WATCHERS by Dean R. Koontz

.“ He stood. “And now it’s time to teach you what you’ve never learned.”

Nora could not move. Could not breathe.

He must have come to the house directly from the park, arriving before

she did. He had forced entry, leaving no trace of a break-in, and he’d been

waiting here on the bed all the time she’d been sipping brandy in the kitchen.

There was something about his waiting up here that was creepier than anything

else he had done, waiting and teasing himself with the promise of her, getting a

kick out of listening to her putter around downstairs in ignorance of his

presence.

When he was finished with her, would he kill her?

She turned and ran into the second-floor hallway.

As she put her hand on the newel post at the head of the stairs and started

down, she heard Streck behind het.

She plunged down the steps, taking them two and three at a time, terrified that

she was going to twist an ankle and fall, and at the landing her knee nearly

buckled, and she stumbled but kept going, leaped down the last flight, into the

first-floor hall.

Seizing her from behind, catching the baggy shoulders of her dress, Streck spun

her around to face him.

9

As Travis swung to the curb in front of the Devon house, Einstein stood on the

front seat, placed both forepaws on the door handle, bore down with all of his

weight, and opened the door. Another neat trick. He was out of the truck and

galloping up the front walkway before Travis had engaged the hand brake and

switched off the engine.

Seconds later, Travis reached the foot of the veranda steps in time to see the

retriever on the porch as he stood on his hind paws and hit the doorbell with

one forepaw. The bell was audible from inside.

Climbing the steps, Travis said, “Now, what the devil’s gotten into you?”

The dog rang the bell again.

“Give her a chance—”

As Einstein hit the button a third time, Travis heard a man shout in anger and

pain. Then a woman’s cry for help.

Barking as ferociously as he had done in the woods yesterday, Einstein clawed at

the door as if he actually believed he could tear his way through it.

Pressing forward, Travis peered through a clear segment in the stained-glass

window. The hallway was brightly lit, so he was able to see two people

struggling only a few feet away.

Einstein was barking, snarling, going crazy.

Travis tried the door, found it locked. He used his elbow to smash in a couple

of the stained-glass segments, reached inside, fumbled for the lock, located it

and the security chain, and went inside just as the guy in running shorts pushed

the woman aside and turned to face him.

Einstein didn’t give Travis a chance to act. The retriever bolted along the

hallway, straight toward the runner.

The guy reacted as anyone would upon seeing a charging dog the size of this one:

he ran. The woman tried to trip him, and he stumbled but did not fall. At the

end of the corridor, he slammed through a swinging door, out of sight.

Einstein raced past Nora Devon and reached the still-swinging door at full tilt,

timing his approach perfectly, streaking through the opening as the door rocked

inward. He vanished after the runner. In the room beyond the swinging door—the

kitchen, Travis figured—there was much barking, snarling, and shouting.

Something fell with a crash, then something else made an even louder crash, and

the runner cursed, and Einstein made a vicious sound that gave Travis a chill,

and the din grew worse.

He went to Nora Devon. She was leaning against the newel post at the bottom of

the stairs. He said, “You okay?”

“He almost . . . almost . .

“But he didn’t,” Travis guessed.

“No.”

He touched the blood on her chin. “You’re hurt.”

“His blood,” she said, seeing it on Travis’s fingertips. “I bit the bastard.”

She looked toward the swinging door, which had stopped moving now. “Don’t let

him hurt the dog.”

“Not likely,” Travis said.

The noise in the kitchen subsided as Travis pushed through the swinging door.

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 *