Page 77 of The Texas Murders

“Me, too,” he says, reaching to touch a place on his scalp where his hair is matted with blood. “I’m just embarrassed,” he adds. “I can’t believe I let that son of a bitch get the drop on me.”

“He got the drop on me, too,” I say. “Ava took him down.”

Carlos stops before we round the corner of the building, grabbing my arm to keep me from walking.

“Is he alive?” Carlos asks.

I nod. “He’s got a goddamn arrow hole through his arm, but I don’t think he’s going to die from it.”

“Good,” Carlos says. Then, with the building blazing next to us, he adds, “I’ve got an idea.”

CHAPTER 68

I LEAVE CARLOS at the back of the building and run to the front, where Ava has moved Llewellyn Carpenter from the fence to near my truck, his hands cuffed together behind his back.

“There’s no way in there,” I say. “Carlos is gone.”

“Goddamn it,” Ava says, her voice cracking and her eyes threatening to spill fresh tears—and not from the smoke in the air.

I hate keeping her in the dark, but Carpenter has to believe Carlos is dead. Ava’s reaction is going to make it believable.

Carpenter, blood still dripping from his nose, chuckles at the idea that he got at least one of us.

“I should never have shot you in the arm,” Ava growls at him, her emotion showing through uncharacteristically. “I should have put the arrow through that psychopathic brain of yours.”

I hold her by the arm, afraid she might take a swing at him.

A fire truck arrives along with a whole host of police vehicles. While Ava keeps guard over Carpenter, I run up to talk to them. Keeping my voice low, so neither Carpenter nor Ava can hear, I tell the responders that the building is vacant as far as we know.

When the first ambulance arrives, we ask a paramedic to wrap Carpenter’s arm up. The wound is swelling, and we have to undo his cuffs.

“This man needs to go to a hospital,” she says.

“Not yet,” I say, and my tone keeps her from arguing.

We put Carpenter in the back of a Tigua cruiser. The rear doors won’t unlock and a thick Plexiglas barrier separates the front from the back. Even then, we station one of the Tigua officers by the car.

“If he tries to break out in any way,” I say, “shoot him with every bullet you’ve got in your gun.”

The officer nods, unsure if I’m serious.

Ava adds, “Then reload your gun and shoot him again.”

With Carpenter safely locked away, I walk Ava away from his car as we watch the firefighters dousing the building with their hoses.

“You told them there’s someone inside, didn’t you?” Ava asks.

“I need to let you in on a secret,” I say, “but you have to show no physical reaction that Carpenter can see.”

She nods.

“Carlos is alive.”

Her eyes dart toward me and then settle back over thefirefighters. I’ve got to hand it to her—she can hide her emotions well.

“You’re lucky I can’t show a reaction,” she says, “or I’d smack you.”

“I’m sorry for lying,” I say, “but the deception was Carlos’s idea.”

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