Part 30 (2/2)
Linked with Roger, she felt his fingers flex as if the young man's neck were within their reach. ”Then get away from him-now!”
Before Britt could jerk out of Peter's grip, he pulled a revolver from under his sweats.h.i.+rt. ”Sorry about that, Doc,” he grinned. ”I made a little mistake. Mom's in Florida. They're visiting her folks-therapy, like-and they won't be back until Sunday.He helped me talk them into taking a little vacation.”
For an instant Britt's vision dimmed with the shock.I should have listened to my worrywart colleague. ”He? Who?” No answer.
Recovering, she said coolly, ”What are you trying to accomplish, Peter?”
”Get moving.” He prodded her down the hall to the master bedroom. ”I told you I blamed you and the other shrink for what Alice did. It's time to pay up.”
When Britt stepped into the bedroom, she noted that it had been stripped down. The sheets had been removed from the double bed, the dressers cleared of all portable objects. A couple of dresser drawers had been taken out altogether. ”Give me your purse,” the young man ordered.
For a few seconds Britt considered flinging it in his face as a bid for escape. She sensed Roger's relief when she discarded that idea and simply handed over the heavy bag. ”This wild escapade won't do you any good. Dr. Darvell knows where I am.”
”Great, that'll save me the trouble of contacting him. I want him here.” Peter backed out and closed the door, locking it with the click of a deadbolt.
Britt stepped over and gave the k.n.o.b a ritual tug. ”Do they always live this way, or was it arranged just for me?”
”I suspect the deadbolt is new. He seems to have gone to elaborate lengths to get the room prepared” Roger answered.
”Right. There won't be much point in searching the drawers and closets for a weapon. He'd have cleared out anything useful.” She could always attack Peter with a coat hanger, of course, if she were fool enough to try such a ploy against a loaded gun. She glanced at the barred window. ”And what a lucky break for him that the security grills were already in place.”
She plopped down on the bed, surrendering to the shakiness she'd suppressed in the attacker's presence. ”I guess there's no use telling you to stay away.” Buried under that facade of detached intellect, he hid an alter ego who'd be right at home in the annals of the Round Table. Danger to women seemed to have that effect on men of his generation.
Roger had already collected his car keys-not bothering with a jacket, since the temperature, in the fifties, would feel pleasantly cool to him-and started out the door. ”Don't be silly,” he told her.
”But, colleague, it's you he wants. I'm just the bait.” She walked a bit unsteadily to the attached bathroom to splash cool water on her face. The medicine cabinet stood empty, its mirror door removed, and the toothbrush rack held a plastic gla.s.s. ”Thorough, wasn't he?” Britt observed.
She fought to keep her head clear of the scarlet fog that threatened to engulf Roger. ”If you think I'd consider leaving you to face that maniac alone-well, you insult me.” To Britt's relief, he suppressed his anger, its pressure gradually receding.
”If you must come after me, at least take precautions,” she urged. Should Roger and Britt not appear at the office in the morning, Marcia would call them at home. He ought to leave word for her.
Thinking over the suggestion, Roger agreed. He erased the message on his answering machine and recorded a new one: ”Marcia, if you are hearing this, Dr. Loren and I are being held by Peter Kovak at his home. If we don't contact you by noon, notify the police.” By that time police intervention could hardly make matters worse.
Britt followed his reasoning but doubted its validity. ”Must you have her wait until noon?”
”I won't risk the law intervening too quickly and endangering you. Confound it, this is a hostage situation!”
”I noticed.” She reined her own fear, striving for a detached stance that wouldn't feed Roger's panic.
She felt him chafing at the downtown congestion around Market Circle. After pa.s.sing through Eastport and reaching Forest Drive, he made better time. As he turned up Route Two toward the South River bridge, Britt addressed him again.
”You're actually coming here alone?”
”You couldn't expect me to bring reinforcements in these circ.u.mstances. Aside from the risk to you, how could I possibly explain this situation to the police?”
At that moment the scratch of a key at the door deflected her attention. Peter's head poked in, along with the muzzle of the gun.
