to throw in the towel for about three minutes.” Then he said
toward Savich, “Then she put her Coonan in her pocket and went
out into the woods. Why’d you go out there, Becca? It wasn’t real
smart, you know.”
She looked inward for a moment, all of them saw it–and the
sanding and caulking stopped. Not one of them was surprised
when she shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I just wanted to go there,
alone, and sit under the sunlight against that tree. Jacob Marley’s
house was getting to me. There are ghosts here, the air is filled with
remnants of the people who lived here, residue, maybe, not all of it
good.”
“Before I finally found her, I nearly croaked,” Adam said, realizing
he was grinning at Savich. Well, hell, why not? He was here and
he did seem competent, at least so far. Maybe he’d still fall flat on
his face.
“Listen, I’ve got to contact my men,” Adam said. “The stalker–
or whatever he is–is here. He tried to kill us, or maybe he was just
after me–that’s more likely. We’ve got to close this town down.
And we need to finish with this damned door before he just walks
right up and shoots us.”
“He won’t even get close,” Becca said and raised her Coonan.
“Agreed,” Savich said. He winked at Sherlock. “You want to tell
Adam about how we’ve got everything covered?”
“Yep. A half dozen guys from Thomas are on their way here.”
She looked down at her wristwatch. “In about an hour, I’d estimate.
And here we were worried that there wouldn’t be enough
for them to do. We were really wrong on that one.”
“The timing’s perfect,” Savich said as he wiped all the sawdust
off his hands. “Don’t anyone fret that they’ll all be piling into town
and staying at Errol Flynn’s Hammock. Nope, they won’t stick out
at all, but they’ll have this place well covered. Now, we need to get
busy as soon as we’re done with this door. We need to bug the
phone. He’ll probably call again, soon. Also, we need protection
around the house. The guys will be calling in and we’ll set up a
guard rotation. Also, Adam, you can show them where the blood is
and they can get it analyzed. We’ll at least verify that it’s human.”
“I know I hit him.”
Savich nodded to Becca. “Yes, I’m sure you did. We’ll see if anything
interesting shows up in the blood work. Now, it would probably
be a smart thing if you stayed inside, Becca.”
Sherlock said, “If he was trying to kill Adam, to make things easier
for him, then that makes all of us open season. It would be wise
if this Tyler McBride kept himself and his kid away from here. It
isn’t safe.”
And Adam thought, Where’s my brain? I should have thought and
said all of that.
Becca said, looking Sherlock straight in the eye, “No, I don’t
want Tyler or Sam in any danger, either. Now, who’s this Thomas?”
“He’s Adam’s boss,” Savich said, well aware that Adam was on full
alert, “or he used to be. Now Adam is on his own. Actually, as I understand
it, Adam is doing Thomas a favor. Hey, don’t worry about
it, Becca, you don’t know him. Adam, you did a good job of filling
in all the holes. A bit of stain and the door will look perfect again.”
Becca jumped up. “I left it in the kitchen.”
“I’ll go with you,” Sherlock said. “I think I’d like to look at that
gash in the basement wall again.”
“Of course he was after you,” Savich said easily, once Becca was
out of hearing. “He wanted you out of the way, wounded or dead,
it didn’t matter to him. It still doesn’t.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“He wants her. He wants to take her so he figured he’d have to
knock you out of the way.”
“That’s what I figure.”
Chapter 1 5
Becca held the can of stain in front of her.
Adam, instead of taking the can, found himself just standing
there staring down at the too thin, formerly pale young woman