“Better grab a weapon,” Abe told him.
With a nod, Gorman rushed over to the head-shot policeman. Abe and Jack reloaded while he took two photos of the dead man, knelt down, and lifted the revolver out of the grass.
“Do you know how to use it?” Jack asked.
“I’ve had some experience.”
“Just don’t point it at anyone you don’t plan to shoot.”
“I’m not a fool,” Gorman said.
Abe stepped over to Purcell. The chief still held his belly, but he was no longer squirming. “We’re going in to take care of business,” Abe told him. “Hang on here. An ambulance is on the way.”
As they started for the road, Abe saw Lucy running toward them. Clamped under one arm was a first-aid kit. Abe rushed up to her. “We’re going in through a tunnel under the house.”
“Maybe I’d better…”
“Take care of Purcell. Keep an eye on the front door, but don’t try to go in.”
She nodded.
“Who shot Purcell?”
“The Kutch woman. Maggie. She was just talking calmly and all of a sudden…”
“If she comes out, blow her down.”
“You’re fucking-A right I will.”
Abe slapped her back, and ran for the road. Jack and Gorman followed. Abe stopped at one of the police cars long enough to find a long-barreled flashlight. Racing across Front Street, he glimpsed headlights far to the left. From somewhere in the distance came the sound of a siren. He dashed past the Beast House ticket booth, vaulted the turnstile and ran up the walkway.
“Wait up!” Gorman called.
He took the porch stairs two at a time, stopped in front of the door, and rammed the heel of his shoe into it just below the handle. With a splintering crash, the door flew open.
He switched on the flashlight.
Jack came up behind him.
“Wait up,” Hardy called again. A moment later, he came huffing up the porch stairs.
The three men entered the house.
The beam of Abe’s light caught the snarling face of a creature near the foyer wall. He turned his revolver on it, but held fire as he realized it was nothing but the old, stuffed monkey posed to hold umbrellas. He let out a deep breath.
“Let’s take it cautious,” he whispered. “There’s one beast unaccounted for and three women.”
“Do you think they might be here?” Gorman asked.
“Anything’s possible,” Jack told him.
“The tunnel’s our way in,” Abe said, “but it’s their way out if they decide to retreat.”
“Do you think they had time to get here?”
“Yes,” Abe said. He started forward, the powerful beam of his flashlight pushing a stream of brightness into the dark.
Tyler swung off the road behind Abe’s mustang. The ambulance sped by. Near the porch of the Kutch house, a woman stood up and waved both arms. On the ground around her lay several motionless shapes. Tyler’s throat constricted.
“My God,” Nora muttered.
The ambulance skidded onto the driveway, siren wailing, light flashing. It raced toward the woman.
“Follow it,” Janice said from the backseat.
Tyler stepped on the gas, swerved around Abe’s car, and swung onto the driveway. The ambulance stopped. She slowed as she drew up behind it. Two attendants jumped down and ran to the back. As they opened the rear doors, she set the emergency brake.
“That guy down over there’s a cop,” Nora said.
Tyler bolted from the car. She sprinted past the ambulance. In the glare of the whirling red lights, she saw a body to the left of the porch. It wore a uniform. A woman with a revolver in one hand was on her knees beside a man, gesturing to the attendants as they rushed forward with a stretcher. The man on the ground was a stranger.
“This is the guy from Beast House,” Nora called from the front of a pickup truck.
“Hey!” the woman shouted. “Who are you people? Get out of here!”
“Were there three men here?” Tyler asked.
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
She pointed. “Said they’re going through a tunnel.”
“Are they all right?”
“Yes! Get out of here!”
Tyler and Nora reached the Omni at the same moment. Janice was standing by the rear door. “Get in,” Tyler snapped.
The three doors slammed shut.
“What’re we doing?” Nora asked.
“Going after them.” Tyler rammed the shift into reverse and sped backwards toward the street.
“What good will that do?” Nora asked. “We’ll just be in their way.”
“We need guns,” Janice said.
Tyler mashed the brake. She shot the car forward, swung onto the grass beside the ambulance, and lurched to a stop. She and Nora leapt from the car.
“Hold it!” the woman cop yelled.
“We need their guns!” Tyler said. “We want to help.”
“Help by getting out of here.”
The attendants lifted the fallen policeman onto the stretcher.
“Please!” Tyler said. “We’ll bring them back.”
The woman aimed her revolver at Tyler. “Get!”
“For Christsake, lady!” Nora blurted.
She aimed at Nora.
“Stupid bitch!” Tyler cried. Whirling around, she climbed back into the car.
Nora dropped in and slammed her door.
“We’re no good without guns,” Janice said.
Tyler steered the car around in a tight circle, then hit the brake. She stared past the tail of the pickup truck and across the treeless field at the woods beyond Beach Lane.
“Captain Frank,” she said.
“So what?”
“Hardy said he’s got an arsenal.”
“Let’s go!” Janice urged.
Tyler drove straight across the field, the car bouncing wildly over its bumpy earth, crunching through weeds and low bushes. Nora clung to the dashboard as jolts shook the car. Tyler struggled to keep her grip on the steering wheel. Soon, her headlights caught the row of mailboxes. She spotted the opening in the trees to the left as the car sprang over a small rise and dropped onto the dirt road.
“Oh shit!” Nora yelled.
Tyler yanked the wheel. She almost missed the tree. There was a jolt as she struck it. The right headlight smashed. But the car glanced off and kept moving, speeding down the narrow rutted lane of Seaside, its single beam thrusting into the dark.
“There it is,” Nora said.
Tyler shoved the brake pedal to the floor and steered for the bus. The car bounded off the road. Beer cans
