Widow Town (22 page)

“Didn’t you forget anything this time?” He asked.

“Like what?”

“Like anything you might need to come in for?”

She paused near the door of the house, looking up at its height. She was only a shape in the falling dark.

“It isn’t what I’ve forgotten, it’s what I haven’t.”

He went to her and didn’t stop until they were inches apart. He reached to pull her close as she brought a hand up and he braced for the slap he knew would come. But it didn’t. Her hand found the back of his neck and guided his face to hers. Their lips met without hesitation, old paths traveled by blind eyes. He pressed himself close to her and she slid her hand through his hair, gripping it, not letting go.

He got the door open but they only made it to the kitchen floor. Their clothes came free as if cut from their bodies. Hands sliding over buttons and snaps until there was nothing between them.
The lightning strobed and they moved, sinuous against one another until she gripped him, guided him into her.

The dream came back to him then but it was there and gone as she flowed over him, beginning to say his name, slowly at first and then quicker. She chanted and moved above him while he caught glimpses of her in the
throbbing light, and the light was inside him and then it was in her. Over and over until it faded with the deafening quiet rushing like a palpable tide into sound.

They lay there on the floor, holding one another. The tears came without warning, unbidden as they flowed down his face. She kissed him on the cheek an
d said his name again, quiet.

Ruthers parked his truck in front of Siri’s brick two-story and turned the radio lower.

The night had dropped over everything like a curtain while they’d been
in the movie theater, and now the only illumination in the cab was from the green glow of the dashboard. Siri’s face was half-lit. She looked at him from where she sat, the portion of her lips in the light was curved up in a smile.

“That was really nice, I haven’t been to a movie in over a year,” she said.

“Yeah, it was. Sorry we missed the one you wanted to see.”

“I think we
both had a pretty good excuse.”

“You can say that again.” Ruthers frowned and looked at the headlights splashed across the yard. Stars glittered from the moonless sky. A
black desert of glinting sand.

“You think he’s right, don’t you?” Siri asked.

Ruthers looked at her again. “I do.”

“So you don’t believe Hudson was responsible for all those bodies in the ground
or any of the other killings?”

“
Sheriff Gray doesn’t think so.”

“I didn’t as
k you what the sheriff thinks.”

Ruthers sat for a moment and traced the circle of th
e steering wheel with a finger.

“I didn’t believe it for a while, or didn’t want to believe it I guess. But the more
I saw, the more it made sense.”

“What about
the Line?” Siri asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder. A wave of gooseflesh flowed outward from the spot.

“Nothing’s perfect.”

“Tilly thinks he’s still grieving for his little girl.”

“I would say she’s right, but he’s a brilliant man, smarter th
an anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Grief d
oesn’t care how smart you are.”

“And instinc
ts outstrip reason sometimes.”

“You’re very loyal to him.”

“I am, but he’s earned it.”

“I hope you’re both wrong.”

Ruthers sighed. “Me too.”

They were quiet for a long time. Only the night sounds filtering in from outside the cooled vehicle and the low tune of a
song coming from the speakers.

“Why did yo
u ask me to the festival, Joe?”

He blinked at her in the
low light. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, why? There’s a hundred other women our age that aren’t pre
gnant that you could’ve asked.”

“I didn’t want to take a hundred other women, I wanted to take you.” His voice was soft and he hoped she didn’t hear the tremble in it.

“If you feel sorry for me, don’t. I made a mistake, not in getting pregnant but with who I chose for the father. I’ve made my peace with that and I’m ready to raise this baby alone, so if pity is pushing you to date me we can just shake hands and go our separate ways. I don’t need pity.”

“The only person I pity is the
man who left you, and I dislike him enough on principal to get past that.”

He watched the half of her face he could see and
when she smiled again he leaned toward her. Her perfume smelled like warm honey and a fresh flower; daisies. Then her lips were against his, pliant and unlike he’d dreamed they would be. Better. She touched the side of his face, running her fingertips down the skin he’d shaved only hours ago. Then her lips were gone, but her hand remained where it was.

