He gasped in terror, stepped back, the ugly hat falling from his head. In reflex he lunged out and slugged her hard in the stomach, doubling her over. "Oh, God," she wheezed. A huge pain shot through her chest and jaw. Rune tried to scream but her voice was only a whisper. She dropped to the floor, unable to breathe.
Symington, furious, grabbed her by the hair and spun her around. Dropped to his knees. His hands smelled of garlic and tobacco. He began to search her roughly.
"Are you with them?" he gasped. "Who the fuck are you?"
She couldn't answer.
"You are, aren't you? You're working for them!" He lifted his fist. Rune lifted an arm over her face.
"Who?" she managed to ask.
He asked, "How did you ..."
He stopped speaking. Struggling to catch her breath, Rune looked up. Symington was staring at the doorway. Someone stood there. Pretty Boy? Rune blinked, rolled to her knees.
No ... Thank you, thank you, thank you ... It was his daughter, Emily.
Rune was so grateful to see the woman that it wasn't until a second later that she wondered: How'd Emily find the place? Had she followed me here?
Wait, something is wrong.
Symington let go of Rune, backed up.
Emily said, "How did we find you, you were going to ask? Haarte has some good contacts."
Haart? Rune wondered. "Who's Heart?" she asked.
"Oh, no, it's Haarte?" Symington whispered. Then he nodded hopelessly. "I should've guessed."
"What's going on?" Rune demanded.
Symington was looking at Emily with an imploring expression on his face. "Please ..."
Emily didn't respond.
He continued. "Would it do any good to say I have a lot of money?"
"The money!" Rune said. "He killed Mr. Kelly and stole his money!"
Both Symington and Emily ignored her.
"Is there anything I can do?" Symington pleaded.
"No," Emily said. And took a pistol from her pocket. She shot him in the chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The way he fell is what saved Rune.
The gun was small but the impact knocked Symington backward and he slammed into the pole of the floor lamp, which fell against the bathroom door, sending a shower of glass into the hallway.
Emily danced out of the way of the splinters, which gave Rune a chance to sprint into the bedroom. But the woman recovered fast. She fired the gun again and Rune heard a terrible stereo sound of noises: the blasts of the gun behind her, the crash of the bullets slamming into the plaster wall inches from her head.
Then--with another punch of breathtaking pain-- she dove through the bedroom window.
Hands covering her face, shards of glass flying around her, trailing the window shade, she rolled onto more sad evergreens and dropped onto the grass, coming to rest against one of the plaster dwarfs. Panting, she lay on the lawn. The smell of dirt and damp grass enveloped her. She could hear birds squabbling in the trees overhead.
And then the air around her exploded. A dwarf's face disintegrated into white splinters and dust. On the street, fifty feet away, Rune caught a glimpse of a man with shotgun. She couldn't see his face but she knew it was Pretty Boy--Heart probably, the one Symington mentioned. Or Heart's partner. He and Emily were working together.... She didn't know who they were exactly or why they wan