Blood Games (51 page)

    It would feel very good to curl up in a dark place and hug her knees. And stay that way until morning.

    ‘Are you scared?’ she asked.

    ‘I don’t like the waiting.’

    ‘I just wish the whole thing would go away.’

    ‘It’ll be fine once we’ve taken care of Hank.’

    ‘You’re the one who said we might all be dead.’

    ‘I was… just in a mood. The booze and everything. We’ll be fine. We’ve got the shotgun. We’ll blow the fucker’s head off. He won’t have a chance.’

    ‘I hope you’re right. But something can always go wrong.’

    ‘You worry too much, Hickok.’

    ‘We could use Hickok tonight. Or at least a couple of his six-guns.’

    ‘Hell. Batty’s over ’n under’ll do us just fine.’

    They wiped away the remaining chili and grease with wads of paper towels, then piled the cups and spoons into the cook pot. Abilene clamped the paper roll against her side. She picked up the used towels so they wouldn’t be left behind to litter the shore.

    Then, Finley in the lead, they walked out of the woods into the evening’s golden glow of sunlight.

    At the top of the driveway, they found that Cora had abandoned her perch on the car. She was stretched out on the pavement, hands folded on her belly. Vivian sat crosslegged, the shotgun resting across her thighs. She was facing Jim, who sat with his arms folded around his knees.

    Someone, probably Vivian, had already put away the stove and supplies. On the hood of the car was a box containing the empty cans. Abilene tossed the wet, dirty balls of paper into the box. Then she braced a door of the Wagoneer open while Finley climbed inside with the roll of towels and the pot full of cups and spoons.

    ‘Need anything while I’m in here?’

    Ducking, Abilene looked in. The back seat and rear storage area were heaped with clothing, swimsuits, shoes, purses, sleeping bags, food and gear. ‘See if you can find the flashlights,’ she said.

    ‘They’re in here someplace.’

    While she watched Finley dig through the mess, she considered getting in and hunting for her sneakers and fresh clothes. Sneakers would be better than the moccasins she was wearing.

    
Especially if I have to run
.

    It would feel good to get into dry clothes. But the way she was sweating, anything she put on would very quickly be just as moist as what she was already wearing. Besides, this skirt and blouse were already ruined. No point wrecking anything else.

    The others hadn’t changed, either, though the back of Cora’s tank top was snagged and tom and half Finley’s shirt buttons were missing. If anybody needed fresh clothes, they did.

    Finley handed out two flashlights.

    ‘See if you can find my sneakers,’ Abilene said.

    ‘They’re right here. I just saw them.’ She turned away to look for them.

    ‘Are you gonna wear what you’ve got on?’

    ‘You think we should dress for the ball? Who are we trying to impress?’

    ‘Guess not.’

    ‘These’re my fightin’ duds,’ Finley said, and crawled out backward with the shoes.

    Abilene put them on, tossed her moccasins into the car, then trudged to the top of the driveway and joined the others. She lay down on the pavement. She folded her hands beneath her head and crossed her ankles and shut her eyes.

    Nothing to do now but wait, she thought.

    It felt good to be lying down.

    
If I could only fall asleep. Get away from all this. At least for a while
.

    ‘Maybe we should have Jim tell us about Helen,’ Cora said.

    ‘What about her?’ Finley asked.

    ‘Hank told him… how he got her.’

    ‘Jeez,’ Finley muttered.

    ‘I don’t think I want to know,’ Vivian said. ‘We saw what he did to her. We don’t have to hear about it.’

    ‘Not sure I wanta talk about it anyhow,’ Jim said. ‘Made me just sick, him tellin’ me. Had me lickin’ his eyes, ’n he was moanin’ ’n rubbin’ me the whole time. It was awful. But that’s when I made up my mind I had to save the rest of ya. I’ll help ya kill him, if ya let me.’

    ‘We’ll do the killing,’ Finley said.

    ‘You’ve already helped us a lot,’ Vivian said. ‘Just by telling us about him. Now we know who we’re up against.’

    ‘Especially about his eyes,’ Cora added. ‘It’s good to know he can’t operate in light.’

    ‘He can see like a cat in the dark,’ Jim said.

    ‘We oughta go for his eyes with the flashlights,’ Finley suggested.

    She really does believe, Abilene thought.

