Last Light

  Doug knew he had to calm them all down before Deni’s mood caused a panic. “Deni, we’ll be all right. Jeff and I can protect us. Now everybody go chill for a little while before we go to the meeting.”

  “We can’t chill.” Beth wiped her eyes. “Miss Amber still needs diapers.”

  Kay sighed and looked at Doug. “We’ll find her some. You just go lie down, Beth. You need a nap before the meeting.”

  Doug watched his traumatized young daughter go up to her room. A nap wasn’t going to help. The images she’d seen today would stay in her mind for a very long time.

  Deni got up and crossed her arms. “I really have to get out of here. I’m serious.”

  Doug shrugged. “Yeah, go for a walk or something if you want.”

  “Not a walk! I have to go home to D.C.”

  He shot her a disgusted look. “This is your home, Deni.”

  “Not anymore. And if this outage is gonna last, then I need to get started now in order to be there to start my job on Monday.”

  Was she crazy? “Deni, I won’t allow you to launch out on your own, so you can just stop ranting right now.”

  “You can’t stop me, Dad. I’m over twenty-one. I can do whatever I want.” And with that, she turned and ran to her room.

  fifteen

  Deni’s parents followed her up the stairs to her room, her brothers right behind them. “Honey, I know you’re upset about what happened,” Doug said. “We all are. But that’s no reason to be irrational and—”

  Deni got to the top of the stairs and turned on her father. “Irrational? You think it’s more rational to stay here with murderers running around? I’ll be safer on the road.”

  “Calm down.” Her father’s voice was maddeningly even, as if he’d already forgotten the dead people she’d found.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Kay asked.

  She met her mother’s angry gaze. “Anywhere but here.”

  “So you’re gonna do what? Just roll your suitcase behind you and clomp down I-20?”

  “No,” Deni said. “I’m gonna take my bike. I’ll ride up the interstate until I find civilization. Then I’ll rent a car or something.”

  “Honey, there isn’t any civilization!” Kay shouted. “Not nearby. If there were, someone would have seen cars going by today.”

  Deni got her suitcase and threw it on the bed. “Fine. Then I’ll ride my bike all the way to D.C. But I’m not staying here where it’s hopeless. Craig wouldn’t want me to do that.”

  At the thought of Craig, she started to cry. She unzipped her suitcase and flung it open, then realized that she’d never be able to carry it on a bike. Rage mushroomed inside her at her own stupidity. She sank down onto the bed.

  Her mother leaned down and put her arm around her. “Honey, I know you’re upset. We all are.”

  “No you’re not, Mom. Your life is just put on hold. This is no big deal to you. You have your family and everybody you love around you. You’re in your own home.”

  “And so are you.”

  “No, I’m not! Craig is my family now. I want to be there with him. I found two people dead today and I can’t even tell him.”

  She knew as she ranted that she wasn’t making any sense, but the anger pulsing through her kept her mind from settling back on those bodies. She looked through her bedroom door, and saw Beth across the hall, lying on her own bed. Beth wasn’t ranting and raving. She was curled up in fetal position, staring off into space. Deni wished her sister would cry and break something, so there would at least be some sense of normalcy. She couldn’t stand the thought that this stupid power outage might traumatize her little sister forever.

  She lowered her voice so Beth couldn’t hear. “Mom, I’m scared. What if someone tries to kill us?”

  “They won’t.” Her dad’s voice was calm, confident.

  Kay agreed. “There’s safety in numbers, and we have three men to defend us.”

  Deni looked at her brothers standing in the doorway. Logan looked as vulnerable as Beth. And Jeff didn’t look like he could defend himself, let alone the whole family.

  “But what has it come to that we have to be defended?” she asked. “That people in our own neighborhood are going around killing people? Breaking into cars, looting . . . and what if the killer is there tonight at the meeting, enjoying all the gossip about the murders, pretending to be just one of us, trying to get along?”

  She saw Beth sit up on the edge of her bed. She’d let her voice rise, and now her sister had heard. She wished she could take it back.

  Beth came to the doorway, her face red with her effort not to cry. “Daddy, I’m scared.” Her voice was cracked and wobbly. “I don’t want to go to the meeting.”

  “Me either,” Logan said.

  Her mother’s face tightened. “Deni, look what you’ve done.”

  She grunted. “What I’ve done? Mom, they don’t need me pointing these things out. They’re not stupid.”

  “Deni’s right, Dad,” Jeff said. “What if the killer is at the meeting?”

  Deni saw the struggle on her dad’s face, as if he wondered whether to shelter his family with empty, meaningless assurances, or just play it straight.

  Doug’s answer surprised her. “Maybe we need to assume he will be there.” He looked from one person to the other. “The truth is, every one of us will be looking over a shoulder, and rightfully so. We have to be strong, and be careful who we trust. Now, I want everyone to get hold of themselves and take a breath. God is going to protect us, even if He has to use Jeff and me to do it.”