“Thank you,” she
said.

He put h
is hand over hers. “Thank you.”

“I should go, it’s late and there’s
a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

“I’ll walk you up.”

“I’m fine,” she said, grabbing her purse from the floor. “I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You can count on it,” he said, watching her ease out of the door and make her way to the house. He waited until she unlocked the door and waved before turning around to pull down the short
drive that met the county road.

As he guided the truck toward town, he looked up at the stars again and smiled.

~

Siri shut the door behind her and leaned against it, one hand on her stomach in th
e spot the baby usually kicked.

“What do you think, honey?” she said aloud, rubbing he
r belly. “He might be something, huh?”

She
slid off her flat shoes and flipped on several lights. Pausing in the doorway to the kitchen, she frowned. The air smelled of something. She sniffed, inhaling the scent. It was like old sweat or faint body odor. The hair on the back of her neck stiffened as a sound came from the living room, quiet, almost indistinguishable, but there.

Breathing.

She spun and let out a short cry as two hands grasped her upper arms, the fingers digging into her flesh.

“Hello Siri, have a nice date?”

~

Ruthers pulled to a stop at the first light in town and considered grabbing a six-pack. He could almost taste the beer on his tongue. The liquor store was right and his house was left. He glanced down the well-lit street and checked the clock. If he hurried he could still make it before closing time. He was about to spin the wheel when his eyes fell on a dark rectangle on the passenger floorboard. Keeping his foot on the brake, he leane
d to the side and picked it up.

Siri’s phone.

Holding it, he thumbed the display on as the time ticked over to the next hour.

“Prob
ably too late anyway,” he said.

With a last look down the street, he cranked the wheel and headed back the
direction he’d come.

~

Darrin threw Siri across her bedroom. Her legs slammed into the bedframe and she fell onto the mattress, the air rushing out of her lungs.

“You just lay there for a second while I show you something,” Darrin said, walking closer. Ryan entered the room behind his brother carry
ing a sleek pistol in one hand.

“What are you doing?” Siri said. “I know your father, I work with him.” Her eyes went from Darrin’s cold stare to Ryan. The younger boy
’s features were slack and he was pale. “Please, just don’t hurt me and I won’t tell anyone you were here.”

Darrin laughed as his hand went into his pocket and came out holding a round steel cylinder. One of its ends was flat and smooth while the other
narrowed to a short, needled point. He smiled at her as he stopped at the side of the bed and knelt down so that they were at eye level.

“Do you know what this is?” Darrin asked.

Siri looked at the instrument in his hand and shook her head.

“It’s a
deseminator. They use these in abortion clinics. See, this little needle here is inserted right through a woman’s stomach wall into her uterus.” Darrin squeezed the handle and the short needle slid out nearly a foot with a clicking sound. “Then once it’s been maneuvered into the perfect position by a qualified medical professional, such as my father, this other button is pushed.”

He squeezed the cylinder again and the last four inches of the needle split apart into six individual pieces, like an umbrella opening in reverse.
Siri’s eyes widened as Darrin brought the splayed edges of the needle closer to her face.

“These barbs tear the fetus apart. Barbaric, isn’t it? I mean, we put men on Mars but we can’t find a better way to kill babies?” Darrin laughed, the sound like screeching vehicle brakes. “Anyway, this model’s a bit large, normally used for livestock with abnormal pregnancies.” He moved closer to her, thrusting the deseminator into her face. “You make a move that I don’t like, try to run, scream, anything, I’m going to have my brothers hold you down and I’m going to shove this into your stomach and hit the trigger.
You’ll feel your baby die inside you, then we’ll watch you bleed out. Do we understand each other?”

Siri drew
in a shuddering breath. “Yes.”

“Good girl. Now wh
ere do you keep your suitcase?”

“In the closet on the floor.”

Darrin stood and retracted the needle into the deseminator’s handle.

