A big, burly man was blocking Rob’s path, standing right in front of him.
Someone else was trying to open the back door, but it was locked.
“He’s kidnapped her, probably.”
“What a monster.”
“Someone call the police.”
“The phones don’t work, remember?”
“Listen,” said Rob. “It’s not what you think. She was biking in the middle of the road, and Jim didn’t see her in time… There was a cop, but Jim realized that the only way to get her to the hospital was to take her ourselves.”
“Then why aren’t you at the hospital?”
“It’s a long story,” said Rob. “If you’ll just let me explain.”
“He’s lying!”
“We’ve got to get this woman out of there!”
The crowd was growing rowdier. It sent a chill down Rob’s back.
This was more intense than at the movie theatre.
Anger was starting to appear in their eyes.
These were, or had been, normal people.
All it took was one stressor, one minor crisis, and people started to lose their cool.
Rob knew he was going to have to do something. He reached behind him, hit the automatic door lock, and slammed closed the passenger side door.
Jim had the keys. This way the crowd wouldn’t be able to do anything to the car.
Rob was a big guy.
He made his move, pushing his way through, moving suddenly and swiftly.
For a tense moment, it seemed like they weren’t going to let him through. A hand grasped his arm.
But he made it, and he didn’t waste any time. He ran across the flat yard, straight to the door.
He swung the storm door open wildly and reached for the door handle.
He turned it, but it was locked.
With a closed fist, he pounded on the door.
“Jim!” he called out. “Open up! We’ve got trouble.”
He didn’t dare turn around. Somehow, it was easier not knowing whether the crowd was coming after him. Or whether they were doing something to the car.
“Jim!” he called out, pounding on the door as loud as he could.
8
“What have you done?” cried Judy in a high-pitched voice.
Tim lay on the floor. Blood stained his shirt. His head was tilted to the sky. His mouth was open and his eyes were lifeless and open. His hand still clutched the knife.
Jim said nothing. His heart was pounding. His body was filled with adrenaline.
He’d never shot anyone before. He’d never even brandished his revolver until today. He’d gone to shoot at the range, and that was about it. Sure, he’d been hunting once or twice, but that was different.
He’d never even hit the birds he’d been aiming at.
The revolver was still in his hand.
He put it back in its holster and rose slowly to his feet.
His back felt stiff, and there was pain in his lower back from falling onto the hardwood floor.
Judy had moved to the opposite corner of the room. She cowered there, her body shaking. She stared at Jim with an expression of intense fear, as if she didn’t recognize him.
There was a phone there on the wall, and she grabbed it, clutching it.
Her fingers frantically moved across the buttons.
“It doesn’t work,” said Jim, speaking calmly. “Look, Judy, I was defending myself. And you. You saw it. He attacked me with a knife. He was trying to steal your provisions. That’s as good as killing you. Now, where’s Aly?”
Jim felt himself coming back down from the intensity of the shooting. And his mind turned immediately to his wife.
“Aly!” he called out, pointing his mouth in the direction of the stairs. “Aly! It’s me, Jim!”
If Aly was upstairs, wouldn’t she have heard the gunshot?
Maybe she was upstairs, terrified.
“Aly! It’s OK! You can come down.”
“She’s not here,” said Judy, her voice shaking.
“What do you mean she’s not here?”
Judy just shook her head. Her fingers were again moving across the buttons of the phone.
“I always knew you were no good,” she said. “But I never thought you’d come to this. Shooting a poor boy like that… It was just some cans and water… It wasn’t like he was trying to take my jewelry.”
“Your jewelry!” said Jim, raising his voice. “This is more serious. Don’t you realize what’s going on?”
It was a dumb question. Obviously she didn’t realize what was going on. She was still trying to contact the police.
There was a loud knock at the door.
Jim ignored it.
But the knock continued.
“Jim!” It was Rob’s voice.
Jim crossed the distance to the door rapidly and threw the door open.
Rob rushed in, his face sweaty, looking worried and frantic.
“There’s a whole lot of people out there, and they’re all starting to get…” But his voice trailed off as his eyes fell on the body on the floor.
“Self defense,” said Jim, simply.
Rob didn’t seem to know what to say, so he did what he often did, which was ignore the situation and plow on ahead.
“The people outside,” he continued, breathlessly. “They’ve surrounded the car. I don’t know what they’re going to do. They think we kidnapped the woman in the back of the car.”
With the mention of a woman in the car, the terror on Judy’s face doubled. She audibly gasped, and clutched the phone even harder. Her eyes darted between Jim and Rob, and her body looked frozen, petrified.
Jim said nothing for a moment. His mind was racing.
There was no time to waste.
And he needed to find his wife.
“Judy,” said Jim, speaking in as calm of a voice as he could muster. “This was self defense. He was coming at me with a knife. And we did not kidnap anyone. We’re trying to take her to the hospital. The phones are all down and this is a very serious situation. I’m trying to find Aly so that I can help her. Can you tell me where she is?”
Jim stared at Judy and waited. Something seemed to be happening with her, as if she was struggling between two choices. Clearly, she didn’t want to believe reality. She didn’t want to admit to herself what was happening. She wanted to stay in the safe confines of how she’d always believed the world really was.
The room itself had never seemed so bleak. Blood from the corpse was starting to leak onto the hardwood floor, and there was a stench that meant Tim had evacuated his bowels.
“I thought she was with you,” said Judy, in a voice so quiet Jim barely heard her.
“She’s not with me,” said Jim. “Do you know where she might be?”
There was no point in yelling at her or demanding that she tell him. She either would or she wouldn’t.
Jim found himself involuntarily holding his breath.
Rob’s ragged out-of-breath breathing seemed to fill up the otherwise quiet room.
“He said she was arrested last night,” said Judy, gesturing to the corpse.
“Arrested?” said Jim.
Judy nodded.
What in the world would she have been arrested for?
But Jim knew it didn’t matter.
He didn’t have any other leads on where she might be. The only other places he could check would be her work, and possibly a friend’s house. But those were unlikely.
“You’re sure that he said she’d been arrested?”
Judy nodded again.
Jim couldn’t think of any reason that Tim would have wanted to make something like that up.
And stranger things had happened.
“OK,” said Jim. “We’re headed to the police station. Let’s go.”
He stared at Judy.
She didn’t move.
“Come on,” he said. “You’re coming with us.”