Flight to Darkness by Gil Brewer Read Free Book Online

puddles on the drive
and silvered the pines.
    In the back of my mind the specter of the
dream set up its everlasting haunt. It was a cheap ghost and I knew
it. But it lurked in the crannies just the same, peering fiendishly
forth, certain of my anxiety.
    We went on to the far curve of the drive, then
off the drive across the lawn between two cabins that were empty.
My convertible was parked under some pines. I started on toward the
front of the car, but Redfern gently held me back. “No. This
way.”
    We stood behind the car in the rain. “Now,
look, Garth. You going to tell me about it? Or you going to make it
hard?” Redfern said. “Let’s concede the facts. You’re a dope and
you know it.”
    I didn’t say anything.
    He sighed. “Were you in town today? Sordell?
About an hour ago, say, maybe?”
    “ No. I’ve never seen Sordell, damn
it.”
    Redfern sighed more loudly.
    Hartly snatched a fingerful of water off the
rear fender of the car, snapped it at the ground. “He’s lying.
Can’t you see?” Hartly was very young. I felt like smacking him and
remembered what Doc Prescott had said about that. But I hadn’t
smacked anybody in a long while. Blood came up into my shoulders
and the back of my neck. The muscles across my stomach tightened,
and there was a heavy, good stiffness in my fist as I closed it
tight.
    Redfern noticed. “Hang on, fella,” he said.
“Just hang on.”
    “ Look,” I said patiently. “Tell me
who you are.”
    “ I’m a detective with headquarters
in Sordell. Police. This isn’t routine, Garth.”
    “ No,” Hartly said. “Wise up, Garth.
In a hit-and-run seems like somebody sees it most of the time. Only
you’re a dope, Garth. You ran, but you quit too soon. It was a fast
report. The tip was fast, and there was fast radio work. Slim
Gullen down at the gas station even seen you turn in here. Wise up,
for God’s sake.”
    Hartly’s words reached me through a fog.
Hit-and-run? You didn’t do those things. The wild craziness that
used to grip me in the hospital took hold—inside.
    I had to see Leda. If she was in the
lunchroom, I had to see her. She’d had the car. She must know
something.
    “ Let’s look at your car,” Redfern
said. “We already looked, of course. Just want to show
you.”
    We walked on around toward the front of the
car. Hartly had a flashlight. I wondered where the other cop
was.
    Hartly lit the light.
    In the hushed dripping of the rain Redfern
held my arm. I was suddenly mad and I knew I could take him if I
could get one swing at that bulging gut, that stained vest. I
wrenched away from him, whirled.
    My mouth opened and stayed that way. I spotted
the left front fender of the car in the bright white light of
Hartly’s flash. Redfern hadn’t moved.
    “ You aren’t startled, are you,
Garth?”
    I was plenty startled and then I was scared.
Hit-and-run is a bad thing. I was sure it hadn’t been me. I’d been
asleep. What about Leda?
    The left front fender of the car was dented
badly. The headlight was broken and part of the grille was
bent.
    “ We already took some samples of
blood,” Redfern said. “Leastways, it looks like blood. There was so
much of it the rain didn’t even wash it away. Some hair, too. Red
hair. Bet you didn’t notice he had red hair when you hit him, did
you?”
    I just went on staring.
    “ Makes you think, hey,
Garth?”
    Then something snapped. Down inside me
something let go; something that had been tied securely out at the
hospital. It was like choking on water, spitting it out.
    I looked at Redfern. He was looking at Hartly.
I ducked low and swung with my right fist. There was no thought
behind it, I just swung with all my might. The fist sank into
Redfern’s middle, I felt it sink, and he made a noise from his
stomach. My head throbbed and all I could think was, Prescott said
don’t and if you feel like it, take a walk quickly.
    I shoved Redfern before he struck the ground.
I ran between the cabins, heading for the