Kieran was astonished to see the patrol car heading up the road towards him as he left the yard. He didn't know which of the village's constables was behind the wheel, and he didn't really care, he was more concerned with the fact that there was no space for him to get past the patrol car; if he tried to go to his right he would be stopped by the copse of trees, while on his left there was the wall, and the ditch on the other side of it, that separated him from his family's field.
His foot lifted off the accelerator momentarily, doing so without him thinking about it consciously, but once he realised what he was doing he pressed his foot down so he could speed up again.
He hoped that whoever was behind the wheel of the patrol car would lose their nerve and turn away before there was a collision, after all, his Land Rover was more likely to come out better off. It wasn't until the last moment, when he could see that it was Melissa behind the wheel rather than one of the other constables, that he realised the car was not going to turn away; by then it was too late for him to do anything but brace himself for the impact.
When it came, both quicker than he had expected and with more of a delay – the final second or so before the two vehicles collided seemed to slow until it passed at a fraction of the proper speed, enabling him to take in every detail, right down to the look of grim determination on Melissa's face – sent a shock up his arms and made him fly forward, unhampered by the seatbelt he hadn't bothered to put on, and into the steering wheel.
It was fortunate that there was not enough time for either vehicle to accelerate to too great a speed, it meant the impact was less severe than it could have been. His chest hurt, as did his arms, but not so badly that he couldn't move, albeit slowly and with much muttered cursing. Kieran threw open the door at his side and stumbled from the Land Rover; the moment he was on his feet he looked around, knowing that he was not out of danger, and wanting to determine where that danger was going to come from next.
In front of him was the patrol car Melissa had stopped him with, it looked as though it had been welded to his Land Rover. Neither vehicle was going to be moving any time soon, that much was obvious, and from what he could see, Melissa was as stuck as her car; she was struggling to cope with the air-bag that had opened protectively, which he was glad about. Beyond the patrol car was Zack Wild, who was approaching the crashed vehicles slowly and cautiously and, as far as he could see, without a weapon; since that was the case, Kieran dismissed him as a threat.
Turning to look back up the road to his family's farm, Kieran saw something that worried him much more than either the author or the trapped constable; the second patrol car, carrying the two constables who had come to arrest him, was creeping towards him. The speed of the patrol car's approach could not have been more than one or two miles an hour, but he still didn't like to see it heading his way.
He reacted automatically to the threat by diving back into the Land Rover, the pain his chest forgotten, to retrieve his shotgun from the passenger seat. He brought the weapon up to his shoulder the moment it was clear of the vehicle and sighted along the barrel at the windscreen of the patrol car.
Black saw the shotgun and reacted instinctively to it being aimed in his direction. He spun the wheel and pushed his foot down on the accelerate in a vain effort to avoid being shot. The patrol car lurched forwards and to the left, doing so as a double flash signalled that Kieran had fired both barrels of his shotgun.
The windscreen shattered under the impact of two loads of shot but Black had no time to worry about that; the patrol car smashed through the wall and buried itself nose-first into the ditch on the other side of it.
Kieran watched the crashed patrol car for a moment before deciding that the officers in the vehicle were no longer a threat to him. Zack Wild on the other hand, having almost reached the rear of the patrol car Melissa was trapped inside of, was, even if he still appeared to be unarmed. Hurriedly, he removed the spent shells from his shotgun and replaced them with fresh ones he dug out from the pocket of his jacket; he then reached into the Land Rover to retrieve the bag containing the 'valuables' he had gathered from the house - he figured he could afford to leave behind the food, because that could be replaced when he sold his 'valuables'.
With the shotgun held awkwardly in one hand, he climbed over the crumpled bonnet of the patrol car and dropped down when he reached the other side. After a quick adjustment to the bag on his shoulder, he approached the driver's door.
Melissa was still struggling with the air-bag when Kieran yanked open the door at her side and didn't immediately realise what was going on. By the time she did, he had ripped a hole in the air-bag, deflating it, and reached in to undo her seatbelt. She tried to fight him off as he grabbed her by the front of her uniform blouse and hauled her out of the driver's seat, to no avail.
When she realised that she lacked the strength to fight Kieran off, she used the only tactic she could think of; she went completely limp as she was pulled from the car, with the result that she fell to the ground rather than being hauled to her feet as Kieran intended. Her move meant Kieran had to change his grip and reach down to lift her up, which was what she intended, it gave her an opportunity and she took it.
The moment Melissa felt Kieran's hold on her loosen, she wrenched herself free and surged to her feet. One hand went for the shotgun he held, to keep him from using it, while the other went for his face. She was successful in pushing the shotgun away so it couldn't be used against her, he caught her other hand before she could do any damage to his face, however, and she found herself being spun around and secured in a grip that she found impossible to break free of, despite her best efforts.
