Part 31 (2/2)

She looked up at Walker. ”What are they doing now?”

”I'm not sure, exactly,” said Walker. ”See if you can figure it out.”

She stood and looked toward the east end of Main Street. There were men in police uniforms running up and down Cherry, the last cross street at the edge of town. They were waving their arms, moving people into a single line, with about six feet between them and their backs to the chain-link fence that separated the town from the empty fields. Mary moved to the next panel, and she could see that the line of citizens continued to the north end of town. When she turned and stepped to the south panel, the roof of the church below her blocked some of her view.

She stood beside Walker. From here she could see the foot of Main Street, where the bridge crossed the river, and the parking lot of the Old Mill Restaurant. That end of town seemed deserted except for the four police cars parked in the lot.

Stillman called them to the eastern side. ”The cars are starting to move again.”

Walker and Mary watched as headlights advanced slowly along the line of people. The cars that had been searching side streets moved back to their places and began to creep slowly down in the direction of the river. Then, on some order that could not be heard from here, the long line of people stepped forward.

The people walked straight ahead, across the street, up the lawns on Cherry, along sidewalks and driveways. Doors of houses opened, and the lights came on in the darkened windows, first on ground floors, then on upper floors. From here, people could be seen entering, then moving across lighted windows. Then back doors opened and people streamed out. Garage doors were slid upward, flashlights shone into the interiors, and then the searchers moved on. Others whose courses took them down open streets stopped and shone lights into parked cars and under them, looked up on porches, and searched the shrubbery in front yards. All along the line, the searchers moved forward at about the same pace, the line wavering a bit, but not breaking.

Fifty feet behind the line of citizens, there were men about twenty paces apart with rifles held at the ready across their chests. Occasionally one of them would point or wave an arm, as though he was directing the people in the line ahead to straighten their alignment, or exhorting them not to overlook some possible hiding place.

”It's a tiger hunt,” said Stillman. ”The people in that line are the beaters. The ones behind with the rifles are there in case we bust through the line.” He moved to the panel of louvers on the western side. ”They'll have something big waiting for the tiger at the other end. Let's see what it is.”

Walker and Mary stood at his shoulders. Far down Main Street they could see the Old Mill, the river, and the opposite bank. The four police cars were still parked by the restaurant, but the activity there seemed to have ceased.

”They don't have the bridge blocked,” said Mary.

”Looks a bit too inviting, doesn't it?” said Stillman. ”If we wanted to drive out, that would be the way. If we wanted to go on foot, we'd still have to cross the river.”

They watched for several minutes, but the sight did not change. The lights of the Old Mill Restaurant looked bright and warm and welcoming from up here.

Walker moved to the north side, where he could look down below the front of the church onto Main Street. The row of people had reached Oak Street now, and he could sight along the wavering line as it pa.s.sed. To his right, all the houses glowed with light. Every window was illuminated, every outdoor flood was s.h.i.+ning down to cast a circle of white on an area of pavement or turn a lawn day-green.

The lights on the streets to his left began to go on, one by one. ”What I'm wondering is what happens when they get to the city limits and haven't found us,” Walker said.

”We'll see,” said Stillman. ”I'm hoping they'll figure we got out on foot, and send everybody home to bed.” He had not moved from the west side. His eyes were still on the river.

”Could that happen?” asked Walker.

”I don't know why not. We reported seeing two murder suspects in town, and the police made a huge effort to organize a manhunt. If we've got a complaint, it's our word against everybody else's. Our interpretation of events would sound a bit eccentric, to say the least.”

Stillman suddenly bobbed up on his toes to peer out above a higher louver, then settled for a lower one. ”Come here,” he said. The others moved in beside him to look to the west. The cars that had been prowling the streets a block in advance of the line of citizens had reached Was.h.i.+ngton Avenue. The cars all turned onto Was.h.i.+ngton, and now they were pulling over to park by the curb.

In the riverbed, there seemed to be sudden activity. Flashlights were going on at intervals of fifty feet all along the river, as though a signal was being pa.s.sed. After a moment, men began to step up the banks to join the ones getting out of cars on Was.h.i.+ngton.

”That answers my question,” said Stillman. ”That's what the beaters were trying to herd us into. They wanted us to try to cross the river.”

