Time to Live: Part Five Read Online Free PDF

muzzle of the .45 at Carter, who took two steps back. “It’s his fault it didn’t work. He’s the one who kept digging. ”
    Hines boomed, “Jeremy!”
    The boy pivoted, now pointing the pistol at his father. “ It’s all your fault! ” He was crying now.
    As Carter watched, his heart pounding, Sheriff Hines seemed to swell, to grow taller. “You’d better use that thing, boy, or it’s gonna take three hours to dig it out of your ass.”
    “Is that what you want?” Jeremy sobbed. “You want me to shoot you? I will, you know. I got nothing left to live for. I’ll do it. I’m going to death row anyway, right? Maybe I should just shoot you both and take my chances getting away.”
    Carter felt the panic building in his belly. If he didn’t do something to defuse all of this, someone was going to get hurt. Badly.
    Hines extended his arms out to his sides, creating the largest possible target. “Then do it. Punk. Do it now. And take your time, because I sure as hell don’t want you to miss your chance.”
    “You think I won’t?” Jeremy sobbed. As his father advanced, the boy retreated, step for step.
    “I think you’d better,” the sheriff said, quickening his steps. “If you don’t I swear to God I’ll beat you to death with it.”
    “Stop it!” Carter shouted. This was insane. “Both of you stop it!”
    But the sheriff didn’t even slow down.
    “Is it too late, boy? Can you do it? Do you have the guts?”
    Carter found himself shadowing these two as they faced each other down. “This is madness,” he said, intentionally modulating his voice. There was way too much shouting going on as it was, way too much emotion.
    “Come on, boy, shoot,” Hines taunted.
    “I will!”
    “Then do it! Now, do it!” Only fifteen feet separated the two combatants now. If Jeremy fired, his father would die.
    A voice from behind Carter startled all of them. “Police officer!” Darla Sweet shouted. “Everybody freeze!”
    As heads turned, Hines made his move. He lunged at his son, amid a growling roar.
    Jeremy pulled the trigger and a gunshot rocked the forest. He pulled it again. With that second shot, the sheriff’s brains blasted out the back of his skull. As Carter dropped to a defensive crouch, Sheriff Hines fell face-first into the sandy mulch.
    Deputy Sweet yelled something, but Carter didn’t catch what it was.
    Jeremy didn’t give her a chance to repeat it. The instant his father hit the ground, he pivoted and fired two rounds toward Darla. She dropped from sight, but Carter couldn’t tell if she was hit or merely taking cover. The boy didn’t waste a second putting the confusion to good use. He rocketed into the woods.
    “Shit!” Carter spat. “Deputy Sweet! The sheriff’s dead! Are you all right?”
    She answered by bolting off into the woods after her quarry. Before he had a chance to wonder why, Carter was sprinting with her. She pointed to something on the ground, but they were past it before Carter could see what she was pointing to. “What is it?” he panted.
    “His empty magazine,” she said. “He reloaded.”

Chapter Four
    M att Hayes couldn’t escape the feeling that he’d betrayed Scotty Boyd. The look in the kid’s face as Matt handed him over to the EMTs was one of pure fear. He wanted to go back to his grandmother. He was terrified that something might happen to her. Through the rapid-fire monologue, Matt had picked up that it was just Gramma and he living alone in the little house in the numbered streets. Scotty made it clear that Gramma was all he had left, and he was terrified of losing her. It was all Matt needed to know.
    According to the radio reports, the next-closest police unit was nearly on the scene—he could hear the siren approaching in the distance—but the ones to follow that were a good ten to fifteen minutes away. It might not sound like a long time, but when you’re in the hostage seat with a gun pointed to your head, it was an eternity.
    Matt