gone, and thought, Oh, no, oh, God no, you've really done it now.
There was a rumble of heavy running in the hallway, and Max and Pete came in. They looked at the body of their friend, and then at Julie, and she saw that they thought that she had done it.
'No,' she said weakly, 'Connie. Connie and Sally. They went out that door. They went…'
Max headed out the door at a run, and Pete came over and grabbed up the shotgun. He looked at it for a moment, then dropped it to the floor and grasped Julie's arm. His grip was incredibly hard, cutting off the circulation as he yanked her to her feet. 'Come on,' he snarled. 'I'm not leavin' you in here where you can untie hubby.'
She went with him, not offering the slightest resistance. She followed out the door to the outside, and felt the bite of tiny stones on her bare feet. She winced at the pain, but he pulled her along with him, dragging her across the ground at a clip too fast for her to run. She did her best to keep up, and her toes stubbed painfully into rocks and bits of wood.
Max was ahead, running after one of the girls. From the yellow robe Julie could tell that it was Connie. She was running as hard as she could, but Max was overtaking her steadily. There were no cars in sight, and Julie knew that the girl had lost her gamble. There was no hope for her now. Julie felt a vague pity for her, but she had brought it on herself, and maybe on everyone else, too. There was no telling how the men would react to the killing of one of them. It couldn't make things any more pleasant, she thought, and so far the three females had owed their existence to the fact that there was one of them to each male. Now there would be an extra female, and no reason why they couldn't kill one of them. Whichever one they chose, she thought, and her blood chilled at the thought, because it was entirely possible that they would choose the one who was the oldest. After all, Max had thrown her over for a younger woman. Why shouldn't he and Pete decide to keep the younger girls and get rid of her?
It was dark outside, or almost dark. The sun had gone down, but the sky was still light with the residual light of day. Max caught up with Connie. A thin little scream floated across the air, and Julie shuddered at the sound. It seemed like an omen of what would come to all of them now. Max hit the girl in the belly with his gun, and she folded up like an accordion. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, then bent and picked up his rifle again. He carried her back.
That left Sally, Julie thought. She was somewhere on the farm, that was clear. She couldn't have gotten away. Not this quickly. The girls had split up the moment they had gotten out of the house.
Max came back to where Julie and Pete were, and dropped Connie on the ground. She cried out when she landed, and Julie noticed that she had landed on her foot, and the ankle had twisted under her weight. She probably wouldn't be running any more, Julie thought, and it served her right for being so stupid.
'Where did the other one go?' Max asked. He grabbed Julie's wrist and yanked her away from Pete.
'I don't know. I didn't have anything to do with…'
He pulled her forward shortly, so hard that she lost her footing and landed on her knees. Her robe slid back off of her shoulders and down her arms a little, binding their movement.
'I'm not fucking with you, baby,' he said. 'You come up with that little bitch or I'm going to start with your baby, and then your husband, and you'll be the last to die. But not by much. By about as long as it takes me to cock that shotgun. Now talk!'
Julie had a thought. 'I don't know for sure,' she said. 'I don't, really. But she used to play here as a little girl, and she had a favorite hiding place. The barn, there, has a loose board, and she used to hide there.'
'Is it big enough to hide her now that she's grown up?'
'Yes. Yes, I'm sure it is, if she pulls herself in a little. Yes, it would.'
'Lead the way. And if she's not there, you'd better come up with another idea fast, bitch.'
She had to be there, Julie thought. She just had to be. The little tramp. Why did she have to do this? Why couldn't she have left well enough alone? She hadn't been so badly treated. Not badly enough to justify the risking of Jim's and Diane's lives, certainly. She had enjoyed that little go-round with Max, the little bitch. And now she pulls this.
They walked into the barn and Julie led him straight to the spot where the loose board was. 'Pull it up,' he ordered, and stood looking at her coldly, the rifle tight in his hands. Don't look at me that way, she thought. I didn't do it.
She got down on her knees and pried up the board.
