Page 51 (1/2)
2
While Saled to lift Harry up the ladder and into the attic, Tessa and Chrissie took the wheelchair to the baseht collapsible chair, and would not fit through the trap Tessa and Chrissie parked it just inside the big garage door, so it looked as if Harry had gotten this far in his chair and had left the house, perhaps in a friend’s car
"You think they’ll fall for it?" Chrissie asked worriedly
"There’s a chance," Tessa said
"Maybe they’ll even think Harry left town yesterday before the roadblocks went up"
Tessa agreed, but she knew--and suspected Chrissie knew--that the chance of the ruse working was slim If Sam and Harry really had been as confident in the attic trick as they pretended, they would have wanted Chrissie to be tucked up there, too, instead of sent out into the storht Cove
They rode the elevator back to the third floor, where Sa the trapdoor into place Moose watched hi her watch
Sam snatched up the closet pole, which he’d had to remove to pull down the trap, and he reinserted it into its braces "Help me put the clothes back"
Shirts and slacks, still on hangers, had been transferred to the bed Working together, passing the gar pails of water, they quickly restored the closet to its former appearance
Tessa noticed that traces of fresh blood were soaking through the thick gauze bandage on Sa open froh they weren’tthat weakened or distracted hi the ordeal ahead decreased their chances of success
Closing the door, Sam said, "God, I hate to leave him there"
"Five forty-six," Tessa reminded him
While Tessa pulled on a leather jacket, and while Chrissie slipped into a too-large but waterproof blue nylon windbreaker that belonged to Harry, Sam reloaded his revolver He had used up all the rounds in his pockets while at the Coltranes’ But Harry owned a 45 revolver and a 38 pistol, both of which he had taken with him into the attic, and he had a box of ammunition for each, so Sa the gun, he went to the telescope and studied the streets that lay west and south toward Central School "Still lots of activity," he reported
"Patrols?" Tessa asked
"But also lots of rain And fog’s co in faster, thicker"
Thanks to the storh soht loom lay over the wet and huddled town
"Five fifty," Tessa said
Chrissie said, "If Mr Talbot’s at the top of their list, they could be here any ht Let’s go"
Tessa and Chrissie followed him out of the bedroom They took the stairs down to the first floor
Moose used the elevator
3
Shaddack was a child tonight
Circling repeatedly through Moonlight Cove, from the sea to the hills, from Holliwell Road on the north to Paddock Lane on the south, he could not re been in a better ely to be sure that eventually he would cover every block of every street in town; the sight of each house and every citizen on foot in the storm affected him in a way they never had previously, because soon they would be his to do with as he pleased
He was filled with excitement and anticipation, the likes of which he had not felt since Christe toy, and in a few hours, when ht struck, when this dark eve ticked over into the holiday, he would be able to have so a wanted to play but which he had denied hie or desire would be denied, for despite the bloodiness or outrageousness of whatever game he chose, there would be no referees, no authorities, to penalize hi into a closet to filch coins from his father’s coat to buy ice cream, he was so completely transported by conteotten there was a potential for disaster Minute by ressives faded froet about Loer was able to re froe at the Parkins house
More than thirty years of unrelenting self-control, strenuous and undeviating application of hiswith the day he had deer, thirty years of repressing his needs and desires and of subli them in his work, had at last led him to the brink of his dream’s realization He could not doubt To doubt his mission or worry about its outcoreat spirits who had favored hi a downside; he turned his ht of disaster
He sensed the great spirits in the storh his town
They were there to witness and approve his ascension to the throne of destiny