24
Saturday, 2:16 A.M.
MARS
Mars turned off the remaining lights as he passed them. The entry hall turned black. The office followed, then the den. Mars knew that the police would see the rooms fail like closing eyes, and wonder why the house was dying.
Mars went to the kitchen first. He found matches in a jar by the range, then blew out the pilot lights. He splashed gasoline over the range top and gas line, then moved back toward the master bedroom, carefully pouring an unbroken trail of gas along the walls. He loved moving through the house. Shadows gave him the power of invisibility; darkness was his friend. Mars regretted that he would never see his mother again, but only because he enjoyed torturing the rotten bitch. He heard her voice even now, alive in his head:
I hate to see a boy do bad things! I hate to see a bad boy, Marshall! Why do you make me punish you this way?
I don’t know, Mama.
This will make you a better man.
She didn’t like to see a boy do bad things, so now he made her watch all the bad things, and sometimes even made her participate. He regretted that she wasn’t with him now; he would have enjoyed introducing her to Kevin and Dennis.
Mars emptied the first bucket of gasoline, then used the second, continuing the trail of gas into the bedroom. He splashed the bed and the walls and the security door.
Then he took out the matches.
THOMAS
Thomas dialed Talley’s number and pressed the button to send the call.
The phone died.
“Thomas!”
“The battery’s low! You never charge it!”
Jennifer snatched the phone from him and pressed the power button. The phone chirped as it came to life, but once more failed.
Jennifer angrily shook the phone.
“Piece of shit!”
“Do you think he’s really gonna do it?”
“I don’t know!”
“Maybe we should run!”
“We would never get past him!”
Thomas watched as Jennifer pried off the cell phone’s battery. She rubbed the copper contacts hard on her shirt sleeve, then licked them before snapping the battery back onto the phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Thomas, I live on this phone. I know every trick in the book for making it work.”
Mars grinned at the monitors, then lit a match. He held it up to make sure that they saw it. The tiny flame was a glob of flickering white on the monitor screen. He let the flame grow, then brought it close to the door.
Thomas grabbed Jennifer’s arm.
“He’s going to do it!”
Jennifer pushed the power button. The phone chirped again as it came to life, and this time it stayed on. She jammed the phone into his hands.
“Here! It’s working!”
Thomas punched in Talley’s number, then glanced up at the monitors. Mars was staring into the camera as if he saw directly into their eyes and hearts. Then Thomas saw his lips move.
“What’s he saying?”
Jennifer grabbed Thomas and pulled him away from the door.
“He’s saying good-bye.”
Mars tossed the match.
The room erupted in flame.
TALLEY
When Talley heard the first scream from the house, he took a position behind a Highway Patrol car. The CHiPs in the cul-de-sac shifted uncomfortably because they heard it, too. Talley couldn’t tell if the voice was male or female, but there had only been the one scream. Now the house was still.
Talley moved to the nearest Highway Patrol officer.
“You on the command frequency?”
“Yes, sir. You heard that in the house? I think something’s going on.”
“Give me your radio.”
Talley radioed Martin, who acknowledged his call without comment. Talley moved down the line of patrol cars, listening hard for something more from the house, but it was silent.
Then, room by room, the lights went off.
Talley saw Martin approaching, and moved out to meet her. The scream had scared him, but the silence now scared him more. Jones was too far away to have heard.
Martin huffed up, excited.
“What’s going on? Why is the house so dark?”
Talley was starting to explain when they saw a dull orange glow move inside the house at the edges of the window shades. He thought it was a flashlight.
His phone rang.
“Talley.”
It was Thomas, incoherent from shouting and from a weak connection.
“I can’t understand you! Slow down, Thomas; I can’t understand you!”
“Mars killed Kevin and Dennis, and now he’s burning the house! We’re in the security room, me and Jennifer! We’re trapped!”
The cell connection faltered again. Talley knew that the boy must be getting low on power.
“Okay, son. Okay. I’m coming to get you! How much power do you have?”
“It’s dying.”
Talley checked his watch.
“Turn it off, son. Turn it off, but turn it on again in two minutes. I’m on my way in!”
Talley felt strangely distant from himself, as if his feelings were bound in cotton. He had no choice now; he would act to save these children. It didn’t matter what the Watchman wanted, or Jones, or even if it put Jane and Amanda at risk. He pulled Martin by the arm, taking her with him as he ran back along the street toward Jones, shouting instructions as they ran.
“Krupchek’s torching the house! Get the fire truck up here!”
“What about Jones?”
“I’m getting him now. We’re going in!”
“What about your wife?”
“Get the fire truck, and tell your people to stand by; if Jones won’t move, we’ll go in without him!”
Martin fell behind to use her radio. Talley ran toward Jones.
“Krupchek’s torching the house. We have to go in.” Jones glanced toward the house without expression. Talley could see that Jones didn’t believe him.
“We’re waiting to hear from the man.”
Talley grabbed Jones’s arm, and felt him stiffen. Behind them, the fire engine rumbled to life and swung around the corner.
“The house is burning, goddamnit. Krupchek has those kids trapped in the security room. We can’t wait.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Look at it!”
Talley shoved Jones toward the house.
Flames were visible in the den window. Police radios crackled as the perimeter guards reported the fire, and the officers in the cul-de-sac openly milled behind their cars, waiting for someone to do something. Hicks and the Sheriff’s tactical team trotted toward Martin.
Jones seemed frozen in place, anchored by his expectation of the Watchman’s call.
Talley jerked his arm again, pulling him around.
“I’m breaching that house, Jones. Are you coming or not?”
“We go when the man says. Not before.”
“We can’t wait for the man!”
“They’ll fuckin’ kill your family.”
“Those kids are trapped!”
Jones gripped his MP5. Talley slipped his hand under his sweatshirt and touched the .45.
“What? You want to shoot it out with the chief of police here in the street? You think you’ll get the disks that way?”
Jones glanced at the house again, then grimaced. None of this was in the game plan. Everything had suddenly grown beyond their control, and Jones, like Talley, was being swept forward by the storm.
Jones decided.
“All right, goddamnit, but it’s just us going into that house. We’ll secure the structure, then retrieve the disks.”
“If you don’t get your people on the hump, the firemen will get there first.”
They made their assault plan as they ran to the house.
MARS
The flames built slowly, growing up the doors and the walls like flowers on a trellis. Mars followed the flames as they crept along the trail of gas he had made through the house. He thought that the fire would spread with a whoosh, but it moved with surprising lethargy. The air clouded with smoke that smelled of tar.