only thing in the top drawer was a forty-five automatic.
“ Does everybody in this town have one of those?” Then she saw the photo. “Hey, look at that.” She pointed and he trained the light on it.
“ Wouldn’t you just know it,” he said. It was a picture of a man and woman holding hands. The woman was wearing a blue formal and the man smiling down at her was wearing a police officer’s uniform.
“ Think it’s one of the ones from last night?” she said.
“ That would just be our luck.” He reached into the drawer to pick up the weapon, when a set of headlights swept through the window as a car pulled up in front. He flicked off the flashlight and closed the drawer. “Quick, we gotta move.”
They jumped into action.
“ Close the doors on the right,” he said, closing the door to the den as they went through it. She closed the door to the master bedroom and the guest room. He got the bathroom and the sewing room.
In the kitchen he picked up both laundry bags.
“ No time for argument. Take these, and wait behind the garage. I’m going to hide in the den till they go to sleep.” He was perspiring heavily.
“ But?”
“ Do it. I have to stay, we need those keys. And get that screen out of sight.” He forced the laundry bags into her hand and herded her toward the back door. “Wait for me, with luck I won’t be too long.” Her lips were quivering, he brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of training. They’ll never know I’m here.”
She dropped the laundry bags and grabbed him behind the head with both hands. She felt his surprise as she pulled him to her lips and gave him a passionate kiss, full of longing and promise. She broke the kiss and picked up the laundry bags with trembling hands.
“ I’ll wait for you, as long as it takes.”
“ Be silent and careful,” he said.
She went out, taking both bags. She dashed to the screen, picked it up and took it with her as she headed for that dark place behind the garage.
She made her way along the garage to the back. She’d never been afraid of the dark, but she was afraid of this place. With the overhang of the garage roof, the area between the cemetery fence and the back of the garage seemed a dark tunnel to nowhere. Once in she dropped the bags and leaned against the garage.
It was quiet. No crickets. No night sounds. The sound of her breathing echoed in the dark, bouncing off the fence, then off the garage, making eerie sounds that skyrocketed her heart. Easy, she told herself, sit down and do your exercises. She sat in a half lotus and imagined a flickering candle. She took deep breaths and forced her heart to slow down.
Then she heard something.
She opened her eyes and her pulse screamed.
A scraping sound.
Sweat trickled under her arms.
Another sound, like a snake’s hiss.
A cold chill ran from the cold ground, from her buttocks to her tail bone, shooting up her spine like cold lightning blasting into the back of her neck. It felt like her hair was covered in snow. Then it felt like it was on fire.
A low growl.
She lost control of her bladder and wet her pants.
Another low growl. It was coming from inside the tunnel, coming toward her, coming for her. She whimpered, a lost little girl sound, and forced herself out of the lotus. She scooted on her rear, away from the thing creeping toward her.
Another growl. Louder. She wanted to turn away. To get away. To run. But she looked. She couldn’t help herself. She thought she saw something, its lizard shape in the dark. For a flash of a second the eyes lit up. A quick bright radioactive flash of yellow, then it was gone.
With her hands behind herself, legs in front, she scooted backwards, crab-like, dragging her backside on the ground. It came closer. She tried to go faster, but it was like she was caught in slow motion. For some reason the thing wasn’t moving any faster than she was. It scraped along the ground, toward her, and she scraped along the ground, away from it.
Then she was at the gap in the fence. The gateway into the cemetery.
The thing growled, louder. She could smell and feel its hot breath.
Diving deep within herself, she summoned up the will to move. She dove through the fence as the yellow- eyed thing dove for her. She went across the wooden plank on her hands and knees, crawling fast. She started to get up, but she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going, more afraid of what was behind than ahead, and she smacked her head into a gravestone.
Stunned, she looked behind herself and saw the slimy green thing, halfway through the hole. It hissed at her, its yellow eyes burning bright. It growled and hot steam escaped from around its shark teeth. But it didn’t come through the hole.
She wanted to get up, but couldn’t. She was trapped, held down by those glowing yellow eyes. But the thing didn’t come for her. And looking at it through the opening in the fence, she was reminded of the gecko with those tiny glaring eyes, halfway out of the drain in the bathroom sink, and she knew they were one and the same.
But still it didn’t come for her and some instinct carried down from ancestors long dead told her why.
It was afraid of the cemetery.
“ Daddy, where are you?” she cried. Then she passed out.
Chapter Fourteen
Hugh Washington rubbed his hands in front of his mouth, but blowing on them was no help. Last night had been hot, tonight cold, but then he was much farther north and he was by the ocean. He should have known better. He should have remembered.
His breath was no match for the cold night breeze coming in off the sea. He cursed himself for not buying a warm jacket, but the shock of Walker’s death tore straight to his heart. That, piled on top of his worry about Glenna, cost him his sense of priorities. Five minutes after Kohler and crew left town he was in Power Glide, driving after them. It was like the old days, he was hunting again.
He sat in a thicket across from the gray house, eyes vigilant, ignoring the occasional bug crawling along his arms or down his neck. He hoped the car was okay. When he saw the gravel road a quarter mile past the Kohler house he turned onto it without thinking. He parked out of sight of the main road and locked the car. Now, sitting in the dark, he missed the car’s warmth and he wondered if anybody ever used that road.
Earlier, during the walk back to Kohler’s, he tried to push all thoughts of Glenna and Walker out of his mind. If he was going to find her, and avenge Walker’s death, he needed to keep full concentration on the job at hand. Time enough to mourn Walker after Glenna was safe and Kohler, if he was responsible, was dead and buried. He tried to push his worries about his car away. Either the car would be okay or it wouldn’t.
He had been sitting in the thicket since morning, over twelve hours. He’d been cold for four, very cold for two, and still no sign of Monday or Glenna. Maybe something happened to them, an accident. Maybe Monday had been caught. It didn’t matter, the smart thing for him to do was wait. He’d give it the night. If they didn’t show by morning, he would go to the police.
He opened a can of beef stew, keeping his eye across the street as he ate. He was on his third bite when the front door opened. Kohler, Mrs. Monday, the Weasel and a third man, big and stupid looking, came out, framed in the light. Big and Stupid locked the door and all four got into the Mercedes. Stupid and the Weasel in back, Mrs. Monday and Kohler in front.
He wondered where Stupid had come from. Had he been in the house all along? Was there anybody else in there? Where were they going now? Dinner? Following them was out of the question. He hadn’t counted on them
