Watcher in the Woods (17 page)

“Will it stay?” Xander asked.

“Stay?”

“I mean after we're gone. Does time get weird here? Will it suddenly be the past and Bob will never have been here, or will it become the future and Bob will be long gone?”

Dad scowled at him. “I never thought of that.” He looked at Bob. “I don't know.”

“I hope he stays,” Xander said. “I want her to know we're looking for her.”

Dad folded up the knife and dropped it into his pocket. He put his arm around Xander's shoulder and steered him toward the portal, according to the pull of the antechamber items. “She knows we are, Xander. Even without Bob, she knows.”

CHAPTER thirty - two

MONDAY, 8 : 05 P . M .

David sat on the bench in the antechamber, backstroking with one arm. His right hand rose up and descended, palm down as though pushing water past his body. His left elbow rose as far as the sling would allow. In his mind, he finished the stroke. Then the process started all over again with his right hand rising above his head.

He watched the door Dad and Xander had gone through. His eyes flicked to the other door, the one that led to the hallway and the rest of the house. He'd been hearing noises for some time now: creaking floorboards, thuds. Once he thought he heard a door slam. It was nearby, one of the other doors on that floor. Then there was the telephone downstairs. Every few minutes, it would ring and ring and ring.
Why didn't Toria answer it?

His mouth was dry, and his stomach hurt from rolling over on itself every time he heard a noise or imagined something creeping around in the hallway.

He heard a loud drawing of breath, like someone sucking air in through his teeth. He jumped, staring at the hallway door. Then he realized it was coming from the other door, the portal door. Air hissed through the gap underneath it. He couldn't tell if it was blowing into the little room or being sucked out of it. The last thing he wanted to do was get close enough to feel for the wind's direction.

Dim light appeared under the door and quickly grew in intensity until it was blindingly bright. Squinting at it, he saw the light trace a line around the entire door. Shadows flickered through the light as though something was moving past the door on the other side. The handle began to turn. David stood and backed into the hallway door.

The portal door burst open. Wind whooshed in, carrying leaves and grass and a meadowy fragrance. The portal itself looked like a churning cauldron of dry ice, backlit by flood lamps. The smoky air swirled around and around. It thinned and blew away, off to either side of the door. In its place was an out-of-focus image of greens and browns. The colors shifted and came together, forming a human figure.

Xander stepped into the room, coming down hard on his feet as though stepping off a foot-high platform. He fell to the floor, grunting.

David fell to his knees beside him. “Xander! You all right?”

Xander raised his head. His hair was a mess. There was a leaf stuck in it. “Yeah,” he said. “Gotta remember to watch that first step. It's a doozy.”

“Where's Dad?” David said. He looked through the portal just as another figure formed out of the colors.

Xander rolled out of the way as Dad came crashing through: “
Oomph
!”

Dad saw Xander beside him and touched him. “You all right?”

“Took you long enough,” David said.

Dad swung around to him. “What's wrong?”

“I've been hearing noises in the hallway, and the phone keeps ringing.”

“What noises?”

“I heard creaking, and a door slammed.”

Dad scrambled to his feet. He tossed down the blanket and said, “Xander, put the items back. Let's go.”

Halfway to the staircase, the phone began ringing again.

Dad said, “David—?”

“Got it!” David ran ahead, clomped down the stairs and into the master bedroom. Toria was sitting on the bed, an array of dolls and their clothes splayed across the bedspread. The phone on the nightstand started into its fourth ring.

“Why didn't you answer it?” David said.

“I'm not supposed to.”

David snatched up the wireless receiver and thumbed a button. “Hello?”

“There you are. Mr. King. I need to speak to Mr. King.” The woman's words rattled at him, fast as machine-gun fire.

“One moment, please.” He ran into the hall and met his father coming through the secret panel in the wall. He held the phone out to him.

“Sounds important,” David whispered.

Dad put the phone to his face. “Hello? . . . Yes?” He continued down the hall.

David turned to Xander. In a hushed voice he said, “It sounded like my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Moreau.”

Xander made a face. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. It wasn't me, it was that kid I told you about. Clayton. She sent him to the office.”

“Boys!” Dad called. He had walked around the corner into the main upstairs hallway. Now he stepped back into view. “Come on! We gotta go!”

“Where?” Xander said.

Dad vanished again, his footsteps clumping away. “City hall. Toria, grab your shoes.”

“City hall? Why?” Xander called as the brothers raced around the corner.

Dad came out of the master bedroom, pulling their sister along by the hand. His face was tight with worry. He said, “Someone's trying to take the house!”

CHAPTER thirty - three

MONDAY, 8 : 37 P . M .

In the 4Runner, Dad explained that someone had claimed that the house was unsafe. “The town council convened an emergency meeting to consider evicting us.”

“Just because someone said our house was unsafe?” Xander said. His voice was high in disbelief.

“Apparently somebody is trying to convince them that you guys are in danger,” Dad said. “They got the doctor who set David's arm telling the council about his injuries. Someone's claiming he was hurt in the house because it's so dilapidated.”

“What's that?” Toria said.

“Rundown,” Xander answered.

“You keep saying
someone
,” David said. “Who is someone?”

Dad's eyes caught his in the rearview mirror. “That's what I asked. The woman on the phone said she didn't know.”

“Or didn't want to tell you,” Xander said.

David thought about the doctor's line of questioning at the clinic. He said, “No one said it was
you
who hurt me?”

Dad shook his head. “Not yet, but that doesn't mean they're not going to. I have a feeling this is just the beginning.”

“Or the end,” Xander said, “if the city council believes them and kicks us out. Dad, you can't let that happen!”

Dad said, “There's something else I don't get . . . why is this a city council matter? You'd think the safety of children would go to social services or even the police department.”

