Deni tried not to roll her eyes.
They stepped into the house, which looked like a decorator’s nightmare. The dog kept barking, so Vic bent down and swept it up. “Hush now, Scrappy. These are our friends.”
The living room was decorated like a tropical beach resort, with a tiki roof over the wet bar, and red Hawaiian prints covering the sofas and chairs. Bamboo beads hung in the doorways, and beige shag rugs covered the mahogany hardwood floors.
It looked like the brainchild of an actor who played a decorator on TV.
“Looks like a party house,” Chris said on a giggle. “Did you decorate it yourself?”
“I got a little help.”
From the frat boys at the local college? Deni wondered. She hoped he hadn’t actually paid anyone for this.
Beneath the bamboo shades, Deni saw through the window into the backyard. Three people sat beside the pool drinking beer, and a couple of others splashed in the water. She felt like she was crashing a party.
“Come on out and meet my sons and their families.” He led them out back and, in a bellowing voice, said, “Everybody, meet Deni and Chris. Larry and Jack, remember you’re married.”
One of the sons pulled out of the water, and greeted them, dripping wet. “So how’d my dad get two babes in bikinis over here? Way to go, Dad.”
Deni bristled, and a hint of red tinged Vic’s cheeks. “They’re nice young ladies who wanted to swim. I’m just trying to be neighborly. Now behave so they don’t think you were raised by wolves.”
Larry, the other brother, shook their hands. “Nice to meet you. Don’t mind my brother. He’s a moron.”
“A moron with good taste,” Jack said.
Deni looked beyond him to the woman in the water who was glaring at them as if they’d come here to break up her family.
The angry woman frowned at Jack. “You didn’t tell me Vic was having girls over. I would think you might have told me.”
“Nothing to tell. Don’t be so rude.”
Deni shifted and glanced at Chris. She had that look she used to get when she realized someone didn’t like her. Chris couldn’t stand not being liked. “We’re friends of Mark’s,” she said, as if to calm the woman’s fears. “We’re not staying long. We just wanted to get wet, but if it’s not a good time—”
The woman flipped her hair back. “No, be my guest. Matter of fact, go get all your friends. The more women the better.”
“Don’t be so insecure, Grace.” The woman sitting at the tiki bar with a child in her lap had a slightly friendlier face.
Vic introduced the two women as his sons’ wives, then whispered, “Don’t mind Grace. She’s a newlywed with jealousy issues, but she’s a sweet little gal when you get to know her.”
Deni didn’t think she wanted to. This was absurd. She didn’t want to start trouble between a man and his wife. Then again, it looked like this trouble had started a long time ago.
Jack jumped back into the water, splashing his wife and temporarily distracting her.
“Just make yourselves at home,” Vic said. “The water’s still cool, even though it’s been so hot today.”
Chris sat down and slipped off her shoes. “You seem in a good mood. Everybody else is in a blue funk after that meeting.”
Vic laughed. “You don’t believe that doomsday stuff they were saying, do you? It’s pure speculation, and I don’t buy any of it. What does that Doug guy know?”
Deni spoke up. “He’s my father.”
He winced. “Oh, sorry. Seems like a nice enough guy, but really, he’s not an electrical engineer, is he?”
“No, he’s a stockbroker.”
“And that black guy. What does he do?”
“Brad is a lawyer. He’s our next-door neighbor.”
Vic smiled. “Well, there you go. I choose to believe that this will pass before we know it.”
Deni wanted to believe it. “I hope you’re right.”
“He is right,” Chris said. “He has to be. I can’t even consider that this is going to last longer than a few days.”
A huge splash hit them, soaking their clothes. Jack had done a cannonball in the water, like a ten-year-old kid trying to get their attention.
But the water felt great.
Chris giggled, then turned back to Vic. “So I guess Mark is the baby of the family?”
“That’s right.” Vic set the little dog down, and it jumped up on the chair next to Deni. The dog had a bad haircut that made it look more like a Koala bear than a Yorkie. She reached out to pet him. “Yes, Mark’s the baby. These two sons are mine by my first marriage, Mark’s from my second. He’s something of a mama’s boy, so he lives with her.”
“It’s nice that you live so close to them,” Chris said.
Vic shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m not so sure Mark’s always happy I live here.”
Deni’s heart softened at the vulnerable look that passed across Vic’s face. He picked up the dog and put him on his shoulder, petting him like he was his closest friend.
“I don’t see Mark much. He’s been so busy since he quit college and started working.”
“Quit college?” Chris frowned. “Didn’t he finish?”
“Nope. Decided he wanted to be a carpenter and didn’t need it. He’s working in construction now, which is about as different from what I do than anything you can imagine. And here, I always thought he’d follow in my footsteps and work in the family business.”
“What is the family business?” Deni asked.
