An Incident At Bloodtide

It was obvious I should have chosen my words, or tone of voice, more carefully, for now blood rushed to the other man's face, and spittle appeared at the corners of his mouth. I certainly didn't want to play games with Chick Carver, but statistics showed that sincere pleading can just as easily trigger a psychotic episode as passive defiance, which can delay execution because it denies gratification. But the fact of the matter was that, with Garth's death only a footstep away, I just didn't know what to say to the other man, nor how to act. I could only play percent ages and hope that Carver would stand still and talk instead of walk.

'Say it like you mean it!' he shrieked.

'I can't, Sacra. You're making me too nervous.'

'Then let me hear you beg for your brother's life!'

Garth, who had seemed almost bored throughout my exchange with Chick Carver, now spoke for the first time since calling me into the music room. 'If you beg for my life to this skinny bag of shit, Mongo,' my brother, who'd always had a way with words, said, 'I swear I'll come back from the dead to break your scrawny neck.'

'You heard him,' I said to Carver, watching him, again thinking of the gun strapped to my ankle. Now I was trying to gauge how long it would take me, without ducking away, to simply reach down for the gun and snap off a shot. That would still take too long. He might or might not miss the stationary target I would present, but he certainly wouldn't miss the pedal with his foot; even if I managed to bore him right between the eyes, he would still fall on the pedal, and Garth would die. 'He won't let me.'

'We know you're going to kill us anyway, Mr. Silver,' April said, her tone calm, quiet, and dignified. 'It won't make any difference what Mongo, Garth, or I say to you. But it also doesn't make any difference if we die. Everybody dies.' She paused, looked at Garth, then at me. She smiled warmly, and her limpid gray eyes glowed with affection. 'I'm happy to die with friends I love and respect. As for you, Mr. Silver, your life is miserable now, and will only become more miserable after you kill us. You will only become more twisted and bent, and that is the only kind of love you will ever be capable of giving or receiving. It's 'rebound,' Mr. Silver, and I'm frankly surprised that a student of the occult like yourself shouldn't have perceived the dangers of the path you chose to take.'

'I can see that I have to get your attention!' Chick Carver screamed as he lifted his right knee to an exaggerated height, almost to his chest, and then proceeded to stomp on the foot pedal in front of him.

Despite the fact that I'd been anticipating, dreading, just such an action, Carver's movement was still so sudden and unexpected-so unthinkable-that I didn't even have time to cry out. Now I screwed my eyes shut and screamed inside myself, expecting to hear the crackle of electricity over my brother's brief scream, then smell the burning of his flesh. But nothing happened. I opened my eyes, looked at Garth-and found him looking back at me. I glanced across the room at Chick Carver, who was staring at Garth in astonishment. And then we both looked down at the foot pedal under the sole of his boot. The lights on the pedal were out, as was the light on the amplifier.

Mary, sitting at her piano-which incidentally happened to be flush to the master console that controlled every piece of equipment in the music room and recording studio-had shut everything off at precisely the right moment.

Chick Carver started to swing his pistol around in my direction, then stiffened in shock as his own voice boomed throughout the room, at ear-splitting volume, from two huge floor speakers on either side of him.

WHO ARE YOU TO TALK?

It seemed Mary had been doing even more than keeping her right hand close to the off switch on the master console while she played her piano; she had also been taping the entire proceedings. This time I hadn't had to bring my own recording engineer with me; she'd been here all along, waiting for me to show up so that the show could begin. I wondered if Garth had known, or suspected. YOU BROUGHT MY FAMILY INTO THIS!

The high-decibel assault, combined with the realization of what had been done to him, momentarily froze Chick Carver. I dove to one side, snatched the Seecamp from my ankle holster, rolled over, and came up on my feet with the gun aimed at Carver's head, ready to fire. But Mary had already beaten me to the punch, in a manner of speaking.