The line of townspeople reached the last row of houses on the near side of Was.h.i.+ngton Street. The lights in the windows went on. Porch lights threw a glow over the stream of people moving through the yards between the houses and spilling in from Main Street, Const.i.tution, Coulter, Federal, and New Hamps.h.i.+re. They all came together to mill about in Was.h.i.+ngton Street and along the banks of the river. The long line had now dissolved, and the people looked like the crowd at a carnival.

A police car turned its flas.h.i.+ng red and blue lights on and drove slowly along Was.h.i.+ngton. Walker could hear a faint, echoing amplified voice from a bullhorn, but he could not pick up a word. Men and women who had been in small knots talking turned and stepped aside to let the patrol car pa.s.s. Others stepped back onto the sidewalks on either side of the street. The car's progress was extremely slow, but at last it emerged from the crowd and reached Main. It turned to head away from the river.

Behind the police car, the crowd closed, already beginning to move after it. In a moment, the fast walkers were turning to follow the police car up Main. They streamed up from the direction of the river, some on the sidewalks, others in the middle of Main Street. They walked in pairs or small groups, talking as they went.

Walker put his arm around Mary and watched the people coming up the street. He waited, hoping that some of them would go into houses on Was.h.i.+ngton and turn off the lights. He held his breath as the central ma.s.s of people moved beyond Adams, Jefferson, Franklin. The compact crowd was now stretched out into a long stream, but Walker could tell that n.o.body was going home.

Mary said quietly, ”Not so tight,” and Walker realized that his arm had become tense. He pulled it away from her.

Far below them, there was the creak of a heavy door opening, and then voices. At first Walker tried to convince himself that the sounds were coming from Main Street, but then there was an unmistakable echo, the voices bouncing off the bare walls of an enclosed s.p.a.ce. The people were gathering in the church.

40.

Without having made a decision or spoken a word, they found themselves crouching, listening as the townspeople began to crowd into the church below them. The three were absolutely still, barely breathing, but huddled close as though that provided some measure of safety. After a long time, Walker slowly, cautiously, raised himself a bit and peered out onto Main Street, then turned and looked to the west. He eased himself back down with Stillman and Mary.

”The streets are empty,” he whispered. ”There are just the four police cars on the other side of the river by the restaurant, and a couple more cruising up and down. Everybody seems to be here.”

Stillman said, ”It feels to me as though it might be time to make a move.”

Mary's eyes widened. ”You mean go down there?”

”I don't see how that does us any good,” said Walker.

Stillman said, ”Remember when we were in Scully's house? I took his keys.” He took them out of his pocket and held them up where they caught a bit of the filtered glow from the sky. ”There's a car key.” He looked at them thoughtfully. ”None of the rest of them drove to Florida. They flew down, and rented cars to come back. No reason to think he and Bowles did any different.”

Mary said, ”Wait. Didn't you say the cops were going to put men in Scully's house, just like they did in Bowles's house?”

Stillman said, ”Sure, but I don't know any reason to believe what the cops told us, do you?”

Walker said, ”We were up here watching all afternoon, and I tried to see if I could spot policemen at Scully's house, but I couldn't.”

Stillman said, ”They've just walked through and turned on every light bulb in town, including the ones at Scully's. There may have been cops there, and there may still be. But our chances of seeing them with the lights on are pretty fair, and we haven't. The whole town seems to be in the church under our feet right now, so if we could get past them, we'd have a chance.”

”If they went to bed, we'd have a better chance,” Mary said skeptically.

Stillman said, ”Any minute now, the decision could get made for us.” He paused. ”So what's it going to be?”

”I don't think we'll get a better chance at a car,” said Walker.

Mary took a deep breath, but she didn't let it out. ”Okay,” she said. The breath still seemed trapped in her chest.

Walker looked out the four panels again. He picked out Scully's house. ”I still don't see anybody at Scully's. There's n.o.body on Birch Street at all.”

Stillman said, ”We'd better get started.” He crawled to the opening that led down into the darker second level. ”One last thing. These people aren't just going to let us out of town. If they get their hands on us, they'll kill us.”

Mary said, ”Do you think you're making it easier to climb down there?”

”I'm just telling you that we have to think differently tonight,” said Stillman. ”If somebody points a gun at you, putting your hands in the air won't keep him from pulling the trigger.”

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