"Get back," Kieran told Zack Wild, raising his shotgun one-handed so it was pointed in the general direction of the author while he tightened his other around Melissa to stop her struggles. "I said get back." He squeezed the first trigger, more to discourage Wild, who was making his way around the rear of the patrol car towards him, than because he wanted to kill him. Despite that he was disappointed to see that Wild's sudden dive back behind the rear of the patrol car saved him from harm.
"Give it up, Kieran," Zack said as he pushed himself up from the ground, in pain from the numerous injuries he had gathered over the past few days but glad that his reflexes were still sharp enough to keep him from being shot. "There's nowhere for you to go."
Kieran looked around quickly and then smiled nastily. "Who's gonna stop me leaving? You? I've got this." He waved the shotgun. "And I've got Melissa. As long as I've got these, there's nothing you can do to stop me, now get outta my way." He took a step towards the rear of the patrol car and Wild, his grip on Melissa tight enough to ensure she could not escape while the muzzle of his shotgun, despite the wavering caused by his one-handed grip, remained pointed at Wild threateningly.
"Don't make things worse than they already are," Zack told the teen, speaking in as reasonable a voice as he could manage – he had never done a negotiator's course while he was with the police, but he had some idea of how to handle such a situation. "There are armed police on their way to the village, they'll be here soon, and when they arrive you'll be caught, or killed if you try and force the issue. Things will go better for you if you surrender now."
"I'm not an idiot," Kieran snapped. "Things won't go better for me no matter what I do. Now back up and give me the keys to your car, I don't care which one, I just want a vehicle, and whatever money you've got on you."
Zack grimaced. "I can't do that," he said regretfully. He carried on quickly when anger flashed across Kieran's face. "I haven't got any money on me, nor have I got either of my car keys. I don't even have my mobile on me."
Melissa could feel Kieran tensing through the grip he had on her, and was sure it was only a matter of time before he tried to shoot Zack again. She had no intention of allowing that to happen, if it was at all possible for her to stop it, and she wasn't sure it was given how good a job Kieran was doing of restraining her with just the one arm. She knew that working on a farm helped to develop muscles, but she wouldn't have thought it could make a teen that much stronger than her – no matter how hard she tried she couldn't free herself, she couldn't even pull an arm free.
She might not have the use of her arms, which hampered her significantly, but Melissa realised there was something she could do to try and stop Kieran shooting Zack. Hooking her right foot behind Kieran's leg, she threw herself back into him while twisting her body to throw his aim off should he manage to pull the second trigger on the shotgun.
Zack saw the opportunity created by Melissa's action and left his position of cover. He closed the distance between himself and the two struggling figures as quickly as he could, before the teen murderer could get control of his captive and his weapon. As he hurried forward, he reached a hand out towards the shotgun; he didn't know a lot about weapons, he had never taken the firearms course, but he knew that as long as he kept the muzzle pointed away from him he couldn't be shot.
He caught the long barrel of the deadly weapon with his left hand and immediately gave it a tug. He had been planning on simply keeping the weapon away from him while he tried to free Melissa, but now that he had hold of it he realised it was a better idea for him to disarm the teen.
Kieran had to think and act quickly when he felt the tug that almost pulled the shotgun from his grasp. He tightened the grip he had on the gun with his right hand and abandoned his efforts to subdue Melissa with his left, leaving her to fall to the ground, at the same time he took his finger from the trigger – he didn't want to fire his one remaining shot accidentally, especially when he wasn't in a position to reload.
Zack wrenched and twisted at the shotgun as he sought to disarm Kieran, who he soon realised was stronger than him, especially in his current wounded condition. His efforts weren't helped when he stumbled over Melissa, who was in the act of pushing herself to her feet so she could join the struggle. He fell to one knee and had to let go of the shotgun with his right hand so he could put it down to keep from falling over completely; releasing half his grip on the weapon was the last thing he wanted to do, but the move was automatic and made without conscious thought.
Kieran gave the shotgun in his hands a massive tug the moment he saw Zack's hand leave the gun. He was hoping to wrench it free while Zack was off-balance so he could turn it on the man and use it as it had been intended. Luck was not with him, however, just as it hadn't been during the rest of the morning; somehow Zack managed to keep the shotgun pointed away from his body while he struggled to get back to his feet.
From her position on the ground, Melissa saw that there was no way for her to untangle herself from Zack without knocking him over. If she did that he would be forced to let go of the shotgun completely, which would mean they were both as good as dead. Despite being hampered by being on the ground, tangled up with Zack, and squashed against the side of her patrol car, she was determined to do whatever she could to arrest Kieran and bring him to justice for the numerous murders he had committed.
