WATCHERS by Dean R. Koontz

PCP, Ken thought. Only some asshole stoned on PCP would be violent enough to do

something like this.

Bordeaux Ridge was silent.

Nothing moved except the shadows, which seemed to grow longer by the second.

“Some angel-dust junkie did this,” Ken said, putting his fears about PCP into

words.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Teel said. “You want to look any farther?”

“Not just the two of us, by God. Let’s radio for assistance.”

They began to retrace their steps, warily keeping a watch on all sides as they

moved, and they did not go far before they heard the noises. A crash. A clatter

of metal. Glass breaking.

Ken had no doubt whatsoever where the sounds came from. The racket originated

inside the closest of the three houses that were nearing completion and that

would serve as sales models.

With no suspect in sight and no clue as to where to begin looking for one, they

would have been justified in returning to the patrol car and calling for

assistance. But now that they’d heard the disturbance in the model home, their

training and instinct required them to act more boldly. They moved toward the

back of the house.

A plyboard skin had been nailed over the studs, so the walls were not open to

the elements, and chicken wire had been fixed to the tar-papered boards, and

half the place was stuccoed. In fact, the stucco looked damp, as if the job had

been started only today. Most of the windows were installed; only a few cutouts

were still covered with tattered sheets of opaque plastic.

Another crash, louder than the first, was followed by the sound of more glass

shattering inside.

Ken Dimes tried the sliding glass door that connected the rear yard and the

family room. It was not locked.

From outside, Tee! studied the family room through the glass. Although some

light still entered the house by way of undraped doors and windows, shadows

ruled the interior. They could see that the family room was deserted, so Tee!

eased through the half-open door with his flashlight in one hand and his Smith &

Wesson clutched firmly in the other.

“You go around front,” Tee! whispered, “so the bastard doesn’t get out that

way.”

Bending down to stay below window level, Ken hurried around the corner, along

the side of the house, around to the front, and every step of the way he

half-expected someone to jump on him from the roof or leap out through one of

the unfinished windows.

The interior had been Sheetrocked, the ceilings textured. The family room opened

into a breakfast area adjoining the kitchen, all of it one large flowing space

without partitions. Oak cabinets had been installed in the kitchen, but the tile

floor had not yet been put down.

The air had the lime odor of drywaller’s mud, with an underlying scent of wood

stain.

Standing in the breakfast area, Tee! listened for more sounds of destruction,

movement.

Nothing.

If this was like most California tract homes, he would find the dining room to

the left, beyond the kitchen, then the living room, the entrance foyer, and a

den. If he went into the hallway that led out of the breakfast area, he would

probably find a laundry room, the downstairs bath, a coat closet, then the

foyer. He could see no advantage of one route over another, so he went into the

hall and checked the laundry first.

The dark room had no windows. The door was standing half-open, and the

flashlight showed only yellow cabinets and the spaces where the washer and dryer

would be placed. However, Teel wanted to look at the section behind the door,

where he figured there was a sink and work area. He pushed the door all the way

open and went in fast, swinging the flashlight and the gun in that direction. He

found the stainless-steel sink and built-in table that he expected, but no

killer.

He was more on edge that he had been in years. He could not keep the Image of

the dead man from flickering repeatedly through his mind: those empty eye

sockets.

Not just on edge, he thought. Face it, you’re scared shitless.

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 *