“We own a chain of bookstores. And we have our hands in a number of other ventures. We’re businessmen, but Mark didn’t want any of it. It’s blue collar for him. At least until he comes to his senses.”
He handed them some towels. “If you want to wash your hair, just shampoo it over the grass so you won’t get soap in the pool, then use that bucket over there to rinse it.”
Deni pulled off her shirt, stepped out of her shorts, and dove into the pool, relishing the feel of cool water over her sweat-dampened body. She felt Chris breaking the water behind her, and saw her friend swimming deep with wide, sure strokes. The water was heavenly, and for a while Deni forgot her whirling emotions over all that had happened. She swam underwater, her hair flowing around her, and came up for sweet gasps of air.
Larry and Jack left as they swam, and Vic sat out at the patio table alone, reading an old copy of Newsweek. He went inside when they got out and started to wash their hair, and she felt he had retreated to give them privacy.
“He seems nice,” Chris said.
“Yeah, nicer than that daughter-in-law of his.”
“Yeah, she was kind of scary.” Chris began to towel-dry her hair. “I feel like a new person.”
“Me, too. This was a good idea.”
“So you want to come back tomorrow? He said we could.”
“I don’t know,” Deni said. “We’ll see.”
“I don’t know about you, but I need to wash my hair every day, especially in this heat. And lake water just isn’t gonna cut it.”
Deni didn’t want to commit, but she knew that if the power was still off tomorrow, she probably would be knocking on Vic Green’s door again.
nineteen
When Deni got home, night was already falling over the neighborhood. The street looked barren, vacant, and she dreaded going into her home and facing more of the silent darkness.
Her family all sat in the kitchen around the table, a kerosene lamp glowing in their midst. “What’s everybody in here for?”
“Where else can we go?” Logan sat with a disassembled Game Boy and a small screwdriver in front of him. “There’s no light anywhere else. Dad won’t let us use the flashlights. And even if there were, there wouldn’t be anything to do.”
“Logan, you’re not going to be able to fix that,” Jeff said. “It’s hopeless.”
“I can, too, fix it.” Logan’s attention was riveted on the wiring. “If I just had more light.”
“Why
can’t we get the radio to work, at least?” Beth asked. “This is awful. I’m gonna die of boredom.”
“A little quiet won’t kill us.” Her dad sat with his Bible open in front of him. Surely he didn’t plan to read to them.
Her mother looked up at her. “How come your hair’s wet?”
“I washed it . . . at Chris’s house.”
“What with?”
“We got some water out of her neighbor’s pool.” She didn’t know why she’d felt the need to lie. She was an adult, after all. But explaining about Vic Green might take more energy than she had at the moment. “I’m going upstairs to write to Craig.”
“In the dark? Mom gave away your candles.”
Deni stopped and stared down at her mother. “What? Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t give them all away. But Eloise, across the street, needed one of our kerosene lamps, and you know we took some candles to Amber.”
Deni couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You took my candle? How many do we have left?”
“Enough,” Kay said. “We’ll make do.”
“But we’re already making do. It’s not a lot to ask that we keep a little light in our house. It’s like a mausoleum in here.” She put her hands on her hips. “So you’re telling me that if I want to write to Craig, I have to sit in here at this table with my whole stinking family?”
Her mom and dad exchanged looks, like they were offended or something.
Her mother sighed. “It won’t kill you.”
Logan threw himself back, and banged the table. “Man! I can’t fix the stupid thing!”
Jeff jerked the screwdriver away. “Then give up, stupid.”
“And do what? Sing campfire songs?”
“That might be fun,” Beth said. “We could start a fire in the yard and make s’mores.”
“Yeah, if we had marshmallows,” Jeff muttered.
“And Hershey bars,” Logan added.
Kay laughed. “And graham crackers. Oh, well, it was a good thought.”
Deni pulled out a chair and dropped into it. “So we really have to sit here in the same room all night. Unbelievable.”
“Either that, or you can go to bed.”
Deni grunted. “What is it? Nine o’clock? I’m not ready for bed.”
“This is why they went to bed and got up so early in the old days,” Beth said. “They had to work around the light.”
Deni didn’t want to hear it. “Even Laura Ingalls had lamps in every room.”
“Deni, can I sleep with you again tonight? I’m scared to sleep alone.”
Deni started to tell Beth no, but her heart softened as she remembered her sister’s trauma. “Yeah, I guess. But you don’t have to be scared. Dad and Jeff have their guns.”
“Dad, can I have one?” Logan’s question got everyone’s attention.
“Maybe later, son. For now, I think Jeff and I need to do the guarding.”
Logan sprang up and set his hands on his hips. “No fair. I want to help. I’m one of the men of the house.”
“Hey, I don’t think it has to be men,” Deni said. “Age should matter more than gender. I can shoot a gun. And wouldn’t I love to be looking down the barrel at whoever killed the Abernathys.”
