Part 14 (2/2)

It sure gives you the creeps.

But h.e.l.l, you oughta be the guy the chopper is looking for.

When you're the one it's after, it stops being anything as normal as a police helicopter. It's more like some kind of monster-machine, like maybe a UFO getting jockeyed around by a team of bozos from outer s.p.a.ce that are so mean they'd make your basic Gestapo psychos look like Mary Poppins-and they know right where the f.u.c.k you're hiding.

Even tucked away in my snug little nook on top of the cabinet where the spotlight had no chance at all of finding me, the chopper made me want to shrivel up and disappear every time it came close.

You won't get away from me! You can't get away from me!

Man!

Anyway, it was kind of freaking me out up there. So sue me. I'd had a hard night.

When all of a sudden a light beam flicked across the ceiling, I thought for a second that the chopper'd found me.

I thought, How'd it get in here?

I almost screamed.

Then someone said, ”Think he's in the freezer?”

”Would you hide in a freezer?” the other guy asked.

”Yeah. A night this hot? You bet.”

One of them opened the freezer. I heard it.

The guy who'd said, ”You bet,” said, ”Hey, look. They've got Dove Bars.”

”No kidding.” This one sounded like he didn't give a hot hoot for Dove Bars.

The chopper was off at a far end of its circle, so I could hear the noises that cops make when they walk. Jostling, squeaking, rattling noises. Their gunbelts are just loaded with every kind of s.h.i.+t imaginable. A walking cop sounds more like a saddle horse than a person.

”Do you want one?” asks the Dove Bar guy.

”No. And neither do you.”

”I want one. They're a lot better than Eskimo ... n.o.body's gonna hide in a was.h.i.+ng machine, Pat.”

”No?” I heard a lid squeak open.

”See? Told you.”

”The way that freezer's lighting you up, you'd better hope this lizard doesn't try to cap you.”

”He's not armed. He woulda used it on the kids.”

”You never know. Just shut it, okay?”

”You sure you don't want a Dove Bar?”

I heard a quiet grunt. ”Not in the dryer.”

”I could've told you that.”

”Oh, you could tell me a lot of things, Hank, but more than a few of them might be wrong. Matter of fact, my second collar was a weenie-wagger I found inside a clothes dryer.”

”He fit?”

”Sure. He was a little fella. In every way.” The cop walked closer to me. He sounded like he was almost right underneath me when he stopped. Then the cupboard doors gave their chirping sounds as they came unclamped. ”He'd been entertaining all the gals at the laundromat.” The doors b.u.mped back shut. I heard Pat walking away. ”I just so happened to have a quarter.”

The other cop, Hank, laughed.

”Seemed like a great idea, give him a little spin. But then about two minutes after I dragged him out, he blew his supper all over my back seat.”

”Aw, s.h.i.+t!” Hank went.

”Not s.h.i.+t, puke.”

These guys were a barrel of laughs.

Then they were gone.

I stayed put. Eventually, the helicopter went away. The silence was great. I couldn't feel anything crawling on me. I relaxed and fell asleep.

And slept until Hillary Weston showed up in the morning to do her wash.

Chapter Eleven.

When I woke up, a woman was humming in the room down below me. I couldn't see her, though. The edge of the cupboard top was in the way. All I could see was the ceiling. It was sunlit and painted yellow.

I wanted to know what she looked like.

From the sound of her humming, she seemed to be near the was.h.i.+ng machine or dryer. If she was facing either of those machines, she wouldn't have a view of the cabinet.

So I scooted forward and looked past its edge.

She stood in front of the washer, at an angle that showed me her side and her back. Unless she had tremendous peripheral vision, I was out of sight.

By the time I saw her, she'd already finished throwing in her laundry. She was busy sprinkling detergent powder into the hole at the top of the machine.

She looked good. Slim and not too old. You can't always tell with women, but I'd say she was under thirty by at least a couple of years. She had thick brown hair. Her face had points and corners-cheekbones that stuck out too much, too sharply. A nose and jaw like that, too. Not exactly pretty, but unusual and what you might call ”striking.”

In fact, her whole body was like that.

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