    And pictured herself and Finley shining flashlights into Hank’s eyes. He is a huge man, pale in the darkness. Very pale. An albino. Did Jim say he was an albino? And hairless. And holding a big knife. He is wearing a loincloth. Like a redskin from the movies, but he’s white, not red. White as the belly of a fish.

    When they shine the light in his eyes, he roars and staggers backward and flings up his arms, trying to block the painful brightness. He acts… like The Thing. Not The Thing from the remake, but the real one. James Amess. When he’s being zapped. Bellowing with rage and pain, writhing and twitching like a lunatic dancer.

    Doing the Mash.

    The Monster Mash.

    ‘The Monster Mash is a graveyard…’

    Abilene flinched awake, opened her eyes, and what she saw made her insides shrivel.

    Vivian. Crouched beside her. A hand on her shoulder.

    Vivian. But not the way Abilene wanted to see her. Not at all.

    Her tangled hair, usually auburn gleaming with red and gold highlights, looked dull brown. The whites of her eyes were blue like snow in evening shadows. Her sunburnt face was dusky, her white polo shirt gray.

    But not as gray as the sky.

    ‘It’s time,’ Vivian told her.

    Not what Abilene wanted to hear.

    ‘Time to rise ’n shine, Sleeping Beauty,’ Finley said.

    Abilene groaned. She pulled her hands out from under her head. They felt lifeless. So did her rump. Even her feet, crossed at the ankles, were a little numb.

    She uncrossed them, sat up and shook her arms and legs.

    ‘Guess I conked out for a while,’ she muttered, and felt shivery as hot, prickly sensations spread through her feet and fingers and buttocks.

    ‘More than a while,’ Cora said.

    ‘You didn’t miss much,’ Vivian told her, standing up.

    Abilene got to her feet. She hopped a few times, wincing. She rubbed her rump through the damp denim skirt. ‘I don’t recommend falling asleep on concrete,’ she said.

    ‘Pins and needles?’ Vivian asked.

    ‘With a vengeance.’ Also, her skin felt itchy under the knife scabbard. Even though she hadn’t been sleeping on it, the moist leather had been tight against her hip and thigh ever since she’d taken it from Batty.

    She drew out the big knife. Its sheath remained against her skin as if glued there. She reached beneath her skirt and pulled, grimacing as it peeled away.

    She slid the blade into its holder, then rubbed her irritated skin.

    ‘At least you got some rest,’ Vivian told her.

    ‘Wish I could’ve fallen asleep,’ Finley said. She was sitting on the hood of the Wagoneer, her feet on the bumper. The shotgun rested across her lap.

    Who let her have the shotgun? Abilene wondered.

    ‘I guess I must’ve missed something,’ she said. She shoved the covered knife under the waistband at the other side of her skirt. Its tip caught her panties and pushed them down. Turning away from Jim, she hitched them back up. Then she frowned at Finley. ‘How come you’ve got the gun?’

    ‘Just lucky.’

    ‘I’m a bit handicapped,’ Cora explained. ‘Wouldn’t make sense for me to be the shooter. Vivian doesn’t want to be.’

    ‘Screwed her up just chopping the cat,’ Finley said.

    ‘I’m not sure I could shoot at a person,’ Vivian said.

    ‘Whereas,’ Cora added, ‘Finley has already shown herself capable of that. Even if she did miss.’

    ‘Hey, I was in a moving boat, for Godsake. Batty was probably out of range, anyway.’

    ‘And Finley wants to be the one,’ Cora said. ‘Fuckin’-A-right.’

    ‘So unless you want to do it…’

    Abilene shook her head. She rubbed the sore backs of her hands.

    ‘Didn’t think so,’ Finley said. ‘Besides, it was my idea from the start - sticking around to bag the bastard. I wanta do the honors.’

    ‘Fine,’ Abilene told her. But she didn’t like the idea. Finley had shown herself, more than once, to be a hothead. With the shotgun in her hands, no telling what she might do. The weapon should be kept by someone with better self-control.

    Who, though? Cora was right. With her ankle broken, she wouldn’t be able to maneuver worth a damn. Vivian didn’t want to shoot Hank or anyone else, and neither did Abilene.

    Certainly can’t give the shotgun to Jim, even if he does claim to hate his brother.

    That leaves Finley. Like it or not.

