He could kill both of us.
But
The baby. Please dont hurt the baby.
Dykstra clenched his fists and thought, Fucking Lifetime Channel!
The woman was still retching.
Stop that, Ellen.
I cant!
No? Okay, good. Ill stop it for you. Fuckin hoor.
Another whap! punctuated hoor. Dykstras heart sank even lower. He would not have thought it possible. Soon it would be beating in his belly. If only he could channel the Dog! In a story it would workhed even been thinking about identity before making the evenings great mistake of turning into this rest area, and if that wasnt what the writing manuals called foreshadowing, then what was?
Yes, he would turn into his hit man, stride into the womens room, beat the living shit out of Lee, then go on his way. Like Shane in that old movie with Alan Ladd.
The woman retched again, the sound of a machine turning stones into gravel, and Dykstra knew he wasnt going to channel the Dog. The Dog was make-believe. This was reality, rolling out right here in front of him like a drunks tongue.
Do it again and see what it gets you, Lee invited, and now there was something deadly in his voice. He was getting ready to go all the way. Dykstra was sure of it.
Ill testify in court. And when they ask me what I did to stop it, Ill say nothing. Ill say that I listened. That I remembered. That I was a witness. And then I will explain that that is what writers do when theyre not actually writing.
Dykstra thought of running back to his Jagquietly!and using the phone in the console to call the state police. *99 was all it took. The signs saying so were posted every ten miles or so: IN CASE OF ACCIDENT DIAL *99 ON CELLULAR. Except there was never a cop around when you needed one. The closest tonight would turn out to be in Bradenton or maybe Ybor City, and by the time the trooper got here, this little red rodeo would be over.
From the womens room there now came a series of thick hiccuping sounds, interspersed with low gagging noises. One of the stall doors banged. The woman knew that Lee meant it just as surely as Dykstra knew it. Just vomiting again would likely be enough to set him off. He would go crazy on her and finish the job. And if they caught him? Sec ond degree. No premeditation. He could be out in fifteen months and dating this ones kid sister.
Go back to your car, John. Go back to your car, get in behind the wheel, and drive away from here. Start working on the idea that this never happened. And make sure you dont read the paper or watch the TV news for the next couple of days. Thatll help. Do it. Do it now. Youre a writer, not a fighter. You stand five-nine, you weigh 162 pounds, youve got a bad shoulder, and the only thing you can do here is make things worse. So get back in your car and send up a little prayer to whatever God looks out for women like Ellen.
And he actually turned away before an idea occurred to him.
The Dog wasnt real, but Rick Hardin was.
Ellen Whitlow of Nokomis had fallen into one of the toilets and landed on the hopper with her legs spread and her skirt up, just like the hoor she was, and Lee started in there after her, meaning to grab her by the ears and start slamming her dumb head against the tiles. Hed had enough. He was going to teach her a lesson shed never forget.
Not that these thoughts went through his mind in any coherent fashion. What was in his mind now was mostly red. Under it, over it, seeping through it was a chanting voice that sounded like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith: Aint my baby anyway, aint mine, aint mine, you aint pinning it on me, you fuckin hoor.
He took three steps, and that was when a car horn began to blat rhythmically somewhere close by, spoiling his own rhythm, spoiling his concentration, taking him out of his head, making him look around: Bamp! Bamp! Bamp! Bamp!
Car alarm, he thought, and looked from the entrance to the womens room back to the woman sitting in the stall. From the door to the hoor. His fists began to clench in indecision. Suddenly he pointed at her with his right index finger, the nail long and dirty.
Move and youre dead, bitch, he told her, and started for the door.
It was brightly lit in the shithouse and almost as brightly lit in the rest-area parking lot, but in the notch between the two wings it was dark. For a moment he was blind, and that was when something hit him high up on the back, driving him forward in a stumbling run that took him only two steps forward before he tripped over something elsea legand went sprawling on the concrete.
There was no pause, no hesitation. A boot kicked him in the thigh, freezing the big muscle there, and then high up on his blue-jeaned ass, almost to the small of his back. He started to scramble
A voice above him said, Dont roll over, Lee. Ive got a tire iron in my hand. Stay on your stomach or Ill beat your head in.
Lee lay where he was with his hands out in front of him, almost touching.
Come out of there, Ellen, said the man who had hit him. We have no time to fool around. Come out right now.
There was a pause. Then the hoors voice, trembling and thick: Did you hurt him? Dont you hurt him!
Hes okay, but if you dont come out right now, Im going to hurt him bad. Ill have to. A pause, then: And itll be your fault.
Meanwhile, the car horn, beating monotonously into the nightBamp! Bamp! Bamp! Bamp!
Lee started to turn his head on the pavement. It hurt. What had the fucker hit him with? Had he said a tire iron? He couldnt remember.
The boot slammed into his ass again. Lee yelled and turned his face back to the pavement.
Come out, lady, or Im going to open up his head! I have no choice here!
When she spoke again, she was closer. Her voice was unsteady, but now tending toward outrage: Why did you do that? You didnt have to do that!
I called the police on my cell, the man standing above him said. There was a trooper at mile 140. So weve got ten minutes, maybe a little less. Mr. Lee-Lee, do you have the car keys or does she?
Lee had to think about it.
She does, he said at last. She said I was too drunk to drive.
All right. Ellen, you go down there and get in that PT Cruiser, and you drive away. You keep going until you get to Lake City, and if youve got the brains God gave a duck, you wont turn around there, either.
I aint leaving him with you! She sounded very angry now. Not when you got that thing!
Yes, you are. You do it right now or Ill fuck him up royally.
You bully!
The man laughed, and the sound frightened Lee more than the fellows speaking voice. Ill count to thirty. If youre not driving southbound out of the rest area by then, Ill take his head right off his shoulders. Ill drive it like a golf ball.
You cant
Do it, Ellie. Do it, honey.
You heard him, the man said. Your big old teddy bear wants you to go. If you want to let him finish beating the shit out of you tomorrow nightand the babythats fine with me. I wont be around tomorrow night. But right now Im done fucking with you; so you put your dumb ass in gear.
This was a command she understood, delivered in language familiar to her, and Lee saw her bare legs and sandals moving past his lowered line of vision. The man whod sandbagged him started counting loudly: One, two, three, four
Hurry the hell up! Lee shouted, and the boot was on his ass, but more gently now, rocking him rather than whacking him. But it still hurt. Meanwhile, Bamp! Bamp! Bamp! into the night. Get your ass in gear!
At that her sandals began to run. Her shadow ran beside them. The man had reached twenty when the PT Cruisers little sewing-machine engine started up, had reached thirty when Lee saw its taillights backing into the parking area. Lee waited for the man to start whacking and was relieved when he didnt.
Then the PT Cruiser started down the exit lane and the engine sound began to fade, and then the man standing over him spoke with a kind of perplexity.