An Unwanted Guest(55)

He watches his wife carefully. He no longer feels a shred of affection for her. He loves his children, that hasn’t changed. But something about her – something about her fills him with revulsion. He thinks of her flabby white thighs, the veins that run in little maps along her legs. Her breasts that are too heavy. The perpetual look on her face of being fed up. As if life is only to be endured.

But it’s more than that. It’s the way she views him. Overweight family man. A bit of a fool. Someone whose life is mostly over, who will never do anything interesting or exciting again. Just her presence near him, knowing that she believes this about him, makes him hate her. What had she said to him? – It’s just a phase. She diminishes him; she always has. Jilly doesn’t do that. She admires him. She finds him interesting, attractive. She told him she wants to spend the rest of her life with him. She won’t get tired of him, as Beverly says.

His wife doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life with him, but she would. If this hadn’t happened. All she thinks about is duty. The tyranny of the shoulds. I should do this, or you should do that. You should be at home more. You should spend more time with the kids. You should try for promotion.

He gets up to stir the fire. He reaches for the poker with his right hand. Oddly, time seems to slow down. He grasps the poker very tight. She’s sitting right there. It would be so easy. There’s no one here to see it. He could run outside after the others, make up some story …

He grips the poker tight.

David feels his way across the woodshed floor, sliding his feet along in case Matthew is there, somewhere, on the floor. He calls his name, but gets no response. He forces himself to get down on his hands and knees and feel around on the sawdust-covered floor for Matthew. He reaches the stump they use for chopping wood, feels its rough surface with frantic hands.

All he finds is the torch.

Riley huddles in the forest, her entire body shaking with fear and cold, reliving some of the worst moments of her life. Memories of victims – screaming, suffering, dying – bear down on her. She presses her hands to her ears to try to block out the noise, but it doesn’t work because the tumult is inside her head. She closes her eyes tight to stop seeing, but it doesn’t help, because the images are in her mind’s eye.

Matthew hears someone approaching the library. Someone who is trying not to make a sound. Without warning, outside the French doors, the clouds part to reveal the moon, and a glimmer of ghostly light filters into the library. Matthew stands facing the door. He has his gun in his hand, and he knows there are several bullets remaining.

And then he sees David appear in the doorway. ‘Oh, it’s you,’ he says. He explains. ‘I thought I heard someone, in the woodshed …’

‘You’d better give me the gun.’

Matthew hands the gun over.





Sunday, 1:45 AM


When Gwen opens the door and stumbles into the lobby, she’s almost surprised to find Henry and Beverly still there, exactly where she’d left them, except that Henry is standing near the fire with the poker in his hand. He starts and drops the poker suddenly, and it rattles as it strikes the floor.

She half expected to find them dead.

David appears suddenly from out of the dark near the staircase. Matthew is with him. She almost faints with relief.

Henry turns from her to David and Matthew and asks, ‘What’s happened?’

‘Nothing. We’re fine,’ David says bluntly. ‘Where the hell is everybody else?’

Gwen whispers, ‘Outside.’ Her entire body is shaking.

Henry says, ‘Riley ran outside when she heard the gunshots. The rest of them went out after her.’

‘We can’t find her,’ Gwen says. ‘She won’t answer us. It’s so dark – the others are still out there, looking for her.’ She can’t stop trembling.

‘Jesus,’ David says. ‘We’d better get out there. We need to find her.’ He sounds desperate. He turns to Gwen and says, ‘You stay in here with Henry and Beverly.’

‘No! I’m coming with you.’ She will stay close to David. She’ll be safe with him. They have to find Riley.

‘Are you just going to leave us here?’ Henry splutters.

Nobody answers him.





Chapter Twenty-eight


MATTHEW SLIPS OFF the porch and vanishes into the night. David watches him go, wondering about the wisdom of all of them tearing off in different directions. But they have to find Riley, and time is of the essence. They can cover more ground if they spread out. It’s freezing out here.

‘Is she wearing a coat?’ David asks Gwen.

She shakes her head. Mumbles, ‘Just a sweater.’

David swears under his breath. They make their way along slowly. David can hear nothing but the howling of the wind. ‘Is anybody out there?’ he yells. The wind tears the words from his mouth and they are lost.

‘Anyone?’ he tries again, cupping his hands around his mouth.

‘I’m over here.’ It’s Ian’s voice coming from somewhere in the direction of the drive.

‘Anybody else?’ David yells.

And then less faint, from not so far away, Lauren answers. ‘I’m here, on the east side, near the trees. I haven’t seen her.’