[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

break my cardinal rule at this time. Let s change sides, I m going to drive.
She hid her amazement. In all the years they had worked together,
this was an absolute first.  I must be falling apart, she said as she sank
into Wilson s usual seat.  This is really a big deal.
 It s no big deal. You re rattled. But you know you shouldn t be. I mean, you
weren t the one in danger. It was me.
 You! I was being lured upstairs.
 To get you away from me.
 Why do you even say that? You re a man, a lot heavier than me,
not an obvious target.
 I heard noises on the stairs at the other end of the hall.
Breathing noises, like something hungry slavering over its food. The
tone of his voice frightened her. She laughed nervously in self
defense, the sound pealing out so suddenly that it startled
Wilson visibly. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye but kept the car
moving.
Page 32
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
 I m sorry. It s just that you re the last person I d think of as one of their
victims.
 Why?
 Well, they eat them, don t they? Isn t that what it s all about? Everybody
they ve hit has been eaten.
 Old men, junkies, two cops in a hell of a lonely place. The weak and the
isolated. I
fitted two key criteria in that house older man, isolated from all except you.
And they damn near lured you away upstairs. You ever go hunting?
 I don t like it. I ve never been.
 When I was a kid I hunted with my father. We went after moose up north. We
used to track for days sometimes. One summer we tracked for a week. And
finally we got on to our moose, a big old bull that moved with a slanty track.
A wounded bull. Weak, ready for the slaughter. I ll never forget it. There we
were just getting ready to take a shot when wolves stole out of the shadows
all around us. They went right past us into the clearing where the moose was
grazing. My dad cursed under his breath those wolves were going to scare our
trophy away. But they didn t. That big bull moose looked down at
those scrawny wolves and just snorted. They moved in closer and he
stopped grazing and stared at them. You d never believe it. The damn
wolves wagged their tails! And the moose let out a great roar and they
jumped him. They tore at him, bled him to death. We were fascinated, we were
rooted to the spot. But it was like they agreed together that the killing be
done. The wolves and the moose agreed. He couldn t make it anymore, they
needed meat. So he let them take him. And those timber wolves are scrawny.
They re like German shepherds. They look like they d never be able to bring
down a full-grown bull moose. And they wouldn t, unless he agreed to let them
try. He was watching her again, barely keeping an eye on traffic. He was no
better a driver today than she was.
 What s that supposed to mean?
 I m the bull moose in this version of the story. I wasn t scared, but I knew
they were coming down those stairs. If they had gotten any closer to me, I
think I would have been a goner.
 But you didn t want them to kill you! We re not like animals, we want to
survive.
 I don t know what was going on in my mind, he said. By the choked gruffness
of his voice she knew that if he hadn t been Wilson he would be sobbing.  All
I know is, if they had come any closer I m not so sure I could have even tried
to stop them.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
« ^ »
Becky Neff awoke suddenly out of a restless sleep. She felt that there had
been a noise, yet now there was no sound except the wind, and a
little snow whispering on the windowpane. The glow from the
streetlights far below shone on the ceiling. In the distance a truck
clattered its way down Second Avenue. The hands of the clock showed three
forty-five. She had been asleep four hours. She remembered a hint of
dream a flash of blood, a sickly feeling of menace. Perhaps that had awakened
her. Dick s steady breathing in the bed beside her was a reassurance. If there
had been an unusual noise he would be awake too. Gently she touched him,
thinking as she did of how things had been between them such a short time ago,
and of how change seeps into even the strongest love. She became sad and
afraid. The apartment was cold, the morning heat not yet up.
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
 Dick, she said softly.
There was no response. She hadn t really said it loud enough to wake him; she
didn t say it again. Then she leaned over to get her cigarettes from the night
table and froze.
There was a shadow on the ceiling. She watched it move slowly along, a low
lump like something crawling on its belly across the bedroom terrace. Her
mind raced to the sliding doors locked? She had no idea.
Then the shadow was gone and she found she was still lying on her back, not
reaching across the bed at all. In the manner of bad nightmares this one had
continued even after she seemed to be awake. With the thought her heart
stopped pounding. Of course it had been a dream. Nothing could climb sixteen
stories to an apartment terrace. And nothing could have followed her. Yet she
couldn t quite overcome the feeling that something was out there. Something,
after all, must have sparked the dream. Something must have waked her
up.
The mutilated faces of DiFalco and Houlihan flickered in her mind s eye. She [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]