Shooting Crows At Dawn

Shooting Crows At Dawn 

                                                                Chapter One 

 At first Jubal Dark barely glanced at the man entering the Piggly Wiggly, but as Dark ambled back to his cruiser little details began to gnaw at him. The man's jeans were baggy in the gut and rolled up at the ankles, the kind of pants you get from the church's goodwill bin or you steal from somebody's clothesline. The stranger's t-shirt sleeves strained against over-developed muscles but his skin was that shade of gray you get from a lifetime inside, known to every lawman as "prison white." 

Like all Francine County cruisers, Jubal Dark's car had a computer bolted to the dash but Jubal never used the thing. Instead he leafed through the printouts of stolen car reports and this week's BOLOs. The one he wanted was the third down from the top:  

 Be On The Look Out for:  

 Carl Alvin Spence, White Male Adult, six feet one inches tall, one-hundred ninety-five pounds. Black hair, blue eyes. Tattoo of a scorpion on the inside of left arm. Arrests for car theft, armed robbery, rape, assault on a police officer, and murder. Wanted on two counts of murder committed in connection with a home-invasion armed robbery. Exercise extreme caution. Considered armed and dangerous. 

Jubal glanced back at the market's front door, then picked up his mike. 

"Central, this is Oh-One. I've got that murder suspect, Carl Spence, out of Shreveport here at the Piggly Wiggly. Get me some backup and if anybody hits their lights and siren they're gonna wish they never was born." 

"Roger that, Oh-One. Travis is the closest. He's about ten minutes away." 

"OK, Central. Tell him to get here as soon as he can." 

The guy was either buying food or robbing the place. Either way Dark had no intention of confronting the killer inside the store with all those civilians around. A con like Spence would have spotted the cruiser and he would wait for it to leave. Dark pulled out and parked out of sight around the corner. Dark stared at the bland face looking up at him from the BOLO then eased out of his Crown Vic and loosened the strap on his 45.  

The Piggly Wiggly's front windows were obscured by sale posters and Dark slowly worked his way forward, praying that he couldn't be seen by the people inside. Five feet short of the doors he pulled his old Smith &Wesson M&P and held it next to his leg. A couple of shoppers got out of their cars, saw the sheriff watching the door, gun in hand, and quickly took their business someplace else. Dark glanced at his watch. It would be five more minutes before his backup arrived. 

Three times over the next couple of minutes the electric door whined open for departing shoppers. The fourth time the customer was a brown-haired woman in her forties followed two feet behind by Carl Spence. Spence lunged for the woman at the same moment Dark leveled his gun. At that one instant Dark could have blown Spence's head to kingdom come, but Dark hesitated and then it was too late.  

Spence wrapped his arm around the shopper's neck, turned and held her between himself and the Sheriff. As if by magic, a knife leapt into Spence's hand and the blade caressed the side of the woman's throat. 

"You move and I'll cut her," Spence promised, his eyes searching left and right for other threats. Seeing none, a small smile creased his lips. "Put that thing down if you don't want her to get hurt."  

Jubal raised the muzzle a fraction of an inch and cocked the 45's hammer with his thumb. 

"I'm gonna back up real slow," Spence said, "and when I get around the corner there, I'll let her go."