The Mole in His Bed novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Boat

The second shot took a chunk out of the table leg.

Neil rolled off me with his gun already in his hand and came up beside the window.

He fired twice across the alley, at a rooftop I couldn't see from the floor.

My mother came through the doorway with the rolling pin over her head.

"Mom, down!"

"I will not get down in my own kitchen!"

Neil caught her around the waist and put her on the floor beside me without a word.

For a few seconds there was only the ringing in my ears.

Then he leaned out and looked up the alley for a long time.

"He's on the fire escape," Neil said. "He's gone."

He didn't pick up the radio on his belt.

I noticed that, because every cop I knew would have called it in before the glass stopped falling.

"Aren't you going to report it?" I asked.

"Not on that channel."

He took out his phone and held it out to my mother.

"Mrs. Tallant. Call the number on Judith Ames's card and tell them to send people for you. Say the address on the phone, not the radio."

Winnie looked at the phone and then at him.

"Why would I take anything from you?"

"Because I'm the one who didn't let you get shot," Neil said.

She took the phone.

The marshals came in eight minutes, two men and a woman, with a van that had no markings.

My own driver was one of them, with his jaw set, because he'd had the whole alley under his window and had seen nothing.

I knelt next to my mother while they got her coat.

"I'm staying with you," she said.

"They'll keep you safe. I'll come as soon as I can."

"You said that five years ago."

"I know."

She took my face in both her hands and looked at it for a long time.

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