She found it, eventually, but it took time-time they didn’t have. The sun had disappeared completely. Dusk had deepened even more before Joanna once again spied the Hummer’s distinct tracks leading off through knee-high grass. As she climbed back into the Blazer, Joanna scanned the sky once more. There was still no sign of Adam York’s helicopter.
This time the tracks led off across rugged terrain where there was no hint of a road. Voland had to pick his way slowly, concentrating on every move, while Joanna tried to keep track of the Hummer’s fading trail. They were both so engrossed in their own responsibilities that they were caught unawares by the springing of a well-calculated trap.
In Spanish, the word peloncillos means “little baldies,” These mountains had been given that name because of the distinctive volcanic outcroppings and knobs on top of almost every hillock, ridge, and mountain in the range. The Hummer’s driver had led them up to the crest of one of those knob-crowned ridges. Still following the trail, the Blazer rounded a semitruck-size boulder only to have the Hummer, headlights doused, roar out from behind that same rock.
The enormous, almost-armor-plated front end of the Hummer smashed into the Blazer on the driver’s side, tipping the smaller Chevy over onto its side and sending it tumbling down a steep bank. As the Blazer tipped to the right, the shoulder belt clamped tight across Joanna’s clavicle and ribs while the seat belt grabbed across her abdomen and pelvis. With debris from the cargo space raining down around her head, she felt something whack her in the face. For a time, she thought she had blacked out. Then, when she could see again, she realized her temporary blindness had come from having the explosively opening air bag inflate in her face.
By then the Blazer had come to rest. Looking across the seat, Joanna was horrified to see Dick Voland, limp and unmoving, slumped over the airbag-covered steering wheel. Joanna tried the door, but it was jammed. She was starting to climb out the window when a shotgun blast shattered the twilight. A scatter of buckshot slammed into the side of the Blazer and rattled through the surrounding rocks and underbrush.
Joanna instinctively reached for her Colt. Then, seeing Dick’s shotgun still fastened in place between them, she wrested it out of its clamp. Let’s fight fire with fire, she thought grimly.
“All right,” she shouted, cupping one hand to her lips in hopes of making her voice carry better. “You’d better give yourselves up. Now. Before someone else gets hurt.”
The answer to her challenge came in another well-aimed blast from the shotgun.
Joanna fumbled open the glove box, found a box of extra shotgun shells, and shoved those into her pocket. Dick Voland still hadn’t moved, but there was no time to check on him. With her chief deputy unconscious, Joanna knew she had no choice but to try to draw the suspects’ fire-to lead them away from the helpless officer before they could come down the ridge and finish him off.
Needing a decoy, she clambered over the backseat and found a loose gym bag full of clothes. Holding the gym bag ready at the window, she called out again.
“We’ve got reinforcements on the way. You’d better give up while you still can.”
It sounded like empty saber-rattling, even to her, but when the echoing cliffs of the Peloncillos played the last word back to her, “can… can… can”-it sounded more like a bad joke.
Joanna waited until the last echo died away. Then, heaving with all her might, she threw the gym bag out the window. Closing her eyes to avoid losing her night vision, she sent the bag tumbling down the embankment. It landed with a satisfying thump that sounded very much like a falling human body. The shooter-there seemed to be only one-must have been convinced as well. Another shotgun blast sent a hail of pellets pounding into the brush at almost the same spot where the bag had landed.
The diversion was enough to give Joanna a chance to slip out through the Blazer’s shattered passenger window. She sank to the ground and picked up a handful of rocks and gravel. “Do you hear me?” she demanded. “We know who you are, and we know you killed Brianna O’Brien. Give up while’ there’s still time.”
Hoping to keep the gunman off base by having to keep watch in more than one direction, Joanna tossed her handful of rocks and gravel near where the bag had landed and away from herself and Dick Voland. Again, the still twilight was shattered by yet another shotgun blast. With the gunman focused on more distant opponents, Joanna decided to attempt a frontal attack. That strategy would work only so long as she didn’t kick loose some rocks and gravel of her own, giving away her position.
Once the latest shotgun blast stopped reverberating through the rocks and mountains, Joanna heard the welcome but distant rumble of Adam York’s helicopter. The chopper was still too far away to do any good. The pilot seemed to be moving back and forth in a grid pattern. That probably meant they had temporarily lost the trail and were trying to find it again.
Joanna realized suddenly that while she was sitting frozen, listening to the approaching helicopter, up on the mountain, her armed opponent was probably doing the same thing. Counting on the helicopter to distract him, Joanna risked crawling a few more yards back up the steep hillside. She stopped and ducked behind a lush clump of bear grass. From there she threw another fistful of rocks off to the right.
This time there was no answering shotgun blast. He’s getting smarter, Joanna thought despairingly. Smarter and that much more dangerous.
As the helicopter drew nearer, she could see the widening beam from a searchlight as the helicopter pilot and passengers scanned the darkened landscape. With the chopper that close at hand, Joanna suspected that another flash from the shotgun would be visible from miles away. With any luck, it would draw someone’s searching eyes in the right direction. The problem was, the shooter hadn’t fallen for Joanna’s latest gravel ploy. In order to draw his fire, she’d have to come up with something a little more realistic.
After a moment’s consideration, she shrugged her way out of her jacket, blouse, and bulletproof vest. Once she had her bra off, she slipped the vest, blouse, and jacket back on. Reaching down, she felt around for a few small rocks. Feeling a little like a modern-day David battling an armed and dangerous Goliath, she tucked three small rocks into one cup of the bra to give it some added weight. Then, swinging the bra around her head, she sent it sailing through the air.
Months of throwing the Frisbee for an absolutely inexhaustible Tigger served Joanna in good stead. She managed to get some real lift on the thing. The bra sailed up into the air. Some fifteen yards to the right, it was blown out of the sky by an-other roar from the shotgun.
With her own ears ringing from the blast and suspecting that the gunman’s would be equally affected, Joanna risked another foray up the hill, this time making for the cover of a lumpy boulder just below the crest of the ridge.
As Joanna expected, the helicopter, drawn by the sudden flash of light, headed straight for them. She was close enough to the top of the embankment now that she could hear some-one speaking. “God damn it,” he mumbled. “Damn it all to hell!”
She was close enough, too, to hear the sound of hurrying footsteps-footfalls that moved away from her rather than toward her. The sound told her that the gunman was most likely retreating, scurrying back toward the Hummer. Joanna remembered the cane and the smears of blood she had seen in the camper. That meant the shooter was probably wounded. By now Joanna was fairly certain the man was alone. She had some confidence that she could outmaneuver him as long as they were both on foot. Once he regained his vehicle-once he was driving and she was on foot-the odds would change dramatically. For the worse.