Soon, he was only moving because of the blades jolting him.
Sometimes, they got stuck in bone. But Abilene always managed to yank them free.
Finally, a blade broke.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
‘Hickok!’
She was gasping for breath. Instead of trying to speak, she tossed the handle of the broken knife. It clacked against the floor.
‘You in here?’
‘Yeah!' she blurted.
Quick footfalls.
‘Where’s Jim?’
‘Here.’
A beam of light criss-crossed the darkness beyond the shower room entrance.
‘Don’t do anything to her, Jim,’ Vivian pleaded. ‘We won’t hurt you.’
‘Not if she’s okay,’ Finley added.
Abilene squeezed her eyes shut when the brilliant glare hit her face.
‘Holy shit,’ Finley muttered.
Vivian said, ‘My God.’
‘I’m… okay.’
He’s not. Holy shit.’
The light on the other side of her eyelids dimmed slighdy, so she opened them. The bright beam was aimed down at Jim. She groaned at the sight of him. He glistened with blood. His left eye was a slashed, bleeding pit. The left side of his neck was split by a gash that crossed the front of his throat. All over his chest and stomach were raw-edged slots. From one in his ribcage jutted the handle of a knife. A wedge of broken blade showed, sticking out an inch from a wound below his right shoulder.
Abilene started to get off him.
Vivian gave the flashlight to Finley, then hurried toward her. She was barefoot, but no longer naked. She wore the white shorts and shirt that Jim had made her take off under the balcony.
She grabbed Abilene’s arm and helped her up.
‘Man,’ Finley muttered.
Abilene looked down at herself. Her blouse was no longer plaid. Below its short sleeves, her arms were sheathed in blood. The open front covered her left breast and felt glued there. Her right breast was bare and looked as if it had been dipped in a bucket of red paint. The rest of her chest and belly were splattered and dribbling, but she could see a few places that the blood had missed. Her skirt was gone. Her panties were sodden with crimson blotches, her thighs splashed and runny.
‘How much of that’s yours?’ Finley asked.
‘Not much. It’s my back…’ She turned around.
A hiss of indrawn breath came from Vivian.
‘Nasty,’ Finley said.
‘You’ll need stitches in some of those.’
‘Did you get all that going through the window?’
‘Mostly. One’s from his knife.’
‘Well, you sure gave him payback,’ Finley said. ‘For all of us.’
‘How’d you know about the window?’
‘Cora told us.’
Abilene faced her friends again. ‘You were both out of it.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ Finley said. ‘The shit played basketball with my head.’
‘I don’t know what hit me,’ Vivian said.
‘I did. Sorry about that.’
‘Cora was just telling us what’d happened,’ Finley explained, ‘when we heard a door slam. Sounded like it came from down here.’
‘Christ, what took you so long?’
‘I thought we made pretty good time. We had to find the shotgun. And Viv, of course, had to get dressed.’
‘If you’d kept your shirt on,’ Vivian said, ‘none of this would’ve happened.’
Abilene saw that Finley hadn’t bothered to put it back on. Hardly surprising.
‘He had me fooled,’ Finley muttered. ‘Shit.’ She looked down at Jim’s body. ‘He really had me believing in that crazy fuckin’ brother of his.’
‘He had us all believing,’ Abilene said.
‘Yeah. Right. But I’m the only one who made out with the scumwad. If I hadn’t gone over and started messing around ‘It would’ve happened differently,’ Abilene told her. ‘That’s all. He was planning to get us. He would’ve made his try sooner or later. He knew Hank wasn’t gonna show up.’
‘Can we get out of here now?’ Vivian asked. ‘It’s… awful in here. And Cora’s gotta be wondering.’
‘She’ll be thinking we’re all dead,’ Finley said.
‘How is she?’ Abilene asked.
‘She won’t be walking out of here on either leg.’
‘Maybe she won’t have to.’ Abilene turned toward Helen’s body. Finley lit the way for her. ‘I think Helen found the keys before… he got to her.’ She stepped carefully over the mat of blood and crouched. ‘I touched something when…’
‘Did Jim bring you here?’ Vivian asked.
‘He came in after me. I was here for the knife.’ She shoved her right hand beneath Helen’s thigh.
‘The knife he used on Helen? Good thinking, Hickok.’
‘It wasn’t my idea. I had a little help from a friend.’
She closed her hand around the key case and pulled it out.