Xander said, “They do things differently in small towns. Do they even
have
social services here?”

“Still, calling in the city council just feels like overkill to me,” Dad said. “Like using a nuke when a penknife would do. And why wouldn't they just come out and look for themselves?”

In the rearview mirror David could see his father's brows getting closer together as he thought about it.

Dad said, “I think something bigger is going on.”

“Bigger?” Xander said. “Like what?”

Dad just shook his head. He said, “The mayor will probably be there. He was one of the people who interviewed me for my job.” His eyes found David in the mirror. “Dae, the woman on the phone hung up when I asked who she was. Any idea?”

Xander spoke up. “He thinks it was his teacher.”

“Teacher? Who?”

“Mrs. Moreau,” David said.

Xander said, “Dad, what if the phone call was just a way to get us out of the house?”

That made Dad's eyebrows actually touch. He said, “What makes you think that?”

“We saw somebody watching our house last night.”

“When?”

“After the thing with the locks. I got up to go to the bathroom.”

Dad said, “Maybe it was that Taksidian guy. Why didn't you tell me?”

Xander threw up his hands. “It was late . . . I just thought . . .”

“Listen, guys . . .” Dad shifted his head around to make eye contact with each of his children. His attention returned to the road before he continued: “With all that's going on,
everything
is important. And somebody watching the house!” He scowled at Xander. “How could you think that wasn't important?”

“I didn't say it wasn't important!”

“But you didn't tell me!”

Xander's shoulders slumped. Instead of explaining himself, he turned away to look out the window. David knew what he was thinking: with school, setting up the MCC, Dad and Xander going into another world—when was there time to even
think
of anything else? Maybe it was this kind of thing that the control room was meant for, a place to record things and keep everything straight. He knew Dad was right. With so much at stake, everything was important.

“Here we go.” Dad said, braking to a hard stop.

They were on Pinedale's main street in front of the city hall. The front doors were open and people were coming out, descending the stairs, talking to one another. They all seemed to notice Dad at the same time. David thought they were trying not to look guilty of something.

Dad opened the door and hopped out. He beelined it for an older man who was halfway down the concrete steps.

Xander unsnapped his seat belt and swiveled around to face Toria and David. “That's the mayor. His picture was on the wall in one of my classes.”

David said, “His picture? Weird.”

“Welcome to Pinedale.” Xander opened his door and scrambled out.

David and Toria did the same. They all came together on the steps around Dad and the mayor. The other people who had come out of the building were watching from safe distances in both directions of the street.

Dad was saying, “ . . . this isn't right, and you know it.”

The mayor said, “Now, Ed, our only concern is for the children.”

The way he spoke made David think of a glazed doughnut, all soft and sugary.

The mayor glanced at each of the King kids in turn. He paused on David, taking in, David was sure, his black eye, bruised cheek, and broken arm. Turning back to Dad, he said, “When we get reports like this, of course we have to investigate.”

“Reports like what?” Dad snapped.

“Well . . . uh . . .” His hand rose to indicate David.

Dad continued: “I think
investigation
is the right word here. But it sounds to me like you've already investigated—or have no intention of ever investigating.”

“Ed, we
know
that house. It's been rundown for years.”

“So?” Dad's volume rose a notch. “That doesn't automatically make it unsafe. Are you questioning my judgment when it comes to keeping my family safe? I can't believe all these people are going along with this.” Dad looked around at the men and women who were watching from the sidewalk.

Suddenly he froze, and David saw the muscles in his jaw tighten, his eyes narrow. He looked over his shoulder to follow his father's gaze. David's heart jumped into his throat.

Across the street, in an alleyway between two stores, stood a man. Though the figure was partially hidden by shadows, the light from a streetlamp crossed over his face, revealing Taksidian. As David watched, the man took a step back and vanished in the darkness.

“Oh, I see,” Dad said. “Tell me, Steve, did your report happen to come from Mr. Taksidian?”

The mayor swallowed, his eyes darting to the people standing around. He said, “It was . . . uh . . . anonymous. But I'll have you know, Mr. Taksidian means a lot to this town. He is considering relocating several of his businesses to Pinedale. What that means to us, economically, at a time when businesses have been closing, people moving away—”

Dad held up his palm. “I get it,” he said. His hand became a pointing finger aimed directly at the mayor's nose. “Let me tell you. Whatever you do, make sure you can support it in a court of law, because that's where you're going to end up.”

For just a moment the mayor's eyes focused on Dad's finger. He actually looked frightened—though David thought something like
I'll hunt you down like a dog
would have worked better.

The mayor composed himself and said, “Mr. King, is that a threat?”

Dad's finger didn't waver. David was awfully glad it wasn't pointed at him.

“I'm just telling you, Steve, don't mess with me, my family, or my house.” Dad turned and descended a few steps toward the car.

The mayor cleared his throat and said, “Speaking of your family, Ed, where is the missus? We heard another report that—”

Dad spun around, and his index finger came up again. “Don't mess with us. I mean it,” he warned. “Come on, kids.”

He climbed into the SUV and slammed the door.

David ran around and was the last one in. The car pulled forward before he had his door shut. As they drove past, David looked hard into the alley where Taksidian had stood, but the man was gone, leaving only darkness.

CHAPTER thirty - four

MONDAY, 11 : 57 P . M .

That night, the day's events kept replaying in David's head. He was exhausted, but he wasn't sure he'd ever again get a good night's rest. Even being in his own bed didn't help.
If you can't turn
off your thoughts,
he said to himself,
who cares how soft your pillow is?

Xander's whispered voice reached him from out of the darkness: “You awake?”

“Yeah,” he whispered back. He looked over toward Xander's bed. The moonlight coming through the windows was enough to show his brother sitting up. He looked at the clock on the nightstand. “Almost the witching hour,” he said.