Her determination paid off when a tug and a twist on the double-barrel of the shotgun by Zack pulled Kieran's upper body forward. Melissa immediately snaked out a hand to grab the off-balance Kieran by the belt; with one almighty heave, she pulled him down on top of her and Zack. It was far from ideal for them all to be on a heap on the ground, but at least there was no way for Kieran to use the shotgun as a weapon.
Zack felt the air explode from his lungs as Kieran landed heavily on top of him, at the same time his injuries, which he had been ignoring as best he could during the struggle, sent a wave of pain rippling through his body, making him want to scream. The pain was so sudden and intense that he released his grip on the shotgun without being aware he had done so. Fortunately, the teen was too close to be able to take advantage of having complete control over the weapon, and Zack recovered quickly enough to realise that his best bet was to keep Kieran close and negate the shotgun as a weapon.
Ignoring the gun, which Kieran was stubbornly holding onto, he attempted to roll the teen over onto his back, with him on top, so that he could gain an advantage.
The awkward and unskilful wrestling match continued for a minute and a half or so before Zack and Melissa, though weaker individually, were able to gain the upper hand. When Melissa secured Kieran in a headlock, Zack wriggled out from under the teen, fending off the hand that sought to grab hold of him and keep him from getting away as he did so.
An elbow to Kieran's ribs knocked some of the fight out of him, allowing Zack to roll away and get to his feet. He felt bruised and battered, and his brain seemed to be receiving signals from just about every pain receptor in his body, but he pushed all of that aside as he grabbed the shotgun Kieran was still stubbornly holding onto. He wrenched at the gun, with more success than he had had before, pulling it from Kieran's grasp, and then he reversed it.
After watching for a moment for the right opportunity, he struck with the weapon, using it as a club rather than as a gun. He slammed the butt into Kieran's forehead with as much force as he could muster – he hoped he hadn't hit him too hard, the last thing he wanted to do was kill him, but better that than letting him get away to kill again, he thought – and watched as the teen's eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp on top of Melissa.
Switching the shotgun to his left hand, Zack reached down to grab hold of Kieran so he could drag him off Melissa. That took what seemed to be the last of his energy, and prompted a fresh wave of pain, which he let out in a loud groan that threatened to become a full-blown cry.
"Thanks," Melissa said gratefully, accepting the hand that Zack held out to her; she could have got to her feet on her own, now that she was no longer at the bottom of a pile of bodies, but she was glad of the help.
Drained, both physically and mentally, she slumped against the patrol car, sure that if it wasn't there she would not be able to stay on her feet. She simply could not believe everything that had happened over the past day, let alone the past week, and looking from herself to Zack, who was swaying on his feet, she wasn't sure which of them had suffered the most – they were both in bad shape and in need of a long rest, not to mention medical treatment.
"How long d'you think he'll be out?" she asked after several long moments, during which time she kept a careful eye on the unmoving form of Kieran at her feet, as though she expected his eyes to open at any moment and for him to resume the fight.
Zack looked down on the teen. "No idea," he admitted, relieved that the slow rising and falling of Kieran's chest made it clear that he hadn't killed him. "He could be out for hours, or he could wake up at any moment. If I were you, I'd get some cuffs on him before he does wake up, and I'd call to see where that backup is, just to be on the safe side. You should get some ambulances on their way as well; you're gonna need all the medical help you can get."
"Where are you going?" Melissa asked when Zack left her and the unconscious Kieran and started up the road past the two crashed vehicles.
"I'm gonna go see if any of your colleagues are still alive, and if there's anything I can do to help them if they are," Zack told her. He had waited until Kieran's hands were cuffed and he was sure the teen was not going to be getting away if he woke, and now that that had been done, he felt it was safe to leave Melissa with the teen. "If anything happens here, yell, and I'll come running." 'Maybe not running' he thought, given that this morning had shown he was not up to running at the moment.
Melissa nodded. She would have preferred to be the one who went and checked on her colleagues, but knew she couldn't ask Zack to stay there and keep an eye on the prisoner. That would not have been right since she was the police officer and he the civilian.
Torn by conflicted feelings – she was unhappy with everything that had happened that morning, though pleased that the murders that had rocked Oakhurst were at an end and the killer was in custody – Melissa kept one eye on Kieran, while with the other she followed Zack as he made his way up the road. It was only when he disappeared behind the Land Rover that she remembered she was supposed to be checking on the backup and making sure that there were ambulances en-route.
Leaning into the patrol car she grabbed the spare radio from the glove-box and made the call to the station. With that done she sat on the edge of the driver's seat to wait for help to arrive.