Backtracker (104 page)

"
Just like that,
"
said Larry, snapping his own fingers demonstratively.
"
I felt this little zap, like static electricity...and all of a sudden, I had different clothes on!

"
My prison uniform was gone! I had a shirt and jeans and boots...just like
that
, right outta
'
thin air!

"
Needless to say, I stopped laughing. I was completely blown
away. It was...it was
magic
.

"'
Consider that a little bonus,
'
the guy said to me.
'
I
'
m throwing it in for free. You don
'
t want to show up looking like you just got out of jail, do you?
'

"
I didn
'
t know what to say.
"
Larry paused and shook his head; his eyes were wide, and he looked a bit stunned.

"
It finally hit me that I was in over my head. All that time, I
'
d thought the guy was just some freak...and all of a sudden, I was standing there in new clothes that
'
d popped outta
'
nowhere.

"
I was flabbergasted. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.

"
The guy asked me if the clothes were all right. I didn
'
t say a word.

"'
Oh, I see,
'
he said to me.
'
You
'
re finally starting to catch on.
'

"
I just stood there and stared at him. I didn
'
t know
what
to do.

"'
You know who I am now, don
'
t you
?
'
he asked me.
'
I don
'
t have to spell it out for you, do I?
'

"
I told him I knew who he was. It was pretty obvious by now, y
'
know? The selling my soul bit was pretty much a dead giveaway.

"
He asked me if I wanted to back out of the deal.
'
Contrary to popular belief, I try to be fair,
'
he said.
'
If you want out, just say so, and that
'
s the end of it. The handshake means nothing if we don
'
t have mutual understanding and consent.
'

"
I took a while to think things through. Once I got past the shock and all that, I started wondering if maybe the deal wasn
'
t really so bad.

"
My f
irst impulse was to back out,
naturally...but then I came around to a different point of view. Okay, so I was thinking about selling my soul...but still, this was my big
chance
.
This
guy could really send me back.

"
I went over and over the proposition. Finally, I figured out there might be a
loophole
, a way for me to get out of my end of the deal.

"
The more I thought about it, the better it looked. There was no guarantee the loophole would work, but it seemed like it had a pretty good chance.

"
I decided to give it a shot. What did I have to lose?

"
I told him I didn
'
t want to back out.

"
He told me
'
Good luck. It
'
s been a pleasure doing business with you.
'

"
Then, he snapped his fingers.
"

*****

Chapter
74

Larry smiled. His teeth stood out boldly in the blackness of his face and the gloom of the early evening.

"
He snapped his fingers,
"
Larry said happily,
"
and I came back.

"
Just like that,
"
said Larry, raising his right hand and snapping his own fingers.
"
Just like that, and I was here.

"
Right away, I started in on my plan.

"
I knew exactly what I had to do. The only way to really change things would be to kill some people.
"
Larry shrugged and sniffed, turned his gaze from Dave to the lake.
"
I wish there was some other way, y
'
know...but there just wasn
'
t. There wasn
'
t any other way that
I
could see, anyhow.

"
I couldn
'
t just
tell
you that I was you and that you ought to avoid certain things. I didn
'
t think you
'
d believe me...and even if you did, there was no guarantee you
'
d be completely safe.

"
I couldn
'
t follow you around twenty
-
four hours a day, trying to keep you from making the mistakes I made. I couldn
'
t keep the wrong people away from you all the time.

"
The only way that I could be sure...one
-
hundred percent
sure
that you
'
d stay on track...was to kill the people who could hurt you.
"

Larry sighed and shook his head.
"
I really do wish there
'
d been another way,
"
he said softly.
"
Still, this was my big chance...my
only
chance. I had to make it count. I had to be sure.
"

Again, Larry sighed. He glanced at Dave, then the corpse in the sand; he quickly flicked his eyes back to the lake.

"
Anyway,
"
he continued,
"
I killed the girl first. Her name was Debby...Debby Miller. She was the girl you would
'
ve gotten pregnant and married.

"
Next, I got rid of Steve Kimmel...the guy who would
'
ve stolen Darlene. I set him on fire and burned his family
'
s house down with him.

"
I hate to admit it,
"
sighed Larry,
"
but I enjoyed killing both of them. The two of them had started it all, the whole mess. They
'
d done more than anybody to ruin my life.

"
Ernie
'
s folks were tougher. I didn
'
t want to kill them...but I had to.

"
I had to be sure that your best friends didn
'
t desert you. Before, in my life...in your life, the way it would have been...not having Billy or Ernie around made everything a thousand times worse. I often thought, if only they
'
d
been
there for me, I would
'
ve been able to hold myself together.

"
That
'
s why I killed Ernie
'
s folks,
"
shrugged Larry.
"
I knew that if his parents were dead, he
'
d have to stay in town to take care of his brother and sister. He
'
d have to
be
here for you when you needed him.

"
It really was hard, though,
"
nodded Larry, looking up at the dimming sky.
"
The Dumbrowskis were good people. They didn
'
t deserve to die, not like Debby or Steve.

"
I hated to ruin Ernie
'
s plans for medical school, too. I knew he wanted that more than anything, to be a doctor. I remembered that was all he used to talk about...and then
seeing
him after I came back, hearing him talk about it all over again, really made it harder.