    ‘What else did I miss while I was snoozing?’ she asked. ‘Any other major decisions?’

    ‘Don’t get so huffy,’ Finley said. ‘You were zonked. We didn’t want to wake you up.’

    ‘You know the balcony that overlooks the lobby?’ Cora asked. ‘We figured we’d position ourselves up there. It’ll give us a good field of vision, and we’ll be hard to get at. Hank would have to come upstairs.’

    ‘He couldn’t possibly sneak up on us,’ Vivian added.

    ‘Jim’ll be our bait,’ Cora said. ‘He’ll be down in the lobby in plain sight. When Hank goes over to him…’

    ‘Bang!’ Finley blurted.

    ‘It sounds like a good plan,’ Abilene admitted. She liked, very much, the idea of being above it all. Out of reach. Even if Finley should miss, she’d have plenty of time to reload before Hank could climb the stairs and get to them - especially if they were all the way at the far end of the balcony.

    ‘The trick,’ Finley said, ‘will be getting Hank into the line of fire.’

    Cora nodded. ‘We’ve got no idea where he might enter the lodge. He might come in anywhere; through the pools or even on the second floor. But we want to get him down there in the lobby area.’

    ‘I’m gonna call out to him,’ Jim explained. ‘Soon as I figure he’s around, I’ll start callin’ out. I’ll get him to come on over to me.’

    ‘And then it’s adios, asshole.’

    ‘Sounds really good,’ Abilene said. ‘If it works.’

    ‘It’ll work,’ Finley said.

    ‘What if he has a gun?’ Vivian asked.

    The question stunned Abilene. She hadn’t even thought of that.

    From the looks on the faces of her friends, they hadn’t either.

    After a moment, Finley said, ‘I’ll just have to nail him before he brings it into play.’

    ‘Will he have a gun?’ Abilene asked, frowning at Jim.

    ‘Maybe. We got us some rifles. But he didn’t take one along last night. Just went out with his knife, is all.’

    ‘And he left that in Helen,’ Cora said, her voice grim.

    ‘Oh, he’s got more. He’s got lotsa knives. That’s what he likes… to cut on folks. I don’t spect he’d wanta ruin all his fun by shootin’ any of ya.’

    ‘Isn’t that charming,’ Finley muttered.

    They were silent for a while.

    Thinking about Helen? Abilene wondered. Or wondering how it might feel to have a knife blade shoved into them?

    A hot, shocking thrust into the belly.

    Or maybe it’d feel cold. Ice cold.

    And maybe it wouldn’t be your belly he stuck it in.

    ‘We’d better get at it,’ Cora said, and Abilene was glad to have her thoughts interrupted. ‘The sun’s down. He might already be on his way.’

    The lodge was much darker than the evening outside. Abilene, entering first, halted and swept her flashlight across the lobby. Here and there, support posts blocked its beam and cast shadows that flitted over the floor. She felt goosebumps scurry up her spine and the nape of her neck. Her scalp prickled.

    ‘Don’t just stand there,’ Cora said.

    ‘Pretty sure he ain’t here yet,’ Jim said.

    Abilene hurried to the left, shining her light on the stairway. It looked clear. But she didn’t like the shadows thrown by the banister. She sidestepped and looked at the others. Jim was close behind her, Cora riding on his back. Following them was Finley with the shotgun. Vivian entered with the second flashlight and eased the door shut.

    Abilene started to climb the stairs backward, lighting the way for Jim.

    ‘Are you doing okay?’ she whispered as she made her way higher.

    ‘Ain’t bad.’

    ‘Just don’t fall.’

    ‘I’ll second that,’ Cora said.

    They were several stairs below her when she reached the top. She wanted very badly to swing her light away and check the balcony, imagined herself doing just that and imagined Jim tripping in the sudden darkness. A gasp and he’s falling backward, Cora screaming, both of them colliding with Finley and the three of them tumbling down the stairs, taking out Vivian, all four coming to rest in a broken heap at the bottom of the stairs.

    
Just because I was scared somebody might be up here
.

    She managed not to check behind her. Even after Jim made it to the top of the stairs, she kept her light trained on the floor in front of him while she backed her way along the balcony.

    Hoping no one would grab her.

    Then the balcony rail was there for Jim, so she whirled around.

    The bright beam showed only a long empty stretch afloat with dust motes between the banister and the wall with its three closed doors.