The Stalker

But almost immediately, the methodical caution with which and by which he had functioned throughout the whole of it returned, and he knew he had to make sure, make certain, put a bullet squarely between Orange’s eyes, no mistake. There would be enough time then to locate the woman—probably hiding where Orange had suddenly appeared, she wouldn’t get away—and when he did he would make her scream for him and then he would kill her quickly and painlessly and mercifully; he had nothing against the woman after all . . .

He began to run toward the thick, fringed clump of anise behind which Orange had disappeared.

Andrea checked her flight, looking back over her shoulder, at the exact moment Steve came up out of the gulley and began to run. She froze, watching him lurch drunkenly across the open ground toward the Preston cabin until the high greenish-brown marsh grasses along the near bank of the drainage gulley blocked her vision— watching with the sudden realization that he was trying to draw the limping man away from her so that she could get away, escape . . .

Her gaze swiveled frenetically past the sparser growth on the opposite bank and across the morass to the north, and she saw the limping man racing toward the Preston cabin, his arm extended; saw the first indistinct orange flash from the large black gun in his hand, the second, the third; saw the limping man come to an abrupt halt, peering toward the spot where she had last seen her husband.

And her immediate reaction was: He’s shot Steve, oh dear God, he’s shot Steve!

She stood immobile as the limping man began to run again, vanishing momentarily as Steve had vanished. The turbulent rainwater swirled and eddied around her legs, and she was dimly aware that one of the suede flats had been pulled loose from her foot and carried off. She didn’t know what to do. He had told her to get to the boat, get away from there and summon help, but what if he was badly hurt, maybe dying, maybe already—Oh no, no, he was all right, he had to be, he hadn’t really been shot, this whole thing was so alien, so terrifying, she couldn’t cope with it, what should she do, what should she do?

She tried to think, tried to reason, and after a moment she seemed to know the answer to her mute plea: Get help, yes, get the police, that was all she could do; she couldn’t fight the limping man, she was only a woman alone. She had to get help, bring aid quickly, Steve was all right, he hadn’t been shot, he would get away and she would bring help, she couldn’t panic now, not now, she had to do what he had told her to do.

Andrea pivoted and began to rush once again toward the storm-flayed slough.

Kilduff shook his head violently, trying to clear away the gathering darkness in back of his eyes. He had no feeling in his left arm, and he knew that it was useless; he got his right hand under his chest, palm flat on the swampy ground, and lifted himself onto his knees, still shaking his head. Gray light—rain-blurred images—took away the darkness finally, and he could see again. He struggled upward, standing unsteadily just beyond the cluster of anise, chest heaving, looking toward the Preston cabin. Transitory cover, he thought, so futile, why does a man fight for every last second, every chance for another breath, when death is imminent?

He stumbled forward in a kind of awkward, spindle-legged run, not looking back, not daring to. Ahead he could see a narrow, squat, ram shackle structure—a woodshed—with shadowed gaps like missing teeth in its visible side, where the boarding had rotted or pulled away; it sat in a bayou-like quagmire void of any growth other than a few shocks of cord grass, ten yards from the near wall of the shack. Kilduff reached it, waiting for another bullet to slam into his back, tensing his muscles, girding himself for it as he ran; but he was past the shed, almost to the cabin, when the shot finally came, missing wide right, gouging wood splinters from the wall near the set of four stairs on the cabin’s inland side. He threw himself forward reflexively, like a runner making a head-first dive into second base, skimming across and through the muddy pools, sending low wakes of spray outward on either side of him. He kept his head cradled against his good arm as he planed into the two-foot open space between the bottom of the block raised cabin and the liquidy ground. He caught his forward momentum as he passed beneath the shack, twisting sideways, crawling through the fetid muck toward a vertical plywood section which served as a siding to the set of stairs. He crawled belly-down into the shadows there, wiped some of the slime from his eyes, and peered out.

He saw the killer come running in a limping gait one step past the woodshed, saw the black gun stretched forth in one hand. The limping man skidded to a halt there, legs spread wide, neck craned forward, seeing the slug- like furrow Kilduff had left through the quagmire. He remained standing there for a moment, indecisive, and then he took two quick steps backward, leaning his body back against the side wall of the shed, blending with the dwelling, no longer discernible.

Kilduff pulled the cold moist air hungrily into his lungs, still staring out at the shed, waiting, a growing weakness beginning to take command of his body, a frustrated helplessness permeating his mind. In that single moment of hesitation, he had glimpsed the limping man’s face clearly through the pelting, stinging rain.

He didn’t know him at all.

20

Andrea had come out of the drainage gulley and had climbed up onto the Preston dock—staring across to where the churning waters of the slough were hammering the skiff’s bow against the upright piling—when she heard the single muffled gunshot.

She swung around, her eyes jerking upward along the straight, slender path leading to the cabin. She could see the shack above and through the swaying vegetation; and all at once, in a sequence of quick, film-like flashes: running figure, Steve, coming through the cleared area at the side of the cabin; thrown forward, flat dive; mud- spray obliterating him, swallowing him; second figure, stopping, gun plainly visible; moving again, backward, up against the wall of the small woodshed standing in the cleared area; no movement at all . . .

The same thoughts, the same fears, the same indecision that Andrea had experienced only a few moments earlier raced through her mind again. Had Steve been shot this time? Was he dead? Was he only hiding beneath the cabin? What should she do? This was so strange, so hallucinatory, there was no reason to any of this, no sense, it was as if she were trapped in a nightmarish world of instant replays.

Steve, Steve, what should I do—?

Suddenly, intuitively, she knew that if she obeyed his command, took the boat to get help, she would return to find a dead man—because this was real, starkly, terribly real.

He would die if she left Duckblind Slough.

Steve would die.

No!

No, he mustn’t die! She had to help him, help him now, try to save him somehow; her eyes roamed wildly over the shoreline, searching for a weapon, anything, and she saw then the length of driftwood lying wedged into the mud just to the right of the dock, thick and gnarled, bark-free. She looked up at the cabin again—still no movement; the limping man was crouched at the side of the shed, peering raptly at the dwelling. I can circle up behind him, she thought, I can hit him over the head, knock him out, yes, I can do that— and before she could think any more about it, before she could examine the ultimate futility of her plan, she was jumping down off the dock, pulling the length of driftwood free of the mire, clasping it tightly in her fingers as she moved forward, going blindly, foolishly, suicidally, to help the man she loved . . .

The limping man stared fixedly at the spot where Orange had disappeared beneath the cabin, holding the Magnum against his right thigh, teeth clamped tightly, painfully together, as if trying to prevent the escape of the fury within his body.

Why won’t he die? he thought. Why won’t Orange die?

How many times do I have to kill him?

One more time, just one more. He’ll be dead then, I’ll make absolutely certain he’s dead then. I’ll kill him until he’s dead. You won’t get away, Orange, you won’t escape . . .

Soft now. Careful. Does he have a weapon? Maybe yes and maybe no. A gun? No gun. He would have fired at me if he had a gun. No gun. Caution, though, can’t be sure, can’t go after him, have to wait, wait him out. I’ve waited ten years now, I can wait just a little while longer . . .