Hobbled (25 page)

Luke grinned. But his grin died a pretty quick death when Bradley kicked the door out of sheer peevishness, or so it appeared.

“None of that homo shit, boys. We got work to do. The rescue is still on, you know. Nothing has changed. It’s just that the rescuee is different than who you thought it was going to be.”

“Why?” Danny asked. “You’re both here. We’re both here. Who the hell else is there left to rescue?”

“Charlie,” DeVon said. “I think he’s still alive. Charlie Strickland. Remember him?”

“Shit,” Luke said. “The guy on the news. The cute blond.”

“Yeah,” DeVon snorted. “Thought that would get your attention.”

“So where is he?” Danny asked.

Bradley shrugged. “Don’t know.”

Luke leaned in and stuck his finger in Bradley’s chest. This time he didn’t do it quite so nicely. “What do you mean you don’t know? How are we supposed to rescue somebody if we don’t know where he’s at?”

“He’s close,” DeVon explained. “We just don’t know exactly where Childers has him stashed. But the guy’s in trouble. We heard him cry out again about an hour ago. So he’s close. And he’s hurting. Don’t forget he’s already lost a finger.” He started slapping his pants pockets. “I’ve still got it here somewhere.”

Danny held his hand in the air like a traffic cop. “Spare us. I’ve already seen the damn thing. That was a day ago, and it was ripe then.”

This time Bradley’s face lit up. “Yeah, well, you should smell it now. I had to spray it with Glade to keep the smell down.”

Danny glared at the kid as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That’s sick. That’s just sick.”

While Bradley merely shrugged, DeVon jumped into the fray. “So you guys ready? Or would you maybe want to get dressed first? This isn’t a gay pride parade, you know. It’s a rescue mission. And put some shoes on. God knows where we’ll end up.”

Danny snickered at the parade remark while Luke just looked pissed. Without saying a word, they both turned to the pile of dirty laundry on top the dryer and sifted through it until they found a couple of T-shirts. Dirty, wrinkled, mildewy T-shirts. They slipped them over their heads. They ignored the suggestion about the shoes. Luke didn’t know where his were, and Danny only needed one anyway.

Danny grabbed the baseball bat, and Luke said, “That’s mine.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He opened a junk drawer and pulled out a hammer.

“No, I want
that
,” Luke said.

Danny laughed and handed him the hammer while Luke surrendered the baseball bat.

It was DeVon’s turn to tap his foot. “Whenever you girls are finished swapping weapons and sorting through the laundry, we’ll just be going then, okay?”

Luke hefted the hammer like he couldn’t wait to try it out on somebody’s head. Maybe DeVon’s. “Let’s rumble,” he said, hoping he sounded butch, but apparently he hadn’t.

As soon as DeVon and Bradley were finished doubling up and laughing at his “rumble” remark, and not very charitably either, the kids ushered Luke and Danny out the back door. Since stealth would be required, poor Granger was left behind to whimper in the kitchen. He couldn’t be trusted to remain silent in a pinch. Most dogs can’t, and everybody there knew it.

On the back stoop, Danny and Luke lagged behind long enough to discuss one more pressing matter left hanging. The ankle monitor.

They stood looking down at it like maybe it was going to explode or something. The little flashing green light was annoying as hell. Unfortunately, they both knew that a flashing
red
light would be even more annoying.

“I can get past the back fence with it, no problem,” Danny said. “I just don’t know how far it will let me go once I get there.”

“Let’s leave it on until it goes red, then rip it off and run like rabbits.”

“Blithely irrational. Without a lick of sense. Falls apart under pressure. Cuter than a bug’s ear. I guess that’s why I love you.”

“Can the cops track you with it on?”

“Sure,” Danny said. “But not if we rip it off. Of course, if we
do
rip it off, that’ll bring the cops here in a red-hot minute.”

“Maybe it will let you go farther past the fence than you think.”

“Maybe.”

“Or we can remove it now and take our chances. What do you think?”