“Keep that on her in case she decides to be stupid,” Darrin said to Ryan as he passed him. Ryan swallowed and raised the pistol, leveling it at Siri as she sat up on the bed.
His hand trembled.

“Why are you doing this?” Siri asked.

Ryan swallowed and blinked. It looked like he was going to pass out. Darrin emerged from the closet carrying her black, rolling travel suitcase.

“Isn’t that the question of the hour? Why? Why? Why? Everyone wants to know that.” Darrin stalked to the clothes dresser beside the bed and dropped the suitcase. With a snap of his hand he snagged her hair in his fist and pulled her toward him as he bent over. His breath was rotten on her face and his handsome features were
pulled into something demonic.

“I’ll give you an answer, darling: because, that’s why.” He released her hair and opened the top drawer of the dresser. He chucked handfuls of her underwear and socks into the suitcase and then moved on to the next drawer. Ryan watched him work, flinching every
time he slammed a drawer shut.

The b
arrel of the gun wavered.

Ryan stared at the back of Darrin’s head, his eyes shooting once to Siri and then
to Darrin again. Slowly, the pistol dropped a fraction of an inch, lining up with Darrin’s skull. Ryan shook, the sights sliding on and off of his brother’s head.

Siri watched Ryan’s eyes lock on his brother’s task and
eased her hand over to where the dresser met the bedframe. Her fingers brushed the grip of the handgun that was stowed there and she tensed her body, taking in a deep breath before releasing it.

Siri jerked the gun free of its holster and swung it up. Darrin yelled something
unintelligible and reached for her. The pistol bucked in her hand and blood flew from Darrin’s shoulder in a fine spray. Ryan fired, his finger reflexing on the trigger and three rounds burst from the barrel, burying themselves in the floor. Siri rolled across the bed, falling from its top to the space near the wall. With one hand she covered her stomach while she threaded the gun up over her head and then under the bed.

“Fuck!” Darrin screamed, and fell to the floor as he skittered backward. “Shoot that bitch! Shoot her!” A shot came from beneath the bed and punched a hole in the wall near the doorway at foot level. Ryan ducked and ran into the upstairs hall as Dar
rin floundered after him.

“Are you hit?” Darrin asked, grabbing Ryan’s arm for support.

“I don’t think so.”

“What the fuck, where
’d that gun come from?”

“I don’t know.”

“Cover the fucking door in case she comes out.” Darrin staggered to the head of the stairs and examined his shoulder in the light. A crater large enough to put his thumb in was gouged in his arm. Blood oozed out of the hole and began to soak his shirtsleeve, turning it a darker black.

“What do we do, Darrin?” Ryan asked, his eyes locked on the bedroom door,
the gun vibrating in his grip.

“Shut up,” Darrin hissed. “I have to get this bleeding stopped. Don’t move and shoot her if she comes out. She can’t get out that window, it’s a
fourteen-foot drop.”

Darrin made his way down the stairs, blood dropping from his fingertips. He found a towel in one of the kitchen drawers and looped it around the wound but couldn’t tie it with only one hand. As he walked toward the stairs again a knock came from the front door and it began to swing open. He stopped, frozen where he stood as a hand appeared and then a face.

Ruthers stepped into the entry holding a cell phone in one hand.

“
Siri? The door was open and—” His words cinched off in his throat as he saw Darrin standing in the kitchen doorway, blood slowly soaking through the starch-white towel.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Ruthers said taki
ng another step into the house.

Darrin reached with his good hand into his pocket and drew out the steel cylinder. Ruthers began to move backward as his
eyes shot toward the stairway.

“Don’t move, police!”

Darrin nodded once and something hit the back of Ruthers’s neck hard and the lights tipped to the side as he fell.

~

Siri blinked away the tears that kept forming as she aimed at the doorway. Sobs tried to build up inside her but she swallowed them down each time. The baby kicked, a watery, sliding motion that made her clench her jaw each time. She heard the Barder boys talking in the hall. She’d hit one of them but she didn’t know which. Blood lay in a triangular spray on the white carpet, an arrow that pointed directly at her.