Jojo Birney’s Failed Murder Attempt on Kate

Jojo Birney’s Failed Murder Attempt on Kate is the point at which a carefully watched but still uncertain danger becomes an immediate attack—and a dying assailant names Max Landon as its sponsor. Del Delaney, positioned across the hall from Kate Muldoon’s room, wakes as Birney enters and fires before he can strike. The intervention saves Kate, but it also confirms that the danger surrounding her is organized rather than imagined: Birney says Landon paid him, then dies before he can say more.

Causes and Background

The attack follows a day in which Birney has been staying among Kate’s protectors while presenting himself as pleasant and disarming. His manner does not reassure the group. At supper, everyone else is too tense to sustain a conversation, and once Birney goes to his cabin, Del and John Smith return to their own. Smith later slips out to keep watch in the house. The contrast between Birney’s social composure and the household’s unease gives the vigil its purpose: the group suspects that his explanation for being there is false, but has not yet established what he intends to do.

At midnight, Del takes over the watch. Smith says that if Birney makes no move that night, they should confront him in the morning and press him to explain why he is really there. Del agrees, although he is uncertain that this is the right course. The decision leaves the threat unresolved for a few more hours: the men have chosen both to observe Birney and to postpone a direct confrontation until they can make something happen. Their unease is not abstract. They know Kate remains exposed while they wait, and they do not believe Birney’s account.

The Night Watch and Attack

Del sits just inside the room across the hall from Kate’s, leaving his door wide open so that he can watch the passage. An hour passes, perhaps two; he cannot judge the time precisely. He eventually drops off to sleep. The lapse matters because his position is meant to protect Kate, and he immediately blames himself when a slight noise wakes him: the sound of her door opening.

He rises, his hand going instinctively to his gun, and crosses the hall. From the limited light coming through Kate’s window, he can make out a man leaning over her with a knife raised. The window is about three feet to the left of the head of her bed, a small detail that fixes Del’s view of the room and the speed with which he has to act. He fires twice as the man starts to fall. The first shot forces the intruder away from the bed and back against the wall; Del moves in before he knows how badly the man has been hit.

Kate sits up screaming. Del cannot identify the motionless figure in the darkness, so he strikes a match and lights the lamp beside the bed. The light reveals that the intruder is Birney. The sequence turns the watch into a sudden test of Del’s readiness: he had fallen asleep, but the sound of the door brings him across the hall in time to prevent the attack from reaching Kate.

Birney’s Disclosure and Death

Del kneels beside Birney and asks who hired him. Birney can barely speak, but names Landon, says that Landon is safe, and explains that he had the money to hire him. He dies immediately afterward. His answer supplies the first direct identification of the person behind this attempt, while its brevity leaves important matters unresolved: Birney does not explain Landon’s wider plan or give Del further evidence to pursue.

Mrs. Horton rushes into the room and stands motionless, staring at Birney. Kate is sitting up and crying. Del sits beside her and holds her until she gradually stops. The immediate aftermath therefore has two distinct consequences: the threat has been stopped, and the people in the room must absorb what has happened. The attack does not end with Birney’s exposure alone; Kate’s fear and Del’s care for her remain part of the scene.

Consequences and Significance

Kate tells Del that this is the third time he has saved her life and asks whether the danger will ever end. Her words establish the attack as part of a recurring pattern of attempts against her, rather than an isolated intrusion. They also make the rescue personal: Del has again placed himself between Kate and an assailant, while the repeated danger deepens her awareness that protection has not yet brought security.

Birney’s death closes off the possibility of questioning him further, even as his last words redirect suspicion toward Landon. The group had planned to confront Birney in the morning; instead, the attack forces the truth into view at the moment of violence, but leaves the larger threat alive. The event thus shifts the story from guarded suspicion to a confirmed connection between a would-be killer and a named employer. For Del and Kate, survival is real but provisional: Birney is gone, Landon remains safe, and Kate’s question about whether the attempts will end has no answer here.