Backtracker (98 page)

Still trembling, but not as violently as before, Dave stood his ground.
"
What
'
s your real name
?
"
he asked.
"
It
'
s not
'
Larry Smith,
'
is it?
"

"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
!
"
barked Larry.

"
Is it
'
Mike Hoffman
'
?
"
pressed Dave.
"
Is it
'
Frank Moses
'
?
"

"
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
!
"
retorted Larry.

"
Don
'
t those names ring a bell
?
"
said Dave.

"
Get outta
'
here
!
"
shot Larry.
"
I don
'
t have
time
for this!
"
As the killer
'
s voice rose, the baby
'
s shrieks grew louder, competing for preeminence.

"
Why
?
"
asked Dave.
"
Why don
'
t you have time?
"

"
Because I
'
m a busy man
!
"
snarled Larry.
"
Why won
'
t
you
leave me alone?
"

"
Because I have to stop you,
"
said Dave, his voice quavering.
"
And because...because I want to know the truth.
"

"
There
is
no truth
!
"
shouted Larry.
"
The only thing that
'
s
true
is that
nothing
'
s
true!
"

"
Nothing you
'
ve told me so
far
is true,
"
replied Dave.
"
It
'
s just been one lie after another.
"

"
No shit
!
"
snapped Larry.
"
I
'
ll say
anything
to get rid of you!
"

"
Maybe...maybe the only way to get rid of me is to tell me the
real
story. Maybe I wouldn
'
t even
be
here right now if you
'
d told me the real story to
begin
with.
"

"
You
'
re so smart, figure it out yourself!
"

"
Who
are
you
?
"
asked Dave, his words ringing with new intensity.
"
Who
are
you
?
"
he repeated, and the question was a plea, not just a time
-
killer contrived to distract Larry. It was
the
question, that which had driven Dave for the past weeks, that which had brought him to this place at this moment.

"
I
'
m the Good Humor man
!
"
screamed Larry.

"
Who are you
?
"
Dave asked urgently, wholly focused on the question.
"
Why did you come here?
"

"
I don
'
t have
time
for this
!
"
howled Larry.
"
I don
'
t have
time
!
"

Thunder rumbled in the distance; Dave blinked rain out of his eyes.
"
How did you really know all those things were going to happen? How did you know so much?
"

"
You
'
re
ruining
it
!
"
bellowed Larry.
"
You
'
re ruining
everything
!
"

"
How did you know so much about me
?
"
continued Dave.
"
How did you know about Stacy? How did you know about the whorehouse?
"

"
Get outta
'
here
!
"
roared Larry, and the child shrieked piercingly.

"
Why did you kill that kid at Wolf
'
s Rock? Why did you kill those people back at that house? What was the
real
reason?
"

"
I don
'
t
need
a reason
!
"
screamed Larry.

"
Why
did you take that
baby
?
"
pressed Dave, his voice rising with frustration and desperation.
"
I need to know!
"

"
You
don
'
t
!
"
bu
rst Larry.
"
You need to
go
!
"

"
I need to
understand
!
"
wailed Dave.
"
So much stuff has happened over the last couple
weeks
,
and it doesn
'
t make
sense
!
Every time I think maybe I
'
ve got it figured out, you do something that throws it all out of whack again!
"

"
Didn
'
t it ever
occur
to you that maybe you weren
'
t
supposed
to figure it out
?
"
shot Larry, chopping the blade through the air to punctuate his words.
"
Didn
'
t you ever
think
that maybe you should mind your own
business
?
"

"
How
could
I
?
"
flung Dave.
"
You
killed
the parents of one of my best
friends
!
You killed my
boss
!
You came to my
house
when I wasn
'
t there!

"
My
God
, I thought my
family
was gonna
'
die
!
You told me you could see the
future
, that you knew when something terrible was going to happen to someone...and I came home and found out you
'
d
been
there, and right away I thought you
'
d had a
'
flash
'
that my
family
was going to die! How could that
not
be my
business
?
"

"
You
'
re
paranoid
!
"
snapped Larry.
"
That
'
s
your
problem!
"

"
No
wonder
with
you
around
!
"
hurled Dave, jabbing the gun at the killer...for the moment forgetting to be afraid, venting the accumulated frustration of weeks.
"
No
wonder
I was paranoid! And I didn
'
t even
know
that you were
killing
people!
"

"
Well, now you
know
!
"
spat Larry.
"
Now get outta
'
here!
"

"
What
'
s the
truth
?
"
Dave shouted angrily.
"
It isn
'
t either of the stories you told me before,
is
it? It
'
s something
else
, isn
'
t it?
"

"
I
'
m going to
kill
you
!
"
Larry screamed at the top of his lungs.
"
If you don
'
t go
now
, I
'
ll
kill
you!
"

"
What
is
the real story, Larry?
I
can
'
t figure it out! I could say you
'
re just some psychopathic murderer, I guess...but that doesn
'
t explain how you
predicted
the
future
all those times. It doesn
'
t explain how you knew my
secrets
.

"
Your story about coming from the future sounded good at
first
, but I just can
'
t believe it. Maybe time travel
'
s possible, I don
'
t know...but I can
'
t
believe
that you
'
re
Billy
.
I can
'
t believe he
'
d
ever
become anything like
you
,
no matter
what
happened to him!

"
So what
is
the truth?
Tell
me, Larry! You
owe
it to me! After everything you
'
ve
put
me through, you
owe
it to me!
"

For a moment, the killer
didn
'
t
answer. With the knife hanging at his side, the infant squirming at his chest, he glowered at Dave.

When next Larry spoke, his voice was changed. His tone was subdued, no longer blazing with fury and menace.

"
You
'
re right,
"
he said.
"
I do owe you an explanation. I just can
'
t give you one.
"

"
Why
?
"
hurled Dave.

Larry sighed.
"
You don
'
t really want to know,
"
he said.
"
It
'
s better if you don
'
t know.
"