I walked beside Dylan, grateful I had my gun in my satchel, with Dicky behind us. He gestured at the doorknob.
“I think we need some fresh air,” he said. “Niceand slowly.”
Dylan opened the door and stepped out onto the back deck of the caboose.
“It would probably raise some suspicion if I shot you two on the train,” Dicky said. “No doubt I could handle it, but the cop and the lawyer might cause some waves that I don’t feel like dealing with. So why don’t you two make it easy on all of us and just jump off?”
“You’ve always been an asshole, Dicky,”Dylan said, leaning against the rail. “But killing old folks? That has to be a new low...even for you.”
“And you’ve always had your nose up in the air, thinkin’ you’re so much better than the rest of us.”
“So why are you doing it?” Dylan asked. “Let me guess...life insurance policies.”
Dicky’s eyes widened. “Brandy! That bitch—”
“Didn’t tell us anything. We figured it out, which means thatcop and lawyer already know what’s going on.”
“Well, then I guess I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Dicky rushed Dylan, shoving her over the waist-high railing before either of us could react. Dylan let out a squeak and hooked an arm around the top metal bar. Dicky grabbed her wrist and tried to straighten out her arm.
I opened my satchel, but before I could get to my gun, Dicky abandoned his fightwith Dylan long enough to swat the whole thing out of my hand. It went flying off the back of the caboose. I gasped. “That was my favorite Burberry satchel, you asshole!”
He ignored me and went back to attacking Dylan, which really pissed me off. How dare he treat me like I wasn’t a threat.
“Hold on, Dylan!” I screamed, jumping on his back and wrapping my arms around his thick neck. Then Isqueezed as tightly as I could. He flailed wildly, but I held on like he was Bucky turning a corner. When the flailing didn’t work, he smashed me against the back wall of the train. My head bashed into something hard. I could smell copper and my lungs felt like they were about to burst from the pressure of his body.
He went for another pass, and I knew I couldn’t take a hit like that again, soI released him and jumped out of the way. His momentum kept him at full speed and he slammed against the wall with a thud before toppling over.
I turned to help Dylan, but she now had both arms latched around the bars and was pulling herself up.
“I’m fine. Don’t turn your back on him!” she shouted, looking behind me.
Dicky was groping for his gun as he struggled to get to his knees. I kickedit out of his hand and plowed into him, knocking him backwards. Then I jumped on his stomach like he was one of those big exercise balls.
“You stupid son-of-a-bitch, you don’t try to kill my friend!” I said, slapping him across the face on each word.
As we pulled into the station, I heard Jake shouting my name, but I was busy.
“Dylan!” Asher bellowed, his voice filled with terror.
“I’m fine.I’ve totally got this,” Dylan said, swinging her leg over the rail. “You guys should probably save Dicky, though.”
I stopped my assault on the dirty DA and the train rolled to a stop. Strong arms circled my waist and I was pulled into Jake’s embrace while two local officers dragged Dicky off the floor and handcuffed him.
“You were right, Addie. There are life insurance policies on every singleresident of the nursing home. The beneficiary is a corporation owned by none other than Dicky Jones.”
I stared up at him. “So he was killing off those poor people for the money?”
Jake nodded, stroking my face. “We have a lot more work to do, but he’ll be transported to Klamath, since he obviously owns the law enforcement here. The insurance company is now involved, too, and he won’t be ableto bully his way out of their investigation.”
“All those poor old people.”
He pulled me close again. “Yeah, they’ll be tested to find out what he was giving them, and we’ll make sure they’re taken care of. You and Dylan did a really good thing here, baby. Probably saved countless lives because of your nosy nature.”
I chuckled. “I like to refer to it as our sleuthing prowess, but whatever.”
“Okay, let’s get out of here. We’ll deal with Dicky and then we’re going home. You and I are gettin’ out of town for a couple of days.”
