Page 42 (1/2)

When Hatch reached the front lawn, Lindsey was nowhere to be seen He hurried to the ay, through the open door--and discovered her in the den, where she was standing beside the desk,a phone call

"You find her?" she asked

"No What’re you doing?"

"Calling the police"

Taking the receiver out of her hand, dropping it onto the phone, he said, "By the tiet here, listen to our story, and start to do soina so far away they’ll never find her--until they stumble across her body soun off the desk and pushing it into her hands, he said, "We’re going to follow the bastard He’s got her in a car A Honda, I think"

"You have a license number?"

"No"

"Did you see if--"

"I didn’t actually see anything," he said, jerking open the desk drawer, plucking out the box of 12-gauge a that to her as well, desperately aware of the seconds ticking away "I’ with hih, strong enough" He pulled his ring of keys fro when he had taken the azine from the drawer "We can stay on his ass if we don’t let hi into the foyer, he said, "But we have to move"

"Hatch, wait!"

He stopped and swiveled to face her as she followed hio, follow them if you think you can, and I’ll stay here to talk to the cops, get the his head, he said, "No I need you to drive These … these visions are like being punched, I sort of black out, I’ There’s no way I won’t run the car right off the daun and the shells in the Mitsubishi" Cliet flashlights"

"Why?"

"I don’t know, but we’ll need the He had been sohts, but he knew his subconscious was driving hi to be essential In his nightmares over the past couple of h cavernous rooms and a maze of concrete corridors that were sohting One tunnel in particular, sloping down into perfect blackness, into so unknown, filled him with such dread that his heart swelled and pounded as if it would burst That hy they needed flashlights--because they were going where he had previously been only in dreahtina’s rooone there Stopping just inside the threshold, he looked down at the broken doorknob and the overturned desk chair, then at the closet where clothes had fallen off the hangers and were lying in a pile, then at the open here the night breeze had begun to stir the draperies

Soht now, in this roo to his left hand, wiped the daainst his jeans By now the son of a bitch in the sunglasses had started the car and was on his way out of the neighborhood with Regina, probably on Crown Valley Parkway already Every second counted

Although he was beginning to wonder if he had flown upstairs in a panic rather than because there was anything he really needed, Hatch decided to trust the compulsion a little further He went to the corner desk and let his gaze travel over the books, pencils, and a notebook The bookcase next to the desk One of Lindsey’s paintings on the wall beside it

Co he needed … needed as badly as the flashlights, as badly as the shotgun and the box of shells Soht for it He scraina’s bed and wrenched the cross froain, heading out of the rooripped the icon tightly, fisted his right hand around it He realized he was holding it as if it were not an object of religious symbolism and veneration but a weapon, a hatchet or cleaver

By the ti up Lindsey had started the car

When Hatch got in the passenger’s side, Lindsey looked at the crucifix "What’s that for?"

"We’ll need it"

Backing out of the garage, she said, "Need it for what?"

"I don’t know"

As the car rolled into the street, she looked at Hatch curiously "A crucifix?"

"I don’t know, but maybe it’ll be useful When I linked with him he was … he felt thankful to all the powers of Hell, that’s hoent through his ina to hied Lindsey a few years in the past ten rew deeper still as she threw the car in gear and turned left "Hatch, what are we dealing with here, one of those Satanists, those crazies, guys in these cults you read about in the paper, when they catch one of theerator, bones buried under the front porch?"

"Yeah,like that" At the intersection he said, "Left here Maybe so like that … but worse, I think"

"We can’t handle this, Hatch"

"The hell we can’t," he said sharply "There’s no tiina’s dead"

They came to an intersection with Crown Valley Parkhich was a wide four- to six-lane boulevard with a garden strip and trees planted down the center The hour was not yet late, and the parkas busy, though not crowded

"Which way?" Lindsey asked

Hatch put his Browning on the floor He did not let go of the crucifix He held it in both hands He looked left and right, left and right, waiting for a feeling, a sign, so cars washed over theht no revelations

"Hatch?" Lindsey said worriedly

Left and right, left and right Nothing Jesus

Hatch thought about Regina Auburn hair Gray eyes Her right hand curled and twisted like a claw, a gift from God No, not froht have been right: a gift froacy

A car pulled up behind theet out onto the main street

The was she walked, determined to minimize the limp The way she never concealed her defor Going to be a writer Intelligent pigs fro behind theht of the world, yet always standing straight, her head never bowed Made a deal with God In return for so precious to her, a pro was, though she had never said it, kneas a fae

The other driver blew his horn again

Lindsey was shaking She started to cry

A chance Just a chance All the girl wanted Not to be alone any more A chance to sleep in a bed painted with flowers A chance to love, be loved, grow up The sht… Dad

The driver behind theht," Hatch said abruptly "Go right"

With a sob of relief, Lindsey turned right onto the parkway She drove faster than she usually did, changing lanes as traffic required, crossing the south-county flatlands toward the distant foothills and the night-shrouded mountains in the east