Catch a Falling Knife

and removed the cap. Before I understood what she was doing she dumped a pill into her hand and popped it into her mouth.
    Somehow I knew that I couldn’t let her swallow the pill. I hit her hard in the mouth with the cane. She screamed and blood spurted. I dropped the cane, grabbed her head and tried to pry her mouth open, but she bit me and twisted away.
    I heard running footsteps approaching. Sandra and Lefty raced up. I said, “She’s got a pill in her mouth. Don’t let her swallow it.”
    Lefty tackled Donna while Sandra bent over Mark, saying his name. Somebody should call 911. I had dropped my purse beside my car. I found it and fumbled for my cell phone.
     
    #          #          #          #
     
    Mark was conscious, lying on his back. He had been hit near his shoulder, apparently only once. Sandra had ripped part of his shirt off with the strength of desperation and used it to stanch the blood. I stood by her, ready to help, but I didn’t want to get in her way.
    “I owe you another one, Lillian,” Mark said, slowly. “If you hadn’t yelled…”
    “Don’t talk, Sweetheart,” Sandra said. “Help will be here soon.”
    After a brief fight, Lefty had extracted the pill from Donna’s bloody mouth. He held her down and kept her subdued. Both of them sat on the asphalt as I explained what she had done.
    Eric was sitting up, obviously hurting. He had some scrapes and he required more help than I could give him to get to his feet. I returned his cane.
    He said, “I never should have lent her that gun. She said she needed it for self-defense.”
    “Defense from whom?” I asked.
    “I’m not sure. Maybe Mark.”
    “You knew she had killed Elise, didn’t you?” I said. “You must have caught her in the act.”
    Eric cringed. I had never seen a man look so beaten.
    “I don’t know what got into me,” he said. “When I arrived at the apartment I heard screams. The door was locked so I broke the window with my cane to get in. It was a struggle for me to get through the window. By the time I got inside Elise was dead. My first impulse was to attack Donna, but that wouldn’t have brought Elise back.”
    “You would have killed her if I hadn’t,” Donna said, from where she sat in Lefty’s grasp, her mouth dripping blood onto Lefty’s beautiful tie. She slurred her words. “Your own guilt stopped you from doing anything to me. That and knowing you could get sexual favors from me in return for your silence.”
    Lefty shook his head and said, “Neither one of you can hold a candle to the Star. For two cents I’d do you both in. Maybe I should have let you swallow that pill. What is it, cyanide?” He opened his hand and examined it.
    For answer, Donna grabbed the capsule out of Lefty’s hand and threw it backward over the wall that bounded the parking lot. Lefty, who had instinctively clapped his other hand over Donna’s mouth to prevent her from swallowing it, tensed his muscles and appeared to want to do her bodily harm. His body vibrated. Then he slowly relaxed and the tension seemed to drain out of him.
    As the only mobile member of the group I made a move to go after the capsule, but Lefty said, “Leave that for the police. It’s their job. You’d never find it in the weeds, anyway.”
    “That was the ending Donna wrote to her story,” Sandra said, still pressing the makeshift bandage to Mark’s shoulder. “Kill Mark and then kill herself. That way, she wouldn’t have to face the consequences. She’s a romantic and a pathological liar. With that combination, she can’t stand too much reality.”
    Donna dabbed at the blood dripping from her mouth with her bare hand as sirens wailed in the distance, coming steadily closer.

Chapter 32
     
    By Sunday, Mark felt well enough to attend the family brunch at Albert’s farm. Sandra brought him from her condo, where he was recuperating from his wound. That was where he belonged—with Sandra. I would do everything in my power to keep him there. And I was determined to crush any evil forces that might pull them apart, such as gossip about Mark and Elise.
    Medically, Mark’s prognosis was good. The damage to bone and muscle was reparable and no organs had been hit. He was somewhat stiff, but the doctor said he would regain full movement of his arm and fingers. Except for a scar, he would be as good as new.
    For the first time in the history of the Sunday brunch we had a stripper and the owner of a strip