house. He knows which room is Thomas’s. We’ve got Thomas well
guarded.” He kissed her once again and rose. “Get some sleep.”
She didn’t want to. After he eased out of her bedroom door,
closing it quietly behind him, she sat up in bed, thinking, remembering,
analyzing. She was asleep in under six minutes. She
dreamed, but not of the terror that was very close now, not of
Adam.
She found herself in a hospital, walking down long, empty corridors.
White, so much white, unending, going on and on, forever.
She was looking for her mother. She smelled ether fumes, sweet
and heavy, the ammonia scent of urine, the stench of vomit. She
opened each white door along the corridor. All the beds were
empty, the white sheets stretched military tight. No one. Where
were the patients?
So long, the hallway just went on and on and there were moans
coming from behind all those doors, people in pain, but there were
no nurses, no doctors, no one at all. She knew the rooms were
empty, she’d looked into all of them, yet the moans grew louder
and louder.
Where was her mother? She called out for her, then she started
running down the corridor, screaming her mothers name. The
moans from those empty rooms grew louder and louder until–
“Hello, Rebecca.”
Chapter 29
Becca lurched up in bed, sweaty, breathing hard, her heart pounding.
No, it wasn’t her mother, no, it was someone else.
Finally he was here. He’d come to her first, not to her father. A
surprise, but not a big one, at least to her. She lay very still, gathering
herself, her control, her focus.
“Hello, Rebecca,” he said again, this time he was even closer to
her face, nearly touching her.
“You can’t be here,” she said aloud. He’d gotten past everyone,
but again, that didn’t overly surprise her. She wouldn’t be surprised
if he’d gotten both the house plans and the security system plans.
And now he wasn’t even six inches from her.
“Of course I can be here. I can be anywhere I want. I’m a cloud
of smoke, a sliding shadow, a glimmer of light. I like how frightened
you are. Just listen to you, your voice is even trembling with
fear. Yes, I like that. Now, you even try to move and I will, very simply,
cut your skinny little throat.”
She felt the razor-sharp blade against the front of her neck,
pressing in ever so slightly.
We knew you would come,” she said.
He laughed quietly, now not even an inch from her ear. She felt
his hot breath touch her skin. “Of course you knew I’d find you. I
can do anything. Your father is so stupid, Rebecca. I’ve always
known it, always, and now I’ve proved it the final time. I figured out
now to find his lair, and poof–like shimmering smoke–I’m here.
You and your bastard father lose now. Soon, you and I are going
down the hall to his bedroom. I want him to wake up with me
standing over him, you in front of me, a knife digging into your
neck. Even with those hot shot FBI guards he’s got positioned all
around this house, I got through with little effort. There’s this great
big oak tree that comes almost to the roof of the house. Just a little
jump, not more than six feet, and I was on the roof, and then it was
easy to pry open that trapdoor into the attic. I took care of the security
alarm up there, cut it off for all of the upstairs. No one saw me.
It’s nice and dark tonight. Stupid, all of you are stupid. Now, get up.”
She did as he said. She felt calm. He kept her very close, the
knife across her neck as he opened her bedroom door and eased
her out into the hallway. “The last door down on the right,” he
said. “Just keep walking and keep quiet, Rebecca.”
It was nearly one o’clock in the morning; Becca saw the time on
the old grandfather clock that sat in its niche in the corridor.
“Open the door,” he said against her ear, “slowly, quietly. That’s right.”