Doug wasn’t impressed with Deni’s bravado. “For now, we’ll start with Jeff and your mom and me. We have three rifles, and that’s all. But it wouldn’t hurt for each of us to learn to use them.”
“Even me?” Beth asked. “I hate guns. I don’t want to learn.”
“You don’t have to carry one. You just need to know how to shoot it. It might be your only protection if you’re ever here alone.”
Her eyes rounded. “Then don’t leave me here alone!”
Kay pulled Beth against her. “We won’t, honey. You don’t have to worry.”
“The Abernathys probably weren’t worried, either.”
Poor kid. Beth was about to cry again. Deni wished the murdered couple had been strangers, so the trauma didn’t have to mix with the grief.
Her dad closed his Bible. “So . . . anybody up for a game of Monopoly?”
“Monopoly?” Jeff almost spat out the word. “Are you kidding me?”
“No. We’re stuck here, basically in the same room. Might as well do something fun.”
Jeff shrugged. “I’m not gonna be here long enough. I have plans for tonight.”
“Plans?” Doug asked. “What plans?”
“Some of the guys are meeting over at Zach’s. He has a pool. It’s something to do, Dad. Something to get our minds off of this mess.”
“I don’t want any of you out after dark, Jeff.”
“I’ll take my shotgun with me.”
“No, you’re needed at home. I want one of us on guard all night. I need you to go to sleep so you can get up around two and take over for me.”
“But I’m not even tired,” Jeff said.
“Fine, then you can take first watch. I’ll sleep and you wake me up at two.”
Jeff leaned back hard in his chair. “Okay, I’ll go to bed. I’ll take the second watch. But I don’t think anybody’s gonna attack us. There are too many of us, and everyone in the neighborhood knows we have guns. Come on, why can’t I go for an hour or so? There’s nothing else to do.”
Kay stiffened. “Jeff, I don’t want you hanging around at Zach’s. I didn’t let you spend time over there before the outage, and I’m certainly not going to let you now.”
“Fine!” He slapped his hands down on the table. “I’ll go sleep.” He scraped his chair back, scratching the wood floor with his weight, and stormed off to his room.
Beth smirked. “He’s gonna sneak out, you know.”
“No, he’s not,” Kay said. “Jeff wouldn’t do that.”
“Yeah, right.” Deni almost laughed. “Think again, Mom.”
Kay looked at Doug. “You don’t think . . .”
“Of course not.”
Deni shrugged. “Okay, then stay deluded. It’s just a stupid teenage party, anyway. Girls, booze, maybe a little grass . . .”
Doug slid his chair back. “That’s enough, Deni. Jeff knows better than that.”
“Okay, whatever you say. But remember I told you so.”
twenty
When Jeff was sure he’d heard everyone go to bed, he got up, grabbed his .12 gauge, and felt his way through the darkness into the hallway outside his room. His brother’s and sisters’ rooms were next to his on the second floor, so he was careful not to wake anyone. Stepping softly on the plush carpet, he felt for the banister and eased down the stairs.
When he reached the bottom, he saw a faint yellow glow through the door of his dad’s study. Careful not to be seen, he peered in. His father sat in the light of the kerosene lamp, his rifle on the desk next to his open Bible.
Satisfied, he made his way in the other direction, through the great room and to the back door that opened onto the patio. Holding his breath, as if that would keep the door from creaking, he opened it and slipped into the backyard. Then he hurried around to the gate, praying it wouldn’t squeak as he opened it, alerting his father. He didn’t want to get shot by friendly fire.
He walked the three blocks to Zach’s house, the muzzle of his shotgun pointed down. He was careful to stay out of sight, since he knew the whole neighborhood was on alert for anyone prowling around at night. He jogged most of the way, and heard the sound of the party before he reached Zach’s backyard.
“Jeff, that you?”
He spun around. Brad Caldwell, his next-door neighbor, stood there, a rifle in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Brad shone the light in Jeff’s eyes.
He squinted. “Yeah. Hey, Mr. Caldwell.”
“What are you doing out this late?”
He might have asked him the same thing. “I’m just going over to my friend’s.”
“The house where the party is?”
“Yeah. Look, don’t tell my dad you saw me, okay?”
The light
blinded Jeff, so he couldn’t see Brad’s expression. But the man’s hesitation spoke volumes.
“You shouldn’t be out this late, Jeff. It’s dangerous.”
“All right, I won’t stay long,” he said. “It’s just been a bad day, you know? And I was supposed to have a date last night with this girl I’ve liked for a long time, but I didn’t get to go, and she’s gonna be here tonight.” Why was he going on and on like this, like Brad would sympathize enough to keep his mouth shut? Fat chance. He might as well go on home now and throw himself on the mercy of his folks.