green skin, giving it an iridescent, radioactive glow.
She was too stunned to scream. Too stunned to run. Her root-like feet refused to obey. The thing inched forward, opening and closing its bear trap jaws, slamming its shark teeth together with a frenzied metallic fury.
Then it came at her. She could do nothing. She was helpless. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.
Then she heard the sound of tires spinning, smelled the smoke of rubber burning and saw the white Ford Explorer come leaping forward.
The reptile thing was so close, jaws open wide, the stench of its foul breath stinging her nostrils, its eyes tearing through to her very core, when the Explorer struck it square in the side, sending it flying away from her. It turned, yellow eyes glazed, and let out a roar that ripped through the night and made her flesh crawl.
“ Get in!” The driver flung the passenger door open and she sprang to life.
The slimy lizard thing with the hot breath roared again, only momentarily stunned. It started for her, but this time her feet had wings and she dove into the open door and slammed it shut as Jim Monday put his foot to the floor and once again she heard screeching tires as the back end of the Explorer fishtailed out of the parking lot.
Chapter Ten
He spun the car to the left, in the direction of the slide, and tightened his hands on the wheel, until the tires bit into the road. He concentrated on the ramp ahead. The speedometer read forty when he entered it, heading toward San Francisco, sixty when they shot out onto the interstate.
He let the needle climb to seventy-five, thought about passing the semi ahead, then decided against it. He didn’t want to be stopped for speeding. He settled back, slowed to sixty-five and rode in the wake of the big truck.
Then the girl screamed.
“ Please stop.” He glanced over at her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
She screamed louder. She was shaking, hands pushing against the dash for support.
“ Please!” He raised his voice more than he wanted.
She stopped. He grabbed another quick look. Sweat ringed her forehand. Small spasms seemed to be running through her body, but the violent shaking had stopped.
“ You’re safe now. That thing can’t get you here.”
She was quietly sobbing.
“ Are you all right?”
She nodded, wiping a tear from her eye with a bent finger.
“ I’m Jim Monday.” He glanced at her when he said it, saw a flicker of understanding. “You must know who I am. I saw you when you arrived with Washington, the cop from Long Beach. I was hiding in the shrubbery, by the parking lot. I snuck in the car after you went to check in. I needed sleep. Then I saw that thing creeping out from under your car before I had a chance to nod off. How did Washington know where I was?”
She didn’t answer and he put her out of his mind as he followed the big truck north.
Ten miles later she said, “You stink.”
He was covered in wet cow manure. It was in his hair, on his face, neck and arms. It was seeping through his clothes. He was surprised that it didn’t repulse him, surprised that he’d adjusted so quickly.
“ Compared with that thing back there, a little cow shit is the least of my problems.”
“ They’ll catch you pretty quick looking and smelling like that.”
“ Where’s your shoes?” he asked, looking down at her bleeding foot.
“ I only went to get cigarettes from the car. I should have listened to my father and stayed in the room.”
“ Washington is your father?”
“ Yes,” she said. “My name’s Glenna.”
“ And he brought you along after a killer?”
“ He doesn’t think you’re a killer. He wants to prove you’re not.”
“ I am,” he said, knuckles white on the wheel.
“ No, my dad wouldn’t try to clear you if you were guilty.” She was running her hands through her hair now, pulling it back. Then she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
“ I didn’t say I was guilty. I killed two of the ones in the police station. Not the cop.” He relaxed his fingers, now holding the wheel like it was a thing to be caressed.
“ And the ones at the inn?” she asked.
“ What are you talking about?” He white-knuckled the wheel again as a chill whipped up his spine, lightning- quick, but glacier-cold.
“ My Dad went to Edna Lambert’s room to find you. He said the walls were covered in blood.”
“ And the Lamberts?”
“ There were no bodies,” she said with a lost little girl voice. She was still very frightened.
“ That thing killed Roma.”
“ Who?”
“ My wife’s sister, her twin.”
“ I’m sorry.”
He nodded and they rode the next ten miles without speaking.
“ You know,” she said, breaking the silence, “you still stink. Don’t look very pretty either.”
“ I’m in a hurry.”
“ For what?”
“ To get to Tampico.”
“ You’re convinced Kohler is behind the attempts on your life?”
“ You know a lot.”
“ Dad and I talk.”
“ Yes, I believe Kohler’s trying to kill me.”
“ Why?”
“ That’s the question, isn’t it? He already has my wife. She’ll get half my money. So why? It doesn’t make sense. But it’s him. I believe it and if you’d been through what I have, you’d believe it too.”
“ I didn’t say I didn’t believe you.”
“ What about your father?”
“ He’s trying to prove you’re innocent.” She sat back in the seat, sighed. She sounded more like a woman now, her voice soft and sure. She didn’t seem afraid anymore.
“ I wish I could believe that,” Monday said, again relaxing his hands on the wheel. Earlier he was afraid she’d go ballistic on him. Scream, rage, maybe go into shock. She was past that now. She’d adjusted quickly. She was stronger than she looked.
“ It’s true,” she said.
“ Then I wish him luck.”
“ So you’re on your way to Tampico to confront Kohler and fight to the death?”
“ No, yes, I don’t know, something like that, maybe.”
“ How far do you think you’ll get smelling like that?”
“ Far enough.”
“ And when is the last time you had some sleep? You look dead behind the wheel. You’ll never make it another three hundred miles without rest.”
“ I’ll make it.”
“ And what about me? What are you going to do with me?”
“ I’ll let you go at the next city.”