  It was meant to be funny, but no one laughed.

  “So, Deni, I don’t want to hear any more talk about you taking off to who knows where. That’s not a rational response to this, and you know it. I know you want to be with Craig. And you will. But right now, you’re with us, and we have to stick together.”

  “Write him a letter, honey,” her mom said. “It’ll do you good.”

  Deni wiped her eyes. “Can’t even mail it.”

  “That’s okay. Write it anyway.”

  Deni had never written Craig a letter, other than short, matter-of-fact emails. She’d always had a cell phone, and he was usually accessible. But maybe her mother’s idea was a good one. At least she could feel like she was communicating with him, even if it was only one-sided.

  Jeff’s cheeks were mottled with heat and worry. “Dad, you want me to keep the shotgun with me at the meeting tonight?”

  “I think we’re okay as long as it’s still light out. We’ll be home before dark.” He went to the door, then turned back.

  “You know, none of you has to come to the meeting. I could go without you.”

  “No, I want to go,” Deni said. “I want to see what people are saying. Maybe someone has news about the outage.”

  “Me, too,” Kay said. “And I don’t want to leave anyone here alone.”

  Doug looked at his children. “It’s going to be all right, guys.”

  Always before, when her dad said those words, Deni believed them. But today she knew it was completely out of his hands. As everyone left her room, she pulled a notebook off her bookshelf and opened it to a clean page. Slowly, she started to write.

  Dear Craig,

  I miss you so much. You have no idea how much. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without talking to you in over a year. And now this.

  As if you don’t know by now, our power is out, our cars don’t run, our food is short, people are looting and fighting. But worst of all, there was a murder last night in our neighborhood. Beth’s teacher. The two of us found her and her husband dead today.

  I’ll never get over it. The sight of them lying there like that. A sweet couple who probably never hurt anyone. They have pictures of children and grandchildren on the walls of their house. And no one even knows how to get word to them.

  The sheriff’s department came, but there’s not a lot they can do without computers and labs. I keep thinking of all those
episodes I watched of Little House on the Prairie when I was growing up. They had murders, didn’t they? Didn’t they have marshals or police of some kind who could solve their crimes and lock up the bad guys? Maybe Michael Landon in all his wisdom was the one who always just knew who had done it. Or Laura would stumble on the criminal and almost get killed, herself.

  But this isn’t television. It’s real life.

  I love you so much. I hope you’re all right. You’re probably in the Senate Building as we speak, moving and shaking, and figuring out the solution to the problems we’re having here.

  If you have power and transportation, won’t you come get me? I know you will. In fact, even though everyone says you put your job first, that nothing is more important, I just know that you won’t let much time pass before you come to get me. We have to be together.

  Somehow, we will be, even if I have to walk to you myself. I love you, Craig. I hope I’ll see you soon.

  Love,

  Deni

  sixteen

  The neighbors began arriving at the lake early that evening, bringing lawn chairs and blankets. Deni dragged a chair into the shade and marked her spot. Some of the neighborhood children splashed and played in the small lake, which had a no-wake, no-swimming rule. But no one seemed concerned, since nothing was normal today. Though she knew it seemed childish, Deni thought of going into the water herself.

  The gathering seemed almost festive after the stress of the last twenty-four hours. Two teenagers brought guitars and sat strumming background music in a spontaneous jam session. Brian McMullen, one of Jeff’s friends, went home and got his harmonica, and began playing along with them. It seemed like a neighborhood picnic.

  But Deni refused to get lulled into a false sense of security. There was a killer among them. He could be one of the dads watching his children splash in the water, or one of the guitar players, or one of the older men in their golf shorts and navy blue socks, who looked so benign and harmless.

  She searched the faces for the kind of evil it would have taken to murder the Abernathys. What would that look like in a man’s eyes? Or could it be a woman?

  “Deni, thank goodness you’re home!”

  She turned and saw one of her best friends from high school, Chris, whom she’d carpooled with every day since they’d gotten their licenses. They’d been inseparable since seventh grade, then lost touch after parting ways for college.

  Deni had simply outgrown Chris.

  She got up and tried to look happy to see her. “You, too. I thought you were still at school.”

  “Nope, graduated last week.” She pulled her own chair up next to Deni’s. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been dying with nobody to talk to except my parents and my little brother. I wish I’d known you were home. I’m dying of boredom.”

  Deni didn’t much like the idea of hanging out with high school friends. After four years at an eastern college she was beyond that. She’d changed, and didn’t want her old friends thinking she hadn’t.

  She lifted her chin. “I hope I won’t be here long. I’m starting a job at an NBC affiliate in Washington as soon as I can get out of here.”