Danny stood there looking down at his foot like it was the first time he had ever noticed he had one. He hemmed and hawed around for about ten seconds, then finally made a decision. If you want to call it that. “Let’s leave it on and hope for the best. No, let’s don’t. Yeah, let’s do. No, let’s not. Oh, God, let me think.”

Luke nodded, like he expected nothing less. “Fanatically indecisive. Unwaveringly irresolute. Has a really big dick. Guess that’s why I love
you.”

“The big dick doesn’t really help us much in the current circumstances though, does it?”

“No,” Luke said. “But it’ll certainly come in handy later.”

“If we survive.”

“Well, yeah. If we survive.”

Luke finally made the decision for both of them. “Fuck it. Let’s just go. Leave the damn monitor alone for now. If it goes red,
then
we’ll decide what to do about it.”

Danny locked the door behind them, slid the jangly house keys into his pocket, and got a good grip on the baseball bat. Like Babe Ruth climbing into the batter’s box.

“Oy. God help us all,” Danny mumbled.

“And a bigass amen to that,” Luke mumbled right back, knowing he looked ridiculous lugging a hammer around like some insane carpenter.

And after all that, the rescue mission finally got underway. Such as it was.

Chapter 13

I
T
WAS
no surprise to anybody when DeVon led his little troop of amateur ninjas straight into the backyard, around the edge of Danny’s pool, and right up to the back fence separating Danny’s yard from Mr. Childers’s property. Having purposely left the outside lights off, it was so damn dark Danny couldn’t see his hand flapping around in front of his face. The wind was up too. It felt like rain, of all things. Danny squinted up at the sky and saw—nothing. No moon. No stars. Nothing. The heavens were buried in clouds. Big fat black ones. No wonder it felt like rain. One never really expects that in San Diego.

Of course, one never really expects to find a serial killer chopping people up on the other side of their back fence either. The world was packed
full
of surprises. Sort of like a piñata.

“I feel like an idiot,” Luke groused.

“You’ll get used to it,” Bradley chirped. “We did.”

Following DeVon and Bradley, with Luke sticking close to his side, Danny reluctantly ducked under the hibiscus plants, dragging his cast along behind him like an anchor. The plants were tall and fat and gave good cover. Under the bushes, it was even darker than it was
out
from under the bushes. And it was pretty dark out there. Once they were huddled in a group in the shadows, the only light they could see anywhere was the tiny green light blinking on Danny’s ankle. At least it was still green. Just the thought of that little light blinking red made Danny’s heart skip a beat. But the thought of what Charles Strickland might be going through at the hands of a homicidal maniac gave Danny the courage to keep going. That cute guy. Jeez, he’d already lost a finger. What other horrors had he been subjected to?

Danny was shocked back to reality by the feel of a hand sliding into his back pocket. Taking stock of his own appendages, he realized it wasn’t his. It was Luke, making contact, being there for him, drawing strength from Danny’s presence and giving back some of his own. Danny couldn’t hold back the smile that spread across his face. Even with all the creepy shit going on, he was really enjoying the heck out of being in love. He pulled Luke’s hand from his back pocket and pressed it to his lips. Then he stuffed it back into his pocket like a wallet. He liked feeling it there.

“Don’t worry,” Luke whispered, “I’ve got your back.”

“Oh, please,” Bradley hissed in the darkness, and DeVon giggled. “If you’ve got his back, can I have a wing?”

“I’m a breast man myself,” DeVon chimed in in a vicious little whisper. “Got any of those, Danielle?”

Good lord, Danny thought. DeVon and Bradley were already assholes and they were barely eleven years old. What would they be like when they were adults? Assuming they lived that long. And judging by tonight’s adventures, that was assuming a lot.

Then Danny wondered about more pressing matters. Like just how the four of them were going to quietly get over this six-foot-high fence. Especially when one of them had a broken leg.

“Everybody stay right here,” DeVon ordered, and the next thing Danny knew, the kid was gone. Just gone.

“Where the hell did he go?” Luke asked.

