I led them to believe I would help them so that I could dissuade them from trying it in the first place. And the one thing I knew I needed to do to accomplish that was to not let them out of my sight. I threw out the hundred grand that Valenti promised me and that if I could collect it then they could have it to help set up a life in the pueblo. That idea excited them far more than I thought it would. They latched onto the offer like it was the single solution to all of their troubles. They went so far as to strategize how they could help me get it. Jeanette could meet her grandfather to prove that I fulfilled my duty and then she could escape at a later date. We all agreed this was the best approach, and although I thought it was the dumbest idea ever uttered, I couldn’t help but share in their excitement.
Jeanette got up from the couch and headed back down the hallway towards the bedrooms. Then I heard what her mother’s ears heard before me, the soft gurgling and then the full cries of a hungry baby. Nelson and I continued the planning discussion and worked out the remaining details before we could fully lock it into place. There was a knock on the door, and I found myself answering it without even thinking it through. Even when confronted with a face so out of place from our current location, I still didn’t think twice about it.
I shuffled Sami into the room and only when he shoved me forward with one hand and brought up his second hand that held a rusty hammer did I realize my mistake. He shut the door and locked it. His wild eyes danced about the room. He didn’t see what he expected to see and continued searching until he did.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Who?” I tried.
“She’s here,” Sami droned. “I know she’s here. She told me.”
“I don’t know who told you what but whoever you’re looking for isn’t here.” It was like talking to a concrete wall. I heard my words bouncing back to me but they had no effect on the man they were directed at. He just kept asking the same thing over and over again. He rocked on his heels like the ground swelled under him in intermittent waves. There was a serenity and distance in his eyes that was more unnerving than when I first stood under his penetrating gaze. He was talking to us but you got the sense he didn’t even realize there were humans in the room with him.
“I don’t know who you are looking for but I can help you find her. It shouldn’t be too hard,” I continued in the hopes of directing his attention away from the back room. “Do you want to talk about it here or should we go outside where we can have more privacy? It might be better if we went outside. I don’t really know these people all too well so I don’t want to impose on them any longer that I have already. We should probably go outside and talk because I have some other things that we need to discuss, too. Some things I need your help on.”
I shot Nelson a reassuring nod and slowly moved towards the front door, towards Sami and the hammer he held by his side. He opened up his stance, just a little, but the meaning of the gesture was there — he considered letting me pass. I walked into the opening and crossed within striking distance of the hammer. I felt somewhat confident he was going to let me pass but I couldn’t really be sure. And the thought that I now had my back to him made me even more on edge, as a blow from that hammer to the back of my head could come without warning at any moment. I reached out to the lock and in doing so, I glanced back at Sami. He hadn’t moved. I turned the lock very carefully to avoid any sharp sounds that might disturb whatever balance he currently had. The lock moved easily under my thumb. I reached for the door handle and did the same thing. The door slowly swung open and I pivoted to face him.
“Let’s talk outside,” I said softly. Sami started to lean in my direction. “We’ll be better when we talk out here.” He looked up at me and I believed I was finally starting to get through to him. His eyes had a flicker of life in them, a spark of engagement. His leg swung around and took its first hesitant step towards me.
Then that sound again from deep in the house. I heard it first. I watched Sami’s right eye narrow like he was trying to reconcile the distant gurgle with the people in the room. Confusion crossed his face as he couldn’t quite put it all together. I filled the silence with my dithering, just spilling out nonsensical words, anything at all to mask the sounds and distract his attention from what was coming out from the back of the house. It didn’t work. The unmistakable cries of a newborn filled the room. Sami’s head snapped around and his body followed with cold, sleek precision as he calmly walked back in the direction of the baby’s sounds.
I ran after him. It was the only time in my life that I just acted. I caught him outside Nelson’s bedroom and threw my body into his backside. We toppled to the floor, and I rolled off his back and into the hallway wall. I reached out for the arm with the hammer and grabbed what I could. He jerked his arm back and freed himself from my grip but he also lost his balance and fell back into the opposite wall. Jeanette’s screams filled the narrow space. Nelson came bounding down the hall. I barked an order but he was already ahead of me and dashed into the room with Jeanette and the baby and slammed the door shut. The room was the only source of light in the hallway and the closed door cast a near darkness between me and Sami. I didn’t wait. I threw myself forward to the spot where I thought he was. I felt a hard wall but I also got a piece of soft flesh. I clawed at it and anything I could. I felt something warm and moist which might have been his eyes. He wriggled underneath me. I tried to make myself as heavy as possible to keep him down. There was a loud thud and I found myself letting out an airless cough. My back suddenly felt hot and tingly. I gasped for a breath of air and although all the components to breathing were in motion, no air came in.
Another thud from the hammer crashed down on my back, this time lower and squarely on a bone. My mind became singularly focused on keeping his body close to mine. I somehow knew that distance between us meant more blows from the hammer but in more dangerous parts of my body. But with each swing, I felt myself being drained of what little energy and strength I had. My arms numbed from exhaustion. I held on but without any kind of force. I was slipping down. My eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, saw a form moving up and away from me. It made a swift, arching motion, the hammer slightly trailing.
Then the form jerked backwards and a loud clap exploded in the hallway. Sami spun off his feet and stumbled down to his knees. There was barely a pause before he propped himself up with the hammer and got back to his feet. He struggled back into a striking pose. And despite the window of escape, I remained in my position on the floor. The hammer squared itself for a blow to my head.
“Don’t do it!” a voice behind me shouted.
It jarred Sami from his focus of crushing my skull. But he didn’t drop the hammer. He stared at Detective Ricohr and the gun pointed at his chest. In the brief ten seconds of stand-off between Sami and the gun, I could see the deliberation in his head and the eventual conclusion that his own life was much too important for him to let it end prematurely. He smiled and let the hammer fall to the floor.
BLACK ROCKS
The following couple of days were a flurry of activity involving a quick hospital stay and the interminable visits from members of the police. Claire came to see me a few times but her face was only a brief respite from the litany of nurses and doctors and detectives that asked endless questions that I was often too tired to answer. Detective Ricohr came once just to admonish me for ignoring his advice.
“But I did listen,” I reminded him. “I called you before I went into that house.”