  Chris looked suitably impressed. “A TV job! Wow. That’s perfect for you. I always thought you’d be a star.”

  Deni laughed in spite of herself. “Well, let’s hope that I can get there before they give up on me. My fiancé is there, and he’s got to be worried sick about me.”

  There. She’d gotten in the engagement and the television job in one fell swoop. She lifted her left hand to scratch her face, hoping Chris would notice the ring. But she didn’t.

  “Isn’t all this crazy?” Chris’s voice lowered to a whisper. “And did you hear about the murders?”

  “I’m the one who found them.” Deni’s gut knotted with the words, but a sense of pride welled up in her, as if that elevated her somehow.

  “You did? Oh, my gosh, Deni. Was it as bad as they said?”

  “Worse.”

  “Do they know who did it?”

  Deni shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s so creepy,” Chris whispered, looking around. “I don’t think many of us are going to sleep tonight.”

  Deni glanced across the lawn and saw her friend Mark sitting on the pier. He stared down into the water, still clearly shocked at what he’d seen earlier.

  “Man, I’d kill for a bath.” Chris lifted her hair off of her neck. “I plan to make friends with someone who has a pool tonight. You guys haven’t had one put in in the last few years, have you?”

  Deni shook her thoughts from the murders. “No. My mom hates cleaning them. All these years I’ve told her we need a pool. Now she wishes we had one.”

  “Well, I’ll let you know if someone invites me to swim.”

  The sun was laser sharp and glaring as it made its final blast of heat before setting. “I saw Katie Morris the other day,” Chris said. “She’s working at Target.”

  “Did she graduate?”

  “No, she said she’s got another whole year. She was a partier, you know, and only came out with about nine hours every semester. Her parents stopped paying for it, so now she’s having to work to put herself through.”

  Deni had known many students like that in college, and had even been like that herself for a while. Then it had occurred to her that she had ambitions and goals, and she couldn’t meet them if she was up all night drinking and partying. Finally, she’d decided to focus her energies on getting a good job when she got out. That meant getting good grades. It was those grades that had impressed the station that hired her. Her future looked so bright she’d need sunglasses to navigate her way through it.

  Someone yelled for their attention, and the milling people began to take their seats.

  “If we could go ahead and get started . . .”

  Her own father called the meeting to attention. That amused her. “What is he doing?”

  “Looks like he’s taking charge,” Chris said. “Why is that funny?”

  “Because he’s never been to a homeowner’s meeting in his life. He was always afraid he’d get elected to something.”

  As the group settled down, he continued to stand at the front, as if planning to address the crowd. Brad, their next-door neighbor, father to Jeremy and Drew, stood with him. It looked like they were in this together.

  Her dad cleared his throat. “Stella Huckabee just told me that her husband, Hank, who’s this year’s Homeowner’s Association president, is in Washington. Needless to say, he hasn’t been able to make it home. Randall Abernathy was the vice president . . .”

  Deni caught her breath. Abernathy—the murdered husband of Beth’s teacher.

  Her dad cleared his throat again. “Anyway, in the absence of a leader, I offered to open the meeting tonight. I know everybody has a lot of questions about the murders and the outage in general, so maybe we can spend a little while here just exchanging information. My neighbor Brad Caldwell is here to help.”

  Brad offered a wave. “Before we start talking about the murders, I wanted us to share any hard facts we might have about the outage.”

  “I don’t have any facts,” a man said, “but I didn’t get home until an hour ago. I was in Atlanta when the power went out, and had to ride home on a bike. I can tell you that things are just as crazy there as they are here.”

  That was the last thing Deni wanted to hear.

  “Atlanta?” Her dad sounded stunned. “The power is out there, too?”

  “That’s right. Didn’t see any sign of anything moving at any of the towns I went through. Cars stalled all along the highways and interstates, people walking around with no information whatsoever about what happened. No communication working at all.”

  Deni’s heart sank, and she looked at her father. Disappointment tugged at his face.

  A woman stood. “When that power outage happened in New York a couple of years ago, they started getting power back on by the next day. How come nothing
’s working? Not the slightest thing?”

  “Yeah, and why is our water out?” a man asked. “What’s water got to do with electricity?”

  Doug tried to answer. “The water gets to us via an electric pump, and the treatment plants work on electricity. But this is clearly a bigger problem than just electricity. A power outage wouldn’t affect our cars and watches. I even have a brand-new, never-used generator that won’t work. But if everyone will listen, Brad has an idea what might be going on.”

  Brad raised his hands to quiet the growing chatter. His voice, trained to get the attention of his jurors, boomed over the crowd. “I’ve been racking my brain all day trying to figure out what our cars, watches, planes, and even our newer model generators all have in common. And the one thing I can come up with is semiconductors.”