“I’m coming!” Tracy called from right behind Cash.
“Dammit, Tracy,” Cash said over his shoulder. “I told you to hide.”
Cash stopped short and grabbed Tracy’s arm as Gerald Moles came into view. At the back of the shed, Donna stood holding a garden hose toward the flames. However, no water was forthcoming.
“Help me,” Donna cried again, glancing at Cash and Tracy. “Your grandma’s inside. Gerald’s trying to kill her too.”
“You backstabbing, lying bitch!” Gerald shouted.
Tracy took two steps forward before Cash yanked her safely behind him. Donna threw the hose down and ran toward them. Flames had already spread from the back of the shed to the sides. Another scream from inside the shed and Tracy broke free of Cash. Tracy raced toward the fire as Donna ran away from it. Moles swung his arm into the air as the women, running in opposite directions, were about to meet in the middle of the yard. Tracy was closer to Moles than Donna by at least six feet when he aimed his gun straight at Tracy.
BOOM!
The explosion from Cash’s Kimber Warrior .45 blasted Moles off his feet and onto his back, sending the shot Moles had fired into the sky. Donna tried to throw herself into Cash’s arms. Brushing past her, Cash ran toward Tracy and the burning building. Tracy was frantically hooking the hose up to the faucet on the side of the house. At the front of the shed, a shiny new padlock hung on the door.
“Mrs. Dalton, move away from the door,” Cash called. “I’m going to shoot the lock off.”
“Okay,” came her fading voice, followed by coughing.
The shed was almost totally engulfed as Cash shot thelock off and yanked open the door. Thinking on her feet, Tracy sprayed water on Cash and then at the flames licking the door. As Cash stepped into the fiery shed, Tracy rushed in close behind him with the hose, doing her best to keep the fiery inferno away from him. Cash picked Tracy’s grandmother up off the floor and darted outside toward the house.
“Is she okay?” Tracy called over her shoulder as she continued to fight the fire.
“Yes,” Cash said. “There’s a dead body in the shed.”
“Winston Smith,” Tammy Dalton managed to say around another cough. Cash placed her in a lawn chair near the front door of the small house, and she told them, “Donna said the man who brought her here and locked me in the shed shot Winston in cold blood.”
“Tracy, get away from that shed. It’s been doused with some kind of accelerant,” Cash said. Tracy tossed the hose into the shed where Winston lay dead and came running to Cash and her grandmother.
“Cash,” Tracy cried and wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, for saving my grandmother’s life.” Cash hugged her, let her go, and she embraced her grandmother. “Grandma, I’m so glad you’re alive.”
“Me, too,” Tammy Dalton said and grabbed Cash’s hand. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, she smiled at them. “If this here is Cash Cooper, he’s a keeper.”
“It is and he sure is,” Tracy said.
“Thank you, Mr. Cooper. I’m Tammy.”
“I’m Cash,” he replied.
“Thank you, too, Tracy,” Tammy said and took her hand as well.
“Have either of you spotted Donna?” Cash asked, but the women shook their heads.
Police sirens sounded and two cars from the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Department arrived in a dust-swirling stop at the edge of the yard full of holes. The officers exited their vehicles and approached with caution, hands on their guns.
“I’m Cash Cooper.” Cash placed his gun on the ground and raised both his hands.
“Sheriff Hunt,” the larger man said. Something caught his and the deputy’s attention and they glanced int the direction where Cash knew the Tesla was hidden. Hunt spoke to the deputy, and gun drawn, the officer headed into the trees. Cash noted Hunt taking in Moles’ dead body and the dying embers of the shed. “Looks like I should have brought the fire department and coroner with me.”
“Yes, sir,” Cash agreed, walking forward to greet him. “I shot that man on the ground a second before he fired the gun in his hand at Tracy Dalton. His name is Gerald Moles,” Cash said as he and the sheriff met near the body.
“What’s left of the Moles family is dead or in prison,” Sheriff Hunt said.
“A second body inside the shed is Winston Smith.”
“The school district fired Smith after one too many arrests for theft.”
Cash and the sheriff shook hands, and Cash said, “Thanks for getting here so fast. My brother-in-law, Derek Brevard, speaks highly of you, Sheriff Hunt.”