"
I had a hell of a time killing his parents...but it just had to be done. I had to keep him here for you, no matter what.

"
That was the same reason why I killed Tom Martin,
"
said Larry, dropping his gaze from the sky to the lake.
"
To keep your friends here for you.

"
I killed Tom so Billy would stay. The way things went before, Billy couldn
'
t find a good job anywhere in town. All he really wanted was to work as a manager at the steakhouse, but no management job opened up, and
he had
to leave town to find work.

"
With Tom dead, there
'
s a job just
waiting
for Billy at Wild West...and you and I both know Billy
'
s a
shoe
-
in
.
Wyland
'
s
crazy
about Billy, and Billy
'
s got
all
the qualifications.

"
With Tom Martin gone, Billy
'
s set,
"
nodded Larry, staring at the dark lake...apparently forgetting
--
or trying to forget
--
that Billy was dead in the sand before him.
"
He
'
ll move right into Tom
'
s job, and he
'
ll stay in town. You and he and Ernie will stick together like you always have.

"
The three of you should
'
ve never been split up anyway. I don
'
t know why it happened in
my
life...but now I
'
ve made sure it goes the way it should in
your
life.
"
Larry sighed, turned his face even further from the bloody corpse beside which he knelt.

"
That kid I killed out at Wolf
'
s Rock today,
"
he continued.
"
Frank Hoffman. He was the kid who got my brother in trouble for drugs..
.
would
'
ve
gotten Jeff in trouble, that is.

"
I know that getting rid of Frank Hoffman doesn
'
t guarantee that Jeff won
'
t have problems...but at least maybe he
'
ll have a better chance at a good life now. He
'
ll never run into that kid, anyway...and, besides, once I
'
ve straightened things out for you, you
'
ll be able to help Jeff. You can provide a better example for him to live up to.
"

Larry glanced at Dave and nodded, then bobbed his head back toward the infant which lay behind him.

"
The baby
'
s Michael Moses,
"
Larry said matter
-
of
-
factly.
"
Michael Moses, Junior. He
'
s the one who killed my parents.

"
If he grows up, he
'
ll kill your parents,
"
said Larry.
"
He
'
ll break into your house and shoot them both.

"
Obviously, I can
'
t let that happen. I have to be
sure
it won
'
t happen. The only way to do that is to kill
him
before he can kill
them
.

"
Now, I don
'
t know,
"
sighed Larry, tossing his shriveled claws in the air.
"
I guess it
'
s
possible
that the changes I
'
ve made will prevent your parents from being killed by him. I mean, who
knows
?
If you change one thing, maybe the whole chain of events gets switched around.

"
The thing is, I can
'
t leave
this
up to chance,
"
Larry stated firmly, hiking a thumb over his shoulder.
"
I have to
be sure
there
'
s absolutely no w
ay
for him to get my parents...
your
parents. I have to be
sure
.
"

Pausing,
Larry stared intently at Dave.
The killer frowned, looked away, then looked back.

"
I
'
m just sorry you have to be here for this,
"
Larry said dejectedly.
"
I wish I could
'
ve finished my work without you ever knowing...and without...
"

Larry
'
s voice cracked and his eyes dipped toward the corpse. He
didn
'
t
immediately look away; his gaze lingered on the face in the sand for a moment before his eyes snapped back up from the sight.

Larry drew and released a deep breath. He cleared his throat, closed his eyes briefly, then winced at Dave.

"
I wish you
'
d never gotten involved in all this,
"
the killer said raggedly.
"
You were...never meant to get involved. I wanted to keep you clear of the whole business.

"
It
'
s all my fault,
"
sighed Larry, turning toward the lake.
"
I dragged you into this.

"
I should
'
ve just stayed away from you, away from the whole gang. I could
'
ve done what I came back to do without ever going near any of you.

"
I should
'
ve just killed Debby and Steve and Ernie
'
s folks and Tom Martin and the other two without going near you. I should
'
ve done it that way.
"
Larry slowly shook his head, reached up to rub his hairless, ravaged chin.

"
I was weak. I should
'
ve stayed away from you, but I couldn
'
t. I couldn
'
t resist seeing you...and all my old friends.

"
You see, I came back...came back to a time I
'
d loved...and everything was still the way I
'
d remembered...but I wasn
'
t really
me
.
This time was still
yours
, and I couldn
'
t relive it as
you
,
as myself.

"
I guess...I wanted a little piece of it,
"
Larry said softly, reflectively.
"
I wanted to relive a little bit of it, the only way I could...by being with you, and Billy, and Ernie and all the rest...working with you, going to parties with you.

"
It was so
strange
,
"
said Larry, turning to Dave with a bewildered, crooked smile.
"
It was unbelievably strange...seeing you, being around you...but you were
me
, the way I used to be. Even now, when I look at you, I just can
'
t get over it. It
'
s like I
'
m looking in a mirror...but there you
are
, a separate
person
.
You hardly seem real...but you are.
"
For a moment, the killer stared at Dave, his expression caught between a smile and a puzzled frown.