arm hung at her side like a dead thing. With an effort I turned to
her. She stumbled to her knees in front of me.
'It... it hurt me.' Sobbing. No sound. Just the involuntary
shuddering of her body.
My leg howled as I turned on it further, reaching out to her.
'Hurt me bad.'
'I know. It's all right, Case. It's all right.'
It wasn't though. I held her and looked over her shoulder for the
pitchfork. It was there just beyond us, tines curved upward.
She'd never felt so good to me.
'I did this,' she said. 'I did this to you.'
'No.'
It was useless to lie.
'I saw Steven ...'
She broke. Her body trembled. She was cold to the touch, and I could
feel the hard, bunched-up muscles beneath her clothing.
When the tears were under control again she sat pressed to me tightly,
face gleaming. She looked up at me. The fathomless blue eyes were
wide and liquid. They reminded me of that other night not long ago. I
knew she was mourning Steven. There was no help for it. I seemed to
see down into the suddenly grown-up heart of her. I saw fear and
compassion, and great hurt.
'You found me.'
'We did.'
It all came pouring out then, how she'd sat in that first passageway
waiting for me, ready to turn her flashlight beam to my
it found her and took her down by the shoulder, a powerful, brutal
black shadow in the midst of shadows.
'I couldn't even scream for you,' she said. 'I wanted to. God knows I
wanted to. But all I could do was fight. All I could do was push at
him and try ... try to ... and then soon I couldn't even do that
anymore. I gave up, I guess, and he started ... dragging me...
along... and all I could do was lie there and stare at him weak as a
baby. And then I felt something hot, hot and red I ike it was
throughout my whole body, and I guess I passed out then. All I
remember after that is something like pressure waking me, pressure in
my shoulder. And there he was, snapping at me, just inches from my
face .. . snapping. That sound!'
'Where is it now?' I asked her. 'Did you see?'
'They... took him ... through there.'
She pointed toward the far wall. There was another opening
4.|_
tnsrG
'I think that's where it opens to the sea. When I was lying there, I
could smell it.'
'They?'
I remembered the cold hoarse laughter.
'Is it Mary, Case?'
'It's both of them. At least I think it is. I've been ... in and out
a lot. But there's a woman, and there's a man. Who else could it
be?'
'Ben and Mary Crouch. Jesus.'
'They're horrible, Clan. And that thing. I saw Steven. It picked him
up and dragged him ... like a doll. And parts of him ... parts of him
were trailing...'
'Don't.'
'... were spilling out of him, trailing along the floor...'
'Stop it, Case!'
She looked at me. It was horror and not loss of blood that had bled
her white. In her eyes was a surfeit of horror.
The death freak in her was dead and I'd never miss it. Instead there
was sadness now and a grim responsibility- to me, to what Steven had
tried to do for her, to herself. I saw that as I watched her
She tried to smile. For a brave second she succeeded. And I could
have cried for the joy of it. Because the bravado was gone. I saw the
courage suddenly flare up in her again and it was pure and undiluted,
the very best of her, and in that moment she handed it to me.
'Where's Kim?'
'The police. She took the car.'
She nodded. 'Can you walk?'
'I think so.'
'Try.' She stood up, and I got on my hands and knees and then reached
for her good shoulder. I hauled myself up. I put some weight on the
leg. From knee to ankle something stretched and screamed at me. But
it held. 'Okay,' I said.
I reached for the pitchfork and the pain raced up my leg and right up
through the shoulders. I damn near fainted. I was still making
mistakes. She put out her hand to steady me. In a moment the pain was
down to something bearable. She handed me the pitchfork.
One-handed.
'Wonder why they left it?
'I think your friend Rafferty was right,' she said. 'I think they're
stupid. They don't count on much from us. Not wounded.'
'You think that makes them stupid?'
'Yes, I do.'
I was almost able to smile.
'That shoulder looks bad.'
It wasn't just the shoulder. The upper arm too was mauled and
'I can't feel much. I think he did something to the nerves. But I can
move it, Clan.'
'Don't try. Let's just get out of here.' I listened. 'All three of
them went through there?'
nwi imh.iwiiwivi
pull herself together. She was finished with the past. I looke her
eyes and tried to pour out hope to her through mine, a hope I barely
