Page 81 of Wild Wolf
In this weather, it would take at least 45 minutes to get back to Coconut Key. We kept gaining ground on the dirtbag. Jack kept the throttle as fast as we could manage under the conditions. I held on for dear life as we bounced around, my eyes squinting from the wind and rain.
It took about 15 minutes to draw close to the perp.
Oren kept looking over his shoulder with wide eyes, not showing any signs of slowing down.
Then he pulled a pistol from a compartment at the helm.
He angled it in our direction. Muzzle flash flickered, and a bullet streaked across the water.
Oren had no chance of hitting anything intentionally in these swells. But the little bastard could always get lucky.
JD zigzagged behind him, keeping the target moving.
I put a couple shots into the engine.
Oren snapped a few more haphazard shots in our direction, then throttled up.
The boat got tossed around on the swells.
Lightning cracked across the sky, and thunder rumbled again.
I fired a few more shots into the engine. I must have hit a fuel line. Gas hit a hot manifold, and flames erupted.
Smoke billowed.
We kept our distance.
It wasn't long before the engine gave up the ghost, and the center-console slumped into the swells, adrift. It rose and fell with the waves. In a panic, Oren crouched at the gunwale and angled his pistol at us as the fire spread. Flames flickered into the night, the high winds feeding the fire. The rain still poured down.
Oren blasted off a few more shots.
This time, he was a little more accurate. Bullets whizzed across the bow.
I lined him up in the reticle of my sights, my finger around the trigger.
Jack shouted at him through a megaphone. "Oren, you're making the situation worse. Put the gun down and give yourself up."
Oren didn't listen. He fired off another couple of shots in our direction.
I'd given him every opportunity. I pulled the trigger. My bullet sped across the water and drilled him in the chest. Oren tumbled back just as a wave hit the boat. He fell over the gunwale into the inky abyss.
JD advanced to the boat as flames continued to glow the area. The rollercoaster swells lifted us up and down as we circled around the center-console, looking for the scumbag.
I didn’t see him anywhere.
My flashlight beam swept across the tempestuous sea.
Oren had likely drowned.
We kept circling but found no trace of him.
The sheriff and his entourage arrived a few minutes later.
We searched for a while longer, then returned to the station and filled out after-action reports. I surrendered my weapon and was put on administrative leave as a matter of protocol. By that time, it was just past 4:00 AM. I was soggy and tired and wanted to go home.
Taryn had made a full statement, and we were all ready to put the chaos behind us. But the lack of closure bothered me. There was no way Oren could survive in those conditions. Even with a bulletproof vest, the air would have been knocked from his lungs. He’d have a hard time recovering in the water, and the suit could have weighed him down. Too much to struggle against.
"I can't thank you enough," Taryn said in the lobby of the station. "I should have been more cooperative sooner. I justnever imagined one of my students could do something like this.”
