Part 38 (1/2)
But she felt something. ”Boys, get into the kitchen and stay there!”
”What do you see, Dad?” Dan was getting scared now.
”Go!” Lori herded the boys behind her as she backed toward the kitchen, watching her husband talk to the wall.
”Listen,” Brett was saying, ”I don't know what you want, but you made a big mistake coming in here.” His right hand was behind his back. He was snapping his fingers. A signal. ”I can't hear you. Speak up.”
She ran into the kitchen, yanked a locked box from the cupboard above the refrigerator, and opened it with a key hidden behind the flour jar. Inside was a 9 mm pistol. She grabbed a loaded clip from a drawer, slammed it into the pistol, and returned to the living room.
She stopped at the edge of the living room. She peered intensely in the direction her husband was looking but there was no one there.
Snap! Snap! Snap! He wanted the gun.
She saw nothing, but felt a jittery sensation, like standing on the edge of a cliff. Her pulse was hammering. Behind her the boys were starting to cry. Was her husband hallucinating? Dared she give him a loaded firearm?
He grabbed it from her forcefully, pus.h.i.+ng her behind him, taking a shooting stance. ”Freeze! Turn around slowly, put your hands on the wall!”
Whatever it was, it was beginning to move. He followed with his aim, the muzzle of the gun sweeping across the room toward the hallway. She could feel something getting closer.
”Stop or I'll shoot!”
It didn't stop.
”Stop!”
Her skin was tingling, like a static charge. She backed away. She may have seen a shadow that didn't belong- BANG!
The boys screamed. She jumped, her trembling hands went to her ears, her eyes searched and searched.
Brett aimed down the hall.
BANG!.
The bullet slammed into the back door. Brett ran down the hall.
”Hold it!”
She dashed into the kitchen, crouching, s.h.i.+elding the boys in a corner with her body as they screamed and cried. She heard the back door open, felt cold air crawling around her ankles. Her ears were humming from the shots.
The telephone rang, startling her like another gunshot. She was protecting the boys. She didn't even think of answering it.
Brett slammed the back door and scrambled up the hall through a blue haze of smoke, limping and cursing.
The telephone rang again.
”He's gone.”
The cop movie came back on the television. Shooting, yelling, sirens.
The telephone rang. She turned but did not rise.
In anger Brett grabbed the phone off the kitchen wall. ”Henchle!” Then, ”Rod, get your b.u.t.t over here, I've had a suspect right here in the house! The hitchhiker! That guy I told you about! He was right here in the house! What?” He listened, then cursed again. ”Did you put her in custody?” His hand went to his leg and he bent a little, wincing in pain. ”No, you did the right thing. I think it's already hit the fan. Get Mark on the radio and get the two squad cars over here, one on Maple, one on Elm. I want the neighborhood combed for this guy.” He listened to another question. ”Leave her there. We'll sort that out later.”
He hung up, hurried into the living room to pause the VCR, then returned to the kitchen and his wife. He noticed the gun in his hand. He quickly removed the clip and set it aside. He touched her. ”Lori, it's okay. Boys, it's okay, it's all over.”
”What was it?” Dan cried. Howie was speechless with fear.
”It was a man I picked up on the highway some weeks ago. He sneaked in somehow. He's gone now. You're okay.”
Lori stood. The boys just held onto her legs and remained there as she asked, ”The hitchhiker?”
”Yeah, the blond guy who told me Jesus was coming? That was him. I don't know what he wanted, but-” He lowered his voice for the sake of the boys. ”He was up to no good. We'll have to lock the place up tight tonight. If you want I can take you to your mother's.”
”The hitchhiker?” she asked again.
He nodded. He held her. ”Yeah. I knew that guy was trouble the moment he pulled that stunt in the car.”
”Honey . . .” She was afraid to say it. ”I didn't see him.”
”It's okay.”
She pushed him back just enough to look in his eyes. ”No, really. I didn't see him. I didn't see anyone there.”
He returned her gaze with a blank look. ”He was right there, right by the TV cabinet. He must have been hiding behind it.”
She began to feel another fear-a fear for her husband's sanity. ”Sweetheart, that cabinet's right up against the wall! You can't hide back there!”
He backed away. ”You didn't see him? He was standing right there!”
She could only shake her head no.
”Didn't you see him run down the hall?”
She switched subjects. ”What did Rod say?”
Brett stood in the middle of the kitchen looking disoriented. ”He arrested Penny Adams tonight.”
”Oh no.”
”She'd been shoplifting from Florence Lynch's store. He and Florence went over to Bonnie Adams's place and found a closet full of stolen merchandise.”
”And she just got her hand back.”
Brett winced again, his hand on his leg. ”Yeah, just like I got my leg fixed.”
She didn't understand. ”What?”
He picked up the gun again and slammed in the clip. ”It'll be okay. I'll get it straightened out.”
He went into the hall and grabbed his coat from the closet.