Hard News (Rune 3)

Nestor leapt to the side and lifted the gun again.

The big sparking explosion of a shotgun was like a thunderclap. The killer tumbled backwards. He tried to get up, muttering some distorted words. Something about "pictures," Rune thought. The fat man lay back. His body convulsed once. Then he was still.

TEN SQUAD CARS, WITH LIGHTS FLASHING, WERE PARKED in front of the Network building. Several EMS ambulances were here too and, for some reason, so were two fire trucks. Already the crowd of spectators was large. Rune noted with a laugh to herself that the three news crews on hand to capture the story on tape were all from the competition; no one at the Network seemed to have heard about the incident.

Rune was standing next to Randy Boggs, who leaned against a squad car. His hand and chin were bandaged. Nestor had missed when he'd fired those two shots at him but he'd cut himself in several places during the fight. (He seemed most upset because the ugly tan suit he wore was torn and greasy.) Bradford Simpson had been hit by Nestor's bullet but only in the leg. He'd be all right.

Lee Maisel was in custody.

"How did you get here?" Rune asked Boggs, shaking her head in confusion.

"I went to your houseboat--saw what'd happened there. I'm plenty sorry about that. Did Jack do it?"

"Indirectly." She didn't mention that the actual arsonist was three years old.

Boggs continued. "I just came to the TV station here to see if maybe the guard or somebody could tell me where you were. I saw you and Jack coming out of the back door. Didn't know what was going on but I figured it wasn't good. And that I better do something about it. So I pretended to be a, you know, homeless man so I could get in close."

A detective came up to her and said, "Could you give us a few more details, miss?"

Rune answered, "Can we be alone for a couple minutes? Just him and me? Then I'll tell you everything."

The detective nodded. He walked over to the medical attendants, who were putting Nestor's body on a gurney.

"I thought you'd taken off," Rune told Boggs angrily.

He stared at the ground, not able to return her gaze. "I just went down to Atlanta for a day or two to get my money and then I was coming back. I was going to do that all along--I have some business to take care of here."

"Business?" she asked skeptically.

"I'm giving some of my money to the family of this friend of mine from Harrison. He got himself killed 'cause he was my friend. Anyway, I couldn't leave--remember, Mr. Megler said I had to stay in New York until the case was officially over?"

"When has obeying the law ever meant anything to you?" Rune snapped. "Why didn't you tell me about you and Jack?"

"Was a new suit," he said, studying his torn sleeve. Then he looked up, focused on the flipping lights atop a squad car. "Was the deal I made with him."

"Him?" Rune asked in disbelief. "That son of a bitch?"

"Way I was brought up is you don't snitch."

"He used you!"

"Know that now. Didn't then. Didn't until just a few days ago."

"Didn't you think it was kind of funny that he took you along on this credit card thing then coincidentally somebody gets killed?"

"Not at the time I didn't think so. And then, when I started to think it was a little off, he give me all that money to keep mum. I needed a nest egg. A hundred thousand dollars--where'

d I ever get money like that otherwise? Nowhere I know of."

Rune's head swam with painful emotions. She wanted to slap him, to scream, to grab his thin collar and shake him.

Randy Boggs said, "I'm sorry."

She didn't answer.

"I coulda just left. I'm thinking of going to Hawaii after everything gets settled in court, you know. I coulda just got my money and kept going there."

"Hawaii?" she asked as if he'd said, "Mars."