It moved directly into the light, between the beams, toward the front of the car. They were in the center of the road, behind and to the left of the Miata, witnessing the slow movement. It inched its front legs forward, trying to sink its claws into the black top, fighting for a purchase, squirming, twisting and clawing, closer, ever closer.
It stopped five feet from the front of the car, bathed in the headlights. It fixed them in its eye and was quiet. It raised its great head and turned it slightly to the right, almost as if it knew something was coming and in the distance, behind the beast, Jim Monday saw the high beams of an approaching car, speeding toward them, the sweet sound of its high performance engine, cutting through the night.
The sight of the car snapped Jim out of his paralysis and he pulled Glenna out of the center of the road as the speeding car bore down on them. He turned back to stare at the beast and gasped as it let loose a gut wrenching roar, followed by spitting blood and blue steam. Then the oncoming car was on them, the bright lights momentarily blinding them. When the car passed, the beast was gone. Almost like it had been sucked up into the exhaust of the gray Mercedes.
And the night was silent and dark.
“ Is it gone?” She wrapped her arms around him and held tightly.
“ I don’t know.” He listened to the night and the soft purr of the Miata’s engine. He heard an owl off in the distance. A cricket chirped and was answered. “Yeah, I think it’s gone.” He got up, dusted off, offered her his hand and helped her up.
“ Did you see it? It looked like it had been in a fight. It looked hurt.”
“ Good,” he said and started for the car.
Fifteen minutes later, after filling the tank at an all night service station, he asked the night clerk for directions to Dr. Kohler’s.
“ Just follow Kennedy out to Mountain Sea Road and turn left. Big gray house on the right. Bars on all the windows, you can’t miss it. No point going by though, he ain’t home,” the youth said.
“ How do you know?”
“ Cuz he just gassed up, not ten minutes ago. In a hurry. And he didn’t head home. He was going out of town and he was going fast.”
“ You sure it was him?”
“ You don’t forget a man like that. You had to have passed him coming in. Big gray Mercedes.”
“ Was he alone?” Jim asked. “Was there a woman with him?”
“ Hard to see through those tinted windows, but I think he was alone.”
“ How do you know?”
“ Cuz he pumped his own gas.”
Jim thanked him and paid him.
“ Do we take off after the Mercedes or do we check out his house?” Glenna asked after they were back in the car.
“ The way he was driving, he’s on Highway 1 by now. We’d never catch him.”
“ Do we go by the house now or later, when it’s light?”
“ We know he’s not there now. Besides, I’d like to see my wife as soon as possible and make sure she’s all right. And I have to tell her about her sister.”
“ Do you want to go alone? Should I wait in a motel?”
“ No, we’re still looking for your father. And if he’s any kind of father at all, he’d never forgive me if I left you alone after everything that’s happened. We stay together till we find him.”
He stopped before turning onto Mountain Sea Road.
“ When we get there,” he said, “we’re not going to be as stupid as we were back there.” He reached behind her seat and picked up both laundry bags. He reached into hers and withdrew the forty-five and handed it to her. “One for you,” he said, “and one for me.” He withdrew the second pistol and set it on his lap.
“ You think we might need these with Kohler gone?”
“ I wasn’t thinking about Kohler.”
“ Oh yeah, our yellow-eyed friend might still be lurking around.”
“ Right.” He tossed the bags back behind her seat, turned onto Mountain Sea Road and headed up toward Kohler’s house. It had been a long night and daylight was still over three hours away. He downshifted into third as they approached the house.
“ Look, it’s my father’s car!” She pointing to an antique Chevrolet parked in the driveway. Monday continued on, slowing, but not stopping. He pulled over when he was safely past the house and parked.
“ Come on, let’s go! My father is back there.”
Jim grabbed one of the forty-fives, got out of the car and started for Kohler’s at a run.
“ You die, motherfucker!” a voice boomed out as he was going up the porch and Jim knew someone had a gun pointed at him.
But before the man pulled the trigger, a skinny man came running out the front door. “It’s gonna blow,” he shouted, and the night was rocked by an explosion coming from the back of the house and the place erupted in flames.
Jim knew there wasn’t enough time to bring his own gun to bear on the man behind him, but he had to try.
Another blast lacerated the night. Jim turned and saw a big man jerk forward his finger squeezing the trigger, sending still another explosion out into the dark, the shot going wild.
Glenna stepped out of the thicket, a look of horror on her face as she watched the man jerk and dance, a stringless marionette out of control, finally collapsing, face down on the driveway.
Jim stared at her standing in the middle of the road, holding the smoking gun at her side. Her sweat soaked skin reflecting bronze from the rising flames. She was an avenging angel and he was sure he had never seen anyone so beautiful.
He heard movement behind, spun around toward the skinny little man who had come screaming out of the house. And he saw into the eyes of a demented soul.
“ You killed my brother,” he wailed. Then he turned away from Jim and fled into the house.
“ My father’s in there,” Glenna screamed.
If there was a chance Washington was still alive, he owed it to Glenna to try and get him out.
He dashed through the front door holding his breath. He almost tripped over his wife’s nude body. He was heartsick. Smoke filtered in from the back of the house. He bent low in a search for breathable air. He went to his wife, threw down the gun and dropped to his knees. Her throat had been cut. She was dead and there was nothing he could do for her.
It was too much, first David, then Roma, now this. The despair was total. He was lost in a black sea of agony, sinking under waves of heartbreak and anguish, the raging fire of his grief, as real as the fire raging around him. He rocked his head back and stared up at the smoke running along the ceiling and wailed one long, loud word, “Noooo.”
He felt the smoldering heat on the back of his neck, but didn’t care. It was over, he couldn’t go on. Sweat dripped off his forehead, stinging his eyes and blurring his vision. It was hard to breathe and getting harder, but it didn’t matter anymore, nothing mattered anymore. The sooner it was over the better.
“ Stop it! Get a grip on yourself.”
“ Go away,” he thought.
“ No, you can’t do this. She’s dead, you’re not. I need your help. I need you. Glenna’s father needs you.”
“ Glenna’s father?” she had his attention.
“ Over there. Do something!”
Washington was on the other side of the room, tied to a toppled chair.
“ He might be alive, you have to check!” Donna ordered. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself and let that man die.”
He slid along the carpet to the police officer, staying under the rising smoke, fighting to ignore the heat. Washington was unmoving and looked dead, but Jim had to be sure. Using his index finger he felt his neck for a pulse and found one.
“ He’s alive.” Donna thought.
“ I’ve got to get him out of here.” Jim tried to untie the ropes, but his hands were sweaty and slippery and the bonds too tight. He only succeeded in frustrating himself and wasting time.