Chapter 73
They were sitting on the closest bench to Maggie's grave that the cemetery had provided, but the bench was four or five graves away from hers so they didn't look like they were actually there visiting Maggie's grave. As if they had planned it in advance, both Woody and Mac lowered their heads to hide their faces allowing Palmer to get closer without suspecting anything.
They gave him a moment to place the flowers and lower his head before quietly getting up and casually starting to walk behind him as if going to the parking lot.
Since they had only been there hoping to talk to Clematis Orly, neither one of them had any reason to be armed. They were standing right behind him when Woody growled, "You're finished, Palmer!"
He was startled at hearing that name here in the one place he truly felt like Clem Orly, but Palmer was still a well trained fighting machine. It took him only a moment to mentally shift gears and once again became Clark Palmer.
Adopting a fighting stance he spun around and went for Woody first. Woody was ready for him and easily blocked Palmer's first punch. Mac stood there letting the two men fight knowing that no matter what Palmer had done to her partner, Harm, and her part of the world in general, that the threat to Woody and his family was one that this Boston detective needed to deal with on his own. She was there and ready to step in if need be, but Woody had the right to be the one to bring Palmer down here on his own turf.
Woody's punch landed squarely on Palmer's jaw, but it was nothing he had not experienced before and he shook it off easily. They exchanged blows for several rounds and Mac found herself actually being surprised that Woody was able to hold his own against a man like Palmer. During the exchange of blows Woody delivered another hard punch to Palmer's face and then had to raise his left arm to block an oncoming swing. This unfortunately left him open to Palmer's other hand.
A karate chop was aimed to Woody's throat, but he managed to turn his head in time for it to land on the side of his neck rather than head on. However, the force of the blow still stunned him. Woody stumbled back and tripped over an uneven patch of ground. Mac saw him falling, but was too far away to keep him from hitting his head on a gravestone on his way down. So instead, to keep Palmer off of her friend, she threw a couple of punches to his kidneys and followed up with a round house kick that swept his legs out from under him. Palmer rolled to his feet and faced his new opponent, the fight was on again.
As a Marine, her kickboxing fighting style was a bit different from both that of a man with Palmer's training and that of a cop. Some might think that because she was a lawyer and a woman that her combat skills were rusty or less than they should have been. But Mac kept herself physically fit and up on all of her Marine training. She had actually seen quite a bit more action than one would expect for a lawyer.
Holding her own for some time, allowed Woody to shake off the impact to his head and start back towards the two combatants now rolling on the ground. Palmer saw Woody coming out of the corner of his eye. Although Mac was on top of him at that moment he managed to flip her onto her back with the force of his powerful legs while his hand reached out and grabbed for one of the vases that was held in the ground with a stake at the bottom. Yanking it out of the ground, he held it in both hands as he drove it into Mac's chest.
To be continued…