Page 125 of In Cold Blood
The three of them turned. There was no hesitation from the tall, lanky man with a greasy mop of hair and scraggly goatee. “I said. He got what he deserved!”
Noah closed the door on the Bronco and walked toward them. As he did, they fanned out, and he saw the wiry, agile man wearing a hoodie dig into his pocket for something. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, looking as if he was about to dart in and strike at any moment. He had a cold, calculating look in his eyes.
“You know something about that night?” Noah asked.
“What if we do, pig?” the towering, muscular man with a shaved head and a thick, bushy beard replied. He was sporting a dirty tattered jean jacket and had his fists clenched tightly at his sides.
Noah saw red at that moment. As he lunged at the guy, the tall one turned and ran, but the wiry guy produced a knife, and a blade shot out. Noah reacted fast using his pal as a shield, slamming him into the other guy and knocking both to the ground.
It all happened so fast. Arms flailing. Legs kicked as he wrestled for control of the knife. He’d only been in a few life-or-death situations where he was outnumbered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur of fur. Axel had jumped out of the Bronco and had taken off after the lanky fella.
Noah slammed his palm up into the nose of one, bursting it like a fire hydrant.
“Get off me, man. I said get off me.”
The bearded asshole fired off a right hook, catching Noah on the orbital bone and knocking him sideways. Not far from them, closer to the apartments, Axel had taken down the runner and was busy chewing his pant leg and dragging him like a rag doll.
“Wes!” the guy shouted as Wes launched himself on top of Noah. His pal’s voice was a distraction that allowed Noah to catch Wes off guard by bringing his leg up and looping it around his head. He brought him down just as his shifty-looking pal Reg scrambled for the knife.
Noah reached for his sidearm but before he could get it, a gunshot rang out.
“You drop that knife right now, Reg, or I swear I will take off your other testicle.”
He was clutching it. “Mary-Lynne. C’mon now. I told you not to say anything.”
“Drop it.”
Reg groaned and tossed it. The knife skittered across the dry ground.
Approaching from the apartments, weapon in hand, was the same woman he’d seen in the doorway. She had blonde, tightly wound curls, and was small in stature but she sure looked comfortable holding that bolt-action rifle.
“And Wes Brown. You should know better.”
Whoever she was, she sure as hell put the fear of God in these two. Wes put up his hands. Noah rose and brushed thedust off. He whistled to Axel but he was still chewing away. “Axel!”
That made him stop. He turned on a dime and came racing back, planting himself close by Noah.
“Now apologize to this man,” she said.
“Mary…”
She drove home the bolt to make it clear she wasn’t messing around.
“You heard me.”
Wes rose to his feet, glancing at Noah from a side angle. He muttered his apology. “Sorry. We didn’t mean no harm.”
“Then you shouldn’t have opened your fat mouth!” Mary-Lynn said. He glanced at her looking all subordinate. A pitiful state.
“Now answer the man. Did you know anything about his brother’s death?”
“No,” Wes replied. “Your brother busted us for speeding a few months back. The rest we just heard from Trinity yapping about him.”
“What did she say?”
“That she’d come across him lying in the road.”
“And?”