”Comfortable, Doc? I hope your partner gets here soon so I don't have to call him. Waiting could make me nervous, you know.”
He waggled the revolver. ”You'll never guess what my sister told me about him. Unless maybe she told you the same thing. She said Darvell was a vampire. Can you believe that?”
Groping with her embryonic ESP, Britt couldn't tell, through the murk of his grief and hate, how seriously he meant the derisive comment. ”No, I can't, and I don't believe you could, either.”
”Yeah? Well, I'm about to find out.He told me how to check on it. Maybe your friend's a nut case who thinks he's a vampire. Or maybe he's something worse. Whatever, he's gonna pay.”
Alarmed, she pa.s.sed on the information to Roger. ”Peter's serious about punis.h.i.+ng you for Alice's death. He more than half believes her vampire stories, and he plans to test the theory on you. Colleague, I don't want you to end up with a stake through the heart.”
”I'll try to avoid that.”
WHEN ROGER turned onto the winding, spa.r.s.ely developed road, he went cold with the fresh realization of how isolated the duplex was. Too far from the neighboring houses to be visible, it was also sheltered by the woods that surrounded it on three sides, with the riverbank beyond. He drove further on, parked just around the curve, and walked back. Britt's car, he noticed, no longer sat in front of the house. Peter had thought to hide the evidence.
Before approaching the house, Roger cast a psychic veil over himself. Thus rendered invisible, he glided soundlessly through the neatly trimmed front yard and around to the back. Trees pressed close, leaving only about twenty feet of gra.s.s on each side. The dismantled vehicles still occupied the s.p.a.ce in front of the detached garage. He noted a sports car in one of the two driveways.
Roger surmised from his previous visit that the master bedroom and bath had to be at the rear of the building. In confirmation, Britt pulled aside a curtain to stare out into the darkness. Though she couldn't see Roger, she doubtless felt his nearness despite the concentration that kept him from calling to her.
Scanning the windows of the room next to her prison, he noted that the drapes had been removed. Strangely, both the bedroom window and the smaller, frosted one that must belong to the bathroom were festooned on the inside with strings of white, bulbous objects.
Fresh garlic, he decided.Good grief, the man really does believe in vampires.
What was the point, though? Garlic intended to keep Roger out would decorate the whole building, not just two rooms.
Where was Peter? Roger heard no one moving inside except Britt. To search for the kidnapper by extrasensory means, he would have to drop the illusion of invisibility; he hadn't learned to do both at once. Allowing the psychic s.h.i.+eld to dissolve, he probed for any life-energy other than Britt's. The back of his neck p.r.i.c.kled.
It took him only seconds to sense the man lurking in the trees behind him. As Roger turned, Peter said, ”Wasn't expecting you so soon. Don't try anything-vampire.” He aimed a flashlight and a .38 at Roger.
Maybe I should reconsider my opposition to gun control.Roger held up his hands and surveyed Peter, who wore a silver cross around his neck, gleaming against the sweats.h.i.+rt. ”Don't tell me you've adopted your sister's delusion,” said Roger in a conversational tone that he hoped sounded confident. ”No sane person believes such things.”
”Don't give me that. I just saw you appear out of thin air.” He glanced at the woods behind the garage, then back at Roger.
”It's a little dark to be sure what you saw,” said Roger.
”Well, I can see that arm from here-not a mark on it, where you were bleeding from a bullet wound last week. Maybe I wasn't sure before, but now I think Alice might've known what she was talking about.He explained it all to me.” At the mention of his sister, hate flared in his aura. ”You're here to pay for what you did to her.”
”What do you think I did?”
”We'll talk about how you screwed her over later.” Peter gestured with the gun. ”Go on-in the house.”
Roger contemplated his chances of safely rus.h.i.+ng the man. Not good-in Peter's strung-out condition, any threat would goad him into shooting. The thought of taking another bullet filled Roger with an aching weariness. He obeyed the order, saying as he walked ahead of his captor, ”What about Dr. Loren? Now that you have me, you don't need her.”
”Don't be funny.”
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