Backtracker (93 page)

*****

Chapter
54

Billy only managed to take two steps before Dave scrambled up onto the stoop and latched onto his arm.

"
Wait
!
"
Dave whispered insistently.
"
Let
'
s just get outta
'
here, okay?
"

"
No
!
"
snapped Billy, casting a furious scowl at his partner.
"
You wanted to
do
this, so let
'
s
do
it!
"

"
I
don
'
t
wanna
'
do this anymore
!
"
Dave said emphatically, shaking his head.
"
I was
wrong
,
okay? This is a stupid idea! Let
'
s go call the cops!
"

"
Forget it
!
"
lashed Billy.
"
If that son of a bitch is
here
, this might be the last
chance
to
nail
him! By the time we call the cops, he might get away for good!
"

"
You were
right
before
!
"
sputtered Dave.
"
He
'
ll
kill
us! This is
crazy
!
"

"
Damn right it is
!
"
hissed Billy, whipping his arm from Dave
'
s grasp.
"
I
'
m outta
'
my
mind
for being here, and
you
'
re
outta
'
your mind for coming up with the idea in the
first
place...but I just don
'
t
care
anymore!
"

"
I
'
m
sorry
!
"
Dave whispered frantically.
"
Let
'
s just
go
!
Please?
"

Slicking back his soaked hair, Billy snorted.
"
If
you
wanna
'
go, then get going,
"
he said coldly.
"
I
'
m
gonna
'
get to the
bottom
of this shit.
"

With that, he turned toward the door.

*****

Chapter
55

As the Miraclemaker
'
s hand touched the doorknob, he happened to look down, and he spotted the keys. They lay near the door
'
s frame, in the carpet along the baseboard; he
didn
'
t
know how
he'd
missed them in his thorough search, but he was glad that they had finally appeared.

Stooping, he snatched them up and darted out of the living room. Propelled by his awareness of swiftly diminishing time, he raced for the garage, the child, the final miracle.

*****

Chapter
56

Billy Bristol stepped forward.
He had
to stand on tiptoes to look through one of the pair of small, square windows mounted in the front door.

His head shifted as he looked around, examined what he could see through the tiny window. He gazed ahead, then to the right, then to the left; he stretched himself higher and directed his eyes downward.

And he froze.

Stretched taut on tiptoes, head tilted down, Billy froze. As if every muscle in his body had suddenly turned to stone, he remained locked in position,
didn
'
t
even twitch.

Terrified, curious, torn, Dave took a step forward. Eyes fixed on his friend, he wondered what Billy had seen, wondered if it was something significant. He was afraid to find out...was likewise compelled to know immediately.

For a long moment, Billy
didn
'
t
move. When at last he withdrew from the window, he looked pale and stunned. Stepping away from the door, he slowly ran a hand over his
rain
-
plastered hair.

Affected by Billy
'
s dazed look and its implications, Dave
didn
'
t
speak,
didn
'
t
ask what
he'd
seen. For a moment, both partners remained silent, just stood there as the rain rushed upon them.

"
Well...,
"
said Billy at last, and then he paused. He took a deep breath, slowly released it; he drew a hand over his mouth and chin, shook his head.

"
Well,
"
he continued, his voice low and subdued.
"
We came to the right place, anyway.
"

"
Why
?
"
Dave asked steadily, struggling to restrain his surging hysteria.
"
What did you see?
"

"
Enough,
"
nodded Billy.

"
Did you see Larry
?
"
Dave asked in a strained whisper.
"
Is he in there?
"

"
He was,
"
nodded Billy.

Dave stared at the door.
"
What do you mean?
"

"
I mean congratulations,
"
shrugged Billy.
"
You were right about where he was going next. You were right about the names and all that.
"

A chill flashed up Dave
'
s spine. He continued to stare at the door.

Sighing, Billy placed his hands on his hips and gazed down at the stoop.
"
When we go in,
"
he said softly,
"
just keep your eyes on me, okay? Look at the back of my head or something. Don
'
t look down, man. You
'
ll be better off if you don
'
t look.
"

"
What is it
?
"
asked Dave.

"
A guy,
"
said Billy.
"
It
'
s, uh...it
'
s pretty bad. It
'
s a lot like that kid back at Wolf
'
s Rock.
"

Dave
'
s gut twisted. He remembered red and white and red.

Most of the face was gone.

"
We
'
ve gotta
'
go in,
"
sighed Billy.
"
We
'
ve gotta
'
finish with this shit. Just look at the back of my head.
"

Dave stared at the door. He tried very hard to remember why
he'd
come to 41 Park Road.

"
Okay,
"
said Billy.
"
Let
'
s go.
"
Grabbing Dave
'
s arm, he started forward.

Dumbstruck, Dave allowed himself to be pulled toward the door. Part of him cried out to resist, to avoid whatever atrocities waited in that house...but he felt as if
he'd
lost all willpower, as if the whole situation was so overwhelming that
he'd
simply shut down. In lieu of a rational response, he relinquished control of his actions to Billy.

Guiding Dave behind him, Billy reached for the doorknob. Slowly, he turned it; the bolt clicked and he gently pushed the door open.

Dave
'
s heart thundered in his chest.

Cautiously, Billy stepped inside. He moved a hand to his waist, drew the gun from under his shirt.

Dave kept his eyes fixed to the back of Billy
'
s head for all of a second. As he crossed the threshold, his gaze drifted downward.

There it was: his second corpse of the day.

The body of a thin young man was spread over the green carpet. He wore a red flannel shirt and bluejeans.
He had
long, blonde hair and a trim beard and mustache. His face was smashed and lathered with blood.