Finley and Vivian stood by the edge of the pool, watching over Abilene with the shotgun and flashlight. The water turned pink around her. When she finished washing, she climbed out and looked down at herself. Her skin looked ruddy and clean.
She left her bloody blouse and panties beside the pool, and followed Finley toward the stairs.
Vivian, behind her with the shotgun, said, ‘You’re bleeding all over the place.’
‘You can patch me up when we get upstairs.’
‘I can try.’
‘It doesn’t matter. We’ll be out of this place in a few minutes.’
‘The four of us, anyway,’ Finley muttered.
They began to climb the stairs.
‘But not Helen,’ Vivian said. She sounded as if she might start to cry.
‘I don’t know,’ Abilene said.
They didn’t ask what she meant by that. Just as well. This wasn’t the time to talk about such things.
Wait till we’re out of here.
‘That’s just about the best sound I’ve ever heard,’ Cora said when the Wagoneer’s engine roared to life.
Vivian and Finley had left her stretched out on the porch, then headed for the car.
They’d gone there once before and returned to the lobby with the Coleman lantern, a bundle of clothes, and the first-aid kit. By the bright glow of the lantern, they bandaged the cuts on Abilene’s legs. There weren’t enough bandages for all the cuts on her back, but they’d come prepared for that. They folded two sweatshirts into heavy, square pads and lashed them to her back with belts and Jim’s ropes. When the pads were secure, Abilene had dressed herself in shorts and one of Helen’s big blouses.
She’d led the way outside, carrying the lantern.
After Vivian and Finley had lowered Cora to the porch, they’d taken the lantern and hurried away to bring up the car.
They’d been gone a long time. Abilene, standing beside Cora, had started to wonder if something might have gone wrong.
What could go wrong? she’d told herself. Jim’s dead. Batty’s dead.
Someone we don’t know about?
What if Jim had been lying about Hank?
They’re probably just clearing off the back seat for Cora, she’d thought.
But with the noise of the racing engine, she knew that everything must be all right.
She looked toward the sound and saw headbeams slant into the night from beyond the far corner of the porch. The bright paths slipped lower as the car nosed into view at the top of the driveway. When it turned, the beams swept sideways and lit the pavement that stretched like a road across the front of the lodge.
The approaching car looked almost as good as home.
It swung over close to the porch and stopped. The engine went silent. The headlights went dark, but a light came on inside the car as the front doors swung open. Vivian and Finley hopped out.
‘Anybody feel like a ride?’ Finley asked, pulling open the back door.
If only this had
happened last night, Abilene thought.
If Jim hadn’t thrown their clothes in the pool. If she’d been more careful dragging Helen’s shorts up from the bottom. If they’d kept on hunting, afterwards, until they found the keys. If Helen hadn’t gone off by herself to look for them.
If if if if.
If they’d simply driven away after their first encounter with Jim down at the pool.
If they hadn’t come to this damn lodge in the first place.
It was Helen’s choice.
A different choice, and she might still be alive.
But maybe not.
Maybe things would’ve turned bad even if they hadn’t come here. Maybe it was just time. Maybe Helen’s number was up, no matter what.
Abilene stepped out of the way as Vivian and Finley crouched beside Cora. They pushed their arms under Cora’s back and rump, lifted her, and rushed her down the porch stairs. They sat her down on the back seat. Then Vivian hurried around to the other side of the car. She climbed in and dragged Cora backward while Finley carefully raised her legs onto the seat cushion.
‘You get in front,’ Finley said, looking over her shoulder as she shut the door for Cora. ‘Vivian’s riding in back.’
Abilene made her way around to the passenger door. She climbed into the car, wincing as she lowered herself onto the seat, groaning when she leaned sideways to pull the door shut.
Finley got in behind the wheel and slammed her door. She started the engine. She pulled a knob on the dashboard, and the headlights shot out into the darkness. ‘I hope the peedunk town has a hospital for you guys.’
The car lurched forward.
‘Ow!’ Abilene blurted.
‘Shit!’ Cora snapped from the rear. ‘Take it easy.’
‘Don’t be such wooses.’
‘Just drive carefully,’ Vivian said.
Abilene caught a last glimpse of the Totem Pole Lodge before the car swung away from it. She thought about Helen down in the shower room, and suddenly wished they hadn’t left her there in the dark with Jim.
Helen isn’t there, she told herself.
It’s just her body.
Helen is somewhere else.
Maybe here with us. Or maybe out roaming the night. She’d called it ‘a gorgeous night.’
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Richard Laymon, Blood Games
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