“Loose boards,” Bradley whispered, and Danny and Luke could see him in the darkness raising and lowering a three-board section of the fence for their benefit. Jeez, they had their own trapdoor into the viper’s nest. How disturbing was that? “Cool, huh?” Bradley grinned. “We’ll follow DeVon in as soon as he gives us an all-clear.”

“Can’t wait,” Luke droned.

Danny wanted to ask Bradley who died and made him boss, but he was afraid the little shit would snicker at him again. God, what a brat.

Before any of them had time to do any more worrying, the trapdoor in the fence popped up with a squeak and DeVon stuck his head through. He had to lie on his belly in the dirt to do it. It was so dark under the bushes, the only thing Danny could see of the kid’s dark-skinned face was the whites of his eyes and the flash of some really nice-looking choppers. “Coast is clear,” DeVon whispered. “Childers ain’t home and his car’s gone. We have to hurry if we’re going to search the place. God knows when he’ll be back.” He pulled his head back like a turtle and disappeared. The boards banged shut.

“Oh man,” Bradley groaned. “Oh man, oh man, oh man.” He sounded like he had lost his winning lottery ticket or his favorite grandmother had just kicked the bucket or he had suddenly found a syphilis canker on the end of his dingdong.

“What’s wrong?” Luke hissed. “What are you ‘oh manning’ about?”

Bradley grabbed Luke by the front of his T-shirt and pulled him close so his voice wouldn’t carry. “What if we’re too late? What if Childers already killed the poor guy and now he’s taking him somewhere to bury him? What if the finger in my pocket is the only part of Charlie Strickland anybody will ever see again? We’ll have to turn the finger over to his parents for burial. Holy shit. How they gonna like that, huh? And how are they gonna feel about the fact that I sprayed the only remaining chunk of their son with Glade so he wouldn’t stink up my pocket? Huh? How they gonna like that?”

“Well, we’ll deal with your concerns when the time comes,” Luke hissed right back, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. Or laugh. Or puke. He wasn’t sure which. Danny seemed to be rendered speechless by what Bradley had just said, and who could blame him, Luke thought. Luke’s hand was still in Danny’s back pocket so he gave Danny’s ass a squeeze for reassurance. Felt nice. They both thought so. “Let’s just do it, okay?” Luke said, “Let’s just do it and get it over with. Strickland is fine, and we’re going to rescue him, just like we said we’d do. But DeVon is right too. Childers could come back any second, and I for one don’t want to be caught inside his house when he does.”

“At least you won’t be beating off in his underwear drawer,” Danny offered.

“True,” Luke agreed, leaning in and speaking so softly only Danny could hear. “But I’m damned sure going to beat off all over you later.”

That seemed to perk Danny right up. He whispered right back, “Ooh. You promise?”

“I don’t know what you guys just said but I still think you’re both deeply disturbed,” Bradley commented drily, and then he dove under the loose boards and disappeared. Alice down the rabbit hole. The last they saw of Bradley was his nasty-ass tennis shoes sliding under the fence.

Danny looked at Luke in the dark. He couldn’t really see him, but he knew he was there because his hand was still in his pocket. “You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’ll go first so you won’t kick me in the head with your cast. I’m beat up enough already.” His skinned ear and skinned elbow and skinned knee were all stinging like crazy, but he didn’t think now was the time to whine about it. “And don’t forget. Mrs. Trumball said help was on the way. I still don’t know what she meant by that.”

“Me neither. Maybe it was the gin talking. Or wishful thinking.”

“I hope not,” Luke said. He sounded like he meant it.

“Okay,” Danny said, giving Luke a quick kiss. He was aiming for his lips but in the dark he hit his nose. Close enough. “See you on the other side.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And fifteen seconds later there wasn’t a soul in Danny’s backyard. In fact, the only pair of eyes in attendance were the ones staring out through Danny’s kitchen window. It was Granger, sitting with his ass in the kitchen sink, trying to see where everyone had gone.

He was looking pretty desperate too, because he really,
really
had to pee.