Free The Bleeding Edge by William W. Johnstone Page B

describe the vehicle those men were in? You didn’t happen to get a license plate number, did you?”
    â€œNo, it was too dark to read the plate,” Fred said.
    â€œYou can look for a car with a lot of buckshot holes in the driver’s side and the rear,” Stark added dryly. “It was big and loud. A muscle car.”
    â€œAnd a low rider,” Fred said. “Dark. Blue or gray, I’d say. Not black.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you the make or model. I was too scared and upset to notice all those details.”
    Stark agreed with that. The deputy was making a few notes in his notebook when the radio squawked through the cruiser’s open door. The other deputy went to answer the call, then a moment later popped out of the cruiser and yelled, “Bennie, come on! Officers down!”
    The deputy snapped his notebook closed and said hurriedly, “You folks are all right now?”
    â€œWe’re fine, Deputy,” Stark said. “Go on and answer that call.”
    The deputy ran to the car. His partner was already behind the wheel. With lights still flashing, the cruiser swung around in a wide turn, causing some of the bystanders who’d come out to see what all the commotion was about to get out of the way in a hurry, and then roared back toward the park entrance.
    â€œThat went about as well as we could hope,” Stark said. “Now let’s go inside and find out the rest of the story.”

C HAPTER F OURTEEN
    Although Stark thought it was unlikely with the deputies right outside, there was a chance Antonio had climbed out the window and taken off. When they got inside, he was relieved to see that that wasn’t the case. Antonio emerged tentatively from the bedroom when Fred called out that everything was okay.
    â€œNot hardly,” Antonio said, his face set in grim lines. “Nothing is okay.”
    â€œLet me get some coffee for everyone,” Aurelia said. “Then you can tell us all about it.”
    Antonio still looked like he wanted to bolt, but he sat down on the sofa, perched nervously at the front of the seat cushion with his hands clasped together between his knees. Stark thought the boy looked like he’d been to hell and back.
    Fred sat down beside Antonio, being careful not to get too close and crowd him. Stark took an armchair across from them. The shotgun and Fred’s pistol lay on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Stark wouldn’t have put the guns there, but Aurelia had said it was all right since the table had a cloth on it.
    Aurelia brought cups of coffee for everyone, then sat down on the other side of Antonio. She patted his knee and said, “Whatever you have to tell us, you know it’ll be all right. It won’t change how we feel about you.”
    Antonio let out a hollow laugh.
    â€œI wouldn’t be too sure about that,” he said. “I . . . I was there last night . . . when Jimmy and his little sister were . . . killed.”
    â€œDid you do it?” Fred asked. His voice was as hollow as Antonio’s laugh had been.
    â€œNo!” Antonio shook his head firmly. “No, of course not.”
    Aurelia muttered thanks to the Blessed Virgin in Spanish.
    â€œWhen I saw what was happening, I . . . I ran,” Antonio went on.
    â€œThat’s good,” Fred told him. “I never thought you’d have anything to do with something like that.”
    â€œNo, it’s not good!” Antonio burst out. “Didn’t you hear me? I saw them shoot Jimmy. I knew they were going to kill Sonia. And I ran! I just tried to save myself!”
    Stark could see the torture the young man was going through. He didn’t agree with any of Antonio’s decisions, but he also knew it was impossible to walk in anybody else’s shoes and inhabit his soul.
    â€œWas it the three who were here tonight?” he asked quietly.
    Antonio swallowed and