One of his eyes was wide open. The other eye was gone, replaced by a pool of glistening dark scarlet.

His mouth gaped, as in a ghastly, silent scream. There was a fissure down the center of his forehead, a ragged split in the skin and skull.

Dave
'
s stomach churned; his gorge rose as he stared at the corpse. Still, he
wasn
'
t
affected as violently as when
he'd
sighted the faceless kid in the trench. This body
wasn
'
t
nearly as mutilated as the faceless kid had been; though he was repulsed and nauseated, Dave was able to look at this latest corpse without reeling into a state of senseless shock.

Shifting his gaze to the wall above the body, he saw the imprint of the man
'
s execution, a crater emblazoned with blood. Larry must have driven the guy
'
s skull into the wall with great force to stamp such a huge pit in the plaster.

Dave wondered if the man on the floor was Michael W. Moses, if he was the final target whom Larry had pledged to kill. If that was Michael W. Moses, then Larry had won, had carried out his plans before Dave could interfere.

Maybe, Larry was done...and gone. Maybe, he was gone for good.

The thought both relieved and disturbed Dave. He was overjoyed by the possibility that he
wouldn
'
t
have to confront the killer, that he and Billy were safe and the whole frightening business was concluded; at the same time, he felt guilty for not preventing the final murder, and he felt a sense of loss when he realized that Larry
'
s secrets might now be forever out of reach.

Pulled along by Billy, Dave moved past the corpse and into the living room.
He had
to watch his step, for the floor was covered with debris.

Near the body, an assortment of groceries was scattered
-
cans of soup, TV dinners, packs of cigarettes, jars of baby food; the grocery bags themselves had been crumpled up and tossed into the middle of the room. From the look of things, Dave guessed that Larry had surprised Michael W. Moses at the door, when Moses had returned from shopping; however, Dave
couldn
'
t
understand why the grocery bags had been balled up and discarded. Certainly, they could have been emptied in a violent struggle...but why would Larry have taken time out to crush and pitch the bags aside? Dave thought that Larry would have been more concerned with making a hasty escape than fooling around with some grocery bags.

After the groceries, there was still more debris. Along the wall, a chair rested upside
-
down atop a pile of broken pieces of wood; the splintered chunks and slats looked as if they had once been a table of some sort. Bits of glass were strewn in a wide radius around the pile, glinting in the dark green carpet. Dave guessed that the rubble was the product of Larry
'
s assault, that there must have been a real battle between him and Michael Moses.

Slowly, the partners picked their way through the wreckage, taking care to avoid the bigger shards of glass. Ahead, there was a doorway; Billy stopped short of it.

Peering past his partner, Dave could see that the doorway opened onto a kitchen. He saw a stove, and more chairs like the one on the pile of wood; beyond the stove, another doorway beckoned.

Silently, Billy guided Dave to a spot beside the entrance to the kitchen. Raising the revolver, Billy released Dave
'
s arm, then held up a hand with palm flattened toward Dave; Billy was signaling his friend to stay put while he scouted the kitchen. If there was danger in the kitchen, Billy intended to face it alone.

Dave was starting to believe that the danger was over, that Larry had departed and the crisis was finally at an end. His tremendous panic was actually receding; he felt himself calming, pulling back from the peak of uncontrollable agitation. As he watched Billy slip through the doorway and out of sight, he experienced only a fraction of his recent wild anxiety; he was very uneasy, but he
wasn
'
t
hysterical with worry.
He'd
seen the body of the man who he believed was Mike Moses, and he took this as a sign that the nightmare had run its course.

When Billy
didn
'
t
immediately return or summon him, Dave
didn
'
t
grow frantic. He leaned against the wall beside the doorway and dutifully waited, expecting his partner to appear at any moment. He heard Billy
'
s footsteps in the kitchen, then silence; he
didn
'
t
hear anything which would give him reason to suspect that Billy had encountered any kind of trouble.

A long moment passed, and still, Billy
didn
'
t
reappear; still, Dave heard only silence from the kitchen. He was only affected a little by this extension of his wait; he was more annoyed than worried by Billy
'
s prolonged reconnaissance.

When more time dripped away without a signal from Billy, Dave started to become impatient. He was sure that no mishap had occurred, and he
couldn
'
t
figure out why Billy was taking so long, why he
hadn
'
t
at least called for him.

Finally, Dave reached the point where he could no longer stand still. Pushing away from the wall, he eased through the doorway.

Looking to his right as he entered the kitchen, he quickly spotted Billy Bristol. Billy was standing stiffly; his head was bowed, his arms hung at his sides. His back was turned to Dave, and he
didn
'
t
look up when Dave approached.

Billy was looking down. He was staring at something on the floor.

He was staring at another corpse.

Dave took two steps toward his friend, then stopped. As he gazed at the body, he suddenly felt so lightheaded that he feared he might faint.

The corpse in the living room had been nothing compared to this one. This body was far more gruesome than the smashed man by the front door, and was at least as bad as the faceless kid at Wolf
'
s Rock; Dave thought that it might even be worse than the faceless kid.

It was horrible. It was so mauled that Dave
couldn
'
t
guess what it had looked like before the attack. He thought that it was a woman, but he
couldn
'
t
even be sure of that.

The head resembled that of the kid in the trench. Where the face should have been, there was an awful, bloody mess, a glistening mush. The front of the skull had been obliterated; long, black hair still clung to the scalp, fanned out on the floor, but that was the only remaining clue to the victim
'
s original features.

The rest of the body was equally grisly. The rib cage had been split open and pried wide, exposing the contents of the chest cavity. The abdomen looked as if it had been slashed or clawed open by a wild animal; pulp and viscera blossomed from the huge, ragged wound.