Chapter Ten
Gloria was sure she’d missed.
An instant later the stranger jumped her father from behind and they tumbled to the ground. There was grunting and wheezing and suddenly another gunshot, muffled this time. Then with alarming suddenness they fell still, unmoving, still intertwined in a lover’s pose in the solemn silver moonlight. Gloria stood on the lowest porch step waiting, her own g*n pointed at them. When, after a few seconds, there was no movement, she turned and hurried inside the house she’d fled so many years ago. If this shabby savior who’d come out of the dark to jump her father was still alive she’d repay the favor by calling for an ambulance. That is, if the phone worked. That had always been a hit-or-miss proposition when she was a kid.
Empty beer cans and whiskey b
