find it She knohere it is," Heidi said "Sloan, co stand The bases and heads everywhere, it seemed to be a floor full of decapitations

He was about four feet froed his chances

"Agent Everett!" Heidi called out "I’ht 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 hi into the un on him

He reached for her in a swift un

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 seeet 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 scra near him; he could have fired But he didn’t know if it was Jane or Mike

He tackled thecreature

A cloent down before hi

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