The People Next Door by Christopher Ransom Read Free Book Online Page A

milked his head injury for three action-packed Blu Rays and
     Amy bought two pints of ice cream. The rules had been suspended. Tonight they could have whatever they wanted.
    They got home a little before nine and the kids ran inside. It was difficult to lift himself out of the truck and, after his
     first attempt, Mick sank back into the seat with a sigh. Amy had driven them home in Blue Thunder. She told him the Lake Patrol
     had alreadytowed the boat in and would dock it until Mick felt like retrieving it.
    Amy opened her door but paused. ‘I don’t feel good about this.’
    ‘I’m sorry I gave you a scare. If anything changes, I promise I’ll …’
    ‘Go to the doctor?’
    He forced a smile. ‘It’s possible.’
    ‘Don’t lie to me, Mick.’
    ‘What do you want me to say? You know our situation.’
    Amy leaned her head against the steering wheel. ‘Nothing ever changes.’
    ‘It will.’
    ‘When?’
    ‘Soon.’
    ‘That’s what you always say, but it just gets worse.’
    ‘I need you to trust me, Amy.’
    She stared at him. ‘Myra Blaylock. Should I trust you about her too?’
    This was out of the blue. ‘What’s she got to do with anything?’
    ‘You said her name while you were … half-comatose or unconscious or whatever it is you were doing lying there on the dam,
     swooning.’
    ‘I have no idea why,’ he said, feeling neither guilt nor alarm. ‘What else did I say?’
    ‘“I’ve been looking for you.” You said, “I’ve been looking for you for a long time.” And then, “We’re going to do beautiful
     things together” … several times.’
    Mick shook his head. ‘I doubt it means anything.’
    ‘You haven’t seen her?’
    ‘All that was a long time ago, Amy. You know that.’
    Amy nodded, but he knew she was not convinced.
    ‘She has breast cancer,’ he added, surprised by his own words. ‘Doesn’t she?’
    ‘I have no idea. Where did you hear that?’
    ‘I don’t remember.’
    ‘Uh-huh. But she didn’t tell you herself.’
    ‘No, I swear. I would remember that.’
    Amy stared at him as if he had just given her a box of ammunition but taken away the gun.
    ‘Maybe I’m confused,’ Mick said. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
    ‘I think you should walk yourself inside.’ She ejected herself from the truck and slammed the door.
    Mick exited the Silverado and stood in the night air for a moment, waiting for his equilibrium to falter, but it didn’t. He
     felt sound on the ground. He headed for the back doors off the living room and breakfast area, but paused on the patio. He
     looked out over his back acreage, to the palazzo looming behind them. He didn’t see any cars, but new rows of lights were
     jutting from the mulch berms to illuminate the driveway like a landing strip. Inside the house, at the back west corner of
     the first floor, several windows glowed warmly.
    They’re here
.
    Higher, up on the terrace, a solitary figure in dark clothes stood watching over him. The figure did not move, but its stance
     was that of a lookout, a kind of sentinel. Mick knew it was absurd, but he had the strangestfeeling that the figure had been there all evening, waiting for him to come home.
    It was alone, its size hard to estimate. The lower half was obscured by the parapet, and it was too far away for him to guess
     at its gender, but he assumed it was a man, the man of the house. Mick watched for a cigarette ember, a task, anything that
     would suggest a purpose to what appeared to be blatant lurking, but there was nothing of the sort. He was prepared to accept
     that it was a statue, maybe a gargoyle or knight, but when he started toward his own back door, the figure moved with him.
     Mick took six or seven steps and the figure moved sideways along the terrace an equal number, though its own steps were not
     discernible as such, but rather a smooth sliding motion, a shadow pacing in a mirror placed half a football field away.
    Mick halted. The figure on the terrace