When Darkness Falls(68)

The garage was empty, and the small shed at the far end of the sandy back yard held only a workbench and a tool cabinet. Devon stared at the sky. No stars shone down. It was too hazy. The sky looked vast and empty, and faintly rose-toned in the east. Devon scanned the stony yard, the brush, and the neighboring houses. He felt Haley’s presence, as he had the night before when he was in the church, but didn’t know where she was.

Lydia waited in the living room. She approached him again and stroked his cheek.

“Let’s go back to my place,” she said. “I’ll tell you what I did with her. In detail.”

“You didn’t do anything.” The living room looked pristine, no signs of struggle, no bloodstains. Devon had no sense of violence having been done here.

Lydia sighed. “Of course I did. I just got rid of her fast.”

“There wasn’t time for you to dump her somewhere and come back.” Devon’s stomach turned over and he stepped back, away from Lydia. It was his wife he was talking about, yet he’d so easily referred to her as if she were a corpse. For an instant, the room spun around him as images from the alley the night before threatened to intrude into his mind again. “No one was here when you got here. All you’ve been doing is waiting.”

“All right,” Lydia said. “So she was a little smarter than I thought, she’s not going to show up until right before five-thirty.”

“How did you know the time? And where she wanted to meet me?”

“Call it intuition.”

Devon advanced toward Lydia again. “I won’t let you hurt her.”

Glaring into his eyes, Lydia stood her ground. “I won’t need to. You’ll do that all by yourself. But I’m not going to let you turn her into one of us.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Lydia lifted her chin. “Not so long as I’m here.”

They faced each other, so close they almost touched. Devon’s mind worked furiously. He could see the clock in the kitchen through the pass-through window. It was ten minutes to five. It was no use to throw Lydia out of the house, even if he could. She would be positioned to get to Haley first and keep her from entering the house. He needed to force Lydia to leave after Haley got safely inside. He hoped he could match Lydia’s strength, though she had seemed stronger earlier that night. But he’d been unfocused, distraught. This was life or death. Haley’s life or death. All he needed was a standoff. Once he had Lydia immobilized he only needed to wait for Haley, then get Lydia out and keep her out long enough that she would need to take cover somewhere from the rising sun.

The first step was to overpower Lydia. If he could.

She tensed, eyes locked onto his as if she could read his mind by looking closely enough. Devon lunged, and the struggle began.

? ? ?

At quarter after five, Haley awoke. She knew right where she was this time, and she checked her phone. Either its alarm had never gone off or she’d slept through it, when she had been sure she was far too nervous to sleep at all. She still sat at the window, knees aching from her legs being crossed so long. A red car was parked in front of the garage across the street.

Haley grabbed her jacket and slipped out the front door. She fingered the rosary around her neck and scanned the street for signs of movement. When she reached the red car, she peered inside. An Avis flyer lay on the passenger seat. It must be Devon’s. She pulled her jacket more tightly around her and glanced behind her. No one there. Devon wouldn’t be outside. It was too close to sunrise. There was still no Camry anywhere that she could see. Haley hoped that meant Lydia was nowhere nearby.

On the doorstep, Haley tried to see into the front window, but she’d drawn the blinds before she’d left. She put her hand on the screen door handle. The air smelled of honeysuckle, a scent Haley didn’t remember noticing around the house earlier. She patted her pockets. She still had the pepper spray, but had forgotten the bag of garlic in her car with her purse. She thought about going back for it, despite feeling fairly sure it wouldn’t help, but she felt too exposed on the street and decided she was better off inside.

Her hands shook as she fitted the key into the lock, but she didn’t need to turn it. The door opened. Haley jumped back, thinking someone had broken in, but she realized it must have been Devon. He wouldn’t have had a key.

The front room was dark. She could see the silhouettes of two figures at its center, one standing behind the other. She heard their heavy breathing. Heart hammering, she slid one hand along the wall, searching for the light switch, as the other closed around her pepper spray. Her hands seemed to move in slow motion, as if she were in a nightmare.

Haley found the switch at last, but her fingers, slippery with sweat, slipped off twice before she could snap the light on.

Devon stood in the center of the room behind Lydia. He had her in a headlock, one hand over her mouth.

“Lydia was just leaving,” he said.

Devon pushed Lydia toward the front door, motioning with his head for Haley to get out of the way. Haley hurried to the front window so she could part the blinds and see outside. Night had turned to dusk, and the cacti and rocks that took the place of a front lawn appeared in shades of gray.

At the front door, Devon shoved Lydia, sending her flying so that she landed on her side on the driveway and slid across it toward his rental car.

Lydia leapt to her feet with a grace Haley wouldn’t have believed possible for someone who’d hit the pavement so hard. “Remember what I said.”