Backtracker (52 page)

"
All right,
"
said Billy.
"
So, that
'
s what you
'
re afraid he was doing here yesterday. You think maybe he spotted some nasty shit about to go down, and he couldn
'
t get anyone else to help him head it off...so he was either trying to get your folks to do something, or he was trying to do something himself.
"

"
Right,
"
nodded Dave, hunched and pacing, swiftly running out of patience.

"
Now,
if
there
'
s something really bad comin
'
down the pike, we
'
ve gotta
'
stop it...
if
we can stop it. From what Larry said, we don
'
t have much of a shot,
'
cause not only are you related to the people you think he
'
s trying to save, but both of us know he
'
s psychic. On top of that, for all we know,
you
might be the one who
'
s really in trouble here.
"

"
Yeah,
"
Dave said gruffly.
"
Exactly.
"

"
The big problem is, we don
'
t know jack shit,
"
continued Billy, drumming his fingers on the counter.
"
We don
'
t know for sure if Larry was here because
he had
a psychic vision, and if he
did
have a vision, we don
'
t know squat about it. We don
'
t know when, where, or how it
'
s gonna
'
happen, so we really can
'
t do anything to try and stop it.
"

"
Unless we follow my family around twenty
-
four hours a day,
"
added Dave.

"
Right, and that
'
s impossible. There
'
s no way we can keep track of them all the time, and anyway, there won
'
t be anyone to watch out for you.
"

"
I don
'
t
care
about me,
"
shot Dave.
"
I
'
m just worried about my parents and Jeff. I think we oughtta
'
be out there right
now
, keeping an
eye
on them.
"

"
You said yourself it probably wouldn
'
t do any good,
"
said Billy, shaking his head.
"
You can
'
t follow Jeff through his classes all day, and you can
'
t follow your folks around work. Anyway, if we tried that, they
'
d probably think we
'
re both a couple bricks short of a load.
"

"
I think we should at least follow them for now,
"
insisted Dave.
"
I think there
'
s more of a chance that something will happen to one of them when they
'
re all split up.
"

"
Uh
-
uh,
"
rejected Billy.
"
That
'
s not the way to go, man. I mean, according to what Larry told you, we
'
re screwed from the get
-
go. We probably won
'
t be able to do anything to help your folks, since you
'
re part of the family and we both know Larry
'
s psychic. According to his rules, it
'
d be useless for us to chase your brother and folks around.
"

"
We
'
ve got to at least
try
!
"
flung Dave.
"
Damnit, we can
'
t just
s
it
here! This is my family
we
'
re talking about!
"

"
Calm down,
"
Billy
said reprovingly.
"
We aren
'
t
just gonna
'
sit here, okay? Seems to me, though, if something
'
s gonna
'
happen, we can
'
t handle it ourselves. If what Larry told you is true, we
'
ll have to get somebody else to do the dirty work...somebody who isn
'
t part of your family and who doesn
'
t know about Larry
'
s powers.
"

"
Like who
?
"
huffed Dave.
"
Who
'
re we gonna
'
get, and what good
'
s it gonna
'
do
if we don
'
t know what
'
s coming?
"

"
That
'
s what we
'
ve gotta
'
do first,
"
Billy stated decisively.
"
We
'
ve gotta
'
find out
what
'
s coming...
if
anything
is
coming. We
'
ve gotta
'
get Larry to fill us in on this deal.
"

"
I
'
ve already thought of that,
"
said Dave.
"
That
'
s why I wanted you to help me. I figured you could keep tabs on my family, and I could go see Larry in the meantime.
"

"
No,
"
said Billy.
"
Both
of us see Larry. No
way
are we gonna
'
split up, man...not as long as there
'
s a chance you might be the one in danger.
"

"
Good,
"
Dave chucked snidely.
"
So we just hang my whole family out to dry.
"

"
There
'
s no other way to
help
them,
"
Bil
ly said with conviction.
"
If
what Larry told you is true, and
if
he was here yesterday because something awful
'
s gonna
'
happen, we
'
ve gotta
'
get someone
else
to stop it. We can
'
t do
that
till we find out more from Larry, and we
'
ve gotta
'
do it together
'
cause I
'
m not
l
etting you outta
'
my sight!
"
Momentarily agitated, Billy looked away from his friend; rubbing the bridge of his nose, he released a long sigh. When next he spoke, his voice
wasn
'
t
so sharp.
"
Look, I
'
m being totally serious here. As far as I can tell, this is the way it has to be.
"

Still pacing, still dissatisfied with Billy
'
s ideas, Dave shrugged.

"
Now, c
'
mon,
"
said Billy.
"
I think it
'
s about time we dug up our boy Larry. Where
'
s that phone number you said you had?
"

"
Calling him won
'
t do any good,
"
declared Dave.
"
I had a hard enough time dragging anything out of him in person, and I doubt he
'
ll say anything over the phone.
"

"
How do you
know
he won
'
t say anything on the phone? Maybe you softened him up enough the other night, so he
'
ll sing like a birdie.
"

"
Believe me, he won
'
t. Larry gets lockjaw when it comes to this psychic stuff.
"

"
No harm in trying,
"
shrugged Billy.
"
It might save us a lot of time, man. At the very least, we oughtta
'
be able to find out if Larry
'
s home.
"

Still pacing, Dave mulled it over for a moment.
"
What if we scare him off
?
"
he asked hesitantly.
"
What if he just makes tracks the minute he finds out that we wanna
'
talk to him? I mean, if he
is
trying to stop something terrible from happening, he won
'
t wanna
'
tell us a damn thing. He won
'
t want us in the way.
"

"
Yeah,
"
nodded Billy,
"
but if he
isn
'
t
out to stop some disaster, he
'
ll probably tell us right off the bat. If he was here yesterday to do something else, like get that
video
you told him you have, he
'
ll probably just say so, and we can relax.
"

"
Yeah, but what if he lies? What if he just tells us something like that to get us off his back?
"

"
What if, what if, what if,
"
Billy chanted mockingly.
"
You
'
ve gotta
'
lay off the
'
what
-
ifs,
'
bud. We
'
ll never get anything accomplished if you keep sweatin
'
over every little thing that can happen.
"

"
If he lies, I
'
ll have no way of
knowing
,
"
Dave snapped shrilly.
"
I need to
see
the guy so I can tell if he
'
s laying it on the line!
"

"
How do you know he didn
'
t lie to you the other night? From what you
'
ve said, Larry
'
s a damn good liar, right? So how do you know he wasn
'
t bullshitting you the other night?
"

"
He wasn
'
t,
"
clipped Dave.
"
The way he acted, I could tell.
"

"
Could you
?
"
queried Billy, raising his sandy eyebrows, slowly drumming his fingers on the counter.
"
Maybe he
'
s just a good actor, too.
"