She peered down into the empty space below with a sinking, panicky feeling. It was almost as though Sally had failed her personally.
'Shit, there isn't enough room down there for her,' Max said. She looked up at him, opening her mouth to tell him that she had thought it was big enough, that she hadn't tried to fool him, but all that came out of her mouth was a loud, almost incoherent warning.
'Look out!'
Sally had moved up behind him on bare feet, padding across the barn floor. She had a scythe in her hands, an old rusty instrument that hadn't been used in years. She was lifting it above her head, ready to bring it down on Max, just as Julie's warning caused him to jump aside. The scythe's blade dug splinters from the floor with a metallic ringing sound. Sally jumped back and tried to lift it again.
Max spun around to face Sally and the barrel of his rifle rammed into her belly like a steel lance. The scythe fell to the floor with a clatter, and Sally gasped, cried out in a hoarse, breathless groan and fell to her knees, hugging her belly.
'You fucking bitch!' Max rasped, and yanked her head up by the hank of her hair. 'I ought to slap your Goddamn head off,' he said. Sally was too jarred by the blow to her belly to answer. Her eyes were clenched tightly, and her hands were folded across her midsection. Julie felt a fleeting pity for the girl. But she had brought it all on herself. She had been stupid to try something like this against armed killers.
Max pulled her up off her knees. Julie thought it was a very impressive display of strength, and something to remember if she were ever tempted to believe that the loss of Butch had been an irreparable blow to their power over everyone in the house.
'Get your feet under you,' Max roared. 'Goddamn it, you stand up!' Sally managed to stand by her own strength. She groaned, leaning over her middle. Max yanked her upright and spat in her face. 'You're going to be sorry for that little attempt, Sally,' he said. 'You think I've been tough with you up till now? You haven't seen anything yet. Come on.' He shoved her toward the front of the barn. Sally stumbled and fell, catching herself with one hand pressed to the floor. Max came up behind her and kicked her in the ass, planting his foot there and sending her sprawling with a single shove. 'Get up, Goddamn you,' he yelled. He really seemed furious with Sally, and Julie couldn't blame him. He had come within inches of dying at her hands after all. Sally climbed to her feet with obvious difficulty. She was crying, tears running down her cheeks in thick streams. She hurried out the door of the barn, running to keep ahead of Max. She ran clumsily, still clutching at her belly with both hands.
Pete was standing exactly where they had left him, except that he had put a foot on Connie's ass. He held her planted to the ground and Connie lay still as though unaware of it. But her eyes were open, and Julie could see that she hadn't sunk back into her former torpor.
'Smartass here tried to part my hair with a scythe,' Max said to Pete. 'Let's get 'em all inside. I don't like to leave the man of the house alone too long.'
Julie walked ahead of the others, with Sally behind her and slightly to one side. Pete kept ramming his pistol butt into the small of Connie's back, to keep her moving. Connie was crying, as was Sally, but they offered no more resistance. For the moment, they seemed to have learned their lesson. It had been a singularly costly lesson. They weren't likely to win the men's trust again soon, and the loss of one of the men meant that they could get along with one less woman.
'All right,' Max said when they were back in the kitchen. 'Which of you dames killed him.' He pointed to the huge corpse in the middle of the floor. Blood had already begun to congeal on the worn linoleum. He asked the question of them all, not looking directly at any of them. None of the women said anything. 'I'm not going to fuck with you,' he said. The rifle leveled at the wall between Julie and Sally. 'Now, I won't mention any names, but if I don't get some answers starting right now, I plan to gun one of you down in just one and a half seconds.'
'She did it,' Julie said, pointing to Connie. 'She got the shotgun from where it was leaning against the wall and killed Butch while he was on me.'
'Serves the son of a bitch right,' Pete mumbled. 'That's what he gets for fucking somebody else's woman. He had his own woman, and if he'd fucked her, she wouldn't have been able to get at the gun. Besides, he was supposed to be guardin' the women, not playing grab-ass.'
