Gatekeepers by Robert Liparulo Read Free Book Online Page B

“Sam, get back here, man! Get out of there!”
    That decided it. He took a step back. The ground here was spongy with soft soil and decomposing leaves. He began to tumble, caught himself, and shuffled in reverse.
    The car door slammed shut. The trees erupted in flames—that’s what Sam thought for a few seconds, until a blue light pushed away the red and he realized Lance had turned on the police flashers. The red light swung around again. Blue. Red. Blue. They flashed against the trees but didn’t reach the figure in the mist. To Sam’s eyes, they made everything worse, making shadows jump up and fall back. He couldn’t tell what was real movement, from which he had to protect himself, and what was merely the dance of light and shadow. He swung his gun between the bushes and the figure and backed away, backed away.
    His own shadow became blacker and sharper on the ground as he neared the car. When his heels touched the dirt road, he spun and ran for the passenger door. He hopped in, panting. He scanned the woods through the windshield. He thought the figure was gone, but it was hard to tell, between the darkness way back there and all the lights doing their thing.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Lance said. He sounded panicked.
    Sam looked over at him. The door window behind Lance’s frightened face was broken: a dozen cracks fanned out from a small hole in the glass. “What happened?”
    â€œI think someone shot at me! They hit the light!”
    â€œGet us out of here,” Sam said. “Come on, start the car!”
    Lance cranked on the key. The engine roared. He slammed the shifter into gear, and the cruiser reversed away from the woods.
    Sam watched through the windshield, half expecting some-thing to chase them. He held his pistol up, ready. “Did you call it in?” he asked.
    â€œNo, I—” Lance grabbed for the radio.
    Sam clutched Lance’s hand. “Forget it,” he said. “Just go, go.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œWhat are we going to say?” Sam said. “That we got scared away?”
    â€œSomeone shot at me!”
    â€œThat’s not a bullet,” Sam said. “See the way the glass is crushed around the hole? I’ve seen it a hundred times. It was a rock.”
    â€œThen why are we taking off ?” Lance turned the car toward the side of the road and put it in drive.
    Sam realized Lance had not seen the figure or heard the growling. He said, “Because I don’t know what’s going on here, but it ain’t no good.” He shook his head. “It ain’t no good.”
    â€œWhat about the kids?”
    â€œIf they’re the ones throwing rocks, they don’t deserve our protection,” Sam said. “If they’re inside, they’re safe.”
    â€œYou sure?”
    â€œSure enough. Go, will ya?”
    Lance accelerated, kicking gravel up into the wheel wells, sounding like angry rattlesnakes. He swept the car around and got it pointed away from the house.
    Sam turned in his seat to watch the blackness through the rear window. Lance braked, casting red light on the road behind them and the trees on both sides.
    Then the car rounded a bend, and Sam relaxed. He closed his eyes and sighed. He said, “I never did like that house.”

CHAPTER
    fourteen
    W EDNESDAY, 1.05 A.M.
    Keal watched the police car vanish around a curve. He crunched across the forest floor and stopped next to a bush.
    â€œFor Pete’s sake, Jesse,” he said. “I should never have let you talk me into taking you out of the nursing home. You didn’t say anything about throwing rocks at cops.”
    The bushes laughed, a thin coughing sound. Hiding behind them, the old man said, “I haven’t seen people move that fast since someone passed gas in an elevator.”
    â€œIt’s not funny,” Keal said, but he laughed a little in spite of himself. He shook his head.