There had been a twelve-string guitar resting on a high stool between Mary and Carver, and as her tormentor had started to turn toward me, she had jumped up from the piano, grabbed the guitar by the neck with both hands, and smashed its face into Carver's face.

EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE IF THAT SON-OF-A-BITCH BLAINE HADN'T STARTED MESSING AROUND! HE DESERVED TO DIE!

Six of the twelve strings on the guitar were steel wire, strung under high tension, and they acted something like a cheese cutter on Mary's hapless target. The first blow flayed the skin from Carver's nose and left cheek, sending blood spraying in all directions. The second blow to his face broke the neck of the guitar and sent the man crashing back through the plate-glass window behind him onto the outside deck.

'I'll kill him!' Mary screamed, and, still holding the broken guitar with its tangled, bloody strings by the neck, leaped headfirst through the broken window after her intended victim.

'Uh, I'll be right back,' I said to Garth and April as I quickly headed for the open space in the wall of glass.

'Take your time, brother,' Garth said drily. 'I think Mary has the situation under control.'

That was a matter of opinion, I thought as I hopped over the sill with its necklace of broken glass onto the deck and found Mary kneeling behind the blood-soaked and wildly flailing Chick Carver. She had one of the steel wire guitar strings wrapped around his neck and was tugging on it with both hands. Blood was welling from her palms, where the wire was cutting into them, and from Chick Carver's fingers as he desperately pulled at the wire that was threatening to choke the life out of him if it didn't sever the carotid artery first. His face, or what I could see of it behind a shimmering mask of blood, looked like something a very large cat had been playing with. His gun was lying beside him on the deck, and I kicked it away.

'I'll kill him,' Mary said in a very low, purposeful tone as she pulled even harder on the wire. She kept repeating it, like a mantra. 'I'll kill him. I'll kill him.'

A neutral observer would have to say that whatever spell Sacra Silver had cast over Mary had been broken. Apparently unhappy with her lack of progress, she shifted her position, sat down, and put both her feet in the space between Carver's shoulder blades for added leverage. She was just getting ready to give the wire another, really serious tug when I stepped between Carver's flailing legs, reached forward, and grabbed her wrists.

'Whoa, sweetheart,' I said. 'You've got him reined in nicely here. Take it easy. Nice job, incidentally-what you did in there.'

But Mary wasn't going to be mollified by any of my sweet talk. She was still tugging on the wire, at the same time pushing on Carver's back with her feet, and threatening to pull me off balance. 'I'll kill him, Mongo,' she said through bloodless, trembling lips. 'I swear I'll kill him.'

It was April who, having freed Garth and mercifully turned off the blaring tape recorder, now saved the day, along with Carver's life and my dignity. She and Garth had come out on the deck, and now April quickly stepped behind Mary and put her hands gently on Mary's shoulders, while Garth gripped my forearms to help steady me. 'Let go, Mary,' April said softly. 'It's over now. Let go. Let Mongo and Garth handle him.'

Mary gradually relaxed her grip on the wire, although her face remained clenched in rage. Carver fell over on his side, both hands covering his bloody face, and I eased myself down on the deck next to him. April helped the trembling Mary to her feet, and then Garth went to his wife and took her in his arms.

'I have to get Vicky,' April continued, gently easing Mary away from Garth, cradling the other woman's bleeding hands.

'Then I'll clean up Mary's cuts. Do you want me to call the police?'

'In about ten minutes,' I replied. 'After you take care of Vicky and Mary. Tell them to bring a doctor. And, if you will, you can bring our friend here a wet towel.'

April nodded, then led Mary, now spent and slumped, into the house. Carver had curled himself up into a fetal position. He-was staring at me with his right eye through a slit in his blood-soaked fingers. There was no hatred now in the eye, not even rage. It looked shiny but empty, like a doll's button eye.

'The man looks like he could use a drink, brother,' I said to Garth. 'Me too. Would you do the honors?'

Garth looked at me curiously for a few moments, then said, 'Somebody call you in off the bench?'

'You did. And you'll like this play.'