WATCHERS by Dean R. Koontz

with Violet and, on venturing out, had looked at little more than her own shoes,

she was seeing the town for the first time. It both charmed and thrilled her.

At one o’clock, in Alameda Park within sight of the pond, she sat on a bench

near three ancient and massive date palms. Her feet were getting sore, but she

did not intend to go home early. She opened the paper bag and began lunch with

the yellow apple. Never had anything tasted half as delicious. Famished, she

quickly ate the orange, too, dropping the pieces of peel into the bag, and she

was starting on the first of the oatmeal cookies when Art Streck sat down beside

her.

“Hello, prettiness.”

He was wearing only blue running shorts, running shoes, and thick white athletic

socks. However, he clearly hadn’t been running, for he wasn’t sweating. He was

muscular with a broad chest, deeply tanned, exceedingly masculine. The whole

purpose of his attire was to display his physique, so Nora at once averted her

eyes.

“Shy?” he asked.

She could not speak because the bite she had taken from the oatmeal cookie was

stuck in her mouth. She couldn’t work up any saliva. She was afraid she would

choke if she tried to swallow the piece of cookie, but she couldn’t very well

just spit it out.

“My sweet, shy Nora,” Streck said.

Looking down, she saw how badly her right hand was trembling. The cookie was

being shaken to pieces in her fingers; bits of it dropped onto the paving

between her feet.

She had told herself that she would go for a daylong walk as a first step toward

liberation, but now she had to admit there had been another reason for getting

out of the house. She had been trying to avoid Streck’s attentions. She was

afraid to stay home, afraid that he’d call and call and call. But now he had

found her in the open, beyond the protection of her locked windows and bolted

doors, which was worse than the telephone, infinitely worse.

“Look at me, Nora.”

No.

“Look at me.”

The last of the disintegrating cookie fell from her right hand.

Streck took her left hand, and she tried to resist him, but he squeezed,

grinding the bones of her fingers, so she surrendered. He put her hand palm down

on his bare thigh. His flesh was firm and hot.

Her stomach twisted, and her heart thumped, and she did not know which she would

do first—puke or pass out.

Moving her hand slowly up and down his bare thigh, he said, “I’m what you need,

prettiness. I can take care of you.”

As if it were a wad of paste, the oatmeal cookie glued her mouth shut. She kept

her head down, but she raised her eyes to look out from under her brow. She

hoped to see someone nearby to whom she could call for help, but there were only

two young mothers with their small children, and even they were too far away to

be of assistance.

Lifting her hand from his thigh, putting it on his bare chest, Streck said,

“Having a nice stroll today? Did you like the mission? Hmmm? And weren’t the

yucca blossoms pretty at the courthouse?”

He rambled on in that cool, smug voice, asking her how she had liked other

things she’d seen, and she realized he had been following her all morning,

either in his car or on foot. She hadn’t seen him, but there was no doubt he bad

been there because he knew every move she had made since leaving the house,

which frightened and infuriated her more than anything else he had done.

She was breathing hard and fast, yet she felt as if she could not get her

breath. Her ears were ringing, yet she could hear every word he said too

clearly. Though she thought she might strike him and claw at his eyes, she was

also paralyzed, on the verge of striking but unable to strike, simultaneously

strong with rage and weak with fear. She wanted to scream, not for help but in

frustration.

“Now,” he said, “you’ve had a real nice stroll, a nice lunch in the park, and

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *