Chapter four

Monday, April 4, present day.

Raleigh, North Carolina

“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

Rainey shouted, but to no avail. The two women in front of her continued to pull the triggers of their respective weapons. The rounds came fast, one behind the other, disappearing toward the black silhouettes in their sights.

She tried again, louder this time. “Cease fire!”

The blonde stopped firing first. She turned her eyes back to Rainey just as the other woman fired her last round.

“That’s it!” Rainey continued to shout, because she hadn’t yet taken out her ear protection. “You two will not be shooting semi-automatic weapons. You are staying with the revolvers I gave you to begin with.”

Katie pointed to Rainey’s ears and then removed her own earplugs. She grinned like a kid at Rainey. “Oh, but that was so much fun.”

Ernie laughed. “You could blow a hole in a bus with that thing, before you knew what was happening.”

“Exactly my point,” Rainey said, letting the earplugs drop to dangle around her neck. “Now, take out the clips like I showed you and clear the chamber.” Rainey was all business until the weapons were safely out of Ernie and Katie’s hands.

Katie prattled on while she did as she was told, still giggling from the thrill. “That was amazing. I wonder if I hit the target? After that first pull, it just got easier, but you’re right. I think I need to be able to actually control the damn thing, if I’m going to shoot it.”

“I tried to tell you both that I had given you the weapon most suited for you, but no, what does a trained FBI agent know about shooting?”

Rainey’s sarcasm was not lost on Ernie, who practically raised her, and didn’t take the smart remark without a comeback. She placed her hands on her hips, her gray head bobbing, as she said emphatically, “Former FBI agent.”

“And you’re making me miss it more and more every minute,” Rainey shot back.

Katie came up behind her and wrapped her arms around Rainey’s waist. “Don’t lose your patience. That was fun. Finish up with Ernie and I’ll go out and talk to Gary at the front. Take your time.” A quick peck on the cheek and Katie walked off the firing range.

Rainey watched the petite blonde, still mesmerized by the sheer energy Katie cast out around her. She had taken Rainey’s breath the first time she saw her, standing at the gate of her old home in Chapel Hill. Now, nine months later, she took it no less frequently.

“Ain’t love grand,” Ernie said snidely, drawing out the syllables in each word.

Rainey’s face broke into a grin. “Yes, yes it is.”

“All right, lovey-dovey, let’s wrap this up. I got shows to watch.”

Rainey removed her father’s Smith and Wesson .45 semi-auto from the shelf in front of Ernie. She double-checked that it was unloaded and placed it on the table behind them. She talked while she did this, returning with a smaller .380 revolver, and placed it, cylinder opened, in front of Ernie.

“Now, when we get here tomorrow, what are you going to do? Go through it step by step.”

Ernestine Womble, the sixty-seven year old office manager of Bell’s Bail and Bait, wanted to qualify to carry a concealed weapon. With their clientele and what happened last summer, Rainey didn’t really blame her. The nature of the bond business was bad enough. In addition, through her time as a behavioral analyst, Rainey was involved in some of the worst serial murder cases in the last decade. The fact that some of those cases remained unsolved kept Rainey’s Glock tight to her side. Knowing there were so many more out there, roaming undetected, kept Rainey in a constant state of vigilance. She paid dearly the one time her guard was down. That was never going to happen to Rainey Bell again.